RealTimeData/bbc_alltime
This dataset contains BBC News articles from 2017 to 2022. The articles are arraged by month. Access the specific month by using the format "YYYY-MM" as config. Such as load_dataset("RealTimeData/bbc_alltime", "2021-1").
0332
1{"title": ["Message in a bottle washes up after 3,000-mile journey - BBC News", "'They will kill me': Desperate Afghans seek way out after Taliban takeover - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Danger lies on Kabul's airport road to freedom - BBC News", "House prices: Demand changes, not tax waiver, pushed prices up - BBC News", "Abuse leaves hospitality staff at 'breaking point' - BBC News", "Westminster double murder: Police say wanted man knew victims - BBC News", "Nine Afghan girl robotics team members safe in Qatar - BBC News", "Poison algae may have killed California family, police say - BBC News", "Hillsborough: Minute's applause for 97th victim - BBC News", "The Hundred: Southern Brave beat Birmingham Phoenix to win men's title - BBC Sport", "Only Fools and Horses garage door sold to TV fan - BBC News", "R. Kelly aide says he paid bribe for singer to marry Aaliyah - BBC News", "Afghanistan: US fears risk of Islamic State attack at Kabul airport - BBC News", "Covid: Australian police clash with anti-lockdown protesters - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Who's who in the Taliban leadership - BBC News", "Greece finishes fence at Turkey border amid warnings of Afghan migrant surge - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Boris Johnson says he has full confidence in Dominic Raab - BBC News", "Afghanistan: The desperate scramble to escape - BBC News", "A woman tries to flee the Taliban: 'We lost everything again' - BBC News", "Manchester City 5-0 Norwich City: Jack Grealish scores on home debut for Premier League champions - BBC Sport", "Covid: CO2 monitors pledged to aid school ventilation - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Labour demands urgent action over evacuation crisis - BBC News", "Ever Given: Cargo ship returns through Suez Canal it blocked - BBC News", "The Hundred: Oval Invincibles, Southern Brave & Birmingham Phoenix set for Lord's final - BBC Sport", "Family of American taken by Taliban beg for return - BBC News", "Lorry drivers: Act now to avert crisis, government told - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban increasingly violent against protesters – UN - BBC News", "Peterborough mum back at home with baby born before Covid coma - BBC News", "Liverpool 2-0 Burnley: Diogo Jota and Sadio Mane score in front of full house at Anfield - BBC Sport", "Puppy smuggling: Rise in cases prompts new welfare rules - BBC News", "Ministers reject calls to lower state pension age to 60 - BBC News", "Vitaly Shishov: Head of Belarus exiles group found dead in Ukraine - BBC News", "Streatham terror attack: Sudesh Amman 'wanted to kill the Queen' - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Laurel Hubbard out of weightlifting after failing to register successful lift - BBC Sport", "Official recommends rerun in Amazon union fight - BBC News", "Dizzee Rascal: Rapper charged with assaulting woman - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: GB's Giles Scott wins Finn class, gold in men's 49er & silver in mixed Nacra 17 - BBC Sport", "Covid vaccine set to be offered to 16 and 17-year-olds - BBC News", "Gangs on e-scooters targeting GPS farm equipment - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Emily Campbell becomes first British female weightlifter to win Olympic medal - BBC Sport", "Abergele: Man charged with murder of girl, 15, at holiday park - BBC News", "German pensioner given hefty fine for WW2 tank in house - BBC News", "Aya Hachem: Seven men guilty of drive-by shooting murder - BBC News", "Skewen: 'Carnage' as flood-hit residents flooded again - BBC News", "Premier League: Players from all 20 clubs will continue to take the knee - BBC Sport", "Towyn: Man in court charged with sister's murder - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Orphan's reunion with British soldier after 19 years - BBC News", "Isles of Scilly walrus spotted off Republic of Ireland - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Self-isolation of whole classes 'no longer routine' - BBC News", "Belarus Olympian given Polish visa after refusing 'forced' flight home - BBC News", "Mapping the advance of the Taliban in Afghanistan - BBC News", "Greggs to create 500 jobs as it plans 100 more stores - BBC News", "As-it-happened: UK records lowest Covid cases since late June - BBC News", "Matt Damon says he has never personally used gay slur - BBC News", "Bridgend river death: Friends of boy, 5, 'heartbroken' - BBC News", "Drug dealers jailed after getting car stuck in trolley bay - BBC News", "Barbie of Oxford Covid vaccine designer Dame Sarah Gilbert created - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Jason Kenny claims British landmark as GB secure eight medals while Simone Biles wins bronze - BBC Sport", "Ever Given: Cargo ship that blocked Suez Canal arrives in Felixstowe - BBC News", "Tom Miller: Hiding student fell to death at illegal lockdown party - BBC News", "Shops and schools proposed for council election pilots in Wales - BBC News", "Fenwick Colchester: Boy, 5, dies after being injured at store - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Karsten Warholm sets stunning 400m hurdles world record - BBC Sport", "Kidney transplants cancelled amid Belfast Trust staff shortage - BBC News", "Robyn Williams: Met Police takes legal action over officer's reinstatement - BBC News", "Belarus sprinter Krystina Timanovskaya says protest is not political - BBC News", "Svetlana Tikhanovskaya: Belarus opposition leader hopeful after Boris Johnson meeting - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Jason Kenny equals British record, Karsten Warholm creates history, Simone Biles returns - BBC Sport", "Alderney couple 'overwhelmed' by support after homophobic abuse - BBC News", "Bridgend river death: Boy, 5, named as Logan Mwangi - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Simone Biles on start list for beam final - BBC Sport", "MV Asphalt Princess: Ship hijacked off UAE ordered to sail to Iran - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Great Britain eventers win team gold and Tom McEwen claims individual silver - BBC Sport", "Scotland to move 'beyond level zero' next week - BBC News", "Qantas stands down 2,500 staff over Sydney lockdown - BBC News", "Twitter works with news sites to tackle disinformation - BBC News", "Boeing delays rerun of Starliner space capsule test - BBC News", "Man admits daubing Nazi graffiti on Rhyl War Memorial - BBC News", "Sturgeon: Strange the PM will not meet me - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Day-by-day guide to the key events and British medal hopes - BBC Sport", "Wuhan: Chinese city to test entire population after virus resurfaces - BBC News", "Scottish stadiums will allow 5,000 fans without prior permission - BBC Sport", "Tokyo Olympics: Adam Gemili's 200m medal hopes dashed by injury - BBC Sport", "NHS Covid-19 app in England and Wales tweaked to notify fewer contacts - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak warns young home working may hurt their career - BBC News", "Ben Breakwell: Music teacher convicted of 32 sexual offences - BBC News", "French Alps coach crash survivor graduates on mission to help others - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Street fighting rages as Taliban attack key city - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Nicola Sturgeon to set out plans for lifting restrictions - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Most restrictions to end from 9 August - BBC News", "Mark Chilman jailed for murdering ex's new partner and setting body on fire - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Female presenters back on Tolo News after Taliban takeover - BBC News", "New Zealand enters nationwide lockdown over one Covid case - BBC News", "How the Taliban stormed across Afghanistan in 10 days - BBC News", "Afghanistan crisis: How America watched as Taliban won the war - BBC News", "Outrage at chronic fatigue syndrome advice update pause - BBC News", "UK looking at bespoke Afghan refugee scheme - Dominic Raab - BBC News", "Afghan chaos undercuts Biden's promise of competence - BBC News", "New police CCTV use rules criticised as bare bones - BBC News", "Afghanistan: What's the impact of Taliban's return on international order? - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Striking image captures Kabul exodus - BBC News", "Afghan reporter asks Nato secretary general for help - BBC News", "Mark Allen defeats former partner Reanne Evans at British Open - BBC Sport", "Khaled Hosseini: ‘A sliver of hope’ for Afghanistan - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Victims' families invited to shape public inquiry - BBC News", "What next for Afghanistan's economy? - BBC News", "Haiti earthquake: Tropical Storm Grace hampers rescue - BBC News", "Afghan women to have rights within Islamic law, Taliban say - BBC News", "Mastercard to end magnetic strip on cards - BBC News", "Man swept to his death by 'rogue wave' in Cornwall - BBC News", "Afghanistan: UK and US must protect Afghan activists - Malala - BBC News", "Afghanistan: In pictures: Kabul - a day after Taliban takeover - BBC News", "As it happened: UK reports 26,852 new Covid cases and 170 deaths - BBC News", "Afghanistan: NI soldier Capt Mark Hale died in vain, says wife - BBC News", "Bob Dylan denies sexually abusing girl in 1965 - BBC News", "UK job vacancies at record high as wages pick up - BBC News", "Aspirin may help treat aggressive breast cancer - BBC News", "I don't believe Taliban pledge on women's rights, Priti Patel says - BBC News", "Line of Duty stars to go head-to-head at National Television Awards - BBC News", "Men hurt in homophobic attack at Birmingham's Gay Village - BBC News", "Plymouth shooting: Gunman had mental health support in lockdown - BBC News", "Colleges need extra £570m due to rise in students - think tank - BBC News", "Afghanistan pullout: Biden's biggest call yet - will it be his most calamitous? - BBC News", "Milton Keynes: Callum Aylett guilty of neighbour feud murder - BBC News", "Eileen Barrott murder: NHS tribute to nurse as manhunt continues - BBC News", "Afghanistan: 'My family is stuck and there is nothing I can do' - BBC News", "Trendy shoffices and pizza ovens raised lockdown fire risks - BBC News", "Wrightbus to boost Ballymena workforce by 300 - BBC News", "Lily Cole: Model apologises for posing in a burka on Instagram - BBC News", "UK blood supplies to be used to make life-saving drug - BBC News", "Covid-vaccine scientists begin plague-jab trial - BBC News", "Trials of shared banking hubs to be extended - BBC News", "UK student who travelled to Afghanistan for holiday evacuated - BBC News", "UK military commander: 'We've betrayed' Afghans who helped British troops' - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban carrying out door-to-door manhunt - BBC News", "Covid: Queen remains at Balmoral as staff member tests positive - BBC News", "Greater Manchester Police chief scraps 'tosh' Citizens' Contract - BBC News", "James Markham killing: Boy, 14, in court on Chingford murder charge - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Chaotic scenes at Kabul airport - BBC News", "Nando's shuts restaurants as it runs short of supplies - BBC News", "Hydrogen power offers jobs boost, says government - BBC News", "Uncertain times ahead for Afghan women - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Who's who in the Taliban leadership - BBC News", "Biden defends 'messy' US pull-out from Afghanistan - BBC News", "Will the Taliban take Afghanistan back to the past? - BBC News", "Home Depot 'discriminated against BLM supporter' - BBC News", "Bezos sues Nasa over its deal with Elon Musk's SpaceX - BBC News", "Ardingly College: Six children and parent hit by Tesla - BBC News", "No need to swap data for drinks, says privacy body - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Life in Kabul after the Taliban victory - BBC News", "Who are the Taliban? - BBC News", "Urgent call for Covid-safe ventilation in schools - BBC News", "Covid testing is rip-off, says former regulator - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Mysterious Taliban spokesman finally shows his face - BBC News", "Geronimo the alpaca gets temporary reprieve as hearing is adjourned - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Boris Johnson defends UK's role amid evacuation - BBC News", "First batch of student's washing machines shipped to Iraq - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Desperation as thousands flee the Taliban - BBC News", "Council policies 'inconsistent' with climate goals - BBC News", "Plymouth shooting: Gunman shot own mother then a dad and daughter - BBC News", "Daniela Espirito Santo reported partner to police seven times before death - BBC News", "Plymouth shooting: Jake Davison was licensed gun holder - BBC News", "Tony Bennett: Legendary singer retires from stage aged 95 - BBC News", "Plymouth shooting: Police Chief describes what happened - BBC News", "North Korea airs Olympics coverage days after it ends - BBC News", "Your pictures of Scotland: 6 - 13 August - BBC News", "Plymouth shooting: Forensic investigators at the scene - BBC News", "Covid-19: Nisra records 31 virus-related deaths in NI - BBC News", "BBC condemns Russia's decision to not renew correspondent's visa - BBC News", "Plymouth shooting: Suspected gunman and five others die - BBC News", "Plymouth shooting: Defence Secretary rules out terrorism - BBC News", "UK inhaler firm Vectura backs £1bn bid by Marlboro-maker - BBC News", "Covid vaccine fraudster who targeted 92-year-old woman jailed - BBC News", "Metabolism peaks at age one and tanks after 60, study finds - BBC News", "Almost half a million EU citizens await decision over right to stay in UK - BBC News", "Huge gulf in hospitals' ability to contain Covid - BBC News", "Police officer and child found dead in Kidderminster - BBC News", "Esther Dingley: Hiker's Pyrenees death an accident, police say - BBC News", "KFC warns menu items missing due to supply issues - BBC News", "As it happened: UK records a further 100 Covid deaths - BBC News", "Tribute to Manchester Arena bomb survivor found dead aged 20 - BBC News", "Afghan war: Kabul's young women plead for help as Taliban advance - BBC News", "Afghanistan heading for civil war - UK minister - BBC News", "Bridgend: Tribute to boy, 2, as woman arrested for murder - BBC News", "Streatham attack: Sudesh Amman's victim feared he would bleed to death - BBC News", "GCSEs: Rise in top grades in Northern Ireland as results issued - BBC News", "Apple regrets confusion over 'iPhone scanning' - BBC News", "Plymouth shooting: Plymouth gunman's victims include three-year-old girl - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Major cities fall to Taliban amid heavy fighting - BBC News", "UK police involved for months in embassy spy case - Met boss - BBC News", "Covid: Record your cough to help improve detection, says government - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Diplomats hasten exit as Taliban near Kabul - BBC News", "Johnny Depp: San Sebastian Film Festival defends honorary award - BBC News", "Climate change: July world's hottest month ever recorded - US agency - BBC News", "Satanic forums visited by a killer uncovered - BBC News", "Banksy confirms East Anglian seaside artwork is genuine - BBC News", "Brentford 2-0 Arsenal: Bees earn fully deserved win over Gunners - BBC Sport", "Marble Arch Mound: Deputy leader resigns amid spiralling costs - BBC News", "Una Stubbs: Till Death Us Do Part and Sherlock actress dies aged 84 - BBC News", "James Markham killing: Boy, 14, charged with murder - BBC News", "GCSE results 2021: Record passes and top grades - BBC News", "Covid vaccine: Parents upset at jabs wait for high-risk children - BBC News", "North Shields fire: Firefighters tackle huge blaze near Fish Quay - BBC News", "Cost of NHS Covid tests for UK arrivals reduced - BBC News", "Strictly Come Dancing: Ex-rugby star Ugo Monye completes 2021 line-up - BBC News", "Photographer, farmer and plasterer job ads rise - BBC News", "CJ Ujah: British Olympic silver medallist suspended after positive test for banned substance - BBC Sport", "Afghanistan: US troops 'land in Kabul to evacuate diplomats' - BBC News", "Reading: Teacher gets stories published after 46 years - BBC News", "US-Mexico border migrant detention levels reach 21-year high - BBC News", "Mapping the advance of the Taliban in Afghanistan - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Drop-in vaccine clinics open for 16-17-year-olds - BBC News", "Bat killed by cat after record 1,200-mile journey - BBC News", "Greece wildfires: PM describes 'nightmarish summer' - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Gold for Galal Yafai, Tom Daley takes bronze & madison silver for Walls and Hayter - BBC Sport", "Afghanistan war: Sheberghan falls to Taliban, militants say - BBC News", "Princess Charlotte joins Big Butterfly Count - BBC News", "Covid-19: NI has the highest infection rate in the UK - BBC News", "Bridge-collapse fears trigger alert for Bassaleg homeowners - BBC News", "Logan Mwangi: Balloons tribute to boy found dead in river - BBC News", "Dungannon: Man arrested on suspicion of murder after child's death - BBC News", "Verphy Kudi: Mum left girl to die to party for 6 days - BBC News", "At risk Afghan journalists to be offered UK relocation - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Golds for GB pentathlete Joe Choong & boxer Galal Yafai, cycling silver, Tom Daley and Josh Kerr bronzes - BBC Sport", "Peter Kay: Thousands watch comic make live return at charity event - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Laura Muir comes to terms with place in history after 1500m silver - BBC Sport", "Ed Sheeran named in Ipswich Town squad list and given number 17 - BBC News", "NI Covid-19 vaccine roll-out for over 16s under way - BBC News", "Wood Green stabbing: Police officers and social worker attacked - BBC News", "Mercer Street: Tanker blast evidence points to Iran, says US - BBC News", "Greece fires: Hundreds rescued by coastguard - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics medal table - which country won most golds? - BBC Sport", "Archbishop of York: English people feel left behind by metropolitan elites - BBC News", "Cash prize jackpot offered for double-jabbed students - BBC News", "Famous Central Park owl killed in crash with truck - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: German pentathlon coach thrown out for punching horse - BBC Sport", "Families of 9/11 victims tell Biden not to attend memorial events - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: More groups eligible for winter flu jabs - BBC News", "Snickers Spain pulls TV advert after homophobia accusations - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Day-by-day guide to the key events and British medal hopes - BBC Sport", "Tokyo attack: Knife-wielding man injures 10 on train - BBC News", "University clearing may be 'much more competitive' this year - Ucas boss - BBC News", "England v India: Joe Root makes superb century at Trent Bridge - BBC Sport", "Covid in Wales: Teens aged 16-17 to be offered jabs - BBC News", "South Africa 19-16 British and Irish Lions: Morne Steyn's late penalty wins series - BBC Sport", "Covid: More than 100 cases linked to Glasgow's Euro fan zone - BBC News", "NHS waiting lists could rise to 14 million in England next year - report - BBC News", "Capitol riot: Off-duty Seattle police officers fired over assault - BBC News", "Boris Johnson will not isolate after Covid case among staff - BBC News", "Covid: First 16 and 17-year-olds begin to get vaccine invites - BBC News", "Afghanistan war: Bodies on the streets as fighting traps Lashkar Gah residents - BBC News", "Who are the Taliban? - BBC News", "Afghanistan war: Taliban capture regional capital Zaranj - BBC News", "Ant McPartlin marries Anne-Marie Corbett at star-studded wedding - BBC News", "Lionel Messi: Paris St-Germain in talks with Argentine after leaving Barcelona - BBC Sport", "Wind farm firms admit safety breaches over worker who froze to death - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Attack could strike Kabul airport within hours, minister warns - BBC News", "Consultation begins on beaver reintroductions - BBC News", "US court rules asylum seekers must stay in Mexico - BBC News", "Nirvana sued by the baby from Nevermind's album cover - BBC News", "Media watchdog Ofcom quits Stonewall diversity scheme - BBC News", "No need to restart vaccine programme - JCVI member - BBC News", "Goldman Sachs mandates vaccines for US staff and visitors - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Return of schools 'fuelling' record case numbers - BBC News", "Just Eat announces 1,500 new jobs in North East - BBC News", "Search for Covid's origins stalled, scientists say - BBC News", "JJ Chalmers: Meeting the pilot who flew me home injured from Afghanistan - BBC News", "Church of England 'regret' over suicide of falsely accused priest - BBC News", "Smoking surge in young during Covid lockdown - BBC News", "British stamps banned from Chagos Islands in Indian Ocean - BBC News", "Tokyo Paralympics: Sarah Storey wins 15th Paralympic gold as GB claim six medals - BBC Sport", "Covid infection protection waning in double jabbed - BBC News", "Pork scratchings recalled amid salmonella outbreak - BBC News", "A Kabul evacuee's tale: Dread, chaos and the Taliban - BBC News", "Child, 3, seriously hurt in Pontypridd dog attack - BBC News", "UK self-catering holiday prices soar in pandemic - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Terror attack warning issued for Kabul airport - BBC News", "Afghanistan: UK offers to help evacuate rescue animals and staff - BBC News", "Man in 20s shot in leg in Newtownabbey - BBC News", "Business still has time to help Afghans - AirBnB boss - BBC News", "Owner's devastation after four horses die in crash - BBC News", "Tesco and Iceland bosses warn over Christmas supplies - BBC News", "Police need clearer guidance on Tasers - watchdog - BBC News", "Dr Anne McCloskey: GP suspended over Covid-19 vaccine comments - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban tell working women to stay at home - BBC News", "England v India: Brilliant hosts dominate first day of third Test - BBC Sport", "Climate change: Consumer 'confusion' threatens net zero homes plan - BBC News", "OnlyFans suspends policy change after backlash - BBC News", "Lee Peacock: Westminster murders suspect found with critical injuries - BBC News", "Harry Kane: Tottenham striker says he will stay at the club - BBC Sport", "Covid cases in south-west England highest among young people - BBC News", "Gas bills: Northern Ireland customers facing price rise - BBC News", "Claudia Lawrence: Mum in 'utter shock' at new search - BBC News", "Ration blood tests because of test tube shortage, GPs told - BBC News", "Unite union expected to elect first female leader - BBC News", "Claudia Lawrence: Former gravel pits searched in missing chef case - BBC News", "Extinction Rebellion: Nearly 200 arrests over four days - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban increasingly violent against protesters – UN - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Secret Kabul talks between CIA and Taliban - US media - BBC News", "Minister's wife goes ahead with legal action over nursery 'discrimination' - BBC News", "Boris Johnson's Irish Sea tunnel vision - roadworthy or pipe dream? - BBC News", "Devon girl, 14, finishes round-Britain sailing trek - BBC News", "Tennessee flash floods kill 22 with dozens missing - BBC News", "Man arrested over Birmingham Gay Village attack - BBC News", "'They will kill me': Desperate Afghans seek way out after Taliban takeover - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Danger lies on Kabul's airport road to freedom - BBC News", "Covid: Antibody tests offered to public for first time - BBC News", "Afghanistan: The BBC's Lyse Doucet reports from Kabul airport - BBC News", "Afghanistan: US ramping up Kabul evacuation effort, says Biden - BBC News", "Westminster double murder: Police say wanted man knew victims - BBC News", "Three men sought by police in Birmingham Gay Village attack probe - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville tests positive - BBC News", "Hillsborough: Minute's applause for 97th victim - BBC News", "Gunshots fired at Edinburgh home in 'targeted attack' - BBC News", "The Hundred: Southern Brave beat Birmingham Phoenix to win men's title - BBC Sport", "Afghanistan: Tony Blair says withdrawal was driven by imbecilic slogan - BBC News", "Afghanistan: US fears risk of Islamic State attack at Kabul airport - BBC News", "Only Fools and Horses garage door sold to TV fan - BBC News", "R. Kelly aide says he paid bribe for singer to marry Aaliyah - BBC News", "Covid: Australian police clash with anti-lockdown protesters - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Who's who in the Taliban leadership - BBC News", "Arsenal 0-2 Chelsea: Romelu Lukaku scores as Blues win London derby - BBC Sport", "Afghanistan: The desperate scramble to escape - BBC News", "Storm Henri: US East Coast warned of significant damage - BBC News", "A woman tries to flee the Taliban: 'We lost everything again' - BBC News", "Covid: New Zealand pandemic strategy in doubt amid Delta spread - BBC News", "Afghanistan crisis: 'Hey world, do you care what happens here?' - BBC News", "Five hurt in high-speed crash at Lincoln car meet - BBC News", "Sepsis: Teen footballer wants better care for young adults - BBC News", "Kenya holds biggest ever animal census - BBC News", "Manchester City 5-0 Norwich City: Jack Grealish scores on home debut for Premier League champions - BBC Sport", "Eileen Barrott death: Husband charged with murder - BBC News", "Everly Brothers: US rock 'n' roll star Don Everly dies aged 84 - BBC News", "Covid: CO2 monitors pledged to aid school ventilation - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Labour demands urgent action over evacuation crisis - BBC News", "Ever Given: Cargo ship returns through Suez Canal it blocked - BBC News", "Family of American taken by Taliban beg for return - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban increasingly violent against protesters – UN - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Kabul evacuation gathering pace, says ambassador - BBC News", "Puppy smuggling: Rise in cases prompts new welfare rules - BBC News", "Brentford 2-0 Arsenal: Bees earn fully deserved win over Gunners - BBC Sport", "Norwich 0-3 Liverpool: Mohamed Salah scores and assists two - BBC Sport", "Afghanistan pullout: Biden's biggest call yet - will it be his most calamitous? - BBC News", "Polish law on property stolen by Nazis angers Israel - BBC News", "Cornwall Royal Marines death prompts sea depths checks - BBC News", "Cheers Drive: Name plea for Cardiff bus station road - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Boris Johnson defends UK's role amid evacuation - BBC News", "Japan floods: Residents rescued as torrential rain threatens homes - BBC News", "Channel migrant crossings reach record high as man dies - BBC News", "Police officer and child found dead in Kidderminster - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Diplomats hasten exit as Taliban near Kabul - BBC News", "Logan Mwangi: Community remembers boy, 5, found dead in river - BBC News", "Turkey floods: Death toll near Black Sea rises to at least 70 - BBC News", "Plymouth shooting: Gunman shot own mother then a dad and daughter - BBC News", "Esther Dingley: Hiker's Pyrenees death an accident, police say - BBC News", "Covid vaccine: Parents upset at jabs wait for high-risk children - BBC News", "Covid: 16 and 17-year-olds in England to be offered jab by 23 August - BBC News", "Nicola Sturgeon's sister Gillian arrested over Ayrshire incident - BBC News", "Cost of NHS Covid tests for UK arrivals reduced - BBC News", "Drone spots suspected burglars on Mansfield bank roof - BBC News", "Brett Staniland: Love Island contestant's twin calls out trolls - BBC News", "Nanci Griffith: Folk and country singer-songwriter dies aged 68 - BBC News", "M6 delays: Man seriously injured in four-vehicle crash - BBC News", "Nicki Minaj and husband Kenneth Petty sued by sex assault victim - BBC News", "Shetland’s biggest gig – the day Pulp flew in to Lerwick - BBC News", "James Markham killing: Chingford father was partner's 'world' - BBC News", "Strictly Come Dancing: Ex-rugby star Ugo Monye completes 2021 line-up - BBC News", "Climate change: July world's hottest month ever recorded - US agency - BBC News", "Haiti struck by deadly 7.2-magnitude earthquake - BBC News", "Manchester United v Leeds: Six arrests made - BBC News", "Australia: New South Wales 'in worst ever Covid situation' - BBC News", "Windermere diver retrieves lost prosthetic leg from lake - BBC News", "Afghan war: Taliban close in on the capital Kabul - BBC News", "Sarah Rainsford on Russia: 'I've been told I can't come back - ever' - BBC News", "Covid-19: Nisra records 31 virus-related deaths in NI - BBC News", "BBC condemns Russia's decision to not renew correspondent's visa - BBC News", "Boy takes on 150-mile walk from Rugby to visit grandparents - BBC News", "CJ Ujah: British sprinter 'shocked and devastated' after positive drugs test - BBC Sport", "Covid: Carrie Johnson urges pregnant women to get vaccinated - BBC News", "Man charged over charred body found in Glasgow park - BBC News", "Banksy confirms East Anglian seaside artwork is genuine - BBC News", "All-Ireland SFC semi-final: Feargal Logan says deferral of Kerry game for a further week could see Tyrone fielding - BBC Sport", "Artificial Intelligence may diagnose dementia in a day - BBC News", "Greece fires: PM apologises as blazes rage on Evia island - BBC News", "Max Woosey: Camping challenge boy set for 500th night - BBC News", "A-level results: Students have been treated fairly - watchdog - BBC News", "Covid-19: More than 75% of UK adults now double-jabbed - BBC News", "A-Level results: Hackney twins secure Oxbridge places - BBC News", "Storm Huntley thanks 'lucky stars' after bike accident - BBC News", "COP26: Covid travel rules relaxed for overseas delegates - BBC News", "Rhyl cancer patient suffered from 'alarming failings' at Glan Clwyd Hospital - BBC News", "Highers and Nat 5s: Four things to look out for on results day - BBC News", "JetBlue to launch NY-UK flights despite pandemic - BBC News", "Second-hand car sales soar amid shortage of new models - BBC News", "Princess Latifa: Campaign to free Dubai ruler's daughter disbanded - BBC News", "Troubles' legacy plans 'may give amnesty to killers' - BBC News", "Poland's ruling coalition frays ahead of key media vote - BBC News", "Lionel Messi signs two-year Paris St-Germain deal after leaving Barcelona - BBC Sport", "Greensill: David Cameron 'made $10m' before company’s collapse - BBC News", "Social media abuse: Twitter says UK 'by far' main origin of comments after Euro 2020 final - BBC Sport", "London's Tower Bridge reopens after technical failure - BBC News", "Victoria station: One dead and two injured in bus crash - BBC News", "Weather warning as thunderstorms cause severe flooding - BBC News", "Climate change: At-risk nations fear extinction after IPCC report - BBC News", "Friends narrowly escape flooding lift - BBC News", "Google lets parents remove children from image-search results - BBC News", "Lauren Price: 'Insane' welcome for Olympic gold medallist - BBC News", "Lorry fire on M6 near Birmingham closes carriageway - BBC News", "Scottish results day: Record high for A grades as pass rate falls - BBC News", "Dungannon: Woman arrested over death of two-year-old girl - BBC News", "Paddy Power owner betting shop revenue rebounds - BBC News", "David Cameron personally promoted Greensill to investors - BBC News", "Esther Dingley: Missing hiker's boyfriend finds her body - BBC News", "Consult on damages for crime victims with convictions, court tells government - BBC News", "Woman found dead in Perton lay-by was set alight - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban seizure will challenge West - Gen Sir Nick Carter - BBC News", "Smitten prison officer helped inmate lover escape - BBC News", "Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity' - BBC News", "Humza Yousaf launches legal action over Dundee nursery 'discrimination' - BBC News", "Fenwick Colchester: Freddie Farrow, 5, died after being struck by a mirror - BBC News", "Climate change: Time running out to stop catastrophe - Alok Sharma - BBC News", "Mumbles: Two in hospital after open-top bus crash - BBC News", "Oxford-jab chief criticises UK's Covid booster plan - BBC News", "Afghanistan war: Biden says he does not regret troop withdrawal - BBC News", "Dungannon: Pair in court over death of Ali Jayden Doyle - BBC News", "Algeria forest fires: Dozens killed in Kabylie region - BBC News", "New York Governor Andrew Cuomo resigns in wake of harassment report - BBC News", "Odeon owner AMC to accept payment in Bitcoin - BBC News", "I Am Legend screenwriter dismisses anti-vax claims based on film's plot - BBC News", "Sheffield Link FM radio station faces sanction over 'Jihadi' chant - BBC News", "Lionel Messi agrees Paris St-Germain deal after Barcelona exit - Guillem Balague - BBC Sport", "As it happened: 45% of pupils get top A-level grades - BBC News", "Euro Auctions: Brothers delighted with £775m deal for Tyrone firm - BBC News", "Test and Trace boss Dido Harding to step down from NHS role - BBC News", "Eleven people rescued from Falls of Falloch waterfalls - BBC News", "Bilsdale transmitter fire: TV and radio disrupted in 1m homes - BBC News", "Meng Wanzhou: Final arguments in extradition battle - BBC News", "Euro 2020 racist abuse - 11 people arrested - BBC News", "MV Asphalt Princess: Suspected hijackers leave ship off UAE - BBC News", "Veteran charity runner robbed at knifepoint near Burton upon Trent - BBC News", "Streatham terror attack: Sudesh Amman 'told mentor he had changed' - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: GB and Denmark collide in men's team pursuit - BBC Sport", "Boy, 3, killed in collision with vehicle at farm near Efailwen - BBC News", "Long-lasting Covid-19 symptoms rare in children - BBC News", "Ever Given: Cargo unloaded from ship that blocked Suez Canal - BBC News", "Indyref2: Why has the campaign for another vote gone quiet? - BBC News", "Covid vaccine set to be offered to 16 and 17-year-olds - BBC News", "Lee Collins Yeovil Town captain struggled with alcohol, coroner says - BBC News", "High Court backs compensation for Provident customers - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Sky Brown becomes GB's youngest medallist, plus sailing and showjumping golds - BBC Sport", "Farm pesticides killing more bees - study - BBC News", "German pensioner given hefty fine for WW2 tank in house - BBC News", "Simone Biles: Tokyo 2020 medallist on 'unique Olympic experience' - BBC Sport", "Tokyo Olympics: Sydney McLaughlin smashes her 400m hurdles world record - BBC Sport", "Aya Hachem: Seven men guilty of drive-by shooting murder - BBC News", "Government accused of 'burying' conversion therapy report - BBC News", "China Covid: China targets school students to control case surge - BBC News", "Covid travel: France moves to amber list and green list expands - BBC News", "Elaine Thompson-Herah: Instagram blocks gold medallist who shared race win - BBC Sport", "Sky Brown: 13 things to know about GB's 13-year-old Olympic skateboarding medallist - BBC Sport", "Nearly a third of waking hours spent on TV and streaming, Ofcom says - BBC News", "Man killed in tanker attack named as Adrian Underwood - BBC News", "MP Maria Miller wants AI 'nudifying' tool banned - BBC News", "Barbie of Oxford Covid vaccine designer Dame Sarah Gilbert created - BBC News", "Timber shortage due to 'unprecedented' post-lockdown demand - BBC News", "Wagatha Christie: Jamie Vardy's phone may be analysed in libel case - BBC News", "England v India: Hosts collapse to 183 all out in first Test at Trent Bridge - BBC Sport", "Tokyo Olympics: Sky Brown wins skateboard bronze to become youngest GB medallist - BBC Sport", "Holiday park murder accused in court amid tributes to Amanda Selby - BBC News", "Ever Given: Cargo ship that blocked Suez Canal arrives in Felixstowe - BBC News", "Fenwick Colchester: Boy, 5, dies after being injured at store - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Elaine Thompson-Herah completes unprecedented 'double-double' - BBC Sport", "Tokyo Olympics: Karsten Warholm sets stunning 400m hurdles world record - BBC Sport", "The Offspring drummer Pete Parada says he was dropped over vaccine refusal - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: 13-year-old Sky Brown wins Olympic skateboarding bronze - BBC Sport", "Belarus sprinter Krystina Timanovskaya arrives in Poland - BBC News", "Mexico sues US gun manufacturers over arms trafficking - BBC News", "MV Asphalt Princess: Ship hijacked off UAE ordered to sail to Iran - BBC News", "Three dead in train crash near Czech-German border - BBC News", "Petrol prices at eight-year high, says RAC - BBC News", "Boeing delays rerun of Starliner space capsule test - BBC News", "Extinction Rebellion: Judge demands review of protester convictions - BBC News", "Sturgeon: Strange the PM will not meet me - BBC News", "Strictly Come Dancing: Ex-rugby star Ugo Monye completes 2021 line-up - BBC News", "As it happened: I would jab my children, says Prof Jonathan Van-Tam - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Alice Dearing hopes representing GB 'makes a difference' - BBC Sport", "Covid in Scotland: Most restrictions to end from 9 August - BBC News", "Benjamin Mendy: Manchester City footballer charged with rape - BBC News", "Fulham supermarkets targeted by man with syringes - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Attack could strike Kabul airport within hours, minister warns - BBC News", "Sports Direct owner's new boss offered potential £100m bonus - BBC News", "Waiting lists: 53% wait more than a year to see consultant - BBC News", "Uber and union bosses to meet after landmark deal on workers' rights - BBC News", "Fulham solicitor accused of injecting blood into stores' food - BBC News", "Covid travel: Seven locations moved to Covid travel green list - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Swansea veteran emotional after seeing interpreter in UK - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Return of schools 'fuelling' record case numbers - BBC News", "England v India: Brilliant hosts dominate first day of third Test - BBC Sport", "Tory accounts show donor paid towards PM flat refurb bill - BBC News", "JJ Chalmers: Meeting the pilot who flew me home injured from Afghanistan - BBC News", "Light pollution from street lamps linked to insect loss - BBC News", "US judge reprimands Trump election fraud lawyers - BBC News", "BA in talks over short-haul Gatwick flights - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Evacuation is continuing despite Kabul attack, says PM - BBC News", "Japan suspends 1.6 million Moderna doses over contamination fears - BBC News", "British stamps banned from Chagos Islands in Indian Ocean - BBC News", "Data protection 'shake-up' takes aim at cookie pop-ups - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Charity worker Pen Farthing caught up in Kabul attack - BBC News", "Letitia Wright treated for injuries after Black Panther 2 accident - BBC News", "Covid: Vaccine complications dwarfed by virus risks - BBC News", "Boy, two, injured in Caithness crash dies in hospital - BBC News", "Covid: UK records another 38,000 coronavirus cases - BBC News", "Boris Johnson: Tories feared PM would die with Covid, says Simon Hart - BBC News", "Owner's devastation after four horses die in crash - BBC News", "Car production in July hits lowest level since 1956 - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Terror attack warning issued for Kabul airport - BBC News", "Tesco and Iceland bosses warn over Christmas supplies - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Operation Ark Luton evacuation plane is swapped - BBC News", "Covid jab side-effects 'mild' for at-risk children - BBC News", "Covid case rates in Wales highest since January - BBC News", "Brexit: Staff shortages hitting supermarket shelves in Wales - BBC News", "Champions League draw: Manchester City to face PSG and Chelsea will meet Juventus - BBC Sport", "Scottish Greens co-leaders Harvie and Slater to be given minister roles - BBC News", "Service cuts may expose rural youth to county lines - BBC News", "Abba tease major announcement ahead of new music - BBC News", "Covid-19: NHS England prepares jabs plan for 12-15-year-olds - BBC News", "GPs in Scotland warn of rush back to face-to-face appointments - BBC News", "Lee Peacock: Westminster murders suspect found with critical injuries - BBC News", "Trial suggests malaria sickness could be cut by 70% - BBC News", "OnlyFans suspends policy change after backlash - BBC News", "Covid-19: Pandemic had severe impact on young people, says report - BBC News", "Gas bills: Northern Ireland customers facing price rise - BBC News", "Ted Dexter: Former England and Sussex captain dies aged 86 - BBC Sport", "Afghanistan: Taliban increasingly violent against protesters – UN - BBC News", "Afghanistan: US will hunt down Kabul airport attack jihadists, says Biden - BBC News", "Extinction Rebellion: Nearly 200 arrests over four days - BBC News", "Tokyo Paralympics: Lee Pearson wins 12th gold as GB enjoy cycling and swimming success - BBC Sport", "UK loses 83% of department stores since BHS collapsed - BBC News", "NHS blood test tube shortage set to worsen - BBC News", "Covid vaccines still effective against Delta variant - BBC News", "Eileen Barrott murder: Husband traced to Elgin - BBC News", "Wildfires rage across Europe - BBC News", "Afghanistan: 'Was my role in Afghan War worth it?' - BBC News", "Afghanistan crisis: Chaos at Kabul airport amid scramble to evacuate - BBC News", "FTSE bosses earn 86 times more than average worker in 2020 - BBC News", "Bridgend: Mother charged with murder of son, 2 - BBC News", "How the Taliban stormed across Afghanistan in 10 days - BBC News", "Scottish public spending deficit doubles to £36bn - BBC News", "Geronimo the alpaca: High Court bid to save animal refused - BBC News", "Apple censors engraving service, report claims - BBC News", "Outrage at chronic fatigue syndrome advice update pause - BBC News", "Nando's shuts restaurants as it runs short of supplies - BBC News", "Film buff rescues more than 20,000 VHS tapes set for dump - BBC News", "Trendy shoffices and pizza ovens raised lockdown fire risks - BBC News", "Uncertain times ahead for Afghan women - BBC News", "Wrightbus to boost Ballymena workforce by 300 - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Who's who in the Taliban leadership - BBC News", "Afghan chaos undercuts Biden's promise of competence - BBC News", "Gurkha back at Downing Street hunger strike after being taken ill - BBC News", "MPs on all sides accuse Boris Johnson of Afghanistan failures - BBC News", "Haiti earthquake: Devastation and more than 2,000 dead - BBC News", "Silverdale quarry smell: High Court legal challenge over noxious gas - BBC News", "Visa delays hit UK students heading to Spain to study - BBC News", "Plaid Cymru: Ex-leader no longer friends with successor - BBC News", "Afghanistan: What's the impact of Taliban's return on international order? - BBC News", "WeThe15: 'Game-changer' plan for 1.2bn disabled people - BBC News", "Nando's hopes to reopen fully from Saturday after supply shortage - BBC News", "Aspirin may help treat aggressive breast cancer - BBC News", "IMF suspends Afghanistan's access to funds - BBC News", "Home Depot 'discriminated against BLM supporter' - BBC News", "I don't believe Taliban pledge on women's rights, Priti Patel says - BBC News", "As is happened: MPs debate crisis in Afghanistan - BBC News", "Covid-vaccine scientists begin plague-jab trial - BBC News", "Trials of shared banking hubs to be extended - BBC News", "Afghanistan: 'I feel lucky to leave but we must not forget those left behind' - BBC News", "Sean Lock: Comedian and 8 Out of 10 Cats captain dies aged 58 - BBC News", "R. Kelly trial: Singer 'knew I was underage', accuser tells court - BBC News", "Afghan women to have rights within Islamic law, Taliban say - BBC News", "US lab stands on threshold of key nuclear fusion goal - BBC News", "Troubles' prosecutions: Military veterans give support to Troubles' plan - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban carrying out door-to-door manhunt - BBC News", "Snake slithers out of spice shelves at Sydney supermarket - BBC News", "Plymouth shooting: Gunman had mental health support in lockdown - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Mysterious Taliban spokesman finally shows his face - BBC News", "Price rises cool amid clothes and shoe discounting - BBC News", "Who are the Taliban? - BBC News", "Covid: Most Conservative MPs ditch masks as Commons returns - BBC News", "Police officer and son's deaths in Kidderminster were murder-suicide - BBC News", "Twitter tests 'misleading' post report button for first time - BBC News", "Austin Mitchell: Former Great Grimsby MP dies aged 86 - BBC News", "Colleges need extra £570m due to rise in students - think tank - BBC News", "PCR testing ‘rip-off’: Watchdog warned government in April - BBC News", "Israel extends Covid restrictions to three-year-olds as cases surge - BBC News", "Ashraf Ghani: Afghanistan's exiled president lands in UAE - BBC News", "Greater Manchester Police chief scraps 'tosh' Citizens' Contract - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge successfully defends Olympic marathon title - BBC Sport", "Saudi Arabia to allow in vaccinated Umrah pilgrims - BBC News", "Tobacco giant Philip Morris raises bid for respiratory drugmaker - BBC News", "Mapping the advance of the Taliban in Afghanistan - BBC News", "Bat killed by cat after record 1,200-mile journey - BBC News", "Joe Willock: Newcastle agree deal to sign Arsenal midfielder for more than £20m - BBC Sport", "Leicestershire death: Murder arrest after woman's body found - BBC News", "Pagan Roman emperor coin found in Norfolk field 'deliberately damaged' - BBC News", "Greece wildfires: PM describes 'nightmarish summer' - BBC News", "Afghanistan war: Sheberghan falls to Taliban, militants say - BBC News", "Covid PCR costs can be excessive and exploitative, says Javid - BBC News", "River pollution in Wales: Swimmers warned over sewage - BBC News", "Part of 'Banksy' artwork near Lowestoft removed over flood fears - BBC News", "Greece wildfires: Hundreds more evacuated as uncontrolled fires rage - BBC News", "St Jude Invitational: Kim Si-woo finds water five times on one hole to score 13 on par three - BBC Sport", "North Korea: Kim Jong-un calls for relief in flood-hit areas - BBC News", "Dennis Thomas: Kool & The Gang founding member dies aged 70 - BBC News", "Lionel Messi: Paris St-Germain move 'a possibility' after Barcelona exit - BBC Sport", "Peter Kay: Thousands watch comic make live return at charity event - BBC News", "Booker Prize: Novel inspired by last hanging at Cardiff prison - BBC News", "Cuba allows small and medium-sized private businesses - BBC News", "Wood Green stabbing: Police officers and social worker attacked - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics medal table - which country won most golds? - BBC Sport", "Tokyo Olympics: German pentathlon coach thrown out for punching horse - BBC Sport", "Covid: Yousaf warns 'cases will rise' as restrictions ease - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: More groups eligible for winter flu jabs - BBC News", "Afghanistan troop withdrawal a strategic mistake, warns ex-general - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Day-by-day guide to the key events and British medal hopes - BBC Sport", "Wood Green stabbing: Man charged with social worker attack - BBC News", "Branson's Virgin Atlantic considers stock market listing - BBC News", "Afghanistan war: Taliban capture three regional capitals - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Jason Kenny wins seventh gold but Laura Kenny reign as omnium champion over - BBC Sport", "South Africa 19-16 British and Irish Lions: Morne Steyn's late penalty wins series - BBC Sport", "NHS waiting lists could rise to 14 million in England next year - report - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Team GB match London 2012 with 65 medals won as Kenny and Price take gold - BBC Sport", "Capitol riot: Off-duty Seattle police officers fired over assault - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Lauren Price beats Li Qian to win women's middleweight boxing gold - BBC Sport", "Lauren Price: The girl who reached for the moon and came down with Olympic boxing gold - BBC Sport", "Who are the Taliban? - BBC News", "Bukayo Saka: Arsenal forward clapped on to pitch by Tottenham fans in pre-season friendly - BBC Sport", "Outrage after Zimbabwean girl, 14, dies giving birth at church shrine - BBC News", "Ant McPartlin marries Anne-Marie Corbett at star-studded wedding - BBC News", "Climate change: Time running out to stop catastrophe - Alok Sharma - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: 'Right moment' to lift restrictions, says Sturgeon - BBC News", "Paul Embery: Pro-Brexit fire union official unfairly sacked, tribunal finds - BBC News", "Cross words over New York Times puzzle change - BBC News", "Number pinged by NHS Covid-19 app falls significantly - BBC News", "Covid: Live events to be protected by £750m government-backed insurance scheme - BBC News", "Oatly loses trademark battle against Glebe Farm over oat milk - BBC News", "Jack Grealish: Man City sign England midfielder from Aston Villa for £100m - BBC Sport", "Mexico sues US gun manufacturers over arms trafficking - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Travel changes are not enough, say industry bosses - BBC News", "Streatham attack: 'Missed opportunity' to stop terrorist, inquest told - BBC News", "Kaylee-Jayde Priest: Mother and boyfriend convicted of manslaughter - BBC News", "Covid: 16 and 17-year-olds in Wales could get jab before term starts - BBC News", "Notorious 'Ndrangheta mafia fugitive arrested after two years on the run - BBC News", "Cat death rise: 'It feels like we've lost a family member' - BBC News", "Belarus Olympian Timanovskaya says grandmother warned her not to come home - BBC News", "Euro 2020 racist abuse - 11 people arrested - BBC News", "US to allow visitors from Hong Kong to stay for 18 months - BBC News", "Farm pesticides killing more bees - study - BBC News", "Three dead in train crash near Czech-German border - BBC News", "Logan Mwangi: Mum and step-dad in court over death of boy, five - BBC News", "Emilio Ballack: Eighteen-year-old son of Michael Ballack dies in quad-bike accident - BBC Sport", "Linden Foods: Man dies after incident at food processing site - BBC News", "Russian gay family flees to Spain after threats - BBC News", "Extinction Rebellion: Third protester conviction quashed - BBC News", "Nearly a third of waking hours spent on TV and streaming, Ofcom says - BBC News", "Lionel Messi: Barcelona say Argentina forward will not stay at club - BBC Sport", "Tokyo Olympics: Matt Walls wins omnium gold, Holly Bradshaw claims pole vault bronze, Liam Heath takes kayak bronze & boxer Galal Yafai shines - BBC Sport", "Man killed in tanker attack named as Adrian Underwood - BBC News", "A-levels: Bumper year for top grades predicted - BBC News", "Strictly Come Dancing: Ex-rugby star Ugo Monye completes 2021 line-up - BBC News", "Pret, McColls and Welcome Break in minimum wage fail - BBC News", "Afghan war: I can still hear my cry, says mother of dead soldier - BBC News", "Government accused of 'burying' conversion therapy report - BBC News", "Covid in Wales: Teens aged 16-17 to be offered jabs - BBC News", "Boris Johnson faces backlash over Thatcher coal mines comment - BBC News", "Apple to scan iPhones for child sex abuse images - BBC News", "Bournemouth beach closed after 'large animal' spotted in sea - BBC News", "Amazon delays office return until 2022 as Covid spreads - BBC News", "Epstein meetings a huge mistake, says Bill Gates - BBC News", "Covid: Fifth of England hospital admissions aged 18-34 - BBC News", "Rugby League World Cup 2021 postponed until 2022 following withdrawals - BBC Sport", "Channel crossings: Hundreds more migrants reach UK after record day - BBC News", "Sports Direct's Mike Ashley to hand reins to future son-in-law - BBC News", "Fife athletics coach guilty of sex offences against teenage girls - BBC News", "Cystic fibrosis drug: 'I feel I've been given a second chance at life' - BBC News", "Keeping old computers going costs government £2.3bn a year, says report - BBC News", "Covid travel: France moves to amber list and green list expands - BBC News", "Elaine Thompson-Herah: Instagram blocks gold medallist who shared race win - BBC Sport", "Alastair Bruce: 'When I joined the army it was illegal to be gay' - BBC News", "Benjamin Mendy: Manchester City footballer charged with rape - BBC News", "Cristiano Ronaldo: Man Utd 'reach agreement' to re-sign Juventus forward - BBC Sport", "Farms face an oversupply of pigs due to staff shortage - BBC News", "Contactless card limit to rise to £100 in October - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Pen Farthing through Kabul airport security with animals - BBC News", "Covid: Festival-goers urged to take precautions - BBC News", "Covid origin: US spy agencies publish 'inconclusive' report - BBC News", "Afghanistan: US to continue Kabul evacuations 'until last moment' - BBC News", "Government to ban single-use plastic cutlery - BBC News", "Fulham solicitor accused of injecting blood into stores' food - BBC News", "Shein: China fashion giant investigates 'false' anti-Uyghur job ads - BBC News", "Covid travel: Seven locations moved to Covid travel green list - BBC News", "Afghanistan: British nationals killed in Kabul airport attack - BBC News", "US judge reprimands Trump election fraud lawyers - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Evacuation is continuing despite Kabul attack, says PM - BBC News", "Tokyo Paralympics: Kadeena Cox sets new world record to win gold - BBC Sport", "BA in talks over short-haul Gatwick flights - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Every effort was made to destroy Kabul staff details, says Foreign Office - BBC News", "Covid: High virus levels 'highly likely' in schools - BBC News", "Hurricane Ida: New Orleans braces for possible direct hit - BBC News", "Morecambe and Wise 'bored stiff' by Monty Python - BBC News", "Covid: Vaccine complications dwarfed by virus risks - BBC News", "Westminster double murder: Man, 49, arrested - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Charity worker Pen Farthing caught up in Kabul attack - BBC News", "Peloton cuts price of bike as sales growth slows - BBC News", "Leamington Spa fire: Person missing after explosions at industrial blaze - BBC News", "Gogglebox star Andrew Michael dies aged 61 - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Unions call for all secondary pupils to get vaccine - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Donaldson concern for NI citizens in final evacuation - BBC News", "Covid jab side-effects 'mild' for at-risk children - BBC News", "Nigeria: Gunmen free kidnapped schoolchildren - BBC News", "Twelve-year-old boy makes £290,000 from whale NFTs - BBC News", "Champions League draw: Manchester City to face PSG and Chelsea will meet Juventus - BBC Sport", "Scotland records huge increase in daily Covid cases - BBC News", "Your pictures of Scotland: 20 - 27 August - BBC News", "Covid-19: Pandemic had severe impact on young people, says report - BBC News", "Convicted gang member bragged about wealth in music videos - BBC News", "Brexit: Irish support for deal harming NI, says DUP leader - BBC News", "Supreme Court: Biden eviction moratorium shot down by Supreme Court - BBC News", "NHS blood test tube shortage set to worsen - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban increasingly violent against protesters – UN - BBC News", "Bury pub landlord catches Lee Rigby collection box thief - BBC News", "Benjamin Mendy: Manchester City footballer remanded in custody on rape charges - BBC News", "Afghanistan: US will hunt down Kabul airport attack jihadists, says Biden - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Positive test rates rising across all UK nations - BBC News", "UK loses 83% of department stores since BHS collapsed - BBC News", "Tom Cruise's BMW stolen during Mission: Impossible filming - BBC News", "Max Woosey: Camping challenge boy sleeps out for 500th night - BBC News", "University of Leeds students offered £10k and free housing to defer - BBC News", "Woman in Sydney investigated for pretending to be a doctor - BBC News", "Covid-19: More than 75% of UK adults now double-jabbed - BBC News", "Channel migrants: Asylum seeker cleared of people smuggling was 'scapegoat' - BBC News", "Man admits 'foot fetish' nuisance calls costing the NHS £21,000 - BBC News", "Love Island: Faye and Teddy's row sparks record 25,000 Ofcom complaints - BBC News", "Streatham attack: Officer 'feared for his life' in terrorist pursuit - BBC News", "A-levels: Warning over private and state school gap - BBC News", "Fort Augustus Abbey school was 'haven for paedophiles' - BBC News", "Climate change: Curbing methane emissions will 'buy us time' - BBC News", "Prince Andrew can't ignore courts, says Virginia Giuffre's lawyer - BBC News", "Teenage jab rollout moving cautiously - expert - BBC News", "Belfast Trust sees 182 nurse resignations in six months - BBC News", "Afghanistan: The people fleeing the north for safety in Kabul - BBC News", "Henley Royal Regatta dress code allows women to wear trousers - BBC News", "Lionel Messi signs two-year Paris St-Germain deal after leaving Barcelona - BBC Sport", "Deliveroo orders double as lockdown habits endure - BBC News", "Helicopter finds missing girl asleep in field in Devon - BBC News", "Wagner: Scale of Russian mercenary mission in Libya exposed - BBC News", "Teenage girl dies following go-karting centre incident in Barking - BBC News", "Facebook removes anti-vax influencer campaign - BBC News", "Esther Dingley: Missing hiker's body retrieved by police - BBC News", "Libya's city of ghosts - BBC News", "Briton suspected of spying for Russia arrested in Germany - BBC News", "David Gomoh stabbing: Gang guilty of murdering NHS worker - BBC News", "Cardiff: Three in court charged with Bute Park murder - BBC News", "Sky News Australia removes Covid misinformation clips - BBC News", "Mapping the advance of the Taliban in Afghanistan - BBC News", "Essex baby given £1.79m drug for spinal muscular atrophy - BBC News", "Charles and Diana's wedding cake slice sells for £1,850 - BBC News", "A&E queues mean Wales' ambulances 'can't take 999 calls' - BBC News", "Michael Spavor: Canadian jailed for 11 years in China on spying charges - BBC News", "Disability campaigner stranded after hotel shower fall - BBC News", "UK deportation flight to Jamaica leaves with dozens reprieved - BBC News", "Esther Dingley: Missing hiker's boyfriend finds her body - BBC News", "Weight Watchers shares dive as people put diets on hold - BBC News", "David Cameron in row over promoting genetics firm Illumina - BBC News", "National anthem: Should Wales' teams sing God Save the Queen? - BBC News", "Oxford-jab chief criticises UK's Covid booster plan - BBC News", "Afghanistan war: Biden says he does not regret troop withdrawal - BBC News", "Covid: ScotRail staff 'not expected' to enforce masks on trains - BBC News", "Dungannon: Pair in court over death of Ali Jayden Doyle - BBC News", "Italy may have registered Europe's hottest temperature on record - BBC News", "Algeria forest fires: Dozens killed in Kabylie region - BBC News", "New York Governor Andrew Cuomo resigns in wake of harassment report - BBC News", "Cryptocurrency heist hacker returns $260m in funds - BBC News", "I Am Legend screenwriter dismisses anti-vax claims based on film's plot - BBC News", "As it happened: UK reports 29,612 new Covid cases and 104 deaths - BBC News", "GCSE results 2021: Record passes and top grades - BBC News", "Chingford stabbing: Two boys held after man killed in street - BBC News", "Sheffield girlfriend gives partner 'gift of life' kidney donation - BBC News", "Covid: Stevie Nicks cancels US performances to 'keep healthy' - BBC News", "Google may cut pay of staff who work from home - BBC News", "Bilsdale transmitter fire: TV and radio restored for some - BBC News", "Euro Auctions: Brothers delighted with £775m deal for Tyrone firm - BBC News", "Man burned down Devon village home as 'revenge' on ex-wife - BBC News", "Bilsdale transmitter fire: TV and radio for 1m off air indefinitely - BBC News", "Who are the Taliban? - BBC News", "Uefa Super Cup: Chelsea defeat Villarreal on penalties in Belfast to lift trophy for second time - BBC Sport", "Mumbles: Boy, 12, in hospital after open-top bus crash - BBC News", "Bilsdale transmitter fire: TV and radio disrupted in 1m homes - BBC News", "Norwich 0-3 Liverpool: Mohamed Salah scores and assists two - BBC Sport", "Mapping the advance of the Taliban in Afghanistan - BBC News", "Afghanistan pullout: Biden's biggest call yet - will it be his most calamitous? - BBC News", "Afghanistan: The people fleeing the north for safety in Kabul - BBC News", "Polish law on property stolen by Nazis angers Israel - BBC News", "Haiti struck by deadly 7.2-magnitude earthquake - BBC News", "Cheers Drive: Name plea for Cardiff bus station road - BBC News", "Japan rain: Nearly two million residents told to seek shelter - BBC News", "Dead police officer and child in Kidderminster were father and son - BBC News", "Esther Dingley: Hiker's partner thanks 'hero' searchers - BBC News", "Woman seriously injured by her dog in attack - BBC News", "Haiti country profile - BBC News", "Afghanistan: People flee Kabul as Taliban overrun cities - BBC News", "Afghans living under Taliban lament loss of freedoms - BBC News", "All-Ireland SFC semi-final: Feargal Logan says deferral of Kerry game for a further week could see Tyrone fielding - BBC Sport", "No one wants Afghanistan to become breeding ground for terror - PM - BBC News", "Covid: 16 and 17-year-olds in England to be offered jab by 23 August - BBC News", "Drone spots suspected burglars on Mansfield bank roof - BBC News", "Afghan conflict: Taliban control all key cities except Kabul - BBC News", "Tottenham 1-0 Manchester City: Son Heung-min strike gives Spurs victory without Harry Kane - BBC Sport", "Afghan war: Kabul's young women plead for help as Taliban advance - BBC News", "Will the Taliban take Afghanistan back to the past? - BBC News", "James Markham killing: Chingford father was partner's 'world' - BBC News", "England v India: Late Moeen Ali & Mark Wood wickets set up thrilling final day - BBC Sport", "Haiti struck by deadly 7.2-magnitude earthquake - BBC News", "Australia: New South Wales 'in worst ever Covid situation' - BBC News", "Windermere diver retrieves lost prosthetic leg from lake - BBC News", "Haiti earthquake: Tropical Storm Grace hampers rescue - BBC News", "Afghanistan conflict: Kabul falls to Taliban as president flees - BBC News", "CJ Ujah: British sprinter 'shocked and devastated' after positive drugs test - BBC Sport", "Tokyo 2020: Team GB given star-studded homecoming - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban carrying out door-to-door manhunt - BBC News", "Gerd Muller: Bayern Munich's German legend dies aged 75 - BBC Sport", "Afghanistan war: Bodies on the streets as fighting traps Lashkar Gah residents - BBC News", "Who are the Taliban? - BBC News", "Covid: Carrie Johnson urges pregnant women to get vaccinated - BBC News", "Afghanistan in serious danger - President Ghani - BBC News", "Newspaper headlines: 'The West flees' as 'Taliban rule returns' - BBC News", "Roger Federer will be out 'for many months' as he prepares for further knee surgery - BBC Sport", "Olympics and Paralympics: GB athletes to get more government funds in run-up to Paris Games in 2024 - BBC Sport", "Four injured in suspected shooting in Camden - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen calls the BBC - interview in full - BBC News", "Anti-Taliban resistance group says it has thousands of fighters - BBC News", "Tennessee flash floods kill 22 with dozens missing - BBC News", "Man arrested over Birmingham Gay Village attack - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Danger lies on Kabul's airport road to freedom - BBC News", "Hours without food or water in Kabul airport 'hell' - BBC News", "Afghanistan: US decision to withdraw lays bare a not so special relationship - BBC News", "Covid: Antibody tests offered to public for first time - BBC News", "Afghanistan: PM to press Biden to delay Kabul withdrawal - BBC News", "M25: Three dead and two arrested after lorry, minibus and car crash - BBC News", "Afghanistan: The BBC's Lyse Doucet reports from Kabul airport - BBC News", "Afghanistan: US ramping up Kabul evacuation effort, says Biden - BBC News", "Man arrested as Katie Price taken to hospital - BBC News", "Euro 2020: Wembley steward who tried to sell final passes sentenced - BBC News", "Rugby boy completes 150-mile walk to visit grandparents - BBC News", "Afghanistan: People at Kabul airport flee Taliban with just a suitcase - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Tony Blair says withdrawal was driven by imbecilic slogan - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Young long Covid sufferers lead vaccine drive - BBC News", "Covid travel: UK signs deal for 35m more Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine doses - BBC News", "Covid-19: More than 12,000 vaccine doses given out at weekend - BBC News", "Nord Stream 2: Russia must not use gas pipeline as weapon, says Merkel - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Who's who in the Taliban leadership - BBC News", "Gogglebox star Mary Cook dies aged 92 - BBC News", "Afghanistan: US aims to complete evacuations by deadline - BBC News", "Slides of Charles Rennie Mackintosh masterpiece found on eBay - BBC News", "Arsenal 0-2 Chelsea: Romelu Lukaku scores as Blues win London derby - BBC Sport", "TV has 'utterly failed' disabled people, writer Jack Thorne says - BBC News", "Tokyo Paralympics: Ellie Simmonds and John Stubbs to carry GB flag - BBC Sport", "C-17: The US military plane carrying Afghans to safety - BBC News", "Universal credit: Labour promises shake-up to benefit - BBC News", "Westminster double murder: Victims named as police hunt continues - BBC News", "Covid: New Zealand pandemic strategy in doubt amid Delta spread - BBC News", "Afghanistan crisis: 'Hey world, do you care what happens here?' - BBC News", "Prisoners to plug worker shortage in meat industry - BBC News", "RMT threatens strike action over legionella on trains - BBC News", "Magee Medical School finally opens in Londonderry for 70 students - BBC News", "Nicola Sturgeon plea to Raab over Scot held in India - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Person on no-fly list flown to UK during Kabul evacuation - BBC News", "John Lydon loses court battle to stop Sex Pistols songs being used in a new TV series - BBC News", "Brian Travers: UB40 saxophonist and songwriter dies at 62 - BBC News", "Everly Brothers: US rock 'n' roll star Don Everly dies aged 84 - BBC News", "Little Mix's Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Perrie Edwards give birth days apart - BBC News", "Storm Henri: Lightning strikes One World Trade Center - BBC News", "UK orders 35 million more Pfizer vaccine doses - BBC News", "Family of American taken by Taliban beg for return - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban increasingly violent against protesters – UN - BBC News", "Proud Boys leader sentenced for burning stolen Black Lives Matter flag - BBC News", "Boardmasters: 4,700 Covid cases 'may be linked' to Newquay festival - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Kabul evacuation gathering pace, says ambassador - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Ben Whittaker into final as Frazer Clarke beats Mourad Aliev - BBC Sport", "Tokyo Olympics: GB's Charlotte Worthington wins BMX freestyle gold in dramatic final - BBC Sport", "Eggborough Power Station: Four cooling towers demolished - BBC News", "Covid: Cardiff ice rink to reopen after 'frustrating' wait - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Elaine Thompson-Herah last woman standing as epic boils down to duel - BBC Sport", "Bridgend river death: Boy, 5, named as Logan Mwangi - BBC News", "Esteban Ocon wins thrilling Hungarian Grand Prix after Lewis Hamilton fights back - BBC Sport", "Belarus Olympics: Krystsina Tsimanouskaya refuses 'forced' flight home - BBC News", "Simone Biles withdraws from floor final at Tokyo Olympics - BBC Sport", "Tokyo Olympics: Georgia athletes removed from Games after sightseeing trip - BBC Sport", "Tokyo Olympics: Who are the contenders for Usain Bolt's 100m crown? - BBC Sport", "Covid: One in five firms plan job cuts as furlough tapers - survey - BBC News", "Alex Salmond trial blogger hands himself in to police - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Max Whitlock and Charlotte Worthington land gold on day nine - BBC Sport", "Heatwave risk from plans to convert shops to homes - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Charlotte Worthington wins BMX freestyle gold for Great Britain - BBC Sport", "Abergele holiday park incident: Man held as girl, 15, dies - BBC News", "South Africa 27-9 British and Irish Lions: Springboks level series in fiery encounter - BBC Sport", "Tokyo Olympics: Elaine Thompson-Herah successfully defends 100m title - BBC Sport", "Boy, five, dies after being found in Ogmore River, Bridgend - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Team GB's Pat McCormack guaranteed silver after Aidan Walsh withdraws - BBC Sport", "New Zealand Dawn Raids: Jacinda Ardern formally apologises - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Great Britain eventers in strong medal positions after cross-country - BBC Sport", "Leigh Wood beats Xu Can to claim WBA 'Regular' featherweight title - BBC Sport", "Covid in Scotland: Thousands of teenagers to get jab before school return - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Day-by-day guide to the key events and British medal hopes - BBC Sport", "Covid vaccine will not be compulsory for university lectures - BBC News", "Sky News Australia barred for week by YouTube over Covid misinformation - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Max Whitlock defends Olympic pommel horse title - BBC Sport", "Covid: No incentives for youth vaccine uptake in Wales - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Italy's Lamont Marcell Jacobs wins 100m final while GB's Zharnel Hughes disqualified - BBC Sport", "Tokyo Olympics: 'Can we have two golds?' - high jumpers share win - BBC Sport", "NHS pay: Call for privately employed staff to get increase - BBC News", "DaBaby dropped by US music festival Lollapalooza - BBC News", "Anti-eviction lawmaker camps overnight on US Capitol steps - BBC News", "What the Tokyo medal table tells us halfway through the Games - BBC Sport", "Covid-19: Are NI's young people resisting the vaccine? - BBC News", "‘Lenders won’t touch us - my home’s worth nothing' - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Dina Asher-Smith exit but gold for Great Britain in mixed relay events - BBC Sport", "Cardiff Park Plaza fire: Four rescued from flat above hotel - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Lamont Marcell Jacobs claims shock 100m gold - BBC Sport", "Volunteer race marshal dies in Brands Hatch crash - BBC News", "Prosecutor Nazir Afzal: I couldn't defend a rapist - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Xander Schauffele wins gold on dramatic final day - BBC Sport", "Afghanistan: Taliban continue attacks on three major cities - BBC News", "Covid: UK hits 85m jab milestone amid discount push for young - BBC News", "Hollywood plans £700m film and TV studios in Hertfordshire - BBC News", "Turkey: Foreign tourists evacuated as wildfires threaten resorts - BBC News", "Carrie Johnson and Boris Johnson expecting second child - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Novak Djokovic hurls and smashes racquet in bronze medal match defeat - BBC Sport", "Tanker attack: UK and US blame Iran for deadly ship attack - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Mourad Aliev in ring protest after Frazer Clarke defeat - BBC Sport", "Bridgend river death: Police keep 'open mind' after boy, 5, dies - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Great Britain win record eighth swimming medal with men's 4x100m relay silver - BBC Sport", "Joe Willock: Newcastle agree deal to sign Arsenal midfielder for more than £20m - BBC Sport", "Chelsea's Ivy Asia restaurant sorry for 'culturally insensitive' advert - BBC News", "Covid: Office staff stay home despite end of Wales restrictions - BBC News", "Peter Kay: Cancer patient 'honoured' to inspire comic's comeback gig - BBC News", "Porth Ysgo rescue: Two people rescued from disused mine shaft - BBC News", "A-level results: Students have been treated fairly - watchdog - BBC News", "Floods: Research shows millions more at risk of flooding - BBC News", "Covid: Cardiff city centre working '50% lower' than pre-pandemic - BBC News", "Andrew Cuomo: Top aide to governor resigns amid scandal - BBC News", "COP26: Covid travel rules relaxed for overseas delegates - BBC News", "Ocado Group offers staff remote working abroad - BBC News", "Covid: Home-working officials won't get paid less, says minister - BBC News", "Covid: 25,161 new cases and UK falls just short of vaccine landmark - BBC News", "Streatham terror attack: Sudesh Amman operation 'an effective result' - BBC News", "What are the travel rules for France, the US, and other popular destinations? - BBC News", "Climate change: Stark warning of 'irreversible changes' - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: 'Right moment' to lift restrictions, says Sturgeon - BBC News", "Tobacco giant Philip Morris raises bid for respiratory drugmaker - BBC News", "Troubles' legacy plans 'may give amnesty to killers' - BBC News", "Covid PCR costs can be excessive and exploitative, says Javid - BBC News", "St Jude Invitational: Kim Si-woo finds water five times on one hole to score 13 on par three - BBC Sport", "Wildfires: Firefighters battle blaze from top of moving train - BBC News", "Apple defends new photo scanning child protection tech - BBC News", "Greensill: David Cameron 'made $10m' before company’s collapse - BBC News", "Covid vaccine hesitancy: Misinformation 'spreads faster than virus' - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: A look at how Team GB fared sport-by-sport compared to their funding. - BBC Sport", "London's Tower Bridge reopens after technical failure - BBC News", "Then and now: The burning issue of wildfires - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Team GB match London 2012 with 65 medals won as Kenny and Price take gold - BBC Sport", "Weather warning as thunderstorms cause severe flooding - BBC News", "Climate change: At-risk nations fear extinction after IPCC report - BBC News", "Shishov case: Belarus leader Lukashenko denies link to dissident's death - BBC News", "New 'Banksy' artwork appears at Great Yarmouth model village - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Closing ceremony marks end of behind-closed-doors Games - BBC Sport", "Mapping the advance of the Taliban in Afghanistan - BBC News", "Dixie Fire: Firefighters tackle historic California wildfire - BBC News", "Dungannon: Woman arrested over death of two-year-old girl - BBC News", "Climate change: Make coal history says PM after climate warning - BBC News", "Groupon told to improve how it treats customers - BBC News", "Thailand man charged over death of Swiss tourist near waterfall - BBC News", "Vodafone to bring back roaming charges from January - BBC News", "Covid vaccine and needle phobia: 'It feels like the world is ending' - BBC News", "Andrew Cuomo: Accuser Brittany Commisso says governor broke law - BBC News", "Climate Basics: Your carbon footprint explained - BBC News", "Consult on damages for crime victims with convictions, court tells government - BBC News", "How climate change worsens heatwaves, droughts, wildfires and floods - BBC News", "Dixie Fire: California town decimated by largest active US blaze - BBC News", "Afghanistan war: Taliban capture three regional capitals - BBC News", "UK renewable energy: Major expansion confirmed on Humber - BBC News", "David Cameron lacked judgement over Greensill, MPs' report says - BBC News", "Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity' - BBC News", "Perseverance Mars rover's first rock sample goes missing - BBC News", "Outrage after Zimbabwean girl, 14, dies giving birth at church shrine - BBC News", "Climate change: Time running out to stop catastrophe - Alok Sharma - BBC News", "Climate change: Have countries kept their promises? - BBC News", "The nightclubs getting young people vaccinated - BBC News", "Covid-19: Joy for Scottish clubbers and Sheeran and Jagger join India fundraiser - BBC News", "Same-sex parents battle for inclusive paperwork for baby - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Sporting drama amid a state of emergency but how will Games be remembered? - BBC Sport", "Heart surgery waits in England may rise by 40%, warns charity - BBC News", "Bute Park attack: Gary Jenkins dies 16 days after incident - BBC News", "Harry Dunn: Lawyers claim phone may have distracted suspect - BBC News", "Ex-PM David Cameron cleared by lobbying watchdog - BBC News", "Afghanistan troop withdrawal a strategic mistake, warns ex-general - BBC News", "Thunberg calls out climate impact of fashion brands in Vogue interview - BBC News", "Climate Basics: CO2 explained - BBC News", "COP26: Minister says summit must be a turning point - BBC News", "Who are the Taliban? - BBC News", "The activist entrepreneurs running zero-waste shops - BBC News", "Test and Trace boss Dido Harding to step down from NHS role - BBC News", "Suspect in Nantes cathedral fire held over French priest's killing - BBC News", "Eleven people rescued from Falls of Falloch waterfalls - BBC News", "Major fraud probe into entrepreneur Gavin Woodhouse - BBC News", "Cinema box office takings at 50% of pre-pandemic levels - BBC News", "Covid vaccines still effective against Delta variant - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Danger lies on Kabul's airport road to freedom - BBC News", "Wildfires rage across Europe - BBC News", "Afghanistan crisis: Chaos at Kabul airport amid scramble to evacuate - BBC News", "NHS Covid app 'pings' fall after changes - BBC News", "Morrisons backs US firm's improved £7bn takeover offer - BBC News", "OnlyFans to ban sexually explicit content - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban carrying out door-to-door manhunt, report says - BBC News", "Denis Law: Man Utd and Scotland legend diagnosed with dementia - BBC Sport", "NHS Wales: Waiting times hit record levels - BBC News", "Cambridgeshire: Train driver injured in level crossing collision - BBC News", "FTSE bosses earn 86 times more than average worker in 2020 - BBC News", "Plymouth shooting: Gunman argued with mum before attack - BBC News", "How the Taliban stormed across Afghanistan in 10 days - BBC News", "Sheffield hotel fall: Boy who died was Afghan refugee - BBC News", "Washington DC: Man arrested over bomb threat near US Capitol - BBC News", "Covid: Hotel thought prom-goers had negative tests before spike - BBC News", "Film buff rescues more than 20,000 VHS tapes set for dump - BBC News", "As it happened: 125,000 16 and 17-year-olds in England get Covid jab in two weeks - BBC News", "Zaki Anwari: Afghan footballer falls to death from US plane in Kabul - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Joe Biden said chaos was 'inevitable' - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Child handed over Kabul airport wall as chaos continues - BBC News", "Eileen Barrott murder: Husband detained in Scotland - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Who's who in the Taliban leadership - BBC News", "Facebook reveals most-seen posts are inane questions, not politics - BBC News", "Afghan interpreter who worked for UK begs PM for help - BBC News", "Covid-19: Schools can continue to teach some in class bubbles - BBC News", "MPs on all sides accuse Boris Johnson of Afghanistan failures - BBC News", "Visa delays hit UK students heading to Spain to study - BBC News", "Afghanistan: What's the impact of Taliban's return on international order? - BBC News", "WeThe15: 'Game-changer' plan for 1.2bn disabled people - BBC News", "Gurkha group ends Downing Street hunger strike after talks agreed - BBC News", "IMF suspends Afghanistan's access to funds - BBC News", "I don't believe Taliban pledge on women's rights, Priti Patel says - BBC News", "Boy dies falling from Sheffield hotel window - BBC News", "Covid: UK vaccine booster scheme likely to start in September - Sajid Javid - BBC News", "Blue singer Lee Ryan tells court he cannot afford £1,500 fine - BBC News", "Nature: Rattlesnakes' sound 'trick' fools human ears - BBC News", "Afghanistan: 'I feel lucky to leave but we must not forget those left behind' - BBC News", "HMP Low Newton guard demanded sexual favours from inmates - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Pakistan fences off from Afghan refugees - BBC News", "Bridgend mother in court charged with murder of her two-year-old son - BBC News", "Stuart Lubbock: Suspect in murder case released without charge - BBC News", "Baby bats babble like humans - BBC News", "Nicole Kidman reportedly enters Hong Kong quarantine-free - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban carrying out door-to-door manhunt - BBC News", "Troubles' prosecutions: Military veterans give support to Troubles' plan - BBC News", "Afghanistan evacuations: Woman on trip back to Kabul describes fleeing city - BBC News", "Police officer and son's deaths in Kidderminster were murder-suicide - BBC News", "Ex-MP Jared O'Mara charged with seven counts of fraud - BBC News", "PCR testing ‘rip-off’: Watchdog warned government in April - BBC News", "Ashraf Ghani: Afghanistan's exiled president lands in UAE - BBC News", "Foreign secretary Dominic Raab rejects calls to quit over Afghan interpreters - BBC News", "Ben Wallace: 'Every hour counts' of Kabul evacuation - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Team GB's Matt Walls wins omnium gold - BBC Sport", "Australia borders: Citizens living overseas could be 'trapped' if they return - BBC News", "Sam and Chris Gould: Twins' suicides lead to victim policing change - BBC News", "Kaylee-Jayde Priest: Mother jailed for killing her three-year-old - BBC News", "Ed Sheeran named in Ipswich Town squad list and given number 17 - BBC News", "Mercer Street: Tanker blast evidence points to Iran, says US - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics medal table - which country won most golds? - BBC Sport", "Tokyo Olympics: Matt Walls wins omnium gold, Holly Bradshaw claims pole vault bronze, Liam Heath takes kayak bronze & boxer Galal Yafai shines - BBC Sport", "A-levels: Bumper year for top grades predicted - BBC News", "Harry Kane: Tottenham striker says he would never refuse to train and will return to club on Saturday - BBC Sport", "Boris Johnson faces backlash over Thatcher coal mines comment - BBC News", "Boris Johnson will not isolate after Covid case among staff - BBC News", "Morrisons agrees to raised £6.7bn takeover offer from Fortress - BBC News", "Energy prices to rise for millions of households - BBC News", "Afghanistan war: Taliban capture regional capital Zaranj - BBC News", "Covid anti-vaxxers: 'Shut down fake news sites,' begs daughter - BBC News", "Logan Mwangi: Three in court over boy's river death - BBC News", "Covid: Majority of hospital patients still unvaccinated - BBC News", "Covid: Live events to be protected by £750m government-backed insurance scheme - BBC News", "No apology from Boris Johnson over Thatcher coal mine closures remark - BBC News", "Verphy Kudi: Mum left girl to die to party for 6 days - BBC News", "Tree-planting: Why are large investment firms buying Welsh farms? - BBC News", "R number in Scotland below 1 for first time since May - BBC News", "NI Covid-19 vaccine roll-out for over 16s under way - BBC News", "Couple separated by pandemic get travel exemption to marry - BBC News", "Families of 9/11 victims tell Biden not to attend memorial events - BBC News", "University clearing may be 'much more competitive' this year - Ucas boss - BBC News", "Covid in Wales: Teens aged 16-17 to be offered jabs - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald win madison gold before Jack Carlin wins sprint bronze - BBC Sport", "Amazon delays office return until 2022 as Covid spreads - BBC News", "Belarus: IOC expels two coaches over Krystina Timanovskaya case - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: 'Three Ds' rules for nightclub reopening - BBC News", "Covid: First 16 and 17-year-olds begin to get vaccine invites - BBC News", "Family tribute to 'blue-eyed boy' killed on Carmarthenshire farm - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Self-isolation of whole classes 'no longer routine' - BBC News", "Your pictures of Scotland 30 July - 6 August - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Children under 12 to be exempt from wearing face masks - BBC News", "Kaylee-Jayde Priest: Mother and boyfriend convicted of manslaughter - BBC News", "US to allow visitors from Hong Kong to stay for 18 months - BBC News", "Wood Green stabbing: Police officers and social worker attacked - BBC News", "Aaliyah's music will finally be available to stream - BBC News", "Linden Foods: Man dies after incident at food processing site - BBC News", "Lionel Messi: Barcelona say Argentina forward will not stay at club - BBC Sport", "Pride in London parade cancelled for second year - BBC News", "Covid-19: First 16 and 17-year-olds offered jabs and the Edinburgh Fringe returns - BBC News", "Streatham attack: Mother 'instantly knew' son was responsible for attack - BBC News", "Apple to scan iPhones for child sex abuse images - BBC News", "Doctor Hossam Metwally poisoned partner in 'exorcism ritual' - BBC News", "Greece battles deadly wildfires near Athens and on Evia island - BBC News", "Woman harassed in quarantine hotel despite new rules - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Lauren Price to fight for gold after beating Nouchka Fontijn - BBC Sport", "Covid: Wales to move to alert level zero from Saturday - BBC News", "COP26: Alok Sharma criticised for international - and quarantine-free - travel - BBC News", "Inaccurate gas and electricity bills criticised - BBC News", "Jack Grealish: Man City sign England midfielder from Aston Villa for £100m - BBC Sport", "At risk Afghan journalists to be offered UK relocation - BBC News", "Belarus Olympian Timanovskaya says grandmother warned her not to come home - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald win historic gold in women's madison - BBC Sport", "Sprats return to the Clyde in huge numbers - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Dawa Khan Menapal assassinated in Kabul - BBC News", "Jennifer Aniston explains cutting off unvaccinated friends - BBC News", "Snickers Spain pulls TV advert after homophobia accusations - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Day-by-day guide to the key events and British medal hopes - BBC Sport", "Afghan war: I can still hear my cry, says mother of dead soldier - BBC News", "Charities say energy choice needed in poorer homes - BBC News", "Hours without food or water in Kabul airport 'hell' - BBC News", "Consultation begins on beaver reintroductions - BBC News", "Afghanistan evacuation: Bittersweet relief for interpreter now in UK - BBC News", "Man arrested as Katie Price taken to hospital - BBC News", "How Afghanistan rattled Asia and emboldened China - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Half cases in under 25s - BBC News", "As it happened: England and Wales weekly Covid deaths highest since March - BBC News", "Climate change: Europe's extreme rains made more likely by humans - BBC News", "Airbnb offers free accommodation for 20,000 Afghan refugees - BBC News", "Extension of Afghanistan evacuation deadline unlikely, says Wallace - BBC News", "All hospital car parking charges in Scotland to be scrapped - BBC News", "Social care charges: Disabled and vulnerable adults hit by steep rises - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Person on no-fly list flown to UK during Kabul evacuation - BBC News", "Afghanistan: US under pressure over evacuation deadline - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban increasingly violent against protesters – UN - BBC News", "Boardmasters: 4,700 Covid cases 'may be linked' to Newquay festival - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban must allow evacuees after 31 August - Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Secret Kabul talks between CIA and Taliban - US media - BBC News", "M25: Three dead and two arrested after lorry, minibus and car crash - BBC News", "US VP Kamala Harris criticises Beijing intimidation in South China Sea - BBC News", "Rugby boy completes 150-mile walk to visit grandparents - BBC News", "Tokyo Paralympics: Channel 4 warns of privatisation risk to future coverage - BBC News", "McDonald's runs out of milkshakes in England, Scotland and Wales - BBC News", "Brian Travers: UB40 saxophonist and songwriter dies at 62 - BBC News", "UK orders 35 million more Pfizer vaccine doses - BBC News", "Iran prisons chief apologises over leaked videos of Evin abuse - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Warning over restrictions as cases hit new high - BBC News", "Covid-19: Samantha Willis' husband speaks of pain of her death - BBC News", "Man bailed after Katie Price assault arrest - BBC News", "Just Eat announces 1,500 new jobs in North East - BBC News", "Help needed to identify woman found dead in Oxfordshire lake - BBC News", "Afghanistan: People at Kabul airport flee Taliban with just a suitcase - BBC News", "Smoking surge in young during Covid lockdown - BBC News", "Covid jab response low for some immunosuppressed people - BBC News", "Northern Ireland rural broadband scheme gets £25m funding boost - BBC News", "Covid infection protection waning in double jabbed - BBC News", "TV has 'utterly failed' disabled people, writer Jack Thorne says - BBC News", "Business still has time to help Afghans - AirBnB boss - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban tell working women to stay at home - BBC News", "Two-year-old dies in fire at Ingoldmells caravan park - BBC News", "Dr Anne McCloskey: GP suspended over Covid-19 vaccine comments - BBC News", "Love Island: Liam Reardon's hometown celebrates win - BBC News", "Storm Henri: Lightning strikes One World Trade Center - BBC News", "Billy Connolly: Challenges of Parkinson's getting worse - BBC News", "High Street chemists to offer free blood pressure checks - BBC News", "Proud Boys leader sentenced for burning stolen Black Lives Matter flag - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Danger lies on Kabul's airport road to freedom - BBC News", "Iran prison abuse exposed by hackers' CCTV leak - BBC News", "Covid: Cornwall tourists urged to 'stay away' as cases rise - BBC News", "Retail bosses demand more protection for UK workers - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Who's who in the Taliban leadership - BBC News", "Afghanistan: US aims to complete evacuations by deadline - BBC News", "Tokyo Paralympics: 2020 Games get under way with powerful opening ceremony - BBC Sport", "A Kabul evacuee's tale: Dread, chaos and the Taliban - BBC News", "UK self-catering holiday prices soar in pandemic - BBC News", "Toxic mix of chemicals at Solent Hotel leaves 24 in hospital - BBC News", "Record number of migrants cross Channel in a day - BBC News", "Afghanistan crisis: 'Hey world, do you care what happens here?' - BBC News", "Ros Atkins on... Trump's Taliban deal - BBC News", "Climate change: Consumer 'confusion' threatens net zero homes plan - BBC News", "Scottish Covid inquiry to start later this year - BBC News", "Unite union expected to elect first female leader - BBC News", "Claudia Lawrence: Former gravel pits searched in missing chef case - BBC News", "R. Kelly trial: Woman says singer pressured her to have abortion - BBC News", "Family of American taken by Taliban beg for return - BBC News", "A-levels: This year the usual rules don't apply - BBC News", "University of Leeds students offered £10k and free housing to defer - BBC News", "GCSE results 2021: Exams triumph for boy who spent year in hospital - BBC News", "Trains stop for one minute to remember Stonehaven crash victims - BBC News", "James Markham murder: Chingford father was 'hardworking and kind' - BBC News", "Plymouth shooting: Suspected gunman and five others die - BBC News", "UK inhaler firm Vectura backs £1bn bid by Marlboro-maker - BBC News", "Belfast Trust sees 182 nurse resignations in six months - BBC News", "Afghanistan: The people fleeing the north for safety in Kabul - BBC News", "Almost half a million EU citizens await decision over right to stay in UK - BBC News", "Jeffrey Epstein: Met Police to review decision not to investigate - BBC News", "Tui boss: UK falling behind European travel recovery - BBC News", "Henley Royal Regatta dress code allows women to wear trousers - BBC News", "Afghanistan war: Army chief replaced as Taliban seize more cities - BBC News", "KFC warns menu items missing due to supply issues - BBC News", "NHS waiting list in England hits record 5.45 million - BBC News", "Inflation rise will be temporary, says Bank governor Bailey - BBC News", "Afghanistan war: Veterans reflect on troops leaving country - BBC News", "Trellyffaint: Proof unearthed of Neolithic dairy farming in Pembrokeshire - BBC News", "Rapper Nines admits plot to import cannabis - BBC News", "Quarantine hotel rules face legal challenge - BBC News", "Bridgend: Attempted murder arrest as boy, 2, critically ill in hospital - BBC News", "Bridgend: Tribute to boy, 2, as woman arrested for murder - BBC News", "Sturgeon urges UK government to reassess Cambo oil field plan - BBC News", "Olympic Gadirova twins 'thrilled' at school grades - BBC News", "Briton suspected of spying for Russia arrested in Germany - BBC News", "Covid: Germany fears thousands got saline, not vaccine from nurse - BBC News", "Boris Johnson predicts steady economic recovery post-pandemic - BBC News", "Streatham attack: Sudesh Amman's victim feared he would bleed to death - BBC News", "GCSEs: Rise in top grades in Northern Ireland as results issued - BBC News", "Mapping the advance of the Taliban in Afghanistan - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Major cities fall to Taliban amid heavy fighting - BBC News", "Climate: WWF warns UK spending is lagging behind targets - BBC News", "UK police involved for months in embassy spy case - Met boss - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Hospitals under more pressure than ever, say medics - BBC News", "UK deportation flight to Jamaica leaves with dozens reprieved - BBC News", "Georgia shipwreck: Welsh kit to help Golden Ray clean-up - BBC News", "Weight Watchers shares dive as people put diets on hold - BBC News", "Tourist helicopter crashes into Russian lake - BBC News", "Covid-19: Record GCSE results and economy rebounds as restrictions ease - BBC News", "Bomb threat arrest at Northampton police station caught on film - BBC News", "Boohoo boss: 'We're not a throwaway fashion brand' - BBC News", "Emergency services respond to incident in Keyham in Plymouth - BBC News", "Italy may have registered Europe's hottest temperature on record - BBC News", "Cryptocurrency heist hacker returns $260m in funds - BBC News", "Una Stubbs: Till Death Us Do Part and Sherlock actress dies aged 84 - BBC News", "Australian capital Canberra goes into snap lockdown - BBC News", "GCSE results 2021: Record passes and top grades - BBC News", "Chingford stabbing: Two boys held after man killed in street - BBC News", "Scotland's first electric-powered aircraft begins Orkney test flights - BBC News", "New Zealand borders to remain closed for rest of the year - BBC News", "Former B&M worker settles disability discrimination case - BBC News", "Wildfires rage in Algeria as heatwave hits North Africa - BBC News", "Covid: Young people asked how pandemic has affected them - BBC News", "CJ Ujah: British Olympic silver medallist suspended after positive test for banned substance - BBC Sport", "As it happened: Top GCSE grades rise after year of Covid disruption - BBC News", "Man burned down Devon village home as 'revenge' on ex-wife - BBC News", "Who are the Taliban? - BBC News", "Uefa Super Cup: Chelsea defeat Villarreal on penalties in Belfast to lift trophy for second time - BBC Sport", "Kinloch Castle: 'Right owner' sought for historic Rum lodge - BBC News", "Mark Chilman jailed for murdering ex's new partner and setting body on fire - BBC News", "How the Taliban stormed across Afghanistan in 10 days - BBC News", "UK looking at bespoke Afghan refugee scheme - Dominic Raab - BBC News", "New police CCTV use rules criticised as bare bones - BBC News", "Mark Allen defeats former partner Reanne Evans at British Open - BBC Sport", "UK defence giant Ultra agrees to £2.6bn Cobham takeover - BBC News", "Afghanistan: US takes control of Kabul airport to evacuate staff - BBC News", "India's dancing cop becomes internet star - BBC News", "What next for Afghanistan's economy? - BBC News", "Haiti earthquake: Tropical Storm Grace hampers rescue - BBC News", "Afghanistan conflict: The Air India flight out on a fateful Sunday - BBC News", "Malala: 'Futures of Afghan child refugees aren't lost' - BBC News", "Man swept to his death by 'rogue wave' in Cornwall - BBC News", "Education secretary promises masks in school will go 'as soon as possible' - BBC News", "Afghanistan: UK and US must protect Afghan activists - Malala - BBC News", "Afghanistan: In pictures: Kabul - a day after Taliban takeover - BBC News", "Social media fraud: The influencers promoting criminal scams - BBC News", "England v India: Tourists win thrilling second Test in final hour at Lord's - BBC Sport", "Esther Dingley: Hiker's partner thanks 'hero' searchers - BBC News", "Afghanistan: NI soldier Capt Mark Hale died in vain, says wife - BBC News", "Leeds murder police in hunt for victim's husband - BBC News", "Afghans living under Taliban lament loss of freedoms - BBC News", "No one wants Afghanistan to become breeding ground for terror - PM - BBC News", "Line of Duty stars to go head-to-head at National Television Awards - BBC News", "Men hurt in homophobic attack at Birmingham's Gay Village - BBC News", "Covid: Self-isolation ends for double-jabbed and under-18s - BBC News", "Gerd Muller: Bayern Munich's German legend dies aged 75 - BBC Sport", "Roger Federer will be out 'for many months' as he prepares for further knee surgery - BBC Sport", "Lebanon deadly petrol tank blast sparks protest at PM-designate's home - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen calls the BBC - interview in full - BBC News", "Afghanistan pullout: Biden's biggest call yet - will it be his most calamitous? - BBC News", "Mapping the advance of the Taliban in Afghanistan - BBC News", "Dead police officer and child in Kidderminster were father and son - BBC News", "'Sexist' email was slap in the face, says former police officer - BBC News", "UK blood supplies to be used to make life-saving drug - BBC News", "Tokyo Paralympics: Spectators will not be allowed at the Games - BBC Sport", "Government under pressure to reveal Afghan refugee plan - BBC News", "Covid-19: Relaxation of NI self-isolation comes in effect - BBC News", "UK military commander: 'We've betrayed' Afghans who helped British troops' - BBC News", "Afghanistan conflict: Kabul falls to Taliban as president flees - BBC News", "Man charged over charred body found in Glasgow park - BBC News", "Polish law on property stolen by Nazis angers Israel - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Another 200 UK troops sent to Kabul evacuation - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Chaotic scenes at Kabul airport - BBC News", "Woman seriously injured by her dog in attack - BBC News", "Afghanistan: People flee Kabul as Taliban overrun cities - BBC News", "Covid: 16 and 17-year-olds in England to be offered jab by 23 August - BBC News", "Will the Taliban take Afghanistan back to the past? - BBC News", "Biden defends 'messy' US pull-out from Afghanistan - BBC News", "Tottenham 1-0 Manchester City: Son Heung-min strike gives Spurs victory without Harry Kane - BBC Sport", "Minute's silence for Plymouth shooting victims - BBC News", "Bezos sues Nasa over its deal with Elon Musk's SpaceX - BBC News", "Tom Daley on his Olympic knitting obsession - BBC News", "No need to swap data for drinks, says privacy body - BBC News", "UK's rude place names to be toured by man on moped - BBC News", "Tokyo 2020: Team GB given star-studded homecoming - BBC News", "Covid: UK records another 28,000 coronavirus cases - BBC News", "Twitter's new design to get fix after headache complaints - BBC News", "Who are the Taliban? - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Life in Kabul after the Taliban victory - BBC News", "Covid testing is rip-off, says former regulator - BBC News", "Cinema box office takings at 50% of pre-pandemic levels - BBC News", "New York officer rescues fallen man from subway train - BBC News", "'They will kill me': Desperate Afghans seek way out after Taliban takeover - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Danger lies on Kabul's airport road to freedom - BBC News", "House prices: Demand changes, not tax waiver, pushed prices up - BBC News", "As it happened: SNP and Greens detail power-sharing deal - BBC News", "What could the SNP-Green deal mean for Scotland? - BBC News", "Morrisons backs US firm's improved £7bn takeover offer - BBC News", "Your pictures of Scotland: 13 - 20 August - BBC News", "OnlyFans to ban sexually explicit content - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban carrying out door-to-door manhunt, report says - BBC News", "Nine Afghan girl robotics team members safe in Qatar - BBC News", "Poison algae may have killed California family, police say - BBC News", "Sheffield hotel fall: Boy who died was Afghan refugee - BBC News", "Amnesty International: 'Disconnect between Taliban claims and reality' - BBC News", "Man denies 16-year-old girl's takeaway murder - BBC News", "Lockdown screen time sees rise in short-sightedness among children - BBC News", "Red phone box stolen from Cheshire garden in broad daylight - BBC News", "Covid-19: NI records highest number of cases in a single day - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Child handed over Kabul airport wall as chaos continues - BBC News", "Zaki Anwari: Afghan footballer falls to death from US plane in Kabul - BBC News", "Gun returned to Plymouth attacker after rehabilitation scheme - BBC News", "Covid-19 and sport: Government data shows mass participation events can happen 'safely' - BBC Sport", "Afghanistan: Boris Johnson says he has full confidence in Dominic Raab - BBC News", "Covid-19: Schools can continue to teach some in class bubbles - BBC News", "Aidan McAnespie: Ex-soldier fails to have manslaughter trial halted - BBC News", "Boardmasters: More than 50 Covid cases in Swansea Bay linked to festival - BBC News", "Afghanistan: The desperate scramble to escape - BBC News", "Covid-antibody therapy approved in UK - BBC News", "Blue singer Lee Ryan tells court he cannot afford £1,500 fine - BBC News", "Streatham terror attack: Prison recall might have stopped Sudesh Amman - BBC News", "Covid: UK vaccine booster scheme likely to start in September - Sajid Javid - BBC News", "Spain migrants: Sole survivor rescued in dinghy in Atlantic - BBC News", "Sonny Chiba: Japan's martial arts star and Kill Bill actor dies of Covid at 82 - BBC News", "Government borrowing shrinks in July - BBC News", "Ministers never made key call to help stranded Afghan interpreters - BBC News", "Britney Spears investigated over dispute with employee - BBC News", "Baby bats babble like humans - BBC News", "Covid: CO2 monitors pledged to aid school ventilation - BBC News", "Alexei Navalny: UK sanctions for seven Russians over poisoning - BBC News", "Nicole Kidman reportedly enters Hong Kong quarantine-free - BBC News", "Sheffield hotel fall: MPs call for urgent investigation after death - BBC News", "Ever Given: Cargo ship returns through Suez Canal it blocked - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Dominic Raab defends interpreter phone call decision - BBC News", "Lorry drivers: Act now to avert crisis, government told - BBC News", "Family of American taken by Taliban beg for return - BBC News", "Covid: Bereaved families call for Wales-only inquiry - BBC News", "Afghanistan evacuations: Woman on trip back to Kabul describes fleeing city - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban increasingly violent against protesters – UN - BBC News", "Peterborough mum back at home with baby born before Covid coma - BBC News", "Sky Broadband says online access problems resolved - BBC News", "Ex-MP Jared O'Mara charged with seven counts of fraud - BBC News", "Syrian family in Cardigan advise Afghan refugees about Wales - BBC News", "Record number of bids for UK City of Culture 2025 - BBC News", "Foreign secretary Dominic Raab rejects calls to quit over Afghan interpreters - BBC News", "Samaritans volunteers met vulnerable callers for sex - BBC News", "Turkey: People flee popular tourist spots to escape wildfires - BBC News", "Eggborough Power Station: Four cooling towers demolished - BBC News", "Nanjing: Concerns in China grow as Delta outbreak spreads - BBC News", "Pingdemic: ‘I'm losing hundreds of pounds in tips’ - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Elaine Thompson-Herah stays on course as Laura Muir progresses - BBC Sport", "West Midlands Police officer convicted of assaults - BBC News", "Humza Yousaf reports nursery over discrimination fears - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Families reunited as quarantine rules relaxed - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Emily Campbell becomes first British female weightlifter to win Olympic medal - BBC Sport", "Bridgend river death: Boy, 5, named as Logan Mwangi - BBC News", "Paralysed swimmer Paula Craig in English Channel record bid - BBC News", "Esteban Ocon wins thrilling Hungarian Grand Prix after Lewis Hamilton fights back - BBC Sport", "Tokyo Olympics: Simone Biles on start list for beam final - BBC Sport", "Abergele: Man charged with murder of girl, 15, at holiday park - BBC News", "Blackpool drowning: 'Hero' dies saving woman from sea - BBC News", "Belarus Olympics: Krystsina Tsimanouskaya refuses 'forced' flight home - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Great Britain eventers win team gold and Tom McEwen claims individual silver - BBC Sport", "UK and Iran summon diplomats after tanker attack - BBC News", "Twitter works with news sites to tackle disinformation - BBC News", "Grenfell Tower: Man accused of burning model to face retrial - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Team eventing gold, silver medals for Tom McEwen and Emily Campbell - BBC Sport", "Covid-19: NHS app tweaked and I'm a Celeb returns to Wales - BBC News", "Anthony Barajas: US TikToker dies after 'unprovoked' cinema shooting - BBC News", "Belarus Olympian given Polish visa after refusing 'forced' flight home - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Day-by-day guide to the key events and British medal hopes - BBC Sport", "No Covid traces found in railway stations or trains - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Max Whitlock defends Olympic pommel horse title - BBC Sport", "Tokyo Olympics: 'Can we have two golds?' - high jumpers share win - BBC Sport", "NHS pay: Call for privately employed staff to get increase - BBC News", "Beyond Meat boss: Tax on negative impacts 'does appeal' - BBC News", "DaBaby dropped by US music festival Lollapalooza - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: How GB swimmers roared their way to record success at Tokyo 2020 - BBC Sport", "NHS Covid-19 app in England and Wales tweaked to notify fewer contacts - BBC News", "Vitaly Shishov: Head of Belarus exiles group found dead in Ukraine - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: How Team GB's Max Whitlock won pommel horse gold as rivals faltered - BBC Sport", "Goldman Sachs raises banker pay after 95-hour week complaint - BBC News", "Kidney transplants cancelled amid Belfast Trust staff shortage - BBC News", "Harry Kane: Tottenham striker fails to show up to Spurs' training ground - BBC Sport", "Tokyo Olympics: Lamont Marcell Jacobs claims shock 100m gold - BBC Sport", "As it happened: Families reunite as travel rule change kicks in - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Xander Schauffele wins gold on dramatic final day - BBC Sport", "BMX 360 backflip: The trick that secured Charlotte Worthington Team GB gold - BBC Sport", "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out Here! to return to Wales in 2021 - BBC News", "Hollywood plans £700m film and TV studios in Hertfordshire - BBC News", "Streatham terror attack: Concern over 'extremist' knifeman before release - BBC News", "Tokyo Olympics: Laurel Hubbard out of weightlifting after failing to register successful lift - BBC Sport", "Dizzee Rascal: Rapper charged with assaulting woman - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Street fighting rages as Taliban attack key city - BBC News", "Tanker attack: UK and US blame Iran for deadly ship attack - BBC News", "Tyrone Mings: England defender's mental health 'plummeted' in build-up to Euro 2020 - BBC Sport", "Isles of Scilly walrus spotted off Republic of Ireland - BBC News", "What are the travel rules for France, the US, and other popular destinations? - BBC News", "China flood death toll rises sharply to over 300 - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Nicola Sturgeon to set out plans for lifting restrictions - BBC News", "Dementia risk greatest for defenders, says new research - BBC Sport"], "published_date": ["2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", "2021-08-21", 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Some fear there is no way out.", "As thousands try to flee Afghanistan, the main route to the capital's airport has become treacherous.", "The stamp duty holiday did not cause rising house prices, the Resolution Foundation think tank says.", "Staff say they are upset and feel demoralised by rude customers during a busy summer season.", "Detectives want to trace Lee Peacock after two people were found dead with knife injuries in London.", "The all-girls team, known as the \"Afghan Dreamers\" have made headlines around the world.", "A family of three may have been killed by toxic algae blooms on a hiking trail, investigators say.", "Liverpool fans chanted \"Justice for the 97\" after the death of Andrew Devine who was hurt in the 1989 crush.", "Southern Brave are crowned the first men's Hundred champions after beating Birmingham Phoenix by 32 runs in an action-packed Lord's final.", "The garage door was sold to a TV memorabilia fan who hopes to get it displayed in a museum.", "An ex-tour manager for the singer testifies that he obtained a fake ID for then 15-year-old Aaliyah.", "An alert is issued over \"security threats\" as thousands of people throng Kabul airport.", "Hundreds of people are arrested after rallies against lockdown measures in Melbourne and Sydney.", "What we know about the top figures in the militant group that has taken control of Afghanistan.", "A 40km (25-mile) barrier is completed at the land border amid warnings of a surge of Afghan migrants.", "The UK foreign secretary is facing calls to quit over his handling of evacuations.", "The BBC witnesses scenes of chaos and panic as thousands still crowd Kabul's airport.", "As the Taliban cements control, a woman's rights activist decides the unknown is safer than her home.", "Manchester City's £100m man Jack Grealish scores on his home debut as the reigning Premier League champions thrash Norwich.", "Schools in England are to be given CO2 monitors to as part of plans to limit the spread of Covid.", "People being beaten, shot at or raped while trying to secure documentation in Kabul, Lisa Nandy says.", "Global trade was disrupted in March when the massive container ship became stuck in the waterway.", "Stars on show as four teams bid to become the first champions of The Hundred on Saturday at Lord's - if the weather allows.", "Mark Frerichs, 59, one of the last Americans kidnapped by the Taliban, is stuck in Afghanistan.", "Retailers and lorry firms join forces in call for new work visas, training and better Covid testing.", "Taliban authorities in Afghanistan should stop using force against protests, a UN rights body says.", "Hajrah Aslam described being back at home with her baby as a \"dream come true\".", "Goals from Diogo Jota and Sadio Mane ensure Liverpool make it two Premier League wins from two with victory over Burnley at a packed Anfield.", "Ministers want to stop the \"grim trade\" in criminals profiting from the rise in demand for pets.", "The government says lowering the state pension age is not fair or affordable for taxpayers.", "Vitaly Shishov lived in Ukraine and led a group helping people who fled the Belarus crackdown.", "Sudesh Amman stabbed two people in south London only days after being released from prison.", "Transgender athlete Laurel Hubbard makes Olympic history but fails to record a successful lift in the women's +87kg weightlifting.", "A National Labor Relations Board official wants another union vote for Amazon workers in Alabama.", "The rapper, whose real name is Dylan Mills, is charged with assault after an incident in south London.", "Great Britain win two golds and a silver on a thrilling day in sailing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.", "More than one million teenagers would be included in a new rollout if ministers accept expert advice.", "Total theft claims fall after the pandemic but technology stays a draw for criminals, says insurer.", "Emily Campbell becomes the first British female weightlifter to win an Olympic medal with +87kg silver.", "A 15-year-old girl died following a \"domestic disturbance\" at a holiday park on Saturday.", "The 82 year old is given a suspended sentence and fined €250,000 (£213,469).", "Innocent passer-by Aya Hachem, 19, was shot dead in a feud between two Blackburn tyre firm owners.", "The flash floods hit just after work began on a water management scheme to protect the area.", "Players from all 20 Premier League clubs will continue to take the knee as a symbol of their \"unity against all forms of racism\".", "Matthew Selby, 19, was at Llandudno magistrates court charged with the murder at a holiday park.", "Ramin Paikar was among the orphans visited by British soldiers stationed in Kabul in 2002.", "Wally has been on the islands since June and has travelled thousands of miles around Europe.", "Secondary school pupils will be still be asked to wear face coverings in classrooms for at least the first six weeks of term.", "Olympian Krystina Timanovskaya says she was almost forced on a plane home after criticising coaches.", "Maps of Afghanistan show who controls districts in fighting between the government and Taliban forces.", "The bakery chain swings back to profit and says it plans to keep expanding on the High Street.", "It comes as it is confirmed almost all of Scotland's remaining Covid-19 restrictions are to end on 9 August.", "The Hollywood star had been criticised for saying he had only recently \"retired\" the insult.", "Classmates and neighbours leave tributes near the river where the five-year-old boy was found dead.", "Police found the men with crack cocaine and heroin after they crashed at a Morrisons supermarket.", "Dame Sarah Gilbert says she found it \"very strange\" at first, but hopes it will inspire children.", "Track cyclist Jason Kenny wins his eighth medal to become Great Britain's most decorated Olympian as GB secure eight podium finishes on Tuesday.", "The Ever Given docks at the Port of Felixstowe months after it was originally due to arrive.", "Rumours of a police raid prompted Tom Miller to climb out of a window, an inquest hears.", "Could voting with your weekly shop boost turnout at next year's council elections?", "Police say specialist officers are supporting the boy's family following his death.", "Norwegian Karsten Warholm runs a stunning men's 400m hurdles race to obliterate his previous world record and take gold at Tokyo 2020.", "Healthy kidneys from deceased donors were turned down due to a lack of nurses to support surgeons.", "Robyn Williams was reinstated after being dismissed over possession of a child abuse video.", "Olympian Krystina Timanovskaya tells the BBC she would like to return home \"when I know it's safe\".", "Svetlana Tikhanovskaya says she has been assured of further UK support, amid a crackdown on dissent.", "Giles Scott earns Great Britain's second Olympic sailing gold on Tuesday, starting what Team GB hope will be a medal rush on day 11 of Tokyo 2020.", "Supportive letters are sent from around the world after an Alderney couple get homophobic abuse.", "Three people are arrested on suspicion of murder after Logan Mwangi, also known as Williamson, died.", "Simone Biles will compete in the beam final as she takes up her final chance of an individual medal at an Olympics where she has withdrawn from four other finals.", "The Panama-flagged MV Asphalt Princess has been ordered to sail to Iran, officials say.", "Great Britain win Olympic team eventing gold for the first time in 49 years and Tom McEwen adds a silver in the individual category.", "Most Covid restrictions will end on 9 August, with social distancing measures and limits on gatherings removed.", "The airline says it expects Australia's largest city to be closed for at least two more months.", "Twitter announces it will cooperate with two news agencies to promote more reliable information.", "Another mission to showcase the new astronaut vehicle is on hold as engineers check the propulsion system.", "Gareth Bradley, 31, escapes jail after admitting 15 offences including damaging Rhyl War Memorial.", "Nicola Sturgeon says she does not feel snubbed but it is odd not to meet PM on his Scotland visit.", "Check out our comprehensive guide to all the action in Japan.", "The city of 11 million people is known to be the site where the coronavirus first emerged in 2019.", "Scottish football clubs can welcome at least 5,000 fans to games from 9 August, but must still apply to their local authority for permission to host more.", "British sprinter Adam Gemili's hopes of a medal in the men's 200m are dashed as he pulls up with an injury in the heats.", "The app in England and Wales will now only alert contacts from the previous two days in asymptomatic cases.", "The chancellor says being in the office helped him build strong relationships when he started out.", "The 40-year-old music teacher preyed on students aged between 13 and 16 at a west London school.", "Only the soles of Catrin Pugh's feet were not burnt when her coach crashed and burst into flames.", "The militants are battling to take control of a provincial capital for the first time in years.", "Nicola Sturgeon is to confirm whether Scotland will move beyond level zero on 9 August as planned.", "Social distancing will no longer be required in most locations - but the wearing of face coverings will continue.", "Mark Chilman set his victim's car on fire in a bid to make it look like suicide, the court hears.", "Women had been noticeably absent from major news outlets after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.", "Authorities say they are still running tests, but are assuming it is a case of the Delta variant.", "The Taliban took their first city on 6 Aug and arrived in Kabul just over a week later.", "US military veterans and Afghan Americans reflect on a dramatic day - and the two-decade conflict.", "NICE decided to pause the final update to its advice just hours before planned publication.", "The foreign secretary says the UK is a \"big-hearted nation\" and full details will be set out soon.", "The US president promised expertise and empathy - his reputation and America's have taken a hit.", "However, the guidelines empowered police and maintained public trust, the Home Office says.", "What is the diplomatic fallout and how allies and rivals are looking at the US following the Taliban takeover?", "A photo appears to show hundreds of Afghans packed on a US military plane as they flee the Taliban.", "Lailuma Sadid, a journalist with Brussels Morning Newspaper, became emotional when asking the Nato secretary general about the Taliban in Afghanistan.", "Mark Allen defeats former partner Reanne Evans 3-2 after surviving a major scare in the British Open.", "This is a different country to the one the Taliban left, I hope they adapt to it, the author says.", "The Scottish government has asked a Covid-19 bereaved families group to contribute to an inquiry's terms of reference.", "Now that the Taliban are back in control of the country, can its financial system function?", "Tropical Storm Grace has dumped heavy rain on Haiti just days after a tremor left at least 1,419 dead.", "The militant group, which has taken control of Afghanistan, is pressed on fears over women's freedoms.", "The company sets an expiry date of 2033 for the decades-old technology.", "An inquest concludes that Tyler Westlake, who was swept off rocks while fishing, died accidentally.", "The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who was shot by the Taliban, calls for countries to take in refugees.", "Kabul - the Afghan capital - is quiet in some parts, but chaotic at the airport where thousands are trying to flee.", "The latest figures show 89.6% of British adults have had one jab and 77.2% are fully vaccinated.", "The wife of Capt Mark Hale says Western governments have left Afghan people \"in the mouth of hell\".", "A woman says the US singer-songwriter abused her when she was 12 - a claim he says is untrue.", "Job vacancies hit 953,000 amid signs the country's labour market is rebounding \"robustly\".", "Doctors hope it could boost the anti-cancer power of other drugs to fight hard-to-treat tumours.", "The bulk of Afghans resettled in the UK will be persecuted minorities, the home secretary says.", "Vicky McClure, Adrian Dunbar and Martin Compston are nominated for the National Television Awards.", "One man was knocked unconscious in an attack which began with abuse being shouted from inside a car.", "Jake Davison, who killed five people in Plymouth, used a mental health helpline, the NHS says.", "The IFS says England's colleges and sixth forms need extra funds to keep pace with student numbers.", "Joe Biden won't be seeing the \"war is over\" headlines he hoped for when he decided to withdraw.", "Jay Fathers was not involved in the bad feeling between two households, but was stabbed to death.", "Hospital bosses pay tribute to Eileen Barrott as police continue to search for her husband.", "Afghans who have settled in the UK tell BBC News of their fears for loved ones back home.", "Insurer Zurich says residential outbuilding fires rose by 16% last year compared with 2019.", "As orders for zero-emission buses rise, the firms says 120 temporary jobs will also be made permanent.", "The model and activist posted a picture of herself in a burka as a way to \"embrace diversity\".", "Plasma from donors in England can now be used for the medicine, after a previous ban on UK supplies.", "The first volunteers have received a dose of the vaccine, made using the same technology as the Covid jab.", "The two trial projects allow different banks to operate from the same premises after branches closed.", "Miles Routledge, from Birmingham, claims he visited Kabul because he enjoys \"extreme tourism\".", "Major General Charlie Herbert, a military commander from the UK’s campaign in Afghanistan, has accused the government of betraying Afghans who supported British troops.", "Militants are searching for government employees and those who worked with US forces, the BBC is told.", "The Queen, who is 95 and vaccinated, will remain at her private retreat in Scotland as planned.", "Stephen Watson says a scheme defending squeezed police resources was \"patronising nonsense\".", "James Markham, 45, was killed after confronting youths shouting at his daughter.", "Video shows hundreds of Afghans attempting to escape, as the Taliban took over the capital.", "The chain says it will lend some of its own staff to its suppliers, to help tackle delays to deliveries.", "Kick-starting a hydrogen industry could attract billions in investment, the UK government says.", "After the Taliban takeover, it is not yet clear how women will fare with the militants in power.", "What we know about the top figures in the militant group that has taken control of Afghanistan.", "\"How many more American lives is it worth?\" asks the president, amid growing criticism over the move.", "What sort of nation will Afghanistan be after 2021, asks the BBC's world affairs editor John Simpson.", "The US DIY chain tried to stop a worker from raising issues of racial harassment with managers, a watchdog claims.", "Mr Bezos's Blue Origin says it was unfairly treated after being excluded from lunar landing contract.", "An eight-year-old boy is flown to hospital after several children are hit by a Tesla at a school.", "Some pub ordering apps ask too many questions, but you can refuse, says the information watchdog.", "BBC video journalist Malik Mudassir speaks about life in the city after its capture by the Taliban.", "The hardline Islamist group retook control of Afghanistan as foreign forces pulled out in 2021.", "Education unions make an urgent call for school-ventilation measures to limit Covid and \"long Covid\".", "Lord Tyrie, ex-boss of the competition watchdog, says it was slow to react to complaints about providers.", "The spokesman has appeared in public for the first time. But is there more than one Zabihullah Mujahid?", "A High Court hearing for a temporary injunction to halt his death is adjourned for 24 hours.", "Boris Johnson says there is \"no military solution\" to the situation as the Taliban advances.", "Inspired by a salad spinner, Navjot Sawhney invented the hand-cranked washer four years ago.", "Yogita Limaye reports from a camp in Kabul where thousands who have been displaced by violence seek refuge.", "A third of English councils support policies that could increase emissions, BBC research suggests.", "Jake Davison murdered his mother Maxine before shooting and killing a father and daughter.", "Daniela Espirito Santo, from Grantham, was not failed by police, a watchdog says.", "Jake Davison killed five people, including a three-year-old girl, before turning the gun on himself.", "The veteran crooner ends a seven-decade career after a final performance with Lady Gaga last week.", "Devon and Cornwall Police Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer explains how reports of the shootings came in.", "Korean Central Television airs a women's football match that was actually played last month.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 6 and 13 August.", "Police cordoned off the area and said that the situation has been contained.", "Thirty-one deaths were registered in the week up to last Friday, a rise of 13 from the previous week.", "The decision to not renew Sarah Rainsford's visa is an \"assault on media freedom\", the corporation says.", "A Plymouth MP says one of the victims was a child and more people are being treated in hospital.", "Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the shooting in Plymouth was ''a very sad and tragic event''.", "The bid by the maker of Marlboro cigarettes trumps a rival offer by US private equity firm Carlyle.", "David Chambers tricked his 92-year-old victim into paying £140 for a fake coronavirus vaccine.", "Middle-aged spread cannot be blamed on a waning metabolism, according to researchers.", "Almost half a million EU citizens who have applied for settled status in the UK await a decision.", "Hospital-acquired Covid ranged from 1% to 25% of cases in different hospitals.", "The deaths in Kidderminster are being treated as unexplained, West Mercia Police says.", "Sources say it is unclear what caused her to fall but her boots may have been unsuitable for ice.", "The fast food chain has warned customers menus will be missing items as a result of the supply problems.", "A further 32,700 coronavirus cases were also reported in the past 24 hours, official figures show.", "Eve Aston is remembered as \"very jolly, sassy, sociable\" by her \"proud\" family.", "They feel abandoned by the democratic world they thought they were part of, writes Yalda Hakim.", "The defence secretary says poverty and terrorism are likely to increase as the UK and US withdraw.", "Reid Steele died in hospital after being found in a critical condition at a house in Bridgend.", "The victim heard the phrase \"he's not going to make it\" after being stabbed by Sudesh Amman.", "Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, pupils' results were based on grades calculated by schools.", "The iPhone-maker will introduce tools that can detect child sex abuse images uploaded to iCloud.", "Police say two men, two women, a girl and the suspect have died in a shooting in Plymouth.", "Militants now control many of Afghanistan's key regional cities, including Herat and Ghazni.", "A man working for the British Embassy was arrested near Berlin accused of spying for Russia.", "The government wants people to send in samples of themselves breathing, coughing and reading aloud.", "US troops arrive to help with evacuation efforts as militants seize a city an hour's drive from Kabul.", "The San Sebastian Film Festival reacts to claims that it is disrespecting domestic abuse survivors.", "US scientists say July's land and ocean temperature was 0.93C (1.68F) above the 20th Century average.", "The BBC uncovers evidence about Satanic forums visited by the killer of two sisters.", "The secretive artist claims responsibility for pieces along England's east coast.", "Brentford mark their Premier League debut with a deserved win over Arsenal at a jubilant Brentford Community Stadium.", "Westminster Council's Melvyn Caplan steps down after total costs nearly doubled to £6m.", "She was known for her roles in shows like Worzel Gummidge, Till Death Us Do Part and Sherlock.", "A 14-year-old boy appears in youth court charged with murdering James Markham.", "Record high GCSE grades in a second year of exams disrupted by the pandemic.", "Some families are struggling to get vaccines for vulnerable teens, nearly a month after they became eligible.", "Witnesses report seeing smoke billowing across the River Tyne.", "Sajid Javid reduces the cost of NHS travel tests ahead of a review into the pricing of all test providers.", "Ugo Monye will join Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty and 13 other stars when the show returns next month.", "The last three weeks have seen the highest numbers of new job postings since mid-May, research shows.", "British sprinter CJ Ujah is suspended from competition after a positive test for a banned substance.", "Some 3,000 troops are expected, as the Taliban continues its lightning offensive through Afghanistan.", "Keith Godwin used to make up stories for his pupils in the 1970s, now they have been published.", "Migrant numbers usually dip during the hot summer months, but July has continued an upward trend.", "Maps of Afghanistan show who controls districts in fighting between the government and Taliban forces.", "Covid vaccines will be offered to the teenagers as early as this weekend, according to Health Secretary Humza Yousaf.", "A record-breaking bat - the size of a human thumb - is discovered in Russia after flying from London.", "Thousands have been evacuated as wildfires continue to ravage parts of the country.", "Tom Daley claims bronze in the men's 10m platform after boxer Galal Yafai wins Team GB's first boxing gold in Tokyo to become Olympic flyweight champion.", "Sheberghan in the northern province of Jawzjan is the second regional capital to fall to the Taliban.", "The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge share a photo to promote the Butterfly Conservation initiative.", "Hospitalisations and deaths increase, but the data shows the vaccine is doing its job.", "Temporary accommodation is available for those who decide to leave, the council says.", "About 200 people gathered to release balloons and pay tribute to five-year-old Logan.", "A 32-year-old man is in custody on suspicion of murder after the young girl died in hospital.", "Verphy Kudi's 20-month-old-daughter died from influenza and starvation after being left alone.", "The foreign secretary says they can move to the UK if they are under \"imminent threat\" from the Taliban.", "Pentathlete Joe Choong wins Great Britain's 20th gold medal of the Tokyo Games after boxer Galal Yafai became an Olympic flyweight champion on Saturday.", "The star, who hasn't performed for years, held two Q&As to raise cash for a young woman with cancer.", "Great Britain's Laura Muir did not get much sleep after her 1500m silver, but is now starting to come to terms with her success.", "The chart-topping artist lives in Suffolk and is a regular visitor to the club's ground.", "Northern Ireland is the first part of the UK to give jabs to 16 and 17 year olds.", "Three people are arrested after the social worker and officers were attacked in north London.", "The attack on the Israeli-operated merchant tanker last week killed two people.", "The coastguard moved 650 people from Limni, in the north of the island of Evia.", "Which country topped the medal table? How did Great Britain get on? Medals table for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.", "Many English people are \"patronised as backwardly xenophobic\", the Archbishop of York says.", "A university hopes to boost Covid jab take-up among students by offering 10 £5,000 cash prizes.", "Barry the beloved owl was hit by a maintenance vehicle in the park while searching for food.", "A German coach who appeared to strike a horse with her fist during the modern pentathlon is thrown out of the Olympics.", "Relatives of the 2001 terror attack victims say Mr Biden must declassify what role Saudi Arabia had.", "All over-50s, teachers, school staff and pupils and those working on Covid testing will be offered the jab.", "The brand apologises for a \"misunderstanding\" after its Spanish commercial was heavily criticised.", "Check out our comprehensive guide to all the action in Japan.", "The suspect allegedly told police he was angry when he saw women who \"looked happy\".", "\"It's still a good year for clearing,\" says the admissions service boss, ahead of results day next week.", "Joe Root strokes a century of the highest class to give England hope of beating India in a see-saw first Test at Trent Bridge.", "Jabs for young confirmed after new advice from committee of vaccine experts.", "The British and Irish Lions lose an agonisingly close series decider to South Africa as Morne Steyn's late penalty seals a 19-16 victory.", "Public Health Scotland said 103 positive cases could be traced to the month-long event at Glasgow Green", "Currently five million people are on hospital waiting lists, but there is a warning of a hidden backlog.", "The officers stood by as Donald Trump's supporters stormed the government building, an inquiry says.", "No 10 says he was not in close contact with a staffer who tested positive during a visit to Scotland.", "It comes as new figures show most patients in hospital with Covid in England are unvaccinated.", "Terrified locals are fleeing if they can as the Taliban and troops battle to control Lashkar Gah.", "The hardline Islamist group retook control of Afghanistan as foreign forces pulled out in 2021.", "Officials say the insurgents took the southern city of Zaranj, in a big blow to government forces.", "The presenter wed Anne-Marie Corbett, with guests including sidekick Declan Donnelly and Phillip Schofield.", "Paris St-Germain are in talks with Lionel Messi's representatives about the Argentina forward joining the Ligue 1 club following his Barcelona exit.", "Ronnie Alexander, 74, was exposed to extreme weather conditions during deep snow at a remote Ayrshire wind farm in 2018.", "There are \"very credible\" reports of an imminent threat in the Afghan capital, James Heappey says.", "The UK government is seeking people's views on whether beavers should return to England's rivers.", "Asylum seekers must stay in Mexico while their claims are processed, the US Supreme Court rules.", "Spencer Elden, who was photographed as a four month-old, is alleging child pornography.", "The media watchdog is the latest group to leave the workplace scheme, saying it must be impartial.", "Adam Finn was speaking after a study showed waning protection for the double-jabbed.", "Staff, clients and visitors will all need to be double jabbed to enter to investment bank's offices.", "The deputy first minister says secondary pupils should continue to wear facemasks as the latest daily case tally reaches a new record.", "The food delivery platform will invest £100m to create 1,500 new customer service roles.", "\"The window of opportunity\" for crucial studies into how the Covid-19 pandemic started is closing, scientists say.", "JJ Chalmers was flown to Tokyo by the same man who flew him home from Afghanistan 10 years ago.", "The Church admits \"unreasonable pressures\" were put on Fr Alan Griffin before he killed himself.", "The number of 18 to 34-year-olds smoking increased by a quarter in England during the first lockdown.", "The decision moves Mauritius a symbolic step closer to wresting UK control of the archipelago.", "Britain's Sarah Storey wins her 15th Paralympic title for Britain's first gold medal at the Tokyo Games.", "Experts say it is to be expected and boosters may be needed, at least for some people, ahead of winter.", "At least 12 people receive hospital treatment as snacks including Mr Porky scratchings are recalled.", "An Indian woman tells the BBC of the on-and-off trauma of getting out of Taliban-held Afghanistan.", "Police said a member of the public stepped in to help the child in the attack at a country park.", "Holidaymakers are paying an average of £300 more per week than before the pandemic, analysis suggests.", "The US, Australia and the UK have all told citizens and visa holders not to travel to the airport.", "Ben Wallace says the charity's plane will be found a slot so staff and animals can leave Afghanistan.", "A man is taken to hospital after being attacked in Newtownabbey on Tuesday night.", "Co-founder Brian Chesky urges more firms to help after promising free lodging for 20,000 refugees.", "Top eventer Nick Gauntlett's horse and three others died when a broken down horse transporter was struck by lorry near Perth.", "But Tesco's chairman says don't \"overdramatise\" lorry driver crisis, as Iceland warns problem getting worse.", "Black people are more likely to face a Taser, a report from the independent police watchdog finds.", "Dr Anne McCloskey posted a video on social media claiming vaccines were \"damaging\" young people.", "Women are not to go to work until procedures are in place to ensure their safety, the Taliban say.", "England reach 120-0 after bowling India out for only 78 on a remarkable first day of the third Test at Headingley.", "Plans to decarbonise homes are too complicated and confusing, say consumer and industry groups.", "The platform had sparked controversy when it revealed plans to ban sex workers from its platform.", "Police were searching for 49-year-old Lee Peacock in connection with the deaths of two people in Westminster.", "England captain Harry Kane says he will be \"staying at Tottenham this summer\" and is \"100% focused on helping the team achieve success\".", "Public Health England says among 15-24 year olds there are 1,700 cases per 100,000 people.", "NI's Utility Regulator says gas bills could increase by more than £100 a year.", "Joan Lawrence says \"every single day is a nightmare\" since her daughter disappeared in 2009.", "NHS Wales issues guidelines which include a temporary pause of a number of blood tests.", "Sharon Graham looks set to take over from Len McCluskey to become the first woman to lead Unite.", "Police search an area outside York for traces of the missing chef, who disappeared in March 2009.", "Campaigners have glued themselves to a giant table and formed a human chain around Oxford Circus.", "Taliban authorities in Afghanistan should stop using force against protests, a UN rights body says.", "The secret meeting came ahead of a deadline for US troops to leave Afghanistan on 31 August.", "A nursery denies claims it discriminated against Humza Yousaf's wife and two-year-old daughter.", "A BBC documentary asks how serious is Boris Johnson about a link from Scotland to Northern Ireland?", "Katie McCabe sails about 1,600 nautical miles in a 26ft (8m) wooden yacht called Falanda.", "The death toll is expected to rise after record-breaking rainfall triggered widespread flooding.", "Two men needed hospital treatment after the attack which began with abuse from inside a car.", "Many Afghans are desperate to escape after the Taliban takeover. Some fear there is no way out.", "As thousands try to flee Afghanistan, the main route to the capital's airport has become treacherous.", "The UK-wide scheme for adults who test positive for coronavirus will launch next week.", "The BBC's Lyse Doucet witnesses Afghan men, women and children fleeing the Taliban regime.", "American troops expand the perimeter around Kabul airport as thousands hope to escape the Taliban.", "Detectives want to trace Lee Peacock after two people were found dead with knife injuries in London.", "One man was knocked unconscious in an attack which began with abuse being shouted from inside a car.", "Dunfermline MSP Shirley-Anne Somerville says she has lost her sense of smell and is self-isolating.", "Liverpool fans chanted \"Justice for the 97\" after the death of Andrew Devine who was hurt in the 1989 crush.", "A man, woman and two young children were in the house in Edinburgh when the incident happened.", "Southern Brave are crowned the first men's Hundred champions after beating Birmingham Phoenix by 32 runs in an action-packed Lord's final.", "The ex-PM criticises the US decision to withdraw its military as \"tragic, dangerous, and unnecessary\".", "An alert is issued over \"security threats\" as thousands of people throng Kabul airport.", "The garage door was sold to a TV memorabilia fan who hopes to get it displayed in a museum.", "An ex-tour manager for the singer testifies that he obtained a fake ID for then 15-year-old Aaliyah.", "Hundreds of people are arrested after rallies against lockdown measures in Melbourne and Sydney.", "What we know about the top figures in the militant group that has taken control of Afghanistan.", "Romelu Lukaku scores his first ever Chelsea goal - almost a decade after his debut - as Thomas Tuchel's team deservedly beat Arsenal.", "The BBC witnesses scenes of chaos and panic as thousands still crowd Kabul's airport.", "New York state declares a state of emergency as officials warn of flooding and power outages.", "As the Taliban cements control, a woman's rights activist decides the unknown is safer than her home.", "The highly infectious Delta variant \"does change the game\", the Covid response minister says.", "A young woman shares her fears a week after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.", "Police say the five people were seriously injured when two cars went into spectators.", "Hollie Smith, 19, dreamed of playing for Wales - but after sepsis she needs round-the-clock care.", "All wildlife on land and sea is being counted to help Kenya's conservation plans and tourism.", "Manchester City's £100m man Jack Grealish scores on his home debut as the reigning Premier League champions thrash Norwich.", "Eileen Barrott died at the couple's home a week ago after being found seriously injured.", "The rock 'n' roll duo were known for their harmonies and influenced bands including The Beatles.", "Schools in England are to be given CO2 monitors to as part of plans to limit the spread of Covid.", "People being beaten, shot at or raped while trying to secure documentation in Kabul, Lisa Nandy says.", "Global trade was disrupted in March when the massive container ship became stuck in the waterway.", "Mark Frerichs, 59, one of the last Americans kidnapped by the Taliban, is stuck in Afghanistan.", "Taliban authorities in Afghanistan should stop using force against protests, a UN rights body says.", "A total of 5,725 people have been airlifted out of Afghanistan on British flights, the government says.", "Ministers want to stop the \"grim trade\" in criminals profiting from the rise in demand for pets.", "Brentford mark their Premier League debut with a deserved win over Arsenal at a jubilant Brentford Community Stadium.", "Mohamed Salah scores one and provides two assists as Liverpool get their Premier League title bid off to a winning start with victory at newly promoted Norwich City.", "Joe Biden won't be seeing the \"war is over\" headlines he hoped for when he decided to withdraw.", "A new law will make it harder for people to recover property lost in World War Two.", "A 20-year-old recruit died after disembarking into deep water at Tregantle in Cornwall.", "Could the well-known south Wales phrase become a real road in praise of Cardiff's bus drivers?", "Boris Johnson says there is \"no military solution\" to the situation as the Taliban advances.", "Nearly two million people have been urged to evacuate their homes amid heavy rainfall.", "The UK deals with 592 people crossing the Channel on the day a migrant makes a fatal leap into the sea.", "The deaths in Kidderminster are being treated as unexplained, West Mercia Police says.", "US troops arrive to help with evacuation efforts as militants seize a city an hour's drive from Kabul.", "Neighbours and friends gather to remember the \"happy-go-lucky\" child who died in Bridgend.", "Flash floods in northern Turkey are the country's second natural disaster this month.", "Jake Davison murdered his mother Maxine before shooting and killing a father and daughter.", "Sources say it is unclear what caused her to fall but her boots may have been unsuitable for ice.", "Some families are struggling to get vaccines for vulnerable teens, nearly a month after they became eligible.", "Those in England will be offered a jab or the chance to book one by 23 August, the government says.", "Gillian Sturgeon was arrested along with a man over an alleged domestic incident in North Ayrshire.", "Sajid Javid reduces the cost of NHS travel tests ahead of a review into the pricing of all test providers.", "Police found no sign of any intruders until they deployed a thermal imaging drone.", "Scott Staniland says comments about his brother Brett's looks are particularly upsetting.", "The Grammy-winning artist was best known for her influential career in folk and country music.", "There were long delays after the crash involving two HGVs, a van and a Mercedes in Cheshire.", "The woman claims the couple harassed her to try to make her recant accusations against Kenneth Petty.", "At the height of their fame, the Britpop icons travelled to Lerwick to play a show for just 1,400 fans.", "The partner of James Markham has remembered him as \"her world\" following his stabbing.", "Ugo Monye will join Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty and 13 other stars when the show returns next month.", "US scientists say July's land and ocean temperature was 0.93C (1.68F) above the 20th Century average.", "At least 304 people are killed and more than 1800 injured by the powerful earthquake.", "Social media footage showed chairs and a bin thrown in a fight in Manchester city centre.", "While case numbers are relatively low, the Australian state's premier has warned of a Covid surge.", "Angus Hosking finds Josephine Bridges' leg after responding to a social media plea for help.", "The comments come as the Taliban close in on the capital Kabul, with fierce fighting under way.", "The BBC's Sarah Rainsford, devastated after being told she could not return to Russia, ever.", "Thirty-one deaths were registered in the week up to last Friday, a rise of 13 from the previous week.", "The decision to not renew Sarah Rainsford's visa is an \"assault on media freedom\", the corporation says.", "Fundraising Arthur Mortimer says he is looking forward to his nan's cakes after lockdown kept them apart.", "Olympic silver medallist CJ Ujah denies wrongdoing and says he is \"shocked and devastated\" after a positive drugs test.", "The PM's wife, who is expecting a baby, says she is \"feeling great\" after having her second vaccine.", "A 40-year-old man is arrested over the death of William Leiper, whose severely burned remains were found on 4 August.", "The secretive artist claims responsibility for pieces along England's east coast.", "Feargal Logan says deferring the All-Ireland Football semi-final against Kerry for a further week could see Tyrone fulfilling the fixture.", "The system being tested should spot the disease long before symptoms or obvious brain signs develop.", "Kyriakos Mitsotakis says Greece is facing an unprecedented natural disaster, as public anger grows.", "Max Woosey will be spending the milestone night sleeping in a shelter in the woods.", "The head of the exams regulator defends the system for deciding grades ahead of A-level and GCSE results day.", "But Oxford vaccine chief Prof Sir Andrew Pollard warns Covid herd immunity is \"not a possibility\".", "Emmanuel and Ebenezer Boakye say growing up in a single-parent family made them determined to thrive.", "The Jeremy Vine show co-presenter says her helmet saved her when she was knocked down by a car.", "People attending the climate summit in Glasgow will be strongly encouraged to be fully vaccinated.", "Ann Jones, 69, died after \"alarming failings\" at Wales' largest health board, says ombudsman.", "Pupils across Scotland receive confirmation of their Higher and National 5 grades.", "The airline says there is \"strong demand\" for the route as the global travel industry recovers.", "Used car transactions have more than doubled in the last few months, according to the industry body.", "The Dubai ruler's daughter was pictured in Iceland after accusing her father of keeping her captive.", "The family of the first UDR soldier murdered in the Troubles speak out on 50th anniversary of his killing.", "The prime minister sacks his deputy, who opposed a controversial change to the country's media law.", "Lionel Messi signs a two-year deal with Paris St-Germain after leaving Barcelona.", "A letter indicates the former PM received millions from shares in the controversial collapsed firm.", "The UK was \"by far\" the main origin of the \"abhorrent racist abuse\" on Twitter after England lost the Euro 2020 final, says the social media platform.", "The iconic London crossing had been closed for almost 12 hours after a \"technical failure\".", "Two buses were involved in a crash during rush hour outside Victoria train station in London.", "Torrential downpours are causing disruption for rail users and difficult driving conditions across Scotland.", "The most vulnerable developing countries plead for action after a stark warning from a UN panel.", "Three residents were caught in a storm surge in Omaha, Nebraska, and recorded their ordeal.", "The search giant announces a range of changes to its children's policies on Google and YouTube.", "Hundreds of people line the streets to welcome home boxing gold medallist Lauren Price.", "The fire service says the lorry involved in the fire was carrying \"hazardous\" materials.", "Pupils' pass rates are still well above pre-pandemic levels after formal exams were cancelled for the second year.", "The police are also given an extra 36 hours to hold a man arrested on suspicion of murder.", "Gambling giant Flutter says shop revenue jumps as number of gamblers leaps by 40%.", "BBC Panorama finds Mr Cameron appeared alongside the controversial company's founder at a 2019 event.", "The body and belongings of Esther Dingley are found close to where a bone fragment was discovered.", "The High Court orders a consultation on the compensation rules for victims with unspent convictions.", "Police are still trying to identify the woman, who they say is aged between her mid-teens to late 20s.", "The chief of the defence staff on difficulties ahead if the Taliban illegitimately seize control.", "Erica Whittingham met prisoner Michael Seddon after her marriage broke down, a court hears.", "Heating from humans has caused irreparable damage to the Earth that may get worse in coming decades.", "Humza Yousaf says his daughter was twice refused a place at the nursery, which denies discrimination.", "Freddie Farrow died days after being struck by a mirror in a High Street department store.", "Despite his warning, the Tory climate chief does not rule out future fossil fuel projects in the UK.", "Several other injured passengers were also assessed at the scene.", "Health Secretary Sajid Javid says he plans to begin the third jab rollout in a matter of weeks.", "The US president urges Afghan leaders to fight for their nation, as more cities fall to the Taliban.", "Ali Jayden Doyle died in hospital on Friday after an ambulance was called to a house in Dungannon.", "Algeria is one of several Mediterranean countries to face devastating wildfires.", "The Democrat says he will step aside after an inquiry found he sexually harassed multiple women.", "Cinemagoers will be able to buy tickets and popcorn using the cryptocurrency, says the US chain.", "A sci-fi writer hits back at unfounded rumours that Covid jabs turn people into zombies.", "An Islamic chant \"encouraging violent Jihad\" was broadcast by Sheffield-based Link FM, Ofcom says.", "Lionel Messi agrees a two-year deal to join Paris St-Germain after leaving Barcelona, says BBC Sport columnist Guillem Balague.", "Because of the pandemic grades have been determined by teacher's estimates.", "Euro Auctions, set up in 1988 as a family business, was sold to a Canadian firm for more than $1bn.", "Boris Johnson promised a \"world-beating\" system, but it was heavily criticised during her tenure.", "Rescuers were called to reports of a crowd struggling amid rising water levels at the Falls of Falloch.", "More than a million people across North Yorkshire and parts of the North East are affected.", "Huawei's chief financial officer is due in court as a Canadian judge weighs her extradition to the US.", "Hundreds of racist messages were reported following England's defeat and police inquiries continue.", "Men who boarded a Panama-flagged bitumen tanker have now left the vessel, officials say.", "Phil Hammond said he would continue his 1,200-mile challenge despite the crime.", "Sudesh Amman convinced two mentors he had changed before stabbing two people, an inquest hears.", "Drama in the men's team pursuit qualifying as Denmark's rider collides with GB's Charlie Tanfield.", "The boy died at the scene of the incident at the farm in Carmarthenshire, police say.", "Children who become ill with coronavirus mostly recover in less than a week, research suggests.", "The Ever Given arrived at Felixstowe on Tuesday and is expected to leave on Thursday.", "Boris Johnson visits Scotland with no sign an independence referendum will be soon, writes Nick Eardley.", "More than one million teenagers would be included in a new rollout if ministers accept expert advice.", "An inquest hears Yeovil Town captain Lee Collins had drugs and alcohol in his system when he died.", "The doorstep lender's borrowers can claim partial compensation for mis-sold loans after court ruling.", "Great Britain are fourth in the Olympic medal table after sailing and showjumping golds plus a skateboarding bronze for Sky Brown, 13.", "Commercial formulas containing multiple chemicals should require their own licences, researchers say.", "The 82 year old is given a suspended sentence and fined €250,000 (£213,469).", "American Simone Biles says she will \"forever cherish\" her \"unique Olympic experience\" after taking her overall Games medal haul to seven in Japan.", "USA's Sydney McLaughlin smashes her own world record as she takes gold in the women's 400m hurdles at the Tokyo Games.", "Innocent passer-by Aya Hachem, 19, was shot dead in a feud between two Blackburn tyre firm owners.", "Boris Johnson vowed to ban the \"abhorrent\" practice - but an official report on it has yet to appear.", "Authorities in China are scrambling to control the spread of the virus by ramping up testing and vaccinations.", "Up to 6,000 Britons are currently in Mexico, which is moving to the red list, Grant Shapps says.", "The Jamaican sprinter was blocked after posting footage of her races on her Instagram account.", "Sky Brown is the all-singing, all-dancing athlete who has travelled an unusual route to becoming a British Olympic medallist.", "Older people have been watching more linear TV while on-demand is a big hit with younger audiences.", "Adrian Underwood died when the ship was struck by an explosive-laden drone off the coast of Oman.", "A website that allows people to undress a photograph in seconds is gaining lots of users.", "Dame Sarah Gilbert says she found it \"very strange\" at first, but hopes it will inspire children.", "Prices are rising sharply as climate change and post-lockdown DIY and building projects hit supplies.", "The device could now be inspected as part of Rebekah Vardy's and Coleen Rooney's libel battle.", "England begin their series against India in depressingly predictable fashion with another atrocious batting collapse at Trent Bridge.", "Sky Brown becomes Britain's youngest Olympic medallist aged 13 as she wins bronze in the thrilling debut of the women's park skateboarding.", "Tributes are paid to Amanda Selby as her brother Matthew appears in court, charged with her murder.", "The Ever Given docks at the Port of Felixstowe months after it was originally due to arrive.", "Police say specialist officers are supporting the boy's family following his death.", "Elaine Thompson-Herah confirms her place among the pantheon of sprint greats as she secures an unprecedented women's 100m-200m 'double-double' with a sensational victory over the longer distance in Tokyo.", "Norwegian Karsten Warholm runs a stunning men's 400m hurdles race to obliterate his previous world record and take gold at Tokyo 2020.", "Pete Parada says a doctor advised him not to have the jab because of a rare autoimmune disorder.", "Sky Brown wins bronze in the women's park skateboarding final at the Tokyo Games, making the 13-year-old Great Britain's youngest Olympic medallist of all time.", "Krystina Timanovskaya was granted a humanitarian visa after she refused orders to fly home early.", "The lawsuit accuses companies of fuelling bloodshed through negligent business practices.", "The Panama-flagged MV Asphalt Princess has been ordered to sail to Iran, officials say.", "An express train from Munich hits a commuter train near the Czech Republic town of Domazlice.", "Prices have risen for nine straight months - and are expected to increase further - the motoring group says.", "Another mission to showcase the new astronaut vehicle is on hold as engineers check the propulsion system.", "Prosecutors are asked if they stand by the convictions of protesters after a second successful appeal.", "Nicola Sturgeon says she does not feel snubbed but it is odd not to meet PM on his Scotland visit.", "Ugo Monye will join Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty and 13 other stars when the show returns next month.", "Healthy teenagers will be offered a Pfizer jab and will get good protection from one dose, the JCVI says.", "Alice Dearing hopes becoming the first black woman to represent Great Britain in an Olympic swimming event makes a difference and the sport is \"available to anyone\".", "Social distancing will no longer be required in most locations - but the wearing of face coverings will continue.", "Defender Benjamin Mendy is charged with four counts of rape and one count of sexual assault.", "A man was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of injecting items using syringes.", "There are \"very credible\" reports of an imminent threat in the Afghan capital, James Heappey says.", "Michael Murray, Mike Ashley's future son-in-law, must more than double the firm's share price.", "More than half of patients waiting for a first consultant appointment in NI wait more than a year.", "GMB and Uber pledge to end the \"exploitation\" of drivers who work for ride-hailing apps.", "The solicitor appeared in court accused of injecting blood into food at three west London stores.", "Canada and Denmark go on the green list while Thailand and Montenegro move to the UK red list.", "Rachel Pompa from Swansea has helped get Mohammad and his family out of Afghanistan.", "The deputy first minister says secondary pupils should continue to wear facemasks as the latest daily case tally reaches a new record.", "England reach 120-0 after bowling India out for only 78 on a remarkable first day of the third Test at Headingley.", "Conservative party accounts reveal Lord Brownlow initially covered refurb costs totalling nearly £53,000.", "JJ Chalmers was flown to Tokyo by the same man who flew him home from Afghanistan 10 years ago.", "Scientists say light pollution is a factor driving \"worrying\" declines in local insect populations.", "A US district judge accuses Sidney Powell and others of trying to undermine faith in democracy.", "The airline confirmed it was talking with unions on plans to create a short-haul flight operation.", "Boris Johnson calls the airport attack barbaric, vowing to keep evacuations going \"in the hours that remain\".", "About 1.63 million vials are withheld after 'foreign objects' were detected in some doses.", "The decision moves Mauritius a symbolic step closer to wresting UK control of the archipelago.", "A new head has been appointed to the UK data regulator amid a plan to drive the economy using data.", "The ex-Royal Marine, who was near to the airport explosions, describes how \"all hell broke loose\".", "The actress suffered injuries in a stunt rig accident on the set of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.", "Researchers says despite stroke and clotting risks, Covid vaccines have substantial benefits.", "Iain Mackay, two, was one of four people injured in a two-car crash on the A99 in Caithness.", "And another 140 people in the UK have died within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test.", "The Welsh secretary says there were concerns Boris Johnson would die when he was ill with Covid-19.", "Top eventer Nick Gauntlett's horse and three others died when a broken down horse transporter was struck by lorry near Perth.", "Microchip shortages and staff being told to self-isolate has contributed to shortages in production.", "The US, Australia and the UK have all told citizens and visa holders not to travel to the airport.", "But Tesco's chairman says don't \"overdramatise\" lorry driver crisis, as Iceland warns problem getting worse.", "A plane from a country closer to Kabul will collect Paul \"Pen\" Farthing along with his animals.", "Parents should be reassured by the findings, Bristol doctors say, following a small study.", "But Public Health Wales figures show deaths and hospital admissions remain much lower.", "Industry bosses say they cannot staff their workforces from within UK.", "Premier League champions Manchester City will face Lionel Messi's new club Paris St-Germain in the Champions League group stage.", "The Scottish Green Party confirms that Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater will become ministers if a new power-sharing deal is approved.", "Money to support young people is much lower in rural areas than urban and half what it was a decade ago.", "The band, who have not released new music for 39 years, reveal a new project called Abba Voyage.", "But any extension of the vaccination rollout next month will first depend on a recommendation from experts.", "Doctors say the move, which is key to the government's NHS Recovery Plan, should only happen when it is safe to do so.", "Police were searching for 49-year-old Lee Peacock in connection with the deaths of two people in Westminster.", "Seasonal vaccines and drugs could save millions of young lives in Africa, researchers say.", "The platform had sparked controversy when it revealed plans to ban sex workers from its platform.", "Insufficient consideration was given to the effect on children and young people, says a report.", "NI's Utility Regulator says gas bills could increase by more than £100 a year.", "Former England captain and attacking batter Ted Dexter dies aged 86.", "Taliban authorities in Afghanistan should stop using force against protests, a UN rights body says.", "US President adds the Kabul airlift will go on, after bombings killed 90, including 13 US troops.", "Campaigners have glued themselves to a giant table and formed a human chain around Oxford Circus.", "Lee Pearson wins his 12th gold medal as Great Britain enjoy a successful day two at the Tokyo Paralympics", "New research reveals the sharp decline of department stores since 2016 when BHS closed its doors.", "NHS England admits supplies of the tubes will become \"even more constrained over the coming weeks\".", "But the jabs were more effective against the Alpha variant, the largest study of its kind suggests.", "Mark Barrott is wanted by police in connection with his wife's death in Leeds at the weekend.", "A look at some of the fires spreading across Europe - and the rest of the globe.", "US military veterans say the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was \"tragic\" but \"inevitable\".", "Western countries are racing to evacuate their citizens and Afghans following the Taliban takeover.", "The bosses of Britain's biggest public companies earned 86 times the average full-time wage last year.", "Reid Steele died in hospital after being found in a critical condition at a house in Bridgend.", "The Taliban took their first city on 6 Aug and arrived in Kabul just over a week later.", "Spending on public services rose to almost £100bn as revenue fell due to the Covid pandemic.", "A last-ditch attempt to halt the animal's destruction is refused at the High Court in London.", "Apple restricts the engraving of political phrases in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, a report alleges.", "NICE decided to pause the final update to its advice just hours before planned publication.", "The chain says it will lend some of its own staff to its suppliers, to help tackle delays to deliveries.", "A video shop owner travelled from Liverpool to Dundee to pick up the massive haul from a collector.", "Insurer Zurich says residential outbuilding fires rose by 16% last year compared with 2019.", "After the Taliban takeover, it is not yet clear how women will fare with the militants in power.", "As orders for zero-emission buses rise, the firms says 120 temporary jobs will also be made permanent.", "What we know about the top figures in the militant group that has taken control of Afghanistan.", "The US president promised expertise and empathy - his reputation and America's have taken a hit.", "Former Gurkha soldier Dhan Gurung returns to a protest over pensions after a health scare.", "The PM says the UK achieved its goals - but MPs accuse him of failing Afghans and British veterans.", "A few dozen survivors have been pulled alive from under the rubble but hundreds are still feared trapped.", "The family of a boy with breathing difficulties who live near the landfill has brought the case.", "Students due to spend a year in Spain as part of their degree are hit with post-Brexit visa delays.", "Leanne Wood says Adam Price made \"a bad judgement call\" in the timing of his leadership challenge.", "What is the diplomatic fallout and how allies and rivals are looking at the US following the Taliban takeover?", "A global campaign is launched to improve the lives of more than 1.2bn disabled people.", "The chain had to shut about 50 restaurants due to food shortages thought to include its signature peri-peri chicken.", "Doctors hope it could boost the anti-cancer power of other drugs to fight hard-to-treat tumours.", "The move follows the Taliban's takeover, and lack of global agreement over who now governs Afghanistan.", "The US DIY chain tried to stop a worker from raising issues of racial harassment with managers, a watchdog claims.", "The bulk of Afghans resettled in the UK will be persecuted minorities, the home secretary says.", "PM Boris Johnson tells MPs it is an \"illusion\" the UK alone could have prevented the collapse of Afghanistan after US withdrawal.", "The first volunteers have received a dose of the vaccine, made using the same technology as the Covid jab.", "The two trial projects allow different banks to operate from the same premises after branches closed.", "The UK government says 306 UK nationals and 2,052 Afghans have been flown out of the country so far.", "The comedy panel show favourite was best known as a team captain on the series 8 Out of 10 Cats.", "The US R&B singer is accused of sexual abuse, racketeering and bribery; charges which he has denied.", "The militant group, which has taken control of Afghanistan, is pressed on fears over women's freedoms.", "A US science institute is on the verge of achieving a longstanding goal in nuclear fusion research.", "The government plans to end all investigations and prosecutions related to the Troubles.", "Militants are searching for government employees and those who worked with US forces, the BBC is told.", "The python greeted the woman at the spice shelves - luckily, she happened to be a snake rescuer.", "Jake Davison, who killed five people in Plymouth, used a mental health helpline, the NHS says.", "The spokesman has appeared in public for the first time. But is there more than one Zabihullah Mujahid?", "The UK inflation rate fell by more than expected to 2% in July, down from 2.5% the previous month.", "The hardline Islamist group retook control of Afghanistan as foreign forces pulled out in 2021.", "Mask wearing appears to divide along party lines, during a packed debate on Afghanistan.", "Three-year-old Harrison Louden was found dead alongside his father at their home on Friday.", "Many large social media firms have been accused of not doing enough to fight the spread of disinformation.", "Labour leader Keir Starmer leads tributes, saying Mr Mitchell served \"with remarkable commitment\".", "The IFS says England's colleges and sixth forms need extra funds to keep pace with student numbers.", "The Competition and Markets Authority hits back at claims it was slow to react to consumers' concerns.", "Young children must show proof of a negative test to enter many indoor spaces, as infections surge.", "The UAE says it has welcomed the president and his family on humanitarian grounds.", "Stephen Watson says a scheme defending squeezed police resources was \"patronising nonsense\".", "Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge claims victory in the men's marathon at Tokyo 2020 to become the first athlete since 1980 to retain an Olympic marathon title.", "The Islamic holy city of Mecca will allow vaccinated pilgrims to enter, the Saudi authorities say.", "Philip Morris is seeking to buy Vectura, which makes treatments for diseases such as asthma.", "Maps of Afghanistan show who controls districts in fighting between the government and Taliban forces.", "A record-breaking bat - the size of a human thumb - is discovered in Russia after flying from London.", "Newcastle agree a fee with Arsenal in excess of £20m to sign midfielder Joe Willock.", "A man, 29, is arrested on suspicion of murdering the woman who was found near Woodhouse Eaves.", "Emperor Julian wanted to revive pagan worship across the Empire after it officially became Christian.", "Thousands have been evacuated as wildfires continue to ravage parts of the country.", "Sheberghan in the northern province of Jawzjan is the second regional capital to fall to the Taliban.", "The health secretary calls on a watchdog to investigate \"exploitative\" firms overcharging holidaymakers.", "Waterways have become increasingly popular places to swim, especially with pools closed in lockdown.", "A small, metal \"boat\" under a painting of three children was taken away by contractors, a council says.", "Ferries carry tourists and locals to safety from Greece's second-largest island, Evia.", "Finding water five times on one hole saw South Korea's Kim Si-woo score 13 on a par three to record the highest score on the PGA Tour since 1983.", "More than 1,000 homes have been damaged and about 5,000 people evacuated as a result of flooding.", "He was one of the members who started the soul band that had massive hits like Celebration.", "A tearful Lionel Messi says joining Paris St-Germain from Barcelona is \"a possibility, but nothing is agreed\".", "The star, who hasn't performed for years, held two Q&As to raise cash for a young woman with cancer.", "Mahmood Mattan's wrongful conviction has inspired a novel longlisted for the Booker Prize.", "Up to 100 employees will now be allowed in private companies, in a major shift after mass protests.", "Three people are arrested after the social worker and officers were attacked in north London.", "Which country topped the medal table? How did Great Britain get on? Medals table for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.", "A German coach who appeared to strike a horse with her fist during the modern pentathlon is thrown out of the Olympics.", "The health secretary warns that the pandemic \"is not over\" ahead of Monday's significant milestone.", "All over-50s, teachers, school staff and pupils and those working on Covid testing will be offered the jab.", "Gen Sir Richard Barrons says it sends allies the wrong message and risks a resurgence of terrorism.", "Check out our comprehensive guide to all the action in Japan.", "Sulai Bukhari is charged with attempted murder after the man and two police officers were attacked.", "The move could see Sir Richard Branson lose overall control of the airline he founded.", "Three cities, including the strategically important Kunduz, fall to the militant group in a single day.", "Jason Kenny becomes the first Briton to win seven Olympic golds by defending his keirin title - but wife Laura's reign as women's omnium champion has ended.", "The British and Irish Lions lose an agonisingly close series decider to South Africa as Morne Steyn's late penalty seals a 19-16 victory.", "Currently five million people are on hospital waiting lists, but there is a warning of a hidden backlog.", "Cyclist Jason Kenny's keirin triumph plus boxing gold for Lauren Price mean Team GB's Tokyo Olympics medal haul of 65 matches London 2012's total.", "The officers stood by as Donald Trump's supporters stormed the government building, an inquiry says.", "Britain's Lauren Price becomes the first Welsh fighter to win an Olympic boxing gold medal, beating China's Li Qian in the women's middleweight final.", "The story of Olympic boxing champion Lauren Price, the little girl whose big dreams came true.", "The hardline Islamist group retook control of Afghanistan as foreign forces pulled out in 2021.", "Tottenham fans applaud Arsenal's Bukayo Saka on to the pitch on his first appearance since Euro 2020.", "Memory Machaya's death at a church leads to calls for the government to end forced child marriage.", "The presenter wed Anne-Marie Corbett, with guests including sidekick Declan Donnelly and Phillip Schofield.", "Despite his warning, the Tory climate chief does not rule out future fossil fuel projects in the UK.", "Physical distancing ends in most settings and nightclubs reopen as Scotland exits level zero.", "A tribunal finds Paul Embery was subject to a \"witch hunt\" after appearing at a Leave Means Leave rally.", "The US-based publication is cutting third party support for its popular crossword puzzles.", "The fall is based on data gathered before changes to the app which mean it will notify fewer contacts.", "Music festivals are among the events in the UK that will be protected if they are forced to cancel.", "Cambridgeshire's Glebe Farm Foods PureOaty drink does not copy the Oatly branding, a judge rules.", "England midfielder Jack Grealish joins Manchester City from Aston Villa for a British record transfer fee of £100m.", "The lawsuit accuses companies of fuelling bloodshed through negligent business practices.", "France is moving to the amber list as part of widespread changes to the traffic light system.", "Sudesh Amman was spotted buying items later used to fashion a fake suicide belt.", "Kaylee-Jayde Priest's grandmother said she was \"stolen from me in the most brutal of ways\".", "Invitations for 16 and 17-year-olds could be sent in the coming days, the health minister says.", "Mobster Domenico Paviglianiti, known as the \"boss of the bosses\", has been arrested in Madrid.", "As cat deaths mount from a fatal disease, an investigation into a possible link to pet food continues.", "Krystina Timanovskaya says she fled after being warned it was not safe to fly home from the Olympics.", "Hundreds of racist messages were reported following England's defeat and police inquiries continue.", "China reacts angrily to the announcement, which allows thousands to stay in the US for 18 months.", "Commercial formulas containing multiple chemicals should require their own licences, researchers say.", "An express train from Munich hits a commuter train near the Czech Republic town of Domazlice.", "John Cole, 39, is charged with murdering his step-son, five-year-old Logan Mwangi.", "Emilio Ballack, the son of former Germany and Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack, dies in a quad-bike accident, aged 18.", "The Health and Safety Executive and the police are investigating the death at Linden Foods near Dungannon.", "The lesbian family suffered homophobic abuse after appearing in a Russian health food ad.", "It comes amid mounting questions for the CPS over cases brought against the environmental demonstrators.", "Older people have been watching more linear TV while on-demand is a big hit with younger audiences.", "Barcelona say Lionel Messi will not be staying at the club \"because of financial and structural obstacles\".", "Matt Walls wins Britain's 50th medal of Tokyo 2020 by taking omnium gold, while Holly Bradshaw and Liam Heath secure bronzes.", "Adrian Underwood died when the ship was struck by an explosive-laden drone off the coast of Oman.", "Results could see very high grades this year, which could put pressure on some university courses.", "Ugo Monye will join Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty and 13 other stars when the show returns next month.", "Retailers and 190 other businesses broke the law by underpaying workers, the government says.", "As fighting in Afghanistan rages, the BBC speaks to the mother of a British soldier who died there nearly 10 years ago.", "Boris Johnson vowed to ban the \"abhorrent\" practice - but an official report on it has yet to appear.", "Jabs for young confirmed after new advice from committee of vaccine experts.", "The PM said closing \"so many\" coal mines gave the UK an \"early start\" in climate fight.", "Apple announces it will implement a system to scan US iPhones for images of child sexual abuse.", "Visitors say there was a shark sighting, though lifeguards were unable to identify the animal.", "Amazon joins Wells Fargo and BlackRock in extending work-from-home guidance due to the pandemic.", "The Microsoft co-founder says he should not have given the convicted sex offender \"credibility\".", "The new NHS chief executive urges unvaccinated young adults to get jabbed, saying it is \"so important\".", "The Rugby League World Cup in England is postponed until 2022 following the withdrawal of defending champions Australia, and New Zealand.", "According to Home Office figures, there have now been 10,711 arrivals in 449 boats so far in 2021.", "The tycoon, whose empire also includes House of Fraser and Evans Cycles, is set to hand power to his future son-in-law.", "Former athletics coach Eric Simpson, 73, targeted teenage girls in Fife between 1981 and 1999.", "A 25-year-old woman says she is now living not just existing, a year after getting a delayed cystic fibrosis drug.", "Just under half the entire IT budget goes on patching up outdated systems, a government report says.", "Up to 6,000 Britons are currently in Mexico, which is moving to the red list, Grant Shapps says.", "The Jamaican sprinter was blocked after posting footage of her races on her Instagram account.", "Maj Gen Alastair Bruce is the highest ranking officer in the British army to have a same-sex wedding.", "Defender Benjamin Mendy is charged with four counts of rape and one count of sexual assault.", "Manchester United confirm they have reached an agreement to re-sign Cristiano Ronaldo from Juventus.", "The UK's farmers are warning of a backlog of as many as 70,000 pigs that should have been slaughtered.", "The limit per transaction will increase from £45 to £100, but the move has led to fears of a rise in crime.", "The Ministry of Defence says Pen Farthing and his animals are awaiting a flight out of Afghanistan.", "Indoor spaces like tents, shared cars and public transport are likely to up the risk of Covid spreading.", "The office that oversees US spy agencies could not establish how the coronavirus pandemic began.", "The US is still evacuating Afghans desperate to leave, despite a credible threat of further attacks.", "Plastic plates and polystyrene cups will also be banned in England in what ministers call a \"war on plastic\".", "The solicitor appeared in court accused of injecting blood into food at three west London stores.", "Shein said it did not fund or approve adverts that suggested some ethnic minorities need not apply.", "Canada and Denmark go on the green list while Thailand and Montenegro move to the UK red list.", "Two British nationals and the child of another are among the victims of Thursday's attack, the government says.", "A US district judge accuses Sidney Powell and others of trying to undermine faith in democracy.", "Boris Johnson calls the airport attack barbaric, vowing to keep evacuations going \"in the hours that remain\".", "British star Kadeena Cox sets a new world record to retain her C4-5 500m time trial title at the Tokyo Paralympics.", "The airline confirmed it was talking with unions on plans to create a short-haul flight operation.", "The UK says \"every effort\" was made to destroy sensitive papers when the embassy was evacuated.", "Scientific advisers say government should plan for this happening by the end of September in England.", "Hurricane Ida is forecast to strike as a category 4 storm, even stronger Katrina 16 years ago.", "The comedy double act shared their thoughts in an unearthed 1973 interview for a student TV station.", "Researchers says despite stroke and clotting risks, Covid vaccines have substantial benefits.", "Sharon Pickles and Clinton Ashmore were both fatally stabbed in north-west London", "The ex-Royal Marine, who was near to the airport explosions, describes how \"all hell broke loose\".", "The fitness company's losses have widened as people head back to gyms to exercise.", "People are evacuated from their homes following the blaze at a plastics manufacturer, police say.", "He was well known for appearing on the Channel 4 series alongside his wife and two children.", "A spike in cases has highlighted the need for \"continuing caution and effective mitigations\" in schools, unions say.", "Charity workers are among those from Northern Ireland hoping to flee the country after the Taliban take-over.", "Parents should be reassured by the findings, Bristol doctors say, following a small study.", "The community paid a ransom and even bought motorbikes for the kidnappers, the head teacher says.", "Benyamin Ahmed created a set of more than 3,000 whale images and sold digital tokens of them.", "Premier League champions Manchester City will face Lionel Messi's new club Paris St-Germain in the Champions League group stage.", "A total of 6,835 new cases were reported on Friday - more than 1,800 above the previous highest figure.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 20 and 27 August.", "Insufficient consideration was given to the effect on children and young people, says a report.", "Akeem Chand, 27, rapped about the money he was making through illicit activities.", "Sir Jeffrey Donaldson's claim comes after a meeting with Taoiseach Micheál Martin in Dublin.", "The US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to end Covid-era protections for renters facing eviction.", "NHS England admits supplies of the tubes will become \"even more constrained over the coming weeks\".", "Taliban authorities in Afghanistan should stop using force against protests, a UN rights body says.", "Stewart Spensley, who served with Lee Rigby, chased the thief when the box was taken from his bar.", "Defender Benjamin Mendy is charged with four counts of rape and one count of sexual assault.", "US President adds the Kabul airlift will go on, after bombings killed 90, including 13 US troops.", "Another 100 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test.", "New research reveals the sharp decline of department stores since 2016 when BHS closed its doors.", "The BMW X7 was stolen from Church Street, Birmingham, near to the hotel where the actor was staying.", "Max Woosey reaches the milestone while spending the night in a shelter built in the woods.", "Some courses in the university's schools of law and business are oversubscribed.", "The 27-year-old worked for eight months this year at a Sydney hospital, Australian media reports.", "But Oxford vaccine chief Prof Sir Andrew Pollard warns Covid herd immunity is \"not a possibility\".", "Fouad Kakaei's lawyer says asylum seekers are \"easy targets\" to prosecute for small boat crossings.", "Richard William Cove made more than 1,200 calls, and would ask handlers about their feet.", "Faye and Teddy's Casa Amor row sparks the highest number of Ofcom complaints in the show's history.", "A police officer describes \"locking eyes\" with a knife-wielding terrorist before shooting him dead.", "The former school recovery tsar warns of growing educational inequality as a result of the pandemic.", "The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry finds a number of monks at Fort Augustus Abbey were serial sexual predators.", "Scientists say that rapid cuts in methane could be a key tactic in the battle against climate change.", "Virginia Giuffre's lawyer says litigation is the only way to establish the Duke of York's evidence.", "Children aged 16 and 17 began to be invited for their jabs a week ago, after a change in advice.", "A total of 315 nurses left the Belfast Trust in the first half of this year and more than half resigned.", "The Taliban has taken new territories in the north, forcing thousands out of their homes.", "Henley Royal Regatta changes its rules for the Steward's Enclosure for the first time in decades.", "Lionel Messi signs a two-year deal with Paris St-Germain after leaving Barcelona.", "First results from the newly floated food delivery firm see first-half losses narrow to £104.8m.", "The disappearance of the girl prompted a large-scale police search.", "A BBC investigation has revealed the scale of operations by the mercenary group in Libya's civil war.", "The 15-year-old girl was taken to hospital last week after she was injured at the east London venue.", "Facebook has removed hundreds of accounts linked to a anti-vaccine campaign operated from Russia.", "The body and belongings of Esther Dingley were found close to where a bone fragment was discovered.", "The BBC's Quentin Sommerville visits Tarhuna where the victims of years of civil war are being reburied.", "German federal prosecutors say the British man passed documents to Russian intelligence for cash.", "David Gomoh managed to stagger back home before dying in front of his family.", "Dr Gary Jenkins died 16 days after he was attacked in the city centre park on 20 July.", "The Rupert Murdoch-owned TV channel was recently banned for a week by YouTube.", "Maps of Afghanistan show who controls districts in fighting between the government and Taliban forces.", "Eleven-month-old Edward has received the world's most expensive drug after a campaign by his parents.", "The 40-year-old slice of wedding cake was bought by a buyer from Leeds.", "Paramedics say they are spending more time waiting on hospital tarmac than taking 999 calls.", "His sentencing is the latest development in a diplomatic spat between the two countries.", "Jennie Berry was stuck on her bathroom floor for 20 minutes after the shower seat broke.", "A plane to Jamaica chartered by the Home Office was carrying just seven passengers, lawyers say.", "The body and belongings of Esther Dingley are found close to where a bone fragment was discovered.", "Shares in the Oprah Winfrey-backed company drop 25% as subscriber numbers fall after lockdown.", "Mr Cameron encouraged Matt Hancock to speak at a conference co-hosted by Illumina before it won a government contract.", "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau has been sung before Wales rugby internationals for 116 years.", "Health Secretary Sajid Javid says he plans to begin the third jab rollout in a matter of weeks.", "The US president urges Afghan leaders to fight for their nation, as more cities fall to the Taliban.", "The operator said it will not put staff in \"difficult positions\" with passengers who fail to follow Covid rules.", "Ali Jayden Doyle died in hospital on Friday after an ambulance was called to a house in Dungannon.", "If the registered reading is verified, it will be hottest temperature ever recorded in Europe.", "Algeria is one of several Mediterranean countries to face devastating wildfires.", "The Democrat says he will step aside after an inquiry found he sexually harassed multiple women.", "The hacker behind the $600m Poly Network cryptocurrency heist has posted a Q&A on the blockchain.", "A sci-fi writer hits back at unfounded rumours that Covid jabs turn people into zombies.", "Latest government figures also show almost 40 million people are fully vaccinated.", "Record high GCSE grades in a second year of exams disrupted by the pandemic.", "The 14-year-olds are in custody following the death of James Markham in east London on Monday.", "Eddie Huntley has a rare disease and was on dialysis three times a week before the transplant.", "The Fleetwood Mac singer, 73, is \"still being extremely cautious\" as the Delta variant spreads.", "The tech giant has developed a calculator that lets staff see the effects of remote working.", "After a blackout of more than 24 hours, BBC TV channels for most homes are restored.", "Euro Auctions, set up in 1988 as a family business, was sold to a Canadian firm for more than $1bn.", "John McCorry was \"entirely consumed by hatred\" for his estranged wife.", "The operators of a transmitter which serves part of northern England cannot say when it will be fixed.", "The hardline Islamist group retook control of Afghanistan as foreign forces pulled out in 2021.", "Chelsea beat Villarreal 6-5 in a penalty shootout to lift the Uefa Super Cup for a second time after a draining 120 minutes of action ends 1-1 in Belfast.", "Several other people also sustained minor injuries after the sight-seeing bus crashed.", "More than a million people across North Yorkshire and parts of the North East are affected.", "Mohamed Salah scores one and provides two assists as Liverpool get their Premier League title bid off to a winning start with victory at newly promoted Norwich City.", "Maps of Afghanistan show who controls districts in fighting between the government and Taliban forces.", "Joe Biden won't be seeing the \"war is over\" headlines he hoped for when he decided to withdraw.", "The Taliban has taken new territories in the north, forcing thousands out of their homes.", "A new law will make it harder for people to recover property lost in World War Two.", "A powerful earthquake has struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti, killing at least 304 people.", "Could the well-known south Wales phrase become a real road in praise of Cardiff's bus drivers?", "Some provinces are under evacuation alerts as experts warn of \"unprecedented\" rainfall.", "Colleagues from the West Mercia force name the pair as David Louden, 39, and Harrison, three.", "Daniel Colegate pays tribute to French and Spanish teams who looked for his partner Esther Dingley.", "She was injured when her American bulldog turned on a child then attacked her as she intervened.", "Provides an overview of Haiti, including key events and facts about this Caribbean country.", "Roads out of the Afghan capital have been choked with traffic as people try to escape a Taliban takeover.", "Afghans in Taliban-controlled provinces describe life under its fundamentalist Islamist rule.", "Feargal Logan says deferring the All-Ireland Football semi-final against Kerry for a further week could see Tyrone fulfilling the fixture.", "Boris Johnson calls on \"like-minded\" powers to not recognise any new government without agreement.", "Those in England will be offered a jab or the chance to book one by 23 August, the government says.", "Police found no sign of any intruders until they deployed a thermal imaging drone.", "The militant group takes the eastern city of Jalalabad without a fight as it closes in on the capital.", "Son Heung-min's superb strike proves decisive as a Tottenham side without Harry Kane give new boss Nuno Espirito Santo a win over Premier League champions Manchester City.", "They feel abandoned by the democratic world they thought they were part of, writes Yalda Hakim.", "What sort of nation will Afghanistan be after 2021, asks the BBC's world affairs editor John Simpson.", "The partner of James Markham has remembered him as \"her world\" following his stabbing.", "The second Test is set for a grandstand finale after England make late inroads into the India batting on the fourth day at Lord's.", "At least 304 people are killed and more than 1800 injured by the powerful earthquake.", "While case numbers are relatively low, the Australian state's premier has warned of a Covid surge.", "Angus Hosking finds Josephine Bridges' leg after responding to a social media plea for help.", "Tropical Storm Grace has dumped heavy rain on Haiti just days after a tremor left at least 1,419 dead.", "The Islamist group has claimed victory in Afghanistan, as residents and diplomats try to escape.", "Olympic silver medallist CJ Ujah denies wrongdoing and says he is \"shocked and devastated\" after a positive drugs test.", "Athletes attended a concert at London's SSE Arena, Wembley, to mark their return from Tokyo.", "Militants are searching for government employees and those who worked with US forces, the BBC is told.", "Bayern Munich and Germany legend Gerd Muller dies at the age of 75.", "Terrified locals are fleeing if they can as the Taliban and troops battle to control Lashkar Gah.", "The hardline Islamist group retook control of Afghanistan as foreign forces pulled out in 2021.", "The PM's wife, who is expecting a baby, says she is \"feeling great\" after having her second vaccine.", "Ashraf Ghani addresses the nation as the Taliban reportedly close in on the Afghan capital, Kabul.", "The Taliban seizing Afghanistan's capital, as the country's government collapses, dominates the front pages.", "Tennis great Roger Federer says he will be sidelined for \"many months\" as he prepares to have further knee surgery.", "The government will increase its funding of Great Britain's Olympians and Paralympians by £23.4m annually to £77.4m a year to aid preparation for the Paris Games in 2024.", "Police are called to the Clarence Gardens area on Saturday night following reports of gunshots.", "A spokesman for the Taliban, Suhail Shaheen, called the BBC's Yalda Hakim, live on air.", "The group says it wants to pursue peace, but if that fails it claims to have thousands of fighters ready.", "The death toll is expected to rise after record-breaking rainfall triggered widespread flooding.", "Two men needed hospital treatment after the attack which began with abuse from inside a car.", "As thousands try to flee Afghanistan, the main route to the capital's airport has become treacherous.", "An Afghan man who worked for the British army tells the BBC he and his family cannot get through the crowds.", "The US acted unilaterally over the withdrawal - Joe Biden had little interest in Boris Johnson's view.", "The UK-wide scheme for adults who test positive for coronavirus will launch next week.", "Boris Johnson will request more time to evacuate people during a G7 meeting on Tuesday.", "A fourth person is in hospital after the crash involving a lorry, minibus and car near Waltham Abbey.", "The BBC's Lyse Doucet witnesses Afghan men, women and children fleeing the Taliban regime.", "American troops expand the perimeter around Kabul airport as thousands hope to escape the Taliban.", "Police are called to reports of an assault in the early hours of Monday morning.", "Yusaf Amin tried to sell security passes, uniforms and wristbands to ticketless fans for £4,500.", "Arthur Mortimer, 15, takes on the fundraising feat having not seen his nan and grandad for 18 months.", "Afghans waiting at Kabul airport tell the BBC of their pain at fleeing the country they love.", "The ex-PM criticises the US decision to withdraw its military as \"tragic, dangerous, and unnecessary\".", "The government says it has met its target to offer all 16 and 17-year-olds in England a vaccine.", "The new deal will help to \"future-proof\" the UK's vaccination programme, the health secretary says", "It comes as the health minister says the time is not right to re-impose tighter restrictions in NI.", "The German chancellor says Moscow could face sanctions if it uses Nord Stream 2 against Ukraine.", "What we know about the top figures in the militant group that has taken control of Afghanistan.", "She was known for her appearances on the Channel 4 show with friend Marina Wingrove.", "Allies step up calls to extend a 31 August withdrawal, but the Taliban insist this will violate a deal.", "The images of Hill House in Helensburgh, taken in the 1970s by a US architect, were sold for £30.", "Romelu Lukaku scores his first ever Chelsea goal - almost a decade after his debut - as Thomas Tuchel's team deservedly beat Arsenal.", "Disability is the \"forgotten diversity\" in the media, Bafta-winning screenwriter Jack Thorne says.", "Swimmer Ellie Simmonds and archer John Stubbs will carry the GB flag at Tuesday's Tokyo Paralympics opening ceremony.", "A Boeing C-17 safely carried 823 Afghans from Kabul last week, a record number for that plane.", "The party says it would allow low income workers on universal credit to keep more of their take-home pay.", "Sharon Pickles and Clinton Ashmore both died from a stab wound to the neck.", "The highly infectious Delta variant \"does change the game\", the Covid response minister says.", "A young woman shares her fears a week after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.", "Meat industry leaders tell the BBC the government is \"keen\" to link up businesses with inmates.", "The RMT has launched a dispute after trace amounts of legionella were found in four trains' toilets.", "Funding problems delayed the opening at Ulster University's Magee campus in Londonderry.", "The first minister calls on the foreign secretary to meet the family of a man held in prison in India for four years.", "However they are not deemed a person of interest to security agencies or police after an investigation.", "The band's former frontman had objected to songs being used in a new Danny Boyle-directed TV drama.", "The musician and songwriter was a founding member of the chart-topping reggae band.", "The rock 'n' roll duo were known for their harmonies and influenced bands including The Beatles.", "Leigh-Anne Pinnock has twins, days before bandmate Perrie Edwards also welcomes a baby.", "The strike was captured as Storm Henri approached the north-east of the US, bringing heavy rain.", "The government say it is preparing for Covid boosters to protect the most vulnerable this year.", "Mark Frerichs, 59, one of the last Americans kidnapped by the Taliban, is stuck in Afghanistan.", "Taliban authorities in Afghanistan should stop using force against protests, a UN rights body says.", "Enrique Tarrio admitted to burning a Black Lives Matter flag, stolen from a church, in July.", "The full scale of infections linked to Boardmasters in Newquay will not be known for a \"few days\".", "A total of 5,725 people have been airlifted out of Afghanistan on British flights, the government says.", "Ben Whittaker will fight for Olympic boxing gold, while fellow Briton Frazer Clarke lands a controversial victory in Tokyo.", "Watch the dramatic closing stages of the BMX freestyle final as Britain's Charlotte Worthington narrowly beats USA's Hannah Roberts to gold at Tokyo 2020.", "The coal-fired station at Eggborough stopped production in 2018 with the loss of 170 jobs.", "One of Wales' two ice rinks is to open for the first time in 17 months as the other remains shut.", "The 100m royal rumble never emerged. Instead it was a whole lot less global and whole lot more personal as Elaine Thompson-Herah overhauled Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.", "Three people are arrested on suspicion of murder after Logan Mwangi, also known as Williamson, died.", "Alpine's Esteban Ocon takes a maiden Formula 1 victory in an extraordinary and madcap Hungarian Grand Prix.", "Krystsina Tsimanouskaya says she fears for her safety as Belarus orders her home for complaining about coaches.", "American Simone Biles withdraws from the floor final but is yet to make a decision on whether to compete on beam.", "Two Georgian silver medallists are told to leave the Olympic Games for taking a sightseeing trip in Tokyo.", "For the first time since 2004 an athlete other than Usain Bolt will win the men's Olympic 100m - but who are the contenders for gold?", "From Sunday, government payments reduce to 60% towards salaries, with employers paying 20%.", "Ex-diplomat Craig Murray was sentenced to eight months in jail over blogs he wrote about the trial of Alex Salmond.", "Charlotte Worthington wins a dramatic BMX park freestyle Olympic gold as Max Whitlock retains pommel horse title.", "Turning more commercial property into homes raises fears of sub-standard conditions, says a report.", "Great Britain's Charlotte Worthington wins a thrilling gold in the women's BMX park freestyle Olympic final.", "A 15-year-old girl dies and a 19-year-old man has been arrested after the incident on Saturday.", "The British and Irish Lions' series with South Africa will go to a decider after the Springboks win a fiery second Test 27-9 at Cape Town Stadium.", "Elaine Thompson-Herah became the second-fastest woman in history as she beat fellow Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce to retain her Olympic 100m title.", "The discovery was made after police were called to a report of a missing child.", "Team GB's Pat McCormack is guaranteed at least a silver medal in the men's welterweight competition after Ireland's Aidan Walsh pulls out of their semi-final with an ankle injury.", "Jacinda Ardern says Pacific Islander communities still \"suffer and carry the scars\" from the policy.", "Oliver Townend leads the individual eventing standings at the Olympics after the cross-country phase as the GB team retain top spot.", "Britain's Leigh Wood beats China's Xu Can via 12th round stoppage to claim the WBA 'Regular' featherweight title", "Vaccinations will be offered to young people aged between 12 and 17 who have certain health conditions.", "Check out our comprehensive guide to all the action in Japan.", "Ministers are no longer considering making two doses mandatory for students in England, the BBC learns.", "The digital giant bans the channel from uploading new content for a week over misinformation breaches.", "Great Britain's Max Whitlock produces a sublime performance to defend his Olympic title by winning gold in the men's pommel horse.", "Young people In England, however, are to get travel and takeaway discounts for taking up a jab offer.", "Watch highlights as Lamont Marcell Jacobs claims gold in the men's 100m final after Great Britain's Zharnel Hughes is disqualified for a false start at the Tokyo Olympics.", "An incredible Olympic high jump final ended with both Qatar's Mutaz Essa Barshim and Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi taking gold medals.", "Cleaners and others employed by contractors should receive the same rise as NHS staff, a union says.", "The Chicago festival is the latest to cut ties, after the rapper's derogatory comments about people with HIV.", "Cori Bush fears millions of US tenants could be at risk as a Covid-related eviction freeze expires.", "Simon Gleave from Nielsen Gracenote picks out some interesting data from the Olympic medal table at its halfway stage.", "Why do vaccination numbers among the under-30s in Northern Ireland remain relatively low?", "Campaigners say government attempts to unlock parts of the property market paralysed by the cladding crisis have stalled.", "Great Britain kick off a golden Saturday by winning two of the new mixed relay events but there is disappointment for Dina Asher-Smith.", "The blaze happened in a private flat above Cardiff's Park Plaza Hotel, sparking an evacuation.", "Italy's Lamont Marcell Jacobs claims a shock gold in the Olympic 100m final, after Great Britain's Zharnel Hughes is disqualified for a false start.", "The marshal died in an accident during a race at the track, leading to the cancellation of the event.", "A top solicitor tells how he quit as a defence lawyer after refusing to represent an alleged rapist.", "American Xander Schauffele clinches the men's golf gold medal on a dramatic final day in the men's Olympic golf.", "Fears rise of a humanitarian crisis as Islamist militants seek to take their first provincial capital.", "Cheap travel and takeaways will be offered in a bid to boost vaccine uptake among young people.", "Developers say the site could contribute £300m a year to the local economy and create 4,500 jobs.", "Coastguard vessels and private boats have brought holidaymakers to safety, as the death toll rises.", "The couple are expecting a second child, months after a miscarriage left Carrie \"heartbroken\".", "Novak Djokovic displays his frustrations during his bronze medal match against Pablo Carreno Busta, throwing a racquet and then smashing another against a net post.", "The UK accuses Tehran of violating international law, while Iran calls the accusations \"baseless\".", "Frenchman Mourad Aliev refuses to live the ring in the aftermath of his controversial loss to Great Britain's Frazer Clarke.", "The boy was found after police were called to reports of a missing child on Saturday morning.", "Great Britain wins a record eighth swimming medal in Tokyo while Duncan Scott ends with four medals - the most by a Brit at a Games - after silver in the men's 4x100m medley relay.", "Newcastle agree a fee with Arsenal in excess of £20m to sign midfielder Joe Willock.", "The video features women dressed as geishas being pulled in a rickshaw to the restaurant.", "Hybrid working could be one of the long-term legacies of the pandemic and lockdown restrictions.", "The comedian returned to the stage to raise money to help pay for student Laura Nuttall's treatment.", "Mountain rescue says two people were trapped after falling down a disused mine shaft.", "The head of the exams regulator defends the system for deciding grades ahead of A-level and GCSE results day.", "Numbers of people exposed to flooding globally have risen by almost a quarter in two decades.", "Fewer people have returned to offices in central Cardiff than four other UK cities, research finds.", "Melissa DeRosa worked as a senior aide to Andrew Cuomo, who has been accused of sexual harassment.", "People attending the climate summit in Glasgow will be strongly encouraged to be fully vaccinated.", "The tech firm's move covers one month a year as the government says flexible working is \"here to stay\".", "Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said mixing home and office working was \"here to stay\" post-Covid.", "The figure for newly-confirmed Covid infections is bang in the middle of the range for the past two weeks.", "Sudesh Amman was shot dead by surveillance officers after stabbing two people in south London.", "What you need to know about visiting France, Spain, Italy, US, Ireland, Germany and Greece.", "A major UN climate change report portrays an overheating world, urging governments to cut emissions.", "Physical distancing ends in most settings and nightclubs reopen as Scotland exits level zero.", "Philip Morris is seeking to buy Vectura, which makes treatments for diseases such as asthma.", "The family of the first UDR soldier murdered in the Troubles speak out on 50th anniversary of his killing.", "The health secretary calls on a watchdog to investigate \"exploitative\" firms overcharging holidaymakers.", "Finding water five times on one hole saw South Korea's Kim Si-woo score 13 on a par three to record the highest score on the PGA Tour since 1983.", "Officials in California are pulling out all the stops to contain the state's largest wildfire.", "The tech giant has insisted that its new technology will not be used to spy on its users.", "A letter indicates the former PM received millions from shares in the controversial collapsed firm.", "We chat to some young black people about why they don't want to get jabbed.", "How Great Britain fared sport-by-sport at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games relative to their funding.", "The iconic London crossing had been closed for almost 12 hours after a \"technical failure\".", "Scientists are increasingly concerned climate change is making fires more frequent and more intense.", "Cyclist Jason Kenny's keirin triumph plus boxing gold for Lauren Price mean Team GB's Tokyo Olympics medal haul of 65 matches London 2012's total.", "Torrential downpours are causing disruption for rail users and difficult driving conditions across Scotland.", "The most vulnerable developing countries plead for action after a stark warning from a UN panel.", "Alexander Lukashenko insists he had nothing to do with a suspicious hanging in Ukraine last week.", "A new model, apparently signed by the artist, is found at a Great Yarmouth attraction.", "The Tokyo Olympics, postponed and played out behind closed doors because of the Covid pandemic, conclude with a vibrant ceremony in Japan's capital.", "Maps of Afghanistan show who controls districts in fighting between the government and Taliban forces.", "The Dixie Fire has burned through more than 489,000 acres and could take weeks to extinguish.", "The police are also given an extra 36 hours to hold a man arrested on suspicion of murder.", "Boris Johnson calls for a shift towards clean energy sources after \"sobering\" report on climate change.", "The competition watchdog warns the discounter it faces legal action unless it takes 'swift' action.", "The 27-year-old man has been charged with murdering the 57-year-old woman.", "It follows EE's decision to reintroduce daily charges for using phone tariffs while in Europe", "Adam, 23, says he's so scared of needles he's been unable to get a Covid-19 jab.", "Brittany Commisso speaks for the first time about alleged groping incidents with New York governor.", "BBC Reality Check's Chris Morris explains how changing three aspects of how you live can make the biggest dent to your carbon footprint.", "The High Court orders a consultation on the compensation rules for victims with unspent convictions.", "Scientists say extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and intense in a warming world.", "The US' largest active fire warped street lights and destroyed the town of Greenville, California.", "Three cities, including the strategically important Kunduz, fall to the militant group in a single day.", "The government says the Humber region is key to the growth of the UK's offshore wind industry.", "David Cameron showed a lack of judgement when he informally lobbied on behalf of Greensill Capital, MPs say.", "Heating from humans has caused irreparable damage to the Earth that may get worse in coming decades.", "Engineers investigate why the Perseverance robot failed in its first attempt to gather a rock core.", "Memory Machaya's death at a church leads to calls for the government to end forced child marriage.", "Despite his warning, the Tory climate chief does not rule out future fossil fuel projects in the UK.", "Five years after the Paris climate deal was agreed, we look at the promises made by key countries.", "Venues across the UK are offering jabs in an effort to get more young people immunised.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Monday evening.", "Kate and Gemma Fox have encountered numerous forms they cannot fill in since the birth of their son.", "There may have been so many special moments but this will always be the Covid Olympics, writes BBC sports editor Dan Roan.", "Even before Covid, waits for heart treatment were far too long, the British Heart Foundation says.", "Father-of-two Dr Gary Jenkins had been in hospital since the attack in a Cardiff Park on 20 July.", "The claim appears in court documents for a US hearing into damages for Harry Dunn's fatal crash.", "It looked into whether the former PM should have been registered for the work he did for a financial firm.", "Gen Sir Richard Barrons says it sends allies the wrong message and risks a resurgence of terrorism.", "Many companies are only pretending to care about the climate, the activist tells Vogue Scandinavia.", "CO2 is at the heart of our changing climate. Here's why.", "Zac Goldsmith says COP26 must be a \"turning point\", despite warnings that costs of tackling climate change will hit poor families.", "The hardline Islamist group retook control of Afghanistan as foreign forces pulled out in 2021.", "Environmentally conscious entrepreneurs explain the movement towards zero-waste lifestyles.", "Boris Johnson promised a \"world-beating\" system, but it was heavily criticised during her tenure.", "French police also suspect the Rwandan man of starting a fire that ravaged Nantes cathedral in 2020.", "Rescuers were called to reports of a crowd struggling amid rising water levels at the Falls of Falloch.", "The Serious Fraud Office said it is investigating \"suspected fraud and money laundering\".", "Box office takings in the past month are half of their pre-pandemic levels.", "But the jabs were more effective against the Alpha variant, the largest study of its kind suggests.", "As thousands try to flee Afghanistan, the main route to the capital's airport has become treacherous.", "A look at some of the fires spreading across Europe - and the rest of the globe.", "Western countries are racing to evacuate their citizens and Afghans following the Taliban takeover.", "The data covers the first full week since changes to the app were made to mean it notifies fewer contacts.", "But shares in the supermarket open higher, suggesting some investors think the £7bn-plus battle is not over.", "The online subscription site will prevent users from posting content showing 'sexually explicit conduct'.", "The militants are searching for those who worked with Nato forces, an intelligence report warns.", "Scotland legend and former Manchester United forward Denis Law is diagnosed with dementia.", "Numbers waiting for hospital treatment hit record levels and A&E waiting times are the worst on record.", "The freight train's driver suffered minor injuries as it collided with a tractor, Network Rail says.", "The bosses of Britain's biggest public companies earned 86 times the average full-time wage last year.", "The five victims, including a father and daughter out walking their dog, were killed in Plymouth.", "The Taliban took their first city on 6 Aug and arrived in Kabul just over a week later.", "Five-year-old Mohammed Munib Majeedi and his family arrived in the UK two weeks ago.", "US Capitol Police had been negotiating with the driver of a suspicious vehicle on Capitol Hill.", "More than 50 positive cases are linked to a Year 11 graduation party at a hotel.", "A video shop owner travelled from Liverpool to Dundee to pick up the massive haul from a collector.", "The 19 August figures come as the NHS sends a million letters to teenagers in the age group inviting them to get vaccinated.", "Zaki Anwari, 19, had played for Afghanistan's national youth team before trying to flee the country.", "In an interview with ABC, Joe Biden said nobody could have anticipated the speed of the Taliban takeover.", "Afghans try to scale airport walls and shots are fired as crowds keep trying to flee the Taliban.", "Police have been searching for 54-year-old Mark Barrott since Mrs Barrott's death on Sunday.", "What we know about the top figures in the militant group that has taken control of Afghanistan.", "\"Does sugar go in spaghetti?\" is among the US's top posts, as Facebook battles right-wing content claims.", "Ahmed, who fears Taliban reprisals, is desperate for him and his family to be evacuated from Kabul.", "It is despite the executive deciding earlier in August that schools no longer had to use bubbles.", "The PM says the UK achieved its goals - but MPs accuse him of failing Afghans and British veterans.", "Students due to spend a year in Spain as part of their degree are hit with post-Brexit visa delays.", "What is the diplomatic fallout and how allies and rivals are looking at the US following the Taliban takeover?", "A global campaign is launched to improve the lives of more than 1.2bn disabled people.", "The group had refused food for 13 days to call for parity with other British Army veterans.", "The move follows the Taliban's takeover, and lack of global agreement over who now governs Afghanistan.", "The bulk of Afghans resettled in the UK will be persecuted minorities, the home secretary says.", "The boy, aged under 10, fell from the OYO Sheffield Metropolitan Hotel, police say.", "The proposed rollout of third doses is likely to start in September, the health secretary says.", "The 38-year-old singer was banned from driving for 12 months and given a fine.", "Rattlesnakes have evolved a clever method of convincing humans that danger is closer than you think.", "The UK government says 306 UK nationals and 2,052 Afghans have been flown out of the country so far.", "David Whitfield is jailed over the illicit activity with 12 women over five years.", "Islamabad says it cannot accept any more Afghans fleeing Taliban rule, despite UN pleas.", "Natalie Steele has been charged with the murder of two-year-old Reid Steele.", "Stuart Lubbock was found unconscious at Michael Barrymore's house in 2001 and later died.", "Babbling in baby bats bears a striking resemblance to human infants learning to talk, researchers find.", "Hong Kong media say the Australian star was seen out and about in the city two days after arriving.", "Militants are searching for government employees and those who worked with US forces, the BBC is told.", "The government plans to end all investigations and prosecutions related to the Troubles.", "A councillor who was visiting family in the country she had left aged three tells of her evacuation.", "Three-year-old Harrison Louden was found dead alongside his father at their home on Friday.", "Jared O'Mara is charged in relation to alleged fraudulent expenses claims, the CPS say.", "The Competition and Markets Authority hits back at claims it was slow to react to consumers' concerns.", "The UAE says it has welcomed the president and his family on humanitarian grounds.", "The foreign secretary is under fire for not personally asking for help to evacuate interpreters.", "The UK defence secretary spoke to BBC Breakfast about the evacuation of people from Kabul airport.", "Team GB cyclist Matt Walls is crowned Olympic champion on his debut with a dominant performance in the men's omnium.", "Australians who live overseas will require exemptions to leave Australia if they return home.", "Sam and Chris Gould took their own lives after a sex abuse investigation was dropped.", "The child was hurt for disturbing her mother and partner when they tried to have sex, a judge says.", "The chart-topping artist lives in Suffolk and is a regular visitor to the club's ground.", "The attack on the Israeli-operated merchant tanker last week killed two people.", "Which country topped the medal table? How did Great Britain get on? Medals table for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.", "Matt Walls wins Britain's 50th medal of Tokyo 2020 by taking omnium gold, while Holly Bradshaw and Liam Heath secure bronzes.", "Results could see very high grades this year, which could put pressure on some university courses.", "Tottenham striker Harry Kane says he has \"never refused to train\" and added he will return to the club on Saturday as planned", "The PM said closing \"so many\" coal mines gave the UK an \"early start\" in climate fight.", "No 10 says he was not in close contact with a staffer who tested positive during a visit to Scotland.", "The new £6.7bn bid for the supermarket from Fortress comes amid rumours of a rival offer from another US firm.", "The average customer on a default tariff is likely to see their annual bill increase by £96 in April.", "Officials say the insurgents took the southern city of Zaranj, in a big blow to government forces.", "The woman says her parents have been fooled by conspiracy theories about Covid online.", "Logan Mwangi's step-dad is charged with murder and his mother with perverting the course of justice.", "New data from Public Health England shows 55% of those in hospital with coronavirus are unvaccinated.", "Music festivals are among the events in the UK that will be protected if they are forced to cancel.", "But No 10 says Boris Johnson recognises the pain of closures, after he said they helped the climate.", "Verphy Kudi's 20-month-old-daughter died from influenza and starvation after being left alone.", "Plans to encourage more tree-planting are under fire for \"destroying\" rural communities.", "The rate at which Covid infection is spreading in Scotland has fallen to its lowest level since the spring.", "Northern Ireland is the first part of the UK to give jabs to 16 and 17 year olds.", "Chris Quealy is allowed to leave Australia to wed Penny Steven in England, after 18 months apart.", "Relatives of the 2001 terror attack victims say Mr Biden must declassify what role Saudi Arabia had.", "\"It's still a good year for clearing,\" says the admissions service boss, ahead of results day next week.", "Jabs for young confirmed after new advice from committee of vaccine experts.", "Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald win Olympic madison gold before Jack Carlin wins sprint bronze.", "Amazon joins Wells Fargo and BlackRock in extending work-from-home guidance due to the pandemic.", "Ms Timanovskaya said she was forced to leave Tokyo after she complained about her coaches online.", "New guidance ahead of Covid restrictions ending on Monday says masks can be removed for drinking, dining and dancing.", "It comes as new figures show most patients in hospital with Covid in England are unvaccinated.", "Police say three-year-old Ianto Sior Jenkins died after he was hit by a vehicle on the farm.", "Secondary school pupils will be still be asked to wear face coverings in classrooms for at least the first six weeks of term.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 30 July and 6 August.", "From Monday, children in Scotland under 12 will no longer be required to wear face coverings in public places.", "Kaylee-Jayde Priest's grandmother said she was \"stolen from me in the most brutal of ways\".", "China reacts angrily to the announcement, which allows thousands to stay in the US for 18 months.", "Three people are arrested after the social worker and officers were attacked in north London.", "The star's music has been out of print for most of the last two decades, after her death in 2001.", "The Health and Safety Executive and the police are investigating the death at Linden Foods near Dungannon.", "Barcelona say Lionel Messi will not be staying at the club \"because of financial and structural obstacles\".", "Organisers say it is not viable under current Covid guidelines but a minister questions the decision.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Friday evening.", "Shortly before the stabbings Sudesh Amman told his mother \"bye bye, I love you\", an inquest hears.", "Apple announces it will implement a system to scan US iPhones for images of child sexual abuse.", "Hossam Metwally is told he faces jail for botched ceremonies which sent Kelly Wilson into a coma.", "At least one person is confirmed dead, and thousands have been forced to flee their homes.", "A government plan for lone women in hotel quarantine to get female guards fails to stop harassment.", "Great Britain boxer Lauren Price will fight for a gold medal on the final day of Tokyo 2020 after winning her women's middleweight semi-final.", "Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford delivered a press briefing as most restrictions are set to end.", "Alok Sharma visited more than 30 countries to set up climate conference - and didn't quarantine.", "The problem puts an extra strain on finances already affected by the pandemic, Citizens Advice says.", "England midfielder Jack Grealish joins Manchester City from Aston Villa for a British record transfer fee of £100m.", "The foreign secretary says they can move to the UK if they are under \"imminent threat\" from the Taliban.", "Krystina Timanovskaya says she fled after being warned it was not safe to fly home from the Olympics.", "Laura Kenny becomes the first British woman to win gold at three Olympic Games as she and Katie Archibald are crowned madison champions in Tokyo.", "The return of the fish, a source of food for other species, signals an improvement in the Clyde ecosystem.", "Taliban militants killed Dawa Khan Menapal in the capital after warning they would target officials.", "The Friends actor has elaborated on why she has \"lost a few people\" who have refused the jab.", "The brand apologises for a \"misunderstanding\" after its Spanish commercial was heavily criticised.", "Check out our comprehensive guide to all the action in Japan.", "As fighting in Afghanistan rages, the BBC speaks to the mother of a British soldier who died there nearly 10 years ago.", "People with prepayment meters should get priority for new, money-saving energy technology, charities say.", "An Afghan man who worked for the British army tells the BBC he and his family cannot get through the crowds.", "The UK government is seeking people's views on whether beavers should return to England's rivers.", "An ex-interpreter for the British Army is happy to have escaped Kabul but still worried for his family.", "Police are called to reports of an assault in the early hours of Monday morning.", "US VP Kamala Harris tries to reassure Asian allies, as many ask: can they still trust America?", "Nicola Sturgeon says she cannot rule out re-imposing restrictions as a new daily high of 4,323 positive cases is recorded.", "Around one-in-18 deaths in the week to 13 August mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate.", "Heavy rainfall that led to deadly floods in Germany and Belgium was influenced by human induced warming.", "Airbnb says it will house 20,000 Afghan refugees at no charge to help them resettle across the world.", "Any extension of the 31 August evacuation deadline would be a \"big bonus\", the defence secretary says.", "The Scottish government has struck deals worth £35m to buy out the car parks at Ninewells Hospital and Glasgow Royal Infirmary.", "Many are facing a significant rise in the money they have to pay towards the support they receive.", "However they are not deemed a person of interest to security agencies or police after an investigation.", "France, the UK and Germany all raise the possibility of troops staying beyond the end of August.", "Taliban authorities in Afghanistan should stop using force against protests, a UN rights body says.", "The full scale of infections linked to Boardmasters in Newquay will not be known for a \"few days\".", "The UK will continue evacuating people from Afghanistan \"until the last moment\", Boris Johnson says.", "The secret meeting came ahead of a deadline for US troops to leave Afghanistan on 31 August.", "A fourth person is in hospital after the crash involving a lorry, minibus and car near Waltham Abbey.", "She is currently on a tour of the region as the US aims to reaffirm its commitment to the region.", "Arthur Mortimer, 15, takes on the fundraising feat having not seen his nan and grandad for 18 months.", "The broadcaster says it wouldn't be able to do \"anything like\" as much coverage if it was privatised.", "Supply issues at English, Welsh and Scottish outlets are due to the lorry driver shortage, the firm says.", "The musician and songwriter was a founding member of the chart-topping reggae band.", "The government say it is preparing for Covid boosters to protect the most vulnerable this year.", "Hackers leaked videos showing detainees being beaten by guards at Tehran's notorious Evin prison.", "First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says \"limited and proportionate\" restrictions could be in reintroduced.", "Josh Willis says he tried to arrange for his wife to hold her newly-born daughter Eviegrace.", "The man, 32, was arrested on suspicion of assault, theft and coercive and controlling behaviour.", "The food delivery platform will invest £100m to create 1,500 new customer service roles.", "Police say there have been no missing person reports matching her description.", "Afghans waiting at Kabul airport tell the BBC of their pain at fleeing the country they love.", "The number of 18 to 34-year-olds smoking increased by a quarter in England during the first lockdown.", "Some high risk patients had few or no infection-fighting antibodies in their blood, a vaccine study found.", "Project Stratum will get an extra £25m to provide ultra-fast broadband to remote homes.", "Experts say it is to be expected and boosters may be needed, at least for some people, ahead of winter.", "Disability is the \"forgotten diversity\" in the media, Bafta-winning screenwriter Jack Thorne says.", "Co-founder Brian Chesky urges more firms to help after promising free lodging for 20,000 refugees.", "Women are not to go to work until procedures are in place to ensure their safety, the Taliban say.", "The child's mother and three siblings escaped the blaze in Ingoldmells, Lincolnshire Police say.", "Dr Anne McCloskey posted a video on social media claiming vaccines were \"damaging\" young people.", "Bricklayer Liam Reardon has had a cocktail named after him and he's been offered a free pasty.", "The strike was captured as Storm Henri approached the north-east of the US, bringing heavy rain.", "The 78-year-old has retired from live performances and says that making TV programmes is getting more challenging.", "The NHS initiative, for people in England over the age of 40, could save thousands of lives.", "Enrique Tarrio admitted to burning a Black Lives Matter flag, stolen from a church, in July.", "As thousands try to flee Afghanistan, the main route to the capital's airport has become treacherous.", "Security footage released by hackers shows mistreatment inside Iran's notorious Evin prison.", "Visit Cornwall says only people who have booked should visit as cases nearly double in a week.", "Industry leaders are calling on the UK government to follow Scotland’s lead on protecting shop workers.", "What we know about the top figures in the militant group that has taken control of Afghanistan.", "Allies step up calls to extend a 31 August withdrawal, but the Taliban insist this will violate a deal.", "The Tokyo 2020 Paralympics are officially under way after a powerful opening ceremony.", "An Indian woman tells the BBC of the on-and-off trauma of getting out of Taliban-held Afghanistan.", "Holidaymakers are paying an average of £300 more per week than before the pandemic, analysis suggests.", "Hotel guests were overcome by fumes in the spa area and some required ventilation, say firefighters.", "More than 800 people reached the UK on Saturday in 30 small boats, the Home Office confirms.", "A young woman shares her fears a week after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.", "A deep dive into the US-Taliban deal of 2020 and its role in the militant group's takeover of Afghanistan.", "Plans to decarbonise homes are too complicated and confusing, say consumer and industry groups.", "Scotland is to hold its own public inquiry into the handling of the Covid pandemic by the end of the year.", "Sharon Graham looks set to take over from Len McCluskey to become the first woman to lead Unite.", "Police search an area outside York for traces of the missing chef, who disappeared in March 2009.", "The second accuser to testify against the singer says he abused her and urged her to get an abortion.", "Mark Frerichs, 59, one of the last Americans kidnapped by the Taliban, is stuck in Afghanistan.", "Top grades have soared away. But maybe this year's students deserve the benefit of the doubt?", "Some courses in the university's schools of law and business are oversubscribed.", "Jason Ledford hopes to become a nurse after undergoing treatment for a brain tumour.", "Three people died when the 06:38 Aberdeen to Glasgow service crashed into a landslide near Stonehaven a year ago.", "James Markham, 45, was killed after confronting a group of youths outside his home.", "A Plymouth MP says one of the victims was a child and more people are being treated in hospital.", "The bid by the maker of Marlboro cigarettes trumps a rival offer by US private equity firm Carlyle.", "A total of 315 nurses left the Belfast Trust in the first half of this year and more than half resigned.", "The Taliban has taken new territories in the north, forcing thousands out of their homes.", "Almost half a million EU citizens who have applied for settled status in the UK await a decision.", "The Met previously concluded it was \"not the appropriate authority\" to investigate Jeffrey Epstein.", "UK bookings lag the rest of Europe amid shifting Covid travel restrictions, the travel giant says.", "Henley Royal Regatta changes its rules for the Steward's Enclosure for the first time in decades.", "General Wali Mohammad Ahmadzai has been removed from his post, as insurgents take more cities.", "The fast food chain has warned customers menus will be missing items as a result of the supply problems.", "Hospitals are working through the backlog - but some patients are waiting more than two years.", "Bank of England's Andrew Bailey says rising inflation is understandable given a \"bumpy\" economic recovery.", "The two veterans have opposing views on whether the conflict has had a positive effect.", "Shards of decorated pottery containing traces of dairy fat residue have been dated to 3,100BC.", "The chart-topping musician and another man have been remanded in custody ahead of sentencing.", "Travellers affected by the UK's quarantine hotel policy want a judicial review of the rules.", "Police have arrested a 31-year-old woman and say the boy is in a critical condition in hospital.", "Reid Steele died in hospital after being found in a critical condition at a house in Bridgend.", "The first minister says proposals should be re-examined due to the severity of the climate emergency.", "The 16-year-old Olympic medallists plan to stay on to study sport and management while competing.", "German federal prosecutors say the British man passed documents to Russian intelligence for cash.", "More than 8,000 mostly elderly people are urged to get vaccinated again as a nurse is questioned.", "Boris Johnson still warns of \"bumps on the road\" ahead as the IMF predicts 7% growth for the UK economy.", "The victim heard the phrase \"he's not going to make it\" after being stabbed by Sudesh Amman.", "Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, pupils' results were based on grades calculated by schools.", "Maps of Afghanistan show who controls districts in fighting between the government and Taliban forces.", "Militants now control many of Afghanistan's key regional cities, including Herat and Ghazni.", "The conservation group WWF says the UK government must keep its promises on climate change.", "A man working for the British Embassy was arrested near Berlin accused of spying for Russia.", "Staff at Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth Hospital tell BBC Scotland demand is unlike anything they have seen before.", "A plane to Jamaica chartered by the Home Office was carrying just seven passengers, lawyers say.", "About a million gallons of contaminated mud needs to be treated from the remains of the ship.", "Shares in the Oprah Winfrey-backed company drop 25% as subscriber numbers fall after lockdown.", "Eight people survived after a helicopter with 16 people crashed in the Far East region, reports say.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Thursday evening.", "A man is seen being tackled to the ground by officers after claiming he had a bomb in a bag.", "The boss of fast fashion retailer Boohoo tells the BBC it is committed to being more sustainable.", "A local MP has urges residents to stay indoors following a \"serious and tragic\" incident.", "If the registered reading is verified, it will be hottest temperature ever recorded in Europe.", "The hacker behind the $600m Poly Network cryptocurrency heist has posted a Q&A on the blockchain.", "She was known for her roles in shows like Worzel Gummidge, Till Death Us Do Part and Sherlock.", "The one-week lockdown comes after Canberra recorded its first case of Covid-19 for more than a year.", "Record high GCSE grades in a second year of exams disrupted by the pandemic.", "The 14-year-olds are in custody following the death of James Markham in east London on Monday.", "It is hoped the hybrid aircraft could pave the way for inter-island and short-haul flights with greener technologies.", "Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said her priority was vaccinating the population by the end of 2021.", "Harvey Spence, who has a learning disability, says he \"dreaded going to work\" because of his experience.", "The blazes in the mountainous Kabylie region are some of the worst in the country's history.", "A survey is launched by the children's commissioner for Wales to help assess the impact on them.", "British sprinter CJ Ujah is suspended from competition after a positive test for a banned substance.", "Pupils achieve another set of record grades, in the second year of Covid disruption to exams.", "John McCorry was \"entirely consumed by hatred\" for his estranged wife.", "The hardline Islamist group retook control of Afghanistan as foreign forces pulled out in 2021.", "Chelsea beat Villarreal 6-5 in a penalty shootout to lift the Uefa Super Cup for a second time after a draining 120 minutes of action ends 1-1 in Belfast.", "NatureScot says it has been working to find a \"beneficial owner\" of Rum's Kinloch Castle over the past few years.", "Mark Chilman set his victim's car on fire in a bid to make it look like suicide, the court hears.", "The Taliban took their first city on 6 Aug and arrived in Kabul just over a week later.", "The foreign secretary says the UK is a \"big-hearted nation\" and full details will be set out soon.", "However, the guidelines empowered police and maintained public trust, the Home Office says.", "Mark Allen defeats former partner Reanne Evans 3-2 after surviving a major scare in the British Open.", "The deal to buy the major supplier to the Royal Navy is being monitored by the UK government.", "Crowds of fleeing locals thronged the runway, where foreign military planes are now landing again.", "An Indian police officer has become a social media sensation because of his viral dance videos.", "Now that the Taliban are back in control of the country, can its financial system function?", "Tropical Storm Grace has dumped heavy rain on Haiti just days after a tremor left at least 1,419 dead.", "Air India's only flight to Kabul on Sunday circled for 90 minutes over the Afghan capital before landing.", "Nobel peace laureate, Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012.", "An inquest concludes that Tyler Westlake, who was swept off rocks while fishing, died accidentally.", "As most schools return, the education secretary promises the requirement for face coverings is temporary.", "The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who was shot by the Taliban, calls for countries to take in refugees.", "Kabul - the Afghan capital - is quiet in some parts, but chaotic at the airport where thousands are trying to flee.", "BBC Panorama investigates a new generation of fraudster that openly uses social media to promote crime.", "England produce one of their worst home performances in recent memory to lose the second Test against India by 151 runs at Lord's.", "Daniel Colegate pays tribute to French and Spanish teams who looked for his partner Esther Dingley.", "The wife of Capt Mark Hale says Western governments have left Afghan people \"in the mouth of hell\".", "Eileen Barrott died at the scene in Whinmoor on Sunday evening and police wish to trace her husband.", "Afghans in Taliban-controlled provinces describe life under its fundamentalist Islamist rule.", "Boris Johnson calls on \"like-minded\" powers to not recognise any new government without agreement.", "Vicky McClure, Adrian Dunbar and Martin Compston are nominated for the National Television Awards.", "One man was knocked unconscious in an attack which began with abuse being shouted from inside a car.", "Rules change in England and Northern Ireland for contacts of people who test positive for Covid.", "Bayern Munich and Germany legend Gerd Muller dies at the age of 75.", "Tennis great Roger Federer says he will be sidelined for \"many months\" as he prepares to have further knee surgery.", "Protesters attack the PM-designate's home after 27 people are killed while queueing for fuel.", "A spokesman for the Taliban, Suhail Shaheen, called the BBC's Yalda Hakim, live on air.", "Joe Biden won't be seeing the \"war is over\" headlines he hoped for when he decided to withdraw.", "Maps of Afghanistan show who controls districts in fighting between the government and Taliban forces.", "Colleagues from the West Mercia force name the pair as David Louden, 39, and Harrison, three.", "A former Police Scotland firearms officer tells an employment tribunal she wants \"accountability for went wrong\".", "Plasma from donors in England can now be used for the medicine, after a previous ban on UK supplies.", "Spectators will not be allowed at Paralympic Games events in Tokyo, organisers confirm.", "Thousands are in fear of their lives amid concerns over a \"humanitarian catastrophe\".", "Fully-vaccinated close contacts of people who have Covid-19 do not need to self-isolate from Monday.", "Major General Charlie Herbert, a military commander from the UK’s campaign in Afghanistan, has accused the government of betraying Afghans who supported British troops.", "The Islamist group has claimed victory in Afghanistan, as residents and diplomats try to escape.", "A 40-year-old man is arrested over the death of William Leiper, whose severely burned remains were found on 4 August.", "A new law will make it harder for people to recover property lost in World War Two.", "Around 700 troops were already in the Afghan capital to help UK citizens and others leave.", "Video shows hundreds of Afghans attempting to escape, as the Taliban took over the capital.", "She was injured when her American bulldog turned on a child then attacked her as she intervened.", "Roads out of the Afghan capital have been choked with traffic as people try to escape a Taliban takeover.", "Those in England will be offered a jab or the chance to book one by 23 August, the government says.", "What sort of nation will Afghanistan be after 2021, asks the BBC's world affairs editor John Simpson.", "\"How many more American lives is it worth?\" asks the president, amid growing criticism over the move.", "Son Heung-min's superb strike proves decisive as a Tottenham side without Harry Kane give new boss Nuno Espirito Santo a win over Premier League champions Manchester City.", "Five people were killed in the shooting on Thursday before Jake Davison took his own life.", "Mr Bezos's Blue Origin says it was unfairly treated after being excluded from lunar landing contract.", "The diver also opens up about what he's learnt as a parent and inspiring LGBT young people.", "Some pub ordering apps ask too many questions, but you can refuse, says the information watchdog.", "Paul Taylor will visit towns such as Shitterton and Cockpole Green on the 1,800-mile charity tour.", "Athletes attended a concert at London's SSE Arena, Wembley, to mark their return from Tokyo.", "Another 26 people have died within 28 days of a positive Covid test, while 77% of adults are double-jabbed.", "Unveiled last week, the redesign involved high-contrast colours and a custom-designed font, Chirp.", "The hardline Islamist group retook control of Afghanistan as foreign forces pulled out in 2021.", "BBC video journalist Malik Mudassir speaks about life in the city after its capture by the Taliban.", "Lord Tyrie, ex-boss of the competition watchdog, says it was slow to react to complaints about providers.", "Box office takings in the past month are half of their pre-pandemic levels.", "A bystander captured the harrowing moments after a passenger fell unconscious from the platform.", "Many Afghans are desperate to escape after the Taliban takeover. Some fear there is no way out.", "As thousands try to flee Afghanistan, the main route to the capital's airport has become treacherous.", "The stamp duty holiday did not cause rising house prices, the Resolution Foundation think tank says.", "Two Green MSPs will become ministers in Nicola Sturgeon's government but the parties will retain \"distinctive voices\".", "What could a deal between the SNP and the Greens mean for Scottish government policies and priorities?", "But shares in the supermarket open higher, suggesting some investors think the £7bn-plus battle is not over.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 13 and 20 August.", "The online subscription site will prevent users from posting content showing 'sexually explicit conduct'.", "The militants are searching for those who worked with Nato forces, an intelligence report warns.", "The all-girls team, known as the \"Afghan Dreamers\" have made headlines around the world.", "A family of three may have been killed by toxic algae blooms on a hiking trail, investigators say.", "Five-year-old Mohammed Munib Majeedi and his family arrived in the UK two weeks ago.", "What Taliban spokespeople say and what is happening is very different, says Amnesty International.", "Wenjing Lin died at her family's Chinese takeaway in March.", "Optometrists are diagnosing higher numbers of children with short-sightedness since the start of the pandemic.", "Three men used a digger to steal the phone box, belonging to Chelford Parish Council, police say.", "Another 2,397 cases are reported, as doctors warn hospital staff are struggling to meet demand.", "Afghans try to scale airport walls and shots are fired as crowds keep trying to flee the Taliban.", "Zaki Anwari, 19, had played for Afghanistan's national youth team before trying to flee the country.", "A shotgun and certificate were returned to Jake Davison in July after a police review.", "Data from the UK government's Covid pilot scheme to test the return of big crowds to venues shows major events \"can be conducted safely\".", "The UK foreign secretary is facing calls to quit over his handling of evacuations.", "It is despite the executive deciding earlier in August that schools no longer had to use bubbles.", "David Holden, 51, is accused of killing Aidan McAnespie in County Tyrone in 1988.", "At least 56 cases in a single health board are confirmed in people who attended the event.", "The BBC witnesses scenes of chaos and panic as thousands still crowd Kabul's airport.", "Antibody therapy - given to former US President Donald Trump - can now be used in the UK.", "The 38-year-old singer was banned from driving for 12 months and given a fine.", "Sudesh Amman could have been stopped from stabbing two people in south London, an inquest finds.", "The proposed rollout of third doses is likely to start in September, the health secretary says.", "The woman, who was spotted clinging to an upturned boat, says at least 52 other people died.", "The actor and martial arts legend played a swordsmith in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill films.", "Despite a fall, borrowing was still the second-highest on record for July as Covid spending continues.", "Dominic Raab and fellow ministers did not speak to Afghan counterparts about evacuations, it emerges.", "A member of staff says the singer struck her, while Ms Spears' lawyer says no-one was injured.", "Babbling in baby bats bears a striking resemblance to human infants learning to talk, researchers find.", "Schools in England are to be given CO2 monitors to as part of plans to limit the spread of Covid.", "The staunch critic of President Vladimir Putin almost died in a nerve agent attack last year.", "Hong Kong media say the Australian star was seen out and about in the city two days after arriving.", "They are backing a review into refugee safety after Mohammed Munib Majeedi fell from a hotel window.", "Global trade was disrupted in March when the massive container ship became stuck in the waterway.", "The UK foreign secretary is facing calls to quit over his handling of evacuations.", "Retailers and lorry firms join forces in call for new work visas, training and better Covid testing.", "Mark Frerichs, 59, one of the last Americans kidnapped by the Taliban, is stuck in Afghanistan.", "A woman who lost her father to Covid says she doesn't want Wales to be a \"footnote\" in a UK inquiry.", "A councillor who was visiting family in the country she had left aged three tells of her evacuation.", "Taliban authorities in Afghanistan should stop using force against protests, a UN rights body says.", "Hajrah Aslam described being back at home with her baby as a \"dream come true\".", "Sky customers complained they could not access some online services including at banks HSBC and TSB.", "Jared O'Mara is charged in relation to alleged fraudulent expenses claims, the CPS say.", "The Alchikhs made Cardigan their home after spending three years in a Lebanese refugee camp.", "For the first time groups of towns or areas have been able to bid for the cultural capital title.", "The foreign secretary is under fire for not personally asking for help to evacuate interpreters.", "The charity says it is taking action following a \"very small number of safeguarding incidents\".", "Footage has emerged showing people fleeing the deadly fires which have engulfed parts of Turkey.", "The coal-fired station at Eggborough stopped production in 2018 with the loss of 170 jobs.", "Authorities are carrying out mass testing and have imposed sweeping lockdowns across 15 provinces.", "An ill-timed alert on the NHS Covid app can mean bar staff losing out on tip income at the weekend.", "Elaine Thompson-Herah stays on course for a sprint double as Laura Muir progresses to the 1500m semi-final", "The police watchdog says there is no evidence to support complaints the attacks were racially driven.", "Health Secretary Humza Yousaf says his daughter was twice refused a place at the nursery, which denies any discrimination.", "People who have been double-jabbed in the EU and US no longer have to isolate when they arrive in Scotland.", "Emily Campbell becomes the first British female weightlifter to win an Olympic medal with +87kg silver.", "Three people are arrested on suspicion of murder after Logan Mwangi, also known as Williamson, died.", "Paula Craig was paralysed after being hit by a car in 2001 - now she aims to swim the Channel.", "Alpine's Esteban Ocon takes a maiden Formula 1 victory in an extraordinary and madcap Hungarian Grand Prix.", "Simone Biles will compete in the beam final as she takes up her final chance of an individual medal at an Olympics where she has withdrawn from four other finals.", "A 15-year-old girl died following a \"domestic disturbance\" at a holiday park on Saturday.", "Alex Gibson, 22, jumped into the sea near Blackpool's North Pier in the early hours of Friday.", "Krystsina Tsimanouskaya says she fears for her safety as Belarus orders her home for complaining about coaches.", "Great Britain win Olympic team eventing gold for the first time in 49 years and Tom McEwen adds a silver in the individual category.", "Two people were killed in the attack on an oil tanker, which the UK, US and Israel blame on Iran.", "Twitter announces it will cooperate with two news agencies to promote more reliable information.", "Paul Bussetti will face a new trial after the High Court quashed his previous acquittal.", "Great Britain win a first Olympic team eventing gold since 1972, with silver medals for Tom McEwen and weightlifter Emily Campbell.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Monday evening.", "The suspected shooter, Joseph Jimenez, 20, appeared in Riverside County Superior Court on Friday.", "Olympian Krystina Timanovskaya says she was almost forced on a plane home after criticising coaches.", "Check out our comprehensive guide to all the action in Japan.", "Heavily touched areas like escalator handles, ticket machines and benches were swabbed for the virus.", "Great Britain's Max Whitlock produces a sublime performance to defend his Olympic title by winning gold in the men's pommel horse.", "An incredible Olympic high jump final ended with both Qatar's Mutaz Essa Barshim and Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi taking gold medals.", "Cleaners and others employed by contractors should receive the same rise as NHS staff, a union says.", "Ethan Brown tells the BBC his firm wants to bring down the price of plant-based meat.", "The Chicago festival is the latest to cut ties, after the rapper's derogatory comments about people with HIV.", "From missed medal targets to funding cuts - how Team GB's swimmers have gone onto succeed in Japan and how bright does the future look heading towards Paris?", "The app in England and Wales will now only alert contacts from the previous two days in asymptomatic cases.", "Vitaly Shishov lived in Ukraine and led a group helping people who fled the Belarus crackdown.", "Watch how Team GB's Max Whitlock defended his Olympic pommel horse title, performing the first routine in the final and setting a mark that his rivals could not match at Tokyo 2020.", "The pay rise comes as top city banker says young recruits should stop moaning about long hours.", "Healthy kidneys from deceased donors were turned down due to a lack of nurses to support surgeons.", "Harry Kane, a transfer target for Manchester City, fails to return to the Tottenham training ground as expected on Monday morning amid speculation over his future.", "Italy's Lamont Marcell Jacobs claims a shock gold in the Olympic 100m final, after Great Britain's Zharnel Hughes is disqualified for a false start.", "Those vaccinated in the US or EU no longer have to isolate when arriving from amber list countries.", "American Xander Schauffele clinches the men's golf gold medal on a dramatic final day in the men's Olympic golf.", "A trick revered, unexpected and never done by a woman before - what is the backflip 360 pulled off by Charlotte Worthington?", "The 21st series of the hit ITV reality show is set to return to Gwrych Castle in November.", "Developers say the site could contribute £300m a year to the local economy and create 4,500 jobs.", "Sudesh Amman stabbed two people before being shot by police on a south London street last year.", "Transgender athlete Laurel Hubbard makes Olympic history but fails to record a successful lift in the women's +87kg weightlifting.", "The rapper, whose real name is Dylan Mills, is charged with assault after an incident in south London.", "The militants are battling to take control of a provincial capital for the first time in years.", "The UK accuses Tehran of violating international law, while Iran calls the accusations \"baseless\".", "England defender Tyrone Mings says his \"mental health plummeted\" in the build-up to Euro 2020 because he felt people were doubting his place in the side.", "Wally has been on the islands since June and has travelled thousands of miles around Europe.", "What you need to know about visiting France, Spain, Italy, US, Ireland, Germany and Greece.", "More victims are discovered following the severe floods that engulfed Henan province in July.", "Nicola Sturgeon is to confirm whether Scotland will move beyond level zero on 9 August as planned.", "The risk of dementia in former footballers increases according to the position they played in, says new research."], "section": ["Wales", "Asia", "Asia", "Business", "Cornwall", "London", "US & Canada", "US & Canada", "Liverpool", null, "Bristol", "Entertainment & Arts", "Asia", "Australia", "Asia", "Europe", "UK Politics", "Asia", "India", null, "Family & Education", "UK", "Middle East", null, "US & Canada", "Business", "World", "Cambridgeshire", null, "UK", "UK Politics", "Europe", "London", null, "Technology", "London", null, "UK", "UK", null, "Wales", "Europe", "Lancashire", "Wales", null, "Wales", null, "Cornwall", "Scotland", 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placed inside a wine bottle, washed up in south Wales\n\nA message in a bottle which floated 3,000 miles from Canada has been found by a dog walker in south Wales.\n\nAmanda Tidmarsh, 52, from Brynna, was walking her two rescue dogs along the beach in Ogmore-on-Sea when she noticed the bottle mixed up with seaweed.\n\nShe said she was \"so excited\" to find it, having previously joked with her family that she was \"always on the hunt for treasure\".\n\nShe is waiting to hear back from the crab fisherman who threw it overboard.\n\nCanada is more than 3,000 miles (4,800km) from Wales, and the co-ordinates written on the letter show it was thrown in the sea nearby in November 2020.\n\nMs Tidmarsh said she was walking along the beach, in Vale of Glamorgan, with her labradoodle Daisy and Jack Russell Ollie when she saw the clear wine bottle, covered in barnacles, mussels and seaweed.\n\nAmanda Tidmarsh found the bottle while walking her dogs\n\nShe said: \"When I found it I thought it was lovely - got all this way without being smashed. I thought there was something inside it, it's like treasure.\"\n\nShe added she was \"so excited\" and thought it was \"too special to open alone\" so waited for her son to come home.\n\n\"I couldn't believe it, it was really special. I text my other son and daughter as they were just as excited as me. It's unbelievable.\n\n\"I always joke to my mum that I'm looking for treasure amongst seaweed and I found some.\"\n\nThe dated letter has co-ordinates specifying where it was thrown into the sea\n\nThe note appears to be from a snow crab fisherman named John Graham, who left his email for the finder to contact him.\n\nCrew on board that boat seem to have sent more than one message, as another bottle has washed up in County Kerry in Ireland.\n\n\"It was well sealed and inside was a zip lock bag rolled up with a note inside,\" said Ms Tidmarsh, who is optimistic to hear from the Mr Graham soon.\n\nMeanwhile, the bottle is being kept in the greenhouse at her house in Rhondda Cynon Taf.", "For days, thousands of fearful Afghans have waited outside the capital's airport in the hope of boarding a flight out\n\nThe rapid Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has left some fearing for their lives and seeking to escape the country, often by any means necessary.\n\nThe militant Islamist group is said to be carrying out door-to-door searches while violent scenes have also been reported at some Taliban-controlled checkpoints.\n\nThe militants seized control of major cities last week as part of a sweeping offensive that shocked international observers. It culminated in the fall of the capital, Kabul, which triggered the collapse of the Afghan government.\n\nNow, those who have worked for the government or other foreign powers, as well as journalists and activists, say they are fearful of reprisals and need to be evacuated. They have spoken to the BBC, but their names have been changed to protect their safety.\n\nUsman, who worked as an interpreter for the British armed forces, was sheltering with his wife and some neighbours when the Taliban came. He was woken in the early hours of the morning and told the group were nearby.\n\n\"They were searching door-to-door,\" he told the BBC's World at One programme. \"Everyone panicked - then the news spread to every other house.\"\n\n\"A neighbour said they were searching for weapons, documents and government vehicles. They were trying to find out who had worked for Nato or the government.\"\n\n\"I put on my clothes and just jumped over a wall and ran away,\" Usman said. \"I know that I am going to be killed. There is no other way.\"\n\nUsman was told he was eligible for relocating to the UK in December, but after all his paperwork was processed he received a letter of rejection on Friday. \"We are not feeling safe,\" he said. \"I'm really desperate.\"\n\nThe Taliban have been patrolling in Afghanistan's major cities\n\nHashem, a translator, was sheltering in an apartment in one of the country's biggest cities when he spoke to the BBC.\n\n\"I've been working with intermediary forces and thought the US and German governments would help,\" he said.\n\n\"I have had to destroy all my documents.\"\n\n\"I had the courage to go to Kabul airport, and someone from the Taliban told me there had been fake news spreading that the Americans would take people out.\"\n\n\"He told me to tell others not to go to the airport. We're discussing plans about what we can do to flee to another country.\"\n\nEvacuations have been taking place in recent days, but thousands of people remain desperate to leave\n\nIt is not just those who worked for international governments who are fearful. Two women who worked for a media outlet are in hiding and say the Taliban are searching for them.\n\nWithout a visa, however, they say travelling to an airport would be futile.\n\n\"They have twice called at my house... looking for me and my husband,\" one of the women, Aida, said. \"They are asking other members of my family where we are and they have also been sending me threatening texts.\"\n\n\"They say that when they find me they will kill me.\"\n\n\"I feel really desperate and stressed about what will happen to me and my family,\" she said.\n\n\"Right now we are like turkeys in our homes,\" her colleague, Saabira, said. \"We can't go out because the Taliban are all around us.\" She said her food supplies were running worryingly low.\n\n\"The Taliban are trying to find government [workers], journalists, and women's rights activists. We are really worried - what if they come to our home? What if they knock on our door?\"\n\n\"The airport is not possible for us because we haven't [got a] visa\" she said. \"We haven't got money or any support, so it's impossible.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Everybody got very emotional\": Hassina Syed describes getting out of Afghanistan on a British military plane\n\nMeanwhile, dozens of English language teachers who worked for the British council training Afghan school teachers are desperate to leave but have been denied visas to come to the UK.\n\n\"We are horrified and really scared,\" one said. \"For the past week, I couldn't speak English in front of anyone because I was scared they would realise I worked with foreigners and inform on me.\"\n\n\"I never considered going to Kabul airport, I have children and I couldn't risk their lives,\" he said. \"Our concern is that [the Taliban] are searching for specific people who provided services for foreign governments, it makes us scared.\"\n\n\"But when I see Kabul airport, I don't see any way to cross the crowd and get in.\"\n\n\"I want the UK government to consider the service that we provided for them,\" he said. \"If we remain in Afghanistan our lives are in great danger.\"", "As thousands of citizens and foreign nationals attempt to flee Afghanistan, scenes outside Kabul airport have become increasingly desperate.\n\nSince the Taliban took control of the country at the weekend and closed land border crossings, the capital's airport has become the only way out of the country for many.\n\nBut the militants have said they don't want Afghans to leave the country. They have set up checkpoints on Airport Road - shown in yellow, below - the main route to Hamid Karzai International Airport, and have attacked people.\n\nThe violence has left 12 people in the area, dead - killed by gunshots or in stampedes - since Sunday, an anonymous Taliban official told Reuters news agency, meaning the journey to the airport is an increasingly treacherous one.\n\nInside the walls of the airport compound, more than 4,000 US troops are in temporary control. Outside, heavily-armed Taliban fighters now ring the perimeter, generating an atmosphere of fear.\n\nTaliban fighters have control of the exterior of the airport\n\nThe militants are reportedly preventing Afghans - including some of those with visas - from getting to the tarmac.\n\nBut even before people fleeing reach the edge of the airport, they are being attacked en route, witnesses say.\n\nA correspondent for the LA Times newspaper saw dozens of Taliban firing into the air, aiming weapons at crowds and using sticks and rope to lash civilians as they tried to make their escape. Graphic images captured by Marcus Yam show at least one woman hurt and a young child left bloodied with what appears to be a head injury.\n\nA woman was injured on her way to the airport\n\nPhotos published by SBS showed an Afghan interpreter, who appeared to have been attacked, being treated for a gunshot wound.\n\nCrowds have also been gathering along the airport's perimeter to the north of the city - seen in the map above - over the past few days, with reports of a stampede injuring 17 people on Wednesday. Many have been trying to climb over barbed wire fences and there are reports of shots being fired.\n\nPeople have been scaling the boundary wall of Hamid Karzai International Airport\n\nAmong the crowds are families with children, many of whom have not had access to food and drink for days, reporters on the ground say. Footage shared on social media showed children being passed over a wall to foreign soldiers in the hope they might be able to escape.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A child is handed over the wall at Kabul airport, as the chaos continues\n\nOne girl in a pink jacket was hoisted aloft to a soldier on a ladder.\n\nA number of children have been seen being helped over walls at Kabul airport\n\nThe chaotic conditions emerged as European governments rushed to bring home their citizens - as well as Afghan colleagues.\n\nAfghan families have been seeking sanctuary with foreign troops\n\nAlthough the Taliban have said Afghans should stay in the country they have also claimed they are facilitating a safe exit for both foreigners and locals. \"We are preventing any form of violent, verbal clash at the airport among Afghans, foreigners and Taliban members,\" an official said.\n\nThe latest reports of Taliban violence and harassment come as a confidential UN document, seen by the BBC, says the militants are intensifying their hunt for people who worked for and collaborated with Nato and US forces.\n\nThe crush of people heading for the airport can be seen in satellite images of the area, with thousands converging in vehicles as they desperately tried to escape.\n\nImages of the chaos first emerged from Kabul airport on Monday as it was overrun by Afghans terrified at the prospect of Taliban rule.", "House prices have continued their upward surge despite the economic impact of lockdowns.\n\nThe current house prices boom was not caused by the stamp duty holiday, a new report has argued.\n\nThe Resolution Foundation says prices will keep rising because of pandemic-related factors like low interest rates and changing home preferences.\n\nIn fact, the think tank says the tax holiday was \"wasteful\" and HMRC lost out on about £4.4bn of taxes in England and Northern Ireland as a result.\n\nThe Treasury said the policy saved jobs by stimulating the housing market.\n\nBetween June 2020 and June 2021, the average value of a UK home increased 13.2%.\n\nAnd in summer 2020, several different transaction tax holidays were introduced across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nWhen the stamp duty holiday was introduced in England and Northern Ireland in July 2020, it was designed to boost the property market by helping buyers whose finances were affected by Covid, with savings of up to £15,000 per home.\n\nAccording to property website Rightmove, Wales has seen the biggest increase in house prices in the UK.\n\nAn HM Revenue & Customs evaluation of the stamp duty cut introduced for first-time buyers in wake of the financial crisis estimated that between 50-70% of the value fed through into higher house prices.\n\nThe Resolution Foundation's Housing Outlook report has investigated whether there is a link between the recent house price boom and these tax holidays, including the stamp duty cut for first-time buyers.\n\n\"It is reasonable to expect at least part of the savings from any transaction tax holiday to be capitalised into house prices,\" the report's authors Lindsay Judge, Krishan Shah and Felicia Odamtten wrote.\n\n\"But logically, if the cuts to transaction taxes have been the overwhelming driver of the house price trends observed over the past 12 months, we would expect to see higher growth in areas where the savings from the change in policy have been most significant as a share of the house price.\"\n\nThe think tank says the assertion that housing prices have risen mainly because of tax holidays is \"somewhat wide off the mark\".\n\nThe organisation says similar house price rises occurred in the US, France, Germany, Canada and Australia without the tax holiday.\n\n\"There appear to have been stronger forces at play within the housing market over the past year such as enforced savings during lockdowns, changing housing preferences and super-low interest rates,\" the authors wrote.\n\n\"We conclude that the transaction tax holidays have been problematic less because they were inflationary and more because they have been wasteful.\"\n\nA HM Treasury Spokesperson said: \"The temporary stamp duty cut is helping to protect hundreds of thousands of jobs which rely on the property market by stimulating house moves.\"\n\n\"Its time-limited nature is what has encouraged people to take advantage of the scheme.\"", "Waitress Emily Gimblett, 20, said she had \"reached breaking point\"\n\nHospitality staff say frustrated customers have left them demoralised and upset with some at \"breaking point\".\n\nThe sector is facing staff shortages, with travel restrictions causing more people to holiday in the UK.\n\nSome staff in Cornwall said they were worn down by being sworn at and threatened with violence when restaurants were full or food delayed.\n\nUK Hospitality \"urged all customers to treat staff with respect\".\n\nVisit Cornwall estimated there were about 30,000 more visitors to the county this season than the usual peak of 180,000\n\nEmily Gimblett, 20, a Newquay waitress, pleaded on social media for \"common decency\" after she said a customer made her cry.\n\n\"She was really, really moody and I just cried.\n\n\"I had already been reduced to nothing that day... It's like a lose lose situation,\" she said.\n\n\"I have never seen it this busy, it is ridiculous... The amount of staff we have can't cope with the influx.\n\n\"What you say to someone can ruin their whole day. We're still a person... We're tired.\"\n\nMs Gimblett said customers were angry and she had \"reached breaking point\".\n\nShe said people on holiday were annoyed that \"everywhere is fully booked every night\" while staff were worn out working long shifts.\n\nJamie-Lee Job appealed to customers to \"be kind\"\n\nMs Gimblett's employer Steve Young, owner at the Quintrell Inn, said it was the \"busiest ever season\" in his eight years there, and while many customers were polite and patient, abuse had \"gone up an octave\".\n\nHe said it was a combination of some tourists as well as some locals that were \"difficult\".\n\n\"A vile group of blokes came in and one just flipped out and tried to attack me when I told them we couldn't fit them in,\" he said.\n\nIndustry bodies say one in five hospitality workers have left the sector during the coronavirus pandemic, with further shortages caused by workers being \"pinged\" and told to isolate by the NHS app.\n\nCatering businesses in some UK tourist resorts are experiencing further pressure, with reportedly busier seasons due to restrictions on travelling abroad.\n\nJamie-Lee Job, owner of The Summer House restaurant overlooking the beach in Perranporth, said customers since the pandemic were \"a lot more aggressive\" and it was \"demoralising\".\n\n\"Customers at the moment have a cabin fever about them.\n\n\"People seem to have lost their sense of humanity.\n\n\"No-one wants to work in hospitality at the moment - it's relentless.\"\n\nStaff shortages have meant they have had to close until 28 August when they will be open for drinks.\n\nRestaurants in Cornish resorts like St Ives are largely booked up, some visitors said\n\nBut one Newquay man, who wished to be anonymous, said eating out had become more stressful for customers, and that abuse \"reflects both ways\" in the town.\n\n\"We have had awful attitudes from some staff.\n\n\"No matter what the reasons, courtesy should be given at all times,\" he said.\n\nVisit Cornwall estimated there were about 30,000 more visitors to the county this season than the usual peak of 180,000.\n\nIn Devon, Brian Todd, who was on holiday in Woolacombe, told the BBC he was disappointed to queue for more than one hour to buy pizza.\n\n\"There's either a lack of food or a lack of staff... It's all pre-bookings... But you've just got to get on with it,\" he said.\n\nTegan Cluett, 21, a holiday park waitress in Cornwall, said: \"We've had people waiting for one hour and 20 minutes for food.\n\n\"I feel bad for them, but we've had some really threatening people.\n\n\"We've had people shouting loudly... One man knocked over all the drinks on the table on purpose,\" she said.\n\n\"I can't stress how rude some of them are and we are rushed off our feet.\n\n\"They swear at us and I think thank God I am wearing a mask as I am going bright red in the face... I have felt like crying,\" she said.\n\nIn busy resorts many if not all restaurants are booked up for weeks in advance, staff said\n\nMalcolm Bell from Visit Cornwall said: \"The peak weeks have been more challenging with staff shortages and staff being off with the virus or being 'pinged'\".\n\nHe urged visitors to \"plan and book ahead\" and have \"understanding, tolerance and respect\" for staff.\n\nMr Bell pointed out there are a \"stunning\" range of quieter places to visit in Cornwall outside the main resorts.\n\nKate Nicholls, chief executive of industry body UK Hospitality, said: \"After such a difficult 18 months for staff in the hospitality sector, this behaviour is shocking and completely unacceptable.\n\n\"I urge all customers to treat hospitality staff with respect.\"\n\nJo Causon, CEO of The Institute of Customer Service warned customer-facing workers who receive abuse \"often end up taking time off sick or leave the industry\".\n\n\"Businesses can help by communicating openly and honestly and training service staff to deal with the different scenarios they are likely to face,\" she said.\n\n\"Customers must also take responsibility for not letting frustration boil over into hostility or abuse.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Police are looking for Lee Peacock in connection with the killing of two people in Westminster\n\nA man wanted in connection with two murders in London knew the victims, police have revealed.\n\nDetectives have told the public \"not to approach\" Lee Peacock, 49, who officers want to question about the killings in Westminster.\n\nA woman, 45, was found at a property in Ashbridge Street on Thursday night and a man, 59, was found early on Friday at a property in nearby Jerome Crescent.\n\nBoth had sustained knife injuries, police previously said.\n\nDetectives said they were keeping an open mind about any possible motive.\n\nPolice found the body of the woman in a property in Ashbridge Street\n\nLead investigator Det Ch Insp Wayne Jolley said: \"Lee lived locally in the area. We have a number of lines of inquiry in regards to trace his whereabouts.\n\n\"Both of the victims were known to Lee, we're not treating these as random attacks.\n\n\"I would urge anybody that knows the whereabouts of Lee Peacock to contact police immediately by calling 999.\"\n\nNeither the man nor the woman have yet been named.\n\nInquiries are under way to trace the woman's next of kin, while the man's have been notified and are being supported by specialist officers.\n\nNo arrests have been made.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The team was feted in Washington DC in 2017 after the robotics competition\n\nAfter scrambling for days to bring them to safety, nine members of an Afghan all-girls robotics team have arrived in Qatar, the team's parent organisation has confirmed.Their flight out of Afghanistan was organised by the Qatar government, which expedited visas and sent an aircraft.The team first made headlines in 2017 after winning a special award at an international robotics competition in the US.\n\nThey have been widely praised as a shining example of the potential of women's education in Afghanistan.\n\nThe departure of the team members, aged 15 to 19, as well as a 25-year-old teacher, comes amid a worsening security situation in Kabul, the Afghan capital.\n\nIn a statement, the team's parent organisation, the US-based Digital Citizen Fund (DCF), said that they requested help from Qatar on August 12, just three days ahead of Kabul's capture by the Taliban.\n\nMembers of the Qatar government had remained in contact with the team after hosting them in Doha, the capital, in 2019. The girls originally came from the city of Herat, in western Afghanistan.\n\n\"When we heard that Kabul was going to fall, we were able to contact the [Qatari foreign] ministry and they immediately started expediting visas to get them out,\" DCF board member Elizabeth Schaeffer Brown told the BBC. \"They are taking very good care of them.\"\n\nShe stressed, however, that the girls were not \"rescued\".\"The girls rescued themselves through all their hard work and bravery over the past several years,\" she added. \"The flight out of Kabul was only the end of a journey in which safety was a concern.\"\n\nThe girls now in Doha may remain in Qatar or move further afield to continue their studies.\n\nAlthough she declined to provide specifics, she added that several universities around the globe - including some in the US - have offered scholarships.\n\n\"It will be important for them to continue their education,\" she said.\n\nMs Schaeffer Brown said other current and former team members remain in Afghanistan, along with teachers, mentors and others who work for the organisation.\n\nThe robotics team, which includes teenage members, was formed by Afghan tech entrepreneur and DCF founder Roya Mahboob in 2017.\n\nLast year, the team turned its focus on Covid-19 patients by making low-cost ventilators out of car parts.", "The family were found dead in a popular hiking area of the Sierra National Forest\n\nA family of three who were found dead on a hiking trail in California may have been killed by poison algae, investigators say.\n\nThe bodies of British man John Gerrish and his wife, Ellen Chung, and one-year-old daughter Miju were found in the Sierra National Forest on Tuesday.\n\nNearby waterways are being tested for toxic algae blooms, officials said.\n\nPost-mortem examinations have been carried out in an effort to establish the cause of death.\n\nThe family's dog, Oski, was also found dead at the scene in the Devil's Gulch area of the forest, which is a popular hiking destination.\n\n\"We don't know the cause… we won't rest until we figure it out,\" Mariposa County Sheriff Jeremy Briese told the Fresno Bee newspaper.\n\n\"There's no obvious indicators of how it occurred... you have two healthy adults, you have a healthy child and what appeared to be a healthy canine all within a general same area, deceased,\" he said.\n\nInvestigators suspected the deaths may have been linked to escaping gas from abandoned gold mines, but Mr Briese appeared to rule out that possibility on Thursday.\n\n\"I don't believe it's connected to a mine,\" he said. \"It's frustrating and we're not going to rest... it's devastating to everyone.\"\n\n\"From what I've gathered, these algae blooms are due to the recent drought,\" Mr Briese said. \"But I don't know too much detail about the toxicity of them.\"\n\nAlgae blooms can produce \"extremely dangerous toxins that can sicken or kill people and animals\", according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.\n\nLast month, the US Forest Service posted warnings about the potentially toxic algae in the Sierra National Forest on Facebook.\n\n\"[The park] would like to inform those visitors who like to enjoy this area... not to swim, wade or allow their pets to enjoy the water,\" one post read.", "A minute's applause has been held at Liverpool's first home game this season for a man who became the 97th victim of the Hillsborough disaster.\n\nAndrew Devine died aged 55 in July - 32 years after suffering life-changing injuries in the 1989 stadium crush.\n\nA coroner recently ruled he was the 97th fatality due to the disaster at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.\n\nFans at Saturday's game with Burnley chanted \"Justice for the 97\".\n\nMr Devine was 22 at the time of the disaster, when overcrowding occurred on the terraces of Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough stadium on 15 April 1989.\n\nThe crush followed overcrowding at an FA Cup game\n\nIn 2016, inquests concluded that the 96 fans who had died had been unlawfully killed.\n\nA senior coroner recently said Mr Devine, who died on 27 July, was the disaster's \"97th fatality\" and therefore the conclusion was the same.\n\nHe said the lifelong Liverpool fan had died from aspiration pneumonia, which had been caused by a brain injury due to oxygen deprivation and crush injuries.\n\nAn applause was held before Liverpool's first full-capacity home game since lockdown\n\nEarlier this year, South Yorkshire Police offered an \"unreserved apology\" to those affected by the crush, admitting that \"serious errors and mistakes were made\" by its officers both during the disaster and in subsequent investigations.\n\nThe force, along with West Midlands Police, agreed to pay damages to more than 600 people following a cover-up in the aftermath.\n\nTwo retired police officers and an ex-solicitor who were accused of altering police statements after the disaster were acquitted in May at the end of the latest trial on the tragedy.\n\nNo-one has ever been convicted over police actions concerning the disaster in what a senior government minister described as \"the greatest scandal of British policing of our lifetimes\".\n\nJordan Henderson carried a floral tribute to Mr Devine before the game\n\nIn his programme notes, Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson said the players knew Mr Devine from his visits to games and their training base.\n\n\"Andrew was an incredible person, someone who fought for 32 years against injuries that had been expected to end his life much sooner than they did,\" Henderson said.\n\n\"Knowing that people in this city and beyond are still suffering due to Hillsborough is heart-breaking, but all we can do is carry on being there for each other as best we can,\" he added.\n\nFans at Saturday's game, which Liverpool won 2-0, displayed a tribute mosaic featuring the number 97.\n\nThis 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 BBC Radio Merseyside 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.\n\nOutside of the stadium, the previously-named 96 Avenue walkway has been renamed 97 Avenue.\n\nArrangements have also begun for Mr Devine's name to be etched on Anfield's Hillsborough Memorial.\n\nLiverpool FC said the club's playing shirts would be amended for the 2022-23 season, with the 97 emblem featuring on the nape of neck.\n\nThe minute's applause ahead of Saturday's game was also held in tribute to people who had died with coronavirus.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Last updated on .From the section The Hundred\n\nSouthern Brave were crowned the first men's Hundred champions after beating Birmingham Phoenix by 32 runs in an action-packed Lord's final.\n\nChasing 169, Phoenix's Liam Livingstone thrashed 46 from 19 balls, animating a raucous Lord's crowd with an effortless flow of boundaries, before the game swung in dramatic and unlikely fashion.\n\nTim David, only brought into the Brave's squad earlier this week, ran out Livingstone with a 60m direct hit from the deep - the in-form Livingstone agonisingly inches short.\n\nBirmingham still needed another 99 from 55 balls and Brave's impressive bowling attack closed out the game expertly to make the winning margin far greater than looked likely at one stage.\n\nTeacher-turned-Hundred star Jake Lintott had Moeen Ali caught for 36 from 30 balls.\n\nIreland international Paul Stirling earlier hit 61 from 36 balls for the Brave before Ross Whiteley's crucial 44 not out from 19 balls lifted them to 168-5.\n\nThe Oval Invincibles, winners of the women's final earlier in the day, joined the Brave with their trophy at the end of a special day at cricket's historic home.\n\nThe moment that turned the final\n\nThirty-three runs looks like a big winning margin, but when Livingstone was flying - the crowd on its feet as he hit sixes at will - Birmingham were ahead of the Brave in their chase.\n\nThe game turned with a moment of sheer brilliance, however, from the most unlikely Brave hero.\n\nDavid, an all-rounder born in Singapore, who he has played for internationally, only made his debut in Friday's eliminator after coming in as a late replacement for New Zealand international Colin de Grandhomme, who flew home before the final.\n\nThe big 25-year-old, who earlier took a fine diving catch, swooped on a loose ball after a diving attempt to catch Livingstone had gone down, turned and arrowed a throw directly into the stumps.\n\nHis Brave team-mates sprinted to meet him in celebration. Livingstone covered his face with his glove, seemingly distraught.\n\n\"As soon as he [Livingstone] was on his way back, Southern Brave were the champions,\" said former England captain Michael Vaughan on BBC Two.\n\nThis finale did not look possible at the start of the day when the weather forecast suggested a washout.\n\nThe match may not have come down to the final ball, but it was still an entertaining encounter with 22 sixes, some excellent fast bowling and impressive fielding.\n\nThe near-capacity crowd of 24,556, an encouraging number of those young children, were enthused for the majority of the time.\n\nThe Hundred will still not please everyone, but the moment when the two men's and women's winners held their trophies aloft side-by-side on cricket's most famous ground was special.\n\n\"It was a fitting occasion for the final, with lesser restrictions and families out,\" Manchester Originals captain and BBC pundit Carlos Brathwaite said.\n\n\"It has been a privilege to be part of a fantastic spectacle and the game on the field did it justice.\"\n\nBrave were worthy champions, finishing the tournament with seven consecutive wins after defeats in their opening two games.\n\nTymal Mills was sensational again in the final, taking 1-13 from 20 balls to push his case for an England recall. Their fast bowling attack - featuring Mills, George Garton, Chris Jordan and Craig Overton - has been of international quality throughout.\n\nLintott, who paused his teaching career earlier this year when given a county contract, has been a standout performer with his spin.\n\nThey have won the title without the injured Jofra Archer and internationals David Warner and Andre Russell, who pulled out because of the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\n\"It's been a real team effort and different people have turned up on different occasions,\" said captain James Vince.\n\n\"It was Paul Stirling and Ross Whiteley tonight, to get us runs on the board that made the difference.\"", "Scott Harrington hopes the door will be used as part of a current display in the British Motor Museum\n\nAn avid fan of Only Fools and Horses has donated a \"significant sum\" to charity for a red garage door which featured in the TV comedy series.\n\nDel Boy's red no. 22 lock-up in Bedminster, Bristol, was replaced in May as part of a council revamp.\n\nBristol City Council gave the door to the Bottle Yard Studios which offered it to collector Scott Harrington.\n\nMr Harrington said he hoped to set up a museum to display memorabilia so people \"could take a trip down memory lane\".\n\n\"What started as a hobby has turned into a real passion for us and we regularly showcase our items free of charge for charitable events.\n\n\"Our long-term aim is to create our own family museum where people can take a trip down memory lane with us to celebrate key moments in our history represented by our memorabilia, to keep these moments alive,\" he added.\n\nThe garage doors which were a backdrop for scenes in the TV series\n\nHe also said he and his wife were in talks with the National Lottery Heritage Fund to help fund this venture.\n\nIn the meantime they hope the door will be displayed at the British Motor Museum in Warwickshire, alongside the Reliant Regal car from the show which is also there.\n\nThe council-owned garages in Duckmoor Road were built in 1962 at a similar time to the three high-rise blocks nearby - Southbow House, Winterstoke House and Whitemead House.\n\nWhitemead House featured as a filming location in Only Fools and Horses, portraying the exterior of Del Boy's fictional Nelson Mandela House which was supposed to be in Peckham.\n\nSite co-ordinator at the Bottle Yard Studios, Emma Reid said: \"The door represents a small but fun slice of British TV history made here in Bristol and we wanted to make sure it would be preserved for the future.\n\n\"When we found out about the other Only Fools and Horses items Scott had already collected, it seemed like the perfect home for it.\"\n\nThe donation has gone to the Film and TV Charity to help the industry recover from the pandemic.\n\nThe high-rise flats in the background were those used as the fictional Peckham home of Del Boy\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk\n• None Which memorabilia would you pay £££ for?", "Singer R. Kelly listens to his former tour manager testify at his trial in Brooklyn, New York\n\nA former tour manager for US R&B singer R. Kelly has testified that he bribed a government worker in 1994 to obtain a fake ID for then 15-year-old Aaliyah - so the singers could marry.\n\nDemetrius Smith said he paid $500 (£367) for an ID used by Mr Kelly, then 27, to wed Aaliyah, who was under age.\n\nMr Smith was giving evidence after he was granted immunity from prosecution.\n\nMr Kelly is on trial accused of sexual abuse, racketeering and bribery. He has denied the charges.\n\nSpeaking at the singer's trial on Friday in Brooklyn, New York, Mr Smith said the decision to obtain the document was made by Mr Kelly's \"associates\" after Aaliyah had said she was pregnant.\n\nR. Kelly wrote and produced Aaliyah's debut album, titled Age Ain't Nothing But A Number\n\nHe said that when he questioned the idea, pointing out that the teenager - whose full name was Aaliyah Dana Haughton - was \"too young\", he was asked \"whose side I was on\".\n\nMr Smith, 65, told the court that he then \"went to the welfare office, and I walked in, and I said: 'Hey, want to make some money?'\"\n\nEarlier court documents reportedly said the bribe was paid on 30 August 1994 - just one day before the marriage licence was issued.\n\nThe certificate, leaked at the time, listed Aaliyah's age as 18. The marriage was annulled months later.\n\nAaliyah died in a plane crash in 2001, aged 22. Her debut album, Age Ain't Nothing But a Number, was produced and written by R. Kelly.\n\nMr Kelly, 54, full name Robert Sylvester Kelly, is on trial also accused of being the ringleader of a two-decade-long scheme where he recruited women and underage girls for sex.\n\nIf he is convicted on all counts he could be sentenced to several decades in prison.\n\nThe singer is best known for hits including I Believe I Can Fly, Bump n' Grind and If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time.\n\nProsecutors have claimed the singer used bodyguards, drivers, lawyers and accountants to cover up his alleged crimes, and blackmailed victims by photographing and filming them having sex and then threatening to release the tapes.\n\nEven if he is acquitted, Mr Kelly still faces sex-related charges in Illinois and Minnesota, where he has also pleaded not guilty.\n\nHe has been in jail for the last two years and was moved in June to Brooklyn from Chicago for the trial.", "US forces currently control the international airport in Kabul\n\nThe US has warned its citizens to avoid Kabul airport amid concerns about the potential for attacks by Afghanistan's branch of the Islamic State (IS) group.\n\nA security alert on Saturday told US citizens to stay away due to possible \"security threats outside the gates\".\n\nOnly those individually told to make the journey by a US government representative should do so, it said.\n\nUS defence officials said they were monitoring developments and looking at alternative routes.\n\nNo further details were given about the potential threat of an IS attack, and the group has not publicly threatened to carry out attacks in Kabul.\n\nThe US advice on Saturday came amid continued chaos outside the airport terminal and reports of people being crushed as thousands attempt to escape from Afghanistan, a week after the Taliban takeover.\n\nThe UK's Ministry of Defence said seven people died in the crowds and conditions there remained \"extremely challenging.\"\n\nCrowds have been gathering daily, hoping to be allowed on to a flight. Those who work with the US and its allies, as well as people who have campaigned on issues like human rights, fear they may face reprisals at the hands of the Taliban if they are unable to leave.\n\nWhat exactly happened at the airport gates on Saturday remains unclear.\n\nHowever, Sky News' chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay said that people at the front of the crowd of thousands were being \"crushed to death\", with British soldiers pulling those in danger from the throng.\n\nHe has described it as \"the worst day by far\", and said they believed people had died at the scene.\n\nIn a briefing on Saturday, the US Department of Defense said 17,000 people had been flown out of the airport, including some 2,500 US citizens.\n\nAn official said a \"small number\" of Americans and Afghans the US wanted to evacuate had faced harassment. In some cases, they had been beaten on their way to the airport.\n\nA spokesperson for the US State Department later told the BBC they issued the guidance to avoid large crowds outside the airport gates.\n\nIt is also because they now have the capacity to communicate with US citizens \"on a personalised basis\", to give them \"tailored instructions\" on how to travel, the spokesperson said.\n\nOther countries have also warned about the situation on the ground.\n\nGermany's government issued a statement saying the airport remains \"extremely dangerous and access to the airport is often not possible\", while the Swiss foreign ministry announced the security situation had \"deteriorated significantly in the last few hours\" and postponed a chartered evacuation flight from Kabul.\n\nUS forces are currently controlling the international airport. They are helping to evacuate their own citizens and those of other countries, including Afghans who worked with Western forces and fear for their safety under the Taliban.\n\nBut the US has set a withdrawal date of 31 August for their troops, and it is unclear what will happen after this date.\n\nSecurity forces try to prevent large crowds from entering Kabul airport\n\nNato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said that several countries from the alliance have proposed that Kabul airport remain open for evacuations beyond 31 August to allow them to get more people out.\n\nThe BBC understands the UK is one of these countries, and is requesting an extension of a few days.\n\nSome fear they will not be able to evacuate all their citizens, or all the Afghans they believe to be in danger, as they struggle to process all those queuing at the airport and to step up the number of evacuation flights.\n\nJosep Borrell, the EU's foreign policy chief, told AFP news agency that it was \"mathematically impossible\" for the US to evacuate all Afghans with travel permits by 31 August.\n\nThe EU had \"complained\" to the US that their security was too strict and was stopping Afghans who had worked for Europeans to enter the airport, he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"You've seen my British passport, these are my children\"\n\nSpeaking at a rally in the US state of Alabama on Saturday, former President Donald Trump criticised Joe Biden's \"botched\" handling of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, describing it as the \"most astonishing display of gross incompetence by a nation's leader\".\n\nFormer UK Prime Minister Tony Blair - who sent British troops into Afghanistan 20 years ago - said Mr Biden's decision to withdraw from Afghanistan was \"imbecilic... tragic, dangerous and unnecessary\".\n\nIn his first public comments since the Taliban seized Kabul last Sunday, Mr Blair said in a statement on his institute's website that the UK had a \"moral obligation\" to stay in the country until \"all those who need to be are evacuated\".\n\nMeanwhile, the Taliban are trying to consolidate their control over Afghanistan.\n\nMullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the group's co-founder, has now arrived in Kabul and is set to join talks on establishing a new government.\n\nHe is the most senior Taliban leader now in the country and is likely to become a leading figure in any Taliban-led government.\n\nA Taliban official told Reuters news agency that they hoped to have a model for governing Afghanistan within the next few weeks.\n\nIt will not be a democracy like in the West but it will \"protect everyone's rights\", he told the agency.\n\nMr Baradar signed an agreement with the US in 2020, in which the US agreed to withdraw all its forces from Afghanistan.", "Pepper spray was used against some protesters in Melbourne\n\nPolice in the Australian cities of Melbourne and Sydney have clashed with thousands of people protesting against Covid lockdowns.\n\nIn Melbourne, mounted officers used pepper spray when elements of a 4,000-strong rally broke through police lines.\n\nPolice arrested 218 people, and at least seven officers were injured.\n\nIn Sydney, where lockdown measures have been extended for another month, more than 1,000 officers dispersed protests.\n\nIt came as the state of New South Wales (NSW), of which Sydney is the capital, recorded 825 new locally-acquired cases, the highest number for any Australian territory in a 24-hour period.\n\nIn Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, more than 2,000 protesters gathered before holding a largely peaceful march.\n\nPolice in the state of Victoria condemned the violence that broke out in Melbourne on Saturday.\n\n\"While there were some peaceful protesters in attendance, the majority of those who attended came with violence in mind,\" a spokeswoman said, quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald.\n\n\"The behaviour seen by police was so hostile and aggressive that they were left with no choice but to use all tactics available to them.\"\n\nMore than 4,000 anti-lockdown protesters gathered in central Melbourne\n\nAll those arrested face fines of A$5,452 (£2,850) for breaching Covid regulations, police said. Three people were also charged with assaulting police.\n\nStay-at-home orders were extended across Victoria on Saturday in a bid to contain a widening outbreak of Covid cases.\n\nThe protests in Sydney were smaller, with about 250 people taking part.\n\nDeputy NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon told reporters that one officer had been injured after being dragged into a road by a protester and that 47 arrests had been made.\n\nHe said police had stopped about 38,000 cars heading into the city centre and handed out 260 infringement notices to people across the state suspected of breaching lockdown regulations. He called the actions of the protesters \"deplorable\", saying the police response was not about stopping free speech but stopping the spread of coronavirus.\n\nPolice in Sydney also made dozens of arrests\n\nAbout 1,500 officers were deployed to disperse the protesters in Sydney and NSW police minister David Elliott said they had done an \"exemplary\" job.\n\nThe protests came hours after a lockdown in Sydney was extended until the end of September to slow the spread of a Covid outbreak.\n\nAuthorities also imposed a curfew on two million residents in the city's worst-hit suburbs.\n\nSydney residents have been under stay-at-home orders since late June. However, infections have more than doubled in the past week.\n\nCritics of the curfew say they do not think it is an effective virus control. NSW lawmakers have also criticised authorities for applying harsher restrictions in Sydney's poorer west and south-west suburbs.\n\nAustralia has been widely praised for its pandemic response and has recorded 978 deaths, fewer than many nations. But the emergence of the Delta variant in early June triggered a surge of infections.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada is a political and religious leader who is the third Supreme Commander of the Taliban\n\nThe Taliban took many by surprise as they swept across Afghanistan in just 10 days in August, quickly taking control of towns and cities.\n\nThe militant group has announced an interim government, declaring the country an \"Islamic Emirate\".\n\nThe cabinet will be led by Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, one of the movement's founders.\n\nSo, here's what is known about who is leading the Taliban today.\n\nHibatullah Akhundzada became the supreme commander of the Taliban in May 2016, and is now leader of the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.\n\nIn the 1980s, he participated in the Islamist resistance against the Soviet military campaign in Afghanistan, but his reputation is more that of a religious leader than a military commander.\n\nAkhundzada worked as head of the Sharia Courts in the 1990s.\n\nAfter first seizing power in the 1990s, the Taliban introduced and supported punishments according to their strict interpretation of Islamic law: they publicly executed murderers and adulterers and amputated thieves' limbs.\n\nUnder the leadership of the reclusive Mullah Mohammed Omar (who is thought to have died in 2013), the Taliban also banned television, music, movies, make-up, and stopped girls aged 10 and over from attending school.\n\nVery few images exist of former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, who died in 2013\n\nAkhundzada is believed to be in his 60s and has lived most of his life in Afghanistan.\n\nHowever, according to experts, he maintains close ties with the so-called \"Quetta Shura\" - the Afghan Taliban leaders said to be based in the Pakistani city of Quetta.\n\nAs the group's supreme commander, Akhundzada is in charge of political, military and religious affairs.\n\nMullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund is one of the four men who founded the Taliban in Afghanistan in 1994.\n\nHe is a longtime head the Taliban's powerful leadership council, or Rehbari Shura.\n\nHe served as foreign minister and deputy prime minister during the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan in 1996-2001.\n\nHe is under UN sanctions for his role in the government during that period.\n\nSirajuddin Haqqani is another of the group's top figures, who is on an FBI most wanted list.\n\nAfter the death of his father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, he became the new leader of the Haqqani network, which has been credited with some of the most violent attacks that have occurred in Afghanistan against Afghan forces and their Western allies in recent years.\n\nThe Haqqani network is currently one of the region's most powerful and feared militant groups. Some say it is even more influential than the Islamic State group in Afghanistan.\n\nThe Haqqani network is currently one of the most powerful and feared militant groups in the country\n\nThe group, designated by the US as a terrorist organisation, oversees the Taliban's financial and military assets along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.\n\nHaqqani is believed to be around 45.\n\nIn an opinion piece in the New York Times last year before the signing of the Doha agreement, Haqqani wrote: \"For more than four decades, precious Afghan lives have been lost every day. Everyone has lost somebody they loved. Everyone is tired of war. I am convinced that the killing and the maiming must stop.\"\n\nHe became a lynchpin of the insurgency after the militants were toppled by the US-led invasion in 2001.\n\nBut he was captured in a joint US-Pakistani operation in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi in February 2010.\n\nHe remained in prison for eight years, until he was released as part of a plan to facilitate the peace process. He has been the head of their political office in Qatar since January 2019.\n\nIn 2020, Baradar became the first Taliban leader to communicate directly with a US president after having a telephone conversation with Donald Trump. Before that, Baradar signed the Doha agreement on the withdrawal of US troops on behalf of the Taliban.\n\nThen US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Abdul Ghani Baradar met in September 2020 in Doha\n\nMohammad Yaqoob is the son of the founder of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammed Omar.\n\nHe is believed to be little more than 30 years old and is currently the leader of the group's military operations.\n\nFollowing the death of former Taliban leader Akhtar Mansour in 2016, some militants wanted to appoint Yaqoob as the group's new supreme commander, but others felt that he was young and lacking in experience.\n\nAs the Taliban advanced through the country, Yaqoob urged Taliban fighters not to harm members of the Afghan military or government and to stay out of abandoned homes of government and security officials who had fled, according to the Associated Press news agency.", "Part of the fence erected in the Evros region at Greece's border with Turkey\n\nGreece has completed a 40km (25-mile) fence and surveillance system on its border with Turkey amid concerns over a surge of migrants from Afghanistan.\n\n\"We cannot wait, passively, for the possible impact,\" Greece's Citizens' Protection Minister Michalis Chrisochoidis said on a visit to the region of Evros on Friday.\n\nHis comments came as Turkey called on European countries to take responsibility for Afghan migrants.\n\nIn a telephone conversation with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said a sharp increase in people leaving Afghanistan could pose \"a serious challenge for everyone\".\n\n\"A new wave of migration is inevitable if the necessary measures are not taken in Afghanistan and in Iran,\" Mr Erdogan said.\n\nThe rapid takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban, an Islamist militant group, has left some fearing for their lives and seeking to escape the country, often by any means necessary.\n\nMr Chrisochoidis said the crisis had created new \"possibilities for migrant flows\" into Europe.\n\nGreece began extending the fence at the border with Turkey last year, after initially installing a 12.5km fence in the region in 2012.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A child is handed over the wall at Kabul airport, as the chaos continues\n\nThe country, which was on the frontline of the migrant crisis in 2015 when more than a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East crossed from Turkey into the EU, has said it may send back any Afghans that arrive illegally through the country.\n\nOf those who arrived in Greece during the migrant crisis, many travelled further north throughout Europe, but about 60,000 have remained in the country.\n\nLast year, Athens temporarily blocked new asylum applications after Mr Erdogan said Turkey had \"opened the doors\" for migrants to travel to the EU.\n\nMr Mitsotakis said at the time that Greece had increased \"the level of deterrence at our borders to the maximum\", with security personnel deployed to the Evros land border.\n\nCorrection, 31 August 2021: This article has been amended to make clear that work to extend an existing fence has been completed.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBoris Johnson says he \"absolutely\" has full confidence in his foreign secretary amid criticism of Dominic Raab's decision not to call Afghan ministers over evacuating translators.\n\nMr Raab said he instead prioritised \"security\" at Kabul airport and \"delegated\" the call to a junior minister.\n\nBut that call did not happen due to the \"deteriorating situation\", he added.\n\nThe foreign secretary has rejected demands from the opposition to resign.\n\nSpeaking after a meeting of the government's emergency Cobra committee on Afghanistan, the prime minister dismissed suggestions the UK was uninterested in the issue, saying: \"The whole of the government has been working virtually round the clock.\"\n\nHe added that the situation at the airport in Kabul was \"getting slightly better\".\n\nHe also said that the UK's commitment to Afghanistan was \"lasting\", adding: \"What I want to assure people is that our political and diplomatic efforts to find a solution for Afghanistan - working with the Taliban, of course, if necessary - will go on.\"\n\nSince Saturday, the UK has evacuated 1,615 people, including 399 British nationals and their dependants, 320 embassy staff, and 402 Afghan nationals who worked for the UK government in Afghanistan.\n\nMeanwhile, the government has announced £5m for local councils in England, Scotland and Wales offering to house Afghans who have arrived under the Afghanistan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) programme.\n\nUnder the scheme, Afghans who face threats from the Taliban having work for the UK in Afghanistan, have been allowed to come to the UK.\n\nA separate resettlement scheme has also been set up to relocate up to 20,000 Afghans over the long term with Home Secretary Priti Patel emphasising that the majority of those should be women and girls and persecuted minorities.\n\nNew arrivals from Afghanistan will be offered a first dose of a Covid vaccine and \"rapid access to support for mental wellbeing\".\n\nThe government has said it will also provide \"appropriate clothing\" and toys for the children to keep them entertained.\n\nEarlier this week it emerged, in a report by The Daily Mail, that Dominic Raab had been on holiday in Crete last Friday and unavailable to make the phone call to the Afghan foreign minister, as the Taliban advanced towards Kabul, Afghanistan's capital.\n\n\"It should have been an absolute priority to speak to the Afghan government and set out the immediate actions necessary to ensure the safe evacuation of Britons and Afghans,\" she added.\n\nOn Friday, Mr Raab attended a virtual Nato meeting where the members emphasised the need for an \"inclusive\" government in Afghanistan and urged the Taliban to uphold human rights.\n\nMr Raab said: \"The UK's immediate priorities are working alongside our Nato allies to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a safe-haven for terrorists, ensuring that life-saving humanitarian aid can reach those who need it most, and working with international partners to safeguard stability in the region.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"You've seen my British passport, these are my children\"\n\n\"Get back, get back,\" screamed the British soldier at a crowd gathered in front of the secure compound where those being evacuated by the UK embassy are taken before flying out.\n\nIn front of him, many frantically waved their British passports in the air, hoping to be allowed through but a group of Afghan security guards wielding rubber hoses tried to push them back.\n\nMany in the crowd had not received any indication they would be evacuated, but had pitched up in any case, desperate for a route out of Afghanistan. Others, however, had received emails from the embassy telling them arrive here, and wait to be processed for a flight.\n\nThey include Helmand Khan, an Uber driver from west London, who had arrived with his young children in Afghanistan a few months back to visit relatives. He thrusts a handful of British passports towards me. \"For the last three days I'm trying to go inside,\" he tells me in despair, with his two young sons by his side.\n\nAlso here is Khalid, a former interpreter for the British army. His wife gave birth to a child just two weeks ago, and he's terrified the baby could die in such scenes. \"I've been here since the morning,\" he says, \"the Taliban lashed me on the back on my way.\"\n\nA short walk away is the main entrance to the compound. Thousands have turned up, the vast majority with no realistic prospect of being evacuated. British soldiers at times fired into the air to control the crowd. The only way to get inside is to somehow push your way through the crowd, and wave your documents in their faces, hoping they will allow you past. The situation seems even more chaotic at the airport gates manned by US soldiers, while in front of the main civilian entrance to the airport the Taliban have been regularly firing into the air and beating back crowds who try and surge inside.\n\nI'm constantly bombarded with questions by the Afghans who are trying to enter the British controlled compound, and who are at a total loss as to what to do. \"Can you help me?\" \"Will they let me in?\" Many try to show me documents they've brought with them, proving they spent time working with international forces or foreign embassies.\n\nOne young woman tells me she was an international basketball player. She has not had any contact with the British embassy, but says she's in fear for her life. She chokes up trying to describe her terror.\n\nThe Taliban insist all those linked to the government have been granted an amnesty. The group says it intends to establish an \"inclusive\" government, but many here are deeply anxious about the future.\n\nElsewhere in the city, things are far calmer. It feels like a different world. Shops and restaurants are opening up, though at a fruit and vegetable market stallholders tell me there are still significantly fewer people out and about. One man, selling cosmetic products, says there are far fewer women in particular, though it's not uncommon to see them on the streets.\n\nThe Taliban meanwhile are everywhere, patrolling in vehicles seized from the Afghan security forces. They say they're maintaining a presence to prevent looting and unrest, and some residents tell us they do feel more secure, not least because the militants are no longer carrying out targeted killings or bomb blasts.\n\nMany are still trying to establish what life under Taliban rule will look like. One taxi driver tells me he ferried a group of fighters across the city whilst playing music from the car stereo. \"They didn't say anything,\" he tells me whilst grinning, \"they're not strict like they were before.\"\n\nKhalid, a former interpreter for the British army, waits outside with his family\n\nBut other reports are emerging of the Taliban turning up at the homes of journalists or former government figures and questioning them. Many fear it's only a matter of time before they're targeted violently.\n\nBack close to the airport, and Khalid, the former interpreter with a young baby finally manages to make it into the holding compound.\n\nOthers are still struggling though and one British Afghan pleads with me to help. \"How can I take my children through this crowd,\" he asks? Many others, not eligible for evacuation but desperate to leave, will be left behind to face a deeply uncertain future.", "A woman buries her head in her hands at the airport as thousands try to flee\n\nLast Sunday, as Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, a woman in Kabul and her teenage son packed their lives into two leather suitcases and set out for the airport.\n\nIn the suitcases were jewellery, watches, cash, hard drives and work papers, and what clothes they could fit, including winter clothes, in case they ended up somewhere cold.\n\nThe woman, D, didn't live in Kabul. She had already been running for a week. Her journey began when she fled the border city she called home as Taliban fighters closed in. As an outspoken women's rights activist, she didn't feel safe there anymore.\n\nIn Kabul, in a dress, headscarf, mask and gloves, D tried to find a taxi to take her and her son to the airport. Eventually she gave up and they walked for an hour in the bristling heat, carrying their suitcases.\n\nThe airport was a maelstrom of chaos. Men, women and children were scaling the airport walls, milling on the tarmac, squatting around the taxiways, sitting atop parked planes. Young men were clinging to departing US Air Force planes in a doomed bid for freedom.\n\nDusk fell on the beleaguered city, and D and her son waited patiently for a flight. Then they gave up. As they stepped back out into the hot night, they encountered a rush of people towards the airport. They were engulfed by the crowd, and someone among them snatched their bags.\n\n\"We helplessly saw them being stolen in front of our eyes,\" D told me down the phone from Kabul, her voice trembling.\n\n\"They just ran away with our bags,\" she said. \"We lost everything again.\"\n\n\"Things have been stolen from me for as long as I remember - my childhood, my youth,\" she said. \"My work and my family saved me.\"\n\nWith huge crowds gathered, many have failed to even get close to the airport\n\nFor close to two decades, D has run a women's rights group in Afghanistan, teaching girls to read and providing women with shelter, counselling and training for jobs.\n\nNow she feared retribution. Some of the fathers, husbands, brothers, uncles, and fiancés of the women she helped went to prison. In their march towards Kabul, the Taliban freed inmates from several prisons, and some of those men now could be roaming free.\n\n\"I am sure they came looking for me,\" D said. \"I don't know what would have happened if I didn't flee in time.\"\n\nD and her son fled her hometown days before the Taliban arrived. They took separate flights to Kabul, and her husband travelled later by road - a two day journey. After she reached the capital, D spoke to the guard at their building back home. He told her some men had come to the apartment.\n\n\"The first night after invasion they came looking for us,\" she said. \"They knocked on the door. The guard refused to open.\"\n\nThe guard told her he heard the men through the door, discussing plans to shoot him and search the apartment, but they left instead. The next morning, the men came again, climbed the wall, and entered the house. They peppered him with questions: Where were D and her family? Where were their cars?\n\n\"Since then, every night they have come looking for me. Every night. They have ransacked our home,\" D said. \"I don't know who they were. They wore scarves. I heard they were accompanied by local Taliban who stood behind.\"\n\nThe Taliban took control of Kabul with barely any resistance\n\nD's life is one of immense courage in the face of violence. During the war between the Soviet forces and the mujahedeen, she survived rocket attacks on her school. Her headmistress was murdered for refusing to wear a headscarf, she said. Another teacher was killed for alleged communist sympathies.\n\nAfter school she moved to Kabul. During the civil war of the 1990s, she got married, finished her studies, had children, and kept moving homes as the war wrecked neighbourhood after neighbourhood.\n\n\"It was like we were leading a life of picnickers,\" she said. \"Every time the fighting arrived in my neighbourhood, we would just pick up our bedding and move.\"\n\nWhen the Taliban seized control of the city in 1996, D lost her job. She returned to her looted apartment in Kabul and, defying a Taliban ban, began teaching girls from there. In the apartment at least, there was an oven on hand to burn the teaching materials if the need arose.\n\nIn 2001, a new war started, but the ousting of the Taliban allowed her to teach again at least. And she went on to do much more for Afghanistan's women and girls. It was never easy, she said.\n\n\"I have struggled all my life. I have never really enjoyed it. Even when you are working for women in Afghanistan, you are making enemies and becoming targets of many men.\"\n\nGirls have been taught in schools alongside boys since the Taliban was ousted in 2001. Now many fear for girls' education.\n\nAs the Taliban approached her hometown two weeks ago, D feared she would become a target again. When her three sons were young, the family received threats to kidnap them because of her work, she said. Two of her sons were sent abroad while the US kept the Taliban at bay. The eldest hasn't seen his father in a decade; the youngest in three years.\n\nLast Sunday, as Kabul fell, the three family members left in Afghanistan hunkered down once again in fear and anxiety.\n\n\"I am tired mum,\" D's son told her. \"How long should we run and hide because of your work? Why do we have to pay the price for what you do?\"\n\n\"My work and family were my only happiness,\" she said. \"They have stolen my happiness.\"\n\nAs the week ended, some hope arrived. D got word that there might be seats on a plane for her, her husband, and her son - either to the US or Europe.\n\nThey went back to the airport and waited again - on the run for the third time in three weeks. This time they took just three small bags containing their valuables. \"There's really nothing else to carry,\" D told me, over the phone from the airport. \"We will buy clothes when I reach wherever they take us.\"\n\nI asked her if her son was feeling better.\n\n\"Not really,\" she said. \"Running away was never his choice. It's always been a question of survival. It is the price my family has paid for my work.\"\n\nWhen she woke him on Friday to tell him they were going back to the airport he said, \"I want to sleep and I want to be free.\"\n\nThis was our last conversation, on Friday. D was in limbo, like thousands of others. Destination unknown. Life precarious. Jolted suddenly into a different existence.\n\n\"I didn't expect this to happen and so fast,\" she said. \"We had just finished painting the house. We were hoping to enjoy a peaceful life next year.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nGabriel Jesus made his first start of the season in Manchester City's big win on Saturday Pep Guardiola highlighted Gabriel Jesus' \"incredible importance\" to Manchester City after he stole the show from £100m man Jack Grealish in the champions' demolition of Norwich. Grealish opened his City account on his Premier League home debut, one of three goals Jesus laid on for his team-mates against the outclassed Canaries. The Brazil striker has been linked with a move away from Etihad Stadium as a way of opening up funds for the purchase of Harry Kane from Tottenham but Guardiola was thrilled with Jesus's contribution from the right side of the attack. \"If one person deserves respect and prizes and everything, it is him [Jesus] because he never complains. He is fantastic and all of us have to learn from him,\" the Manchester City manager told BBC Sport. \"He can play as a striker, he can play left, he can play right - always what the team needs. He can play 10 minutes from the bench and he will play the best 10 minutes he can play.\"\n• None Follow reaction plus the rest of Saturday's Premier League action\n• None Everything you need to know about Manchester City, all in one place\n• None Everything you need to know about Norwich City, all in one place Jesus is yet to become a regular starter under Guardiola, making 54 Premier League substitute appearances alongside 78 starts since joining the club from Palmeiras for £27m in 2016. But with Sergio Aguero departing for Barcelona in the summer and City's intentions regarding Kane still uncertain, Guardiola hinted he will call upon the 24-year-old more this term. \"He has so much importance for me. It's not just when he makes an exceptional performance like today, it's every day,\" Guardiola added. \"One of the reasons why I am a manager in the best moments of my career, apart from the titles and trophies, is because you can work with people like Gabriel. He is an incredibly important player for us.\" England midfielder Grealish ingratiated himself with his new adoring fans thanks to his goal and typically busy display, but it was Jesus who unlocked the Canaries' cage to ensure this was a stroll. His clever movement, control and delivery created three of City's five goals, all from low, inviting balls across the face of the six-yard box that wreaked havoc among the Norwich defence. There was some fortune about the first two as Grant Hanley's attempted clearance flew in off Norwich keeper Tim Krul before City's second bounced in off Grealish's knee. Jack Grealish's goal was his first since January, when he struck in Aston Villa's 3-2 defeat at Burnley However, the lead was just reward for the imperious hosts, who saw a neat Ferran Torres finish chalked off in-between those goals after the video assistant referee noticed Bernardo Silva's clip on Milot Rashica in the build-up. Aymeric Laporte added the third, steering home a corner from close range, before Jesus guided Kyle Walker's through ball into the path of Raheem Sterling for the substitute to sweep home City's fourth. Riyad Mahrez also came off the bench to round off the rout, beating Krul one-on-one as City emphatically put any lingering worries over three successive defeats - this season and last - behind them. Bigger tests, of course, await with Arsenal, Leicester, Chelsea and Liverpool among their next five fixtures - with defeats in the Champions League final, Community Shield and league to Chelsea, Leicester and Tottenham respectively still relatively fresh in the mind. \"One week ago, we are not contenders to win the Premier League. Now we are scary!\" smiled Guardiola. \"Listen, we are same team except for Sergio, who went to Barcelona, and Jack coming in. We are the same guys and the same team we were last season - and last season was exceptional.\" Only two teams - Leicester in 2001-02 and Wigan in 2010-11 - have had a goal difference worse than Norwich's of minus eight two games into a Premier League season but they will take some solace that Liverpool and City are already out of the way, until next year at least. This scoreline was a repeat of Norwich's most recent visit there in July 2020, which came just 10 months after they provided one of the most memorable all-time Premier League surprises by beating City 3-2 at Carrow Road. Teemu Pukki and Todd Cantwell, scorers that evening, are among a handful of players remaining but neither had a sniff on Saturday as Norwich failed to force Ederson into a single save. They were unfortunate for City's opener as Hanley's clearance was going out for a corner until it struck Krul, still stationed at his near post, but they did not learn from the mistake of allowing space out wide to manager Daniel Farke's frustration. \"I am disappointed because four times we conceded more or less the same goal. Of course they have unbelievable quality but we also have to fulfil our work with more quality,\" said the Canaries boss.\n• None Attempt missed. Raheem Sterling (Manchester City) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Riyad Mahrez following a corner.\n• None Attempt blocked. Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.\n• None Goal! Manchester City 5, Norwich City 0. Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Rúben Dias with a through ball.\n• None Offside, Norwich City. Max Aarons tries a through ball, but Milot Rashica is caught offside.\n• None Attempt missed. Milot Rashica (Norwich City) right footed shot from the left side of the box is close, but misses the top right corner following a fast break. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "Around 300,000 carbon dioxide monitors are to be made available to schools in England next term to help improve ventilation and lessen Covid outbreaks.\n\nThe Department for Education said the portable monitors could be used to identify areas where more air-flow is needed.\n\nTeaching unions have been calling for urgent extra ventilation measures.\n\nThey welcomed the pledge, but added any ventilation needs picked up by the monitors must be acted upon.\n\nMost Covid safety restrictions have been relaxed in England's schools. Neither masks, bubble groups nor socially distancing rules are required this coming term.\n\nMany schools have been opening windows and doors to keep air moving around classrooms to lessen the likelihood of Covid outbreaks, but this is easier in warmer weather.\n\nPupils will be offered twice weekly Covid testing and two tests at school when the autumn term starts to lessen the amount of infection coming into school.\n\nHowever, those who have come into contact with a confirmed case will no longer have to isolate.\n\nThe removal of restrictions has left teachers and some parents concerned that the mass-mixing of pupils may lead to a spike in Covid cases.\n\nEducation Secretary Gavin Williamson said: \"Providing all schools with CO2 monitors will help them make sure they have the right balance of measures in place, minimising any potential disruption to education and allowing them to focus on world class lessons and catch up for the children who need it.\n\n\"By keeping up simple measures such as ventilation and testing, young people can now enjoy more freedom at school and college,\" he added.\n\nThe DfE says it is prioritising special schools and alternative provision for the delivery of CO2 monitors, as they are likely to have higher rates of vulnerable pupils.\n\nBut a statement on Friday made clear that this £25m batch of CO2 monitors has yet to be fully procured, less than two weeks before many schools return.\n\nHowever, it said: \"All schools and colleges are expected to receive at least partial allocations during the autumn term, enabling all settings to monitor areas where they believe airflow may be weakest.\"\n\nGeoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: \"In truth, this equipment should have been in place ready for the start of the autumn term, and arguably a lot earlier in the crisis, but it is a case of better late than never.\n\n\"Government guidance to schools and colleges on reducing the risk of coronavirus transmission highlights the importance of keeping spaces well ventilated, but doesn't go much further than recommending that windows should be opened to improve natural ventilation.\n\n\"This is challenging in the depths of a British winter and does not make for an environment which is conducive to learning. Our understanding is that carbon dioxide monitors will indicate when spaces need ventilating thereby reducing the need to keep windows open all the time.\"\n\nKevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: \"This is a really welcome first step in accepting our argument that funding is needed for good ventilation.\n\n\"It follows examples set by administrations in New York City, Scotland and Ireland.\n\n\"Sadly, Gavin Williamson failed to get on the front-foot over the summer but the initial investment of £25m in CO2 monitors is welcome now and will start to make a difference. It is vital, though, that government must also commit to supporting schools to address any ventilation problems identified by these monitors.\"", "Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has been urged to step up efforts to get British and eligible Afghans to the UK, amid claims some had been attacked while waiting to leave the country.\n\nLisa Nandy said she had heard of people being beaten, shot at or raped while trying to get documentation in Kabul.\n\nThe shadow foreign secretary urged Mr Raab to work with Nato partners to set up a safe corridor to the airport.\n\nThe Foreign Office said it was trying to get people out as fast as possible.\n\nA spokeswoman said the government's \"top priority\" was to \"do all we can to deliver on our obligations to British nationals, and those who have helped us\".\n\nMore than 3,000 people, including British nationals and Afghan staff, have been evacuated from the country since Sunday, the Foreign Office said.\n\nThere have been chaotic scenes outside Kabul airport as thousands of Afghans have desperately sought to leave the country and governments have scrambled to evacuate their citizens and eligible Afghan colleagues.\n\nThe US has warned its citizens to avoid the airport, with continued chaos outside the terminal.\n\nFormer UK PM Tony Blair - who sent UK troops into Afghanistan 20 years ago - has said the UK has a \"moral obligation\" to stay in the country until \"all those who need to be are evacuated\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy says there are reports of beatings and rapes outside Kabul airport\n\nAbout 4,500 US troops are in temporary control of Hamid Karzai International Airport, with about 900 British soldiers also on patrol at the site as part of efforts to secure the evacuation flights.\n\nMs Nandy told BBC News: \"The fact that people are being asked to carry documentation that links them to the United Kingdom in order to prove their eligibility but that is the documentation that makes them a target for the Taliban who are checking those documents en route.\n\n\"There are no safe corridors to the airport, there are makeshift camps that have sprung up where people are being beaten and even reports of rapes.\"\n\nThe Labour MP wrote in the letter to Mr Raab: \"My office is currently in touch with hundreds of people who cannot reach the Baron Hotel or Hamid Karzai International Airport, have been beaten at checkpoints or turned away - some with young children.\"\n\nShe said many of those stranded at the airport perimeter were women or girls, asking Mr Raab to consider establishing a military policing operation with Nato allies \"just outside the gate, or a processing zone inside\".\n\nShe also said the Baron Hotel in Kabul, where many British nationals are being told to travel for processing, is being blockaded by the Taliban.\n\nAfghans have been waiting near the airport as they try to leave Kabul\n\nTaliban militants have been manning checkpoints around the perimeter of the airport and blocking Afghans without travel documents from entering.\n\nTwelve people have been killed in or around Kabul airport since Sunday, according to a Taliban official quoted by the Reuters news agency.\n\nBut even those with valid papers have struggled to get to the airport, with reports that some have been beaten by Taliban guards.\n\nThe US embassy in Afghanistan has issued a security alert advising American citizens not to travel to Kabul airport, warning of \"potential security threats outside the gates\", while other countries, including Switzerland and Germany, have raised concerns about the situation outside the airport.\n\nMs Nandy praised those - including military and diplomatic staff - \"working around the clock to help people in difficult and dangerous circumstances\". But she said \"many, many people\" were \"in danger of losing their lives\".\n\nAnother Labour MP, Chris Bryant, said there were many reports of British nationals and families being unable to reach the Foreign Office through its dedicated telephone helpline.\n\nHe said calls either go \"straight to a voicemail sending people back to the [government] website or nothing at all\".\n\nThe Foreign Office said the line for UK nationals to request consular support was working.\n\nMr Blair said the decision to withdraw troops was \"tragic, dangerous, unnecessary\" and that it was not in the West or Afghanistan's interests. He said the move by US troops had \"every Jihadist group round the world cheering\".\n\nThe former Labour leader said: \"We must evacuate and give sanctuary to those to whom we have responsibility - those Afghans who helped us and stood by us and have a right to demand we stand by them.\n\n\"There must be no repetition of arbitrary deadlines. We have a moral obligation to keep at it until all those who need to be are evacuated. And we should do so not grudgingly but out of a deep sense of humanity and responsibility.\"\n\nThe US has a planned deadline of 31 August for withdrawal - but President Biden has said troops may stay past this date to help with evacuations.\n\nMr Blair admitted mistakes had been made over Afghanistan, but \"the reaction to our mistakes have been unfortunately further mistakes\". He said while \"imperfect\", the \"real gains over the past 20 years\" were now likely to be lost.\n\nSir Laurie Bristow, British ambassador to Afghanistan, has said the evacuation from Kabul has been \"without a doubt\" his greatest international challenge.\n\nThe diplomat has stayed in Afghanistan to help process visas, relocating from the embassy to an emergency handling centre at the city's airport.\n\nHe added that his team would continue to \"work tirelessly to get British nationals, Afghan staff and others at risk out of the country as quickly as possible as we also support Afghanistan's long-term future\".\n\nPen Farthing insists he will not leave Afghanistan without his staff and the charity's rescued animals\n\nMeanwhile, a former Royal Marine who founded an animal welfare charity in Kabul said he was now \"in talks\" with the Foreign Office about getting his staff out of Afghanistan.\n\nPaul \"Pen\" Farthing said 68 workers and their families were being processed, so they could \"hopefully\" come to the UK.\n\nThe Foreign Office confirmed it was in contact with Mr Farthing, with a spokeswoman saying it was \"working closely with the Home Office to offer assistance\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"You've seen my British passport, these are my children\"\n\nOn Thursday, Mr Farthing wrote on Twitter that his wife, Kaisa, had made it on to an evacuation flight out of the capital, Kabul.\n\nThis 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 Pen Farthing 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.\n\nSharing a photograph of the \"empty\" flight, he said the situation was \"scandalous as thousands wait outside Kabul airport being crushed as they cannot get in\", before warning people would get \"left behind\" in Afghanistan.\n\nHowever, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has insisted that no plane carrying Britons and Afghans to the UK has left Kabul empty, adding the government was \"absolutely ploughing through the numbers\".\n\nThe MoD has released a picture of people on an evacuation flight out of Kabul", "The Ever Given, part of the Evergreen fleet, was impounded for three months after its release\n\nThe huge container ship that blocked the Suez Canal in March - disrupting global trade - has passed back through the waterway without incident.\n\nThe Ever Given was among a convoy of vessels sailing from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said.\n\nIt had been offloading its cargo in Europe and is now en route to Asia.\n\nThe ship was refloated after a major six-day salvage operation that led to the death of one person.\n\nIt was then impounded for three months near the canal city of Ismailia while a compensation deal was agreed between Egypt and the Ever Given's owners.\n\nThis 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 هيئة قناة السويس Suez Canal Authority 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.\n\nThe SCA, in a series of tweets, said the Ever Given was escorted through the 193km (120-mile) canal by two tugboats and senior SCA guides.\n\nIt was one of 26 ships that travelled from north to south through the canal on Friday, while 36 ships sailed in the opposite direction, the SCA added, hailing the waterway as the \"shortest and fastest navigational route linking the east with the west\".\n\nThe Ever Given, one of the world's largest container ships, had been delivering its 18,300 containers to Rotterdam, Felixstowe and Hamburg and is now travelling to China.\n\nA satellite photograph reveals how the Ever Given was wedged across the canal\n\nThe 400m-long (1,312ft) ship became wedged across the canal after running aground amid high winds on 23 March, blocking it for hundreds of ships and disrupting global trade.\n\nFollowing its release, the SCA sought compensation for the Ever Given's Japanese owner Shoei Kisen for the cost of the salvage operation, damage to the canal's banks and other losses.\n\nThe terms of the deal were not disclosed but Egypt had eventually settled on a $550m (£397m) demand.", "Last updated on .From the section The Hundred\n\nCoverage: Both matches live on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and online. Radio commentary of both matches, plus live text, clips and analysis on BBC Sport website\n\nAfter 31 days and 66 games The Hundred reaches its finale on Saturday at Lord's - the historic home of cricket.\n\nFour teams - two men's and two women's - meet in two finals, each bidding to be crowned the first champions of The Hundred.\n\nWeather permitting (more on that later), favourites Southern Brave meet Oval Invincibles in the women's final at 15:00 BST, followed by an eye-catching men's final between the Brave and Birmingham Phoenix at 18:30.\n\nBoth games are live on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website from 14:30 on a bumper day of cricket on the BBC.\n\n\"The first 100-ball final, to be there is very special,\" said Southern Brave bowler George Garton, the Match Hero in his side's win in Friday's eliminator.\n\n\"The crowds, atmosphere and everything around the Hundred, it is probably one of the most anticipated white ball games for a while - definitely since the [men's] World Cup final [in 2019].\"\n\nThe Invincibles reached the final with a thrilling comeback win against Birmingham Phoenix in the eliminator on Friday.\n\nTheir run has been led by their supreme captain Dane van Niekerk while they also have the leading wicket-taker in Tash Farrant and the exciting 17-year-old all-rounder Alice Capsey.\n\nThe new tournament has been much-debated but the final, at a sold out Lord's, comes at the end of a month which has showcased the domestic women's game in the UK like never before.\n\n\"I know the atmosphere is going to be electric,\" Farrant said. \"It is going to be a landmark game but this whole tournament has been.\"\n\nIn comparison to the Invincbles, the Brave have had their feet up, having qualified directly for the final as group-stage winners.\n\nThey dominated the group stage, winning seven of eight games, and beat the Invincibles comprehensively when the sides met on Monday - the Brave's last fixture.\n\nTheir success has been built around a feared top order of Danni Wyatt, Smriti Mandhana and Sophia Dunkley - although India international Mandhana has now left the competition - and the skill of Anya Shrubsole, 20-year-old Lauren Bell and Amanda-Jade Wellington with the ball.\n\nThe Brave are also coached by England legend Charlotte Edwards who is looking to add the first Hundred title to her haul being the winning captain in the first Kia Super League and the first coach to win the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy.\n• None I never dreamed of playing at Lord's - stars discuss impact of women's Hundred\n\nBirmingham Phoenix topped the group but the Brave have won six matches in a row since losing their opening two games, including a thumping win against Trent Rockets in Friday's eliminator.\n\nPhoenix captain and all-rounder Moeen Ali has returned from England duty to play while Liam Livingstone is one of the form batters in the country. He hit an incredible 92 not out from 40 balls with 10 sixes in his last innings on Tuesday.\n\nThe Brave have a formidable bowling attack, however. England internationals Chris Jordan, Craig Overton, Tymal Mills and Danny Briggs are joined by the spin of Jake Lintott.\n\n\"The way Livi [Livingstone] played in their last game showed how destructive he can be his wicket will be crucial early on,\" Garton said.\n\n\"Mo has shown how good he is for a number of years. He is one of the best strikers in the world. We will have our plans and hopefully they come off.\"\n\nThe Brave side will also feature their captain, England's James Vince, and South Africa international Quinton de Kock. The Phoenix squad has a number of lesser-known names such as Will Smeed - an in-from, destructive opener and the youngest player in the men's competition.\n\n\"You play franchise cricket to get through to finals,\" Livingstone said.\n\n\"We have a lot of young lads and for them it is going to be their first final. It is all about enjoying the experience. These days don't come around too often.\"\n• None Tymal Mills: 'unglamorous' but the bowler England need?\n\nWhat if the weather intervenes?\n\nBut one thing that could scupper the finale is the weather, with rain forecast for much of Saturday in London.\n\nThere is a reserve day in place (Sunday) but organisers want to achieve results on Saturday if possible, even if it means the games have to be shortened.\n\nThe shortest possible match is 25 balls per side.\n\nIdeally, organisers also want to have finals of equal length, if possible, meaning they see two shortened games preferable to one wash-out and one 100-ball per side match.\n• None \"My body's tired... but my mind is racing\": Why are thousands of young people struggling to sleep?\n• None Follow Cath Pendleton as she prepares to swim a mile in Antartica", "Mark Frerichs, left, was taken by the Taliban in 2020\n\nCharlene Cakora, 57, spent a frantic week in Washington DC trying to convey a message to President Joe Biden: rescue her brother from Taliban captivity.\n\nMrs Cakora's brother, Mark Frerichs, was kidnapped by the group over a year ago. He is one of two remaining Americans thought to have been kidnapped by the Taliban during the US war in Afghanistan who is still unaccounted for.\n\nAmid the Afghan government's collapse, the fall of Kabul and chaotic scenes of thousands scrambling to flee the country being broadcast around the globe, his family said they were increasingly desperate for his return, and frustrated by the lack of progress from the government.\n\n\"We have been at war with the Taliban for 20 years. President Biden declared the war over on 31 August,\" Mrs Cakora told the BBC. \"When a war ends, each side get to have their prisoners come home. That is all we are asking for Mark.\"\n\nThe family had \"waited patiently\" through both the Trump and Biden administrations, she said.\n\n\"[We] were told that efforts were underway to get my brother home,\" she added. \"Well, they were not.\"\n\nAt least seven US civilians have been taken captive or gone missing during the war in Afghanistan. Of the total, one was reportedly killed, one escaped, and three were rescued or released. An eighth captive, Bowe Bergdahl, was a US soldier captured after deserting his post in 2009. He was released in 2014.\n\nMr Frerichs, 59, had been living and working in Kabul as a civil engineer for 10 years when he was kidnapped.\n\nA \"journeyman contractor\" who went from project to project, motivated by a desire to help people in need, he had found \"a good fit for himself in Afghanistan,\" Mrs Cakora said. \"Three days before he was kidnapped, he told me that he had just finished a municipal water project. He was so proud of it.\"\n\nThe US Navy veteran was lured to a meeting to discuss a potential project and taken against his will to Khost Province, a former national security official told the BBC.\n\nMr Frerichs and an Afghan colleague examine a project they worked on together\n\nIn Khost, the official said, he was handed over to the Haqqani Network, one of the region's most powerful and feared militant groups. The network's leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is one of the Taliban's top deputy leaders.\n\nAdvocates working to secure Mr Frerichs' release say that the \"only\" thing that the Taliban have mentioned when US officials have pressed for his return is the release of Bashir Noorzai, a Taliban-affiliated drug lord who has been imprisoned in the US for the last 16 years.\n\nNoorzai, who was arrested in 2005, was sentenced to life in prison in 2009 on charges that he imported over $50m (£36m) worth of heroin from Afghanistan and Pakistan into the US and other countries. He fought alongside the now-deceased Taliban founder Mullah Mohammed Omar against Soviet occupation in the 1980s, and is believed to have supplied the group with financial backing, weapons, ammunition and as many as 400 fighters.\n\nResponding to BBC queries, a state department spokesperson said that the US Special Representative for Afghanistan has pressed the Taliban for Mr Frerichs' release and raised the issue with Taliban representatives in Qatar and Pakistan.\n\n\"We place a high priority on Marks Frerichs' safety and will not stop working until he is safely returned to his family,\" the spokesperson said.\n\nSpokespeople at the Taliban's representative office in Qatar did not respond to BBC requests for comment.\n\nMrs Cakora said that while the family understands that an exchange of Noorzai for Mr Frerichs is a \"hard trade\" and that it would mean making concessions to kidnappers, they believe it is the only viable option.\n\nWhen asked what she would tell the White House about her case, Mrs Cakora directed a plea at President Biden.\n\n\"Please treat my brother like he was your son and act to bring him home quickly,\" she said.\n\nShe also had a message for Taliban political leader Abdul Ghani Baradar.\n\n\"We know that this war is ending, and you want your prisoners back as much as we want my brother,\" she said. \"Please treat him well and work with US officials to arrange a prisoner swap that gets you Bashir Noorzai and returns Mark home safely to us. Let that be the one thing that both sides can see as a win.\"\n\nBesides Mr Frerichs, only one other American suspected to have been abducted in Afghanistan, author Paul Overby Jr, remains unaccounted for. Mr Overby was last heard from in May 2014, when he vanished in Khost while traveling to interview Sirajuddin Haqqani. The Taliban have denied any involvement.\n\nWith the situation in Afghanistan growing more dangerous by the day, Mrs Cakora expressed hope that her brother's release may provide a small positive outcome.\n\n\"President Biden has the power to make it happen,\" she said. \"The story on our exit from Afghanistan is horrible. Can't we get one glimmer of good news by having my brother come home?\"", "The government is coming under further pressure to help alleviate the UK's lorry driver shortage.\n\nLobby groups for the retail and transport industries have jointly written to Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng warning the impact on supply chains is getting worse.\n\nThey want a review of plans not to grant temporary work visas to drivers from the EU, and better training.\n\nMinisters have said employers should invest in British workers.\n\nLogistics UK, which represents freight firms, and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) say that while Brexit and Covid-19 caused lorry drivers to leave the UK, a temporary visa could lure them back.\n\nThe two groups said in their letter a shortfall of about 90,000 HGV drivers \"is placing increasingly unsustainable pressure on retailers and their supply chains\".\n\n\"While there was a shortage of HGV drivers prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit, these two events have exacerbated situation.\n\n\"The pandemic halted driver training and testing for over 12 months, while an estimated 25,000 EU drivers returned home during the pandemic and following the end of the transition period.\"\n\nThe situation is likely to worsen over the coming weeks, the groups warn. The start of the school year and return of workers to offices is likely to increase the number of deliveries and locations, and the industry is fast approaching its busiest period - the build up to Christmas.\n\nThe two groups call for three specific measures:\n\nThe Road Haulage Association has already said that there was shortfall of about 60,000 lorry drivers in the UK over the summer. Supermarkets such as Tesco and Aldi have been offering bonuses and other incentives to boost recruitment, but the labour squeeze continues.\n\nAnalysis of the latest ONS Labour Force Survey for the second quarter suggests that 14,000 EU lorry drivers left jobs in the UK in the year to June 2020, and only 600 had returned by July 2021.\n\nA government spokesperson said on Friday: \"The British people repeatedly voted to end free movement and take back control of our immigration system and employers should invest in our domestic workforce instead of relying on labour from abroad.\n\n\"We recently announced a package of measures to help tackle the HGV driver shortage, including plans to streamline the process for new drivers to gain their HGV licence and to increase the number of tests able to be conducted.\n\n\"We have also temporarily relaxed drivers' hours rules to allow HGV drivers to make slightly longer journeys, but these must only be used where necessary and must not compromise driver safety.\"", "A US flag is seen posted in the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York, two days after the attack there Image caption: A US flag is seen posted in the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York, two days after the attack there\n\nThe BBC is covering the 20th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US, which led to the 20-year conflict in Afghanistan.\n\nThis is the story of Chris Cruz, who explains in an interview to BBC's OS programme why he decided to join the US army.\n\n\"My mother was heading to work on a normal 11 September day. As soon as she exited the subway, she was told to start running as the buildings were coming down. She literally saw them coming down and described people jumping out of the windows,\" says Chris.\n\n\"When she finally made it home, I - as an 11-year-old boy at the time - had to tell her that she had burn marks and blood spots on the back of her legs. She was in a state of shock.\n\n\"As I grew up, I realised... I had the ability to be part of an organisation that could defend and prevent these atrocities for all Americans.\n\n\"9/11 played a role, but not in a way of revenge. I didn't want to join out of bloodlust. I served two tours in Afghanistan. Both of those times I volunteered to go.\n\n\"I don't think our mission would have succeeded without our Afghan partners. I agree we couldn't be there forever, but we made a promise to keep our partners safe and that we wouldn't turn our backs on them, and that's exactly what we've done.\"\n\nChris adds: \"I do think the way we pulled out, the way we left it, was completely wrong. There needed to be a better exit strategy.\"", "Hajrah Aslam spent 11 week in a rehab centre before she was able to go home to her husband and son\n\nA woman with Covid-19 who gave birth before going into an induced coma for six weeks said it was a \"dream come true\" to be at home with her baby.\n\nHajrah Aslam, from Peterborough, gave birth to her first child, Huzayfah, after she caught coronavirus in January when she was 35 weeks pregnant.\n\nShe then went into a coma after her oxygen levels dropped dangerously low.\n\nThe 28-year-old said: \"I feel like I've missed out from the beginning, but now is the time to make up for that.\"\n\nShe is now at home with her seven-month-old son after 11 weeks of rehabilitation at Askham Rehab in Doddington, Cambridgeshire.\n\nHer therapy included working on being able to walk and climb stairs comfortably and strengthening her arms and legs.\n\nThe insurance worker said: \"All I could see was my baby boy's face.\n\n\"I kept on saying his name, even when I was in excruciating pain, I kept on going and going.\"\n\nHuzayfah was born by Caesarean in January\n\nMs Aslam is now continuing her recovery at home with husband, son, and parents.\n\nShe said: \"The challenging part was me knowing that I have a baby and I'm a first-time mum. I planned everything - his clothes, his pram... mentally that was the challenging part for me.\n\n\"It's a dream come true [to see him every day].\"\n\nSara Neaves, clinical lead and outpatients service manager at the rehab centre, said: \"When Hajrah arrived at Askham, we really had to start at the basics.\n\n\"The key to Hajrah's amazing progression was her determination, motivation and hard work.\n\n\"Due to all these incredible traits, Hajrah was able to leave us much sooner than anyone had initially expected.\n\n\"Considering the condition she was in when she arrived, an 11-week discharge is an incredible feat.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nGoals from Diogo Jota and Sadio Mane ensured Liverpool made it two Premier League wins from two with victory over Burnley at a packed Anfield.\n\nIn what was a promising all-round performance by Liverpool, captain Jordan Henderson returned to the starting XI after missing the opening-day win over Norwich, with teenager Harvey Elliott also impressing on his first Premier League start.\n\nJota opened the scoring in the 18th minute, heading past Nick Pope from Konstantinos Tsimikas' cross for his second goal in as many games.\n\nMohamed Salah had the ball in the back of the net eight minutes later, but it was ruled out by the video assistant referee as the Egyptian was offside in the build-up.\n\nSean Dyche's side were looking for back-to-back league wins at Anfield for the first time since 1897 after ending Liverpool's 68-game unbeaten home run last season.\n\nBut Burnley's brave defence were finally beaten again as Jurgen Klopp's side doubled their lead through a superb second-half Mane strike.\n\nEmotions were high before the match as Liverpool prepared to play in front of a full house at Anfield for the first time since 11 March 2020.\n\nA full 528 days after the club last welcomed a capacity crowd, for their Champions League match with Atletico Madrid, fans belted out a rousing rendition of 'You'll Never Walk Alone', which was followed by touching tributes prior to kick-off.\n\nThere was a minute's applause as Anfield paid respects to lifelong supporter Andrew Devine, the 97th victim of the Hillsborough tragedy.\n\nFans on the Kop held up a mosaic with the number 97, as Henderson laid a wreath in front of the famous stand to remember the 55-year-old, who died in July, 32 years after suffering life-changing injuries in the 1989 disaster.\n\nWhen the match got under way, Burnley had the first real chance with Dwight McNeil hitting the post inside four minutes, but it was Jota who sent the returning Liverpool supporters into raptures with his first-half header.\n\nThe Portuguese nipped between the Clarets' centre back pairing of Ben Mee and James Tarkowski to nod past Pope for his first league goal at Anfield since November 2020.\n\nBurnley thought they equalised soon after half-time, but Ashley Barnes' effort was ruled out for offside.\n\nBoth managers were frustrated with decisions from referee Mike Dean, with 18 fouls conceded throughout the match and no yellow cards issued.\n\nLiverpool took their time to settle into the second half, but soon found their rhythm and managed 17 shots after the break, seven of which were on target.\n\nAnd it was a superb bit of play, started by Virgil van Dijk and finished by Mane, which sealed the three points.\n\nVan Dijk's long ball out wide found Elliott, who chested it down before finding Trent Alexander-Arnold. The right-back clipped a first-time pass into the box for Mane to fire past Pope as he opened his tally for the new season with his 50th goal for the Reds.\n• None Attempt missed. Jack Cork (Burnley) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the right.\n• None Attempt saved. Ashley Barnes (Burnley) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Jay Rodriguez.\n• None Attempt missed. Ben Mee (Burnley) header from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Josh Brownhill with a cross following a corner.\n• None Attempt blocked. Jay Rodriguez (Burnley) left footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Ashley Barnes.\n• None Attempt saved. Roberto Firmino (Liverpool) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Sadio Mané.\n• None Offside, Burnley. Ashley Barnes tries a through ball, but Jay Rodriguez is caught offside.\n• None Attempt missed. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) left footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. Assisted by Trent Alexander-Arnold.\n• None Attempt blocked. Thiago (Liverpool) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Roberto Firmino.\n• None Attempt missed. Dwight McNeil (Burnley) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Ashley Barnes.\n• None Attempt saved. Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool) right footed shot from the right side of the box is saved in the top centre of the goal. Assisted by Mohamed Salah. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Everything you need to know about Liverpool, all in one place\n• None Everything you need to know about Burnley, all in one place\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "Tara was less than five weeks old and sick with a potentially deadly virus when she was smuggled into Dover\n\nWelfare standards for dogs imported to the UK are to be tightened amid a rise in the \"grim trade\" of puppy smuggling, the government has said.\n\nPlans include raising the minimum age for imported puppies from 15 weeks to 6 months and banning the importing of dogs with cropped ears or docked tails.\n\nBringing heavily pregnant dogs into the UK would also be banned.\n\nThe number of puppies seized at the border jumped from 324 in 2019 to 843 last year.\n\nThey were just a fraction of the 66,000 dogs imported into the UK in 2020 but the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said poor treatment and smuggling was on the increase.\n\nIn one case, four beagle puppies were found - hungry, dehydrated and just eight weeks old - in the back of an abandoned vehicle in London.\n\nThey were believed to have been illegally imported from the Republic of Ireland.\n\nSix puppies, too young to be imported, were seized at the port of Dover after being smuggled from Romania. Covered in sticky oil and suffering from diarrhoea, they had been travelling in a van for 24 hours.\n\nBy raising the minimum age for importing puppies, the government hopes to prevent them from being separated from their mothers too early, which can increase their risk of illness and death.\n\nThe rise in puppy smuggling comes amid a surge in demand for puppies during the last 18 months of coronavirus lockdowns, with prices in some areas more than doubling to an average of almost £1,900 each.\n\nChewie, a one-year-old Yorkshire terrier cross, was one of 11 puppies rescued by police from the back of a van in Nottinghamshire in March.\n\nThe puppies are thought to have been imported from Ireland to be sold in the UK and were found in a carrier bag and a guinea pig cage.\n\nSadly five or six of the puppies died from illness, but Chewie escaped without any long-term issues, says owner Elizabeth Morgan, who rehomed him from the RSPCA.\n\n\"He's doing really well...[but] he doesn't like carrier bags or cardboard boxes,\" Elizabeth told BBC Breakfast.\n\nThis puppy in the care of the Dogs Trust was found covered in oil\n\nAnimal Welfare Minister Lord Goldsmith said: \"Puppy smuggling is a grim trade, and we are determined to clamp down on it.\n\n\"Raising the minimum import age for puppies will help protect thousands of animals that are brought into the country each year and stop criminals looking to profit from the rise in demand for pets.\"\n\nAnimal welfare charities say cropped ears - when dogs have their outer ears surgically altered or removed to make them look more aggressive - have also been on the rise, despite being banned in the UK since 2006.\n\nThere has been a huge increase in commercial imports of puppies to the UK, according to the RSPCA\n\nThe RSPCA has said reports of ear cropping have risen more than sevenfold over the past five years.\n\nMost are thought to have undergone the painful procedure abroad and under the proposed new rules - which the government said would be put out for consultation - dogs with cropped ears would be prevented from entering the country, Defra said.\n\nOwen Sharp, chief executive of Dogs Trust, which has campaigned for a crackdown on puppy smuggling, said the charity had cared for more than 2,000 puppies seized at UK borders since 2015.\n\n\"We have seen puppies as young as four weeks old being smuggled into the country and dogs with open wounds from ear cropping as well as heavily pregnant dogs close to giving birth,\" he said.\n\nSpringer spaniel Befa was transported in a cat carrier crammed with puppies for thousands of miles from Slovakia\n\nBut he said he hoped the new rules would include tougher penalties for illegal imports of dogs.\n\nOnly a handful of cases had ever been prosecuted under existing laws and the penalties were \"no deterrent\", Mr Sharp said.\n\nVet, broadcaster and animal welfare campaigner Dr Marc Abraham said legal and illegal importation of young puppies had encouraged dog exploitation and poor welfare practices for years.\n\nHe said the new proposals represented \"significant progress in the fight against these cruel practices\".", "Calls to return the state pension age to 60 for men and women have been rejected by the government.\n\nThe Department for Work and Pensions says lowering the age of entitlement would be \"neither affordable nor fair\".\n\nMore than 70,000 people have signed a Commons petition calling for a reduction to be introduced with immediate effect.\n\nThe age threshold was increased to 66 for everyone last year with further phased increases to age 68 planned.\n\nUntil 2010, the state pension age was 60 for women and 65 for men, but qualifying ages were brought in line for everyone by 2018 and have been rising since.\n\nIn 2020, a further change to the rules required men and women born between 6 October, 1954, and 5 April, 1960, to have to wait until their 66th birthday to receive their pension.\n\nCampaigners say the coronavirus pandemic has put a renewed focus on intergenerational fairness, with many young people losing their jobs and struggling to find work.\n\nThey say the balance needs to brought \"back in to young people's favour\" to help \"restore their future\".\n\nAnd they want older people to be allowed to retire earlier, to free up employment for younger workers.\n\nWhile there would be a financial cost to the Treasury, they say paying pension benefits earlier would be \"more positive\" than having to top young people up with Universal Credit.\n\nThe Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) says lowering the state pension age to 60 would place an unaffordable and unfair burden on taxpayers.\n\nIt would also make the benefit unsustainable in the long term, the department argues in its response to the petition.\n\nThe number of people over state pension age compared to the working population is expected to increase because, on average, people are living longer, according to the Office for National Statistics.\n\nHad the state pension age not risen for men and women, \"the total additional cost to taxpayers would have been around £215bn for the period 2010/11 to 2025/26, in 2018/19 prices,\" the DWP said.\n\nIt added that ministers have provided \"an unprecedented amount of support via our plan for jobs to help those of all ages find work and get the skills they need to return to work\".\n\nPetitions on the UK Parliament are considered for debate by MPs when they reach 100,000 signatures.\n\nThey can raise awareness about issues and help put pressure on the government, but their results are not binding.", "Vitaly Shishov went missing on Monday in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv\n\nThe head of a group helping people who have fled Belarus has been found dead near his home in neighbouring Ukraine.\n\nVitaly Shishov's body was found hanged in a park in Kyiv, a day after he failed to return from a jog. Police have opened a murder inquiry.\n\nPolice said they were investigating whether he had been killed and his death made to look like suicide.\n\nMeanwhile a Belarusian Olympic sprinter who feared for her safety has been granted a humanitarian visa by Poland.\n\nMr Shishov led the Belarusian House in Ukraine (BHU), a group helping people who left Belarus, where opposition to the government is stifled.\n\nHe was one of many Belarusians who left the country as the security forces violently suppressed protests following the disputed re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko in August 2020.\n\nUkraine, Poland and Lithuania - neighbours of Belarus - are the main destinations for those fleeing persecution.\n\nThe United Nations said Mr Shishov's death adds another level to \"our worries about what is happening in Belarus\", and called for an investigation.\n\nMr Shishov's death is the latest incident to prompt international scrutiny of President Lukashenko's authoritarian government.\n\nAt the Tokyo Olympics, sprinter Krystina Timanovskaya, 24, was granted a humanitarian visa by Poland after refusing her team's order to fly back to Belarus early.\n\nShe said she had been forcibly taken to the airport for criticising team coaches, and voiced fears for her safety.\n\nEarlier this year, there was an international outcry over the detention of opposition Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend, after the Ryanair plane they were travelling on was forced to divert and land in Belarus.\n\nPolice said that they had recovered Mr Shishov's mobile phone and personal items from the scene.\n\nThey are asking anyone who knew him to get in touch with any information about the last few weeks of his life and any possible threats to his life.\n\nMr Shishov left his home on Monday morning and it was assumed he had gone for his daily jog as his running gear was not found there later, his colleagues said.\n\nThey conducted their own search of the woods where he usually went running. Mr Shishov had felt under constant surveillance since he left Belarus last year, they said.\n\nOne colleague, Yuri Shchuchko, told Current Time TV that police said Mr Shishov had marks on his face, suggesting that he had been beaten up.\n\nMr Shchuchko said Ukrainian security officers and police had privately warned the BHU about threats to activists.\n\n\"They said we should watch ourselves because a Belarusian KGB [secret police] network was active here,\" Mr Shchuchko said.\n\nThe BHU said in a statement: \"We were warned repeatedly by local sources and our people in Belarus about possible provocations, going as far as kidnapping and assassination. Vitaly reacted to those warnings with stoicism and humour.\"\n\nOn its website, the non-governmental organisation says it provides support to new arrivals in finding accommodation, jobs and legal advice.\n\nAt a briefing, Ukraine's national police chief Ihor Klymenko said Mr Shishov was found with grazes on his nose and knee. But the police chief said it was too early to determine whether he had been attacked.\n\nMr Shishov had not reported his suspicion of being under surveillance to the police, Mr Klymenko said.\n\nThe disputed presidential election last August was the catalyst for a crackdown on opposition to Mr Lukashenko's government. He has been in power since 1994.\n\nHuge protests continued for weeks after the disputed vote, which Belarus dissidents and Western governments say was rigged in Mr Lukashenko's favour.\n\nThe protests were broken up brutally by police, and thousands were detained.\n\nThe UN and human rights groups say they have many reports of police violence used against protesters, cases of enforced disappearance and allegations of torture.\n\nIn recent months, Belarusian authorities have been trying to snuff out remaining dissents, jailing university students and shutting down independent media.\n\nOpposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya claimed victory in the election after standing in place of her politician husband, who was detained in March 2020.\n\nShe was forced to flee the country with her children the day after the election, and now lives in exile in Lithuania.\n\nOn Tuesday, Ms Tikhanovskaya flew to London for talks with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.\n\nAfterwards, Ms Tikhanovskaya said she had been assured by Mr Johnson that the UK would help create \"multiple points of pressure\" on Mr Lukashenko's government.\n\nThis would include assistance for Belarusian journalists forced to flee the country, and for democracy campaigners and charities, she said.\n\nEarlier, Ms Tikhanovskaya said she was \"devastated\" by Mr Shishov's death and concerned that \"those who flee Belarus still can't be safe\".\n\nUkrainian police have cordoned off the site where Mr Shishov's body was found\n\nWhere is Belarus? It has its ally Russia to the east and Ukraine to the south. To the north and west lie EU and Nato members Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.\n\nWhy does it matter? Like Ukraine, this nation of 9.5 million is caught in rivalry between the West and Russia. President Alexander Lukashenko has been nicknamed \"Europe's last dictator\" - he has been in power for 27 years.\n\nWhat's going on there? There is a huge opposition movement demanding new, democratic leadership and economic reform. The opposition movement and Western governments say Mr Lukashenko rigged the 9 August election. Officially he won by a landslide. A huge police crackdown has curbed street protests and sent opposition leaders to prison or into exile.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Belarusian sprinter Krystina Timanovskaya asked the International Olympic Committee for help", "A terrorist who stabbed two people became increasingly violent in prison and declared he wanted to \"kill the Queen\", an inquest has heard.\n\nSudesh Amman was shot dead by police in Streatham, south London, in February 2020, ten days after leaving prison.\n\nWhile in HMP Belmarsh the 20-year-old openly expressed \"extreme views\" including his intention to become a suicide bomber, jurors were told.\n\nThe inquest previously heard there had been concerns about his release.\n\nAmman injured a man and woman in the attack on Streatham High Road on 2 February last year before he was killed by surveillance officers.\n\nHe had been jailed for 40 months in 2018 for preparing and engaging in acts of terrorism, and was released on 23 January 2020.\n\nThe 20-year-old was captured on CCTV footage during the attack\n\nJurors at the Royal Courts of Justice were shown a prisoner report about the 20-year-old, which said he had \"been shouting different things on the wings such as 'this place is full of non-believers'... and 'everyone here will come under the black flag (of the Islamic State group)'.\"\n\nAbout a month before his release date, a note in Arabic was found in his cell, saying he announced his allegiance to the Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr Al-Qurayshi Al-Baghdadi.\n\nAmman also \"appeared proud of being the youngest terrorist offender in Belmarsh... (and) didn't seem remorseful\", the inquest was told.\n\nJurors heard that an assessment by Leon Campbell, a probation officer, said he posed a high risk of serious harm to members of the public \"due to his promoting of extremist ideas… and wanting to carry out a terrorist act\".\n\nAmman was jailed in 2018 for preparing and engaging in acts of terrorism\n\nA senior Met Police officer wrote to the governor of HMP Belmarsh on 15 January 2020 asking if Amman's release could be delayed but was told it was not possible, jurors have been told.\n\nBelmarsh's governor told the inquest Amman had been moved to a high security unit inside the prison \"on numerous occasions\" during his jail term because he was trying to convert other inmates.\n\nIntelligence shared with police by prison authorities in October 2019 had suggested he had been involved in radicalising others in Belmarsh.\n\nJurors were shown a list of those he was involved with which included Hashem Abedi, who conspired with his brother Salman for the Manchester arena terror attack.\n\nJenny Louis explained that moving him in the prison had been a way \"to monitor him well but also stop his ability to influence others\".\n\nShe also said he had repeatedly sought to disengage with prison staff, adding that it was \"very rare that you have somebody who disengages so openly whilst in custody\".\n\nAsked why it had not be possible to extend Amman's jail term as requested by police, Ms Louis said it was due to the imminence of his release.\n\nShe also explained that an incident on 3 January 2020, where the 20-year-old had jumped on to internal netting inside the prison, was \"not an offence that would ever go to an independent adjudicator\" - the body which had the power to increase his sentence.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nTransgender athlete Laurel Hubbard made Olympic history but failed to record a successful lift in the women's +87kg weightlifting.\n\nShe became the first openly transgender athlete to compete at a Games in a different gender category to the one in which they were born.\n\nBut after a failed attempt to lift 120kg and two failed efforts at 125kg in the snatch, her competition ended.\n\nTeam GB's Emily Campbell won silver, with gold going to China's Li Wenwen.\n\nCampbell became the first British woman to win an Olympic weightlifting medal with her combined total of 283kg.\n\nChina's Li lifted an Olympic record of 320kg to take the title, with American Sarah Robles claiming bronze with 282kg.\n• None The reluctant history-maker at the centre of sport's transgender debate\n\nHubbard said: \"I know that from a sporting perspective I haven't really hit the standards that I put upon myself and perhaps the standards that my country has expected of me.\n\n\"But one of the things for which I am profoundly grateful is that the supporters in New Zealand have given me so much and have been beyond astonishing.\n\n\"I'd like to thank the New Zealand Olympic Committee - they have supported me through what have been quite difficult times.\n\n\"I know that my participation at these Games has not been entirely without controversy but they have been just so wonderful and I'm so grateful to them.\"\n\nAs a junior, Hubbard was the national record holder and was lifting a total of 300kg in domestic men's competitions before quitting in 2001 at the age of 23.\n\nShe came out as a transgender woman in 2012 at the age of 33 before resuming her sports career.\n\nSince returning to competition, Hubbard has won seven international tournament gold medals.\n\nAfter suffering an elbow injury when leading the 2018 Commonwealth Games, she thought her career was over but battled back and won Pacific Games gold in 2019 and finished sixth at the Worlds.\n\nNow 43, she is the third oldest lifter in Olympic history.\n\nHer selection for the Olympics sparked debate. The New Zealand Olympics committee said Hubbard was a \"really important role model\" who \"opens up a conversation about inclusivity\", and some of her fellow competitors welcomed the move.\n\nBut critics, including some athletes, questioned her inclusion. A key point of contention has been whether Hubbard carries an advantage having gone through male puberty. Many of the scientists and academics cannot agree on this point.\n\nWhat are the rules?\n\nIn 2004, the IOC permitted transgender athletes to take part in the Olympics.\n\nSince 2015, its stipulations have stated athletes who have transitioned from male to female can compete in women's sport - without requiring surgery - as long as they have declared their gender identity is female for at least four years and kept their testosterone level below 10 nanomoles per litre for at least 12 months.\n\nIn addition, for individual sports, the IOC allows sporting federations to set their own guidelines. World Athletics has set five nanomoles per litre as its benchmark, and it is likely others, such as the International Weightlifting Federation will adopt the same, once an ongoing IOC study is completed.\n\nAccording to NHS data, men's testosterone levels range between 10 and 30 nanomoles per litre dependant on factors including age and time of day, but a younger healthy male typically ranges between 20 and 30. Women's testosterone levels range between 0.7 and 2.8.\n\nHubbard and others must take hormone suppressing drugs to reduce their testosterone levels.\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union wants to set up a branch at Amazon\n\nAn official examining a landmark Amazon union election in Bessemer, Alabama, has recommended a rerun.\n\nThe officer, from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), had been looking into the legitimacy of April's vote.\n\nAmazon appeared to have stopped a union from forming, winning a vote on the issue by a margin of two to one.\n\nHowever the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) alleged that Amazon had illegally pressured its workers.\n\nThe NLRB has the power to force a rerun.\n\nStuart Appelbaum, President of the RWDSU, said: \"Amazon's behaviour throughout the election process was despicable.\n\n\"Amazon cheated, they got caught, and they are being held accountable.\"\n\nThe union specifically alleged that employees were pressured to drop ballots into a mailbox that was in view of Amazon cameras.\n\nIt was claimed Amazon was trying to create the perception of surveillance.\n\nAmazon had said the post box was installed to give workers easier access to voting.\n\nAmazon said it planned to appeal.\n\n\"Our employees had a chance to be heard during a noisy time when all types of voices were weighing into the national debate, and at the end of the day, they voted overwhelmingly in favour of a direct connection with their managers and the company,\" Amazon said in a statement.\n\nThe campaign to unionise had drawn implicit support from President Biden, along with celebrities such as Danny Glover.\n\nThis 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 President Biden 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.\n\nThe decision does not mean a rerun will definitely happen.\n\nIn the coming weeks, a regional director for the NLRB will decide whether to order another vote based on the recommendation.", "The rapper will appear at Croydon Magistrates' Court charged with assault\n\nRapper Dizzee Rascal has been charged with assault, following an incident in south London.\n\nThe 36-year-old whose real name is Dylan Mills, was charged after police officers visited an address in Streatham on 8 June.\n\nA woman at the property had suffered minor injuries, but did not need hospital treatment, police said.\n\nMr Mills, from Sevenoaks in Kent, is due to appear at Croydon Magistrates' Court on 3 September.\n\nThe rapper, who was awarded an MBE in the Queen's birthday honours in 2020 for his services to music, is due to perform at South Facing Festival, Crystal Palace Park and Lydiard Park on dates in August.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app. Great Britain won two golds and a silver as Giles Scott successfully defended his Finn title on a thrilling day in sailing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Dylan Fletcher and Stuart Bithell won the men's 49er before Scott's triumph, while John Gimson and Anna Burnet secured silver in the mixed Nacra 17 class. Requiring a top-five finish in the medal race, a late charge from Scott, 34, saw him snatch fourth to clinch his second gold. And in an equally breathless finish, Fletcher, 31, and Bithell, 34, edged victory from Germany in their medal race to overhaul New Zealand for gold. \"It was pretty stressful but amazing,\" said Fletcher. \"Sometimes the gold medal is won on a fine margin, so hopefully it was a great race for the fans.\" Gimson, 38, and Burnet, 28, were guaranteed a medal and ensured they stayed second by claiming a fifth-placed finish in their medal race. That took GB to 13 golds for the Games and four sailing medals after Emma Wilson's bronze in windsurfing, with at least another to come in the final medal races on Wednesday via Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre (women's 470). Scott went into the Finn medal race guaranteed a top-three spot, holding a commanding lead after winning six of the 10 races in the opening series. With Zsombor Berecz several boats ahead of Scott for much of the decider, the Hungarian sailor was set to claim gold. And although Berecz won the race, Scott did enough to climb up the field from sixth to fourth to leave the Hungarian with silver, while Spain's Juan Cardona Mendez claimed bronze. \"I made it by the skin of my teeth,\" said Scott. \"It was properly to the wire. I tried to stay relaxed but I've never been involved in a boat race as close as that.\" The Finn is the longest-serving Olympic class having debuted in 1952, with British sailors having won the last six titles going back to Sydney 2000 - Scott (two), Sir Ben Ainslie (three) and Iain Percy (one). But the class will be dropped from the sailing line-up from Paris 2024 and Scott has said these Games are likely to be his last. In the men's 49er, GB held off Germany at the line, with New Zealand's world and Olympic champions Peter Burling and Blair Tuke unable to protect their four-point lead going into the race. The New Zealand pair crossed in third and had to settle for silver, while second was good enough for Germany's Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel to take bronze. It was a remarkable result for Fletcher and Bithell, finishing ahead of a Kiwi duo who had won six World Championships together and were both on the last two America's Cup-winning teams. The Britons led for most of the medal race and even though Burling and Tuke briefly moved into second, which would have secured them gold, the Germans fought back before being held off by Fletcher and Bithel in a thrilling charge for the finish. \"It does mean more beating them (Burling and Tuke),\" said Fletcher. \"As you've seen this week, everyone has caught them up and it's been super tight. \"As soon as we crossed the line, it was a double check of 'that was definitely us, yeah?' Today showcased why our sport is so great. To have a super tight race and a finish like that is exciting for me.\" Bithell won silver with Luke Patience in the 470 class at London 2012 but missed out on selection for Rio 2016, where Fletcher finished sixth in the 49er class with Alain Sign. \"I missed out in the last cycle to Dylan, so it's been a long part of my career, chipping away and working hard,\" Bithell added. \"This is my last Olympics, almost certainly, so it's so nice to go away with the gold.\" GB's mixed Nacra 17 silver was more straightforward, with Italy staying well placed behind Gimson and Burnet to ensure the British pair, the 2020 world champions, did not do enough to wipe out their advantage. Germany stayed third overall to take the bronze. Gimson is competing in his first Olympics at 38, after seeing his then class dropped following Beijing 2008 (Tornado) and London 2012 (Star). \"It's been a tough 20 years,\" he said. \"The second time [after 2012] I'd sold my house just to be able to compete. At that point I was questioning my life decisions, but it was all worth it.\" Burnet added: \"It's a huge relief. I think there's no-one in sport who deserves an Olympic medal more than John and I'm so happy I could help him achieve it.\" Earlier on Tuesday, Mills and McIntyre ended their opening series with a third and a ninth to give them a 14-point lead in the women's 470 and guarantee a medal. Racing with Saskia Clark, 33-year-old Mills won gold at Rio 2016 and silver at London 2012. Another two top-10 finishes saw Luke Patience and Chris Grube maintain hope of a medal in the men's 470. They sit in fifth place, nine points off third, heading into the medal race on Wednesday (06:33 BST), with the women's race to follow (07:33).\n• None 'In my eyes, anyone can be an influencer':", "UK experts are set to recommend all 16 and 17-year-olds should be offered a Covid vaccine, the BBC has been told.\n\nThe Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation stopped short of making the move last month, saying it was still assessing the benefits and risks.\n\nAbout 1.4 million teenagers will be included in the new rollout but it is not known when the jabs will start.\n\nThey are only offered now to those over-12s who have underlying conditions or live with others at high risk.\n\nBut some countries, including the US, Canada and France, are routinely vaccinating people aged 12 years old and over.\n\nWhitehall sources say ministers in England are expected to accept the advice of the JCVI, following an announcement on Wednesday.\n\nIt comes after Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Tuesday she was \"hoping\" to receive updated advice from the JCVI on the vaccination of 16 and 17-year-olds.\n\nMs Sturgeon said the UK's four chief medical officers had written to the JCVI, asking them to look again at vaccination advice for young people.\n\nUniversities Minister Michelle Donelan said an announcement was \"imminent and... people will get clarity soon\".\n\nMeanwhile, new research suggested children who became ill with coronavirus mostly recovered within less than a week.\n\nAcross England, 223,755 under-18s have received a first vaccine dose, according to NHS data to 25 July.\n\nIt was previously announced that under-18s would be eligible if they had certain health conditions, lived with someone with a low immune system, or were approaching their 18th birthday.\n\nBut there was criticism after it emerged GPs were advised to hold off inviting clinically vulnerable 12 to 15-year-olds to take a vaccine due to uncertainty over insurance.\n\nWhat are your questions about the vaccine for teenagers?\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Professor Jonathan Van-Tam answers a range of questions about Covid from young audience members\n\nDecisions on vaccinations are based on recommendations from the independent JCVI. Ministers in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland each then approve the plans.\n\nThe only Covid jab currently authorised in the UK for under-18s is the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.\n\nLast month, the JCVI extended its recommendation on Covid jabs to children aged over 12 who are at higher risk of being ill and to those on the verge of turning 18.\n\nHowever, it said it would not extend the rollout as it examined reports of rare adverse events such as inflammation of heart muscles among young adults.\n\nSpeaking ahead of the July decision, England's chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty said the JCVI was confident vaccines would protect children to a high degree.\n\nHe added more research was taking place as children did not tend to suffer severely from Covid, and the experts wanted to ensure the benefits of the jab outweighed any potential risks.\n\nThe decision to vaccinate children has always been more delicately balanced than for adults.\n\nChildren have less to gain from a Covid jab, not because it is less effective, but because they rarely become severely ill.\n\nAnd while the risks of side effects such as inflamed heart tissue (which is often treated with rest and ibuprofen) are incredibly rare, they do exist.\n\nVery high levels of vaccination in the most vulnerable also weakened arguments of immunising the young so they can't spread it to the old.\n\nOn top of that, the JCVI did not want to accidentally damage confidence in the usual childhood vaccines (from measles to meningitis to HPV) if a decision was seen as rushed or putting children at unnecessary risk.\n\nIt has been a decision that has been made slowly (too slowly for some) but now, after other countries have vaccinated hundreds of thousands of children, the evidence is there to press ahead.\n\nProf Paul Elliott, chair of epidemiology and public health at Imperial College London, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme vaccinating younger age groups could help drive down infections.\n\nWith the highest rates of infection seen in young people under 24, he said \"anything we can do to reduce transmission in that group would be helpful\".\n\nBut school leaders' union NAHT said the policy of vaccinating children should be led by clinicians and that schools should not play a part in promoting or enforcing vaccinations.\n\nOne local director of public health, Dr Anjan Ghosh, told BBC Radio 4's World at One it was likely parents and guardians would be asked for consent before some under-18s received a vaccine dose.\n\n\"Whether it is done in a school, or any other setting, the consent is about allowing the child to be vaccinated - so it doesn't depend on the setting where vaccines are happening from,\" he said.\n\nPrevious guidance said the over-16s would give their own consent for jabs, while for those under-16 parents or guardians would be involved in giving consent as well.\n\nShadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said ministers should \"ensure plans are in place to roll out this vital next stage of vaccination while ensuring parents have all the facts and information they need\".\n\nA Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said it kept the vaccination of children and young people \"under review and will be guided by the advice of the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation\".\n\nAll over-18s have now been offered a vaccination against coronavirus. The latest government data shows 88.7% of adults in the UK have now had one dose of vaccine, while 73% have had two jabs.\n\nAnd a further 21,691 cases of people testing positive for coronavirus were recorded in the UK on Tuesday. It was the fifth day in a row that infections have fallen, and the lowest daily total since late June.", "Gangs are using e-scooters to sneak on to UK farms and steal high-value GPS technology, an insurer has said.\n\nNFU Mutual said the cost of replacing the stolen equipment that forms an \"essential part of modern farming\" nearly doubled in a year to £2.9m.\n\n\"Highly-organised criminals continued to plague farmyards,\" with quad bikes also being targeted, the firm said.\n\nBut it says the overall number of theft claims in 2020 fell by 20% to £43.3m, amid the coronavirus lockdowns.\n\nGlobal positioning systems (GPS) equipment on tractors can cost up to £10,000 a piece. It helps farmers map their acreage and make the most efficient use of their land.\n\nThe technology is \"in demand across the globe\" and has become the \"rural thieves' top target\", the insurer said.\n\n\"Without GPS... harvests can be delayed and farmers are left unable to work,\" said Rebecca Davidson, rural affairs specialist with NFU Mutual.\n\nDet Con Chris Piggott, from the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service, said: \"The pattern we are increasingly seeing is of gangs who patiently watch farms from a distance to discover where expensive tractor GPS kit is stored.\n\n\"They generally return at night to steal, and are now using silent electric scooters to get into farmyards undetected and make off at high speed.\"\n\nHe added: \"Thieves are also becoming even slicker stealing quad bikes - watching for hours to rush into farm yards and steal them when they are left unattended for a few minutes.\"\n\nThe total cost of the insurer's claims for the theft of GPS, quad bikes and other all-terrain vehicles amounted to more than £9m last year, a drop of only 2% on 2019.\n\nNFU Mutual's annual rural crime report says the overall cost of theft in the UK countryside fell in 2020 because of the lockdown, the existence of more police rural crime teams, and increased farm security.\n\nWales and Northern Ireland both saw the largest falls, down 39.4% and 36.9% respectively, while Scotland saw a 25% decrease.\n\nIn regions of England the level of the falls in theft claims varied - ranging from a 9.7% dip in the North East to a 25.3% decrease in the Midlands. The only area to see a rise was the North West, where the cost of claims were up 3.3%.\n\nThe thefts of livestock was down by about a quarter.\n\nBut the value of sheep and cattle attacked by dogs rose in 2020 following a surge in pet ownership during the pandemic and visits to the countryside, NFU Mutual said.\n\nOther trends highlighted by NFU Mutual included fly-tipping in fields and country lanes, which was said to have reached \"epidemic proportions\".\n\nMeanwhile, cybercrime affecting farmers is said to be a growing danger, with phishing emails about farm payments and scam adverts for agricultural machinery.\n\nNFU Mutual, which insures about three-quarters of all UK farmers, says it is investing £430,000 in rural security schemes in 2021.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nEmily Campbell became the first British female weightlifter to win an Olympic medal with +87kg silver.\n\nThe 27-year-old lifted a total of 283kg as China's Li Wenwen won gold with a new Olympic record of 320kg.\n\nCampbell, making her Olympic debut in Tokyo, was fourth after the snatch but moved on to the podium with successive clean and jerk lifts of 156kg and 161kg.\n\n\"I am speechless, for the first time ever,\" Campbell told BBC Sport.\n\n\"You know you can get in shape coming into these things, you know you want to perform your best, but to actually put it out on the stage, I'm really thrilled.\"\n\nShe added: \"You can achieve anything you want to achieve. I picked up a barbell five years ago for the first time and now I am an Olympic silver medallist.\"\n\nEarlier in the competition, transgender athlete Laurel Hubbard failed to record a successful lift. The New Zealander was the first openly transgender athlete to compete at an Olympics in a different gender category to the one in which they were born.\n\nCampbell's total set new British and Commonwealth records and was Great Britain's first Olympic weightlifting medal since 1984.\n\nShe won European gold in April, three years after winning bronze at the Commonwealth Games.\n\nBefore the Tokyo Olympics, she told BBC Sport that a big part of her motivation was \"to prove that women who look like me can have successful careers in sport\".\n\nSince her Commonwealth bronze, Nottingham-born Campbell said she had been approached by multiple sponsors who subsequently pulled out because of her clothing size.\n\nShe is trying to make an impact in the world of women's fashion by changing the perception around clothing sizes, and has contacted sports brands to try to get them to produce clothing for women with fuller figures.\n\n'She comes from a home of grafters'\n\nCampbell was cheered on from her native Nottingham by her family - including mum Linda and younger sister Kelsie, who had flown over from Florida.\n\n\"It was nerves, excitement; once she got the first lift in I was like, 'she's got this',\" Linda told the BBC's Today at the Games.\n\n\"Right from a very early age we just got them involved in everything. She loved athletics and only got into weightlifting for the athletics and found her niche, love and passion.\"\n\nFor Kelsie, seeing her big sister become the first British female weightlifter to secure an Olympic medal was an achievement she will never forget.\n\n\"This has been the most special day of my life. That's my big sister. She's my rock,\" she said.\n\n\"She's there for me. I know how hard she has worked. I was really nervous - I wanted it so much for her. I wanted to help her lift them.\n\n\"The message from her is you can be successful and be anything you want if you put your mind to it.\n\n\"She comes from a home of grafters - from parents who haven't always had the world but found a way to make it happen. She can be an inspiration to kids.\"\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "The 15-year-old girl died after an incident at Ty Mawr Holiday Park, near Abergele\n\nA man has been charged with murdering a 15-year-old girl who died following a \"domestic disturbance\" at a holiday park.\n\nNorth Wales Police said Matthew Selby, 19, from Greater Manchester, had been charged after the incident at Ty Mawr Holiday Park near Abergele, Conwy county, on Saturday.\n\nHe was remanded in custody and will appear before magistrates on Tuesday.\n\nPark bosses said they were \"shocked and saddened by this tragic incident\".\n\nOn Sunday, Det Supt Mark Pierce said it was a \"tragic but isolated incident\".", "The World War Two-era Panther tank was removed from a residential property in northern Germany in 2015\n\nA pensioner in Germany has been convicted of illegal weapons possession after he was found to own an extensive personal arsenal including a tank.\n\nThe defendant, 84, has been handed a suspended prison sentence of 14 months and has been ordered to pay a fine of €250,000 (£213,469).\n\nOfficials found the tank and other World War Two-era military equipment at the defendant's house in the northern town of Heikendorf in 2015.\n\nThe army had to help remove the items.\n\nOn Monday, the court ordered that the defendant, who cannot be named under German privacy laws, must sell or donate the tank and an anti-aircraft cannon to a museum or collector within the next two years.\n\nAccording to the defendant's lawyer, a US museum is interested in purchasing the Panther tank. Many US historians argue it was the most efficient such vehicle deployed by Germany during World War Two.\n\nThe lawyer also said that a number of German collectors had approached the defendant over other items, which included assault rifles and pistols, local media report.\n\nLocal authorities raided the property in 2015 after receiving a tip-off about the building's contents by colleagues in Berlin, who had earlier searched the home for stolen Nazi art.\n\nIt took about 20 soldiers almost nine hours to extract the Panther tank - which was without its tracks - from the property.\n\nLocal media reported that the man had been seen one winter using the tank as a snow plough.", "Aya Hachem was walking to the supermarket to buy food for her family when she was shot\n\nSeven men have been found guilty of murdering a student who was shot dead in a feud between two tyre firm owners.\n\nAya Hachem, 19, was mistakenly killed in the botched drive-by shooting in Blackburn on 17 May last year.\n\nTyre firm boss Feroz Suleman, 40, had arranged the execution of a rival businessman but the gunman he hired shot dead Ms Hachem instead.\n\nSeven of the eight people who were on trial at Preston Crown Court were convicted of Ms Hachem's murder.\n\nSuleman along with accomplices Kashif Manzoor, 26, Ayaz Hussain, 35, Abubakr Satia, 32, all of Blackburn; Zamir Raja, 33, of Stretford; Anthony Ennis, 31, of Partington, and Uthman Satia, 29, of Great Harwood, will be sentenced on Thursday.\n\nThe eighth defendant, Judy Chapman, 26, of Great Harwood, was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter and will be sentenced on 1 October.\n\nMs Hachem was shot as she was walking to the supermarket to buy food for her family to eat when they broke their Ramadan fast.\n\nThe Salford University student was said to be \"in the wrong place at the wrong time\" as the long-running feud between the neighbouring companies culminated in the shooting.\n\nFollowing the verdicts, Ms Hachem's family said she would \"remain in our hearts forever\".\n\n\"We are so proud of you and we miss you so much, our lives are difficult without you,\" they added.\n\n\"You loved life and despite all the struggles and barriers that we faced in this country, it did not stop you contributing to your community and charities including the Children's Society and fundraising at Salford University where you were studying to become a barrister.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Samar Salame said she was \"so proud\" of her daughter and she would \"remain in our hearts forever\"\n\nThe court heard how a Toyota Avensis driven by Ennis with hitman Raja on board drove past Quickshine Tyres on three occasions shortly before the fatal fourth journey.\n\nFootage from CCTV cameras captured Suleman stood outside his premises next door at RI Tyres with a \"ringside seat\" to the shooting he had arranged of rival Pachah Khan, the proprietor of Quickshine Tyres.\n\nThe first shot hit the front window of Quickshine and the second was let off as Lebanese-born Ms Hachem walked by, hitting her rather than the intended target.\n\nThe jury was told a feud had started in early 2019 when Quickshine, which previously only washed cars, began selling tyres next door to RI Tyres.\n\nMatters deteriorated on 3 December that year when someone set fire to RI Tyres in the early hours of the morning.\n\nOn 1 May last year, Suleman called police and reported that Mr Khan had prevented workmen from entering Quickshine's yard to finish putting up a new sign for RI Tyres, the court was told.\n\nCCTV footage showed a gun being pointed out of the back window of the Toyota Avensis\n\nJurors took less than four hours to find the seven men guilty of murder and the attempted murder of Mr Khan.\n\nAlan Richardson, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: \"Each of these callous conspirators is in their way responsible for the senseless killing of Aya Hachem - an innocent young woman full of promise who lost her life as a result of a petty business rivalry.\n\n\"The ruthlessness of everyone involved is staggering, with the group going to extreme lengths to plan an assassination in broad daylight, risking the lives of members of the public going about their daily business.\"\n\nIn 2001, Suleman was convicted of causing the death of a 67-year-old man by dangerous driving.\n\nHe ran away from the scene of the incident in Blackburn and claimed his vehicle had been stolen before he finally pleaded guilty to the offence on the day of his trial and was jailed for three and a half years.\n\nFollow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe 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. People living in Skewen have had to deal with the second lot of floods this year\n\nHomes which were badly damaged after a mine shaft \"blew out\" earlier this year have been flooded again.\n\nAbout 80 homes were evacuated in Skewen, near Neath, in January because of flooding related to mine works.\n\nAfter heavy downpours on Monday, some homes flooded again just as work on a new mine water management scheme got under way to try and prevent a repeat.\n\nNeath Port Talbot council said it was investigating but believed intense rain had overwhelmed the drains.\n\nTeresa Dalling, who lives on Dynevor Road, described the scene as \"carnage\".\n\nResidents say the drains have been unable to cope with heavy rain since the blow out and it was \"lucky\" there was only a short downpour.\n\nMs Dalling said: \"The drains can't hold the water, it's just been devastation again. Something's got to be done.\"\n\nShe added the area had never experienced problems with flooding or surface water before, but since the \"blow out\", it was a regular occurrence.\n\n\"Every time we get a downpour now the water is dreadful, there's nowhere for it to go,\" she explained.\n\nA video given to BBC Wales by one resident, who did not want to be named, shows the flooding in his house on Monday afternoon.\n\nHe is living upstairs while the ground floor of his home is repaired following January's flood. This new flood is likely to have set the work back by months, he claimed.\n\nMs Dalling said: \"It was dreadful to see him yesterday. He had a new set of furniture two or three weeks ago and it's absolutely ruined. He lives on his own and it's devastating.\"\n\nThe homes have been hit by flooding for the second time in less than a year\n\nThe homes when they were flooded in January\n\nShe called for something to be done by the Coal Authority and Neath Port Talbot council.\n\n\"They need to pull their fingers out and they need to get the job done,\" said Ms Dalling.\n\nIn February, an offer of £500 from the Coal Authority to reinstate ruined gardens was described as \"derisory\".\n\nIt was later increased to £2,000 and many gardens have been repaired. However, several have been flooded again - causing further damage.\n\nAngela Zenati \"lost everything\" when she was evacuated from her home on Jubilee Crescent in January.\n\nShe said the drains had not been able to cope with heavy rain since they were flooded with ochre-coloured mine water in January.\n\n\"This is a direct result of the floods because they've not been cleaned,\" she claimed.\n\n\"There's a lot of orange sludge and goodness knows what down there.\n\n\"The only thing I can say is it was lucky the rain stopped when it did because, if that amount of rain carried on any longer, then there would have been more houses flooded again.\"\n\nMrs Zenati, who is living in a one-bedroom flat while her home is repaired, said she did not feel people realised the emotional trauma residents had experienced.\n\n\"Your family life is gone,\" she said. \"For me, my family life to me is having the grandkids around and cooking Sunday lunch and the kids playing in the garden or sleeping over.\n\n\"That's gone. So I don't feel like, since I've been evacuated, I've been a grandmother. It's just gone.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Water rushed through the village in January\n\nMs Zenati added: \"When this rain comes, like it did today, everyone is on alert. Everyone's nervous, anxious, panicking.\"\n\nA spokesman for the Coal Authority said it understood the most recent flooding was a \"surface water and drainage issue\", and that the council was \"the lead agency on those issues\".\n\nLyndsey Gordon-Webb, from solicitors Watkin and Gunn, which is acting on behalf of residents in Skewen, said she sent a letter before action to the Coal Authority but had \"not received a substantive response\".\n\nResponding to Ms Gordon-Webb's claim, the Coal Authority spokesman said: \"I can confirm that we received a letter in May and that it was acknowledged at that time.\"\n\nA spokesman for Neath Port Talbot council said it was \"continuing to make further investigations into the cause\" of the flooding.\n\nHe added council workers would be \"on site with partner agencies to provide the necessary support to those residents who have been affected\", adding that early indications suggested intense rainfall had caused the drains' capacity to be \"exceeded\".", "Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nPlayers from all 20 Premier League clubs say they will continue to take the knee as a symbol of their \"unity against all forms of racism\".\n\nThe Premier League \"wholeheartedly support\" the decision that has been made.\n\nA 'No Room For Racism' sleeve badge will also be worn by players and match officials on their shirts.\n\nThe opening game of the season sees newly promoted Brentford host Arsenal on Friday, 13 August.\n\nIn February, Brentford announced they would no longer be participating in the gesture as the west London club felt it had lost the required impact.\n\nHowever, it is understood Brentford players have agreed to take part.\n\nCrystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha also said earlier this year that players \"should stand tall\", and reiterated his view that taking the knee was \"degrading\".\n\nIn a joint statement on Wednesday, the Football Association, Premier League, English Football League, FA Women's Super League, FA Women's Championship, Professional Footballers' Association, League Managers' Association, Football Supporters' Association, Professional Game Match Officials Board and Kick It Out said they would collectively support all players, managers and individuals who wished to take the knee before matches this season.\n\n\"We will support any players who wish to take a stand against racism and discrimination by taking a knee,\" said Mark Bullingham, chief executive of the FA.\n\n\"We are very clear on what this symbolic gesture originally stood for 200 years ago and what it continues to stand for today - that is a fight against injustice, inequality and discrimination.\"\n\nPlayers began taking the knee in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement after the Premier League's 100-day hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic in June 2020.\n\nIn a statement, the players said: \"We feel now, more than ever, it is important for us to continue to take the knee as a symbol of our unity against all forms of racism.\n\n\"We remain resolutely committed to our singular objective of eradicating racial prejudice wherever it exists, to bring about a global society of inclusion, respect and equal opportunities for all.\"\n\nRichard Masters, Premier League chief executive, said they would continue to work with clubs, players and football partners to bring about \"tangible change\" and remove \"inequality\" from the game.\n\nFollowing England's penalty shootout defeat by Italy in the Euro 2020 final, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka were racially abused online after missing penalties.\n\nThere was also booing as England players took the knee in the run-up to the tournament this summer.\n• None 'In my eyes, anyone can be an influencer':", "Matthew Selby appeared at Llandudno magistrates court on Tuesday, charged with murder\n\nA 19-year-old man has appeared in court accused of murdering his teenage sister in a caravan on the north Wales coast.\n\nDuring a hearing at Llandudno magistrates court on Tuesday, Matthew Selby, of Greater Manchester, spoke only to give his name and address and confirm he understood the charges.\n\nHe is accused of murdering Amanda Selby, 15, on Saturday at the Ty Mawr caravan site in Towyn near Abergele.\n\nHe will appear at Mold Crown Court on Wednesday.\n\nThere was no application for bail.\n\nThe 15-year-old girl died after an incident at Ty Mawr Holiday Park, near Abergele", "Ramin Paikar was a child living in an orphanage in Kabul in 2002.\n\nBritish soldiers used to visit and bring gifts every week. They were part of the international coalition, which had removed the Taliban from power. He remembers it as the “best time”.\n\nNow, as foreign forces leave, the BBC reconnects Ramin with one of those British soldiers, Adam, who is from Nottinghamshire in the UK.", "Wally was given a pontoon to create a \"safe space\" for him\n\nWally the walrus has left the Isles of Scilly and been sighted off County Waterford in the Republic of Ireland.\n\nWildlife experts hope he is making his way back to the Arctic, where his species is more commonly found, after arriving off Scilly in June.\n\nDan Jarvis from British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), which has been monitoring the walrus, said a sighting was confirmed on Monday afternoon.\n\n\"We are really pleased it has worked out for the best,\" he said.\n\nWally's adventure has included stops in Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, France, Spain and now the Isles of Scilly\n\nThe walrus, thought to be about four years old, has travelled about 2,500 miles (4,000km) along the coast of western Europe, including Spain, Wales and Cornwall since March.\n\nMr Jarvis said: \"The best news would be that he continues to travel north under his own steam.\n\n\"We'll just have to wait and see.\"\n\nBDMLR had been discussing ways to deter Wally from a harbour on the Isles of Scilly where he had sunk a number of boats by trying to clamber aboard and rest.\n\nA floating pontoon was made for him as a \"safe space\".\n\n\"He has been a very popular character while he's been here but we're all quite pleased that he's moved on now because we were starting to worry how long this might carry on for,\" said Mr Jarvis.\n\n\"He has certainly been a highlight and something to remember.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The blanket self-isolation of whole classes following a positive Covid test will no longer be \"routine\", First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.\n\nShe told MSPs children identified as close contacts would not have to isolate if they tested negative.\n\nHowever, teachers and secondary school pupils will still be asked to wear face coverings in classrooms for the first six weeks of the new term.\n\nThe policy on wearing masks in school buildings will be kept under review.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she was \"acutely aware\" that many young people found the mask policy difficult but she said experts considered it an \"important protection\" for people in schools.\n\nThe announcement was welcomed by unions but one parents' group said it was \"unacceptable\" that children would have to wear face coverings \"considerably longer than almost any adult doing any job\".\n\nMost children returning to school later this month will not have been vaccinated, as only those who are aged 12 and over and at higher risk of falling ill from Covid are being offered the vaccine.\n\nHowever, Ms Sturgeon said she was hoping updated advice from the UK's vaccine advisory group over the \"next day or so\" would recommend \"going further\" on the vaccination of young people.\n\nShe said she was \"particularly concerned\" to get 16 and 17-year-olds vaccinated.\n\nIn her update to a virtual Scottish Parliament, the first minister said carbon dioxide monitors - which asses how well-ventilated a space is - will also be required in schools and childcare settings.\n\nAnd all school staff and secondary school pupils will be asked to take a lateral flow test one or two days before they return to school for the new term. They should then take them twice a week.\n\nSchool restrictions are now tougher than those for the rest of society.\n\nSecondary pupils have to wear a mask at all times and one metre distancing remains between adult staff.\n\nTeachers were given a guarantee that no rules would change on day one but these current restrictions look set to remain for at least six weeks.\n\nIt shows a nervousness from the government about large groups of unvaccinated teenagers mixing when term starts - as early as next week for some.\n\nThe return of schools last August saw the beginning of an upward trend of cases. Ministers are hoping that holding their nerve now, keeping strict rules for pupils, will prevent history repeating.\n\nMs Sturgeon told the parliament that anyone who tests positive for Covid-19 would still be required to self-isolate but the rules around close contacts would change.\n\nPeople aged 17 or over should get a PCR test and if it is negative there will be no requirement to self-isolate.\n\nThe same policy will apply to children aged between five and 17, while children aged under five will be \"encouraged but not required\" to take the test.\n\n\"This means that the blanket isolation of whole classes will no longer be routine,\" Ms Sturgeon said.\n\n\"Instead a more targeted approach will identify close contacts at highest risk of infection.\n\n\"So fewer young people will have to self-isolate, and most will be asked to self-isolate for a much shorter period of time.\"\n\nIt come after thousands of pupils had to isolate in the summer term - at one point in June there were more than 24,000 in self-isolation, only slightly lower than a peak of almost 30,000 last autumn.\n\nMs Sturgeon said the new approach to self-isolation was important to minimise disruption to children's education.\n\nBut she said that the government's education advisory group has advised that other measures to mitigate the spread of Covid in schools were retained.\n\nAs well as wearing face coverings, staff will be asked to keep at least one metre from each other and from children while on the school estate.\n\nMs Sturgeon said: \"The last year and a half has been difficult and stressful for children and young people, parents, and staff working in education settings. I am grateful to them for the understanding and cooperation shown.\n\n\"The new school and academic year will still have challenges - but I hope it will bring fewer disruptions, and allow a much more normal learning environment.\"\n\nParents' group UFT Scotland said it was grateful for the change to isolation measures, but criticised the decision on face coverings.\n\n\"While nightclubs reopen and football fans flock in their thousands to stadiums across the country, kids will still have to stew in masks all day,\" organiser Jo Bisset said.\n\n\"This means children will be forced to wear coverings for considerably longer than almost any adult doing any job - that's unacceptable.\"\n\nMeanwhile the EIS union welcomed the decision to broadly retain the same mitigations in school, as at the end of last term.\n\nIt said the voluntary vaccination of 12-17-year-olds \"would be sensible and may go some way towards making schools safer places and help to address the anxieties of some people\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Krystina Timanovskaya asked the International Olympic Committee for help\n\nA sprinter from Belarus who refused her team's order to fly home early from the Olympics has been granted a humanitarian visa by Poland.\n\nKrystina Timanovskaya, 24, is at the Polish embassy in Tokyo after spending the night secured in a hotel under protection from Japanese police.\n\nShe said she was forcibly taken to the airport for criticising coaches, and voiced fears for her safety.\n\nBelarus says she was removed from the team because of her emotional state.\n\nMs Timanovskaya told the BBC on Monday that she was safe, but said she had been advised not to give further details at this stage.\n\nThe incident has again put the spotlight on Belarus, which has been ruled by President Alexander Lukashenko since 1994. Last year, nationwide protests over his disputed re-election were violently repressed by the security forces.\n\nSome of those who joined the demonstrations were also national-level athletes, who were stripped of funding, cut from national teams and detained.\n\nPoland's Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz said Ms Timanovskaya was in direct contact with Polish diplomats in Tokyo, and that Poland would do \"whatever is necessary to help her continue her sporting career\".\n\nHer husband has fled to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. He is set to join her in Poland, according to a Warsaw-based Belarusian opposition politician.\n\nThe Belarusian government has yet to comment on the Polish decision.\n\nThe sprinter was pictured inside Poland's embassy in Tokyo\n\nThe EU, meanwhile, welcomed Poland's decision. Nabila Massrali, a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, said the attempt by Belarus to forcibly repatriate Ms Timanovskaya was \"another example of the brutality of the repression of Lukashenko's regime\".\n\n\"We express our full solidarity to Krystina Timanovskaya and commend the (EU) member states that offered her support. We welcome the fact that she has now been given a humanitarian visa by Poland,\" Ms Massrali said in a statement to Reuters.\n\nThe sprinter, who was due to compete in the women's 200m event on Monday, had complained on social media about being entered into the 4x400m relay race at short notice after some teammates were found to be ineligible to compete.\n\nThe video led to criticism in state media, with one television channel saying she lacked \"team spirit\".\n\nMs Timanovskaya said officials had come to her room and given her an hour to pack her bags before being escorted to Tokyo's Haneda airport. She says she was \"put under pressure\" by team officials to return home and asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for help.\n\n\"They are trying to get me out of the country without my permission,\" she said in a video posted on the Telegram channel of the Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation, which was created last year to support athletes critical of the government.\n\nAnatol Kotau, a member of the group, told the BBC on Sunday: \"She's afraid of repression on her family in Belarus - this is the main concern for her right now.\"\n\nThe athlete sought police protection at the airport terminal\n\nThe Belarusian Olympic committee said Ms Timanovskaya had been taken off the team because of her \"emotional and psychological condition\".\n\nTeam coach Yuri Moisevich said Ms Timanovskaya appeared anxious when he spoke with her on Sunday.\n\n\"I was trying to have a calm conversation with her and I succeeded,\" he said, adding: \"Then I noticed that she would stop the conversation and start it again, then she would grab the phone and I saw that something was happening.\"\n\nOn Monday, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said the body had taken measures against the Belarusian committee in the run-up to the Games.\n\nIt banned some officials, including the president's son, for failing to protect athletes who had joined the demonstrations.\n\nHeather McGill, Amnesty International's Eastern Europe and Central Asia researcher, said the country's sporting administration had been subject to \"direct government control\" under President Lukashenko.\n\n\"Athletes are favoured by the state and honoured by society, and it is not surprising that athletes who speak out find themselves a target for reprisals,\" she said.\n• None Belarus athlete: 'I ask the IOC for help' Video, 00:00:12Belarus athlete: 'I ask the IOC for help'", "The Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan, almost 20 years after being ousted by a US-led military coalition.\n\nEmboldened by the withdrawal of US troops, they now control all key cities in the country, including Kabul.\n\nThe Taliban took some areas from government by force. In other areas, the Afghan National Army withdrew without a shot being fired.\n\nAlthough renewed clashes had been going on for several weeks, from 6 August the Taliban made a more rapid advance across the country, as they took control of provincial cities.\n\nThe maps below start in early July and show the 400 or so government districts as they fell to the Taliban.\n\nUS forces based outside Afghanistan had launched air strikes against Taliban positions earlier last week, but they failed to slow the advance of the insurgents.\n\nAlthough most US troops left in July, several thousand returned to Kabul at the weekend to help evacuate American and allied personnel from the capital.\n\nThe airport in the capital was the only official route out of the country after the Taliban took control of all the major border crossings.\n\nCustoms duty on goods entering the country via crossings they control is now collected by the Taliban - although exact amounts are unclear as the volume of trade has fallen as a result of the fighting.\n\nBut, Islam Qala on the border with Iran was, for example, capable of generating more than $20 million per month.\n\nDisruption to the flow of imports and exports has affected prices of essential goods in the markets - fuel and foodstuffs in particular.\n\nUS troops and their Nato and regional allies forced the Taliban from power in November 2001. The group had been harbouring Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures linked to the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US.\n\nBut despite a continued international presence in the region, billions of dollars of support and training for the Afghan government forces, the Taliban regrouped and gradually regained strength in more remote areas.\n\nA BBC study in 2017 showed the Taliban were in full control of a number of districts. But the research also showed they were active in many other parts of the country, mounting weekly or monthly attacks in some areas, suggesting significantly higher strength than previous estimates.\n\nIn 2017 about 15 million people - half the population - were reported to be living in areas either controlled by the Taliban or where the Taliban were openly present.", "Bakery chain Greggs has said it expects to create 500 new retail jobs in the coming months as it continues to open new outlets.\n\nThe new jobs come as part of the chain's plans to open about 100 net new stores by the end of the year.\n\nGreggs swung back to profit during the first half of the year as its sales rebounded to pre-pandemic levels.\n\nThe stronger-than-expected sales mean it now expects full-year profits to be \"slightly ahead\" of previous forecasts.\n\nGreggs reported profits of £55.5m for six months to 3 July, compared with a £65.2m loss a year earlier..\n\nThe chain said the recovery in trade in recent months had been \"stronger than we had anticipated\", helped by the easing of Covid restrictions.\n\nThe lifting of restrictions \"made a significant difference to footfall\", it said, with sales in the second quarter up 2.8% compared with the same period in 2019, before the pandemic.\n\nHowever, Greggs saw a mixed performance from its stores. It said its shops in public transport hubs and large city centres were among its weaker performing outlets, suggesting that many workers have yet to return to the office.\n\nIn contrast, \"customers staying closer to home are supporting our heartland shops in suburban and High Street areas\".\n\n\"The strongest locations continue to be shops typically accessed by car,\" it added.\n\nGreggs is looking at even more ambitious growth plans as it said it had \"the opportunity to expand its UK estate to at least 3,000 shops\".\n\nIt had 2,115 locations at the start of July.\n\n\"Greggs once again showed its resilience in a challenging first half, emerging from the lockdown months in a strong position and rebuilding sales as social restrictions were progressively relaxed,\" said boss Roger Whiteside.\n\nThe group has also targeted growth areas such as delivery and drive-thru sales.\n\n\"Greggs' results reflect its underlying strength as a business,\" said John Moore, senior investment manager at Brewin Dolphin.\n\n\"The company is feeling the full effect of a 'return to normal' along with the benefits of its investment in digital and the adaptations made to its estate to accommodate new customer habits during lockdown.\"\n\nThe chain needs another vegan sausage roll success, reckons Julie Palmer, partner at Begbies Traynor.\n\n\"Now that workplaces are opening and staff are returning to city centres, Greggs cannot afford to let up the pace,\" she said.\n\n\"It has already started playing up the passion that its customers have for its food, but if it hopes to get back to the heights of giving out bonuses to its staff then it needs restrictions permanently eased, pandemic contingency plans in place and, almost inevitably, another vegan sausage roll of a PR campaign.\"\n\nGreggs launched a new vegan sausage, bean and cheese melt launched last week.\n\n\"That is likely to bring a little extra sauce to sales in the coming months,\" said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown.", "Secondary school pupils will need to keep wearing masks for at least the first six weeks of the new term Image caption: Secondary school pupils will need to keep wearing masks for at least the first six weeks of the new term\n\nNicola Sturgeon now sets out changes to guidance for schools.\n\nShe says blanket isolation of whole classes will no longer be routine and instead there will be a more targeted approach, with fewer young people asked to self-isolate.\n\nHowever, most other mitigations will remain for the first six weeks of the new academic term, the first minister says.\n\nThis includes one metre social distancing between staff and pupils and face coverings for staff and children aged 12 and over.\n\nSturgeon says these measures will be kept under review.\n\nAll secondary pupils and staff will also be asked to take a lateral flow test before returning after the holidays and twice a week after that.", "Actor Matt Damon has insisted he has never used a gay slur \"in my personal life\" after being criticised for saying he'd only recently \"retired\" the word.\n\nThe Hollywood star told The Sunday Times his daughter had rebuked him for using what she called the \"f-slur for a homosexual\" in a joke \"months ago\".\n\nIn a follow-up statement, the Oscar winner stressed that he had never used the insult against anyone off screen.\n\n\"This conversation with my daughter was not a personal awakening,\" he said.\n\n\"I do not use slurs of any kind.\"\n\nDamon sparked anger for the original interview, in which he told an anecdote suggesting he had used the word until recently.\n\nHe told the newspaper it \"was commonly used when I was a kid, with a different application\".\n\nHe continued: \"I made a joke, months ago, and got a treatise from my daughter. She left the table. I said, 'Come on, that's a joke! I say it in the movie Stuck on You!'\n\n\"She went to her room and wrote a very long, beautiful treatise on how that word is dangerous. I said, 'I retire the f-slur!' I understood.\"\n\nAfter being criticised for his apparent recent casual use of the insult, he sent a lengthy statement to US media.\n\nHe gave the original interview to promote his new film Stillwater\n\n\"During a recent interview, I recalled a discussion I had with my daughter where I attempted to contextualise for her the progress that has been made - though by no means completed - since I was growing up in Boston and, as a child, heard the word 'f*g' used on the street before I knew what it even referred to,\" he said.\n\n\"I explained that that word was used constantly and casually and was even a line of dialogue in a movie of mine as recently as 2003; she in turn expressed incredulity that there could ever have been a time where that word was used unthinkingly.\n\n\"To my admiration and pride, she was extremely articulate about the extent to which that word would have been painful to someone in the LGBTQ+ community regardless of how culturally normalised it was. I not only agreed with her but thrilled at her passion, values and desire for social justice.\"\n\nHe continued: \"I have learned that eradicating prejudice requires active movement toward justice rather than finding passive comfort in imagining myself 'one of the good guys.'\n\n\"And given that open hostility against the LGBTQ+ community is still not uncommon, I understand why my statement led many to assume the worst.\n\n\"To be as clear as I can be, I stand with the LGBTQ+ community.\"\n\nThe actor had come in for strong criticism before releasing his clarification. US comedian, actor and writer Travon Free suggested that his realisation had come too late.\n\n\"So Matt Damon just figured out 'months ago', by way of a 'treatise' from a child, that he's not supposed to say the [F-]word,\" posted the writer, who identifies as bi or queer. \"Months ago... Months ago.\"\n\n\"I want to know what word Matt Damon has replaced [the word] with,\" wondered actor Billy Eichner, apparently unconvinced by Damon's story.\n\nStar Trek actor George Takei, one of the entertainment industry's most high-profile gay actors, wrote: \"To be honest, I was privately insulting Matt Damon until a few months ago, too, so…\"\n\nThis 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 Molly Lambert 🦔 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.\n\nIt's not the first time Damon has landed in hot water. In 2017, at the height of the #MeToo movement, Damon told reporters that inappropriate sexual behaviour needed to be seen as existing on a \"spectrum\".\n\nHe recently apologised for the comments, admitting he had been \"tone-deaf\".\n\n\"Like everybody, I'm a prisoner of my subjective experience and that leads to having blind spots,\" he told The New York Times.\n\n\"Me more than most given the experience that I've had as a white male American movie star. It's a very rarefied air. I don't even know where my blind spots begin and end.\n\n\"So, yes, I was and am tone-deaf. I do try my best not to be.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Logan's body was found in the Ogmore River in Bridgend county in the early hours of Saturday morning\n\nClassmates of a five-year-old boy found dead in a river have described him as a \"happy boy\" who \"liked Spiderman\" and \"playing hide and seek\".\n\nResidents in Sarn, Bridgend, have placed flowers, teddies and cards near Ogmore River where Logan Mwangi's body was found on Saturday morning.\n\nA 39-year-old man, a woman aged 30, and a boy aged 13 were arrested on suspicion of murder.\n\nLogan's friends were said to be \"heartbroken\" by his death.\n\nCeri, who has lived in Sarn for 53 years, said her grandchildren attended Tondu reception class with Logan and they would have been starting in Tondu Primary School in September.\n\n\"My granddaughter is heartbroken. It's my granddaughter and grandson's fifth birthday in a fortnight and Logan was invited,\" she said.\n\n\"He was a happy little boy.\"\n\nLogan's friends wrote messages to say how much they loved him\n\nTeddies and balloons have been left in memory of the little boy\n\nMore tributes have been left near the river where Logan's body was found\n\nOne of Logan's classmates came with her parents to pay tribute to the five-year-old who she said \"liked Spiderman\". She also said blue was Logan's favourite colour and he was good at playing hide-and-seek.\n\nThe girl's mum said: \"He just seemed really happy and a good boy. He was in my daughter's class for two years I think and they would be going up to big school [primary] in September.\"\n\nGrieving neighbours and friends have described Logan as a happy little boy\n\nNeighbour Teresa Mason said Logan and his mum had knocked on her mother's door recently to ask if they had lost a pet snake.\n\n\"They'd found a small snake in their garden and wanted to know if a snake had escaped from someone's house,\" she said.\n\n\"The boy was really sweet. A happy-go-lucky child.\"\n\nTeresa, who cares for her mother at home, said: \"My mother has lived here for 32 years and nothing as bad as this has happened.\n\n\"We can't get our heads around it. We normally see him running around here with other kids. We got up Saturday and there was police outside the house. It's just shocking.\"", "The men were caught after crashing at Morrisons in Swan Close Road, Banbury\n\nTwo drug dealers who were caught after their car got stuck in a supermarket trolley bay have been jailed.\n\nAsim Akram and Ibrar Hussain were trying to evade police as they crashed at Morrisons in Banbury on 18 May.\n\nOfficers subsequently found the pair with crack cocaine and heroin with a street value of £4,000.\n\nAkram, 37, was jailed for five years and six months at Oxford Crown Court. Hussain, 41, was jailed for three years and four months.\n\nIbrar Hussain and Asim Akram were jailed at Oxford Crown Court\n\nThe men, who are both from Birmingham, had previously pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply heroin and crack cocaine.\n\nIn a statement, Thames Valley Police said: \"While attempting to make his escape, Akram, who was driving a red Honda, rammed a marked police car before colliding with a trolley bay, and getting his car stuck, allowing our officers to arrest both.\"\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Barbie maker Mattel has created a doll of the scientist who designed the Oxford coronavirus vaccine, Prof Dame Sarah Gilbert.\n\nDame Sarah said she found the creation \"very strange\" at first - but she hoped it would inspire children.\n\n\"My wish is that my doll will show children careers they may not be aware of, like a vaccinologist,\" she said.\n\nHer Barbie is one of six to honour women working in science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem).\n\nThe others include an Australian medic who helped create a reusable gown for health workers, and a Brazilian biomedical researcher.\n\nVaccinologist Dame Sarah - who was recognised with a damehood in the Queen's Birthday Honours - began designing a coronavirus vaccine in early 2020 when Covid first emerged in China.\n\nHer vaccine - the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab - is now the most widely used around the world, with doses sent to more than 170 countries.\n\n\"I am passionate about inspiring the next generation of girls into Stem careers and hope that children who see my Barbie will realise how vital careers in science are to help the world around us,\" said Dame Sarah.\n\nIn recent years, toymaker Mattel has responded to criticism that its Barbie doll sets an unrealistic image of womanhood.\n\nIt now offers dolls themed around careers such as a firefighter, doctor and astronaut - and in a range of skin tones beyond its original white, blonde doll that first launched in 1959.\n\nSales of Barbie dolls rose to a six-year high last year, as the pandemic saw parents stock up on toys for their children.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'I was taken aback by the likeness!' - Asher-Smith meets her toy doll", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nJason Kenny won his eighth cycling medal to become Great Britain's most decorated Olympian as GB celebrated eight podium finishes on Tuesday.\n\nTwo golds came in sailing as Giles Scott followed success for Dylan Fletcher and Stuart Bithell.\n\nGB are sixth in the medal table after diving bronze and five silvers across sailing, cycling, boxing and athletics.\n\nKeely Hodgkinson, 19, won Britain's first athletics medal of Tokyo 2020 as she came second in the women's 800m.\n\n\"Teenagers taking on the podium is incredible,\" said Hodgkinson, who set a British record as she finished behind 19-year-old American Athing Mu.\n\nHodgkinson beat Dame Kelly Holmes' record, which had stood since 1995, by nearly half a second as she finished in one minute 55.88 seconds\n\nTeam-mate Jemma Reekie was just edged out for bronze in fourth, while Alexandra Bell finished seventh.\n\nGymnast Simone Biles won a bronze having withdrawn from four other finals to protect her mental health.\n\n\"I was proud of myself just to go out there after what I've been through,\" said the 24-year-old American, who finished behind China's Guan Chenchen and Tang Xijing\n\nA series of blistering times were set on the Tokyo track, with Norway's Karsten Warholm setting a new world record. as he won the men's 400m hurdles.\n\nWarholm, 25, ran 45.94 seconds to smash his own mark and win a final described as \"truly unbelievable\" by former British hurdler Colin Jackson.\n\nJamaica's reigning champion Elaine Thompson-Herah ran the second fastest women's 200m time to clinch an unprecedented female sprint double-double.\n\nAfter already clinching 100m gold, she clocked 21.53 seconds, ahead of Namibia's Christine Mboma and the USA's Gabby Thomas.\n\nSweden's world record holder Armand Duplantis won the men's pole vault, soaring over 6.02 metres on his first attempt at that height.\n\n\"Eight medals on day 11 is Great Britain's best medal performance at the Tokyo Olympics and replicates the eight medals won on day 11 of both London 2012 and Rio 2016.\n\n\"Great Britain's 43 medals and 13 golds are down on both Rio 2016 (49, 19) and London 2012 (48, 22) but Wednesday provides an opportunity to close that gap as no medals were won in Rio or London on day 12.\n\n\"Rio and London were Great Britain's best Olympics since 1908 but Team GB look like falling short of those heights this time around as the 13 golds won so far fall well short of London's 22 and Rio's 19 at this stage.\"\n\nGiles Scott's successful defence of the men's Finn title was Britain's 13th gold medal at Tokyo 2020, a tally bettered only by China, the United States, Japan and Australia.\n\nBut a 14th failed to materialise when British cyclists were beaten in the women's team pursuit and men's team sprint finals.\n\nIn the team pursuit final, Laura Kenny was prevented from becoming the first British woman to win gold at three Olympics - for now, at least, with chances to come later this week in the omnium and madison events - by an outstanding German performance.\n\nJason Kenny, Laura's husband, equalled Sir Bradley Wiggins' tally of eight medals when he won silver in the team sprint. Kenny has one more gold and silver than his fellow cyclist.\n\nA dramatic day in the velodrome saw riders crash and records tumble, with Britain's reign as Olympic champions in the men's team pursuit ending as GB and Denmark riders collided.\n\nThe cycling medals came after John Gimson and Anna Burnet earned Britain's third sailing medal of the day with silver in the mixed Nacra 17, while diver Jack Laugher won bronze in the men's 3m springboard.\n\nAnother silver followed at the boxing, where Pat McCormack was beaten in the men's welterweight final by Cuba's Roniel Iglesias.\n\nEarlier on Tuesday, British sprinter Adam Gemili -suffered injury heartbreak in the men's 200m.\n\nA tearful Gemili said pulling up out of the blocks with a hamstring injury was \"the worst feeling in the world\".\n\nHow the sailors started a medal rush for Team GB\n\nWith 26 gold medal events taking place on Tuesday there were several opportunities for Team GB to add to their tally, with the aim of closing in on their record-breaking numbers at Rio 2016.\n\nFive years ago in Brazil, the nation won 67 medals, 27 of them being gold.\n\nIn Tokyo, Scott won GB's 13th gold of the Games - less than an hour after Fletcher and Bithell had added the 12th.\n\nGimson and Burnet then added another medal to cap a great day on the waves for Britain at the Enoshima Yacht Harbour.\n\nGoing into the final race, the pair were guaranteed a podium finish on their Olympic debut and finished safely in fifth to stay in silver behind Italians Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti.\n\nScott, 34, was already assured of a medal with a nine-point lead going into his final race, but had to rally after a poor start to cross the line in fourth - enough to keep Hungary's Zsombor Berecz in silver.\n\nFletcher and Bithell ended the dominance of New Zealand's Peter Burling and Blair Tuke in the men's 49er, edging to a final-race victory over Germany by centimetres in a tense finish.\n\n\"It was an intense race but it's mind-blowing to be sat here now being Olympic champions,\" said Fletcher.\n\n'Worst feeling in the world' - injured Gemili out of 200m\n\nGemili, 27, saw his hopes of a medal dashed after injuring his hamstring in the final block start of his warm-up before going out for the heats.\n\nHe had been aiming to improve on his fourth place at Rio 2016, where he missed out on bronze by three thousandths of a second.\n\n\"I felt my hamstring go. I'm in so much pain. I said I just wanted to go out there and try. You have to try,\" said Gemili, who was fighting back the tears during his trackside interview.\n\n\"I can't believe it happened. I felt I had a good chance. It's the worst feeling in the world.\"\n\nEd Clancy - the most successful team pursuit rider in Olympic history - withdrew from the remainder of Tokyo 2020 and announced his retirement because of a persistent back injury.\n\nCanoeist Deborah Kerr, 23, missed out on a medal in her first Olympics, finishing eighth in the women's kayak single 200m as New Zealand's Lisa Carrington, 31, continued her dominance by winning a third consecutive gold.\n\nLong jumpers Jazmin Sawyers, 27, and Abigail Irozuru, 31, were unable to win a medal as Germany's Malaika Mihambo took gold.\n\nBoxer Caroline Dubois, 20, narrowly lost on points to Thailand's Sudaporn Seesondee in the women's lightweight quarter-final, missing out on the guarantee of at least a bronze medal.\n\nIn the men's 3m springboard final, 24-year-old James Heatly finished ninth in his first Games.\n\nJoe Fraser was thought to be a medal threat in the parallel bars, but finished eighth in the final as the artistic gymnastics came to a close.\n• None 'In my eyes, anyone can be an influencer':", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ever Given: Ship docks in Felixstowe after Suez Canal delay\n\nA huge container ship that blocked the Suez Canal has docked in the UK for the first time since causing disruption to global shipping.\n\nThe Ever Given blocked the major shipping lane in Egypt for nearly a week earlier this year.\n\nIt was held for more than three months amid a dispute over compensation.\n\nThe 400m-long (1,300ft) ship, originally due to arrive in early April, finally docked at Felixstowe in Suffolk at about 16:30 on Tuesday.\n\nThe Ever Given is carrying goods valued at $775m\n\nShip-spotters lined the beach as the Ever Given approached port.\n\nThe ship had been heading for Rotterdam when it ploughed into the sandy bank of a single-lane stretch of the canal on 23 March.\n\nThe beach at Felixstowe was lined with deckchairs and ship-spotters as the Ever Given approached\n\nThe ship has now arrived at Felixstowe - months later than expected but with its fame - or infamy - assured.\n\nAs it turned the corner for the home straight, noise levels from those waiting dropped noticeably to almost a hush, only to be broken by children shouting \"It's here!\".\n\nThe crowds remain, but have now reduced by about half. All eyes were on it as it manoeuvred into berth seven to complete its long journey.\n\nA few voices could be heard saying it was a \"little bit of an anti-climax,\" but all were pleased to have witnessed the end of the ship's epic struggle to get here.\n\nMost people said it was worth the wait.\n\nIt was stuck for nearly a week, causing one of the biggest traffic jams in shipping history.\n\nHundreds of ships were delayed as they waited for the canal to be unblocked and some vessels were forced to take the much longer route around the southern tip of Africa.\n\nWhen it was finally freed from the canal, the ship was delayed for a further three months due to a battle over compensation\n\nWhen the ship, which carries cargo between Asia and Europe, was finally freed it was held up again until an agreement between Japanese owner, Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd, and canal authorities was reached over compensation.\n\nThe backlog from the ship's delay has led to a leap in shipping rates and sent the cost of containers soaring from £2,500 last year to £15,000 now.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nDirector of Seaport Freight Services, Steve Parks, said most of what is sold online and in UK comes from China.\n\nMr Parks, who is hoping to receive three consignments from the Ever Given by Friday, said the price rises were \"bound to reflect upon prices in the shops\".\n\n\"We are already looking at moving Christmas goods and have no option but to continue shipping,\" he added.\n\nThe Ever Given, which made headlines when it blocked the Suez Canal in Egypt, has docked in Felixstowe\n\nGoods in the Ever Given's 18,000 containers have an estimated value of $775m, but many of them will hold fruit and vegetables which will have to be destroyed, having passed their use-by date.\n\nJake Slinn, owner of JS Global Cargo & Freight Disposal in Ipswich, said his business was expecting 20 to 30 containers from the ship.\n\nHe explained that most ships contained some goods that needed to be destroyed as they had gone out of date, or sold on if their original buyer no longer wanted them.\n\nFoodstuffs are destroyed via anaerobic digestion, while the company will also deal with a host of items from TVs to clothing.\n\n\"We don't know what it is going to be until we crack the doors open,\" said Mr Flynn.\n\nThe Ever Given is 400m-long (1,312ft) and weighs 200,000 tonnes\n\nWendy, who had travelled from Trimley to see the Ever Given arrive in Felixstowe, told BBC Radio Suffolk: \"I've been following it from the Suez Canal, and I said to the grandchildren 'We will bring you down to see it when it hits Felixstowe'.\"\n\nOne ship-spotter said the arrival had been \"a long time coming, but it's worth it,\" while another said: \"It's just all the publicity it has had. To see it finally here is quite amazing.\"\n\nThe Ever Given's next destination is Hamburg, Germany.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A student fell to his death while hiding during a lockdown-defying party, an inquest has heard.\n\nTom Miller, 24, went to the event in Tennyson Street, in the Radford area of Nottingham, on 5 December 2020.\n\nNottingham Coroner's Court heard after midnight, council officers called on the house to warn them about noise.\n\nRumours of arrests caused some people to hide, with Mr Miller getting on the roof and then soon after falling and suffering fatal injuries.\n\nThe party took place while Nottingham was subject to tier three coronavirus restrictions, which banned different households mixing indoors.\n\nThe court heard from PC Kate Gledhill of Nottinghamshire Police, who said the community protection officers gave a warning about noise and left.\n\nMr Miller and a friend had filmed themselves sitting on the roof shortly before they fell\n\nSome partygoers claimed there had been a second visit but PC Gledhill said there was no record of this.\n\nBut stories of a police presence caused a \"ripple effect\" with people going into bedrooms and the garden.\n\nPC Gledhill said: \"Tom travelled upstairs and found a small window which gave access to a ledge and then a section of roof.\n\n\"He filmed himself there and sent messages to friends, inviting one up to join him.\"\n\nAfter spending a short time on the roof, his friend went to urinate but slipped.\n\nPC Gledhill said the pair became \"entangled\" and both fell.\n\nKeen rugby player and Nottingham Trent University (NTU) student Mr Miller suffered multiple injuries and died in hospital the next day.\n\nThe friend suffered less serious injuries.\n\nRecording a verdict of accidental death, assistant coroner Laurinda Bower said: \"This was a tragic case which led to the death of someone who was clearly highly regarded among his friends.\n\n\"It has had a profound and ongoing impact on those who were there and the wider university.\"\n\nNTU Sport Head of Rugby Union, David Ross, said: \"Tom was an outstanding role model and leader within our rugby programme and will be sadly missed by his rugby brothers and the wider sporting community.\"\n\nMr Miller was an ambassador for the Oddballs cancer charity and an online appeal in his name has raised nearly £53,000 for the organisation.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Currently your polling station is assigned according to where your live - but could this change?\n\nPeople could be allowed to vote in supermarkets or schools in some parts of Wales at next year's council elections.\n\nNew \"flexible voting\" proposals could see polling take place over multiple days or a weekend before an election, in an effort to boost turnout.\n\nThe Welsh government has asked if councils would like to pilot the ideas.\n\nBut a body of electoral officials said there was not a \"huge\" amount of time to implement the proposals.\n\nThe Welsh Conservatives said some might see the proposals as an effort to \"gerrymander\" the elections, while Plaid Cymru welcomed the plans.\n\nTurnout in Wales was 42% at the last council elections in 2017.\n\nNext year's elections will be the first for local government in Wales where 16 and 17-year-olds can take part.\n\nOfficials are considering letting voters cast ballots in any polling station in their local authority area.\n\nIt could mean people could vote in person somewhere more convenient to them, instead of the polling station allocated according to where they live.\n\nThe Welsh government is looking at whether voting in places like supermarkets and leisure centres could be allowed, or in schools and colleges.\n\nEarly voting - as seen in the US elections last November - could also form part of the pilots.\n\nAn experiment was held with supermarket voting in Croydon in 1998\n\nPolling station staff generally have paper lists of electors to check off when people arrive to vote, but the Welsh government says \"digital solutions\" would be required for some of the ideas.\n\nLaura Lock, deputy chief executive of the Association of Electoral Administrators, said the announcement had \"some really good ideas in it\".\n\n\"It is key that electors can only vote once, and they vote in the right polls,\" she said.\n\n\"But it's a very large administrative challenge, because while it might not seem too much of a radical idea, we do need to make some big changes to enable this\".\n\nMs Lock also called for the Welsh government to make decisions as \"early as possible\", with the elections happening on 5 May.\n\n\"We want to embrace all of the possibilities that the pilots will bring us but nine months doesn't give a huge amount of time to ensure that that can be done.\n\n\"I think it will be a challenge. But I don't think that it's impossible.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe Welsh government's senior legal advisor, Counsel General Mick Antoniw, said the administration wanted to make it as easy as possible to vote.\n\n\"Democracy should be a part of all our lives and if more of us take part, it will lead to better policy making by elected representatives and policies which truly represent the views and experiences of all of us,\" he said.\n\n\"These voting pilots will help us to better understand how we can increase turnout. We believe making voting more flexible and easier will bring democracy closer to everyone.\"\n\nBut Welsh Conservative constitution spokesman Darren Millar said: \"The people of Wales already have the chance to vote early and from home via the use of a postal vote, we don't need major changes to a system that already serves our democracy well.\n\n\"Some may see this a desperate attempt by Labour ministers to gerrymander the voting system.\"\n\nPlaid Cymru's spokesman for the constitution Rhys ab Owen said: \"Any attempts to boost voter turnout are greatly welcomed and long overdue.\"\n\n\"This must go hand in hand with wider electoral reform including greater political education in schools and a fairer voting system in the form of STV. A healthy democracy relies on both an engaged electorate and accessible elections.\"\n\nThe 2021 Senedd election was the first in Wales where 16 and 17-year-olds could take part.\n\nBut tens of thousands did not register in time to do so, with figures suggesting 54% failed to register.\n\nThe UK government experimented with voting in supermarkets back in the 1990s, when polling stations were opened at two shops for the 1998 council elections and London mayoralty referendum.\n\nSupermarket car parks also saw use as polling stations in England last May, according to the Local Government Chronicle.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The child was fatally injured at the Fenwick (pictured on a previous occasion) department store on Colchester High Street\n\nA five-year-old boy has died after sustaining a serious head injury at a department store.\n\nHe was injured at the Fenwick store in Colchester High Street on 27 July.\n\nThe boy, who has not been named, was taken to Colchester Hospital but police on Tuesday confirmed he had died.\n\nMia Fenwick, director at Fenwick, said it was \"with great sadness that we have learned of the passing of a young boy following an incident at our Colchester store last week\".\n\nShe said: \"All our thoughts and prayers are with the child's family and friends at this very painful time.\n\n\"We continue to work closely with the local authorities to understand how this happened.\"\n\nShe added the Colchester store would remain closed on Wednesday \"as a mark of respect\".\n\nCh Insp Rob Huddleston, district commander for Colchester, Essex, said: \"This is a truly heart-breaking incident and all of our thoughts are with the boy's loved ones.\"\n\nHe said he and his teams in Colchester were \"extremely saddened\" to learn of the boy's death.\n\nThe child's family are being supported by specialist officers.\n\nNo further details have been released about the incident.\n\nA spokesman for Colchester Borough Council, which is investigating what happened, said the authority was \"deeply saddened by the news\".\n\nHe said: \"Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this tragic time.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nNorway's Karsten Warholm ran a stunning men's 400m hurdles race to obliterate his previous world record and take gold at Tokyo 2020.\n\nWarholm, 25, finished in 45.94 seconds to slash more than seven tenths off his old record, while American Rai Benjamin was hot on his heels to win silver having also beaten the previous record.\n\nWarholm had set the previous world record of 46.70 in Oslo in July.\n\nBrazil's Alison dos Santos took the bronze medal with a time of 46.72.\n\n\"You know the cliche that it hasn't sunk in yet? I don't think it has but I feel ecstatic,\" Warholm, who now holds the European, world and Olympic titles, told BBC Sport.\n• None Lego and practical jokes - inside the world of 'Viking' Warholm\n\n\"I can't believe the time, it's so fast! A lot of the time I am asked about the perfect race... I said it didn't exist, but this is the closest I've ever come.\n\n\"I told myself going into the race, remember all the work you have put in. It was the only thing missing from my [medal] collection.\n\n\"I can't describe how important this is for me. This is what I do morning until night - it's huge.\"\n• None Super shoes: Is technology helping to break records? Listen to the Sports Desk podcast\n\nIt was tipped to be one of the most exhilarating races at the Games after Benjamin had come within five hundredths of a second of taking the then-world record in winning the US trials this summer.\n\nWarholm established a strong lead when he raced out of the blocks but Benjamin threatened to claw him back before the Norwegian's final push for the line.\n\nHe roared with delight when he looked up at the screen to see his time, ripped his shirt in celebration and posed for photographs next to the new world record.\n\nTwo-time world 110m hurdles champion Colin Jackson told BBC TV: \"When you talk about world records, this is up there with Usain Bolt's time of 9.58 seconds in the 100m and up there with Flo Jo's 10.49 seconds in the 100m.\n\n\"This is one of the most outstanding world records and I'm pretty sure that world record will outlive me.\n\n\"It's just breathtaking. Wow. I am truly in shock.\"\n\nFormer 1500m Olympic silver medallist Steve Cram added: \"No wonder he rips his shirt apart - he is Superman in this event!\n\n\"I cannot believe what we have just seen. Two men running times you could only dream of.\"\n• None 'In my eyes, anyone can be an influencer':", "Several life-saving kidney transplants within the Belfast Health Trust area could not go ahead at the weekend because not enough nurses were available to support surgeons.\n\nThe trust was offered healthy kidneys from deceased donors.\n\nBut they were turned down as the operations could not be carried out without sufficient staff.\n\nThe trust has apologised and blamed the staff shortage on a rise in the number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals.\n\nThe cancellation of the transplants comes after some health trusts cancelled cancer surgeries at the end of July.\n\nOn Monday the Royal College of Surgeons said those cancellations could have been avoided.\n\nIt told BBC News NI that proposals it had made to stop surgeries being cancelled amid an increase in the number of Covid-19 patients had not been implemented.\n\nThe Belfast Health Trust said it had come under \"significant pressure\" as more people with Covid-19 have been admitted to intensive care units.\n\nIt said it therefore had to make the \"difficult decision\" to cancel some kidney transplants.\n\nThat, it said, allowed staff who work in operating theatres to \"assist in intensive care units at this challenging time\".\n\nAll options were explored in order to try and ensure transplants could be carried out - this decision was a last resort and \"not taken lightly,\" said the trust.\n\n\"We apologise to all patients and we are doing all we can to ensure we can reschedule surgeries as soon as possible.\"\n\nLast year a record number of kidney transplants were carried out in Northern Ireland in spite of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nBut in November the transplant system was suspended because of the Covid-19-related pressure on the health service.\n\nIn January BBC News NI reported that organs were regularly turned down instead of being used for transplants because no operating facilities were available.\n\nThe issue was raised in the House of Commons by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP Ian Paisley, who warned against a \"scandal of discarding viable transplant organs from developing\".", "Robyn Williams was awarded the Queen's Police Medal in 2003 and was highly commended for her work helping victims of the Grenfell Tower disaster\n\nThe Met Police is trying to dismiss a highly decorated officer who was reinstated on appeal after being sacked for possessing a child abuse video.\n\nIn November 2019, Supt Robyn Williams was sentenced to community service for having the clip on her phone. She was dismissed by the Met four months later.\n\nHowever, the Met said it had decided to \"instigate judicial review proceedings\" over the officer's reinstatement.\n\nThe independent panel concluded in June that \"a flawed structure\" had led the force to sack 56-year-old Ms Williams after her conviction for possessing an indecent image of a child. It determined that her dismissal should be replaced with a final written warning, clearing her to return to work.\n\nMs Williams' trial heard she received the video via WhatsApp from her sister who had been sent the clip by her boyfriend.\n\nThe officer said she had not viewed the 54-second video and did not know it was on her phone.\n\nBut prosecutors said there was no way she could have missed it, and cited a response from the officer to her older sister to \"please call\" as evidence she wanted to discuss the content.\n\nThe jury was told experts had not been able to examine Ms Williams' phone properly.\n\nShe was sacked by the Met after a special disciplinary hearing concluded her behaviour amounted to gross misconduct.\n\nRobyn Williams, pictured here with London mayor Sadiq Khan before her conviction, faces dismissal for a second time\n\nThe Met found that Ms Williams' actions were likely to undermine public confidence and had not been a \"trivial lapse\".\n\nIn a statement, the Met questioned the judgment of the Police Appeal Tribunals (PAT).\n\nIt said: \"The PAT has made findings in two separate cases that overturned carefully considered decisions to dismiss officers from the Metropolitan Police, which had been made in special case hearings following criminal convictions.\n\n\"The special case hearings had deemed that the convictions amount to gross misconduct, and that the officers should be dismissed. In both cases the PAT did not agree with these findings and replaced the officers' dismissals with a final written warning.\"\n\nThe identity of the other police officer has not been revealed.\n\nThe 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. Krystina Timanovskaya: \"When it's safe, I want to return home\"\n\nA sprinter from Belarus who refused her team's order to fly home early from the Olympics says her actions were not a form of political protest.\n\n\"I love my country and I didn't betray my country,\" Krystina Timanovskaya, 24, told the BBC's Newshour programme.\n\n\"This is about the mistakes that have been made by our officials at the Olympics,\" she added.\n\nMs Timanovskaya has been granted a humanitarian visa by Poland and is currently at its embassy in Tokyo.\n\nShe is expected to leave Japan and travel to Warsaw on Wednesday, her supporters have said.\n\nThe athlete earlier voiced fears for her safety after she was forced to pack her belongings and driven to a Tokyo airport, after criticising her coaches.\n\nBelarus says she was removed from the national team because of her emotional state.\n\nBut speaking to the BBC on Tuesday, Ms Timanovskaya said she did not suffer from any mental health issues and did not have any conversations with doctors at the Olympic village.\n\nShe said she was surprised when team officials told her she was leaving the Games because she \"didn't say anything political\", adding that she would like to return to Belarus \"when I know that it's safe... maybe I'll only be able to return after five or 10 years\".\n\nThe sprinter was pictured inside Poland's embassy in Tokyo\n\nThe International Olympic Committee (IOC) has launched a formal investigation into allegations that Belarus attempted to force Ms Timanovskaya to return home.\n\n\"We need to establish the full facts, that can take time,\" IOC spokesman Mark Adams said. \"In the meantime our first concern is for the athlete.\"\n\nThe IOC has requested that the Belarus National Olympic Committee submit its report on the incident by the end of Tuesday.\n\nThe athlete's husband, Arseniy Zdanevich, has since fled Belarus and is currently in Ukraine. He told the BBC the couple had never been involved in politics and would return to Belarus if they did not face criminal charges.\n\nSeparately on Tuesday, the head of an organisation helping Belarusians fleeing abroad was found dead near his home in neighbouring Ukraine. Vitaly Shishov had reportedly been followed recently.\n\nThe incident has again put the spotlight on Belarus, which has been ruled by President Alexander Lukashenko since 1994. Last year, nationwide protests over his disputed re-election were violently repressed by the security forces.\n\nSome of those who joined the demonstrations were also national-level athletes, who were stripped of funding, cut from national teams and detained.\n\nPoland's Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz said Ms Timanovskaya was in direct contact with Polish diplomats in Tokyo, and that Poland would do \"whatever is necessary to help her continue her sporting career\".\n\nThe Belarusian government has yet to comment on the Polish decision to offer the sprinter a humanitarian visa.\n\nThe EU, meanwhile, welcomed Poland's decision. Nabila Massrali, a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, said the attempt by Belarus to forcibly repatriate Ms Timanovskaya was \"another example of the brutality of the repression of Lukashenko's regime\".\n\n\"We express our full solidarity to Krystina Timanovskaya and commend the (EU) member states that offered her support. We welcome the fact that she has now been given a humanitarian visa by Poland,\" Ms Massrali said in a statement to Reuters.\n\nThe sprinter, who was due to compete in the women's 200m event on Monday, had complained on social media about being entered into the 4x400m relay race at short notice after some teammates were found to be ineligible to compete.\n\nThe video led to criticism in state media, with one television channel saying she lacked \"team spirit\".\n\nMs Timanovskaya said officials had come to her room and given her an hour to pack her bags before being escorted to Tokyo's Haneda airport. She says she was \"put under pressure\" by team officials to return home and asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for help.\n\n\"They are trying to get me out of the country without my permission,\" she said in a video posted on the Telegram channel of the Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation, which was created last year to support athletes critical of the government.\n\nAnatol Kotau, a member of the group, told the BBC on Sunday: \"She's afraid of repression on her family in Belarus - this is the main concern for her right now.\"\n\nThe athlete sought police protection at the airport terminal\n\nThe Belarusian Olympic committee said Ms Timanovskaya had been taken off the team because of her \"emotional and psychological condition\".\n\nTeam coach Yuri Moisevich said Ms Timanovskaya appeared anxious when he spoke with her on Sunday.\n\n\"I was trying to have a calm conversation with her and I succeeded,\" he said, adding: \"Then I noticed that she would stop the conversation and start it again, then she would grab the phone and I saw that something was happening.\"\n\nOn Monday, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said the body had taken measures against the Belarusian committee in the run-up to the Games.\n\nIt banned some officials, including the president's son, for failing to protect athletes who had joined the demonstrations.\n\nHeather McGill, Amnesty International's Eastern Europe and Central Asia researcher, said the country's sporting administration had been subject to \"direct government control\" under President Lukashenko.\n\n\"Athletes are favoured by the state and honoured by society, and it is not surprising that athletes who speak out find themselves a target for reprisals,\" she said.", "Svetlana Tikhanovskaya was forced to flee Belarus in the wake of disputed elections\n\nThe exiled Belarus opposition leader says she is sure the UK will offer further help to the country's people, amid a crackdown on dissent.\n\nSvetlana Tikhanovskaya said Boris Johnson had assured her the UK would put pressure on the Belarus government, at a meeting in Downing Street.\n\nIt comes amid mass arrests following the disputed re-election of President Lukashenko in August 2020.\n\nThe prime minister said the UK was \"very much\" on Ms Tikhanovskaya's side.\n\nThe exiled opposition leader claimed victory in last year's Belarusian presidential election, after standing in place of her politician husband, who was detained in March 2020.\n\nForced to flee the country with her children on the day after the election, she now lives in Lithuania.\n\nShe told reporters outside Downing Street she had not discussed \"concrete\" actions the UK might take with Mr Johnson, adding that this would require \"further work\".\n\nBut asked if she thought such help would be offered by the UK, she replied: \"I am sure.\"\n\nShe said she saw in Mr Johnson \"a person who really shares common values with Belarusians\".\n\nMs Tikhanovskaya's visit to London is her latest stop in a diplomatic tour of Europe\n\nIt comes after Vitaly Shishov, the head of a group helping people who have fled Belarus, was found dead near his home in neighbouring Ukraine.\n\nPolice said they were investigating whether he had been killed and his death made to look like suicide.\n\nMeanwhile, a Belarusian Olympic sprinter who feared for her safety has been granted a humanitarian visa by Poland.\n\nMs Tikhanovskaya said it was too early to comment on Mr Shishov's death.\n\nBut she said she was determined to carry on fighting the government of Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus since 1994.\n\n\"I know that even if I disappear one day this movement will continue without me,\" she added.\n\nShe said the international community was \"doing a lot\" to help but that \"sometimes decisions should be taken very, very fast\".\n\n\"This regime will fall one day for sure,\" she said.\n\nMs Tikhanovskaya gave a speech to UK-based supporters after her meeting in No 10\n\nBefore her meeting in London, she had said she would be pushing for the UK and Western allies to tighten sanctions on Belarus.\n\nSpeaking to the Financial Times, she said European sanctions contained \"loopholes,\" and urged greater co-ordination with the United States.\n\nThe UK's sanctions - including travel bans and asset freezes on senior Belarusian officials - currently target a total of 99 people and nine organisations.\n\nThe list was widened in June following the detention of opposition Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend, after a Ryanair plane they were travelling in was forced to divert and land in Belarus.\n\nAt the same time, the EU updated its sanctions list to include a total of 166 persons and 15 entities.\n\nMs Tikhanovskaya said she had been assured by Mr Johnson that the UK would help create \"multiple points of pressure\" on Mr Lukashenko's government.\n\nThis would include assistance for Belarusian journalists forced to flee the country, and for democracy campaigners and charities, she added.\n\nWelcoming Ms Tikhanovskaya to Downing Street, Mr Johnson said: \"We are very much on your side, very much in support of what you are doing.\n\n\"We are committed to supporting human rights and civil society in Belarus.\"\n\nWhere is Belarus? It has its ally Russia to the east and Ukraine to the south. To the north and west lie EU and Nato members Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.\n\nWhy does it matter? Like Ukraine, this nation of 9.5 million is caught in rivalry between the West and Russia. President Alexander Lukashenko has been nicknamed \"Europe's last dictator\" - he has been in power for 27 years.\n\nWhat's going on there? There is a huge opposition movement demanding new, democratic leadership and economic reform. The opposition movement and Western governments say Mr Lukashenko rigged the 9 August election. Officially he won by a landslide. A huge police crackdown has curbed street protests and sent opposition leaders to prison or into exile.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nTrack cyclist Jason Kenny won his eighth medal to become Great Britain's most decorated Olympian as six podium finishes moved the nation up to fifth in the medal table at Tokyo 2020.\n\nTeam GB's two golds on Tuesday came in sailing as Giles Scott followed success for Dylan Fletcher and Stuart Bithell.\n\nOn a productive day, Britain claimed three silvers across sailing and cycling, along with a diving bronze.\n\nAthletics, cycling and boxing offer chances for more British medals later.\n\nIn one of the stories of the Games, Norway's Karsten Warholm won the men's 400m hurdles gold with a new world record.\n\nWarholm, 25, ran 45.94 seconds to smash his own world record and win a final described as \"truly unbelievable\" by former British hurdler Colin Jackson.\n\nAmerican gymnast Simone Biles won bronze in the women's beam final on an emotional return to action, having withdrawn from four other finals to protect her mental health.\n\nAfter already clinching 100m gold, she goes up against fellow Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, US sprinter Gabby Thomas - the fastest woman over 200m this year - and Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas.\n\nTeam GB celebrate a productive day - and it could have been even better\n\nScott's successful defence of the men's Finn title was Britain's 13th gold medal of the Games, a tally bettered only by China, the United States, Japan and Australia.\n\nBut the chance of a 14th was denied when British cyclists were beaten in both the women's team pursuit and men's team sprint.\n\nIn the team pursuit final, Laura Kenny was stopped from becoming the first British woman to win gold at three Olympics - for now, at least, with chances to come later this week in the omnium and madison events - by an outstanding German performance.\n\nJason Kenny, Laura's husband, equalled fellow cyclist Bradley Wiggins' tally of eight medals when he won silver in the team sprint.\n\nThose came after John Gimson and Anna Burnet earned Britain's third sailing medal of the day with silver in the mixed Nacra 17, while diver Jack Laugher won bronze in the men's 3m springboard.\n\nEarlier on Tuesday, another medal hope - British sprinter Adam Gemili - suffered injury heartbreak in the men's 200m.\n\nA tearful Gemili said pulling up out of the blocks with a hamstring injury was \"the worst feeling in the world\".\n\nWhat else is coming up on day 11?\n• Athletics: British trio Keely Hodgkinson, Jemma Reekie and Alex Bell will be on the start line together in the women's 800m final (13:25).\n• Boxing: Britain's Pat McCormack, the 2019 world silver medallist, takes on Cuba's Roniel Iglesias in the men's welterweight final (11:05), while flyweight Galal Yafai could guarantee himself a medal (09:30).\n\nHow the sailors started a medal rush for Team GB\n\nWith 26 gold medal events taking place on Tuesday there were several opportunities for Team GB to add to their tally, with the aim of closing the gap on their record-breaking numbers at Rio 2016.\n\nFive years ago in Brazil, the nation won 67 medals, 27 of them being gold.\n\nIn Tokyo, Scott won GB's 13th gold of the Games - less than an hour after Fletcher and Bithell added the 12th.\n\nGimson and Burnet then added another medal to cap a successful day for Britain at the Enoshima Yacht Harbour.\n\nGoing into the final race, the pair were guaranteed a podium finish on their Olympic debut and finished safely in fifth to stay in silver behind Italians Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti.\n\nScott, 34, was already assured of a medal with a nine-point lead going into his final race, but had to rally after a poor start to cross the line in fourth - enough to keep Hungary's Zsombor Berecz in silver.\n\nFletcher and Bithell ended the dominance of New Zealand's Peter Burling and Blair Tuke in the men's 49er, edging to a final-race victory over Germany by centimetres in a tense finish.\n\n\"I think it's been super close all week in racing and today showed off what it's been like,\" said Fletcher.\n\n\"It was an intense race but it's mind blowing to be sat here now being Olympic champions.\"\n\n'Worst feeling in the world' - injured Gemili out of 200m\n\nGemili, 27, saw his hopes of a medal dashed after injuring his hamstring in the final block start of his warm-up before going out for the heats.\n\nHe had been aiming to improve on his fourth place at Rio 2016, where he missed out on bronze by three thousandths of a second.\n\n\"I felt my hamstring go. I'm in so much pain. I said I just wanted to go out there and try. You have to try,\" said Gemili, who was fighting back the tears during his trackside interview.\n\n\"I can't believe it happened. I felt I had a good chance. It's the worst feeling in the world.\"\n\nEd Clancy - the most successful team pursuit rider in Olympic history - withdrew from the remainder of Tokyo 2020 and announced his retirement because of a persistent back injury.\n\nCanoeist Deborah Kerr, 23, missed out on a medal in her first Olympics, finishing eighth in the women's kayak single 200m as New Zealand's Lisa Carrington, 31, continued her dominance by winning a third consecutive gold.\n\n\"At least two girls either side could have been a winner so I knew it would be really tough. I'm really proud I've made it in,\" said Kerr.\n\nLong jumpers Jazmin Sawyers, 27, and Abigail Irozuru, 31, were unable to win a medal as Germany's Malaika Mihambo took gold.\n\nBoxer Caroline Dubois, 20, narrowly lost on points to Thailand's Sudaporn Seesondee in the women's lightweight quarter-final, missing out on the guarantee of at least a bronze medal.\n\nAlso in the men's 3m springboard final, 24-year-old James Heatly finished ninth in his first Games.\n\nJoe Fraser was thought to be a medal threat in the parallel bars, but finished eighth in the final as the artistic gymnastics came to a close.\n• None 'In my eyes, anyone can be an influencer':", "Dits Preece (L) and Allen Jones (R) have received hundreds of letters from around the world\n\nA couple have received hundreds of letters of support from around the world in response to being sent a homophobic message.\n\nAllen Jones and Dits Preece, from Alderney, in the Channel Islands, received the abusive letter after a TV appearance about a Pride event.\n\nThe couple have been sent letters and cards from places as far flung as the US, New Zealand and Tahiti.\n\nMr Jones said: \"We're overwhelmed because the support... is great.\"\n\nHe added that it \"diluted the initial letter that we were quite disgusted by\".\n\nSome of the letters were sent to Alderney from New Zealand, the US and Tahiti\n\nThey were interviewed about the Channel Islands' Pride event in June, after which they were sent the abusive letter, which condemned gay couples.\n\nThe positive letters started flooding in after the couple posted it on social media and a Guernsey-based LGBT charity encouraged people to contact them.\n\nEllie Jones, CEO of the charity Liberate, said: \"The support they've got shows what an outpouring of love a community can throw back against hatred.\n\n\"People don't want to put up with homophobia... that's not acceptable anymore and those people are in the minority.\"\n\nThe couple said they were \"overwhelmed\" by the letters\n\nThe pair also received about 70 letters from a primary school in England.\n\nTeachers told students about the letter they received and, in response, the children penned handwritten letters to the couple to express their support.\n\nThe couple were sent about 70 letters from schoolchildren in England\n\nMr Preece said: \"When you think the school has done that, and the children have been brought up not to be homophobic and appreciate that, no matter what gender you are, love is love - even now I get very choked.\n\nFollow BBC Guernsey on Twitter and Facebook. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A 39-year-old man, a 30-year-old woman and a 13-year-old boy have been arrested on suspicion of Logan's murder\n\nA five-year-old boy who was found dead in a river has been named by police as Logan Mwangi.\n\nLogan's body was found in the Ogmore River in Bridgend county in the early hours of Saturday morning.\n\nSouth Wales Police said a 39-year-old man, a 30-year-old woman and 13-year-old boy had been arrested on suspicion of murder and remain in custody.\n\nTributes have been paid to the \"kind, funny, polite, handsome and clever\" boy, from Sarn.\n\nThe police said they were \"not looking for anyone else in relation to this incident\".\n\nLogan's body was discovered near Pandy Park following reports of concerns for a missing five-year-old in the Sarn area of Bridgend at 05:45 BST on Saturday.\n\nLogan - who was also known as Logan Williamson - was found in the river and taken to Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend where it was confirmed he had died.\n\nToys, floral tributes and a photo of Logan have been placed at the scene\n\nLogan has been described as \"kind, funny, polite, handsome and clever\"\n\nPeople living nearby have spoken of their shock at Logan's death.\n\n\"It's just devastating,\" said Jasmine Tapner, clutching a baby in her arms.\n\n\"I only live up the road and it's so close to home. It made me never want to let my children out of my sight because I just didn't want anything to happen to them.\n\n\"Everyone is in mourning.\"\n\nShe said Logan was a \"loving boy, always chatty, smiley when you walked past the house\".\n\nIan Tapner added: \"It's such a sad loss of a young lad - he had a bright future ahead of him. Such a loving lad, a kind lad. The community's in shock.\"\n\nA police cordon is in place at a bridge over the River Ogmore\n\nCh Insp Geraint White said: \"This is a tragic incident in which a young child has sadly lost their life.\n\n\"We are appealing for anyone who may have witnessed this incident, or who has any information, to get in touch.\n\n\"We would ask the public not to speculate about this incident on social media as this is an active investigation.\n\n\"If you have any information that can help, please report this to us.\n\n\"Our thoughts are with the family and we are supporting them in every way we can.\"\n\nPolice are appealing for anyone with information about Logan's death to come forward\n\nThere are lots of tributes near the Ogmore River where Logan's body was found\n\nHe added \"regular contact\" had been made with the boy's family, who were being supported by specialist trained officers.\n\n\"The local neighbourhood police team will continue to support and speak to residents in the area, and I encourage people to talk to them if they have any concerns.\n\n\"We recognise there are a lot of people in the local community who would like answers about what happened to him.\"\n\nHuw David, leader of Bridgend council, said: \"People throughout Bridgend county borough have been devastated by this shocking news.\n\n\"The tragic death of this young child has saddened us all, but Sarn remains a very close, tight-knit community and residents are looking out for one another even as they offer South Wales Police full support in their ongoing investigations.\"\n\nCuddly toys have been left at the scene by members of the public\n\nThis is very much a community in shock.\n\nIt is very quiet here, there are just a few dog walkers about.\n\nI'm [standing] by a police cordon by a bridge over the River Ogmore and the bridge is cordoned off on both sides.\n\nThere are a number of teddies, candles and flowers which are placed nearby, and handwritten messages with words like \"RIP angel\" and \"fly high, little man\" written on them.\n\nHandwritten messages have been attached to some of the bears left in tribute to Logan", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nSimone Biles will compete in Tuesday's beam final with the American taking up her final chance of an individual medal at an Olympics where she has withdrawn from four other finals.\n\nThe American, 24, has not competed since last week's team final, where she performed on vault but no other apparatus before saying she wanted to protect her mental health.\n\nThe pre-Games favourite, a four-time Olympic champion, has been suffering with the 'twisties', which gymnasts describe as a kind of mental block.\n\nBiles won bronze on the beam at Rio 2016.\n\nThe American had arrived in Tokyo with a chance of six gold medals, and such has been her dominance of her sport that they were all realistic.\n\nBut she sent shockwaves through the Games during the team final on 26 July when after failing to complete the planned number of twists in her vault, she then took no further part in the event.\n\nShe stayed in the arena to support her team-mates, collecting a silver medal on the podium with them as the defending champions finished behind the Russian Olympic Committee.\n\nAfter the final she explained that after her vault she had not wanted to go on and needed to focus on her mental health.\n\nShe subsequently withdrew from the all-around final and other individual finals on uneven bars, vault and floor.\n\nHer decision to compete in the last individual final represents a chance to pick up a seventh Olympic medal and gives the world the chance of another glimpse of a supreme talent which had been expected to light up the Games.\n\nShe has been vocally cheering on her team-mates from the stands as they have taken the chance to shine in her absence, but on Tuesday she will return to the competition arena herself.\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "The MV Asphalt Princess was reportedly boarded by up to nine armed men\n\nA Panama-flagged ship has been hijacked by armed men in the Gulf of Oman and ordered to sail to Iran, Lloyds List Maritime Intelligence has confirmed.\n\nThe bitumen tanker MV Asphalt Princess is heading into the congested approach to the Strait of Hormuz, it said.\n\nIt is not clear who has seized the ship but analysts say Iranian forces will be suspected.\n\nIran's Revolutionary Guards dismissed the reports as a pretext for \"hostile action\" against Tehran.\n\nThe incident comes less than a week after an oil tanker operated by an Israeli-owned company was attacked by a drone off Oman, killing two security guards - one British and the other Romanian.\n\nThe US, UK and Israel blamed Iran for the attack - a claim it strongly denies.\n\nBBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner says the MV Asphalt Princess is owned by a Dubai-based company that had one of its ships hijacked two years ago by revolutionary guards.\n\nHe says that, according to reports, up to nine armed men boarded the MV Asphalt Princess as it neared the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world's maritime oil supplies passes.\n\nEarlier, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) advised shipping near Fujairah in the Gulf of Oman to exercise extreme caution.\n\nA spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office said it was urgently investigating reports of an incident on a vessel off the UAE coast.\n\nUKMTO had initially warned ships of an incident before declaring a \"potential hijack\" hours later.\n\nEarlier in the day, four oil tankers reported that they were \"not under command\", which usually means that a vessel has lost power and cannot steer. One of the ships later began moving, AP news agency reports.\n\nAn Oman Air Force marine patrol aircraft was seen flying over the sea at the same time, according to data from FlightRadar24.com.\n\nIran's foreign ministry said reports involving several ships on Tuesday were \"suspicious\" and warned against any effort to \"create a false atmosphere\" against Tehran.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nGreat Britain won Olympic team eventing gold for the first time in 49 years at Tokyo 2020, before Tom McEwen secured silver in the individual category.\n\nWorld number one Oliver Townend, Laura Collett and McEwen sealed team victory in the final show-jumping stage.\n\nThey claimed the gold ahead of Australia, while France took bronze.\n\nGermany's Julia Krajewski took the individual honours from McEwen and Australian Andrew Hoy, 62, as Townend finished fifth and Collett was ninth.\n\nShe is the first female rider to win the competition which first allowed women at the Tokyo Games of 1964.\n\nMcEwen took silver in the individual competition on Toledo De Kerser after a faultless display followed his earlier clear rounds in the team show jumping and cross-country stages.\n\nThe GB team finished with 86.30 penalties - 13.90 clear of Australia - to seal Britain's 11th gold of the Games.\n\n\"My nerves were fine,\" said McEwen, 30, whose stables are on the the Princess Royal's Gatcombe estate in Gloucestershire.\n\n\"They [Townend and Collett] are both brilliant riders, and I had no doubt they would pull it straight out of the bag quite easily and comfortably.\"\n\nBritain last won eventing team gold at the 1972 Games in Munich, and only two riders - Richard Meade (1972) and Leslie Law (2004) - have tasted individual glory.\n\nDespite all three this time making their Olympic debuts, GB held a huge lead of 17.9 penalties after impressive rounds in Sunday's cross-country phase, and they comfortably retained top spot.\n\nMcEwen went clear, while Collett had four faults aboard London 52 and Townend also collected four with Ballaghmor Class.\n\nVictory sealed a remarkable return for Collett, who nearly died in a fall eight years ago and spent six days in a coma.\n\nShe suffered a punctured lung, spine, shoulder and rib fractures, and lost much of her vision in one eye.\n\nTwo years after her accident, Collett had to deal with unfounded malicious rumours about the two-time Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Kauto Star, who was being trained at her yard for a dressage career but died in a freak accident.\n\n\"I know I am lucky just to be alive, let alone doing the job I love and winning an Olympic gold medal,\" the 31-year-old told BBC Sport.\n\n\"Just to be here was more than a dream come true.\n\n\"Standing on the podium, it makes every bad day worth it. It was an incredible experience.\"\n\nCollett said her horse London 52 - who is nicknamed 'Dan' at his stables near Cheltenham - was spooked by the reflection from water when they made a mistake.\n\n\"He got it back together. It's a shame, but it could have been a whole lot worse in that situation. It was a very clever course,\" she added.\n\nTownend adds Olympic gold to a glittering CV which includes victories at the major Badminton, Burghley and Kentucky events.\n\n\"The other guys have made it so easy for me - they are such brilliant riders,\" said the 39-year-old, who is based in Shropshire.\n\n\"I'm surrounded by class horses and very classy people.\n\n\"There will be a big celebration and I don't think it will be with a cup of tea and a biscuit.\"\n\nThat was a third equestrian medal in Tokyo for Team GB following Charlotte Dujardin, Carl Hester and Charlotte Fry winning dressage team bronze, and Dujardin also collecting an individual bronze. McEwen then made it four with his silver.\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has updated parliament on the latest stage of easing of Covid restrictions.\n\nFrom Monday (9 August), Scotland will move beyond the current level 0, lifting most of the remaining legally imposed restrictions.\n\nThis is most notably removing physical distancing and limits to the size of social gatherings.\n\nIt also means that from 9 August, no venues will be legally required to close.\n\nHowever, a number of measures will remain in place.\n\n1.Face coverings must be worn in all the same indoor settings. This is likely to be law for some time to come.\n\n2. Indoor hospitality and similar venues will continue to collect the contact details of customers.\n\n3.Localised restrictions will be used if necessary to control outbreaks. Travel restrictions could also be used.\n\n4.The advice remains to continue home-working where possible.\n\n5.Large-scale events will, for a limited period, need to apply for permission. This applies to outdoor events of more than 5,000 and indoor events of more than 2000.\n• From 9 August, fully-vaccinated adults who are identified as a close contact of a positive case will no longer have to isolate if they return a negative PCR test.\n• Children aged 5 to 17, who are not vaccinated, will not need to isolate if they get a negative PCR tests.\n• In schools, changes mean that the blanket isolation of whole classes will no longer be routine. Instead a more targeted approach will identify close contacts at highest risk of infection.\n• However teachers and secondary school pupils will still be asked to wear face coverings in classrooms for the first six weeks of the new term.\n• All school staff and secondary school pupils will be asked to take a lateral flow test one or two days before they return to school for the new term. They should then take them twice a week after that.", "Qantas says its domestic business has been badly hit in recent weeks\n\nQantas says it will stand down 2,500 staff as a lockdown in Sydney impacts air travel across Australia.\n\nThe furlough - affecting pilots, crew and airport workers - will last for at least two months, the airline said.\n\nQantas said it would pay staff until mid-August, after which they could apply for government support payments.\n\nSince June, fresh Covid outbreaks have forced most Australian states to reimpose restrictions.\n\nThe highly contagious Delta variant has forced lockdowns in several cities and some state border closures.\n\nThe situation is most severe in Sydney. It is seeing about 200 new infections each day, despite being in lockdown since 26 June.\n\nNearly all states have banned travellers from Australia's largest city.\n\nQantas chief executive Alan Joyce said the latest Delta outbreaks had led to thousands of cancelled flights.\n\nQantas and its budget carrier, Jetstar, had lost about 60% of their domestic business from May to July, he added.\n\nA travel bubble with New Zealand has also been suspended.\n\nMr Joyce said the airline could no longer keep the 2,500 workers on its payroll, but described it as a temporary measure.\n\n\"This is clearly the last thing we want to do,\" he said.\n\nBut he added it was \"also very different from this time last year when we had more than 20,000 employees stood down\".\n\nLast year, Qantas was forced to axe about 6,000 staff - about a fifth of its workforce.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn May, the airline said it would report an annual loss of more than A$2bn (£1.1bn; $1.5bn) but hoped for a rebound in domestic travel.\n\nOn Tuesday, Mr Joyce said domestic travel could return to 50-60% of normal levels with the expected reopening of Victoria and South Australia.\n\nQantas has not been able to resume international routes - except to New Zealand - due to Australia's international border closure.\n\nThe airline has previously said it's losing about A$2.3m a week from its international division.", "Twitter will collaborate with two of the largest international news providers, Reuters and the Associated Press, to debunk disinformation on its messaging site.\n\nThe news agencies will help Twitter give more context and background information on events which create a high volume of tweets.\n\nTwitter hopes this will counteract the spread of misleading information.\n\nThere has been renewed pressure to remove false content from the platform.\n\nTwitter said the partnership will enable it to ensure accurate and credible information is rapidly available \"when facts are in dispute\".\n\n\"Rather than waiting until something goes viral, Twitter will contextualize developing discourse at pace with or in anticipation of the public conversation,\" Twitter said.\n\nCurrently, when large or rapidly growing conversations happen on Twitter that may be noteworthy or controversial, Twitter's Curation team finds and promotes relevant context from reliable sources in order to counter potentially misleading information posted by users.\n\nIn a blogpost, Twitter said the new programme would \"increase the scale and speed\" of this work by increasing their \"capacity to add reliable context to conversations happening on Twitter\".\n\nThe post said material from Reuters and AP would improve information credibility on the platform when Twitter's Curation team \"doesn't have the specific expertise or access to a high enough volume of reputable reporting on Twitter\".\n\nIt is the first time Twitter has formally collaborated with news organisations to promote accurate information on its site, according to a spokesperson from the social media firm.\n\nEarlier this year, Twitter launched Birdwatch, a new community-moderation system which enabled volunteers to label tweets they found to be inaccurate.\n\nTwitter will work separately with the two rival news agencies, and will focus initially on English-language content.\n\nHazel Baker, head of user-generated content newsgathering at Reuters, said that trust, accuracy and impartiality were at the \"heart of what Reuters does every day,\" and \"drive\" the company's \"commitment to stopping the spread of misinformation\".\n\nTom Januszewski, the AP's vice president of global business development, said in a statement that the news company had a \"long history of working closely with Twitter, along with other platforms, to expand the reach of factual journalism\".\n\n\"We are particularly excited about leveraging AP's scale and speed to add context to online conversations, which can benefit from easy access to the facts,\" he continued.\n\nBoth Reuters and AP also work with Facebook on fact checks.\n\nTwitter added that this work would be independent of the work its Trust & Safety teams do to determine whether Tweets are in violation of the Twitter rules. The work of these teams includes labelling tweets which contain manipulated media, electoral misinformation and sensitive media that violates the platforms' rules.\n\nA 2020 report by NYU Stern suggested Twitter has about 1,500 moderators - with 199 million daily Twitter users worldwide.", "Boeing says it is checking the propulsion system valves on its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, after Tuesday's planned launch was postponed.\n\nThe CST-100 Starliner will launch from Florida at some point to showcase how it can ferry crews to and from the International Space Station (ISS).\n\nIt will be the second test flight, and conducted with no people aboard.\n\nThe previous demonstration in 2019 encountered software problems that very nearly caused the loss of the capsule.\n\nThe Starliner will ride to orbit on an Atlas-5 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.\n\nControllers had been targeting Tuesday for the launch but scrubbed the countdown with two-and-a-half hours left on the clock, to allow for investigation of technical issues related to the capsule's propulsion system.\n\nNow Boeing says a rescheduled launch on Wednesday will not happen either, because it needs more time to discover the reason for \"unexpected valve position indications in the propulsion system\".\n\nFortunately, the 2019 test Starliner still managed to land safely\n\nIt's just over 10 years since Boeing first presented its design for the CST-100 Starliner at the Farnborough Air Show in the UK.\n\nIt was a response to the call for commercial companies to take over the responsibility for low-Earth orbit crew transportation, post the soon-to-retire space shuttles.\n\nThe US space agency (Nasa) gave technical and financial support to both Boeing and the SpaceX company, to help them develop new capsules. The idea was that the vehicles would then be engaged on a commercial basis whenever Nasa needed astronauts sent up to the ISS.\n\nBut while SpaceX is now two crewed operational flights into this privatised era, Boeing has yet to run a single crewed mission in a Starliner. And that's because Boeing's first unpiloted \"Orbital Flight Test\" in December 2019 went seriously awry.\n\nThe problems started with a clock error on the capsule just after launch that made the vehicle think it was in a different flight phase than was really the case.\n\nThis prompted the onboard computer system to over-fire Starliner's thrusters and burn so much fuel it became impossible to reach the intended destination of a docking with the space station. Controllers on the ground could see the problem playing out but had difficulty communicating with the spacecraft.\n\nAfter the truncated mission, it also emerged that poorly designed software could have resulted in the capsule colliding with its aft service section when the two were commanded to separate just prior to re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. Fortunately, this issue was caught and prevented, and the capsule landed safely in the New Mexico desert.\n\nThe post-mission review initiated a series of re-designs and upgrades that have enabled Boeing to attempt an Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2).\n\nThe only \"individual\" aboard will be \"Rosie the Rocketeer\"\n\nChris Ferguson, a former Nasa astronaut and Boeing's director of Starliner mission operations, said the company had run full-mission duration simulations of the new software on the capsule.\n\nThe new code, he added, had implemented every correction recommended by the review.\n\n\"We fixed every one, we addressed every one. We want this next flight to be as clean as it could possibly be,\" he told reporters.\n\n\"We have thoroughly dug into, tested and verified hundreds of times the software code, to ensure that it performs exactly the way we intend on OFT-2.\"\n\nThe SpaceX Dragon capsule is already flying crews to the ISS\n\nThe re-run will follow the same profile: an uncrewed mission to the ISS. That said, an anthropomorphic test device, more commonly known as a flight dummy, dubbed \"Rosie the Rocketeer\", will once again strap in for the ride.\n\nRosie and \"her\" capsule will stay attached to the station for five days, before departing for a parachute-assisted descent and landing at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.\n\nIf Boeing can put the flaws of OFT-1 behind it, Nasa could clear Starliner to start carrying people before the end of the year.\n\nThis would finally give the agency the two new crew-transportation systems it sought when the shuttles were retired to museums exactly 10 years ago.\n\n\"This is a huge component to returning this launch capability from the United States and having redundancy between SpaceX and Boeing, so that we're not reliant on just one company to get astronauts to the International Space Station,\" said Nicole Mann, a Nasa astronaut who has been selected to fly on the first crewed Starliner mission.\n\nAnd this capability would also open up space to wider participation, she believed: \"You're going to see more folks in low-Earth orbit who are not Nasa astronauts. That's great. I think for the younger generation, they're going to see scientists, engineers and maybe journalists in space, and they're going to be able to capture the amazement of space and share the experience.\"", "Rhyl War Memorial, which displays the names of 300 fallen service men and women, has since been repaired\n\nA man who daubed Nazi slogans on a war memorial, used racist and homophobic abuse and spat at emergency workers has been given a suspended jail sentence.\n\nGareth Bradley, 31, from Rhyl, pleaded guilty to 15 offences including affray, racially aggravated harassment, assaulting emergency workers and damaging the town memorial.\n\nThe judge at Caernarfon Crown Court called the actions \"disgraceful\".\n\nBradley had \"long-standing\" mental health problems, the court was told.\n\nRecorder Wyn Lloyd Jones told Bradley that while the offending during three separate incidents had to be dealt with by means of a custodial sentence, he would suspend the total term, 18 months, for two years.\n\nThe court heard how, last August, Bradley used an 8ft (2.4m) branch to threaten people at Ceiriog Valley holiday park in Glyn Ceiriog, Llangollen.\n\nHe hurled racist and homophobic abuse, used an elbow to smash a window in the reception area and abused officers called to the scene.\n\nHe also threatened to bomb a police headquarters and local mosques, and to attack the children of the police officers dealing with him.\n\nCaernarfon Crown Court heard how Bradley caused criminal damage to four parked cars costing more than £9,000 to repair\n\nBradley admitted criminal damage to the war memorial last February, including spraying a Swastika and Nazi slogans on it.\n\nHe also admitted causing criminal damage on four cars parked in Bath Street, Rhyl, costing more than £9,000 to repair, in April.\n\nThe court heard he then spat at an officer while being held in custody, caused criminal damage to his cell and destroyed a Bible, for which he had two months added to his sentence.\n\nBarrister Frances Willmott, defending, told the court her client had issues with mental health since his childhood.\n\nShe said he had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and was remorseful.\n\nDetailing how Bradley had spent periods in hospital between the different instances of offending, Ms Willmott said he was now in supported living, where he could remain for two years.\n\nSentencing Bradley, the recorder said his behaviour at the holiday park and the damage at the war memorial were \"disgraceful\" and his actions towards police were \"vile and disgusting\".\n\nHe was warned he must comply with all orders regarding his rehabilitation or he would be brought back to court.\n\n\"Please take advantage of this order for your sake, for your mother's sake and for society's sake,\" the judge said.\n\nBradley replied: \"Yes - I am so sorry.\"", "Nicola Sturgeon said it was \"strange\" the PM would not meet her during his two-day visit to Scotland.\n\nThe first minister said \"I don't feel snubbed\" but \"most people will think it's a bit odd\" that Mr Johnson declined an invitation.\n\nInstead, he has met police officers and visited a renewable energy project.\n\nMr Johnson has suggested he have a meeting with first ministers at a later date.\n\nNicola Sturgeon had invited the PM to her official residence to discuss Covid recovery.\n\nShe said it was a \"missed opportunity\" that Mr Johnson did not meet her at Bute House, her official residence in Edinburgh.\n\nIn a letter to Ms Sturgeon seen by the BBC, Mr Johnson said he was \"keen to arrange an in-person meeting\" with her.\n\nHe said that, at a previous meeting between them, it was agreed they should set up a \"structured forum for ongoing engagement\" - and officials had made good progress on this.\n\n\"There is much for us to discuss as all parts of the UK work together on our shared priority of recovering from the pandemic,\" he said.\n\n\"The UK government is working closely with the devolved Scottish government on a variety of different issues.\"\n\nAnd he added: \"I look forward to meeting with you soon and working together in the interests of people in all parts of our country.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon tweeted on Monday that she had invited the PM to Bute House. She said the prime minister's trip would be the first chance for the pair to meet in person for a while.\n\nThe first minister said she believed people would find it \"a bit odd and a bit strange\" that Mr Johnson had chosen not to meet her.\n\nSpeaking to broadcasters, she said she did not feel \"snubbed\", but that it would have been the first opportunity to sit down and have a \"face to face chat\", describing the move as a \"missed opportunity - but that's on him\".\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who is also on a visit to Scotland, said he thought the prime minister should meet Ms Sturgeon.\n\nHe said the two should be working together on \"the two most important things facing us\" - the pandemic and the climate emergency.\n\nHe added: \"We shouldn't have an argument about when they're going to meet or where - they need to work together on this.\"\n\nThey may not be meeting in person, but that doesn't mean Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon can't engage in some political games.\n\nThe first minister threw down a gauntlet very publicly when she posted her invitation to Mr Johnson on Twitter.\n\nIt was a win-win proposition for Ms Sturgeon, presenting the prime minister with the choice of looking like a visiting dignitary from a foreign power - or a scaredy cat swerving the jeering crowds which turned out for his last visit to Bute House.\n\nUltimately Mr Johnson has refused to take the bait, preferring to suggest a summit of leaders from around the UK - presumably where he can take the role of magnanimous host.\n\nFor all the talk of grown-up dialogue there is plainly no love lost between the pair, who will no doubt trade rhetoric via the media rather than face-to-face.\n\nAnd with the constitutional question of Scottish independence still looming between them, the political power-plays are likely to continue for the foreseeable future.\n\nThe trip is Mr Johnson's first visit to Scotland since January - and his first since a pro-independence majority was returned at the Holyrood election in May.\n\nThere is no prospect of the pair seeing eye-to-eye on another referendum, but Ms Sturgeon had said she wanted to discuss how the governments could work together on \"Covid recovery\".\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said the SNP leader had put out her invitation to the prime minister via Twitter, adding: \"I'm not sure if he got it before everyone else got it on Twitter\".\n\nMr Ross said: \"His response was quite right. Nicola Sturgeon had agreed with the prime minister that governments across the UK would meet together. That is the right approach to take and that was the agreement made recently.\n\n\"There's constant dialogue between the Scottish and UK governments.\"\n\nOn the prime minister's last trip to Scotland in January, Ms Sturgeon questioned whether the trip was essential during lockdown restrictions.\n\nDowning Street said it was important for the prime minister to be \"visible and accessible\" during the pandemic.", "Tokyo Olympics: Day-by-day guide to the key events and British medal hopes\n\nLast updated on .From the section Olympics", "Authorities in the Chinese city of Wuhan will begin testing its entire population, after a handful of positive coronavirus cases were detected there.\n\nWuhan has recorded seven locally transmitted cases - the first local infections in more than a year.\n\nThe city of 11 million people shot into the spotlight after the coronavirus was first detected there in 2019.\n\nChina is currently seeing one of its biggest outbreaks in months, with 300 cases detected in 10 days.\n\nSome 15 provinces across the country have been affected, which has led to the government rolling out mass testing measures and lockdown restrictions.\n\nAuthorities have attributed the spread of the virus to the highly contagious Delta variant and the domestic tourism season.\n\nThe announcement in Wuhan came as China reported 90 new virus cases on Tuesday.\n\nThe National Health Commission said 61 of these were locally transmitted - compared with 55 local cases a day earlier.\n\nChina had been largely successful in controlling the virus within its borders.\n\nHowever, this new spread, which was first detected among workers at a busy airport in Nanjing, has sparked concern.\n\nAuthorities have tested the 9.2 million residents of Nanjing three times and imposed lockdown on hundreds of thousands of people.\n\nBut over the weekend the spotlight turned to popular tourist destination Zhangjiajie in Hunan province, where many of the latest cases have emerged. Travellers from Nanjing were thought to have visited the city recently.\n\nHealth officials have zeroed in on a theatre in Zhangjiajie, and are now trying to track down about 5,000 people who attended performances and then travelled back to their home cities.\n\n\"Zhangjiajie has now become the new ground zero for China's epidemic spread,\" Zhong Nanshan, China's leading respiratory disease expert, told reporters.\n\nThe new outbreak has also reached the capital Beijing, with the city reporting several locally transmitted infections.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid-19 and Wuhan: Why don't we know more?", "Last updated on .From the section Scottish\n\nScottish stadiums can welcome at least 5,000 fans from 9 August, but clubs must still apply to their local authority if they want to host more.\n\nFirst minister Nicola Sturgeon announced the limit for outdoor events has risen from 2,000, as part of a lifting of Coronavirus rules.\n\nSome clubs have hosted more than 5,000 spectators since 19 July after gaining approval from their local councils.\n\nAnd Ms Sturgeon said the application process for bigger events will remain.\n\nThe first minister said the move would give the Scottish Government reassurance that events are being carried out safely and the application process will only remain \"for a limited period\".\n\nThe Scottish government is also considering bringing in so-called vaccine passports for access to certain higher risks events.\n\nHowever, the first minister added they do not underestimate the \"ethical, equity, and human rights issues\" associated with checks, and said their use would be limited.\n\nWhat do clubs have to do to get more fans?\n\nSince 19 July, clubs have been applying to their local council to host more than the legal limit, which will be 5,000 from Monday.\n\nThey have to submit an operations and risk assessment to prove they are keeping spectators safe.\n\nClubs have to prove they have considered the potential impact on the local area in terms of a Covid-19 outbreak, as well as pressures on public transport and businesses, and whether lots of people are likely to be travelling from elsewhere in the country to the event.\n\nCrucially, previous evidence of safely hosting an event counts in favour of applicants, and so clubs who have already had applications approved are likely to be in a strong position.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nBritish sprinter Adam Gemili's hopes of a medal in the men's 200m at the Tokyo Olympics were dashed as he pulled up injured in the heats.\n\nGemili, 27, had been aiming to improve on his fourth-placed finish at Rio 2016 where he missed out on bronze by three thousandths of a second.\n\nA clearly distraught Gemili stopped immediately after leaving the starting blocks before walking to the finish.\n\n\"I can't believe this has happened. I am in so much pain,\" he told BBC Sport.\n\n\"In my last block start before I went into the cool room and I just felt my hamstring go. I just said strap it up and let me go out there and try, because you have to try.\n\n\"I felt like I had such a good chance as well. I have been training so well. This season has been really up and down and I had finally put together five to six weeks of solid work.\n\n\"I was ready to go out and win, try and get a medal, at least PB and I don't get that chance. I can't say anything else. It is the worst feeling in the world.\"\n\nFellow Briton Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, who clocked a season-best time of 20.56 seconds, also failed to advance to the semi finals.\n\nGemili, who is participating in his third Games, was also due to compete for Great Britain in the men's 4x100m relay heats that begin on Thursday.\n\nHis likely withdrawal continues a difficult Olympics for Team GB sprinters.\n\nZharnel Hughes was disqualified in the men's 100m final after Reece Prescod also false started in the semi-finals, while Dina Asher-Smith failed to make the women's 100m final and pulled out of the 200m after tearing her hamstring in July.\n\nA month after breaking Kevin Young's 29-year world record, Norway's Karsten Warholm ran a stunning men's 400m hurdles race to obliterate his own mark as he took gold.\n\nGB's Jazmin Sawyers and Abigail Irozuru missed out on the medals in the long jump final as Germany's Malaika Mihambo took gold.\n\nSawyers finished in eighth position with a best jump of 6.80m while Irozuru came 11th with 6.51m.\n\nEarlier on Tuesday, Josh Kerr, Jake Wightman and Jake Heyward all safely progressed in the men's 1500m heats.\n\nThe trio will now take part in Thursday's semi-finals as they bid to win a first medal for Britain in the event since since Peter Elliott took silver at the 1988 Games in Seoul.\n\n\"It's the most nerve-racking round isn't it? You're worried you're going to be embarrassed,\" said Wightman\n\n\"I'm glad I managed to stay on my feet and get through.\"\n\nIn the women's 400m, Jodie Williams confidently won her heat to move into the semi-finals as she underlined her potential since stepping up in distance.\n\nThe 27-year-old will now face the Bahamas' defending champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo in her semi-final on Wednesday.\n\nAma Pipi also advanced as a fastest loser in a heat dominated by 2016 silver medallist Allyson Felix.\n\nHowever, there was despair for Scottish 23-year-old Nicole Yeargin, who was disqualified for a lane infringement.\n• None 'In my eyes, anyone can be an influencer':", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'Fewer will be contacted' by NHS Covid-19 app\n\nThe NHS Covid-19 app in England and Wales is being tweaked so fewer contacts will be advised to self-isolate following a close contact with a positive case.\n\nThe app will look for contacts two days prior, rather than five, when someone without symptoms tests positive.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid said it would reduce disruption but still protect those at risk.\n\nThe government is urging the public to continue using the app.\n\nIt comes as the UK recorded another 21,952 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, compared to 24,950 cases last Monday.\n\nAnother 24 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were reported, higher than the 14 recorded on the same day last week.\n\nAlmost 700,000 alerts were sent by the app to users in England and Wales for the week to July 21, a record since it was launched, which has caused staffing issues in many industries.\n\nIt led to the government allowing some key workers - such as those working in food distribution - to be exempt from having to self-isolate if pinged. Instead they have to take daily tests.\n\nThere had been speculation that the app could be made less sensitive to the distance between users and the length of time spent in close proximity - currently 2m or less and more than 15 minutes.\n\nBut the DHSC said the update \"does not impact the sensitivity of the app, or change the risk threshold\".\n\nThere was speculation when Sajid Javid became the new health secretary just as the word \"pingdemic\" was entering the language that he would order changes to make the app less sensitive.\n\nThat was ruled out - but it seems Mr Javid asked what else could be done and was advised that the option unveiled on Monday would be wiser.\n\nCutting the period the app hunts back through the close contacts of an asymptomatic person before a positive test from five days to two could mean a substantial fall in the numbers sent into isolation.\n\nThere has been huge pressure for change from businesses which have seen their operations disrupted by thousands of pings - but at the same time the team behind the app believes it now has strong evidence that it is working.\n\nThe government will hope it has found a middle way, reducing the burden on businesses and making it less likely that people will delete the app while still alerting those in most danger of becoming infected with the virus and passing it on.\n\nBut, as with so much about this project, this is an experiment in human behaviour because for the app to work, people have to trust it.\n\nAnnouncing the change, Mr Javid said: \"We want to reduce the disruption that self-isolation can cause for people and businesses, while ensuring we're protecting those most at risk from this virus.\n\n\"This update to the app will help ensure that we are striking the right balance.\"\n\nDr Jenny Harries, of the UK Health Security Agency, said the app was \"the simplest, easiest and fastest way to find out whether you have been exposed to the virus,\" and it had saved thousands of lives.\n\nShe said she would \"strongly encourage everyone, even those fully vaccinated, to continue using the app\".\n\nIt is unclear how many people will be affected by the tweak.\n\nScientists have estimated the app prevented up to 2,000 cases per day in the three weeks to 21 July when the number of self-isolation alerts - known as \"pings\" - rose by over 70,000 to a new record of 689,313.\n\nAnd their analysis, which assumed 60% compliance with instructions to self-isolate, suggested another 50,000 Covid cases were prevented by including chains of transmission.\n\nThis was estimated to have prevented 1,600 hospitalisations, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.\n\nAround 40% of the eligible population regularly use the app and around 50% of all reported tests are being inputted, it said, saying usage remains \"high\".\n\nLabour's shadow health minister Liz Kendall accused the government of \"leaving hundreds of thousands of people forced to self-isolate every day\" and quietly changing the app, rather than driving infections down.\n\nTrade union Unite said the change did not go far enough and repeated a call from the automotive and steel sectors for workers to be exempt from self-isolation rules.\n\nBut the move has been welcomed by the British Beer and Pub Association, which said its research found up to 1,000 pubs had been forced to close temporarily due to staff being pinged by the app.\n\nIts chief executive Emma McClarkin said: \"On average, each pub forced to temporarily close due to staff being pinged costs £9,500 in lost trade per week and our larger venues much, much more at a critical time in their recovery.\"\n\nFrom 16 August, fully vaccinated contacts in England will be exempt from isolation and instead will be advised to take a PCR test.\n\nThose who are not fully vaccinated will still be required to isolate, and it will remain a legal obligation to isolate if you test positive.\n\nOn 7 August, Wales will become the first UK nation to stop asking fully vaccinated adults to self-isolate after close contact with a positive Covid case.\n\nMeanwhile, a further 118,184 people received their second dose of a Covid-19 vaccine on Sunday, meaning nearly 38.5 million people - or 72.7% of the UK population - are now fully vaccinated.\n\nBut just 21,266 people received first doses, as the numbers coming forward for vaccination continued to slow down. A total of almost 46.9 million people, or 88.6% of adults, have had at least one jab.\n• None What are the latest rules?", "Young people will see their careers benefit by working in the office, the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has said.\n\nHe told LinkedIn News he doubted he would have done as well if he had started his working life virtually.\n\nHe said he still talked to his early mentors, saying: \"I doubt I would have had those strong relationships if I was doing my summer internship or my first bit of my career over Teams and Zoom.\"\n\n\"That's why I think for young people in particular, being able to physically be in an office is valuable,\" he added.\n\nThe government has recommended a gradual return to work in England since restrictions were lifted on 19 July. However, the Scottish government wants people to keep working at home until at least 9 August, where possible.\n\nDo you think you're losing out by not being in the office?\n\nMany firms and industry groups have said they will take a cautious approach to bringing staff back in to workplaces.\n\nBusiness services group Deloitte has been increasing the number of staff allowed to work in its offices from 30% pre-19 July to 50% and will keep to that until September.\n\nNatWest said that it would bring back a small number of \"priority workers\", while insurer Aviva said it expected to see more people returning but that employees were expected to work in a hybrid fashion.\n\nAccountancy firm KPMG has allowed people to work from its offices if they made a request to their manager.\n\nMr Sunak said: \"I've spoken previously about young people in particular benefiting from being in offices: it was really beneficial to me when I was starting out in my career.\n\n\"The mentors that I found when I first started my job, I still talk to and they've been helpful to me all through my career even after we've gone in different ways.\"\n\nAnother former Goldman Sachs banker, Xavier Rolet, who has been in the news this week for telling the younger generation of bankers to stop complaining about long working hours, said technology now had a bigger role to play in working relationships than pre-pandemic.\n\n\"We're never going to go back to exactly the way we were before,\" Mr Rolet, who ran the London Stock Exchange for eight years, told the BBC.\n\n\"But the chancellor also has a point, which is that human interaction, besides the new technological tools, is also important.\n\n\"So I think we're going to end up with a blended approach. Yes, by any means get back into the office, but do not underestimate the power of technology.\"", "Breakwell's victims were aged between 13 and 16\n\nA \"predatory\" music teacher who abused two girls aged 13 and 14 has been convicted of 32 sexual offences.\n\nBen Breakwell, 40, of Monkgate, York, exploited his position at a west London school to engage girls in sexual activity between 2014 and 2017.\n\nBreakwell also kissed a third victim, 16, in a lesson and had indecent images of a fourth, Isleworth Crown Court heard.\n\nHe remains in custody and will be sentenced on 14 October.\n\nBreakwell's crimes came to light after the third victim told friends and then her mother. The mother confronted Breakwell who denied deliberately kissing her.\n\nThe victim later told police that she felt guilty about what had happened as she had bought him a box of sweets as a thank you present and thought that this may have encouraged him.\n\nIn September 2017, the friends of one of the victims approached a member of school staff with suspicions about an inappropriate relationship involving Breakwell.\n\nThe school immediately suspended him and police launched an investigation before arresting Breakwell in November 2017.\n\nHe was charged in February 2020 and convicted on Monday of 22 counts of sexual activity with a child, three counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, four counts of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust, one count of sexual assault, and two counts of taking indecent photographs of a child.\n\nDet Con Ben Lawrence-Smith urged other potential victims to come forward.\n\nHe said: \"My thoughts are with the young girls who were betrayed by Breakwell. They have all been incredibly brave and it is their courage in speaking out that has brought him to justice.\n\n\"Breakwell deceived and abused these girls and then sought to evade any responsibility for his actions. They were manipulated to the point where some felt it was they who were doing wrong. The fact Breakwell was a teacher only compounds this gross betrayal of trust.\n\n\"It is clear that Breakwell was a sexual predator who carefully manipulated these young girls in order to exploit them.\n\n\"His victims were very young and he led them to believe they were in love with him, knowing that if they cared for him they were less likely to alert anyone to his crimes.\"\n\nThe 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. Catrin Pugh overcame 96% burns to graduate with a first class honours degree in physiotherapy\n\nA woman who suffered 96% burns in a coach crash wants to use her experience of recovery to help others after graduating with a physiotherapy degree.\n\nCatrin Pugh, 27, from Wrexham, was given a one in 1,000 chance of survival after the crash in France in 2013.\n\nShe spent eight months in hospital and had more than 200 operations.\n\nShe said she had been inspired to study the course by her healthcare team and the physiotherapists who gave her back her mobility.\n\n\"When I had my accident I didn't think I would graduate from university or even think I'd go to university.\n\n\"My parents, when I was in the hospital, used to say to me 'we just want you to be happy and we don't care what you do' and it's definitely something I don't take for granted,\" she said.\n\nShe was given a one in 1,000 chance of survival after the crash\n\nMs Pugh was just 19 and returning from working a ski season in France when her coach crashed and burst into flames near Alpe D'Huez.\n\nThe driver died in the accident, while Ms Pugh suffered severe damage to her hands and eyesight.\n\nHer burns were so bad that only the soles of her feet were left untouched.\n\nAs part of her recovery, she had countless hours of physiotherapy to regain her independence.\n\nThis allowed her to study physiotherapy at King's College London, which she said adapted the course to her needs.\n\nCatrin Pugh hopes to help other people who have suffered burns\n\n\"It's a bit of a cliche but I was completely inspired by the healthcare team that I worked with and physiotherapy was a great fit for me because I had grown up being so active.\n\n\"Although the surgeons and nurses saved my life and played a massive part, in my eyes my physios gave me back my mobility, my walking, my ability to use my hands and that made a massive difference to me,\" she said.\n\nShe has worked with the Katie Piper Foundation which helps people with scars and burns and has been an ambassador for the charity Changing Faces, which supports anyone with a visible difference.\n\nMs Pugh - who has also modelled for beauty company Avon - said she had seen a positive change in some attitudes to people with scars and different features.\n\n\"I'm working to change people's minds to see that things like a scar or using a wheelchair makes you unique and different - that doesn't mean different is a bad thing, different is a hugely important thing because if we don't have difference in society then it'd be a very boring place to live,\" she said.\n\nCatrin Pugh was injured after working a season in the French Alps\n\nHer father Carl Pugh said: \"She's turned a negative into a positive and hasn't seen it as a backward step.\n\n\"She always said that she would try to use this as a positive stage in her life and we've supported her to do whatever she's wanted to do.\"\n\nMs Pugh is now applying for jobs.\n\n\"There isn't anything I can't do... as a physio. It's more about understanding how I can adapt to ensure that I and the other person is safe,\" she said.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Afghan government forces are battling the Taliban in three key cities\n\nFerocious fighting is taking place in a major Afghan city, amid fears it could be the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban.\n\nLashkar Gah in southern Helmand province is under heavy assault from the militants, despite persistent US and Afghan air strikes.\n\nThe Taliban are said to have seized a TV station. Thousands of people fleeing rural areas took shelter in buildings.\n\n\"There is fighting all around,\" a doctor told the BBC from his hospital.\n\nHundreds of Afghan reinforcements have been deployed to battle the militants. The Taliban have made rapid advances in recent months as US forces have withdrawn after 20 years of military operations in the country.\n\nHelmand was the centrepiece of the US and British military campaign, and Taliban gains there would be a blow for the Afghan government.\n\nIf Lashkar Gah fell, it would be the first provincial capital won by the Taliban since 2016. It is one of three provincial capitals under attack.\n\nAn Afghan military commander in the city warned that a Taliban victory would have a \"devastating effect on global security\".\n\n\"This is not a war of Afghanistan, this is a war between liberty and totalitarianism,\" Maj Gen Sami Sadaat told the BBC.\n\nOn Monday, the Afghan information ministry announced that 11 radio and four television networks in Helmand province had stopped broadcasting due to what it described as Taliban \"attacks and threats\".\n\nAttempts by the militants to capture Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city, have continued after rocket strikes hit its airport on Sunday.\n\nSeizing control of Kandahar would be a hugely symbolic victory for the Taliban, giving them a grip on the south of the country.\n\nIn a third besieged city, Herat, in the west, government commandos are battling the insurgents after days of fierce fighting. Government forces have taken back some areas after a UN compound was attacked on Friday.\n\nVideos shared on social media appeared to show residents on the streets and rooftops of Herat shouting \"Allahu akbar\" (\"God is greatest\") in support of the government's gains.\n\nAs government forces struggled to contain Taliban advances, President Ashraf Ghani blamed the sudden withdrawal of US troops for the increase in fighting.\n\n\"The reason for our current situation is that the decision was taken abruptly,\" he told parliament.\n\nMr Ghani said he had warned Washington that the withdrawal would have \"consequences\".\n\nAlthough nearly all its military forces have left, the US has continued its air offensive in support of government troops. Strikes targeting Lashkar Gah continued late on Monday.\n\nPresident Biden's administration announced on Monday that because of the increase in violence, it would take in thousands more Afghan refugees who worked with US forces.\n\nThe US and UK have accused the Taliban of committing possible war crimes by \"massacring civilians\" in a town captured near the Pakistan border.\n\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had seen reports of \"deeply disturbing and totally unacceptable\" Taliban atrocities.\n\nGruesome videos that emerged from Spin Boldak apparently showed revenge killings. The Taliban have rejected the accusations.", "The Scottish Parliament will be recalled from recess for a statement by Nicola Sturgeon\n\nNicola Sturgeon is to set out plans for the lifting of most legal Covid-19 restrictions in a statement to MSPs.\n\nThe whole of Scotland is currently in level zero of the virus alert system, and the first minister has said she is hopeful of going further on 9 August.\n\nThis could see physical distancing rules relaxed, the return of office working and larger crowds at events.\n\nHowever, Ms Sturgeon has said some measures like the use of face coverings will remain in place \"for some time\".\n\nShe said people should not take progress for granted due to the faster-spreading Delta variant of the virus, saying \"appropriate caution\" must be taken.\n\nAn update to the way Covid measures operate in schools is expected to be included in the statement, with ministers considering changes to self-isolation requirements for pupils and whether face coverings need to be worn in classrooms.\n\nMs Sturgeon's cabinet will consider the latest data on Tuesday morning, with the Scottish Parliament being recalled from its summer recess to hear the outcome of their deliberations in the afternoon.\n\nThe virtual session will give opposition leaders the chance to question Ms Sturgeon on the latest developments.\n\nA separate statement is also expected about Scotland's latest set of drug-related death figures, which hit another record high on Friday.\n\nCase numbers have fallen significantly in Scotland from the peak of the third wave - but are still above levels seen in the spring\n\nMs Sturgeon has said Scotland is in a \"much better place\" than it was at the start of July, when Covid case numbers in some areas were among the highest in Europe.\n\nAs of 30 July the rolling seven-day average of new infections was at 1,153 - compared with 3,429 on the first day of that month.\n\nThe percentage of tests coming back positive has also fallen, along with admissions to hospitals and intensive care wards.\n\nHowever, all of these figures are still significantly higher than they were in March, April and May, with the Delta variant driving the \"third wave\" of the virus above any previous peak.\n\nAt her most recent Covid briefing, Ms Sturgeon said her Holyrood statement would concern \"whether and to what extent\" the plan to scrap most restrictions can be enacted on 9 August.\n\nShe said some factors - such as the fall in case numbers and success of the vaccine programme in reducing deaths and serious illnesses - gave \"really strong cause for optimism\".\n\nHowever, the first minister warned that \"a sensible degree of continued caution\" was needed in the period ahead to avoid \"sending that progress into reverse\" and endangering the most vulnerable in society.\n\nMinisters have hailed the success of the vaccine programme in reducing deaths and serious illness\n\nThe whole of Scotland moved to level zero on 19 July, as coronavirus restrictions were eased across the UK.\n\nUnder the present rules, up to eight adults from four households can meet indoors at home, and up to 10 can meet in a pub or a restaurant - without needing to book ahead.\n\nUp to 15 adults from 15 households can meet outdoors, and up to 200 can attend weddings and funerals - however groups of 15 must stay at last 1m (3ft 3in) apart in public spaces, meaning there are limits on some large events.\n\nPeople are still being encouraged to work from home, and hospitality premises must shut at midnight while nightclubs remain closed altogether.\n\nThe move \"beyond level zero\" will see most of these limits dropped as Scotland shifts to a new way of dealing with the pandemic, without the need for broader restrictions on everyday life.\n\nThe Scottish government's strategic framework states that \"area-based restrictions\" could brought back in if needed \"to avoid significant harm\", for example in the event of a vaccine-resistant variant of the virus emerging.\n\nAnd some blanket mitigations - including the wearing of face masks in some enclosed areas and guidance around ventilation and hand hygiene - are anticipated to remain in place for some time to come.\n\nOpposition parties have called for restrictions in school buildings to be updated\n\nThe Holyrood session will allow opposition MSPs to question Ms Sturgeon on the plans, despite the parliament being in recess for the summer.\n\nSeveral parties have called for an update to rules around self-isolation in schools, with the first minister pledging to set out how this will apply to pupils before the new term starts later in August.\n\nLarry Flanagan, of the EIS teachers' union, told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme he was expecting a continued degree of caution from the first minister. He said testing would continue to be important as changes to self-isolation rules came down the pipeline.\n\nMr Flanagan also said he it would be a \"progressive step\" to offer children over 12 the vaccine.\n\nJillian Evans, a public health expert from NHS Grampian, told the programme there was light at end of tunnel, but the risk - while greatly reduced - remained.\n\nShe urged caution that the progress made over the summer could quickly be reversed if too many restrictions were removed before the vaccination programme was complete. Ms Evans also said that, in her view, 12 to 17-year-olds should be vaccinated.\n\nAs the number of new Covid cases comes down and the vaccination rate goes up, a further relaxation of Covid rules is coming.\n\nI expect the Scottish government will announce plans to switch off the levels protection system from Monday 9 August.\n\nThat should mean we can meet up in larger numbers both indoors and outside and a phased return to office work. It will not mean an end to all restrictions.\n\nWearing face coverings on public transport and registering for test and protect when you go out for a meal are likely to remain requirements.\n\nWhile social distancing rules may be scrapped for outdoor gatherings, it is possible that the 1m rule could be retained in some indoor settings.\n\nIf so, ministers are thought to be weighing up the possibility of an exemption for nightclubs to allow them to reopen.\n\nChanges to the requirements for self-isolation for close contacts of Covid cases to ease the so-called \"pingdemic\" are also expected.\n\nThe details will be decided at a meeting of the Scottish cabinet a few hours before the first minister's virtual statement to parliament at 14:00.\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said rules should be changed so that face coverings are no longer needed in classrooms, and that children identified as close contacts should no longer need to self-isolate for 10 days.\n\nHe said: \"The success of Scotland and the UK's vaccine scheme overall means we can now look to move forward, cautiously but confidently, and remove almost all Covid restrictions.\n\n\"Scotland's economic recovery hinges on the SNP government moving beyond Covid restrictions - we must seize this opportunity to start rebuilding from the damage of Covid now, and not delay any longer.\"\n\nLabour leader Anas Sarwar said the country was at a \"crucial moment\" in its exit from lockdown and the efforts to \"jump start Scotland's recovery\".\n\nHe called for \"urgent\" work to support cancer diagnostic services, an overhaul of the \"struggling\" contact tracing system and changes to rules around self-isolation.\n\nHe said: \"We have to learn to live with the virus, but to do so in such a way that the people of Scotland, our NHS and our economy are supported and protected.\"\n\nMeanwhile the Scottish Greens called for clarity on measures to protect students and staff when the new university term begins, with MSP Gillian Mackay saying ministers \"must ensure there is no repeat of last year's shambolic return to campus\".\n\nDo you have a question about the Covid restrictions in place in Scotland? Use the form below to send us your questions and we could be in touch.\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read the terms and conditions.\n\nIf you are reading this page on the BBC News app, you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question on this topic.", "Almost all of Scotland's remaining Covid-19 restrictions are to end from 9 August, Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed.\n\nSocial distancing will be dropped in most settings, meaning more capacity in pubs and restaurants and larger crowds at sporting events and concerts.\n\nAnd close contacts of those who test positive for Covid will no longer have to self-isolate - as long as they are fully vaccinated and test negative.\n\nHowever, the wearing of face coverings in some public spaces will continue.\n\nThis will include secondary schools, where staff will need to maintain 1m physical distancing for the first six weeks of term and twice-weekly testing will be required.\n\nThe first minister also said a \"gradual approach\" will be taken to returning workers to offices, warning that the virus still poses \"real challenges\".\n\nWhile the changes would restore a \"substantial degree of normality\", she said they do not \"signal the end of the pandemic or a return to life exactly as we knew it\".\n\nShe said: \"Declaring freedom from or victory over this virus is in my view premature.\"\n\nThe number of new Covid-19 cases has fallen markedly from the peak of the \"third wave\", with Ms Sturgeon saying the infection rate had fallen by two-thirds since early July.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon made the announcement in a virtual statement to MSPs\n\nThe percentage of tests coming back positive has also fallen, as has the number of patients being admitted to hospital and intensive care wards with the virus.\n\nThe first minister said uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine had been \"exceptional\", and that this - along with the fall in cases - made it possible to lift most of the legal restrictions still in force.\n\nFrom Monday, 9 August, the current limits on the number of people who can meet up will be dropped, as will social distancing rules in most settings.\n\nThis means nightclubs will be allowed to reopen, and larger crowds will be allowed to gather for indoor and outdoor events - although organisers of large events will still need to apply to local councils for permission.\n\nThe rules around self-isolation will also change, meaning that fully-vaccinated adults who are identified as a close contact of a positive case will no longer have to isolate if they return a negative PCR test.\n\nThe use of face coverings will continue in secondary schools for the first part of the new term\n\nThe government is still considering whether a certificate proving people have been vaccinated will be needed to enter \"higher-risk\" events.\n\nMs Sturgeon confirmed that a \"Covid status certification\" app was under development, but said she was \"considering very carefully\" whether such a scheme would be appropriate.\n\nShe also said she would not hesitate to take the \"tough decision\" to re-impose some local restrictions if there was a serious outbreak of the virus, saying the government \"will seek to take whatever action is necessary to keep the country safe\".\n\nWhile most restrictions will be lifted, a number of \"mitigations\" will remain in place, with Ms Sturgeon saying the harm of the virus \"cannot be underestimated\".\n\nThe use of face coverings in enclosed spaces like shops, hospitality venues and public transport will remain \"for some time\" to come, and venues will still be expected to collect customer details for contact tracing.\n\nThe first minister said it was \"vital\" that the return to working in offices was a gradual one, saying employers should consider a \"hybrid\" model of home and in-office work.\n\nTwo weeks after restrictions were lifted in England, the predicted spike of 100,000 new cases a day has not materialised.\n\nThat bodes well for Scotland to follow suit. Scotland was the first part of the UK to see a big surge in cases at the start of July but since then the data has been positive and even the more cautious scientists say it looks good to proceed.\n\nSome experts believe one thing that has helped is that behaviour has not significantly changed. We are not in contact with as many people, and many have continued to keep a distance.\n\nWith vaccines doing such an amazing job, could small efforts like this be enough to keep the virus at bay?\n\nWhat is around the corner is a bit tricky to predict.\n\nWe will see a return to schools and universities in the next few weeks, coupled with the end of the holiday season and cooler weather on the horizon. That's why things like the wearing of face coverings and an encouragement to work from home will continue for now.\n\nThe hope is the worst is behind us, but Covid has taken us by surprise before - it still could now.\n\nThe move was broadly welcomed by business groups, although some still voiced fears about the economic recovery.\n\nThe Federation of Small Businesses said firms would be \"elated\" that the bulk of curbs were being lifted, but trading conditions had been \"permanently changed by the crisis\".\n\nCBI Scotland said moving beyond level zero \"creates a much-needed platform for kickstarting Scotland's economic recovery\", but said firms would be \"confused\" about why ministers were still advising people to work from home.\n\nAnd the Scottish Beer and Pub Association said hundreds of pubs would now reopen for the first time, hailing this as \"fantastic news\" - adding that it was \"vital that we get the recovery phase right\".\n\nThe changes will allow hospitality venues to increase capacity\n\nThe Scottish Parliament was recalled from its summer recess for the announcement, giving opposition leaders the chance to question the first minister on the plans.\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said the statement was a \"mixed bag\", saying that \"ongoing restrictions will hold Scotland's recovery back\".\n\nHe said: \"We have moved beyond level zero - but still curbs remain in place. Yet again the goalposts have been moved. We are at level minus one or minus two, and still the government is clinging on to parts of people's lives.\"\n\nScottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said there was \"definitely light at the end of the tunnel\", but said \"we are at a crucial point for Scotland's recovery\".\n\nHe called for a \"new approach\" in the fight against the pandemic, calling for increased support for the test and trace system and pop-up vaccination clinics at sporting events and universities.\n\nDo you have a question about the Covid restrictions in place in Scotland? Use the form below to send us your questions and we could be in touch.\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read the terms and conditions.\n\nIf you are reading this page on the BBC News app, you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question on this topic.", "Mark Chilman treated his ex partner as his \"property\", his \"chunk of gold\" the judge said\n\nAn \"obsessed\" man has been jailed for at least 22 years for murdering his former long-term girlfriend's new partner, leaving him in a burning car.\n\nA trial at Worcester Crown Court heard he lay in wait for his victim, hit him and set his car alight to try and make it look like suicide.\n\nJudge James Burbidge QC said Chilman had treated his ex as his \"property\".\n\nThe judge said Chilman had immediately \"harboured a desire to do Mr Parkinson harm,\" after discovering Julie Adcock had moved on with her life.\n\nNeil Parkinson, 66, was discovered in a burning car on 12 December\n\nThe court heard Chilman prepared by \"scoping\" his ex partner's farm, stealing two petrol jerry cans, buying disposable mobile phones and leaving his own phone elsewhere, while asking a friend to give him a false alibi.\n\nHe then waited for Mr Parkinson, 66, to drive away from the farm in Broadwas, to care for his 94-year-old mother, who had dementia.\n\nWhen the victim got out to lock the gate, Chilman attacked him, hitting him so hard with a weapon, possibly a hammer, he fractured the base of his skull and left him unconscious.\n\nThe trial heard he then drove Mr Parkinson to a lay-by, poured petrol over him and the vehicle, and set it alight.\n\nThe car was discovered on Ankerdine Road, Cotheridge\n\nJudge Burbidge said, as the fire took hold, Chilman sent a long text message \"in despicable and defamatory terms\" to try and suggest it was Mr Parkinson attempting to take his own life.\n\nThe death had left Mr Parkinson's family and his ex-partner Ms Adcock \"shattered and grieving\", the judge added.\n\nIn a statement, Mr Parkinson's family described Chilman as an \"evil, calculated individual\".\n\n\"Neil was a loving, caring, happy person who enjoyed life to the full,\" they said. \"As a family it's been a very difficult eight months and our lives have been changed forever.\n\n\"Neil will be sorely missed by all his family and the memories of him as a loving father, grandfather, brother and son and will be remembered dearly for all the happy times.\"\n\nJurors heard Chilman, from Pencombe in Herefordshire, told police \"whatever, he is out of the way now\" when detectives suggested to him the blaze looked suspicious.\n\nThe judge accepted the death of the defendant's father some years before hit him hard and the loss of his relationship with Ms Adcock sent his world \"crashing down\".\n\nBut he said his love and affection became \"misplaced\" and he \"could not bear for her to be happy with anyone else\".\n\nIt emerged during the hearing Chilman had been attempting correspondence with Ms Adcock from his jail cell.\n\nDet Ch Insp Dean Jones, from West Mercia Police, welcomed Chilman's \"significant sentence\", describing the murder as \"brutal\" and \"senseless\".\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Female presenters have returned to the screen at a major Afghan news outlet, after briefly being taken off air as the Taliban took over Afghanistan.\n\nTolo News said their broadcasts had returned to \"normal\".\n\nIt comes as questions are asked over how women's rights will look under Taliban rule.", "New Zealand has been largely successful in eliminating the virus from within its borders\n\nNew Zealand has announced a snap lockdown after a man tested positive for Covid, the first case in six months.\n\nThe case was detected in Auckland, which will be in lockdown for a week, while the rest of the country will be in lockdown for three days.\n\nAuthorities say they are working on the assumption that the new case was the Delta variant.\n\nJust around 20% of its population has been fully vaccinated.\n\nCoromandel, a coastal town where the infected person had visited, will be in lockdown for seven days too.\n\nPrime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the toughest \"level 4\" rules were required - closing schools, offices and all businesses with only essential services remaining operational.\n\n\"I want to assure New Zealand that we have planned for this eventuality. Going hard and early has worked for us before,\" she said.\n\nThe patient is a 58-year-old man, who is believed to have been infectious since last Thursday.\n\nThere are at least 23 potential sites of transmission.\n\nThere was reportedly a rush at supermarkets in Auckland, as locals anticipated a snap lockdown.\n\nOfficials said there was a need for strong response because of the fear of the Delta variant, and because there was no clear link between the new case and the border or quarantine facilities.\n\nData released by New Zealand's Ministry of Health on Monday showed that all Covid-19 cases detected at the country's border in recent weeks had been Delta.\n\n\"We have seen what can happen elsewhere if we fail to get on top of it. We only get one chance,\" Ms Ardern said in a televised national address, calling the Delta strain \"a game changer\".\n\nNew Zealand has been successful in eliminating the virus from within its borders, although its international borders remain largely closed.\n\nHowever, its vaccination programme has rolled out at a slow pace, with only around 20% of people fully vaccinated and 33% of people having received one dose, according to Our World in Data.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jacinda Ardern: 'We cannot keep NZ border restrictions forever'", "Twenty years of conflict in Afghanistan – what happened when?\n\nFrom 9/11, to intense fighting on the ground, and now full withdrawal of US-led forces, here’s what happened.\n\nAl-Qaeda, led by Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan, carries out the largest terror attack ever conducted on US soil. The World Trade Centre is reduced to rubble Four commercial airliners are hijacked. Two are flown into the World Trade Centre in New York, which collapses. One hits the Pentagon building in Washington, and one crashes into a field in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people are killed. A US-led coalition bombs Taliban and al-Qaeda facilities in Afghanistan. Targets include Kabul, Kandahar and Jalalabad. The Taliban, who took power after a decade-long Soviet occupation was followed by civil war, refuse to hand over Bin Laden. Their air defences and small fleet of fighter aircraft are destroyed. The Northern Alliance, a group of anti-Taliban rebels backed by coalition forces, enters Kabul as the Taliban flee the city. Coalition-backed Northern Alliance fighters ride tanks into Kabul as the Taliban retreat By the 13 November 2001, all Taliban have either fled or been neutralised. Other cities quickly fall. After protracted negotiations at a “loya jirga” or grand assembly, the new Afghan constitution is signed into law. The constitution paves the way for presidential elections in October 2004. Hamid Karzai led anti-Taliban groups around Kandahar before becoming president Hamid Karzai, the leader of the Popalzai Durrani tribe, becomes the first president under the new constitution. He serves two five-year terms as president. British troops arrive in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold in the south of the country. Soldiers of the Parachute Regiment lead the first UK deployment to Helmand Their initial mission is to support reconstruction projects, but they are quickly drawn into combat operations. More than 450 British troops lose their lives in Afghanistan over the course of the conflict. US President Barack Obama approves a major increase in the number of troops sent to Afghanistan. At their peak, they number about 140,000. US troops in intense combat operations in the south of the country The so-called “surge” is modelled on US strategy in Iraq where US forces focussed on protecting the civilian population as well as killing insurgent fighters. Bin Laden is traced to a compound located less than a mile from a Pakistani military academy The leader of al-Qaeda is killed in an assault by US Navy Seals on a compound in Abbottabad in Pakistan. Bin Laden’s body is removed and buried at sea. The operation ends a 10-year hunt led by the CIA. The confirmation that Bin Laden had been living on Pakistani soil fuels accusations in the US that Pakistan is an unreliable ally in the war on terror. The founder of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammed Omar, dies. His death is kept secret for more than two years. The Taliban leader is believed to have suffered a shrapnel wound to his right eye in the 1980s According to Afghan intelligence, Mullah Omar dies of health problems at a hospital in the Pakistani city of Karachi. Pakistan denies that he was in the country. At a ceremony in Kabul, Nato ends its combat operations in Afghanistan. With the surge now over, the US withdraws thousands of troops. Most of those who remain focus on training and supporting the Afghan security forces. The Taliban launch a series of suicide attacks, car bombings and other assaults. The parliament building in Kabul, and the city of Kunduz are attacked. Islamic State militants begin operations in Afghanistan. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says more than 45,000 members of his country’s security forces have been killed since he became leader in 2014. The figure is far higher than previously thought. The US and the Taliban sign an “agreement for bringing peace” to Afghanistan, in Doha, Qatar. The US and Nato allies agree to withdraw all troops within 14 months if the militants uphold the deal. The deal lays out a timetable for full withdrawal US president Joe Biden announces that all US troops will leave Afghanistan by 11 September 2021. In just over a month, the Taliban sweep across Afghanistan, taking control of towns and cities all over the country, including Kabul. Afghan security forces collapse in the face of the Taliban advance.", "US President Joe Biden admitted the Taliban's lightning-fast return to power would be \"gut-wrenching\" to the many Americans with a profound connection to Afghanistan. We spent the day with military veterans who served - and lost loved ones - in the conflict, and with Afghans who now call the US home.\n\nDespite the driving rain, dozens of people congregated outside the post office in Hookstown, Pennsylvania, as it was renamed after Staff Sergeant Dylan Elchin, a son of the town killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.\n\n\"It's very wonderful to see Dylan honoured,\" said Sgt Elchin's grandfather Ron Bogolea.\n\n\"He sacrificed everything for our country and I believe that we should all be honouring our military more - for what they do for not only the USA but for the entire world,\" he said.\n\nThough the process to pay this tribute to Sgt Elchin started soon after the 25-year-old died in 2018, the renaming event ultimately happened as the US scrambles to leave Afghanistan and with the Taliban now in charge. That was not lost on the speakers at the Hookstown ceremony.\n\n\"The events of the last several days have shown that we don't always succeed, we certainly are not perfect, but our hearts are in the right place,\" said US Congressman for this area, Conor Lamb, during his speech here.\n\nBut Christian Easley, an Air Force recruiter who helped train Sgt Elchin, told me that for him the current circumstances in Afghanistan had not changed his perspective at all.\n\n\"Dylan had to follow his orders to go accomplish his mission. He did everything that was asked of him and then some,\" Mr Easley said.\n\n\"Regardless of what has happened during this past week I knew that Dylan did everything right.\"\n\nFor some though, this has clearly been a time for profound reflection.\n\nCaptain Jeremy Caskey, the Chaplain that offered the invocation at the ceremony here, had himself served in Afghanistan. His brother, Marine Sgt Joseph Caskey, was killed in action there in 2010.\n\nWhen asked about the turn of events in Afghanistan this week, he took a moment to collect his thoughts.\n\n\"It has been very difficult. You always want to know that what you are doing has purpose and meaning, but purpose and meaning doesn't just come in victory. I believe sometimes it comes in the sacrifice and the experience of it,\" says Capt Caskey.\n\n\"Are we better off? Is the country better off? Are they better off? It's hard to say.\"\n\nJust miles from the White House, Fawzia Etemadi and her cousin, Hamid Naweed, watched President Biden's address in numb silence.\n\n\"We trusted Joe Biden, but we are a little disappointed - the world is disappointed,\" Fawzia said. She had hopes that Mr Biden would uphold his promise to bring peace to her country.\n\n\"Afghans have suffered for the last 40 years. America is the world's father, democracy's father. No-one can explain why this is happening.\"\n\nLike thousands of Afghans living in northern Virginia, Fawzia and Hamid both fled Afghanistan as refugees in the 1980s and ultimately settled a few miles away from the nation's capital. The area is home to one of the largest Afghan diasporas in the country.\n\nAs we sip tea at Afghan Bistro, the family's restaurant, Fawzia and Hamid admit they've spent much of the last week in stunned disbelief.\n\n\"We couldn't go to sleep, we were worried about our loved ones back home,\" said Hamid, a former professor at the University of Kabul. Seeing so many people trying to flee their homeland, \"running away from their hopes\", was also difficult.\n\n\"I don't know how the Taliban came in power so fast,\" Hamid continued, \"but I hope that the world will recognise that people of Afghanistan need their freedom and independence and we deserve to live in peace.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Protesters have gathered outside of the White House in support of those in Afghanistan.", "ME can cause post-exertional malaise, muscle pain, memory loss and digestive issues\n\nA health watchdog has paused a final update to ME treatment guidance just hours before planned publication due to disagreement on its contents - a move that has angered some charities.\n\nNICE says it needs more conversations with patient groups and professionals so that the advice is supported.\n\nThere are strong and varied views on how the illness should be best managed.\n\nAn earlier draft scrapped one controversial recommendation of graded exercise therapy.\n\nMany patients with ME or chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) say the therapy, which encourages patients to slowly increase their levels of activity, makes their condition worse, not better.\n\nThe draft recommendations for England and Wales, published in November 2020, said people should remain in their \"energy envelope\" when undertaking activity of any kind, and a physical activity programme should only be considered in specific circumstances.\n\nIt is not clear yet if the final guidance will say the same when it is published.\n\nThe draft also changed advice on a talking therapy, known as CBT, clarifying that it was only helpful in treating anxiety around the condition, not the illness itself.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIt said that there was no \"one size fits all\" approach to managing ME, which is estimated to affect more than 250,000 people in England and Wales.\n\nNICE has acknowledged that the controversy over the best treatment has served only to alienate many people with the condition and, in some cases, undermined the confidence of those caring for them.\n\nSeveral members of the committee who prepared the guidelines left the group last month.\n\nOne of them is Dr Charles Shepherd, medical advisor to the ME Association. He has said it became increasingly difficult to comment on graded exercise and CBT issues in public while holding both roles.\n\nNICE said it wanted to thank everyone who had contributed to the guideline, particularly the committee and the patient groups who had worked so diligently.\n\n\"However, unless the recommendations in the guideline are supported and implemented by professionals and the NHS, people with ME/CFS may not get the care and help they need,\" it said.\n\nSian Leary, from #MEAction UK, accused NICE of \"capitulating to the vested interests of those who support graded exercise therapy, instead of standing up for the thousands of people being harmed.\"\n\nOther groups including Forward ME, Action for ME, ME Association, Doctors for ME and ME Research UK criticised the delay, saying the document had been approved by the committee and should be published.\n\nAndrew Goddard, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said: \"We were extremely concerned that the final guidelines proposed by NICE may not have taken into consideration the extensive comments we made to the draft version, particularly in relation to treatments we know to have significantly benefited many patients.\n\n\"There is reasonable evidence, for example, that graded exercise therapy helps a group of patients with ME/CFS and, while not without risk, our experts strongly support its ongoing use as an option in this condition.\n\n\"Similarly, our experts would strongly recommend specialist individualised rehabilitation for patients with complex rehabilitation needs.\n\n\"We hope that in delaying the final publication of these guidelines, NICE will re-consider our evidence submitted and incorporate it into their final publication.\"", "The UK is looking at a \"bespoke arrangement\" for Afghan refugees, with full details to be set out in due course, the foreign secretary has said.\n\nA new resettlement scheme will be aimed at helping those most in need - including women and girls - to come to the UK, No 10 has said.\n\nDominic Raab did not confirm how many refugees would be able to come but said the UK was \"a big-hearted nation\".\n\nIt comes after the Taliban seized control of capital city Kabul.\n\nMr Raab told BBC Breakfast the UK had \"always been a country that has provided safe haven for those fleeing persecution\".\n\nHowever he added: \"The most important thing we can do at source... is try and provide the stability so we don't see these large numbers of migrant flows.\n\n\"So I think that ought to be the number one priority but nonetheless asylum is really important.\"\n\nMr Raab said details of the new resettlement scheme would be set out by the home secretary and prime minister \"in due course\".\n\nParliament is being recalled from its summer recess on Wednesday to debate the situation in Afghanistan.\n\nThe BBC has been told the new resettlement scheme will be similar to that used to help Syrian refugees.\n\nAround 20,000 refugees who fled the conflict in Syria have been resettled in the UK under the scheme since it was launched in 2014.\n\nOn Monday evening, the Home Office said the UK had already admitted more than 3,300 Afghan interpreters, staff and their families to the UK for resettlement.\n\nThe Home Office said \"it will be guided by the capacity of local authorities\" when deciding how many Afghan refugees to allow to settle in the UK after the Taliban seized power.\n\nMr Raab said the UK could also increase humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"I expect that we will increase our aid budget for development and humanitarian purposes, probably by 10% is what I have in mind on last year.\n\n\"We want to try and make sure it won't go through the Taliban, but make sure that we can alleviate the humanitarian suffering.\"\n\nHundreds of Afghan nationals have been evacuated on UK planes\n\nWomen's rights activist Malala Yousafzai, who was 15 when she was shot in the head by Taliban militants in Pakistan, urged the international community not to abandon Afghans.\n\n\"Countries need to open their borders to Afghan refugees, to the displaced people,\" she told BBC Two's Newsnight.\n\nFormer Conservative defence minister Tobias Ellwood said the UK should \"open our doors\" to Afghans, adding that many were fleeing because they had worked for the international coalition.\n\n\"This fall of a state is on our watch, it's thanks to our withdrawal, our retreat, that we're now going to see mass migration on a scale not seen since World War Two and many of them will be heading towards Europe,\" the former British Army captain told the BBC.\n\nLabour's shadow foreign affairs minister, Stephen Kinnock, said the government's offer to refugees needed to be \"bold, ambitious and generous\", and \"backed up with the capacity to process it\".\n\nHe also accused the government of \"a dereliction of duty\" in how it had handled the withdrawal from Afghanistan, describing it as \"disastrous\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Afghan interpreter: \"I'm so worried about my parents and my sisters' safety\"\n\nIt comes after a number of people died at Kabul airport on Monday, with large crowds on the runway eventually leading to all flights being halted for several hours.\n\nAmid chaotic scenes at the airport, British ambassador to Afghanistan Sir Laurie Bristow was said to be working alongside UK staff and the armed forces to process visas for eligible Afghans.\n\nOn Monday, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the UK would send a further 200 troops to Kabul to help evacuate British nationals and Afghans who are eligible to resettle in the UK - taking the total number to about 900.\n\nThe MoD also said further personnel would be deployed to other countries in the region and able to move on to Afghanistan if needed, while more troops would be put on standby in the UK.\n\nMost Afghan nationals currently eligible for relocation to the UK are those who have worked for the British government in frontline roles \"that made a material difference to the delivery of the UK mission\" in the country.\n\nThis group includes interpreters as well as cultural advisers and embassy staff. Others eligible are those deemed to be at high and imminent risk, according to the Ministry of Defence.\n\nMr Rabb said the government expected 350 more British nationals and Afghan staff to leave the country in the next 24 hours - and that numbers should increase \"quite significantly\" if the situation stabilises.", "There's a quote in To Kill A Mockingbird where Jem is told by Miss Maudie that \"things are never as bad as they seem.\" For Joe Biden, right now, things do look pretty dark.\n\nBut if I'm digging into my quotations book, who can better Kipling's If - and that line about treating triumph and failure as the impostors that they are? Politicians have been told down the ages that there is no coming back from this or that catastrophe, and - yet - back they come.\n\nThe shambolic unravelling of America's withdrawal from Afghanistan comes from a yet to be written textbook of \"how to lose at everything\". Warnings hadn't been heeded, intelligence was clearly totally inadequate, planning was lamentable, execution woeful.\n\nLet's just focus in on one thing - although there are any number that are worthy of examination.\n\nThe withdrawal came during the \"fighting season\" - a phrase I have to say I have always found rather odd. But in Afghanistan there is a fighting season which starts in spring - and then in winter, when the country freezes over, there is a time when the Taliban go home to their tribal homelands. Did no-one think that it might have been better to have ordered the withdrawal for the dead of winter when Taliban forces weren't there, poised to fill the vacuum?\n\nTaliban soldiers patrol the streets of Jalalabad on 17 April\n\nThe end result might have been the same - a Taliban takeover - but it would have almost certainly led to a more orderly drawdown. Yet the Biden administration wanted an eye-catching date. They wanted the withdrawal completed by 11 September. Twenty years on from 9/11 - an artificial, self-imposed deadline.\n\nOne more quote. After the catastrophic Bay of Pigs invasion, when Cuban emigres backed by the CIA tried to overthrow Fidel Castro, John F Kennedy - the president at the time of that debacle - noted sorrowfully that victory has a hundred fathers, but failure is an orphan.\n\nJoe Biden is an orphan right now. And that could have consequences for his presidency; and far more importantly how the rest of the world sees America.\n\nBiden's election campaign could be boiled down to three messages to distinguish himself from Donald Trump. First, he would be more empathetic. He would be more competent. And instead of \"America First\", it would be replaced by the mantra \"America is back\".\n\nBut in his address yesterday, there wasn't a whole lot of empathy towards the thousands of Afghans who've helped Americans these past 20 years. On competence, even his biggest cheerleaders would struggle to say the withdrawal of American troops has been anything other than shambolic.\n\nAnd after the bewildering events of the past few days, how exactly is America back? Many see what has unfolded on President Biden's watch in Afghanistan as a linear continuation of Donald Trump's America First policies - and, as some have joked cruelly, not as well organised.\n\nPresidents Truman and Kennedy (right) both had to face up to failures\n\nBut on the policy itself, Joe Biden is utterly defiant. He summoned up his inner Harry Truman and made clear in his speech that the buck stops with him. He was, however, happy to distribute blame in much the same way that a muck spreader disperses manure in all directions. The Afghan leadership weren't up to it, the Afghan armed forces had no fight in them; Donald Trump had negotiated a bad deal.\n\nThere can be an endearing chirpiness to Joe Biden, but there's also a chippiness. He doesn't like being questioned, and on many foreign policy questions he is convinced of his own rightness.\n\nJoe Biden has never been a \"liberal interventionist\", thinking that liberal democracy is something that can be shipped out of Baltimore Harbour in 40ft containers and exported around the world. He thinks the US military should only be overseas to defend vital US interests. And with al-Qaeda largely beaten, Osama Bin Laden dead, it was job done. Time to come home.\n\nThat is a view, I should add, shared by millions of Americans. But approving of the policy is very different from the dysfunctional implementation. And what if terror groups, feeling emboldened by the Taliban victory, decide to launch their own attacks on Americans abroad - or Americans at home? Then it could be politically catastrophic.\n\nWhich brings us to how Western leaders see America now. A fascinating nugget from a briefing that's just been given by Joe Biden's National Security Adviser. Since the fall of Kabul, Jake Sullivan revealed, Biden hadn't spoken to another world leader. Wasn't that just a bit surprising, given that there were a lot of other nations - including Britain - who'd committed vast resources to Afghanistan? Following Sullivan's briefing, the White House announced that Biden had spoken with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.\n\nWhen the G7 gathered in Cornwall and the Nato nations met in Brussels the sense of relief was palpable among the prime ministers and presidents that a more outward looking American president was in charge. But given what has unfolded - how America has been humiliated, how Joe Biden embarked on a policy he was cautioned against by these leaders - there is now a good deal more wariness.\n\nAnd who will feel they have gained most from America's departure - apart from the Taliban, of course? Why, three countries near Afghanistan - Russia, Iran and China. I'm not sure that is what Joe Biden had in mind when he said after his inauguration that \"America is back\".", "A proposed code of practice covering police use of live facial recognition in England and Wales has been criticised by human rights groups.\n\nLive facial-recognition systems compare faces captured on closed-circuit television with those on a watch-list, alerting officers to a match.\n\nFormer CCTV watchdog Tony Porter said the new rules were \"bare bones\" and offered unclear guidance.\n\nAnd two campaign groups have called for the practice to be ended entirely.\n\nThe Home Office said the new guidelines, included in the first update to the Surveillance Camera Code of Practice in eight years, empowered police and maintained public trust.\n\nIn August 2020, Ed Bridges, of Cardiff, won a court case after twice being filmed by South Wales Police's automatic facial-recognition van.\n\nOn the final occasion, the former Lib Dem councillor was attending a peaceful protest.\n\n\"I take the view that in this country we have policing by consent and the police should be supporting our right to free protest, rather than trying to intimidate protesters,\" he told BBC News, after his court victory.\n\nIn its judgement, the Court of Appeal said more checks should have been made to ensure the live facial-recognition (LFR) algorithm used had no gender or racial bias - and tighter regulations were needed.\n\nThe new code, which covers CCTV use by local authorities and the police, says LFR deployments should:\n\nLiberty lawyer Megan Goulding, who worked on Mr Bridges's case, told BBC News: \"One year since our case led the court to agree that this technology violates our rights and threatens our liberty, these guidelines fail to properly account for either the court's findings or the dangers created by this dystopian surveillance tool.\n\n\"Facial recognition will not make us safer, it will turn public spaces into open-air prisons and entrench patterns of discrimination that already oppress entire communities\".\n\nThe campaign group Big Brother Watch also called for the technology to be banned and said the code legitimised the use of an invasive surveillance technology.\n\nHowever the Ada Lovelace Institute told the BBC, the updated camera code, \"provides important additional guidance around the use of biometric technologies such as LFR in surveillance cameras\".\n\nBut it said, \"far more still needs to be done to ensure that the rules concerning the use of a technology as powerful and controversial as live facial recognition are clear, comprehensive and provide adequate protections from potential harms\".\n\nAfter the Bridges case, Mr Porter, the then Surveillance Camera Commissioner, produced 72 pages of guidance on the use of LFR, for police forces in England in Wales.\n\nHe said: \"It covered ethics, governance, leadership, the technical development of watch-lists - and I was somewhat surprised the redraft of the code was 'de minimis',\" a legal term describing something too small to merit consideration.\n\nHe says the proposed Home Office code as currently written is very \"bare bones\".\n\n\"I don't think it provides much guidance to law enforcement, I don't really it provides a great deal of guidance to the public as to how the technology will be deployed\", he added.\n\nMr Porter, now chief privacy officer for a facial-recognition supplier, added it was strange the new code would not cover organisations such as Transport For London, which owns thousands of cameras but would cover small councils.\n\nThe current surveillance-camera commissioner has also previously suggested expanding the code to cover CCTV operated by government departments.\n\nIn a statement the Home Office told the BBC, \"The Government is committed to empowering the police to use new technology to keep the public safe, whilst maintaining public trust, and we are currently consulting on the Surveillance Camera Code.\"\n\n\"In addition, College of Policing have consulted on new guidance for police use of LFR in accordance with the Court of Appeal judgment, which will also be reflected in the update to the code.\"\n\nIt added that all users of surveillance camera systems including LFR are required to comply with strict data protection legislation.\n\nIn 2019, Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said the police should slow down their adoption of LFR.\n\n\"Never before have we seen technologies with the potential for such widespread invasiveness,\" she blogged.\n\nAnd her office now says it will be responding to a consultation on the updated code.\n\n\"Data-protection law sets a high bar for police forces, public authorities and businesses to justify the use of live facial recognition (LFR) technology and its algorithms in public places,\" a representative said.", "The Biden administration's rush for the exit in Afghanistan has been accompanied by a similar rush to judgement among pundits and commentators who, by and large, have castigated the US president for a decision that many see as unnecessary and a betrayal, both of those who served in Afghanistan and of the Afghan people themselves.\n\nThe heartbreaking images from the airport in Kabul only reinforce this message. And there is justifiably a good deal of emotion to go round. The West has invested a lot of blood, time and money in Afghanistan. The Afghan people, much, much, more.\n\nIt is hard to argue with the criticism of the Biden administration's precipitate departure. Afghanistan may indeed be un-salvageable, its governing structures too unrepresentative and corrupt. This though only underscores the argument that Afghanistan was not \"lost\" in the past two years but during the previous 20.\n\nNonetheless the decision to cut and run is being seen as a terrible blow to US credibility - to its reliability as a partner, and indeed to its moral standing in world affairs. How does this square with Mr Biden's clarion cry on taking office, that America was back?\n\nComparisons are being made with Vietnam - the similarities with helicopters shuttling US nationals away from a falling city being too much for the newspaper front-pages to resist. But in reality - despite the superficial similarities -there are some important differences, too.\n\nSouth Vietnam collapsed some two years after US troops left. Indeed it looks as though the Americans expected their Afghan allies to soldier on for a significant period without them. The US was humbled by Vietnam - its population deeply divided and its military morale damaged. But while Vietnam turned out to be a tragic side-show in the Cold War, the US still ultimately won that contest. Nato was not weakened. US allies around the globe did not shy away from expecting US support. The US remained the pre-eminent superpower.\n\nAfghanistan is altogether different. Internal divisions in the US over this conflict have in no way been comparable to Vietnam's. The Afghanistan mission was certainly unpopular at home but there were no mass rallies against it.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nCrucially though, today's international context is dramatically different from that of the 1970s. The US - indeed the West in general - is engaged in multiple contests, in few of which they are outright winners. The Afghan collapse is potentially a disaster in the so-called war on terror. But in the wider conflict between democracy and authoritarianism, Washington's failure can only be seen as a serious set-back.\n\nThere will be smiles in Moscow and Beijing, at least for now. The Western model of liberal interventionism - promoted as a means of spreading democracy and the rule of law - has perhaps been tested to destruction in Afghanistan. One cannot see much enthusiasm for similar undertakings in the future.\n\nThose of Washington's allies who joined in the Afghanistan project are smarting. They feel badly let down. Even British ministers, jealous of their oft touted \"special relationship\" with Washington, have been openly critical of President Biden's decision.\n\nAnd for America's European allies in general, it underscores how dependent they are upon the US and how little their views count once the White House decides to go in one particular direction.\n\nSo bad news for the West. But how long-lasting will be the smiles in Beijing, Moscow and even Islamabad? It was Pakistan that nurtured and gave safe haven to the Taliban for its own geo-strategic purposes. But if renewed Taliban rule produces a simple turning back of the clock - if international terrorism finds a renewed haven - then Pakistan may find that the growing turbulence in the region has decidedly negative consequences.\n\nChina is happy to see the US failure. Indeed, if Mr Biden's reason to pull out from Afghanistan was due to his desire to re-focus US national power to rival a rising China, then this step has simply given China an opportunity to expand its own influence in Afghanistan and beyond.\n\nChina, though, must have concern, too. Its shares a short border with Afghanistan. It is actively persecuting its own Muslim minority and must be concerned at the possibility that anti-Beijing Islamist terrorists might seek to use Afghanistan as a base. No wonder then that Chinese diplomacy over recent weeks has been so eager to court the Taliban.\n\nRussia, too, must have worries about the return of instability and terrorism. Maybe it feels a little better about itself now that the US has similarly been humbled by Afghan tribal fighters, just as the Soviet Union was in the late-1980s.\n\nBut its chief interest is the security of a large part of Central Asia, many of whose states are allies of Moscow. This summer Russia moved tanks to the Tajikistan-Afghan frontier for exercises intended to demonstrate its determination to prevent any spill-over from an Afghan collapse.\n\nSo in the short-term, the Afghan debacle certainly benefits the West's opponents. But their attitudes were not going to change anyway.\n\nWhat really matters are the ramifications among Washington's allies. What will they take away from the Afghan experience? Beyond the immediate crisis, will the NATO countries, Israel, Taiwan, South Korea or Japan see the US as a less reliable partner? If they do, then Mr Biden's decision to quit Afghanistan will prove fateful, indeed.", "It's one of the most striking images from the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban. Hundreds of Afghans packed into a US military cargo plane as they flee Kabul.\n\nThe faces, many male but with some women and children, look up towards the camera, their expressions a mixture of anxiety and possibly some relief.\n\nThe image was initially obtained by the US defence analysis website, Defense One, but was released by the US Air Mobility Command public affairs office on Tuesday.\n\nOn Sunday, panicked civilians had scrambled up the loading ramp, Defense One quoted a US official as saying, but the crew decided it was best to take off rather than force the Afghans off the plane.\n\nThe number onboard - 640 - is among the highest carried by that type of plane, a C-17 Globemaster.\n\nIt's approaching, though still some way off, the record for the number of people transported by any plane - an Israeli Boeing 747 carrying more than 1,000 Jewish migrants from Ethiopia in 1991.\n\nThe US defence official quoted by Defense One, says the flight from Kabul to Qatar was one of several which managed to extract hundreds of Afghans from Kabul.\n\nThe photo stands in contrast to the chaotic images which emerged from Kabul airport on Monday as it was overrun by Afghans terrified at the prospect of Taliban rule. US soldiers struggled to keep control.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Chaotic scenes at Kabul airport as people try desperately to flee\n\nAn image of the same type of plane from Monday showed hundreds of Afghans running alongside the moving aircraft, some clinging to the side. Local media reports said at least two fell to their deaths once it took off.\n\nSome have questioned why it is predominantly men seen at the airport.\n\nOne explanation is that many women have been staying indoors, fearing how they will be treated by the Taliban.\n\nAnother is that many families would want their men to leave first so they can help from outside Afghanistan, financially, and eventually find a way to bring their loved ones out of the country.\n\nWhile the airlifts will be welcomed by many, the numbers could be a drop in the ocean of those who feel compelled to leave in fear of the Taliban.\n\nThe UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, has called on countries not to force the return of Afghans previously deemed not to need protection.\n\nIt estimates 550,000 Afghans have been internally displaced by the conflict since the beginning of the year.\n\nBetween 20,000 and 30,000 are thought to be fleeing across borders every week, the UNHCR's Afghanistan representative, Caroline Van Buren, told CNN. And government figures suggest 120,000 moved to Kabul as Taliban forces closed in.\n\nMany of those in fear for their lives have worked with US-led forces, notably as translators or contractors. But the Taliban's treatment of women during its previous rule in the 1990s and its use of barbaric punishments is another major spur to leave.\n\nAt the beginning of August, the White House announced a plan to allow thousands of Afghans with links to the US to resettle there. On Monday, President Joe Biden announced $500m (£362m) in aid for Afghan refugees.\n\nThe US has relocated some 2,000 Afghans out of the country under its Special Immigrant Visa scheme, officials say, and plans to transport thousands more.\n\nOther countries are helping out too, including Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel told party leaders that Germany may need to evacuate some 10,000 people, including 2,500 support staff.\n\nUK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told BBC Breakfast that 150 British nationals were flown out on Sunday.\n\nLast week, the UK extracted 289 Afghans. Several hundred more will leave in the next 24 hours, he said.\n\nBut the turmoil in Afghanistan has raised fears in Europe of a new influx of migrants. A stark illustration is Turkey's decision to boost security at its lengthy border with Iran where Turkey is building a concrete wall.\n\nHave you or a loved one been evacuated from Afghanistan? Please tell us your story by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "Lailuma Sadid, a journalist with Brussels Morning Newspaper, became emotional when asking the Nato Secretary General about the Taliban in Afghanistan.\n\nIn a plea to Jens Stoltenberg, she said: “As a woman, please don't recognise the emirate Islamic Taliban without any condition like the agreement which is signed between Taliban and the government of Trump.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Snooker\n\nMark Allen defeated former partner Reanne Evans 3-2 after surviving a major scare in the British Open.\n\nThe Northern Irishman was facing defeat at 60-22 down in the fourth frame before fighting back in a tense match.\n\nEvans, backed by a raucous following, did not reciprocate when Allen offered a fist bump before the first-round match in Leicester.\n\nThe pair were meeting for the first time as professionals and in a ranking tournament.\n\n\"Both players have shown great character. It's been the most intense match I have probably ever witnessed,\" said seven-time men's world snooker champion Stephen Hendry, commentating on ITV.\n\nAllen described the draw as \"awful\" and said he would not want to face Evans again, but acknowledged the performance of his beaten opponent.\n\n\"She played much better than me but I made a good break to win it. She potted some unbelievable individual balls. She was very unfortunate not to go on and win 3-1,\" said the 35-year-old.\n\nHe added: \"It was horrible. It's not something I want to really go through too often, but we had to try and remain as professional as possible and I think I did that very well.\"\n\nWhen asked about the fist bump snub, he replied: \"I'd rather not answer that one.\"\n\nEvans explained: \"I was told at the start there were no handshakes or anything, and just in my head I was visualising the start of the match so I just went straight to the table.\"\n\nDespite the edgy opening, Evans apologised for a fluked pot during the match and Allen tapped the table to acknowledge a break from his opponent.\n\nEvans, 35, had saluted her vocal supporters as she came out for the game and went 34 ahead in the opening frame before a missed black let her opponent in.\n\nThe English player won a scrappy second frame after Allen failed to pot the yellow when needing the colours and a 56 break helped seal the next.\n\nA shock victory looked on the cards before Evans rattled a tricky red in the jaws of the pocket and Allen clinched the fourth frame with a nerveless 47 clearance.\n\nHe followed up with a 68 break in the decider to help seal victory.\n\n\"I'm absolutely gutted but really proud of myself,\" said Evans. \"No-one wanted that match did they? But you have to respect that top players do what they do and it's sport - we're in the same sport so it's always going to happen.\"\n\nEvans, who was made an MBE in 2020 for her services to women's snooker, has earned a two-year tour card this season to turn professional.\n\nThe match came four months after Allen requested that Evans be removed from a television studio at the World Championship, where she was working as a BBC pundit.\n\nAllen was reported to have said he did not want her to be in a TV studio where a practice table was situated.\n\nIn April, the Northern Irishman said he was taking a \"break\" from the game to address personal issues.\n\nEarlier on a dramatic opening day, Scotland's John Higgins made the 12th maximum 147 break of his career, to surpass Hendry's total, as he beat Alexander Ursenbacher of Switzerland 3-1.\n\nWorld number one Judd Trump just edged past Mitchell Mann 3-2 while veteran Jimmy White whitewashed Aaron Hill 3-0 and Allen's compatriot Jordan Brown beat Andrew Higginson 3-2.\n• None A hilarious look at how lads become men is streaming now on BBC iPlayer\n• None Why we all need our alter ego: How does the likes of Rafael Nadal channel theirs for better performance?", "Afghanistan has gone through a lot of transformation in the last 20 years and is a different country to the one the Taliban left in 2001, the author of The Kite Runner has said.\n\nKhaled Hosseini told BBC World News that his one sliver of hope was that the Taliban would realise the country had changed and that they would adapt to the times, but most Afghans he had spoken to thought those gains would be lost over time.\n\nThe Taliban have taken control of the country, almost 20 years after being ousted by a US-led military coalition.\n\nUS President Joe Biden has defended the decision to pull-out of Afghanistan.", "Jo Goodman holding a picture of her father, who died with coronavirus, at a Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice event in London\n\nFamilies who have lost loved ones to Covid have met Scottish government ministers to discuss a future public inquiry.\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney and Health Secretary Humza Yousaf held talks with members of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice.\n\nThe group's lawyer said the MSPs took on board the demands of the group.\n\nThe families were invited to contribute to the terms of reference of any public inquiry.\n\nA total of 8,032 people have died in Scotland after testing positive.\n\nSo far, 10,421 deaths have been registered where Covid was mentioned on the death certificate.\n\nIn May, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told MPs an independent public inquiry into the handling of the pandemic would be held in spring 2022.\n\nBut Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has called for a four-nations inquiry into the global health crisis by the end of the year.\n\nShe previously said the way elderly people were discharged from hospital and into care homes in the early stages of the pandemic was a mistake.\n\nThe Scottish branch of the justice group is being represented by human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar.\n\nHe said the families were grateful to Mr Swinney and the Mr Yousaf for listening to them at St Andrew's House in Edinburgh.\n\nHe said a \"robust discussion\" took place as to the problems that the Scottish government had encountered.\n\nMr Anwar said: \"Today the Scottish families pushed for the greatest scrutiny, accountability and transparency through a Scottish public inquiry which must not be delayed any longer.\n\n\"It is increasingly clear to the bereaved families that they can have no confidence in a UK government that continues to delay a public inquiry. \"\n\nThe families were joined by lawyer Aamer Anwar at St Andrew's House\n\nHe said that many families throughout Scotland had seen their loves ones taken by Covid, and that their families must now be allowed to speak for them.\n\nHe called for an inquiry to start to take shape immediately, when families are asking whether deaths could have been avoided, and what could prevent it happening again.\n\nMr Anwar added: \"For a public inquiry to be effective and meaningful, grieving Scottish families must be at the heart of the inquiry process to get to the truth of what happened and that can only really happen with a Scottish public inquiry.\n\n\"Today, the Scottish government gave the families hope that the quest for accountability and truth would not be shut down and they are kept front and centre of any Covid-19 public inquiry.\"\n\nMr Anwar highlighted that MSPs had voted for an inquiry and a commitment to make a decision within 100 days of government was made in the SNP manifesto.\n\nThat timeframe runs out on 25 August and Deputy First Minister John Swinney told the families the decision the Scottish government will make is imminent.\n\nMr Anwar also said that, as well as families having input into the terms of reference, the chairperson and an expert panel was also key to an inquiry. He said the experience of the bereaved families must be at the heart of a public inquiry.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Afghanistan's economy is \"shaped by fragility and aid dependence\".\n\nThat is the troubling overview set out by the World Bank several months before the Taliban takeover.\n\nEconomic prospects look even more precarious now, as future financial assistance is under a cloud of uncertainty.\n\nAfghanistan does have substantial mineral resources, but the political situation has impeded their exploitation.\n\nThe aid dependency is striking. In 2019, World Bank figures show development aid was equivalent to 22% of gross national income (which is not the same as GDP, but close to it).\n\nThat is a high figure, but it is down a long way from the 49% the World Bank reported 10 years earlier.\n\nNow those aid flows are under a cloud of profound uncertainty. German Foreign Minister Heike Maas told the broadcaster ZDF last week: \"We will not give another cent if the Taliban takes over the country and introduces Sharia law.\"\n\nOther aid donors are sure to be watching developments closely.\n\nThe fragility the World Bank refers to is illustrated by the very high levels of spending on security before the Taliban takeover: 29% of GDP, compared with an average of 3% for low-income countries.\n\nSecurity and severe problems with corruption are behind another persistent problem in Afghanistan: very weak foreign business investment.\n\nAccording to United Nations data, there were no announcements in the last two years of new \"greenfield\" investments, which involve a foreign business setting up an operation from scratch. Since 2014, there have been a total of four.\n\nTo take two other countries from the South Asia region, both with somewhat smaller populations, Nepal has managed 10 times as many and Sri Lanka 50 times more over the same period.\n\nThe World Bank describes Afghanistan's private sector as narrow. Employment is concentrated in low-productivity agriculture: 60% of households get some income from farming.\n\nThe country also has a large illicit economy. There is illegal mining and, of course, opium production and related activities such as smuggling. The drugs trade has been an important source of revenue for the Taliban.\n\nAll that said, the Afghan economy has grown since the US invasion in 2001.\n\nThe figures for Afghanistan are not reliable, but what they show, according to the World Bank, is average annual growth of more than 9% in the 10 years from 2003.\n\nAfter that, it slowed (which may well reflect the lower levels of aid) to an average rate of 2.5% between 2015 and 2020.\n\nThe drugs trade has been an important source of revenue for the Taliban\n\nThe country does have significant natural resources, which would, in the context of better security and less corruption, be attractive to international business.\n\nThere are several types of mineral available in substantial quantities, including copper, cobalt, coal and iron ore. There is also oil and gas and precious stones.\n\nOne with particularly striking potential is lithium, a metal that is used in batteries for mobile devices and electric cars. The latter application is going to be especially important as the motor industry makes the transition to zero-carbon forms of transport.\n\nBack in 2010, a top US general told the New York Times that Afghanistan's mineral potential was \"stunning\" - with \"a lot of ifs, of course\".\n\nThe paper also reported that an internal US Defence Department memo had said the country could become \"the Saudi Arabia of lithium\".\n\nYet this undoubted potential is nowhere near being exploited - and the Afghan people have seen very little, if any, benefit from it.\n\nThere have been many reports that China is keen to be involved. It seems to have better relations with the Taliban than Western powers do, so may have an advantage if the new regime does hold on to power.\n\nHowever, Chinese firms did win contracts to develop operations in copper and oil. But little happened.\n\nIt is to be expected that China would be interested. The opportunities appear to be very substantial and the two countries do share a short border.\n\nBut any Chinese agency - official or a business - would want to be confident of succeeding. They will be reluctant to commit unless they feel the security and corruption problems will be well enough contained to enable them to extract worthwhile quantities of these industrial commodities.\n\nA key question for any hard-nosed potential investors - from China or anywhere else - will be whether the Taliban is likely to be any more able than the previous Afghan government to create the kind of environment they need.\n\nAnother factor likely to affect the economy is women's employment. In the past decade the percentage of the female population over 15 years of age in employment has risen dramatically, though at 22% in 2019 it was still low by international standards. Under the Taliban the change is likely to be reversed, further damaging economic prospects.\n\nIn the immediate future, there is also a great deal of uncertainty about financial stability. Crowds of people have been trying to withdraw their money from the banks.\n\nThe Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press reported a Taliban spokesman as offering assurances to bank owners, money changers, traders and shopkeepers that their lives and property would be protected.\n\nThat there are even questions about the physical safety of financial operators is shocking. They do need to be confident if Afghanistan's financial system is to function. But it also needs customers to feel their money is safe. That won't happen quickly.", "Rescue workers in Les Cayes raced to find survivors before Tropical Storm Grace hit\n\nRescue work following the deadly earthquake which struck Haiti on Saturday has been hampered by heavy rains brought by Tropical Storm Grace.\n\nTens of thousands of people left homeless by the quake had to decide whether to brave the storm under flimsy tarpaulins or risk returning into buildings damaged by the tremor.\n\nAt least 1,419 people are known to have died in the 7.2-magnitude quake.\n\nMore than 6,900 were injured, and an unknown number are still missing.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Buildings in Les Cayes were destroyed by the 7.2-magnitude earthquake\n\nRescue workers dug through rubble on Monday in a desperate attempt to find survivors before the heavy rains were able to turn the earth into cloying mud, making locating those buried even more difficult.\n\nAt 06:00 GMT Tuesday, Grace, which has been upgraded from a tropical depression to a tropical storm, was west of the city of Les Cayes and moving further westward towards Jamaica, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC).\n\nThe NHC had earlier predicted that Grace could dump up to 25cm (10 inches) of rainfall over the worst affected area. It is feared the deluge could trigger landslides.\n\nOn Twitter, Haiti's civil protection agency urged \"good neighbours whose space has not been affected\" to help shelter displaced people.\n\nThe south-west of Haiti appears to have suffered the worst of the damage from the quake, especially around the city of Les Cayes.\n\nError message: If this image does not load your device may not support this visualization\n\nError message: If this image does not load your device may not support this visualization\n\nHomes, churches and schools were among buildings flattened in the quake. Some hospitals were left overwhelmed and in need of supplies as they struggled to treat the injured.\n\nIt's hard enough to treat survivors of any natural disaster but when the hospitals themselves are under fear of collapse it makes it all the more difficult.\n\nLes Cayes Ofatma hospital is deemed too unsafe so they've brought everyone outside. People swat away flies on hospital beds placed under makeshift tents and trees. You can hear people screaming in pain.\n\nOne woman, Elsy, had only just woken up when the earthquake happened. Her son has a serious fracture to his leg.\n\nThere simply aren't the facilities needed to treat people in this remote part of the country. One doctor comes to us, angry, asking why he has no medicine.\n\nOne woman we spoke to - who has a very bad broken leg and is also pregnant - has had no pain relief for two days.\n\nThe people here need help, but at the moment not enough help is coming - and with a tropical storm close by it could become even more difficult.\n\nThe earthquake compounds problems facing the impoverished nation, which is already reeling from a political crisis following the assassination of its president last month.\n\nPrime Minister Ariel Henry, who is in power until fresh presidential election can be held, has declared a month-long state of emergency and urged the population to \"show solidarity\".\n\nHaiti has been hit by a series of natural disasters over the past years, including Hurricane Matthew in 2016.\n\nThe deadliest was the 2010 earthquake which killed more than 200,000 people and caused extensive damage to the country's infrastructure and economy.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch the key moments from the Taliban's news conference\n\nThe rights of women in Afghanistan will be respected \"within the framework of Islamic law\", the Taliban say.\n\nIn the group's first news conference since taking control of the country on Sunday, a spokesman said women would be free to work but gave little detail about other rules and restrictions.\n\nZabihullah Mujahid repeated that all Afghans must live \"within the framework of Islam\".\n\nRights groups fear women's freedoms could be eroded under the Taliban.\n\nThe militant group introduced or supported punishments in line with their strict interpretation of Islam's legal system, Sharia law, when they controlled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001.\n\nWomen had to wear the all-covering burka, and the Taliban also disapproved of girls aged 10 and over going to school.\n\nIn the news briefing on Tuesday, Mr Mujahid fielded several questions from the international media about what women's rights could look like under a Taliban government.\n\n\"We are going to allow women to work and study within our frameworks,\" he said. \"Women are going to be very active within our society.\"\n\nBut he did not expand when asked about dress codes and what roles women would be able to have within the country's workforce.\n\nEarlier on Tuesday, the Taliban declared a general amnesty across Afghanistan and said it wanted women to join its government.\n\nAnalysts say the group is running a sophisticated PR campaign in an effort to win the hearts and minds of both Afghans and the international community.\n\nThe message of the new rulers has been received with mixed feelings inside Afghanistan.\n\n\"I don't believe what they're saying,\" a woman in Kabul who watched Mujahid speak on television told the BBC.\n\n\"It's a ruse and we're being lured outside to be punished. I refuse to study or work under their laws,\" said another.\n\nYet some others saw some early promise.\n\n\"If we're able to work and get educated, that's the definition of freedom for me, that's my red line. That red line is not crossed by the Taliban yet,\" one Afghan woman said.\n\n\"As long as my right to study and work is protected, I don't mind wearing a hijab. I live in an Islamic country and I'm willing to accept the Islamic dress code - as long as it's not a burqa though because that's not an Islamic dress code.\"\n\nTaliban fighters with heavy weapons have been patrolling the streets of Afghan cities\n\n\"All their rights within Islam\" - that's the phrase the Taliban have used countless times when it comes to the lives of Afghan women and girls.\n\nIn recent years, foreign envoys and Afghans have tried, without much success, to establish with Taliban leaders based in Doha exactly what that means.\n\nI've heard references to women's rights in conservative Arab societies including Saudi Arabia, or Qatar. A founding member of the Taliban once blurted out that university classes would have to be segregated, areas partitioned, with obligatory head coverings.\n\nMore telling are recent reports from rural and urban areas that women journalists have been told to go home, women in offices told their jobs would now go to men. Restrictions may vary by region.\n\nIt's always been said that the rules in Kabul and other more open cities may be a bit different; women will now be testing the limits as a new order emerges.\n\nThe Taliban's return to rule brings an end to almost 20 years of a US-led coalition's presence in the country.\n\nKabul was the last major city in Afghanistan to fall to a Taliban offensive that began months ago but accelerated in recent days as they gained control of territories, shocking many observers.\n\nOn Monday, thousands of civilians desperate to flee the country headed to the airport where chaotic scenes unfolded throughout the day.\n\nMany thronged the runway, running alongside a moving military transporter aircraft as it prepared for take-off.\n\nSome clung to the side of a plane, and at least two of them are reported to have perished when they fell from the aircraft after it had left the ground.\n\nAmerican troops also killed two armed Afghans who were part of the crowd that breached the airport perimeter. Seven people are reported to have died in total.\n\nMilitary flights evacuating diplomats and civilians were temporarily suspended due to the chaos, but they resumed on Tuesday.", "Mastercard is to stop issuing cards with a magnetic strip.\n\nBy 2033, none of its debit or credit cards will have a strip, with banks in many regions including Europe able to issue the strip-less cards from 2024.\n\nThe UK moved to chip-and-pin for all card payments in 2006, but in the US, some magnetic strip systems are still in use.\n\nMastercard says chip-and-pin and new biometric cards that use fingerprints, offer greater security.\n\nThe firm claims to be the first payment network to phase out the technology.\n\nA spokesperson told the BBC the level of global acceptance of chip-and-pin was such that the time was right to begin phasing out the magnetic strip.\n\nThe slow phasing out is to leave what the firm calls a \"long runway\" for companies accepting payments to move to chip-and-pin.\n\nThe magnetic strip began life in the 1960s as an IBM project to create identity cards for CIA staff.\n\nForrest Parry, one of its engineers, had the idea of sticking information encoded on a strip of magnetic tape to a plastic card, but was struggling to join the two together.\n\nIt was Dorothea Parry, his wife, who hit upon the idea of using heat to join tape to card, initially with the iron she was using at the time.\n\nBut the pandemic, the company says, has highlighted the appetite for different ways to pay, increasingly consigning paying using the Parrys' invention to the history books.\n\nContactless payments which can be made using card or smartphone increased by more than one billion in the first quarter of 2021 compared with the same period last year.\n\nAnd experimentation in biometric payment systems continues - from systems that enable payments using face recognition to palm scanners.", "Tyler Westlake had checked the conditions beforehand and was a \"strong swimmer\", the inquest heard\n\nAn angler was swept to his death off rocks by a \"rogue wave\", an inquest has been told.\n\nTyler Westlake, 24, was fishing with two friends at Tubby's Head, St Agnes, on the north Cornwall coast, last November when the incident happened.\n\nHis friends were also struck by the wave as they packed up fishing gear but managed to scramble to safety, the hearing in Truro was told.\n\nThe tragedy happened as the UK was battered by torrential rain and thunderstorms, the inquest was told.\n\nMr Westlake's best friend, Charlton Cunningham, said they had checked the tide times, wind and swell before setting off on 12 November.\n\nHe said the wind did not drop so they started to pack up when a large wave crashed over them.\n\nMr Cunningham's girlfriend, Hannah Davey, said they were hit by a \"rogue wave\" at the spot, where they regularly went to as a \"safe place to fish\", adding that \"Tyler was a strong swimmer\".\n\nMr Westlake was swept into the sea and then smashed by another wave, disappearing in the water, the inquest heard.\n\nMr Cox heard the pair did not see Mr Westlake go into the sea, but saw and heard him shouting for help.\n\nThey said he removed his coat and lay on his back in the sea \"to preserve energy\", but the second wave struck and \"swept him under\".\n\nFour lifeboats, three coastguard teams, a helicopter and police searched for him and recovered some of Mr Westlake's possessions from the sea.\n\nHowever, his body was never found despite 45 hours of searching.\n\nMr Cox concluded it was an accidental death, saying: \"Tyler was hit by a wave which swept him into the sea and he was not able to be recovered.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe 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. 'This is an urgent humanitarian crisis'\n\nUS President Joe Biden \"has a lot to do\" and must \"take a bold step\" to protect the Afghan people, Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has said.\n\nThe Pakistani women's rights activist found refuge in the UK after being shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012.\n\nShe told BBC Two's Newsnight it was time for world leaders - especially the UK and US - to act to protect civilians and refugees in the country.\n\n\"Countries need to open their borders to Afghan refugees\", she said.\n\nYousafzai, now 24, was 15 when she was targeted by the Taliban for speaking up for the right of girls to be educated.\n\nShe survived the assault, in which a militant boarded her school bus in the north-western Swat valley and opened fire, wounding two of her school friends as well.\n\nAfter recovering from her near-fatal injuries, she and her family relocated to Birmingham. Aged 17, she later became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She studied at Oxford University, and has become a leading human rights campaigner.\n\nIn an exclusive interview with Newsnight on the plight of Afghanistan, Yousafzai said: \"My request to all countries, especially the US, UK, and western countries, is that they must protect all those human and women's rights activists right now.\n\n\"And you know what has happened, you know, we can definitely debate about that. But we also need to talk about the immediate next steps that we need to take. We need to talk more about the solutions right now.\"\n\nShe accused America of making irresponsible statements in the light of the Taliban takeover.\n\n\"I think the way the US described this war and how it was declared as a victory, I think this sends a very wrong impression,\" she said. \"The Taliban waited for twenty years and they [US] are claiming their so-called victory after that.\"\n\nThe US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, recently said that the US-led mission in Afghanistan had been a successful one.\n\nYousafzai said she has talked to other world leaders and members of the US and UK governments.\n\n\"I have been trying to reach out to many global leaders. I think every country has a role and responsibility right now. Countries need to open their borders to Afghan refugees, to the displaced people,\" she said.\n\nYousafzai, pictured at a conference in 2019, set up the Malala Fund to support girls' education in Pakistan\n\nYousafzai has been an avid campaigner of women's rights, often emphasising the need for girls in developing countries to have a proper education.\n\nShe said she was \"raising her voice for the women\" in Afghanistan who are fearful about their future under a Taliban regime.\n\nWhen the Taliban previously controlled the country, women were stoned for adultery while their limbs were cut off for theft. Girls were prevented from going to school.\n\nYousafzai said: \"The women are brave, they're strong, and they keep raising their voices. And we must give more opportunities and time to them to tell us what it is that needs to be done for them, for the peace in Afghanistan.\"\n\nWhen asked about the rapid pull-out of the coalition forces from Afghanistan, she said the focus during their time there had sometimes been wrong.\n\n\"There had been very little interest in focusing on the humanitarian aid and the humanitarian work.\n\n\"There had been very little focus on strengthening the democracy there, there has been very little focus on eradicating extremist ideologies. I think every country, every group, is finding their own interest in it, and they're finding their own benefits.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Malala Yousafzai: \"I want to inspire women and girls\"", "The Taliban are establishing themselves after sweeping into Kabul unopposed on Sunday.\n\nAfghan President Ashraf Ghani has fled the country, reportedly to Uzbekistan.\n\nHere are pictures from the capital on Monday.\n\nLife appears to be normal in the city centre, says the BBC's Malik Mudassir.\n\nThere is a lot less traffic, most of the shops are closed. But people look much calmer.\n\nAt the international airport, though, scenes were catastrophic, said our correspondent.\n\nThere are currently 2,500 American troops at the airport, with an additional 500 arriving in the coming hours, said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.\n\nUS troops - seen below - are still \"working to re-establish security\", the spokesman said, as the Pentagon announced a pause in flights.\n\nFootage shared on social media appears to show Afghan civilians clinging to the side of a US military aircraft as it prepares to take off.\n\nAmnesty International has called on the international community to act \"decisively to avert further tragedy\".\n\n\"What we are witnessing in Afghanistan is a tragedy that should have been foreseen and averted,\" said the organisation's secretary general, Agnes Callamard.\n\nAll pictures are subject to copyright.", "The Scottish government is seeking to make many of its emergency coronavirus powers permanent, including the ability to close schools, introduce lockdowns and operate virtual courts.\n\nIt is also looking at a change in the law to permanently allow them to release prisoners early or permit a wider range of healthcare workers to administer vaccinations.\n\nIn June, MSPs agreed to extend the emergency measures until March 2022, with the option of extending them for six months, to September 2022, without passing a new law.\n\nAnnouncing a public consultation on removing the planned expiry date, SNP Deputy First Minister and Covid Recovery Secretary John Swinney insisted that some of the changes have had a \"demonstrable benefit to the people of Scotland\".\n\nThe consultation published by ministers argues that making many of the measures permanent would ensure \"ministers can respond effectively and rapidly to any future threats to public health in Scotland\" and not just coronavirus.\n\nUnder the proposals, ministers would also be able to order school closures \"during the remainder of the pandemic\" or for any future outbreak of an infectious disease, so long as they believe it is \"necessary and proportionate\", and the chief medical officer has been consulted.\n\nThe consultation also suggests a permanent shift to more digital options, including the remote registration of deaths or still births, council meetings and electronic court documents.\n\nMr Swinney said: \"As we enter the recovery phase, we now have a unique opportunity to reimagine how health and social care, learning and justice services can be designed and delivered around the lives and needs of the people who use them.\"\n\nHe added that the government remains \"committed to expiring or suspending any existing provisions that are no longer necessary, and will continue to report to Parliament every two months on the use of any temporary powers\".\n\nThe public will have 12 weeks until the consultation period ends on 9 November to share their views.\n\nScottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said: \"These powers were intended to be temporary measures to deal with the pandemic.\n\n\"The fact that SNP ministers are now seeking to make many of them permanent is a clear sign they are unwilling to give up their control over people's lives.\n\n\"It is a dangerous route to go down to allow ministers to implement sweeping powers upon society on a whim.\"", "Captain Mark Hale was fatally wounded in a bomb attack in Afghanistan\n\nThe widow of a soldier from County Down who was killed in Afghanistan has said her husband \"died in vain\".\n\nAlmost 20 years after they were ousted from power, the Taliban has effectively seized control of the country.\n\nIt follows the withdrawal of most foreign troops in recent days.\n\nBrenda Hale, whose husband Capt Mark Hale was killed in August 2009, said by withdrawing from the country, Western governments have left people \"in the mouth of hell\".\n\nAfghanistan's capital city, Kabul, was the last major territory to fall to the Taliban, with the collapse of the country's government.\n\nPeople try to get inside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul\n\nOn Monday, crowds descended on Kabul's international airport, which is under the control of US troops, in an attempt to leave Afghanistan.\n\nMrs Hale, a former DUP assembly member, said the events in Afghanistan coincided with the 12th anniversary of her husband's death and she watched the television pictures with a \"knot\" in her stomach and \"in a state of anxiety\".\n\nSpeaking to BBC News NI, Mrs Hale said the television pictures from Afghanistan are \"difficult to watch\" and the situation across the country is \"hard to comprehend\".\n\nMrs Hale claimed that Western governments have abandoned the Afghani people and left the country \"like a concentration camp and given the Nazis the key\".\n\nShe said her husband was a \"hugely compassionate and kind man\" and, whilst in Afghanistan, had worked hard to protect local residents from the Taliban.\n\nShe insisted that Capt Hale and his military colleagues really believed they were \"trying to build some sort of democracy in Afghanistan to help that country move forward\".\n\nBrenda Hale, whose husband Capt Mark Hale was killed in August 2009, said the situation is \"hard to comprehend\"\n\nMrs Hale added that after the Western Forces left the country, \"we have sent the devil in after them and that petrifies me for the people living in Afghanistan\".\n\nShe said that by leaving the country, the West was creating \"a dystopian playground for international terrorists to train and come and hit the West at any given time\".\n\nThe former politician also said having to negotiate with the Taliban would be \"a very bitter pill to swallow\".\n\nMPs are to debate the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on Wednesday in the House of Commons.\n\nAlliance deputy leader Stephen Farry thinks the debate has come \"a little late in this process\".\n\nThe North Down MP said the government has \"dropped the ball on this\" and should have acted sooner.\n\nDUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said Northern Ireland has a duty to consider offering sanctuary to some refugees from Afghanistan.\n\nHe said people who worked with British forces and in particular Christian minority groups should be offered support.\n\nSir Jeffrey, who visited troops from Northern Ireland in the country a number of times, said it was evident the coalition-backed police and army \"weren't up to the task of taking on a much smaller, less well-equipped Taliban\".\n\nHe told BBC News NI's Good Morning Ulster he feared there would be \"terrible consequences from the Taliban\" for those citizens who \"very courageously worked alongside our military\".\n\nSDLP MP Claire Hanna told BBC News NI that Northern Ireland has \"a capacity to take a number of refugees and asylum seekers\".\n\nShe said they will be people who make \"a strong contribution to life here\".\n\nIreland's Foreign Minister Simon Coveney has said 15 Irish citizens are currently looking to leave Afghanistan.\n\nMr Coveney confirmed there were a total of 23 Irish citizens currently in Afghanistan, adding he was \"very concerned\" about the situation there.\n\n\"Some have expressed a preference to stay for now, because they are working with humanitarian organisations and doing very important work that is becoming even more important now,\" he told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.\n\nMr Coveney also said the Irish government had already made decisions about visa waivers for Afghan people.\n\n\"We've already approved 45 visa waivers - some of those people are trying to get out and some are in Pakistan having fled across the border and are flying into Ireland,\" he said.\n\n\"I have agreed we would certainly make available between 100 and 150 more places in terms of refugees, and we will be prioritising human rights organisations, media, women and girls, and other family members that are vulnerable.\"\n\nAn Irish woman currently in Kabul says she is hoping to be able to return home within the next 48 hours.\n\nAoife MacManus, from Ashbourne in County Meath, has been living in Kabul for two years, working in the primary education sector.\n\nShe said \"there is a sense of panic and fear all over the city - it's the fear of the worst expectations\".\n\nShe said that leaving her work compound on Sunday \"everybody was crying because of the expectations of what things are going to be like\".\n\n\"All the work we've put into education, that it might all be for nothing.\"\n\nUlster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie, who served three tours in Afghanistan with the Royal Irish Regiment, said he had \"a real sense of anger, a real sense of sadness, but most of all a real sense of fear\" about what has happened.\n\n\"Fear for the people of Afghanistan, especially women and young girls who will now be airbrushed out of that society and repressed once again,\" he continued.\n\nMr Beattie, who reached the rank of captain, said he believed there would be reprisals for Afghan citizens who worked with and worked for the coalition forces.\n\nThe Upper Bann assembly member said many women and young girls could face \"virtual enslavement\" with the potential for the \"horrific\" treatment of people in villages and rural areas under a Taliban regime.\n\nSinn Féin Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said the international community needed to act to help the people of Afghanistan.\n\nShe added: \"Previously the Stormont Executive welcomed Syrian refugees as part of the British government relocation and resettlement scheme.\n\n\"Our party would certainly support such a scheme for Afghans to provide whatever measure of support we can.\"", "Dylan's songs include Like a Rolling Stone, Blowin' In The Wind and The Times They Are a-Changin'\n\nBob Dylan is being sued by a woman who says the US singer-songwriter sexually abused her in 1965 when she was 12.\n\nHer legal case alleges the rock star \"exploited his status as a musician to provide [her] with alcohol and drugs and sexually abuse her multiple times\", and used threats of physical violence.\n\nIt says the abuse took place at Dylan's apartment in New York's Chelsea Hotel.\n\nDylan's spokesman told the BBC \"the 56-year-old claim is untrue and will be vigorously defended\".\n\nThe accuser, who is now 68 and lives in the state of Connecticut, is only identified by the initials JC.\n\nShe said the abuse took place over a six-week period between April and May 1965.\n\nFrom the end of April to 10 May, the singer was in the UK on a tour that was documented in the film Don't Look Back. According to Clinton Heylin's Dylan chronology A Life in Stolen Moments, he was then in the UK, France and Portugal until the start of June.\n\nDylan had become a major star by 1965\n\nThe Nobel Prize-winning singer, now 80, is accused of assault, battery, false imprisonment and infliction of emotional distress.\n\nThe accuser said he had caused her \"severe psychological damage and emotional trauma\", and is seeking unspecified damages and a jury trial.\n\nAccording to JC, the star carried out \"predatory, sexual and unlawful acts\", which were allegedly \"done intentionally by him to her without her consent\".\n\nShe claimed to have suffered \"severe mental distress, anguish, humiliation and embarrassment, as well as economic losses\".\n\nThe legal documents were filed on Friday at the New York Supreme Court under the state's Child Victims Act. The claim was submitted a day before the closure of a temporary legal \"look back window\" in New York, which allowed historical abuse allegations to be filed.\n\nDylan - who was born Robert Allen Zimmerman - has sold more than 125 million albums around the world during a career spanning six decades. His best-known songs include Blowin' In The Wind and The Times They Are a-Changin'.\n\nIn 2016, the Grammy and Oscar-winner was given the Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the first songwriter to win the prestigious award. He was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012 by then-President Barack Obama.", "Job vacancies have hit a record high as the UK's labour market continues to \"rebound robustly\", according to the latest official figures.\n\nThe number of vacancies hit 953,000 in the three months to July, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.\n\nThe unemployment rate fell to 4.7% in the three months to June, while the annual growth in average pay was 7.4%.\n\nHowever, the ONS urged caution in reading too much into the rise in wages.\n\nONS deputy statistician Jonathan Athow told the BBC that while the rise in average pay \"hasn't been that high for a long time\", it also compares to last year when millions of people were on furlough and were not being paid their full wage.\n\n\"This time last year we had millions of people on furlough many getting 80% of their wages, other people having their hours cut, and that pushed wages down,\" he said.\n\n\"So when we look at wages this year, when people have come back from furlough, it's really been boosted by the fact that last year wages were quite low. Some of this group was just wages returning to the level before the pandemic.\"\n\nThe ONS said payrolls rose by 182,000 between June and July, although at 28.9 million it is still 201,000 lower than before the pandemic struck.\n\nThe number of people on payroll has now grown over half a million in the past three months, regaining about four-fifths of the fall seen at the start of the pandemic.\n\nOllie Brightman, co-owner of a digital marketing agency in Bristol, says he has been struggling to recruit staff due to the competitive jobs market.\n\nThe 35-year-old told Radio 5 Live's Your Call programme hiring freelancers was a good short-term solution for his agency, but \"very expensive\" in the long term.\n\n\"We are absolutely desperate for all matter of digital marketing candidates at the moment. Pretty much anyone within those industries we are crying out for,\" he said.\n\nHowever, John Parmenter, a carpenter from Hertfordshire, has been benefitting from the demand for skilled workers. He has seen his hourly rate shoot up from £19 on average, to between £25 and £30 in the past few months.\n\nThe 53-year-old said he was getting called \"every few hours\" by agencies.\n\n\"It's quite a nice feeling,\" he said. \"It's the first time it's ever happened in 30 years. They ask what you want, not what they're paying. It's a nice change.\n\n\"During the lockdown, with the pandemic, unfortunately I wasn't entitled to any payments so I'm just trying to reap some money back to try and pay off some existing bills that have escalated. I just don't know what's round the corner so we're just going to surf it and make the most of it.\"\n\nOverall, Mr Athow said the \"world of work continues to rebound robustly\" from the pandemic.\n\nHe said that early survey figures show that the number of job vacancies passed one million for the first time ever in July.\n\nArts, leisure and food service firms were among those making a big contribution to the surge in job openings.\n\n\"There was no sign of redundancies starting to pick up in our survey data ahead of the furlough scheme beginning to wind down, and Insolvency Service figures for July suggest the same,\" Mr Athow added.\n\nChancellor Rishi Sunak said: \"I know there could still be bumps in the road but the data is promising - there are now more employees on payrolls than at any point since March 2020 and the number of people on furlough is the lowest since the scheme launched.\"\n\nThe furlough scheme is set to finish at the end of September.\n\nRuth Gregory, senior UK economist at Capital Economics, said the jobs data should calm fears that the ending of government support measures could send unemployment higher.\n\n\"The figures add weight to our view that there won't be a big shake-out in employment once the furlough scheme expires at the end of September.\n\n\"It was encouraging that PAYE employment in July rose by 182,000 month-on-month and the claimant count fell by 7,800 month-on-month leaving the claimant count rate unchanged at 5.7%,\" she said.\n\nThese figures show a jobs market in robust recovery as the economy reopens and the furlough scheme starts to be phased out. Employment is up on all measures, unemployment down and experimental numbers in the month of July showed there are over one million vacancies.\n\nThere are record numbers of unfilled jobs, in sectors such as entertainment, accommodation and food, underlining the concerns of industry on labour shortages.\n\nThe number of payroll jobs reported on the HMRC systems is now very close to its pre pandemic level at 28.9 million now compared with 29 million in March 2020. That number is up 576,000 over the past year and 182,000 up in July alone.\n\nThe growth in that varies considerably between regions, with holiday areas such as Cornwall and west Wales showing annual rates of growth of around 5%, far above the rates in major cities.\n\nThe chancellor welcomed the figures as \"promising\". Analysts warned that the unemployment figures would rise as the furlough scheme continued to be phased out. But the peak unemployment rate is on course to be significantly lower than had been expected last year.\n\nYael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG UK, said: \"The labour market outperformed expectations as the economy accelerated with the relaxation of Covid-related restrictions.\n\n\"Changes to the business environment, such as the fall in business travel and the rise in online commerce, increased the need for skills, from IT specialists to hauliers, while at the same time caused an unusually high level of mismatch in the UK's labour market.\"", "Aspirin may help fight aggressive breast cancer by making hard-to-treat tumours more responsive to anti-cancer drugs, doctors say.\n\nA team at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust, in Manchester, are beginning a trial with triple-negative breast-cancer patients.\n\nThey suspect it is aspirin's anti-inflammatory properties rather than its analgesic effect that gives the boost.\n\nThere is some evidence aspirin might help prevent certain other cancers and lower the risk of it spreading.\n\nBut it is too early to recommend people start taking it. More research is needed.\n\nAbout 8,000 women are diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in the UK each year - a less common but often more aggressive type of breast cancer that disproportionately affects younger women and black women.\n\nThese tumours lack receptors some other breast cancers have, meaning certain treatments, such as herceptin, will not work. Although, other medicines and treatments can help.\n\nIn the trial, funded by a research programme run by the charity Breast Cancer Now, some patients will be given aspirin as well as immunotherapy drug avelumab before they receive surgery and chemotherapy treatment.\n\nIf it is successful, there could be further clinical trials of aspirin and avelumab for incurable secondary triple-negative breast cancer, when cancer cells that started in the breast spread to other parts of the body.\n\nBeth was treated with chemotherapy, followed by a mastectomy and radiotherapy\n\nBeth Bramall, 44, from Hampshire was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in 2019.\n\nShe said: \"There's no easy cancer but triple negative is particularly gruelling, with few treatment options and a long and debilitating treatment plan.\n\n\"It floored me, with side-effects of hair loss, nausea, joint and muscle pain, diarrhoea and constipation, burning palms and feet, migraines, night sweats and fatigue like I've never known before.\n\n\"I'm blessed that I've had a pathological complete response to treatment.\n\n\"But it's been the hardest 18 months for me and my family.\n\n\"And I have over two more years of treatments and scans ahead.\"\n\nTrial lead Dr Anne Armstrong said: \"Not all breast cancers respond well to immunotherapy.\n\n\"Trialling the use of a drug like aspirin is exciting because it is so widely available and inexpensive to produce.\n\n\"We hope our trial will show that, when combined with immunotherapy, aspirin can enhance its effects and may ultimately provide a safe new way to treat breast cancer.\"\n\nCo-researcher Dr Rebecca Lee said their lab findings suggested that aspirin can make certain types of immunotherapy more effective by preventing the cancer from making substances that weaken the immune response.\n\n\"We hope aspirin can dampen down bad inflammation so the immune system can get on with the job of killing cancer cells,\" she said.\n\nThe 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. Home Secretary Priti Patel says she doesn't believe the Taliban's \"PR operation\" on women's rights\n\nWomen and girls and persecuted minorities will make up the bulk of the Afghan refugees resettled in the UK, the home secretary has said.\n\nWhile the Taliban said women's rights will be respected, Priti Patel told the BBC it was hard to believe \"the PR operation that we're currently seeing\".\n\nThe UK government will work with other nations and pledged to resettle 5,000 Afghans in the UK in the first year.\n\nHowever, some MPs have criticised the scheme for not going far enough.\n\nThousands of Afghans have been trying to flee the country after the Taliban seized control of the capital Kabul.\n\nThe government has committed to resettling up to 20,000 Afghan refugees in the UK in the long term - and Ms Patel said she wanted the majority of those to be women and girls and persecuted minorities.\n\nThe Taliban have promised the rights of women in Afghanistan will be respected \"within the framework of Islamic law\".\n\nBut the home secretary said the group had a history of oppressing women and \"that's not going to change overnight\".\n\n\"I genuinely do not think that we should be at all believing the spokespeople or the PR operation that we're currently seeing,\" she told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.\n\nAppearing on BBC Breakfast, Ms Patel refused to give a timescale for how long it would take for the 20,000 Afghans to be brought to the UK.\n\nHowever, she compared the new scheme to one introduced for Syrian refugees, which saw a similar number of people resettled over a period of seven years.\n\n\"We could end up bringing many more [than 20,000] but first of all we have to have the underpinning and the infrastructure and the support to do that,\" she said.\n\nShe said a target of 5,000 in the first year was \"deliverable\", adding: \"It would be terrible quite frankly to bring people and not be able to give them the support that they would need in terms of accommodation, resettlement and giving them the opportunity to build a new life in the UK.\"\n\nDowning Street also said the 5,000 figure was \"not a hard cap\" but based on expectations of how many people would be able to leave over that time period.\n\nAsked how the UK would get vulnerable people, who may not feel safe leaving their homes, out of Afghanistan, Ms Patel said ministers would work with third party agencies, humanitarian organisations and other governments, including the US and Canada.\n\nShe added that people could also be resettled from neighbouring countries, as well as Afghanistan itself.\n\nMeanwhile, Parliament has been recalled and Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been updating MPs about the situation in Afghanistan.\n\nHe said the government would be doing everything it can to support those who have helped the UK mission in Afghanistan and to \"avert a humanitarian crisis\".\n\nMinisters have been rushing to put this scheme together in response to the situation in Afghanistan, with the final details signed off on Tuesday.\n\nInformation on how to apply is expected soon.\n\nThe scheme is loosely based on the one introduced during the Syrian war, which also saw 20,000 move to the UK from 2014 to 2021.\n\nBut ministers acknowledge the practicalities of getting people out of Afghanistan will be considerably more complicated because of the extent of Taliban control.\n\nGovernment insiders don't know the extent to which the new regime will allow people to flee if they so choose.\n\nThere will be funding for the resettlement programme - and the government will work with local councils and devolved governments on where to house Afghans who come to the UK.\n\nThe scheme has faced criticism from opposition parties and some Conservative MPs.\n\nTory MP Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Defence Select Committee, told the Daily Mirror it was a \"woefully inadequate response\", citing the government only aiming to help 5,000 refugees in the first year when \"the threat is at its greatest\".\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the target of resettling 20,000 Afghans was \"too small\" and had been \"plucked out of the air\".\n\nLib Dems foreign affairs spokeswoman Layla Moran agreed that \"20,000 should be the starting point of this scheme, not the target\".\n\nRefugee charities welcomed the announcement as a positive first step but said the timeframe was too slow and eligibility for asylum should be expanded.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Afghan interpreter: \"I'm so worried about my parents and my sisters' safety\"\n\nAmong those hoping they might get help to leave Afghanistan through the scheme is a former teacher in Kandahar.\n\nThe 21-year-old woman - who the BBC is not naming to protect her safety - fled for Kabul after the Taliban captured Kandahar but said she was now too afraid to leave the house.\n\n\"I was working with an educational organisation - the Taliban, they do not accept these things,\" she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\n\"Now I do not feel safe at all... I'm just like a prisoner in the house now.\"\n\nShe said Afghans needed help to escape now - and if she had to wait years for help it may be too late.\n\n\"We are in the situation that we cannot guarantee our lives for tomorrow,\" she said.\n\n\"Will I be alive tomorrow? We cannot guarantee that.\"\n\nAn RAF plane arrived at Brize Norton on Tuesday as part of UK efforts to evacuate people from Afghanistan\n\nThe new plan is on top of an existing scheme for interpreters and other Afghans who have worked for the UK government - the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP).\n\nSome 5,000 Afghans and their family members will come to the UK via that scheme this year. Nearly 2,000 have arrived since 22 June.\n\nThe UK has already sent about 900 troops to Afghanistan to help evacuate British nationals and Afghans who are eligible to resettle in the UK.\n\nChief of the Defence Staff General Sir Nick Carter said seven more planes were being sent to Kabul and the UK hoped to fly out 1,000 more people on Wednesday.\n\nHe told the BBC that British forces were collaborating with the Taliban, who were providing security around Kabul's airport.\n\nSir Nick said the Taliban seemed prepared to allow people to leave the country at the moment but \"we need to be clear that this is only possible if they behave in a reasonable fashion\".", "Vicky McClure, Adrian Dunbar and Martin Compston are all nominated for best drama performance\n\nThe stars of Line of Duty will go head-to-head for one of the main prizes at this year's National Television Awards.\n\nVicky McClure, Adrian Dunbar and Martin Compston are among the five nominees for the best drama performance trophy.\n\nThey will face competition from Olly Alexander and David Tennant, who delivered acclaimed performances in It's a Sin and Des respectively.\n\nPiers Morgan has been nominated for best TV presenter, five months after he exited Good Morning Britain.\n\nScroll down for the full list of nominations.\n\nFormer GMB host Piers Morgan is nominated for best TV presenter\n\nMorgan left the ITV breakfast show in March after making controversial comments about the Duchess of Sussex's interview with Oprah Winfrey.\n\nThe presenter has continued to host Piers Morgan's Life Stories, but will have to overcome Ant and Dec - who have won the prize for 19 years in a row - as well as Alison Hammond, Bradley Walsh and Holly Willoughby.\n\nThe National Television Awards, hosted by Joel Dommett, will take place in London on 9 September.\n\nRead more about the nominees:\n\nThe latest series of Line of Duty, which was a ratings hit but received a mixed response from viewers and critics, will go up against Call The Midwife, Unforgotten and The Crown for the returning drama prize.\n\nThe documentary about late Love Island presenter Caroline Flack has been shortlisted for the factual prize.\n\nCaroline Flack: Her Life And Death featured family and friends, including Olly Murs and Dermot O'Leary, speaking about how the presenter was affected by her life in the spotlight.\n\nA new category has been introduced this year for the genre of authored documentaries, following a wave of celebrity-led factual programmes.\n\nKate Garraway is shortlisted for her poignant look at how Covid-19 affected her husband in Finding Derek.\n\nAnother new category, for best quiz game show, will see Michael McIntyre's The Wheel compete with Beat the Chasers, Celebrity Catchphrase and In For A Penny.\n\nRose Ayling-Ellis, who plays Frankie Lewis in EastEnders, has been nominated for best newcomer days after it was announced she would take part in the next series of Strictly Come Dancing.\n\nBridgerton's first series, which starred Adjoa Andoh and Regé-Jean Page, is nominated for best new drama", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Rob and Patrick faced homophobic abuse and were hit with bottles during a night out in Birmingham\n\nTwo men have been attacked with bottles and had homophobic abuse shouted at them in Birmingham, police have said.\n\nRob and Patrick, in their 30s, were outside the Missing Bar in the city's Gay Village on Sunday.\n\nWest Midlands Police said the abuse came from a group of four men in a black SUV, who then got out and assaulted the victims.\n\nPatrick was knocked unconscious in the attack and his partner said it was \"shocking that would happen in 2021\".\n\nRob said he and Patrick, from Bicester, Oxfordshire, had been at a friend's housewarming party and decided towards the end of the night to go dancing in the Gay Village.\n\nAs they left Missing Bar he said he saw the men with balloons in the car and jokingly asked them if it was their birthday.\n\n\"They did not like that and went into all sort of foul language, including homophobic slurs directed at us,\" he said.\n\nDetectives said an attacker snatched a phone from Patrick as he tried to film them and one of their female friends was dragged along by the SUV as she tried to get it back.\n\nThe woman, in her 20s, suffered a foot injury.\n\nRob said he then ran after the car to try and challenge the group but, when they stopped at a red light, they got out and attacked him with bottles.\n\nPatrick said he ran to help his partner but \"someone from the car got out and hit me from behind my head and I blacked out\".\n\nHaving been treated in hospital for lacerations and cuts, Rob said he regretted chasing after the group.\n\nBut he added: \"[The Gay Village] should be a safe area to be who you want and not have to tolerate people yelling homophobic remarks at you.\"\n\nThe attack happened outside the Missing Bar\n\nDetectives said the men in the car were described as being of Middle Eastern or Asian appearance.\n\nCCTV footage is being gathered by the force and Insp Steve Lloyd said officers were taking the hate crime seriously.\n\n\"This was an absolutely appalling attack and robbery on people just trying to enjoy a night out in the city centre,\" he said.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n• None 'It's shocking this would happen in 2021' Video, 00:01:28'It's shocking this would happen in 2021'\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Jake Davison, who lived in Biddick Drive, Keyham, had been in contact with a mental health phone line service over the last 18 months\n\nA man who shot and killed five people had received support from mental health services during the coronavirus lockdown, it has emerged.\n\nAfter killing five people in Plymouth, Jake Davison turned his gun on himself.\n\nThe NHS said he had been in contact with a telephone helpline service in the city, run by the Livewell Southwest organisation, over the last 18 months.\n\nA spokeswoman said: \"When mental health services were approached for help, it was given.\"\n\nShe added: \"The first response service continued throughout lockdown and was strengthened to help people who were struggling.\"\n\nOn Thursday, the 22-year-old killed his mother Maxine Davison, 51, Stephen Washington, 59, and Kate Shepherd, 66, along with father and daughter Lee Martyn, 43, and Sophie Martyn, three.\n\nHe had a shotgun licence returned in July, after it was removed in December 2020 following an allegation of assault.\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has launched an investigation.\n\nPolice forces in England and Wales are being asked to review their current firearm application processes in the wake of the shootings.\n\nThe Home Office is preparing new guidance to ensure higher standards of decision making around applications.\n\nIn online videos Davison spoke of being \"beaten down\" and \"defeated by life\".\n\nHe said he was socially isolated, struggled to meet women and made references to \"incels\" - the misogynistic online groups of \"involuntary celibate\" men, who blame women for their sexual failings and who have been linked to a number of violent acts around the world.\n\nOn Reddit he complained about being a \"virgin\" and stated: \"I can't attract women at all\".\n\nIn the attack, Davison shot his mother first before killing Sophie and her father.\n\nHe then killed Mr Washington in a nearby park before shooting Ms Shepherd, who was taken to Derriford Hospital where she died.\n\nHe also shot and wounded a 33-year-old man and a 53-year-old woman, who were taken to hospital, before turning the gun on himself.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Record numbers of GCSE passes mean extra pressure on sixth forms\n\nColleges and sixth forms in England need an extra £570m to keep pace with the rising number of students, says the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).\n\nThe rise in numbers of older teenagers, and higher GCSE grades, is set to push up college numbers.\n\nThe IFS says funding for 16-to-18 learning fell in real terms by 11% in colleges and 25% in schools since 2010.\n\nThe government says it has announced an extra £291m for 2021-22 in addition to a £400m increase in the previous year.\n\nThe IFS research says further education colleges and sixth forms in England have seen the largest falls in funding in the education sector over the past decade.\n\nImran Tahir, research economist and co-author, said: \"These institutions now also face a plethora of additional challenges created by fast rises in student numbers and the need to help pupils catch up on lost learning.\"\n\nThe government gave the sector an extra £400m in 2020-21, a sum it described as \"the single biggest annual uplift since 2010\".\n\nBut the IFS says with student numbers growing by 5% in 2020 alone, this restores funding back to 2018-19 levels, at best.\n\nThe IFS calculates that an extra £570m will be needed in the 2022-23 academic year, just to keep funding per student at the level it was the previous year.\n\nColleges and sixth forms will need even more money if they are to respond to the major long-term challenges they face, it says.\n\nThese include helping students catch up on months of learning lost during the pandemic, and a projected rise in the number of 16 and 17-year-olds of 17% or 200,000 in England between 2019 and 2024.\n\nThe researchers point out that the rate of 16 and 17-year-olds in full-time education had already risen to an historical high of 85% in 2020.\n\nThis includes especially large rises in 2020 due to \"abnormally\" high GCSE results and reduced opportunities outside education during the pandemic, they say.\n\nGiven that GCSE results were higher again in 2021, the researchers suggest there is likely to be a further jump in students.\n\nAt the same time, the number of 16 and 17-year-olds doing apprenticeships fell to an all-time low of 3% in 2020 - with a 30% fall in numbers in 2020 alone. This reflects both the effects of the pandemic and a gradual reduction in take-up over the long term, according to the research.\n\nThe chief executive of the Association of Colleges, David Hughes, said: \"There is an urgent need for the Department for Education to guarantee full funding for every student recruited by schools and colleges this autumn, much the same way they do for universities as well as seek a commitment in the Spending Review to a longer-term revenue and capital budget that anticipates demographic trends.\"\n\nA Department for Education spokesman said:\"Further education is playing a vital role in delivering the skills young people need to get ahead. So we can meet the needs of all 16-19-year-olds we've announced an extra £291m for 2021-22, in addition to the £400m increase in 2020-21.\n\n\"Funding for future years beyond 2021-22, including anticipated increases in the 16-19 population will be considered as part of the upcoming Spending Review.\"", "If you like neat lines, tidiness and admire symmetry, what's not to like about the decision of Joe Biden to pull American combat troops out of Afghanistan by 11 September 2021 - exactly 20 years on from 9/11?\n\nIn modern day America it often feels that all roads lead back to 9/11; the single most defining - and scarring - event since Pearl Harbor: the surprise attack by the Japanese on America's Pacific fleet, which would ultimately bring America into World War Two.\n\nAnd so it was that 9/11 led to this country's longest military encounter. The attack on the Twin Towers, the plane that flew into the Pentagon, and the one that crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, were initially the spur for a surge of US nationalism. Young people - in fact people of all ages - were going along to armed forces recruitment offices wanting to sign up. America had come under attack; these patriots wanted to fight to defend the country the \"land of the free\", and seek revenge on those who would do the US harm.\n\nAnd don't mistake this for some kind of kneejerk jingoism. It wasn't that. I knew many people - not just Americans - who were of a liberal bent and had been no great fans of all the doings of the US of A but who have a visceral sense this was a moment where you had to pick your team.\n\nWere you on the side of the rule of law, free and fair elections, due process, sexual equality, universal education? Or were you on the side of those who would fly planes into buildings, or would stone people to death, or throw homosexuals off of buildings, or deny girls schooling? If that seems a massive over-simplification, maybe it is - but in the devastating aftermath of 9/11, that is how it seemed to many.\n\nBiden makes a surprise visit to Afghanistan as vice-president in 2011\n\nBut by 2016 it was one of the factors that led to Donald Trump's election: the weariness of the \"endless wars\" as candidate Trump would refer to the quagmires of Afghanistan and Iraq; the wariness of America being able to act as the world's policeman.\n\nAmericans understandably wanted to pull up the drawbridge, bring the troops home, leave it to the people in those countries to sort out their own problems, and finally give up on the idea that a US model of liberal democracy was an exportable commodity that could be imposed. The liberal interventionist crusade was over.\n\nTrump, if he had won last November, would have pulled out US troops, probably quicker. Although Joe Biden inherited Trump's promise to withdraw, in policy terms the easiest thing would have been to continue to sign the cheques to pay for American servicemen and women to stay in Afghanistan for another year. And then another. And another after that.\n\nThe political pressure was by no means overwhelming. If anything, the reverse. The defence top brass, the foreign policy establishment, America's allies abroad thought anything other than the status quo would be reckless. But one question was gnawing at the new president, and it was the one posed by Hillel the Elder back in biblical times: \"If not now, then when?\"\n\nBiden - who advised President Barack Obama not to send more troops in 2009 but lost the argument - went with now, in what could be the most consequential single decision of his presidency.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Taliban leaders speak to BBC News about conquer and compromise\n\nWhen 9/11 happened I was the BBC's Paris correspondent, reporting on Eurotunnel's attempt to force the closure of a Red Cross refugee centre called Sangatte - where many of the world's storm-tossed refugees and migrants congregated before making the final leg of the journey to the UK.\n\nI was driving to Calais when I got a call from a colleague telling me to stop at the nearest service station to watch TV, and see what was unfolding.\n\nWe didn't know what would happen next - or where we would end up. One year into the optimism of a new millennium, there was a narrative and it wasn't a happy one - the war on terror, a clash of civilisations, call it what you will. At the time the two stories could not have been more different, but a lot of the bedraggled people we met on the roads around Calais were from Afghanistan fleeing Taliban rule.\n\nIt's worth remembering why the US, UK and others went into Afghanistan. The Taliban had - in effect - become a finishing school for Islamist terrorists wanting to wage jihad against the west. Al-Qaeda wannabes were going into the country to train for holy war. The 9/11 terrorists had honed their skills and hatched their plot there. Removing the Taliban and tackling al-Qaeda became critical for global security.\n\nWithin a few weeks of 9/11, I was in northern Afghanistan, travelling via Delhi and then Dushanbe in Tajikistan to get there. We were moving with the US and UK-backed Northern Alliance troops as they pushed the Taliban out.\n\nOusting the Taliban was considered a global priority 20 years ago, writes the author (right)\n\nOur first day was spent travelling from Khoja Bahauddin, then the Northern Alliance HQ along a road where the Taliban had killed a number of journalists in an ambush two days earlier. After one night we ended up in a town called Taleqan. It had fallen the night before we arrived. One of the iconic shots was of a girls-school classroom that had become a weapons dump for Taliban rockets that in their hasty retreat they had left behind.\n\nThe stubborn last stronghold was Kunduz - a vital communication corridor sitting between Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif and then further north to the border with Uzbekistan.\n\nNow both Taleqan and Kunduz have come back under Taliban control, with a third of the country's regional capitals now under their control.\n\nAnd that raises a super-uncomfortable question for Joe Biden and his \"if not now, then when\" policy.\n\nTwenty years on and so many lives lost, and so many billions of dollars spent, what was it for? What's been achieved? What do you say to the families of all those servicemen killed by the Taliban now that the US is giving up? What's to stop terror groups from re-establishing their jihad training camps? At the UN Security Council hearing last Friday it was reported that up to 20 different terror groups, involving thousands of foreign fighters were already fighting with Taliban forces.\n\nThe regions where Jon travelled are now back under Taliban control\n\nI'm sure as I am writing this more families will be packing up their possessions fearful of what Taliban control will mean, perhaps heading to Calais and then the UK. Will the girls' schools return to become weapons storage facilities again?\n\nThe scars of 9/11 are clear everywhere - thousands of servicemen have come back with prosthetic limbs and disturbed minds. Suicide rates have been rising. Families have lost loved ones. On America's streets are men with red plastic beer cups begging for loose change, many of them with signs saying they are veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.\n\nUS-led forces toppled the Taliban: In 2001 US-led forces overthrew Afghanistan's Taliban rulers after the 9/11 attacks masterminded by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was based there.\n\nTwenty years of occupation and military operations followed: The US and allies oversaw elections and built up Afghan security forces, but the Taliban continued to launch attacks.\n\nEventually the US made a deal with the Taliban: They would pull out if the militants agreed not to host terrorist groups. But talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government failed. US-led forces withdrew this year and the Taliban have now retaken most of the country.\n\nThe desire to stay at home and shut yourself away from a troubling world is completely understandable. There is no surprise that \"America First\" as a slogan had such resonance. George W Bush was not advocating that back in 2001 - but there were no US troops in Afghanistan or Iraq then. And that didn't keep America safe when early that morning, across those gin-clear blue skies passenger aeroplanes were hijacked and became al-Qaeda-guided missiles, flying into their targets killing thousands of people doing nothing more provocative than going about their daily lives.\n\nThere's also a difference between enforcing your will as the world's policeman, and being a peacekeeper. Thousands of American troops are still stationed in South Korea - even though the Korean war was 70 years ago. The calculation of successive US presidents has been that a tense peace is better than a hot war or a destabilised region.\n\nJoe Biden was hoping his decision would result in headlines like \"Afghan War Ends\" or \"America's longest war is over\". But 20 years on, and the Taliban now re-establishing control with all that could flow from that, might historians in future judge that the 20th anniversary marked the start of the second Afghan war?", "Callum Aylett will be sentenced at a later date\n\nA man has been found guilty of murdering a teenager in the early hours of New Year's Day after a conflict between two households on a street.\n\nCallum Aylett, 21, stabbed Jay Fathers, 18, to death and injured another man in Milton Keynes on 1 January.\n\nThe court heard Mr Fathers was not involved in the bad feeling between the neighbours, but was visiting friends.\n\nLuton Crown Court jurors found Aylett guilty of murder and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.\n\nHe will be sentenced at a later date.\n\nThe court heard how Mr Fathers was repeatedly stabbed by Mr Aylett in the kitchen of a house in Walsh's Manor on the Stantonbury Estate, where police said he had been celebrating New Year.\n\nJay Fathers had been at the address celebrating New Year\n\nThe defendant also stabbed Nicholas Grant, who lived at the house.\n\nAylett was living in the same street and the prosecution said a feud had developed between the two households.\n\nThe court heard how at just after midnight on 1 January, as the defendant and his girlfriend were in his back garden seeing in the New Year and watching fireworks being let off, a chair leg was hurled over the fence.\n\nAylett, who had been drinking brandy and smoking cannabis, was convinced it had been thrown by people from the neighbouring house and he armed himself with two kitchen knives and went to the property, the court heard.\n\nProsecutor Michael Roques said of Aylett: \"He was very loud and demanding entry and threatening to kick the door in if they didn't come down and open it.\"\n\nPolice said it was \"only a matter of fortune\" the second injured man survived\n\nThe jury was told that after being allowed in, he became threatening and intimidating to those present and brandished the knives.\n\nGiving evidence, Aylett admitted he had gone to the house armed with two knives because he said he wanted to \"intimidate and humiliate\" the occupants.\n\nBut he claimed he used a knife in self-defence after being attacked by Mr Fathers who was armed, he said, with a knife, and Mr Grant, who was brandishing a pole.\n\nMr Fathers received five deep penetrating wounds and was left \"mortally wounded\", said the prosecutor, while Mr Grant was stabbed twice by the defendant.\n\nPolice said it was \"only a matter of fortune\" the second injured man survived.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mrs Barrott worked as a nurse at St James's Hospital in Leeds\n\nTributes have been paid to a nurse who was murdered at her home in Leeds as police continue to search for her husband in Scotland.\n\nEileen Barrott, 50, was found injured in Naburn Fold, Whinmoor, on Sunday evening but died at the scene.\n\nWest Yorkshire Police are trying to trace Mark Barrott, 54, who was last seen in Aberdeen on Sunday night.\n\nMrs Barrott worked at St James's Hospital in Leeds where bosses said her colleagues had been left in shock.\n\nA spokesman for Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said: \"It is with great sadness that we have heard about the sudden and unexpected passing of Eileen Barrott.\n\n\"She will be sadly missed by all her friends and colleagues across the trust.\n\n\"Eileen worked as a staff nurse across a number of departments since joining the trust in 1996.\n\n\"This has been a shock to her colleagues and we're doing all we can to support them at this difficult time.\"\n\nPolice released images of Mr Barrott, who they would like to question over her death.\n\nThe force said he travelled by train from Leeds to Edinburgh, and then on to Aberdeen.\n\nHe was last seen on CCTV in Huntly Street in the city centre at 21.16 BST on Sunday.\n\nPolice have urged members of the public not to approach him, but to contact 999 instead.\n\nPolice are looking for Mark Barrott in connection with Mrs Barrott's death\n\nDet Ch Insp Vanessa Rolfe said: \"We are continuing to carry out extensive inquiries to locate Mark Barrott as a suspect for his wife Eileen's murder.\n\n\"We are liaising closely with our colleagues from Police Scotland who have established the most recent sighting of Mr Barrott on CCTV in Aberdeen city centre on Sunday night.\n\n\"We are keen to hear from anyone who has seen him since then or who has any information that could assist in tracing him.\"\n\nShe added: \"Eileen's family have been left completely devastated at her death in these circumstances and we are doing everything we can to support them as we progress the investigation.\"\n\nPolice are also trying to trace Mr Barrott's car, a silver Toyota Avensis, registration FJ51 ZHB that is still believed to be in Leeds.\n\nMr Barrott left Leeds railway station by train at 13:00 BST on Sunday and arrived at Edinburgh Waverley station at 16:00.\n\nThis image of Mark Barrott in 2015 was released along with CCTV images of him at Leeds railway station on Sunday\n\nOfficers released CCTV images of him at Leeds railway station along with an image of him taken in 2015.\n\nNeighbours of Mr and Mrs Barrott said they had lived in the terraced house in Naburn Fold for about 20 years and had two grown-up children - a son and a daughter.\n\nOne resident, who did not want to named, said Mr Barrott did not work but Mrs Barrott worked at St James's in the city.\n\n\"She was a nurse who worked like crazy through the last 18 months,\" they said.\n\n\"So, for this to happen is just so shocking.\"\n\nA police cordon was set up around the house and at least 10 police vehicles were parked in neighbouring streets.\n\nForensics officers wearing protective white overalls searched the streets around the house.\n\nOfficers are also looking for Mr Barrott's car, thought to be in Leeds\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe 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. How it happened: The Taliban advance\n\nAs Taliban forces swept into Kabul, Afghans who have settled in the UK told BBC News of their fears for loved ones back home. Names have been changed to protect the identities of those involved.\n\n\"I'm following the news every second, hoping for any good news to give me at least a calm to my heart,\" Ahmad told BBC News.\n\n\"But unfortunately the situation is going from bad to worse.\n\n\"The world can see what's going on but it's just leaving us.\n\n\"It has turned its back on us.\"\n\nAhmad moved to the UK as a student, in 2011.\n\nBefore leaving Afghanistan, he had been working as a translator and cultural advisor with US forces.\n\nAfter completing his studies, he hoped to return.\n\n\"I was always hoping one day I could go back and do something productive for my beloved Afghanistan,\" he said.\n\n\"But in 2016, the Taliban had been taking some provinces.\n\n\"My dad and I were very worried and I had to put in an asylum claim.\"\n\nHis claim was successful - but he has been unable to help his family, as the threat of a Taliban advance grew.\n\n\"My family is stuck in Afghanistan and there is nothing I can do about it,\" Ahmad said.\n\n\"That is killing me inside, not only because of my family being at direct threat of the Taliban but also millions of the educated, new generation of ours that has been studying and working hard since 2001.\"\n\nAhmad feels Afghanistan has been abandoned by the international community.\n\n\"I worked with the Americans shoulder to shoulder to have a better life for my people and the next generation of us,\" he said.\n\n\"Now, those people are ignoring us.\n\n\"They have turned their back on us, just saving their own diplomats and their own people.\n\n\"My family don't want to go to a foreign country for a better life.\n\n\"They want to stay in Afghanistan.\n\n\"They want to have a better Afghanistan.\n\n\"They want to see a better future for the young generation.\n\n\"They want very basic human rights.\n\n\"Now, this is impossible, based on the history and experience Afghans have had from the Taliban.\n\n\"The last time I spoke to my family... they were still hoping for a better future - and hiding.\n\nAn Afghan family rushes to Kabul airport on Monday\n\nAmina lived in Afghanistan until 2018, where she worked with women and young people.\n\nShe lost her father to Covid.\n\nNow, she is worried about other family members.\n\n\"My brother and mother are unfortunately stuck [there],\" she told BBC News.\n\n\"My mother is also coping with the loss of my father.\"\n\nHer brother had worked with US forces.\n\n\"I just spoke to him and he is very scared,\" she said.\n\n\"There are rumours that the Taliban are going house to house to find people who have links to the West.\n\n\"He was asking me what he should do and how he should get rid of his documents.\n\n\"I told him to burn them.\n\n\"He is worried and has nowhere to go.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAbdul, from London, has lived in the UK for more than two decades, after moving from Afghanistan.\n\n\"I have not been able to sleep for a couple of weeks now,\" he told BBC News.\n\nHis brothers and their families live in a city seized by the Taliban on Thursday.\n\n\"One of my brothers was an adviser to the government and had previously been imprisoned in chains by the Taliban, in 1999,\" Abdul said.\n\n\"I spoke to him and told him not to go home.\n\n\"He has been seen in the past with NGOs [non-governmental organisations] and Americans and is now in hiding.\"\n\nAre you or your family in Afghanistan? How have you been affected? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC News journalist. You can also contact BBC News in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and cannot 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.", "Trendy neighbours may have bought fire pits and pizza ovens during lockdown, or worked from home in a shoffice - but the risk of an expensive blaze grew.\n\nInsurer Zurich has warned that outbuilding fires - in sheds, garages and conservatories - rose by 16% last year compared with 2019.\n\nIt said the popularity of conversions to home offices, gyms and domestic drinks bars increased the fire risk.\n\nThree-quarters of areas in the UK recorded more fires, the data shows.\n\nPhil Ost, from Zurich, said: \"Aside from storing gardening tools, our sheds and garages have become a haven to escape the stresses of family life and for others, a place to work.\"\n\n\"But as they take refuge in their garden sheds and garages, it appears to have sparked a rise in accidental blazes.\"\n\nIn April, a survey by another insurer, Aviva, suggested that one in 10 of those asked worked from a converted shed, garage or summerhouse - a proportion expected to rise to 13%.\n\nThe popularity of so-called shoffices - shed offices - has risen, with some people spending significant sums for a luxury cabin.\n\nThe word garage also become the most popular search item on property website Rightmove, and planning applications to convert them rose sharply.\n\nHowever, analysts said some people risked invalidating their insurance if they failed to inform their insurer about a new line of work, if it created extra risks.\n\nWhile some insurers have allowed people setting up in business at home to extend their cover at no extra cost, some people may need to buy new policies or pay larger premiums owing to the extra risk.\n\nThere is also the risk that expensive equipment might bust insurance limits in existing policies if stolen or damaged.\n\nElectrical equipment, as well as popular lockdown purchases such as pizza ovens and fire pits, added to the existing fire risks created in gardens by mowers, barbecues, and paint thinners.\n\nData collected by Zurich from UK fire authorities showed that there were 3,681 residential outbuilding fires recorded in 2020, compared with 3,170 the year before.\n\nPeople lost belongings in a fire at storage units in Greater Manchester earlier this year\n\nWarnings have also been issued about property moved to self-storage units while people are working from home.\n\nSome warehouses have gone up in flames, with devastated customers speaking of how they have been unable to replace their lost belongings.\n\nStuart Bensusan, from insurance specialist Surewise, said: \"It highlights the importance of thoroughly vetting any storage facility you use and taking the necessary steps to protect your possessions while they are in it.\"\n\n\"Many consumers have complete faith in storage units, and unfortunately it simply never crosses their minds that something might happen to their unit, or the whole building. This leads to many customers being under-insured or worse having no insurance cover at all.\"\n\nMany storage unit operators offer insurance, but customers may shop around for cheaper deals, and some may have cover included through their home insurance policy.", "Wrightbus is to create 300 permanent jobs to build its zero-emission buses.\n\nThe company said it would also convert 120 temporary jobs into permanent positions at its Ballymena headquarters.\n\nWrightbus said it would have 930 permanent members of staff when the new jobs were filled.\n\nJo Bamford, who bought the company in 2019 after it went into administration, said the company was \"firmly back in business, creating jobs\".\n\nIn March, it was announced the Ballymena-based manufacturer would receive £11.2m from the government to develop hydrogen-fuel technology.\n\nThe company had already started to increase its workforce after Translink ordered 100 zero-emission buses in December 2020.\n\nTwenty of them will be hydrogen powered and the other 80 will be battery operated.\n\nThe hydrogen-powered buses have no exhaust fumes and emit only water from the tailpipe.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Ballymena-based bus maker is hiring new staff and making another 120 posts permanent.\n\nOn Tuesday, the UK government unveiled a strategy for kick-starting a hydrogen industry, which they say could attract billions of pounds in investment.\n\nWrightbus managing director Neil Collins said the company had been reinvigorated.\n\n\"Our order book is looking very healthy with our zero emission buses in high demand, and we have multiple conversations ongoing with a number of bus operators from across the UK and Ireland,\" he added.\n\n\"We're building an incredible team in Ballymena and we want the best people to come and work for us.\n\n\"We're aiming to increase bus production again next year, which will in turn lead to the creation of even more permanent jobs.\"\n\nMr Bamford said building the workforce from the 56 that remained when he bought the company in 2019 was \"incredibly satisfying\".\n\n\"We're continuing to invest not only in employees, but in the technological advances that will keep our buses at the very pinnacle of the industry,\" he added.\n\nLast year, Translink put in an order for 20 hydrogen-powered buses\n\nNorth Antrim MP Ian Paisley said it was great news for the local economy.\n\n\"Hydrogen technology is the way ahead for zero emissions and a hydrogen hub in Ballymena training engineers and developing products would be a natural fit for the area,\" he said.\n\n\"The prospects of this throw out challenges to schools and colleges to encourage engineering and science subjects to local children as there will be significant and skilled jobs available in this sector in the years ahead.\"\n\nJobs on offer will include coachbuilders, welders, vehicle installation electricians, driveline operatives and factory operatives.", "Cole was accused of \"putting Instagram posturing before universal human rights\"\n\nModel, actress and activist Lily Cole has apologised for posting a picture of herself in a burka as a way to \"embrace diversity\" and promote her new book.\n\nCritics said posing in the garment, worn by some Muslim women, did not help diversity and was ill-advised given the current unrest in Afghanistan.\n\nCole said she understood why the image upset people and wanted to \"sincerely apologise for any offence caused\".\n\nShe agreed it was \"ill-timed\" and said she \"hadn't read the news at the time\".\n\nCole, 33, posted the pictures as Afghanistan was being taken over by the Taliban, who forced women to wear the burka when they were last in control there in the 1990s.\n\nOne photo showed her with a blue burka covering her face and body, and in another the garment was pulled up to reveal her face.\n\nThe caption read: \"Let's embrace diversity on every level - biodiversity; cultural diversity; diversity of thinking; diversity of voices; diversity of ideas.\"\n\nShe used the same post to promote her new book Who Cares Wins, about how to tackle the climate and ecological crisis.\n\nThis 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 Janice Turner 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.\n\nThe Times columnist Janice Turner accused Cole of \"putting Instagram posturing before universal human rights\".\n\nAnjum Peerbacos, co-founder of the Hijabi Half-Hour podcast, said the pictures were \"disrespectful\".\n\n\"It's not a fashion accessory to be able to be deployed as a publicity stunt,\" she told BBC News.\n\n\"Regardless of how people around the world have chosen to wear that garment, that garment is a respectful religious symbol and is worn and used as such.\n\n\"So for her to use it as what can only be described as a publicity stunt, I think is abhorrent and really displays to us her level of ignorance with regards to it.\"\n\nCole has focused on charitable and campaigning work in recent years\n\nAisha Ali-Khan, a media commentator and women's rights campaigner, said Cole was \"playing dress-up\".\n\n\"You can't embrace diversity if you are still the white woman dressing in ethnic clothing. That's not embracing diversity,\" she said.\n\n\"If you are serious about it and you're passionate about it and you want to see diversity normalised, you bring women forward that are from that diverse background and you platform them.\"\n\nSpeaking about the situation in Afghanistan, Ali-Khan added: \"I understand the mentality and the subject of subjugation and the men who want women to be subservient, and the hijab and burqa, in that part of the world, will always be used as a tool to oppress and a tool for women to cover up for the sake of men.\"\n\nCole later deleted her post and apologised on her Instagram story.\n\nShe wrote: \"This week, I posted an old photo of me wearing a burqa loaned to me by a friend, as she pointed out I was undermining its original purpose by wearing it with my face exposed, but I understand why the image has upset people and want to sincerely apologise for any offence caused.\n\n\"I hadn't read the news at the time I posted so it was incredibly ill-timed (thank you for pointing that out to me).\"\n\nShe added that her \"heart breaks reading about what is happening in Afghanistan at the moment\" and said she was \"looking for organisations helping women on the ground I can support\".\n\nCole began modelling in her teens and was named British Model of the Year in 2004.\n\nShe was a regular on the front covers of magazines and in advertising campaigns, and starred in films like St Trinian's and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and TV shows including Elizabeth I and Doctor Who.\n\nShe graduated with a double first from the University of Cambridge, and in recent years has become known for her charity work and environmental campaigning.\n\nShe has a child with husband Kwame Ferreira, but this weekend told The Sunday Times she is queer, saying: \"I feel the need to acknowledge that I am not straight.\"", "Trevor aged two, with his mum, Kes, pictured with her partner Luke, have both had immunoglobulin treatment\n\nPlasma from blood donations in England will be used to make a vital medicine, following a rule change to reduce reliance on imported stocks.\n\nEach year about 17,000 people need immunoglobulin treatment and, until recently, there was a ban on using plasma from UK donors to safeguard against vCJD or \"mad cow disease\".\n\nOfficials say this precaution is no longer necessary.\n\nA mother and son from the Wirral are among those to have had the treatment.\n\nKes Earl, now 24, whose son Trevor is two, said: \"Immunoglobulins saved my family.\"\n\nDonor plasma is used to make the medicine\n\nThe move will help secure NHS plasma stocks to make the antibody-based medicines, called immunoglobulins.\n\nRollout of the service will happen across England over the coming months, and NHS blood donor services elsewhere in the UK could opt to do the same.\n\nCurrently, the UK relies solely on plasma imports, which can be in short supply - a situation made worse by Covid.\n\nGerry Gogarty, from NHS Blood and Transplant, welcomed the decision, calling it a huge step forward.\n\n\"By recovering plasma from blood donations, we can improve long-term supplies of immunoglobulin medicine, and each generous blood donation will go even further in helping to save the lives.\"\n\nThe red blood cells from donations will continue to be used as normal, so there will be no impact on donor blood stocks. Plasma is the fluid and other cells and components of whole blood.\n\n\"Your blood is mostly made up of plasma and it contains the antibodies which fight infections. Those antibodies can save the lives of people with faulty immune systems,\" he said.\n\nTrevor during his stay in intensive care\n\nTrevor was born with neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia - a dangerous condition caused by his mum's immune system attacking his blood.\n\nHe received the urgent treatment in neonatal intensive care.\n\nKes went on to have immunoglobulin herself during her second pregnancy, to prevent the same condition happening to her younger son Wyatt.\n\n\"Plasma is the reason I have two healthy little boys that keep me on my toes. I am so happy that plasma from blood donors is now being be used for immunoglobulins, to help make sure there's enough available,\" said Kes.\n\nThe treatment can be used to help patients who cannot make antibodies themselves, or in circumstances where their bodies are not making enough antibodies, or the ones they are making don't work properly, as well as for disorders when the body's immune system is attacking itself.", "Larissa, 26, hopes she will help save lives\n\nUK scientists behind the AstraZeneca Covid jab have given the first trial volunteers a new plague vaccine.\n\nOne of them, Larissa, 26, hopes she can help save lives by volunteering for the research, at the University of Oxford, where she studies genetics.\n\nThe phase-one trial will see at least 40 healthy 18- to 55-year-olds test the vaccine, which uses the same technology as the coronavirus jab.\n\nIts target is a centuries-old bacterial threat, not the new pandemic virus.\n\nFor much of the world plague is a history lesson - the most infamous plague pandemic, the Black Death that swept through Europe in the 1300s, killed as much as half of the population.\n\nBut there are still cases in some rural areas of Africa, Asia and America.\n\nAnd in 2017, an outbreak killed 171 people in Madagascar.\n\nAntibiotics can now be used to treat plague, if given early,\n\nBut many of the regions at risk of outbreaks are very remote.\n\nAn effective vaccine could offer a new way to protect lives.\n\nAnd the trial will check how well the body recognises and learns to fight the plague after vaccination.\n\nLarissa said: \"I'm lucky enough to live in a time where vaccines are being developed.\n\n\"And so, when I saw that there was a study aiming at developing a vaccine against a disease that's been around for 2000 years and has killed millions and millions of people, I didn't hesitate, I just wanted to do my bit.\"\n\nAsked if she was worried about side-effects, Larissa said: \"I'm not too concerned.\n\n\"The vaccine that's being assessed today is using the same platform as the Covid vaccine, which has literally been administered to millions of people around the world.\"\n\nLike the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, the jab uses a weakened version of a common-cold virus - adenovirus - from chimpanzees that has been genetically altered so it cannot cause an infection in people.\n\nThis vaccine does not contain plague bacterium and so cannot cause plague.\n\nBut it does include added genes that make proteins from the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis.\n\nAnd this should teach the body's immune system how to fend off the real infection, should it ever need to.\n\nThe same approach could be used for other diseases too, the investigators say.\n\n\"We've already done clinical trials using similar technology against a bacterium, meningitis B, and a virus, Zika,\" Oxford Vaccine Group senior clinical researcher Dr Maheshi Ramasamy said.\n\n\"But we're also looking to develop vaccines against new and emerging diseases such as Lassa fever or the Marburg virus\n\nThe trial, which will run for at least a year, is funded by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, the national funding agency investing in science and research in the UK.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Richard Fleetwood says the service has been a lifeline for some people\n\nTrials of shared banking hubs in two communities where all the branches have closed down are to be extended.\n\nThe premises, managed by the Post Office, include counter services, ATMs and, crucially, the opportunity for local businesses to deposit cash.\n\nThe trials, in Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire, and Rochford, Essex, were due to finish in October, but have been extended to April 2023.\n\nThe government is consulting on plans to protect community banking services.\n\nThe trials allow a member of staff from a different bank to come into the hub once a week to help with trickier transactions.\n\nThroughout the week, the counter service and machines allow individuals and small business owners to access accounts, and to withdraw and deposit notes and coins.\n\nShortly after the service opened in Rochford, the BBC was told it had been \"a lifeline\" for people living in the area.\n\n\"One lady came in to say 'thank you, you have changed my life', and that's not an understatement,\" said Richard Fleetwood, postmaster at the Rochford Bank Hub - a converted carpet shop.\n\nAn estimated 12,000 people have used the hubs for basic banking needs.\n\n\"It is really clear that the hubs have been hugely popular and it would be a bad decision to close them. The banks have therefore taken the view that they want to keep them open, and keep innovating in them so we can refine the model further,\" said Natalie Ceeney, who oversees the trials.\n\nThe trials are part of a wider project aiming to test ways to ensure people and businesses have access to cash. It also addresses the issue of bank branch closures, which are showing signs of accelerating as the UK emerges from the Covid crisis.\n\nAnother element of the project to be extended is the prevalence of cashback without having to make a purchase in local stores. So far, an average of £28 has been withdrawn from tills, with shoppers often taking out non-round amounts unavailable from ATMs.\n\nHundreds more shops should be offering the service by early next year.\n\nBanks are in discussion over many of these projects, including shared hubs, as the government plans to legislate on access to community banking as bank branches close.\n\nIn their proposals, ministers said that people should not have to travel beyond a reasonable distance to withdraw or deposit money, even if they are in low population areas.\n\nInitially, the Treasury suggests that people should not have to travel more than 1km, but that distance could be extended over time if cash becomes less popular. The distance proposal is open to views during consultation.\n\nOther considerations include whether the facilities are appropriate for vulnerable people, are accessible for people with disabilities, have adequate opening hours, and are suitably secure for high-value cash deposits.", "Miles Routledge says he travelled to Afghanistan as he enjoys \"dark\" and \"extreme\" tourism\n\nA UK student who travelled to Afghanistan on holiday says he is now safe in Dubai after being evacuated.\n\nMiles Routledge, 21, of Birmingham, has been posting updates on social media about his travels since the Taliban seized control of the country.\n\nHe told the BBC he was \"exhausted but relieved\" and thanked the British Army who were deployed to support the evacuation of UK nationals from Kabul.\n\nHis university, Loughborough, said it had offered Mr Routledge its support.\n\nThe physics student shared on social media he chose Afghanistan because he enjoyed \"dark\" and \"extreme\" tourism.\n\nMr Routledge holidayed in Kabul, and posed next to a gun for a photo, despite warnings against all but essential travel to Afghanistan\n\nOn Tuesday he told followers he had got a place on a list for evacuation from Kabul, and hours later posted a video of himself and dozens of others landing in what he described as a British Army plane.\n\n\"The happy ending: landed in Dubai thanks to the brilliant people at the British army. All safe!\" he wrote.\n\nThe Ministry of Defence has been approached for comment on the claim.\n\nA Foreign & Commonwealth Office spokesperson said they were aware of Mr Routledge's case and had been working to \"offer assistance\".\n\n\"The safety of British nationals is our top priority which is why we have been urging British nationals to leave Afghanistan by commercial means since 21 April,\" the spokesperson said.\n\n\"On 6 August we updated our advice to urge British nationals to leave immediately and to update us on their plans for departure.\"\n\nMr Routledge has attracted criticism online from commentators who question his decision to travel to the country, where authorities have advised against all but essential travel for more than two decades.\n\nThe physics student claims he was given refuge in a Nato-controlled building\n\nA friend of the student told the BBC she was not surprised by his decision to travel there, saying: \"If anyone I knew was going to go to Afghanistan, it would be him.\"\n\nOn Monday Mr Routledge told the PA news agency he and other civilians, including some other British citizens, had been given refuge in what he described as a Nato-controlled building in Kabul.\n\nA spokesman for Nato was unable to confirm his claim.\n\nIt came amid chaotic scenes at the city's nearby airport, where hundreds of people attempted to board a US Air Force plane, with several plunging to their death as it took off.\n\nMr Routledge has said on social media he does not regret his decision to travel to the country.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Major General Charlie Herbert, a military commander from the UK’s campaign in Afghanistan, has accused the government of betraying Afghans who supported British troops.\n\nHerbert, who left the army two years ago, is trying to help hundreds of interpreters and support staff whose work with allied forces means their lives are now at risk.\n\nHe spoke to the BBC's Home Editor Mark Easton.", "The UK's Defence Secretary Ben Wallace claimed this morning that Labour Leader Keir Starmer had supported the deal between the US and the Taliban last year.\n\nThe deal – secured by Donald Trump and signed in Doha, Qatar in February 2020 – committed to the withdrawal of US and allied (including British) troops from Afghanistan by May 2021.\n\nAfter his election, US President Joe Biden continued the plan for withdrawal but with an end date of 31 August.\n\nAt the time, Mr Wallace praised Mr Trump’s deal as a “small but important step towards the chance for Afghans to live in peace, free from terrorism\".\n\nBut in the past week, Mr Wallace has described the deal as “rotten”. He has said that just after the deal he publicly expressed that it was a “mistake”, but we have yet to find a reference to this in either Parliamentary records or news cuttings from the time.\n\nBen Wallace, the UK's defence secretary, initially said Donald Trump's deal with the Taliban was \"rotten\" Image caption: Ben Wallace, the UK's defence secretary, initially said Donald Trump's deal with the Taliban was \"rotten\"\n\nMr Wallace said today: “I never heard from a single Labour MP when that deal was done, 18 months ago… one single criticism. In fact, Keir Starmer supported it, as did all other parties in the House of Commons.”\n\nWe have found no evidence that Mr Starmer publicly supported last year’s deal in the period after it was announced. But it should be noted he was not Labour leader then, and nor was there any debate in the Commons over the terms of the deal.\n\nIn yesterday’s debate Mr Starmer focused on the lack of planning for the withdrawal rather than saying he had opposed it and said: “Nobody believes that Britain and our allies could have remained in Afghanistan indefinitely, or that Britain could have fought alone.”\n\nMr Wallace also said this morning that he had “felt uncomfortable” about the Doha deal and “made representations to the US and others at the time”.", "The Queen is continuing her Balmoral holiday after a staff member at the Scottish estate tested positive for coronavirus.\n\nHer Majesty, who is 95 and vaccinated, will remain at her private retreat in Aberdeenshire as planned.\n\nThe employee was sent home on Saturday following a PCR test, The Sun newspaper reported.\n\nA Buckingham Palace spokesman said: \"We have procedures in place should a member of any team get Covid.\"\n\nIt is the Queen's first stay at Balmoral since the death of her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, in April.\n\nShe has been joined by family members including the Duke of York and his ex-wife Sarah, Duchess of York.\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children are expected to arrive later this month.", "Stephen Watson described the scheme as \"patronising nonsense\"\n\nA so-called Citizens' Contract outlining what people could expect from Greater Manchester Police has been torn up by the force's new chief constable.\n\nGreater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham endorsed the move by Stephen Watson, who was appointed in May.\n\nUnder the scheme, the force implied not all crime could receive the same focus due to strained resources.\n\nMr Watson told the Manchester Evening News the contract was \"just complete tosh\" and had been \"scrapped\".\n\nHe added: \"We just think it's patronising nonsense, which pretty much tells the public, you know, 'can you just stop troubling us because we're really busy and you just don't understand how hard it is for us'.\"\n\nThe Citizens Contract was introduced two-and-a-half years ago as a way of balancing squeezed police resources with increased public demand.\n\nThe contract will now be replaced following a consultation.\n\nThe Citizens' Contract was introduced under former chief constable Ian Hopkins\n\nWhen asked about the chief constable's remarks, Mr Burnham said: \"We are very much with the chief.\"\n\nHe said the head of the force had the right to put his \"stamp\" on the organisation and agreed with the idea that officers should be investigating all crime.\n\nMr Burnham said recent increases in recruitment would help the under-pressure force.\n\nMr Watson succeeded Ian Hopkins, who stood down in December following a damning watchdog report which revealed the force had failed to properly record 80,000 crimes.\n\nIn June he told how he \"absolutely would not\" take the knee in uniform, believing the gesture could undermine officers' impartiality.\n\nHe said the public were \"getting a little bit fed up of virtue-signalling police officers\" and would \"rather we just locked up burglars\".\n\nMr Watson also said he was concerned police could be overwhelmed by the creation of new \"hate crimes\" which \"sought to criminalise what people think about difficult social issues, as opposed to what they do\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A 14-year-old boy has appeared at the Old Bailey charged with murdering a father who was stabbed to death outside his home in north-east London.\n\nJames Markham, 45, was killed on 9 August after confronting youths who were shouting at his daughter outside their home in Chingford.\n\nThe teenager appeared by video link on Tuesday also charged with possessing a knife in public.\n\nHe spoke only to confirm his name and age.\n\nThe court heard Mr Markham received two stab wounds, one to the left hand side which was the fatal injury, and another to his neck.\n\nThe boy has been further charged with breaching a criminal behaviour order (CBO), and remains in youth detention ahead of a plea hearing on 2 November.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Video shows hundreds of Afghans at Kabul airport attempting to escape, as the Taliban took over the capital.\n\nGunfire was heard on Monday morning, with eyewitnesses telling the BBC that civilians had been killed. US troops reportedly fired into the air to scatter the crowds.\n\nThe Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan, almost 20 years after being ousted by a US-led military coalition.", "Nando's says it will lend some of its staff to its suppliers to help \"get things moving\" in the supply chain after shortages hit some of its shops.\n\nThe restaurant group has had to shut around 50 outlets temporarily after apparently running short of its staple fare: peri peri chicken.\n\nCustomers were quick to react online, complaining about local closures.\n\n\"The UK supply chain is having a bit of a [night]'mare right now,\" Nando's tweeted in reply.\n\n\"This is having a knock-on effect with some of our restaurants across England, Scotland and Wales.\"\n\nThis 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 Nando's 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.\n\nThe chain said delivery schedules meant the situation was changing rapidly and suggested customers check the website before they visit.\n\nFood and other supply chains across the UK have struggled to operate normally this summer, due to what has been dubbed the \"pingdemic\" - staff being required to self-isolate if they have come into contact with someone with coronavirus.\n\nStaff shortages have also have been blamed on EU workers leaving the UK following Brexit as well as during the pandemic and the furlough scheme keeping some workers out of the jobs market.\n\nDairy giant Arla had to cut back on milk deliveries to supermarkets due to lorry driver shortages last month, leaving some supermarket shelves short of stock.\n\nLast week rival fast food chicken store KFC said some items were missing from its menus due to \"disruption\".\n\nThe problem has also affected carmakers, transport operators, restaurants and pubs. Road haulage firms have been a particular pinch point because the industry was already short of qualified drivers.\n\nFrom this week, fully vaccinated staff no longer have to self-isolate, a rule-change the government hopes will ease the pressure on businesses running short of staff.\n\nAt the same time Nando's says it is exploring an alternative solution by offering its staff to help suppliers, although it didn't say whether any had accepted the offer, or what work they would be doing.\n\nThe South African chain, famous for its peri peri sauce, operates more than 400 restaurants across the UK.\n\nNando's said the shortages were not affecting any of their outlets in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.\n\nNote September 6 2021: This story was updated to include a broader context around staff shortages after Brexit and the pandemic.", "Thousands of new jobs could be created by investing in low-carbon hydrogen fuel to power vehicles and heat homes, the government says.\n\nMinisters have unveiled a strategy for kick-starting a hydrogen industry, which they say could attract billions of pounds in investment.\n\nBusiness Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the fuel was also essential for UK efforts to reach net zero emissions.\n\nHe said it had the potential to provide a third of UK energy in future.\n\nBecause of the current higher cost involved in producing hydrogen compared to existing fuels, subsidies have been proposed to overcome the gap. The government has launched a consultation on this plan.\n\nLabour also backs hydrogen's potential, but said the government had failed to invest as much as other countries.\n\nUsing hydrogen gas as a fuel produces no carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution. It can be used to power fuel cells - devices that generate electricity through an electrochemical reaction - used in a turbine for electricity or burned in a boiler and vehicle engine.\n\nAs such, it is a low-carbon, versatile fuel that can be used by cars, trucks and trains, heat our homes and generate the power needed for industrial processes such as steel production.\n\nThe government plans to deliver 5GW of hydrogen production capacity by 2030, estimating that the industry could be worth £900m and support more than 9,000 jobs by the same date.\n\n\"Today marks the start of the UK's hydrogen revolution. This home-grown clean energy source has the potential to transform the way we power our lives and will be essential to tackling climate change and reaching net zero,\" said Mr Kwarteng.\n\n\"Our strategy positions the UK as first in the global race to ramp up hydrogen technology and seize the thousands of jobs and private investment that come with it.\"\n\nReaching net zero by 2050 will involve cutting emissions as much as possible and then balancing out any remaining ones by planting trees or burying CO2 underground.\n\nThe potential role of hydrogen in achieving this target has been highlighted by a government analysis suggesting 20-35% of the UK's energy consumption by 2050 could be hydrogen-based.\n\nA low-carbon hydrogen economy could deliver emissions savings equivalent to the carbon captured by 700 million trees by 2032, the government claims. It would help decarbonise polluting industries such as chemical production and oil refining and heavy transport such as shipping and rail.\n\nExperts say there is an urgent need to reduce emissions from home heating\n\nAlan Whitehead MP, Labour's shadow minister for energy and the green new deal, said hydrogen power had a \"significant role\" to play in decarbonising the economy.\n\nBut he added: \"The belated publication of this hydrogen strategy needs to be followed up with urgent action. That is what we will judge the government on because too many of the Tories' warm words and targets on climate change have not been followed up with practical steps.\n\n\"It is regrettable that the Conservatives have failed to match the investment shown by other countries and key decisions have been delayed, such as mandating that all boilers must be hydrogen-ready.\"\n\nThe government is proposing subsidies for the hydrogen industry along the lines of those credited with driving down the cost of offshore wind power.\n\nIt will also review the infrastructure - thought by some to be very costly - needed to underpin hydrogen power in the UK.\n\nSo-called blue hydrogen is made using fossil fuels, but its environmental impact can be mitigated by capturing and storing greenhouse emissions underground. Green hydrogen, meanwhile, is made using renewable energy.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Hydroflex made a 25-mile round-trip in Warwickshire, reaching speeds of up to 50 mph\n\nThough blue hydrogen is not as clean as the green form, it is cheaper.\n\nEnvironmental campaigners say there is too much focus in the strategy on blue hydrogen. Jess Ralston, an analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said the government should \"be alive to the risk of gas industry lobbying causing it to commit too heavily to blue hydrogen and so keeping the country locked into fossil fuel based technology\". This, she added, would make reaching net zero more difficult and costly.\n\nPhilip Dunne MP, chair of the environmental audit committee, commented: \"While the twin track approach proposed, supporting both green and blue hydrogen production, is positive, it is also important that substantial capacity for carbon capture is developed, so as to avert release of damaging emissions currently created in blue hydrogen production.\"\n\nIn fact, one study by researchers in the US has suggested that blue hydrogen could release more carbon than burning natural gas.\n\nDr Jan Rosenow, from the Regulatory Assistance Project, an organisation dedicated towards accelerating the transition to clean energy, said: \"As the strategy admits, there won't be significant quantities of low-carbon hydrogen for some time. We need to use it where there are few alternatives and not as a like-for-like replacement of gas.\n\nHe said the plan confirmed that \"hydrogen for heating our homes will not play a significant role before 2030. The government's strategy shows that less than 0.2% of all homes are expected to use hydrogen to keep warm in the next decade. This means that for reducing emissions this decade, hydrogen will play only a very marginal role.\n\n\"But we cannot wait until 2030 before bringing down emissions from heating. The urgency of the climate crisis requires bold policy action now.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Female presenters return on Afghanistan's Tolo News, with one interviewing the Taliban\n\nTwo days after the Taliban took control of the Afghan capital, Kabul, female presenters have returned to at least some TV channels, after briefly going off air as the militants took over the country.\n\nTolo TV, the private channel which previously broadcast a mix of Western-style game shows, soap operas and talent contests, said there was a little bit of uncertainty at the time about what would unfold next and temporarily removed their female presenters.\n\nTolo News' Siyar Sirat said on Tuesday things looked like they were returning to normal, with \"normal resources at the office, we have women on screen and we are reporting from around the city\".\n\nThese women and children were among those trying to get to the airport on Monday\n\nOne of the big questions now is what will happen to Afghan women - they are still visible on TV screens so far, and the Taliban have given assurances that their rights will be respected.\n\nNot many women could be seen at Kabul airport on Monday where crowds thronged the tarmac of the runway in a desperate bid to get out of the country.\n\nOn Monday, Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai - who was shot aged 15 by the Taliban for campaigning for girls' education in Pakistan - expressed concern about the situation for and the safety of women and girls in the country.\n\n\"I had the opportunity to talk to a few activists in Afghanistan, including women's rights activists and they are sharing their concern that they are not sure what their life is going to be like,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"A lot of them remember what was happening in 1996-2001 time and they are deeply worried about their safety, their rights their protection, they are worried about their access to school.\n\n\"And we have already seen news reports that many girls have been sent back from university. A lot of them have been asked to get married at age 15, 12.\"\n\nTaliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen says the group will respect the rights of women and minorities \"as per Afghan norms and Islamic values\".\n\nOn Tuesday, the group declared an amnesty across Afghanistan and said it wanted women to join its government.\n\nIndeed, some women have chosen to stay.\n\nPayvand Seyed Ali currently works as an education consultant in Kabul, where she has lived and worked for 10 years. She was senior adviser to the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, and also led the UK government's largest education fund in Afghanistan, the GEC.\n\n\"I don't think it's useful to wonder or have expectations of what the Taliban will do when it comes to women's rights and education. We have to work with what we have, and what we have include high-level Taliban promises that women will have access to education, and work.\n\n\"What makes sense is to treat these promises not as 'conciliatory noises', but as commitments, and work actively with Taliban leadership to craft solutions that keep girls in school and women working,\" she told the BBC News website.\n\nShe says accountability will be key: \"The ministry of education budget, including all staff salaries, is almost entirely donor-funded, including a large portion facilitated and monitored by the World Bank. The objectives remain, the indicators remain, the accountability measures remain, and we should work with any new government towards compromises to meet development goals, and to keep our kids - all our kids - in school.\n\n\"So far, it seems that most, though not all, girls' schools have remained open or are reopening, albeit with personnel changes and high absenteeism. District and provincial staff for the most part continue to work.\n\n\"In more rural areas, I have reliable reports that the largest NGO in the country, the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, has reopened or kept open almost all of its girls' schools. So have most other leading NGOs supporting education in government and community schools. Many of these community schools have had some Taliban engagement since inception. Most have insisted on female or mullah teachers for years.\"\n\nShe will stay in Kabul and says women around her are still mostly at home, but cautiously planning visits and outings in the coming days.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Women won't be silenced by the Taliban, says teacher and humans rights activist Pashtana Durrani\n\nActivist Pashtana Durrani says that people must be wary.\n\n\"For starters, you have to understand that what they say and what they are putting in practice, they are two different things,\" she told the BBC on Monday.\n\n\"Girls in Herat, they were not able to go to their universities; girls in Kandahar, they were asked to go to their home and their male relatives were asked to fill in... their positions in the bank.\n\n\"So... they [the Taliban] are looking for legitimacy from all these different countries, to be accepted as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, but then at the same time, what are they doing in practice?\n\n\"Either a) they don't have control on their foot soldiers, or b) they really want the legitimacy but they're not willing to do the work. Those are two different things.\"\n\nMs Durrani also points out that when the Taliban talk about women's rights, they talk about them in vague terms: do they mean mobility rights, socialising rights, political rights, their representative rights and/or voting rights? It is not clear whether they mean all or only some of those rights, she says.\n\nAfghanistan's women and girls must now wait to see how life pans out under Taliban rule, as fears and uncertainties remain while there is no government in charge.\n• None Fearing the Taliban, Kabul's young women plead for help", "Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada is a political and religious leader who is the third Supreme Commander of the Taliban\n\nThe Taliban took many by surprise as they swept across Afghanistan in just 10 days in August, quickly taking control of towns and cities.\n\nThe militant group has announced an interim government, declaring the country an \"Islamic Emirate\".\n\nThe cabinet will be led by Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, one of the movement's founders.\n\nSo, here's what is known about who is leading the Taliban today.\n\nHibatullah Akhundzada became the supreme commander of the Taliban in May 2016, and is now leader of the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.\n\nIn the 1980s, he participated in the Islamist resistance against the Soviet military campaign in Afghanistan, but his reputation is more that of a religious leader than a military commander.\n\nAkhundzada worked as head of the Sharia Courts in the 1990s.\n\nAfter first seizing power in the 1990s, the Taliban introduced and supported punishments according to their strict interpretation of Islamic law: they publicly executed murderers and adulterers and amputated thieves' limbs.\n\nUnder the leadership of the reclusive Mullah Mohammed Omar (who is thought to have died in 2013), the Taliban also banned television, music, movies, make-up, and stopped girls aged 10 and over from attending school.\n\nVery few images exist of former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, who died in 2013\n\nAkhundzada is believed to be in his 60s and has lived most of his life in Afghanistan.\n\nHowever, according to experts, he maintains close ties with the so-called \"Quetta Shura\" - the Afghan Taliban leaders said to be based in the Pakistani city of Quetta.\n\nAs the group's supreme commander, Akhundzada is in charge of political, military and religious affairs.\n\nMullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund is one of the four men who founded the Taliban in Afghanistan in 1994.\n\nHe is a longtime head the Taliban's powerful leadership council, or Rehbari Shura.\n\nHe served as foreign minister and deputy prime minister during the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan in 1996-2001.\n\nHe is under UN sanctions for his role in the government during that period.\n\nSirajuddin Haqqani is another of the group's top figures, who is on an FBI most wanted list.\n\nAfter the death of his father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, he became the new leader of the Haqqani network, which has been credited with some of the most violent attacks that have occurred in Afghanistan against Afghan forces and their Western allies in recent years.\n\nThe Haqqani network is currently one of the region's most powerful and feared militant groups. Some say it is even more influential than the Islamic State group in Afghanistan.\n\nThe Haqqani network is currently one of the most powerful and feared militant groups in the country\n\nThe group, designated by the US as a terrorist organisation, oversees the Taliban's financial and military assets along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.\n\nHaqqani is believed to be around 45.\n\nIn an opinion piece in the New York Times last year before the signing of the Doha agreement, Haqqani wrote: \"For more than four decades, precious Afghan lives have been lost every day. Everyone has lost somebody they loved. Everyone is tired of war. I am convinced that the killing and the maiming must stop.\"\n\nHe became a lynchpin of the insurgency after the militants were toppled by the US-led invasion in 2001.\n\nBut he was captured in a joint US-Pakistani operation in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi in February 2010.\n\nHe remained in prison for eight years, until he was released as part of a plan to facilitate the peace process. He has been the head of their political office in Qatar since January 2019.\n\nIn 2020, Baradar became the first Taliban leader to communicate directly with a US president after having a telephone conversation with Donald Trump. Before that, Baradar signed the Doha agreement on the withdrawal of US troops on behalf of the Taliban.\n\nThen US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Abdul Ghani Baradar met in September 2020 in Doha\n\nMohammad Yaqoob is the son of the founder of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammed Omar.\n\nHe is believed to be little more than 30 years old and is currently the leader of the group's military operations.\n\nFollowing the death of former Taliban leader Akhtar Mansour in 2016, some militants wanted to appoint Yaqoob as the group's new supreme commander, but others felt that he was young and lacking in experience.\n\nAs the Taliban advanced through the country, Yaqoob urged Taliban fighters not to harm members of the Afghan military or government and to stay out of abandoned homes of government and security officials who had fled, according to the Associated Press news agency.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nPresident Joe Biden has said he stands \"squarely\" behind the US exit from Afghanistan as he faces withering criticism over the Taliban's lightning conquest of the war-torn country.\n\n\"How many more American lives is it worth?\" asked the Democratic president.\n\nHe said that despite the \"messy\" pull-out, \"there was never a good time to withdraw US forces\".\n\nOn Sunday, the Taliban declared victory after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled and his government collapsed.\n\nThe militants' return to rule brings an end to almost 20 years of a US-led coalition's presence in the country.\n\nKabul was the last major city in Afghanistan to fall to a Taliban offensive that began months ago but accelerated in recent days as they gained control of territories, shocking many observers.\n\nMr Biden's address followed a dramatic day at Kabul's international airport, where hundreds of civilians desperate to flee the country forced their way inside on Monday.\n\nMany thronged the runway, running alongside a moving military transporter aircraft as it prepared for take-off.\n\nSome clung to the side of a plane, and at least two of them are reported to have perished when they fell from the aircraft after it had left the ground.\n\nAmerican troops killed two armed Afghans who were part of the crowd that breached the airport perimeter. Seven people reportedly died in total.\n\nThe US suspended its evacuation from Kabul but it has now resumed.\n\nA remarkable picture from Sunday appears to show 640 Afghans packed onboard a US military cargo plane leaving Kabul for Qatar.\n\nThe image, not verified by the BBC, was obtained by the US defence analysis website, Defense One.\n\nPanicked civilians had scrambled up the loading ramp, the website quoted US officials as saying, but the crew decided it was best to take off rather than force the Afghans off.\n\nIn a separate development, the Taliban have announced what they are calling a general amnesty for government officials, and have urged them to return to work.\n\nA statement said officials should \"continue their duties without any fear\".\n\nMr Biden returned on Monday to the White House from the Camp David presidential retreat to make his first public remarks on Afghanistan in nearly a week.\n\n\"If anything, the developments of the past week reinforce that ending US military involvement in Afghanistan now was the right decision,\" said Mr Biden.\n\n\"American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves.\"\n\nMr Biden is facing an intense political backlash over the turmoil in Kabul following his April decision to order all American troops out of Afghanistan by 11 September - the 20 year anniversary of the terror attacks that triggered the US invasion.\n\nMitch McConnell, Republican Senate Minority Leader, tweeted: \"What we are seeing in Afghanistan is an unmitigated disaster. The Biden Administration's retreat will leave a stain on the reputation of the United States.\"\n\nFormer US President George W Bush, who authorised the military intervention in 2001, said he was \"watching the tragic events unfolding in Afghanistan with deep sadness\".\n\n\"The Afghans now at greatest risk are the same ones who have been on the forefront of progress inside their nation,\" Mr Bush said, stressing that the US had \"the legal authority to cut the red tape for refugees during urgent humanitarian crises\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. People tried to cling on to the wheels of a departing US military plane\n\nIn his speech, Mr Biden said the US mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been about nation-building.\n\nHe said that when he was vice-president he had opposed the 2009 deployment of thousands more troops into the country by former President Barack Obama.\n\nMr Biden also noted he had inherited a deal negotiated with the Taliban under former President Donald Trump for the US to withdraw from Afghanistan by May of this year.\n\nHe said he was now the fourth US president to preside over America's longest war, and would not pass the responsibility on to a fifth.\n\n\"I will not mislead the American people by claiming that just a little more time in Afghanistan will make all the difference.\"\n\nMr Biden campaigned as a seasoned expert in foreign policy and declared after assuming office this year that \"America is back\".\n\nLast month he assured reporters it was \"highly unlikely\" the Taliban would overrun the entire country.\n\nBut he conceded on Monday that \"this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated\".\n\nOn Tuesday Mr Biden's assessment was echoed by the chief of the Nato alliance, which had a leading role in combat operations and training government security forces in Afghanistan.\n\nNato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said while Nato forces \"never intended to stay in Afghanistan forever,\" the speed at which the Taliban took control surprised them.\n\nMr Stoltenberg described this rapid takeover as a \"failure of Afghan political leadership\", but said Nato also had lessons to learn.\n\nOpinion polls suggest most Americans support the US exiting Afghanistan.\n\nBut Mr Biden is facing a barrage of criticism over the manner of the departure, after he withdrew US troops then sent thousands back in to help the evacuation.\n\nImages emerged on Sunday showing US helicopters circling the US embassy in Kabul.\n\nFor many, the pictures evoked America's humiliating departure from Saigon, Vietnam, in 1975 when Mr Biden was a junior senator.\n\nHave you been affected by the issues in this story? Get in touch.\n\nOr use this form to get in touch:\n\nIf 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 comment or send it via email to HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any comment you send in.", "The Taliban appear to be on the brink of taking total control of Afghanistan\n\n\"Thanks to God you are come,\" shouted an old man as my colleagues and I marched into Kabul on 14 November 2001, battling our way through the joyful crowds.\n\nThe anti-Taliban forces of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, which had the backing of the US and other Western countries, had halted on the city outskirts, and the Taliban had simply run for it.\n\nFive years of the most extreme religious dictatorship in recent times were over.\n\nUnder the Taliban, Afghanistan had become a black hole in which all sorts of extremism could thrive.\n\nOnly two months earlier the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington had been planned and guided by Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda movement. It simply never occurred to me then that Taliban could make a comeback.\n\nNow of course everyone is looking for reasons.\n\nThe governments of Afghanistan's two post-Taliban presidents, Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani, were democratically elected but never strong, and corruption was the system which worked best.\n\nNevertheless President Ghani would still be in his palace and the army would be driving round in its expensive Western vehicles, if Donald Trump had not decided that he needed a foreign policy success before the 2020 election.\n\nHe thought that bringing a long-running war to an end would achieve that.\n\nSeveral Afghan politicians and journalists I know were horrified by the conclusion of the US talks with the Taliban political leadership in Doha in February 2020, and doubly so when President Joe Biden made it clear he was going to stick to it.\n\nI was warned that no matter how moderate and peaceable the leaders in Doha might promise to be, the Taliban fighters on the ground would feel no compulsion to observe the fine print.\n\nDirectly after the US, British and other Western troops began pulling out, the Taliban fighters across Afghanistan made their play for power. Reports of prisoners being executed brought an atmosphere of blind panic in one town after another, until Kabul itself succumbed and officials and soldiers were battling their way to the airport to get out.\n\nAfghans wait in long lines for hours at the passport office in Kabul on Saturday\n\nPerhaps the Taliban will stick to the terms of their soothing statement promising not to take revenge on anyone, and appealing to the police, the military and the civil service to stay in place.\n\nThey may very well think it'll be safer not to provoke the West to intervene again.\n\nBut what sort of country will Taliban-controlled Afghanistan be this time?\n\nThe only guide we have is the five-year period from 1996 when (again in a matter of a few days - that's how these things go in Afghanistan) the Taliban drove out the moderate mujahideen government controlled by the redoubtable Ahmad Shah Massoud.\n\nI spent a good deal of time in Afghanistan during the Taliban's period of power, and found it deeply scary.\n\nSharia law in its fiercest forms was in operation everywhere, with public executions, stonings and whippings commonplace.\n\nGangs of vigilantes hung out on street corners, attacking men who showed their ankles or wore any form of Western clothing.\n\nWomen only ventured out if they had written permission from men, and of course had to wear the all-encompassing burka.\n\nThe Taliban minister of health, Mullah Balouch, complained to me that the International Red Cross refused his request to provide surgeons to cut off the hands and feet of convicted thieves, so he had to do the job personally; though he seemed to quite enjoy it.\n\nWorking for television was a nightmare, because taking the image of any living creature was expressly forbidden on religious grounds. Bookshops were regularly ransacked for illustrations, and any guilty bookseller was whipped.\n\nMost people fled the city if they could, and most shops were shut up.\n\nThe Taliban couldn't pay for oil imports, so the brightest lights at night-time were the candles people put in their windows, and the loudest noise was the barking of packs of marauding dogs, abandoned by their owners.\n\nFor all the failings of successive Afghan governments and their Western backers, Kabul and other cities have burst with commercial life since the Taliban were chased out.\n\nKabul has been transformed as a city in recent years\n\nLiving standards have shot up. Cars pack the once empty streets. Schools have blossomed, especially for girls; under the Taliban the education of girls was expressly forbidden. Music, banned under the Taliban, blared out everywhere.\n\nThere are new buildings everywhere. The last time I was there, I couldn't even find the place on the edge of the city where my BBC colleagues and I started our walk into town in 2001; the whole area had been built over.\n\nMost Afghans will regard the Taliban takeover as a catastrophe for themselves and their country.\n\nThe main question now is, will the Taliban follow their instincts and take Afghanistan back to the past as radically as they did before liberation day 20 years ago - or have they learned a lesson?", "US DIY store chain the Home Depot discriminated against a Minneapolis employee for raising issues of racial harassment with colleagues and bosses, a federal watchdog has alleged.\n\nThe National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) alleges the chain also stopped the employee from displaying a Black Lives Matter slogan on his apron.\n\nThese actions are protected under law, the watchdog said.\n\nHome Depot said the complaint \"misrepresents the relevant facts\".\n\n\"The Home Depot does not tolerate workplace harassment of any kind and takes all reports of discrimination or harassment seriously, as we did in this case,\" said spokeswoman Sara Gorman.\n\nAccording to the complaint, filed by the Minneapolis office of the NRLB, the employee's actions, including his refusal to remove the BLM slogan, led to his constructive dismissal.\n\nIt alleges the store unlawfully enforced its otherwise lawful dress code and apron policies. And it accused Home Depot of warning employees not to engage in \"activity regarding racial harassment\".\n\n\"Issues of racial harassment directly impact the working conditions of employees,\" said NRLB regional director Jennifer Hadsall.\n\n\"The National Labor Relations Act protects employees' rights to raise these issues with the goal of improving their working conditions. It is this important right we seek to protect in this case.\"\n\nThe independent watchdog said it wanted Home Depot to post notice at all of its US stores advising employees of their rights.\n\nBut the retailer said the NRLB had mischaracterised the situation and that it looked forward to \"sharing the facts\" with the watchdog.\n\n\"Regardless of the outcome, we will continue to be fully committed to diversity and respect for all people,\" Ms Gorman added.\n\nLast year, workers at Whole Foods sued the US supermarket for punishing them for wearing Black Lives Matter masks.\n\nThe federal lawsuit said the firm discriminated against black staff by selectively enforcing its dress code.\n\nHowever, in February, a US District Judge threw out most of the lawsuit, saying Whole Foods and its parent, Amazon, had not engaged in racial discrimination or violated Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act - which specifically prohibits discrimination in the terms and conditions of employment.\n\nA number of the plaintiffs who were fired for not changing their dress code have appealed.", "Mr Bezos flew to space with his brother Mark (L) in July, in the first crewed flight of his New Shepard spacecraft\n\nJeff Bezos's space firm Blue Origin is suing Nasa over a decision to award a $2.9bn (£2.1bn) lunar lander contract to Elon Musk's SpaceX.\n\nThe former Amazon boss's firm said there were \"fundamental issues\" with the deal, calling it unfair.\n\nThe row stems from a decision in April to hand the deal to one company, not two as expected, because of a funding shortfall.\n\nNasa is yet to comment, but it has the backing of a federal watchdog.\n\nIn a court filing on Friday, Blue Origin said it continued to believe that two providers were needed to build the landing system, which will carry astronauts down to the Moon's surface as early as 2024.\n\nIt also accused Nasa of \"unlawful and improper evaluation\" of its proposals during the tender process.\n\n\"We firmly believe that the issues identified in this procurement and its outcomes must be addressed to restore fairness, create competition and ensure a safe return to the Moon for America,\" Blue Origin said.\n\nAt the time of the award, Nasa's human exploration chief, Kathy Lueders, admitted that the space agency's current budget precluded it from selecting two companies. That was after Congress granted it only $850m of the $3.3bn it requested for the project.\n\nNasa also cited the proven record of orbital missions by Elon Musk's SpaceX firm as a factor in the award. Cost is also thought to have played a role: SpaceX's bid was the lowest-priced by some distance.\n\nIn July, Mr Bezos offered to cover up to $2bn of Nasa's costs in order to be reconsidered for the contract, but he was rebuffed.\n\nUS watchdog the Government Accountability Office (GAO), meanwhile, rejected a complaint from Blue Origin and defence contractor Dynetic, saying that Nasa had not \"acted improperly\" in handing the contract to just one firm.\n\nNasa must file a response to the legal action by 12 October. SpaceX is yet to comment on the lawsuit.\n\nUnder its Artemis programme, Nasa hopes to return humans to the moon for the first time since 1972.\n\nIn April, Ms Lueders said: \"This critical step puts humanity on a path to sustainable lunar exploration and keeps our eyes on missions farther into the solar system, including Mars.\"", "The Tesla involved was pictured being removed from the scene of the crash on a recovery vehicle\n\nA child was flown to hospital with serious injuries after six children and a parent were hit by a car at a school.\n\nThe other five children and adult were taken to nearby hospitals, following the crash in the grounds of Ardingly College, West Sussex, on Monday.\n\nA blue Tesla was involved in the collision and Sussex Police said it was investigating the \"ongoing matter\".\n\nThe eight-year-old boy remains in a serious but not life-threatening condition.\n\nHe was flown by air ambulance to St George's Hospital in London after the crash during a \"holiday camp pick-up\", head teacher Ben Figgis said.\n\nThe other six people received treatment for minor injuries.\n\nThe driver of the Tesla, a 47-year-old woman, was uninjured in the collision.\n\nThe seven people were injured on the North Quad, outside the 19th Century school building.\n\nThe crash happened within the school grounds\n\nSupt James Collis, of Sussex Police, said: \"I'd like to thank our emergency services partners and members of the public who assisted at the scene. Our thoughts are with those there yesterday and their families.\n\n\"The cause of the collision will form part of our investigation, and we ask people not to speculate at this time.\"\n\nPolice renewed their appeal for anybody who saw what happened or who has any other information, including dash cam or mobile phone footage, to get in touch.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Matt, Johnny and their friends are happy to use an app or queue at the bar: whichever is fastest\n\nCustomers should think carefully about handing over personal data when ordering food and drink via their mobile phones, the UK's body overseeing data privacy suggests.\n\nApp and web-based ordering has become commonplace during the pandemic.\n\nBut the Information Commissioner's Office told the BBC that customers should be aware they had a choice over whether to share information.\n\nVenues should only ask for data that is \"relevant and necessary\", the ICO said.\n\n\"I think it's too easy to upload an app and straight away put your name, email address, payment details in, without actually understanding fully where that information may be shared and why it's being used,\" said Suzanne Gordon, director of data protection at the ICO.\n\n\"Ultimately this is your data, it's your personal information and you need to be confident when you're handing it over and the reasons why.\"\n\nOnline ordering is popular with many customers, sparing them the crush at the bar and helping to reduce the risk from Covid.\n\nBut they're popular with businesses too, because they speed up the ordering process and provide an additional way to interact with customers. Apps now handle millions of pounds worth of transactions every day.\n\nAnd it looks as though they are here to stay. Apart from in Northern Ireland, where you still have to be served at the table, restaurants and bars across the UK can now return to pre-pandemic style service at the bar or from waiting staff. But most are keeping their online ordering too.\n\nOne group of friends, gathered for a drink in the sunshine at the Courtyard in Manchester, said they were happy either to use the app or to order at the bar, whichever would get their pint to them the fastest. But there were downsides to the apps, they admitted.\n\n\"You end up with 10 different passwords, I've got so many different apps,\" said Johnny. \"You give your postcode or your email, a lot of it seems irrelevant.\"\n\n\"It is irrelevant,\" added Matt. \"But it's a cost we kind of have to pay.\"\n\nBut the ICO said sharing personal data was far from obligatory.\n\n\"Customers need to understand they do have a choice. We're now coming out of the pandemic and there's the ability to order on the app or in the more traditional way,\" said Ms Gordon.\n\n\"I think it is very easy for people just to see the end product, and because they want that, they really don't question the amount of data that they are being asked for,\" she added.\n\nThe UK's four biggest pub chains, representing a quarter of the market - Wetherspoons, Greene King, Mitchells and Butlers and Stonegate - all now have their own in-house apps. The developers behind apps for independent venues say they have seen huge growth during the pandemic.\n\nThey all say they follow the guidelines informing customers of their rights and how their data will be dealt with. But those terms and conditions are unlikely to be closely read by a lot of people.\n\nOver the last year, lots of businesses have suddenly got a mountain of information about their customers that they didn't have access to before. Your local knows your name, an email address, maybe your date of birth, maybe your home address.\n\nFor the bar or pub, that's incredibly valuable information, worth much more than the round you just bought. It tells them what you like drinking, what time you're likely to visit, who you were sitting with and how frequently you reorder.\n\nPerhaps you're not bothered about the offers and discounts sent by them, but you might be more annoyed by calls from other companies, which could be in the small print of the app. Car insurance companies would be very interested in how much and how frequently you drink, while any number of other businesses would love to get hold of your mobile number.\n\nThe law says you can always ask a company to stop sending you spam, but it's a lot easier to make sure you tick or untick the right boxes in the app to start with, or just put the phone down and order in person.\n\nMost apps work by charging a venue approximately 2% to 3% transaction charge per order. In return, the technology can help streamline the ordering process, but can also offer the chance to learn a little about customers' habits and profiles.\n\n\"Hospitality is struggling,\" says Luke Beavon, financial director at one of the independent app providers, GoodEats. \"But the app gives them the ability to follow up with a customer and get them back through the door again.\"\n\nOnce registered, ease of use makes it more likely that customers will have another drink or an additional item, according to Chris Dunkley, director of another independent app, Hopt.\n\n\"Hopt hugely increases spend-per-head for the operator,\" he said.\n\nHowever, hospitality firms that do use the new technology should respect some boundaries, said the ICO's Ms Gordon.\n\n\"If [firms] are asking for data, they need to understand why they are asking for it and they need to make sure it is relevant and necessary,\" she said.\n\n\"It's up to them to make sure it isn't excessive.\"\n\nAlex Mackenzie and Sadra Hosseini, cofounders of ordering app Butlr, say they've reduced the amount of information it asks users to fill in\n\nThe app developers appear to be taking that advice on board.\n\nThe Courtyard, where Matt and Johnny are drinking, uses an app called Butlr, which accounts for about a third of the pub's orders, or more at weekends.\n\nBut the amount of data the app collects has been reduced since it was first launched in 2018, says Butlr co-founder Alex Mackenzie.\n\n\"When we had our first venues go live, it was quite a rigorous sign-up process, but the data we collect from individuals has gradually worn away now,\" said Mr Mackenzie. \"We want to make it as simple and easy as possible.\"\n\nPrask Sutton, chief executive of another app provider, Onvi, said the business kept ordering as simple as possible.\n\n\"We don't believe customers should have to hand over excessive personal information just to grab a pint at the pub. They're going for a drink, not applying for a mortgage.\"", "Taliban fighters have manned checkpoints and are directing traffic\n\nThe Taliban captured Afghanistan's capital Kabul on Sunday, 20 years after they were ousted from power. So what does it look and feel like the day after its fall?\n\nThe Taliban are everywhere, at the checkpoints which used to be official police or army barricades.\n\nThere is not much panic in the city today, as there was yesterday. The Taliban are controlling traffic, they are searching cars, and they are especially searching those vehicles which used to belong to police and the army, all of which they have confiscated.\n\nIf there are Taliban fighters themselves driving those vehicles now, they are stopped at checkpoints, too. They told us that they checked these vehicles to make sure they were not looters and thieves disguised as Taliban.\n\nThe scenes at the airport were catastrophic. On the road there were families, children, young, old, all walking along the 2km (1.2 miles) road. People are struggling to flee this country. Most are just waiting, on the green belt in the middle of the road.\n\nI'm talking about more than 10,000 people at the airport. At the approach to the main entrance gates, there were Taliban with heavy weapons trying to disperse people by shooting in the air. People who wanted to get in were climbing the walls, the gates, even the barbed wire. Every single person was pushing to get in.\n\nPeople are desperate to get into the airport compound\n\nWe spoke to an eyewitness who was stuck at the airport on Sunday. He had a flight to go to Uzbekistan, but it didn't happen. Officials then abandoned the airport. People had arrived without any tickets or passports - they thought they could get on any plane and be able to fly to anywhere else in the world, the eyewitness said.\n\nThousands of people were stuck inside the airport, without food or water. There were many women and children - and disabled people, too.\n\nBut if you go into the city centre, life appears to be normal. There is a lot less traffic, most of the shops are closed. But people look much calmer than yesterday - yesterday, everybody was furious. There was a big traffic gridlock.\n\nI've only seen a few women on the street - some single women as well, without escort. Some were wearing blue burkas, but I also saw some wearing surgical face masks and headscarves. And the Taliban seemed alright with them.\n\nAfghan security forces have melted away, and heavily armed Taliban line the streets\n\nThere is no music on the streets at all. They used to play background music at the hotel, but it has stopped. Staff are scared.\n\nThe city, however, is still carrying on. It is calm. I haven't spoken to many residents, but the local taxi driver I use was kind of alright with the takeover. Surprisingly, I've seen people greeting Taliban militants - saying \"hello, more power to you, best of luck\", that sort of thing.\n\nTaliban fighters seem happy, too - I've spoken to a couple of them, ground soldiers on patrol. We tried to get into the presidential palace but they didn't let us in. They said we needed permission from the high command. But the militants I saw were friendly to us.\n\nI was scared yesterday a bit, fearful there was going to be violence and things like that. But luckily nothing happened. It was so quiet and calm. I couldn't believe that the capital had changed hands after 20 years and it was all so quiet.", "Taliban security guards in Kabul, a year on from their triumphant return to power\n\nThe Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, two decades after being removed from power by a US-led military coalition.\n\nThe hardline Islamist group advanced rapidly across the country, seizing province after province before taking the capital Kabul on 15 August last year, as the Afghan military collapsed.\n\nForeign forces, who had agreed to leave, were stunned by the speed of the advance and had to accelerate their exit. Many Western-backed Afghan government leaders fled, while thousands of their compatriots and foreigners fearing Taliban rule scrambled to find room on flights out of the country.\n\nWithin weeks, the Taliban were in control of all of Afghanistan - something they had not managed to do in their first stint in power between 1996 and 2001.\n\nThe group had struck a deal with the Americans in 2020 for US troops to withdraw, following a bloody but ultimately successful guerrilla campaign lasting many years.\n\nTaliban fighters pictured in Laghman Province last year as they began a lightning offensive to retake the country\n\nUnder the deal, the Taliban committed to national peace talks, which never took place, and to preventing al-Qaeda and other militants from operating in areas that the Taliban controlled.\n\nFollowing the group's return to power, Afghanistan's economy imploded, leaving a huge portion of the population struggling to find enough money to eat and to access other essentials.\n\nBillions of dollars in Afghan assets held abroad are frozen as the international community waits for the Taliban to honour promises still to be met on security, governance and human rights, including allowing all girls to be educated.\n\nThe Taliban, or \"students\" in the Pashto language, emerged in the early 1990s in northern Pakistan following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.\n\nIt is believed that the predominantly Pashtun movement first appeared in religious seminaries - mostly paid for by money from Saudi Arabia - which preached a hardline form of Sunni Islam.\n\nThe promise made by the Taliban - in Pashtun areas straddling Pakistan and Afghanistan - was to restore peace and security and enforce their own austere version of Sharia, or Islamic law, once in power.\n\nFrom south-western Afghanistan, the Taliban quickly extended their influence. In September 1995, they captured the province of Herat, bordering Iran.\n\nExactly one year later, they captured the Afghan capital, Kabul, overthrowing the regime of President Burhanuddin Rabbani - one of the founding fathers of the Afghan mujahideen that resisted the Soviet occupation. By 1998, the Taliban were in control of almost 90% of Afghanistan.\n\nAfghans, weary of the mujahideen's excesses and infighting after the Soviets were driven out, generally welcomed the Taliban when they first appeared on the scene.\n\nTheir early popularity was largely due to their success in stamping out corruption, curbing lawlessness and making the roads and the areas under their control safe for commerce to flourish.\n\nBut the Taliban also introduced or supported punishments in line with their strict interpretation of Sharia law - such as public executions of convicted murderers and adulterers, as well as amputations for those found guilty of theft. Men were required to grow beards and women had to wear the all-covering burka.\n\nThe Taliban also banned television, music and cinema, and disapproved of girls aged 10 and over going to school. They were accused of various human rights and cultural abuses. One notorious example was in 2001, when the Taliban went ahead with the destruction of the famous Bamiyan Buddha statues in central Afghanistan, despite international outrage.\n\nThis time round, there has been no repeat of such excesses, but the Taliban are accused of a range of well-documented abuses, including killing opponents, as well as beating and detaining journalists and Afghans protesting for their rights.\n\nWomen are no longer allowed to go on long-distance journeys without a male chaperone and, while not required to wear the burka, have been ordered to cover their faces in public. Most women are not allowed to work.\n\nPakistan has repeatedly denied that it was the architect of the Taliban enterprise, but there is little doubt that many Afghans who initially joined the movement were educated in madrassas (religious schools) in Pakistan.\n\nPakistan was also one of only three countries, along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which recognised the Taliban when they were in power the first time round in Afghanistan. It was also the last country to break diplomatic ties with the group.\n\nAt one point, a Pakistani offshoot of the Taliban threatened to destabilise Pakistan from areas it controlled in the north-west. One of the most high-profile and internationally condemned of all Pakistani Taliban attacks took place in October 2012, when schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai was shot on her way home in the town of Mingora.\n\nA major military offensive two years later following the Peshawar school massacre greatly reduced the group's influence in Pakistan, though. At least three key figures of the Pakistani Taliban had been killed in US drone strikes, including the group's leader, Hakimullah Mehsud in 2013.\n\nSchoolgirl and rights activist Malala Yousafzai was shot by Taliban gunmen in October 2012\n\nThe attention of the world was drawn to the Taliban in Afghanistan in the wake of the 11 September 2001 World Trade Center attacks in New York. The Taliban were accused of providing a sanctuary for the prime suspects, Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda movement.\n\nOn 7 October 2001, a US-led military coalition launched attacks in Afghanistan: by the first week of December, the Taliban regime had collapsed. The group's then leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, and other senior figures, including Bin Laden, evaded capture despite one of the largest manhunts in the world.\n\nMany senior Taliban leaders reportedly took refuge in the Pakistani city of Quetta, from where they guided the Taliban. But the existence of what was dubbed the \"Quetta Shura\" was denied by Islamabad.\n\nDespite ever higher numbers of foreign troops, the Taliban gradually regained and then extended their influence in Afghanistan, rendering vast tracts of the country insecure, while violence in the country returned to levels not seen since 2001.\n\nThere were numerous Taliban attacks on Kabul and in September 2012, the group carried out a high-profile raid on Nato's Camp Bastion base.\n\nPakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike in 2013\n\nHopes of a negotiated peace were raised in 2013, when the Taliban announced plans to open an office in Qatar. But mistrust on all sides remained high and the violence went on.\n\nIn August 2015, the Taliban admitted they had covered up Mullah Omar's death - reportedly from health problems at a hospital in Pakistan - for more than two years. The following month, the group said it had put aside weeks of infighting and rallied around a new leader, Mullah Mansour, who had been the deputy of Mullah Omar.\n\nAt about the same time, the Taliban seized control of a provincial capital for the first time since their defeat in 2001, taking control of the strategically important city of Kunduz.\n\nMullah Mansour was killed in a US drone strike in May 2016 and replaced by his deputy Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, who remains in control of the group.\n\nIn the year following the US-Taliban peace deal of February 2020 - which was the culmination of a long spell of direct talks - the Taliban appeared to shift their tactics from complex attacks in cities and on military outposts to a wave of targeted assassinations that terrorised Afghan civilians.\n\nThe targets - journalists, judges, peace activists, women in positions of power - suggested that the Taliban had not changed their extremist ideology, only their strategy.\n\nDespite grave concerns from Afghan officials over the government's vulnerability to the Taliban without international support, new US President Joe Biden announced in April 2021 that all American forces would leave the country by 11 September - two decades to the day since the felling of the World Trade Center.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Hibatullah Akhundzada is a religious scholar and he is former head of the Taliban courts\n\nHaving outlasted a superpower through two decades of war, the Taliban began seizing vast swathes of territory, before once again toppling a government in Kabul in the wake of a foreign power withdrawing.\n\nThey swept across Afghanistan in just 10 days, taking their first provincial capital on 6 August. By 15 August, they were at the gates of Kabul.\n\nTheir lightning advance prompted tens of thousands of people to flee their homes, many arriving in the Afghan capital, others heading for neighbouring countries.\n\nThe future for Afghans living under the Taliban's rule remains highly uncertain. While most are relieved war is over, millions are struggling to survive.\n\nNo country has recognised the Taliban government in the year since they returned to power.\n\nThe August 2022 killing in a US drone attack of al-Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul will do nothing to persuade Taliban critics that the group has turned over a new leaf.\n\nHardliners in the movement appear to have the upper hand on issues such as female employment, freedom of speech and secondary education for girls, meaning that desperately needed foreign-held funds are unlikely to be released any time soon.", "Masks will not be required in schools in September\n\nThere is an urgent call for action on ventilation in schools - to slow the spread of Covid-19 - when pupils return, in September.\n\nSix education unions have written to England's education secretary, warning of a steep rise in Covid and \"long Covid\" when pupils return to classes.\n\nRules on keeping pupils in \"bubble groups\" and face masks were relaxed by Gavin Williamson at the end of term.\n\nBetter airflow measures would limit disruption and sickness, unions say.\n\nAnd they are also demanding funding for:\n\nThe Department for Education said: \"We want to ensure schools are both safe and comfortable for students and staff - and good ventilation has consistently been part of government guidance.\n\n\"Areas where ventilation is poor should be proactively identified so that steps can be taken to improve fresh air flow if needed.\"\n\nAnd pointing to a £1.75m pilot scheme in Bradford said it was working to identify cost-effective ways to reduce transmission in communities, and assess the most effective use of proven air purification technologies in school settings.\n\nBut a parliamentary answer revealed no funding had been allocated specifically to school ventilation since January.\n\nThe main education unions - the National Education Union (NEU), NASUWT, Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), GMB, Unison and Unite - have backed the urgent call, along with Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Daisy Cooper.\n\nMany thousands of teachers are already suffering from long Covid, they say.\n\nASCL general secretary Geoff Barton said: \"Government action on ventilation in schools and colleges amounts to little more than recommending that windows are kept open, which is not sustainable in providing a comfortable learning environment in the depths of a British winter.\n\n\"If the government is serious about bringing to an end the educational disruption of the past 18 months then it must provide funding for high-quality ventilation systems as a matter of urgency.\"\n\nCovid left many classes empty, during the past year\n\nMs Cooper said the government \"must provide schools with all the required resources - both funding and support - to install high-quality ventilation systems without further delay\".\n\nThe unions point out many school windows are painted shut and cannot be opened.\n\nIn their letter, they say: \"The benefits of ventilation in the control of airborne diseases are already well understood and accepted.\n\n\"School staff, some of whom will not be double vaccinated, or are in a vulnerable group, are also in some cases still at risk of serious illness.\n\n\"Staff who are fully vaccinated are also still at risk of catching the virus and potentially developing long Covid, which is already afflicting tens of thousands of school staff.\"\n\nNEU joint general secretary Kevin Courtney said: \"It is shocking that, rather than taking concrete steps now to improve the situation, the Department for Education has only just announced a pilot scheme, involving 30 schools in Bradford, to trial the use of air purifiers, with results not due until the end of the year.\n\n\"Eighteen months into the pandemic, and given the accumulated knowledge about ventilation, kicking the issue into the long grass in this way is simply not good enough.\"", "PCR tests for travel have become \"a predictable Covid rip-off\", says the former chairman of the Competition and Markets Authority, Lord Tyrie.\n\nLord Tyrie said the competition regulator had been \"too slow to react\" to complaints about testing providers.\n\nHolidaymakers have objected to high prices and poor service from many of the 400-plus test firms listed on the government's website.\n\nTests cost about £75 on average, but prices can reach hundreds.\n\nLast week, Health Secretary Sajid Javid asked the CMA to investigate \"excessive\" pricing and \"exploitative practices\" among PCR Covid test firms.\n\nInitially, the CMA said it would take up to a month to report back. But after a chorus of objection from the travel industry, the CMA said it was reviewing the situation \"immediately\".\n\nLord Tyrie told the BBC that the CMA \"could and should have been better prepared\".\n\n\"It should either be acting already directly using existing powers. Or if deemed inadequate for the job, it should be advising the government on how to obtain a quick remedy, whether by legislation or by other means,\" he said.\n\n\"This advice should already be with the government.\"\n\nLord Tyrie left the competition watchdog last summer after two years in the post, suggesting the role prevented him leading a more aggressive campaign for change.\n\nHe added: \"The CMA acted much more quickly to quell price-gouging on hand sanitiser and other Covid-related products 18 months ago. Far from building on this success, boldness appears to have taken a back seat.\"\n\nLord Tyrie reflected that \"the CMA is full of able and highly motivated people, keen to tackle detriment like this\".\n\n\"Their energies need to be released from an excess of caution at the highest levels,\" he added.\n\nAt the weekend, the cost of NHS coronavirus tests for international arrivals to the UK was reduced. Test and Trace tests were cut from £88 to £68 for people arriving from green-listed countries, as well as for those coming from amber-listed countries who are fully vaccinated.\n\nMeanwhile, the price of two tests for amber arrivals who have not had both jabs has been cut from £170 to £136.\n\nIt is understood the price cut is an attempt to drive down the cost across the market, so other operators will follow.\n\nCriticism of the government's decision to implement PCR Covid testing for all UK arrivals has been significant from the travel sector.\n\nLast week, major airports including the Manchester Airport Group and Gatwick Airport, along with tour operator Tui, cited the testing policy as a major barrier to travel restarting and the industry recovering.\n\nThe government said its top priority was to protect public health and it continued to work with industry to help them navigate this difficult period.\n\nLord Tyrie said that the slow response of the CMA was likely to mean it was too late to offer a full remedy to the market before the peak holiday season comes to a close and people return to work and school in September.\n\nBut the CMA said: \"These comments are inaccurate.\"\n\nThe watchdog said it gave advice to Department of Health and Social Care officials about the PCR testing market in April and \"we gave further advice to the secretary of state last week\".\n\nA spokesperson for the CMA said: \"We continue to work closely with Department of Health and Social Care in reviewing the market and, as we have made clear, we will not hesitate to take enforcement action ourselves if there are breaches of consumer law.\n\n\"Since the start of the pandemic, the CMA has secured hundreds of millions of pounds in refunds for people who have been treated unfairly, in sectors including holiday accommodation and package travel.\"", "When the Taliban delivered their first news conference since seizing control of Afghanistan on Tuesday, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid was doing most of the talking.\n\nMr Mujahid fielded a wide-range of questions from reporters in the historic press conference, in which he claimed that the rights of women would be respected \"within the framework of Islamic law\".\n\nFor most journalists watching, something else was also significant: it was the first time they had seen his face. For years he has operated in the shadows, only a voice on the end of the phone.\n\nThe BBC's Yalda Hakim says she was \"shocked\" to see the face of a man she had been speaking to for more than a decade, answering the first question from a female journalist.\n\nThe spokesman sought to strike a tone of conciliation, telling another reporter: \"We don't want any internal or external enemies.\"\n\nBut Ms Hakim says this is a far cry from some of the messages she used to receive from him.\n\n\"Some of these texts were hardcore Islamist texts. Some of those you think: 'This guy is bloodthirsty for the Americans, he's bloodthirsty for anyone in the Afghan government.' Then today he sits there and says there will be no reprisals,\" she says.\n\n\"For years he has sent out these bloodthirsty statements and now he's suddenly peace loving? It's hard to reconcile.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Taliban spokesman: \"We will not allow the soil of Afghanistan to be used against anyone\"\n\nIn fact Mr Mujahid was sitting in the seat which until recently belonged to Dawa Khan Menapal, the director of Afghanistan's media and information centre, who was assassinated by Taliban militants earlier this month.\n\nMr Mujahid claimed responsibility at the time and said Mr Menapal \"was killed in a special attack\".\n\nMany other reporters have been tweeting about witnessing Mr Mujahid, including veteran BBC journalist, John Simpson, who called him \"a relatively moderate, pleasant man\".\n\nThis 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 John Simpson 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.\n\nThis 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 2 by Sharif Hassan 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.\n\nBut for years there has been speculation as to whether the faceless spokesman might actually be more than one person.\n\nLyse Doucet, the BBC's chief international correspondent, said these discussions were going on long before the days of social media, when reporters had to call him on a landline. Some have suggested that the man sitting in front of the cameras on Tuesday looked too young to be the same person fielding questions for all those years.\n\n\"There has been speculation for years that it was a made up name, that there were many \"Zabihullahs\" who took turns. Now of course we are all accepting this is THE Zabihullah Mujahid. Maybe he isn't?\" Ms Doucet says.\n\nMs Hakim says the mystery is all part of the Taliban playbook.\n\n\"That's what the Taliban are, they're organised and ideological - nothing is done by accident. To create mystery around a single person, suddenly he appears on screen - you couldn't write the script better,\" she says.\n\nRegardless whether Mr Mujahid is one person or not, Ms Hakim says she was wary of his words on Tuesday despite his efforts to appear measured.\n\n\"The caveat was really the sharia law - that sent chills down my spine,\" she says. \"They still haven't laid out what that looks like.\"\n\n\"That's the thing with the Taliban - they're deceptive, they're charming, they know how to use the right language, but you're never quite sure whether you should believe them or not,\" she says.\n\n\"There is a lot of mystery ... but do we really know who they are?\"", "Helen Macdonald’s animal has been ordered for destruction after twice testing positive for bovine tuberculosis (bTB)\n\nAn alpaca whose life hangs in the balance has received a temporary reprieve, after an urgent High Court hearing was adjourned.\n\nGeronimo twice tested positive for bovine tuberculosis, and the Department of Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) ordered him to be euthanised.\n\nAn application for a temporary injunction to halt the destruction order was heard earlier.\n\nThe judge requested more details and adjourned the case until Wednesday.\n\nMrs Justice Stacey, at the High Court in London, said she would need further information from Geronimo's owner Helen Macdonald and from Government lawyers before she could make her decision.\n\nIf the judge refuses the application, Defra will be able to slaughter Geronimo as there is no further right of appeal for Ms Macdonald.\n\nIf she grants the application, the alpaca will survive until a further hearing can be held which is likely to determine whether there was a material non-disclosure on Defra's part in the earlier proceedings and whether the case should be reopened.\n\nMs Macdonald, who owns a farm at Wickwar, near Bristol, imported Geronimo from New Zealand in 2017.\n\nShe believes the tests are returning false positives, but has been refused permission to have him tested a third time.\n\nMs Macdonald’s lawyers have written to the Environment Secretary to suggest Geronimo’s life could be saved and instead he could be studied for research\n\nEarlier this month she lost her final appeal to save Geronimo and a warrant was signed for his destruction.\n\nRepresenting Ms Macdonald, Catrin McGahey QC told the court it had come to light that other animals subjected to the same testing regime as Geronimo, had shown no signs of the disease after being euthanised.\n\n\"That information absolutely should have been before the two (previous) judges,\" she said.\n\nNed Westaway, for Defra and the Animal and Plant Health Agency, said \"the suggestion of material non-disclosure is, frankly, unfounded\".\n\n\"The applicant has lost repeatedly in this case, in my submission this is a case that has come very much to the end of the road,\" he added.\n\nMr Westaway said Defra would not execute the warrant until the issue had been resolved.\n\nEnvironment Secretary George Eustice said it was an “arduous but necessary endeavour” to cull animals that test positive for bovine tuberculosis (bTB)\n\nLast week the Government insisted all the evidence on the animal's condition had been \"looked at very carefully\".\n\nA Defra spokesman said: \"We are sympathetic to Ms Macdonald's situation, just as we are with everyone with animals affected by this terrible disease.\n\n\"It is for this reason that the testing results and options for Geronimo have been very carefully considered by Defra, the Animal and Plant Health Agency and its veterinary experts, as well as passing several stages of thorough legal scrutiny.\"\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe 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. Boris Johnson says Britain's involvement in Afghanistan was \"right, it was worth it\"\n\nBoris Johnson has said the UK can be \"extremely proud\" of its role in Afghanistan, despite the situation in the country having \"deteriorated\".\n\nThe UK will evacuate the \"vast bulk\" of its embassy staff in the coming days as the Taliban continues to advance.\n\nThe prime minister said there was \"no military solution\" after an emergency Cobra meeting on Friday afternoon.\n\nOn Thursday, the UK said it would send 600 troops to help evacuate British nationals and former Afghan staff.\n\nThousands of civilians have fled the Taliban onslaught, heading for the capital of Kabul.\n\nThe World Food Programme has warned that food shortages are \"dire\", while the UN has urged Afghanistan's neighbours to keep their borders open.\n\nThe militants now control about a third of Afghanistan's provincial capitals, including Herat, Ghazni and Lashkar Gar.\n\nMr Johnson insisted there was no military solution following the gains made by the Taliban in recent days and said that a team of Home Office officials would be sent to step up efforts to relocate Afghans who worked for British forces in the country.\n\n\"It is very difficult obviously, but I think the UK can be extremely proud of what has been done in Afghanistan over the last 20 years,\" he said.\n\nThe prime minister said that thanks to the efforts of the UK armed services there had been no al-Qaeda attacks on the West for \"a very long time\".\n\nHe also added that three million girls and young women in Afghanistan had been educated who otherwise would not have been, during the last 20 years.\n\n\"I think we've got to be realistic about the abilities of the UK or any power to impose a military solution, a combat solution in Afghanistan,\" Mr Johnson said.\n\n\"What we certainly can do is work with all our partners in the region and around the world who share an interest with us in preventing Afghanistan from once again becoming a breeding ground for terror.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lisa Nandy says Afghanistan was a “humanitarian crisis unfolding in front of our eyes”\n\nEarlier, Lisa Nandy, Labour's shadow foreign secretary, told BBC Radio 4's World At One programme there was \"far more\" the UK could do to support the people of Afghanistan and accused the government of \"hiding\".\n\nShe warned the government that cross-party MPs could push to recall Parliament to hold the government to account if it did not show a clear strategy.\n\nMs Nandy said that people in the country felt \"abandoned\" and were looking to the US and UK for \"a level of leadership\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Secunder Kermani reports on life in a town recently taken by the Taliban\n\nHer concerns were echoed by former Conservative Defence Minister Johnny Mercer, who served in Afghanistan.\n\nHe described the situation in the country as a \"world tragedy\" which would have repercussions \"for years to come\".\n\nLib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey has also backed the idea of recalling Parliament \"given the tragedy unfolding before our eyes\" and called on the UN to deploy peacekeepers.\n\nEarlier, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace acknowledged that the country could be \"heading towards civil war\".\n\nHe blamed former US President Donald Trump's \"rotten deal\" with the Taliban in 2020 for the withdrawal.\n\nThe UK government has launched \"Operation Pitting\", to help evacuate British nationals, former UK staff and others who are eligible to relocate to the UK.\n\nMr Wallace said around 600 troops were being sent to Afghanistan to ensure the safe return of about 500 Foreign Office and other UK government officials, along with around 3,000 British citizens working in other roles, such as security guards for aid agencies.\n\nAbout 2,000 Afghan interpreters and \"other people we have an obligation to\" would also be transported to the UK, he said, joining some 3,000 who had already been taken out of the country.\n\nRAF aircraft could be used if needed and the Home Office would also be deploying a small team of officials to assist with processing new visas, the Ministry of Defence said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace: \"I think we are heading towards a civil war\"\n\nThe US said it would have the bulk of the 3,000 troops it is sending to assist with evacuation in place by the end of the weekend. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby added that the US military was \"certainly concerned about the speed with which the Taliban is moving\".\n\nNato said it had discussed the situation on Friday and would aim to support the Afghan government and security forces \"as much as possible\".\n\nSecretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the Taliban would not be recognised by the international community if it took the country by force, adding that there was deep concern about reports of serious human rights abuses.\n\nPeople fleeing the Taliban are flooding into the capital of Kabul\n\nWendy Rayner, whose husband Peter died in action in Helmand province in 2010, said the withdrawal undermined the sacrifice of soldiers who had lost their lives.\n\n\"My husband died to give them a better life, and by them not having a better life, it's taken away his fight,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"All these young people in Afghanistan that are having their families slaughtered because nobody cares, because we've just left them in the lurch - it's just going to create another terror threat. They're going to hate us and I don't blame them.\"\n\nMr Johnson said he did not think the sacrifices made by British forces were \"in vain\".\n\n\"I believe it was right, it was worth it and what we must do now is not turn our backs on Afghanistan,\" he said.", "Navjot Sawhney set up the Washing Machine Project in 2018\n\nThe first batch of 30 hand-cranked washing machines, invented by a student for those living in poverty, has been sent to a camp in northern Iraq.\n\nFormer University of Bath student, Navjot Sawhney, set up the Washing Machine Project in 2018 after being inspired by a salad spinner.\n\nSince then volunteers and businesses have given their time for free to help make the low-cost machines.\n\nMr Sawhney said he was \"so proud\" of what had been achieved.\n\nHe said up to 70% of the world's population do not have access to electric washing machines.\n\nWorking with humanitarian charity Care International he is now aiming to deliver 7,500 of his manual washer and dryers to those most in need in 10 countries including Lebanon, Kenya and India over the next three years.\n\nMr Sawhney came up with the idea after quitting his engineering job in Wiltshire to volunteer in India, where he saw the struggle of his next-door neighbour - a woman called Divya.\n\n\"It was through the frustration of seeing her daily struggles, hand washing her and her family's clothes, that I promised her a manual washing machine,\" he said.\n\nThe manual washer and dryer is designed to be \"robust, simple to use and easily repairable\"\n\nNamed the Divya, in her honour, the \"robust, simple to use and easily repairable\" machine has been tested in countries around the world.\n\nMr Sawhney said the reaction has been \"phenomenal\".\n\n\"Hand washing clothes is very time consuming, and nobody likes hand washing their clothes, so as a problem everybody understands it,\" he said.\n\n\"We've been so lucky. We've had universities, companies and people who just want to give up their time, and that's such a humbling thought for me.\"\n\nMatt Mew said his company wanted to help make life easier for those living in poverty\n\nAmong those helping out is a Bristol design and fabrication firm, Huxlo, which makes all of the PVC and wooden parts.\n\n\"We gave up our time to make this happen, because it's a really worthwhile project,\" said Matt Mew, from Huxlo.\n\n\"It's super rewarding to see this go from just a sketch to an actual product going out and helping people.\"\n\nThe University of Bath, where Mr Sawhney studied, has also helped turn his designs into reality.\n\n\"We've been able to throw some ideas back to him [Mr Sawhney] and very quickly come up with some solutions,\" said university technician Owen Rutter.\n\nOwen Rutter, a technician at the University of Bath, said they have been \"on call\" to help with the project\n\nMr Sawhney, said he will be heading to Iraq at the beginning of September to help distribute the machines.\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "In less than a week, the Taliban have taken over the capitals of more than a quarter of Afghanistan’s provinces, advancing at an unexpectedly rapid pace.\n\nAfghan forces say they are battling to regain control of some of the cities.\n\nThe US has been launching air strikes against the Taliban in parts of the country.\n\nThe violence has resulted in an acute humanitarian crisis – tens of thousands displaced and barely enough aid to supply even basic resources.", "Some local councils are supporting plans for new roads despite declaring a \"climate emergency\"\n\nMore than a third of English councils support policies that could increase carbon emissions despite having declared a \"climate emergency\", BBC research suggests.\n\nRoad building and airport expansion are among examples provided by 45 out of 121 questionnaire respondents who say they have passed climate motions.\n\nEnvironmentalists say the findings reveal \"inconsistencies\" in approach.\n\nLocal leaders insist they are taking action but need more funding.\n\nBetween March and June the BBC surveyed all 149 top tier councils in England, of which 136 responded.\n\nThe government has committed to cutting greenhouse gases to almost zero by 2050 - this target is known as net zero.\n\nThis means reducing emissions as far as possible, then balancing out any remaining releases by, for example, tree planting. The similar term of carbon neutrality refers to doing this for CO2 emissions rather than all greenhouse gases.\n\nThe BBC's findings highlight the tensions faced by councils trying to balance economic, social and environmental challenges.\n\nLeeds, for example, aims to become a carbon neutral city by 2030, but the city council also backs plans to upgrade Leeds Bradford Airport.\n\nHelen Hayden, councillor for infrastructure and climate for Leeds City Council, told BBC News: \"It would seem like an inconsistency. I would say that in terms of carbon emissions the airport accounts for 1.5% of our carbon emissions.\n\n\"So we do have to keep it in context and not let it distract us from doing all those things that will actually tackle the bigger issues that are in our city.\n\n\"We need that National Policy framework so that Leeds Bradford airport does not feel it is being punished as opposed to other airports in the country - and we can therefore work with them to get our green and sustainable future.\"\n\nOur survey covers England, but you would find similar results in many places round the globe.\n\nPoliticians face unenviable tensions. On one hand, there's concern for existing businesses and jobs.\n\nOn the other hand, there's the plea from scientists for radical emissions cuts.\n\nIt's taken decades for the climate message to be heard among the clamour of voters' demands for housing, transport and education.\n\nMany councils and governments are now on a path towards curbing emissions - many are just moving far too slowly.\n\nTake Leeds. It aspires to be a leading green city, and in many ways it is. But recently, after a marathon debate, its councillors backed an upgrade of the city's airport.\n\nThis will increase the emissions the council is committed to eliminate.\n\nCouncillors backed it because it will improve the image of the city - and because they feared holidaymakers would use another airport.\n\nTower Hamlets is committed to achieving net zero carbon by 2025, but has also backed the construction of the Silvertown Tunnel under the Thames.\n\n\"East London has suffered from a lack of river crossings and the Silvertown Tunnel will offer the prospect of a solution to the terrible air quality and congestion problems at Blackwall Tunnel,\" a spokesperson for the council said.\n\nShropshire Council is supporting efforts to make the county carbon neutral by 2030, while also pursuing the delivery of an £87m North West Relief Road in Shrewsbury.\n\nHowever, it adds that the ring road would bring environmental benefits through new walking and cycling routes.\n\nPressure is growing on the government ahead of the Glasgow climate summit in November\n\nDr Neil Jennings, partnership development manager at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London, said many councils have \"shown leadership\" but there are \"apparent inconsistencies\" in approach.\n\n\"It's hard to see how airport expansion or investment in major new road building are consistent with net zero aspirations,\" he said.\n\nThe National Audit Office said in a recent report that government support for councils trying to tackle climate change was inadequate and under-funded.\n\nThe environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth is calling for the introduction of a legal duty for councils to take UK climate change targets into account when considering planning applications.\n\n\"We won't come close to confronting the climate crisis if coal mines and airport expansions are approved,\" it said.\n\nEnvironmental groups are calling for councils to have a legal duty to consider climate change in planning applications\n\nAlongside their declarations, councils highlighted hundreds of green projects to tackle climate change.\n\nSome of the more innovative ideas include the funding of two deep geothermal power projects in Cornwall, per gram CO2 charges for parking permits in Kensington and Chelsea, turning Newcastle into a \"15 minute city\" requiring minimal travel, one of the longest living green walls in the UK in Liverpool, and the trialling of electric car hire at a library in Staffordshire.\n\nCouncils that had not declared a climate \"emergency\" insisted they were still committed to tackling climate change.\n\nWhile some councils reported that the pandemic had had a positive effect on their plans to tackle change, more said the impact had been negative.\n\nIn Dorset, the drop in road traffic brought about an estimated 27% reduction in carbon emissions, according to the council.\n\n\"This shows us as a society what is possible in a short time when 'business as usual' is adjusted. We must not lose some of these gains and rush back to how things were before the pandemic,\" it added.\n\nHowever, St Helen's Council said the pandemic had had a \"major impact\" on council resources.\n\n\"The commitments remain the same but progressing actions in respect of climate change have stalled,\" it added.\n\nCouncils say they need more funding to plan for decarbonisation\n\nThe Isle of Wight Council said the Covid-19 response had delayed the delivery of its climate strategy, meaning the original aim of achieving net zero carbon emissions on the island by 2030 is likely to be \"pushed back\" to 2040.\n\nCllr David Renard from the Local Government Association said: \"Net zero can only be achieved if decarbonisation happens in every place, community and household. Long-term funding for councils would mean they can properly plan ahead on the needs of their local communities as a whole to support this.\"\n\nA government spokesperson said councils had already been provided with billions in funding.\n\nIf you want to find out more, BBC Radio 5 Live's series Leeds: City On A Mission is focusing on the community for a year as residents, businesses and public authorities try to reach net-zero by 2030. You can follow the story online or on 5 Live.", "Maxine Davison was shot and killed by her son, Jake, in her home\n\nThe mother of the Plymouth gunman, Maxine Davison, and three-year-old Sophie Martyn have been named among the five victims of his shooting spree.\n\nMs Davison, 51, was shot and killed by her 22-year-old son Jake Davison at her home on Biddick Drive, Plymouth, on Thursday evening.\n\nDavison went on to kill three-year-old Sophie, her father Lee Martyn, 43, Stephen Washington and Kate Shepherd.\n\nHis attack lasted about six minutes before he turned the gun on himself.\n\nIn online videos Davison spoke of being \"beaten down\" and \"defeated by life\".\n\nAll of those who died lived in the Keyham area of Plymouth, Devon and Cornwall Police said.\n\nSophie Martyn, three, and her father Lee were among Davison's victims\n\nA large crowd has gathered for a vigil following the fatal shootings.\n\nPeople laid flowers and held candles in North Down Crescent Park in Keyham to remember those killed by Davison.\n\nDozens of tributes have already been placed on the grass, with more people continuing to arrive.\n\nCrowds arrived for a vigil in North Down Crescent Park as night fell\n\nResidents gathered in North Down Crescent Park to remember those killed in the shooting\n\nOfficers are continuing to investigate 13 scenes within a cordon that is expected to remain in place throughout much of the weekend.\n\nHaving killed his mother, Davison left the property and immediately shot and killed Mr Martyn and his daughter on the street.\n\nStephen Washington, 59, was also killed, along with Kate Shepherd, 66, who was injured at the scene and died later at Derriford Hospital.\n\nChief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police, Shaun Sawyer, said Davison was a licensed firearms holder and witnesses described the weapon he used as a \"pump action shotgun\".\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said the issue of how Davison came to legally own a gun should be \"properly investigated\" as he described the shooting as an \"absolutely appalling\" incident.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson: My thoughts are very much with the families of those who have lost their lives\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it had received preliminary information that Davison's firearm and licence were returned to him in early July this year.\n\nThe certificate and shotgun had been removed from him by police in December 2020 following an allegation of assault in September 2020, the watchdog said.\n\nThe IOPC has said it will investigate Devon and Cornwall Police's decision-making in relation to Davison's possession of a shotgun and shotgun certificate.\n\nRegional IOPC Director David Ford said: \"The investigation will also consider whether the force had any information concerning Mr Davison's mental health and if so, if this information was appropriately considered.\"\n\nJake Davison, 22, killed five people before turning the gun on himself\n\nPolice said the incident, the worst mass shooting in Britain since 2010, was not terror-related. However, Davison made references to \"incels\" in some online social media videos.\n\nIncels are members of misogynistic online groups of \"involuntary celibate\" men, who blame women for their sexual failings and who have been linked to a number of violent acts around the world.\n\nDavison had posted hate-filled online rants about single mothers and about his own mother in particular, calling her \"vile, dysfunctional and chaotic\".\n\nLocal resident Bert Pinkerton told the BBC he walked past the gunman on the street.\n\n\"I looked down, walked around the corner, the bloke was walking towards me with a black rifle. I could smell the gunfire.\"\n\nHe said Davison had a \"vacant stare\" and he felt lucky to be alive. \"It could have been me,\" he said.\n\nNeighbours Paris and Billy told the BBC they were \"heartbroken\" to find out the youngest victim of the gunman was aged three.\n\nParis said: \"I feel devastated for the family it makes everything worse being a child.\n\nShe added: \"Nothing's ever going to be the same especially when it's over the road.\"\n\nBilly said: \"It's going to be different here forever now I think.\"\n\nAnother local woman said she hid under a pool table to avoid the \"sheer violence\" after hearing gunshots.\n\nPeggy Holliday took cover in a nearby pub and \"literally clung underneath one of the pool tables for dear life\", she told ITV News West Country.\n\n\"It felt like I was being hunted,\" she said.\n\nDozens of flowers, cards and soft toys have been left in tribute to the victims near the scene.\n\nOne note read: \"Rest in peace. Thoughts and prayers with you all. A tragic loss. Such beautiful souls. Love to all.\"\n\nPeople have been laying flowers and cards at different locations around the police cordon\n\nFlags in Plymouth are being flown at half-mast following the atrocity, while Smeaton's Tower will be lit up as a mark of respect to the victims on Friday night.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Daniela Espirito Santo reported her boyfriend seven times in less than a year before her death in 2020\n\nNo standards were breached by police when a woman died while on hold reporting a domestic assault, a watchdog has said.\n\nDaniela Espirito Santo, 23, from Grantham, reported partner Julio Jesus for attacking her while on bail for another assault the same day.\n\nHe was charged with manslaughter but that was dropped over lack of evidence linking the attack and her death.\n\nHe was instead charged with assault and jailed for 10 months.\n\nA report by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which was leaked to the New York Times, detailed seven calls from Ms Espirito Santo about her partner between May 2019 and April 2020.\n\nDuring her final 999 call on 8 April 2020, she reported being attacked hours after Jesus was released on police bail for an assault earlier that day in which he pinned her down and pushed his arm against her throat.\n\nThe 999 call handler deemed the call non-urgent as Jesus had left the home and told Ms Espirito Santo to ring back on the non-emergency 101 number.\n\nEight minutes later, when the non-emergency call handler answered, all she could hear were the distraught cries of a baby.\n\nWhen police forced entry to Ms Espirito Santo's flat, they found her slumped on the sofa cradling her six-month-old son.\n\nDaniela Espirito Santo died while on hold to report a second attack by her partner in one day\n\nFollowing her death, Julio Jesus was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.\n\nA post-mortem examination found Ms Espirito Santo had died from a pre-existing heart condition and that there was a possible link between the stress of the assault and her heart failing.\n\nHowever, after further reviewing medical evidence, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it did not believe it could sufficiently prove \"an evidential link\" between the assault and her death and dropped the manslaughter charge.\n\nA spokeswoman for the CPS said: \"Julio Jesus was originally charged with the manslaughter of Daniela Espirito Santo on the basis that his actions that day triggered a fatal complication from a pre-existing heart condition.\n\n\"As the case neared trial, and following review of further expert medical reports, it became apparent we could not prove an evidential link between Ms Santo's tragic heart failure and what occurred that day between her and Mr Jesus.\n\n\"We contacted Ms Santo's family to explain the way the evidence in this case led to this conclusion. Our thoughts and sympathies are with her loved ones at this difficult time,\" the spokeswoman added.\n\nInstead, Jesus was convicted for two assaults and jailed.\n\nCharly Price-Wallace, a friend of Ms Espirito Santo's, has called for greater protection for victims of domestic abuse who are scared to press charges against their partners.\n\n\"They had record of seven incidents which contained 10 attacks that Dani had disclosed and yet didn't see a pattern or do anything about it.\n\n\"We need to make sure her name means something - that she didn't die in vain.\"\n\nCharly Price-Wallace says she wants more to be done to protect vulnerable domestic abuse victims scared to press charges\n\nCopies of police reports in the IOPC investigation show how the abuse escalated over the course of a year from threats to kill, to controlling and coercive behaviour and strangulation.\n\nThe IOPC also found that Lincolnshire Police had not failed in any of their standards during multiple contacts with Ms Espirito Santo.\n\nHowever, the IOPC said there was a \"learning recommendation\" in relation to the need for a force-wide written policy on when to transfer calls directly to the non-emergency 101 service rather than asking people to call back themselves, and any actions to be taken by 999 operators when taking that action.\n\nA spokeswoman for Lincolnshire Police said it would not be possible to comment until the conclusion of an inquest into Ms Espirito Santo's death.\n\nA Domestic Homicide Review, which is a multi-agency review of the circumstances in which a person's death has, or appears to have, resulted from violence, abuse or neglect by a person to whom they were in an intimate personal relationship, is under way.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Devon and Cornwall Police Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer: \"This was a truly shocking event\"\n\nJake Davison, who killed five people, including a young girl, in Plymouth was a licensed firearms holder, police have revealed.\n\nThe 22-year-old shot two women, two men and the three-year-old girl in a deadly six-minute spree in the Keyham area of the city on Thursday evening.\n\nPolice said the incident, the worst mass shooting in Britain since 2010, was not terror-related.\n\nIn online videos Davison spoke of being \"beaten down\" and \"defeated by life\".\n\nEmergency services were called to Biddick Drive shortly after 18:00 BST on Thursday. Five people, including Davison, died at the scene and one died later in hospital.\n\nDevon and Cornwall Police Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer said Davison was a firearms licence holder.\n\nHe said the weapon used in the shooting had been described by witnesses as a \"pump action shotgun\" but police were not confirming that at this stage.\n\nMr Sawyer said a firearm had been recovered from the scene and officers were not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.\n\nHe said: \"We believe we have an incident that is domestically related, that has spilled into the street and seen several people in Plymouth losing their lives in extraordinarily tragic circumstances.\"\n\nJake Davison, 22, killed five people before turning the gun on himself\n\nThe police received calls to an address on Biddick Drive at 18:11 BST and armed and unarmed officers arrived with six minutes.\n\nMr Sawyer said \"multiple shots have been fired from a firearm during that six-minute-or-so period\".\n\nHe said Davison murdered a 51-year-old woman who was known to him, with police believing there may be a familial relationship.\n\nHe then went out on to the street, where \"he immediately shot and killed a very young girl. He also shot and killed the male relative of that girl\", who was aged 43.\n\nDavison then shot another woman, 53, and a man, 33, on Biddick Drive who remain in hospital with injuries \"not thought to be life-threatening\".\n\nHe next went into a park, where he shot a 59-year-old man who died at the scene, and then moved to Henderson Place where he shot a woman, 66, who later died at Derriford Hospital.\n\n\"Eyewitnesses have told us that then Mr Davison turned the gun on himself taking his own life,\" said Mr Sawyer.\n\nThe police are working at 13 scenes and said they would examine Davison's computer hard drive and social media posts as part of the investigation.\n\nMr Sawyer said \"no motive\" had been identified at present.\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it had received a mandatory referral from the Devon and Cornwall force.\n\nThe referral was in relation to the shooting as well as prior police contact with Davison, including the force's role and actions regarding firearms licensing.\n\nGun laws in the UK are sometimes described as some of the strictest in the world and a certificate issued by the police is needed to possess, buy or acquire a firearm or shotgun, and ammunition.\n\nIn the online videos Davison said he was socially isolated, struggled to meet women and made references to \"incels\" - the misogynistic online groups of \"involuntary celibate\" men, who blame women for their sexual failings and who have been linked to a number of violent acts around the world.\n\nSigning off on an 11-minute video, which appears to be the last he posted, Davison said: \"I know it's a movie but I like to think sometimes I'm the Terminator or something. Despite reaching almost total system failure he keeps trying to accomplish his mission.\"\n\nPosting on Reddit three weeks ago, Davison, who claimed to have got a job as a crane operator, also discussed firearms laws.\n\nHe wrote \"mass shootings are new phenomena that cannot be directly blamed on guns\".\n\n\"Plus there are a lot more guns in Europe and the UK than people think,\" he added.\n\nElsewhere on the site, posting in a group for virgins, he complained about being a \"virgin\" and stated: \"I can't attract women at all\".\n\nYouTube and Facebook have confirmed accounts belonging to Davison have been removed for violating their policies.\n\nBabcock International, a security and defence engineering company with sites in Plymouth, confirmed Davison had worked as an apprentice since August 2020.\n\nChief executive David Lockwood said he was \"shocked and deeply saddened by the events\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport MP Luke Pollard said the community was ''trying to make sense'' of events\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted: \"My thoughts are with the friends and family of those who lost their lives and with all those affected by the tragic incident in Plymouth last night.\n\n\"I thank the emergency services for their response.\"\n\nPlymouth Sutton and Devonport MP Luke Pollard added it was \"unspeakably awful\" and he was \"utterly devastated\" to learn one of those killed was a child.\n\nPlymouth City Council said flags in the city were flying at half-mast, while Smeaton's Tower on Plymouth Hoe would be lit on Friday night as a mark of respect for the victims.\n\nPeople were asked to stay inside and follow police advice as the emergency services responded.\n\nEyewitness Sharron, who lives nearby and did not want to give her full name, said what happened was \"horrendous and so sad\".\n\n\"Firstly, there was shouting, followed by gunshots - three possibly four to begin with,\" she said.\n\n\"This was when the shooter kicked in the door of a house and randomly started shooting. He ran from the house shooting as he ran and proceeded to shoot at a few people in the linear park up from the drive.\"\n\nShe said the \"shooter proceeded along Royal Navy Avenue still shooting\".\n\nShock is the word I've heard over and over again from local people.\n\nI've spoken to several who live here and all of them have said: \"It could have been me.\"\n\nOne father told me he had his little girl in his car when he saw people in the road he was about to drive down waving their arms at him.\n\nThey were saying: \"Don't come down here, there's a shooter, get away.\"\n\nOther people said their phones have been ringing non-stop with people checking they're safe.\n\nIt is a quiet community normally, but one parish priest said everything felt particularly quiet today as people reflect on what's happened.\n\nJohnny Mercer, MP for Plymouth Moor View, described Thursday's events as \"tragic\" and \"devastating\".\n\nHe said: \"There were some fairly traumatic aspects to this incident and as a community now need to come together and try and understand it as much as we can.\"\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace said he had spoken to Home Secretary Priti Patel and was assured the situation was \"in hand\".\n\n\"I think it a very sad and tragic event and my thoughts are with the families who have relatives and friends who have lost their lives.\"\n\nHe added: \"We should recognise the brave police officers who went into a situation with an armed man and under their own threat took decisive action.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Home Secretary Priti Patel says she'll be looking for answers about the shootings that left six dead.\n\nLeader of Plymouth City Council Nick Kelly said nothing in his \"living memory\" compared with the shooting.\n\nHe said: \"Today our city is mourning and my heart goes out to all those who are directly affected by this incident.\"\n\nThe Bishop of Plymouth the Right Reverend Nick McKinnel said the city had been \"left with a legacy of grief and trauma, as well as great anxiety\" that would \"affect people's lives forever\".\n\nMr Pollard said Ford Primary School and St Mark's Church on Cambridge Road were open from 09:00 BST as a \"safe place for our community to come together\".\n\nOn his YouTube account, now taken down, Davison bemoaned his personal appearance, talked about feeling isolated and his struggle to meet women.\n\nAt times he launched into tirades using terms coined by misogynistic online groups of \"involuntary celibate\" men, known as \"incels\".\n\nThis internet sub-culture encourages men to blame dissatisfaction with their looks, romantic relationships and their lives on women, and the men who succeed in having relationships with them.\n\nDavison refers to these men as \"Chads\" in his video blogs - and comparisons are not just about personality or confidence, some incels believe they are genetically disadvantaged compared to these men.\n\nHe uses other phrases linked to the incel community as well - including \"the blackpill overdose\". The black pill worldview is essentially the belief that if you're unattractive, you don't deserve love and you are destined to fail and become more unhappy every time you pursue it.\n\nRead more here on the the incel community and the involvement of at least two young men in the US with previous mass killings.\n\nPolice and crime commissioner for Devon and Cornwall, Alison Hernandez said many in the community \"would have witnessed what occurred, right in front of their eyes, where they live\".\n\n\"Absolutely devastated this morning,\" she said. \"A lot of us are speechless.\"\n\nThe last mass shooting in Britain happened in 2010 when taxi driver Derrick Bird killed 12 people in Cumbria.\n\nDevon and Cornwall Police encouraged anyone who witnessed the shooting or who feels affected by it to visit the Victim Support website or call 0808 1689111. BBC Action Line also has information and support.\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nHave you been personally affected by this story? If you witnessed what happened, you can contact us by emailing: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.\n• None Suspected gunman and five others die in shooting\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Bennett, a seven-decade jazz veteran, most recently had renewed success with Lady Gaga\n\nVeteran US singer Tony Bennett has retired from performing at the age of 95, his son has said.\n\nIt brings the curtain down on a glittering seven-decade career for the crooner, who revealed earlier this year he has Alzheimer's disease.\n\nBennett performed two sold-out shows with Lady Gaga at New York's Radio City Music Hall last week.\n\nHis son Danny said the \"hard decision\" to cancel the remaining 2021 tour dates had been made on \"doctors' orders\".\n\nHe told Variety: \"His continued health is the most important part of this.\" He added that Bennett's wife Susan supported her husband stepping away from the stage.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by LadyGagaVEVO This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’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. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nDanny, who has been his father's manager for more than 40 years, explained that while Bennett's singing voice remained strong, the pressures of touring meant he \"gets tired\".\n\n\"Doing concerts now is just too much for him,\" he said. \"We don't want him to fall on stage, for instance - something as simple as that.\n\n\"We're not worried about him being able to sing. We are worried, from a physical standpoint... about human nature. Tony's 95.\"\n\nBennett has been a star since 1951, scoring hits with songs including I Left My Heart In San Francisco and The Shadow Of Your Smile. He has won 18 Grammys and sold more than 50 million records.\n\nSome of his biggest successes have come in the last decade, including the chart-topping duets album with Lady Gaga, Cheek To Cheek, which won a Grammy in 2015.\n\nThe pair recently recorded a follow-up Love For Sale, which is due for release in October. Last week's final live performances were held in support of the forthcoming album.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Devon and Cornwall Police say a young girl was among the five people killed by a gunman in Plymouth on Thursday evening.\n\nChief Constable Shaun Sawyer outlined what happened, calling it ''a truly shocking event\".", "North Korean state television has aired its first coverage of the Tokyo Olympic Games - two days after the closing ceremony.\n\nAccording to local news reports, Korean Central Television aired 70 minutes of a women's football match between the UK and Chile this week.\n\nThe match was actually played weeks earlier on 21 July.\n\nNorth Korea has previously aired the Olympic Games a few days after its opening ceremony, according to Yonhap.\n\nAccording to specialist site NK News, the women's match was aired without commentary and in low resolution - leaving it unclear how the footage was obtained.\n\nIn past years, the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union has offered Pyongyang footage of the games through a partnership with South Korean broadcaster SBS, according to US tech blog North Korea Tech.\n\nIt is not clear where they got this year's footage from.\n\nNorth Korea did not send a delegation to the Tokyo 2020 Games, saying it wanted to protect its athletes from Covid-19.\n\nPyongyang says it has no cases of the virus but experts say this is unlikely.\n\nThe decision not to participate put an end to South Korea's hopes of using the Games to engage with the North.\n\nIn 2018, North and South Korea entered a joint team at the Winter Olympics which led to a series of historic summits.\n\nNorth Korea had sent 22 athletes to the Winter Olympics in South Korea - along with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister, Kim Yo-jong - a move which helped initiate diplomacy with South Korea and the US.\n\nThis year marks the first time North Korea has missed a Summer Olympics since 1988, when it boycotted the Seoul Games during the Cold War.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 6 and 13 August.\n\nSend your photos to scotlandpictures@bbc.co.uk. Please ensure you adhere to the BBC's rules regarding photographs that can be found here.\n\nPlease also ensure you follow current coronavirus guidelines and take your pictures safely and responsibly.\n\nConditions of use: If you submit an image, you do so in accordance with the BBC's terms and conditions.\n\nThe Milky Way seen through a croft gate on the Isle of Benbecula. Photographed by Seonaidh MacInnes, 16, and sent in by his dad Neil.\n\nAlan Urquhart sent in this image. He said: \"My daughter Isabella enjoying the waves at Machir Bay in Islay.\"\n\nGlyn Booton's view from his living room in Roberton. Glyn said: \"Fantastic colours and lasted for a good 10 minutes.\"\n\n\"Looking up at Edinburgh through a mobile phone,\" said George Current of his image.\n\nTracy Smith, from Newton Mearns, said her picture at Inveraray contrasts the older style of boat in the foreground and a more modern luxury boat in the background.\n\nAndrew Patrick said of his photograph: \"I took this sunset over Loch Fyne from Ardrishaig, with a peach-toned moon, having just moved to the area.\"\n\n\"A splash of colour on the way to Moulin, north of Pitlochry,\" said David Hay of his image.\n\nSunrise from Craighouse on the Isle of Jura by Gus Bowman, from Burntisland.\n\nMonique Alexander took this picture of a happy looking frog at Muir of Dinnet nature reserve.\n\nAdam Bienkowski took this image of a funnel cloud from his dining room window in Glasgow. He said it got quite large but did not appear to connect with the ground.\n\nKevin Monk said of his photo: \"St Kilda, edge of the world. Third attempt trying to reach it. Well worth the wait.\"\n\nAn atmospheric sky taken by David Currie from Millennium View, Kelso.\n\nJennifer Lemon took her image in Glasgow during the weekend's thunderstorms.\n\nIan Burns' picture of a salmon leaping at the Falls of Shin in the Highlands.\n\nAmanda McIntosh captured this shot of lightning at Gairloch harbour.\n\nNoctilucent clouds over St Abb's Head in an image sent in by Euan and Helen Gibson.\n\nJohn Slater described his image as a storm in a birdbath. He said: \"The birdbath is on the balcony of my mother’s flat in Edinburgh. The thunderstorm brought heavy drops of rain to derange the water.\"\n\nA robin enjoying the sunshine near Inverurie in Colin Gerrie's photo.\n\nValentina Kretzschmar, who sent in this picture, said: \"We were awed by the idyllic scenery of the Sound of Mull during our late evening walk.\"\n\nMark Reynolds' snap of a rainy day on the beautiful Isle of Lismore.\n\nRussell Hart, from Glasgow, took this photograph of a sunset at Corrour.\n\nAnthony O'Loughlin said of his image: \"A pensive puffin at Brough of Birsay, Orkney, just before they left for the year.\"\n\n\"Always a delight to see otters in Edinburgh and last Sunday was no exception,\" said Tom Kelly, adding: \"This wee otter is the latest addition to the Water of Leith’s growing otter family.\"\n\nBeverley Foster's view from her boat's wheelhouse across the bay at Lochgoilhead as heavy rain fell.\n\nDot Reid said: \"Fabulous sun and blue skies met us at the outdoor pool at Tarlair, Macduff. The reflection of the old pavilion and hills onto the very calm and now unused pool was magnificent.\"\n\nHannah Borhan took this photo on a walk up the Eildon Hills in the Scottish Borders. She said: \"Lovely heather flowers give the hills a purple tint.\"\n\nLyndsey Fairnie, who sent in this image, said: \"Ice to see you: My family and I have loved spotting ice houses on our travels around Scotland this summer. This one was captured in Dunbeath.\"\n\nDavid Ramsay took his photograph on Mull. He said: \"An otter waking from a nap after hunting all morning.\"\n\nKathleen Erin-Lawson said of her image: \"This is our youngest daughter enjoying the wild flowers in front of the Belhaven Big Top at North Berwick’s Fringe by the Sea festival.\"\n\nAlison Whitten, from Newcastle, was on a family holiday in the Highlands when she took this image of Eilean Donan Castle. She said: \"It was a real wow moment when we saw this.\"\n\nMark Woodliff took his shot while watching Dumbarton FC. He said: \"When the football result doesn’t go your way but the sunset doesn’t disappoint.\"\n\nSimon Gillespie, from Wormit, photographed this male hawker dragonfly at Morton Lochs nature reserve.\n\nGerry Doherty captured this scene. He said: \"Very strange sunset in Dumbarton - storm clouds, blue skies,red skies and a red rainbow plus raining.\"\n\nSwans having a “difference of opinion” at Pitfour Lake, Mintlaw, in this picture from Charlie Scott, from New Pitsligo.\n\nDominic Colella, from Clynder. Argyll, captured this image of a rainbow and a thunderstorm.\n\nStuart McKenzie, of Cardross, snapped this image of Whitehills from Banff Links Beach.\n\nColin Denholm's image of the locomotive, the Aberdonian, heading into Stonehaven.\n\nBruce Cairns took this shot. He said: \"I've been visiting my dad in hospital in Inverness this week - thank you to NHS Scotland. I stopped for a couple of shots of dusk light and the crescent moon over the Moray Firth near Ardersier on my way back from the hospital to my hotel. It was very peaceful.\"\n\nGordon Stewart, from Irvine, visited Fingal's Cave in Staffa. He said: \"Who could fail to be impressed by the massive basalt columns?\"\n\nRoss Miller, from Duns, went up into the Lammermuir Hills to take pictures of the stars and was surprised to capture the trail of a Perseid meteor.\n\nPlease ensure that the photograph you send is your own and if you are submitting photographs of children, we must have written permission from a parent or guardian of every child featured (a grandparent, auntie or friend will not suffice).\n\nIn contributing to BBC News you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way, including in any media worldwide.\n\nHowever, you will still own the copyright to everything you contribute to BBC News.\n\nAt no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe the law.\n\nYou can find more information here.\n\nAll photos are subject to copyright.", "Forensic teams are gathering evidence after six people died following a shooting in Plymouth on Thursday.\n\nDevon and Cornwall Police tweeted; \"there have been a number of fatalities at the scene and several other casualties are receiving treatment. A critical incident has been declared. The area has been cordoned off and police believe the situation is contained.\"", "There have been 31 Covid-19 related deaths registered in Northern Ireland in the week to last Friday (6 August), according to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra).\n\nThat is 13 more than the previous week. The agency's total now stands at 3,046.\n\nThe Department of Health's total for the same date, based on a positive test result being recorded, was 2,217.\n\nNisra figures are higher because it records mentions of the virus on death certificates.\n\nThis means where the recorded death may or may not have been confirmed by way of a test.\n\nOn the agency's measure, around two-thirds of Covid-19 related deaths have occurred in hospital (2,031), including the deaths of 239 care home residents.\n\nAnother 784 people have died in care homes throughout the pandemic.\n\nNisra says around two-thirds of Covid-19 related deaths have occurred in hospital\n\nThe total of 1,023 means care home residents account for just over a third (33.5%) of all Covid-19 related deaths.\n\nCovid-19 related deaths were also recorded in hospices (0.5%) and other residential locations (7.4%).\n\nPeople aged 75 and over account for more than three-quarters of all Covid-19 related registered deaths (75.9%) between 19 March 2020 and 6 August 2021.\n\nArmagh City Banbridge and Craigavon (12.1%) and Mid-Ulster (8.2%) local government districts have now recorded higher proportions of all Covid-19 related deaths.\n\nThat is compared with their share of all deaths in Northern Ireland (10.3% and 6.5% respectively).\n\nThe provisional number of deaths from all causes registered in the week ending 6August was 342.\n\nThat is 49 more than the previous week, and 69 more than the 5-year average for the time of year of 273.\n• None What are Northern Ireland's Covid-19 rules now?", "The BBC has condemned Russia's decision to not renew the visa of one of its correspondents in the country, calling it a \"direct assault on media freedom\".\n\nThe corporation urged Russian officials to reconsider the \"expulsion\" of Sarah Rainsford, currently based in Moscow.\n\nRussian state media said Rainsford would have to leave at the end of the month, when her accreditation expires.\n\nThe report said the move was in retaliation for the UK's refusal to grant visas to Russian journalists.\n\nMaria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, said in a post on Telegram that the government had warned repeatedly that it would respond to what she called visa-related persecution of Russian journalists in the UK.\n\nState-run Rossiya-24 television said late on Thursday that journalists for other state-backed organisations, such as the broadcaster RT and online outlet Sputnik, had not been accredited by the UK government to cover international events.\n\n\"Sarah Rainsford is going home. According to our experts, this correspondent of Moscow's BBC bureau will not have her visa extended because Britain, in the media sphere, has crossed all our red lines,\" the report said.\n\n\"The expulsion of Sarah Rainsford is our symmetrical response,\" it said.\n\nIn a statement, BBC Director-General Tim Davie said: \"The expulsion of Sarah Rainsford is a direct assault on media freedom which we condemn unreservedly.\n\n\"Sarah is an exceptional and fearless journalist. She is a fluent Russian speaker who provides independent and in-depth reporting of Russia and the former Soviet Union. Her journalism informs the BBC's audiences of hundreds of millions of people around the world.\n\n\"We urge the Russian authorities to reconsider their decision. In the meantime, we will continue to report events in the region independently and impartially.\"\n\nThe UK Foreign Office described the move as \"another unjustified step by the Russian authorities\".\n\nRainsford is an experienced foreign correspondent who has previously been based in Havana, Istanbul and Madrid.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"You can choke on your sanctions\": President Lukashenko responds to Sarah Rainsford's challenge\n\nMost recently, she has won respect for her reporting in Belarus where earlier this week she challenged long-time President Alexander Lukashenko over human rights abuses.\n\nWhen he was asked about the latest British sanctions targeting the country, the president said: \"You can go choke on your sanctions... You are American lapdogs!\"\n\nThe expulsion is the first of a British journalist from Russia in a decade, a tit-for-tat move as relations between the two countries worsen.\n\nIn 2019, UK media regulator Ofcom fined RT for breaking impartiality rules over its coverage of the poisoning in Salisbury of the former Russian intelligence officer, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia.", "Six people, including a suspected gunman, have died in a shooting in Plymouth.\n\nDevon and Cornwall Police said three females, two males and the suspect had died in the Keyham area of the city on Thursday evening.\n\nOne of the dead was a child under 10, according to an MP, but the shooting is not terror-related, police confirmed.\n\nThe death toll means it is the worst mass shooting in the UK for more than a decade.\n\nEmergency services were called to Biddick Drive shortly after 18:00 BST on Thursday.\n\nPeople were told to stay inside and follow police advice as the emergency response developed.\n\nEyewitness Sharron, who lives nearby and did not want to give her full name, said what happened was \"horrendous and so sad\".\n\n\"Firstly, there was shouting, followed by gunshots - three possibly four to begin with,\" she said.\n\n\"This was when the shooter kicked in the door of a house and randomly started shooting. He ran from the house shooting as he ran and proceeded to shoot at a few people in the linear park up from the drive.\"\n\nShe said the \"shooter proceeded along Royal Navy Avenue still shooting\".\n\nAnother witness, Robert Pinkerton, said he \"walked around the corner\" and \"bumped into a bloke with a shotgun\". He said the man was dressed all in black.\n\nIn a statement, Devon and Cornwall Police said two females and the three males died at the scene, while one female died shortly after in hospital.\n\nIt added: \"The area has been cordoned off and police are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.\"\n\nPlymouth Sutton & Devonport MP Luke Pollard said the incident was \"unspeakably awful\" and that he was \"utterly devastated\" to learn one of those killed was a child.\n\nThe last mass shooting in Britain happened in 2010 when taxi driver Derrick Bird killed 12 people in Cumbria.\n\nPolice said two females and three males died at the scene\n\nScenes of crime officers in white suits could be seen using cameras in the street and members of the public who lived locally were not allowed into their homes, PA Media reported.\n\nOfficers appealed to the public not to speculate or share pictures of the scene on social media or anywhere else.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel tweeted: \"The incident in Plymouth is shocking and my thoughts are with those affected.\n\n\"I have spoken to the chief constable and offered my full support.\n\n\"I urge everyone to remain calm, follow police advice and allow our emergency services to get on with their jobs.\"\n\nMultiple air ambulances attended the scene, including from Devon and Cornwall\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer tweeted: \"There's much we don't know about the shocking events in Plymouth. However it's clear tragedy has hit Keyham.\n\n\"My thoughts are with the families and neighbours of those caught up in this nightmare. I pay tribute to our emergency services who ran towards events we'd all run from.\"\n\nMr Pollard added Ford Primary School and St Mark's Church on Cambridge Road would be open from 09:00 on Friday as a \"safe place for our community to come together\".\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nAre you in Plymouth? Did you witness what happened? If you have any information to share, please email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Six people, including a suspected gunman, have died in a shooting in Plymouth.\n\nDevon and Cornwall Police said three females, two males and the suspect had died in the Keyham area of the city on Thursday evening. One of the dead was a child under 10.\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace said the shooting was not terror-related.", "Directors at UK inhaler company Vectura have recommended shareholders accept a £1bn bid from tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI).\n\nThe Marlboro cigarette maker's offer of £1.65 per share beat a rival bid from US private equity group Carlyle, whose final offer was £1.55 per share.\n\nVectura makes inhaled medicines and devices to treat respiratory illnesses such as asthma.\n\nDozens of health groups had urged Vectura to reject the firm's offer.\n\nThe health groups warned that the deal would significantly harm the future prospects of the healthcare company, as it will deter top lung researchers and scientists unwilling to work for a tobacco company.\n\nShares in Vectura, which counts Novartis and GSK among its customers, have soared 33% in value since Carlyle's first offer in May.\n\nPhilip Morris recently said it could stop selling cigarettes in the UK in 10 years' time as it focuses on alternatives, such as heated tobacco.\n\nThe firm indicated it would welcome a government ban on cigarettes and said \"strong regulation\" was needed to \"help solve the problem of cigarette smoking once and for all\".\n\nHowever, health charity Ash said it was hard to take such claims seriously from the firm responsible for selling over a tenth of cigarettes globally.\n\nLabour's shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: \"Philip Morris's attempted takeover of a key player in lung health products beggars belief. It is bitterly disappointing that Vectura have so far failed to exercise duty of care to patients and scientists and reject this takeover by big tobacco.\n\n\"This is now a test for Sajid Javid. When we know smoking causes so much serious illness and premature death, it's time this government takes the right course, stands up to this tobacco giant and blocks this takeover.\"\n\nSources close to the deal tell me the company feels their primary duty is to shareholders and note that PMI must be allowed a chance to transition to its stated goal of deriving half its revenue from non tobacco products within a decade.\n\nSome have also questioned whether this deal is any different in principle from oil and gas companies investing in renewable energy.\n\nHowever, this decision will be treated with dismay by health groups and will disappoint many shareholder groups who hoped this deal be an acid test of whether shareholders really prized wider societal goals over getting the best price.\n\nPMI will need to convince 51% of shareholders to take the money for it to take control. Many other shareholders may feel uncomfortable being a minority shareholder in a tobacco company subsidiary.\n\nA letter sent by more than 20 UK, US and European health organisations on Thursday had urged Vectura's board to \"put sustainability and ethics first\".\n\nThe signatories included the bosses of Asthma UK, the British Lung Foundation, the Royal Society for Public Health and the Royal College of Physicians, as well as public health directors of several councils and some distinguished medical professors from King's College, Imperial College and University College London (UCL).\n\n\"If PMI were to acquire Vectura, PMI could then profit from treating the very illnesses that its products cause,\" they wrote.\n\nOne of the health groups' key concerns is that Vectura's research links with various universities and hospitals could be compromised.\n\nThe signatories warned that Vectura could be blocked from participating in clinical trials, thus \"disrupting crucial drug development\".\n\nThey added that professional partnerships could also be affected, since Vectura won the most contracts in 2020 to develop treatments for respiratory disease and lung cancer.\n\nThe takeover battle began in May with a £958m bid from Carlyle, which received early backing from Vectura's board.\n\nBut on 8 August, Philip Morris increased its offer to £1.65 per share, which totalled a bid of about £1.02bn ($1.41bn) from the Marlboro cigarette-maker.\n\nLondon-listed shares of Vectura closed at £1.63 on Thursday after hitting a more than five-year high of £1.76 pence on Tuesday.", "A fraudster who tried to inject a 92-year-old woman with a fake Covid-19 vaccine in south-west London has been jailed.\n\nDavid Chambers, 33, claimed to work for the NHS and pressed Kathleen Martin's wrist with a \"dart-like implement\" at her home on 30 December.\n\nHe charged Ms Martin £140 and returned five days later to ask for a further £100, Kingston Crown Court heard.\n\nChambers was jailed for 42 months after he admitted two counts of fraud.\n\nHe also admitted one count of battery.\n\nJudge Hannah Kinch said Ms Martin was \"deliberately targeted\" and Chambers had \"preyed on an elderly victim in her own home\".\n\n\"Your actions in these offences were despicable\", she said.\n\nPolice issued CCTV footage of David Chambers after he had tricked Kathleen Martin in Surbiton\n\nThe court heard the UK's vaccination programme had started a few weeks before Ms Martin was targeted in her Surbiton home.\n\nMs Martin had been told by her GP that she was in the first group of people to be vaccinated and they had a vaccine ready for her.\n\nOn 30 December, Chambers entered Ms Martin's home after saying he was from her GP surgery.\n\nMs Martin believed him and Chambers \"pressed something against the back of her wrist\" and then asked for payment, Judge Kinch said.\n\nChambers did not inject Ms Martin with anything and did not break her skin, the court heard.\n\nHe returned on 4 January to ask for more money, but by then Ms Martin realised she had been the victim of a fraud and told him she had contacted police.\n\nChambers was arrested after a huge police appeal in January and initially denied being the fraudster.\n\nDavid Chambers was spotted in the the area five days after he had injected Kathleen Martin\n\nIn a statement Ms Martin said: \"I have never been subjected to such a deceitful and horrific crime.\n\n\"It has been a difficult few months coming to terms with the reality that someone could go to such lengths to defraud a person.\n\n\"Knowing first hand someone would use the Covid 19 vaccination process to scam money from the elderly is very harrowing\".\n\nIn 2013, Chambers was convicted of burglary after stealing €600 from the home of an elderly woman.\n\nHe was also convicted in 2018 for two counts of fraud in \"virtually identical\" offences where he asked to borrow money from two elderly victims to pay for a locksmith.\n\nDefence barrister Edward Butler described Chamber's offences as \"deeply unpleasant and shameful\".\n\nHe explained Chambers had a drug addiction \"rooted in personal issues\".\n\nMr Butler said Chambers has expressed \"deep shame and disgust\" at his behaviour.\n\nFor more London news follow on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube channel.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Middle-aged spread cannot be blamed on a waning metabolism, according to an unprecedented analysis of the body's energy use.\n\nThe study, of 6,400 people, from eight days old up to age 95, in 29 countries, suggests the metabolism remains \"rock solid\" throughout mid-life.\n\nIt peaks at the age of one, is stable from 20 to 60 and then inexorably declines.\n\nResearchers said the findings gave surprising new insights about the body.\n\nThe metabolism is every drop of chemistry needed to keep the body going.\n\nAnd the bigger the body - whether that is ripped muscles or too much belly fat - the more energy it will take to run.\n\nSo the researchers tweaked their measurements, adjusting for body size, to compare people's metabolism \"pound for pound\".\n\nThe study, published in the journal Science, found four phases of metabolic life:\n\n\"It is a picture we've never really seen before and there is a lot of surprises in it,\" one of the researchers, Prof John Speakman, from the University of Aberdeen, said.\n\n\"The most surprising thing for me is there is no change throughout adulthood - if you are experiencing mid-life spread you can no longer blame it on a declining metabolic rate.\"\n\nOther surprises came from what the study did not find.\n\nThere was no metabolic surge during either puberty or pregnancy and no slowdown around the menopause.\n\nThe high metabolism in the first years of life also emphasise how important a moment it is in development and why childhood malnutrition can have lifelong consequences.\n\n\"When people talk about metabolism, they think diet and exercise - but it is deeper than that, we are actually watching your body, your cells, at work,\" Prof Herman Pontzer, from Duke University, told BBC News.\n\n\"They are incredibly busy at one year old and when we see declines with age, we are seeing your cells stopping working.\"\n\nMade from heavier forms of the hydrogen and oxygen atoms that make up water, this can be tracked as it leaves the body.\n\nBut doubly labelled water is incredibly expensive, so it took researchers working together across 29 countries to gather data on 6,400 people.\n\nThe researchers said fully understanding the shifting metabolism could have implications in medicine.\n\nProf Pontzer said it could help reveal whether cancers spread differently as the metabolism changes and if drug doses could be adjusted during different phases.\n\nAnd there is even discussion about whether drugs that modify the metabolism could slow diseases of old age.\n\nDrs Rozalyn Anderson and Timothy Rhoads, from the University of Wisconsin, said the \"unprecedented\" study had already led to \"important new insights into human metabolism\".\n\nAnd it \"cannot be a coincidence\" diseases of old age kicked in as the metabolism fell.\n\nProf Tom Sanders, from King's College London, said: \"Interestingly, they found very little differences in total energy expenditure between early adult life and middle age - a time when most adults in developed countries put on weight.\n\n\"These findings would support the view that the obesity epidemic is fuelled by excess food energy intake and not a decline in energy expenditure.\"\n\nDr Soren Brage, from the University of Cambridge, said the total amount of energy used had been \"notoriously difficult to measure\".\n\n\"We urgently need to turn our attention not only to the global energy crisis defined by the burning of fossil fuels but also the energy crisis that is caused by not burning enough calories in our own bodies.\"", "Almost half a million EU citizens are still awaiting a decision over UK settled status after a surge of applications before the June deadline.\n\nSome 483,200 cases were pending in July, Home Office data shows.\n\nLawyers have warned that delays can last weeks, leaving some EU nationals unable to work or rent.\n\nThe Home Office says it has deployed extra resources to deal with applications and most non-complex cases are decided within five working days.\n\nAfter Brexit, the automatic right for EU citizens and their families to live and work in the UK ended.\n\nInstead, EU citizens had to apply for legal permission to remain under what is known as the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS).\n\nA total of 6,015,400 applications were made between the launch of the scheme in March 2019 and the closing date of 30 June 2021.\n\nAnother 58,200 applications came in after the deadline, figures up to 31 July show.\n\nPoland was the nation with the highest number of applications at 1,091,500, followed by Romania with 1,067,200 and Italy with 545,600.\n\nEU nationals living in the UK were given until 30 June to apply to stay in the UK.\n\nFollowing a surge in applications ahead of the 30 June deadline, the government increased the number of caseworkers and resolution agents to respond to queries.\n\nHowever, Bhavneeta Limbachia, an immigration lawyer at Russell-Cooke solicitors, has warned of delays in issuing EU citizens with a Certificate of Application.\n\nThis is the document required to demonstrate an individual still has the right to live and work in the UK.\n\n\"This bottleneck in the system is failing EU nationals, especially when employment has had to be temporarily suspended,\" she said.\n\n\"The delay is also prejudicial to landlords and employers, who are left in a predicament when assessing whether an applicant is legally permitted to continue renting or working in the UK.\"\n\nImmigration minister Kevin Foster said anyone who makes a late application will receive temporary protection until it is concluded.\n\n\"I'm delighted thousands more EU citizens have had their status secured through our hugely successful EU Settlement Scheme and we continue to work as quickly as possible to conclude all applications received,\" Mr Foster said.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A major analysis of the spread of Covid within hospitals has shown a massive gulf in ability to contain the virus during the first wave.\n\nOverall, more than one in 10 people in hospital with Covid actually caught the virus while they were there.\n\nBut the analysis of 314 UK hospitals showed that ranged from just one in 100 cases caught in hospital, to more than one in four.\n\nThe researchers said the wide variation needed \"urgent investigation\".\n\nThe study, by nine UK universities and published in the Lancet, analysed hospital data from two-thirds of Covid patients in the first wave.\n\nThey estimate between 5,700 and 11,900 people were infected in hospital.\n\n\"There will be tragedy behind this story, people that came into hospital with one problem, caught Covid and sadly died,\" one of the researchers, Prof Calum Semple, from the University of Liverpool, said.\n\nThere was a stark difference between general hospitals, which the researchers said could not be explained by the number of patients coming in the door.\n\n\"Even hospitals with literally thousands of patients coming in there are outstanding examples of infection control,\" Prof Semple said.\n\n\"There's a number of factors - we know there were challenges around PPE [personal protective (or protection) equipment] at the start.\"\n\nThe design of some hospitals - such as those with more side rooms - would also affect how easy it was to contain Covid.\n\nThe availability of testing, which is now used to separate Covid and non-Covid patients, may also have been an issue.\n\n\"Reliable tests in the emergency department, that come back within the hour, has been a game-changer and has made my life a million times easier,\" critical-care consultant Dr Annemarie Docherty, from the University of Edinburgh, said.\n\nSpecialist residential hospitals had even bigger challenges with the virus spreading.\n\nMore than two-thirds of Covid cases in mental-health hospitals were caught there.\n\nThe average proportion of cases caught in hospital was 11% in the first wave but now stands at 2-5% despite the emergence of the more infectious Delta variant, first identified in India.\n\nPart of this will be down to understanding of the virus and how it spreads, such as airborne and asymptomatic transmission, that has emerged since the early days of the pandemic.\n\nDr Doherty said: \"The underlying reasons for these high rates of transmission in hospitals at the peak of the first wave must be investigated, so that we can improve safety and outcomes for our patients.\n\n\"Rates are considerably lower a year on, and people should not be deterred from attending hospital if they are unwell.\"\n\nA spokesman for NHS England said infections were proven to be less common in hospitals than other places.\n\n\"Hospital infection rates account for less than 1% of all Covid cases since the pandemic began and since asymptomatic tests kits were made available for the first time by the government's test-and-trace programme in November, millions of staff have been tested to help to keep infection rates as low as possible,\" he added.", "The police officer, aged 39, and a three-year-old child were found at an address in Cairndhu Drive, Kidderminster\n\nA serving police officer and a three-year-old child have been found dead, police said.\n\nOfficers were called to an address in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, where the man, a 39-year-old West Mercia Police officer, and child were found.\n\nA Hazardous Area Response Team has been sent to the scene, West Midlands Ambulance Service said.\n\nAn investigation has been launched into the deaths which, police said, are currently being treated as unexplained.\n\nWest Mercia's Assistant Chief Constable Rachel Jones, said: \"It is with great sadness that I share the news that a serving police officer and a three-year-old child have passed away.\n\n\"While the circumstances of the deaths are not fully known, this is clearly a tragic incident and our deepest condolences are with family and colleagues.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBBC reporter James Pearson at Cairndhu Drive where the officer and child were found, said on Friday evening two officers remained on guard with suited forensics officers bringing material out of the semi-detached house.\n\nNeighbours spoke of their \"shock\" at the deaths, with one, who asked not to be named, saying: \"I didn't really know the occupants, they kept themselves to themselves.\n\n\"They've lived there less than a year, it's a family. The news is just awful.\"\n\nThe ambulance service was called to reports of a medical emergency at the property at 09:21 BST, where the two bodies were discovered.\n\n\"Sadly, it quickly became apparent that neither patient could be saved and they were confirmed dead at the scene,\" a service spokesman said, adding they also sent two ambulances and a paramedic officer to the scene.\n\nThe deaths are currently being treated as unexplained\n\nSarah Cooper, chair of West Mercia Police Federation, said it was \"deeply shocked and saddened\" by the news.\n\n\"The ripples from this incident will be far-reaching and I know that officers and staff across West Mercia Police will be impacted hugely by this tragedy,\" she said.\n\nWest Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion added he was \"incredibly sad to hear this terrible news,\n\n\"My thoughts are with the family affected and West Mercia police officers and staff who are having to come to terms with this awful news,\" he said.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Esther Dingley sent this selfie at the top of a mountain on 22 November\n\nThe death of a British hiker in the Pyrenees was an accident, French police have said.\n\nEsther Dingley's remains were found by her partner Daniel Colegate on Monday more than eight months after she disappeared during a solo trek.\n\nA source told the BBC she suffered injuries associated with a fall and though the cause was unclear, her shoes \"were not adequate for icy conditions\".\n\nThe judge in charge of the inquiry said her body may be repatriated next week.\n\nDaniel Colegate walked hundreds of miles in the search for his missing partner Esther Dingley\n\nThe BBC's Chris Bockman in Toulouse said an autopsy and an examination of her rucksack had been carried out by forensic teams.\n\nHe said it was \"unclear\" how the accident had happened but police believe the hiking shoes she was wearing several thousand metres up a mountain \"did not have the grip necessary for the icy conditions at the time and she probably slipped and fell\".\n\nHe also said French officers had confirmed Mr Colegate, who was 100 miles away in France when Ms Dingley, 37, disappeared, was not a suspect.\n\nLBT Global, a charity which is supporting Ms Dingley's family, had said her death was probably an accident \"given the location and other early indications\".\n\nMs Dingley, who was an experienced hiker, was trekking alone when she last communicated with her partner from the top of Pic de Sauvegarde at about 16:00 on 22 November.\n\nMr Colegate raised the alarm several days later when she failed to report in at an agreed time.\n\nThe couple from Durham were on an open-ended campervan tour of Europe and Ms Dingley was on the final walk of a month-long solo expedition when she died.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "KFC has warned that supply chain issues are disrupting both their food and packaging stocks nationwide.\n\nIn a tweet on Wednesday, the fast-food chain said some items would not be available because there's been \"some disruption\" over the last few weeks.\n\nThe statement did not mention which items on its menus have been affected or the reason for the disruption.\n\nIt said the situation is \"not ideal\" and that they were \"working hard to keep things running smoothly\".\n\n\"Please be patient with our teams...they''re doing a brilliant job despite the disruption,\" it continued.\n\nThe company did not say which of its restaurants would be affected. The majority (80%) of KFC outlets are run on a franchise basis.\n\nReplying to the tweet, customers said that there were no cups or lids on drinks.\n\nIt is not known how long the disruption will last.\n\nIt comes after a previous supply chain problem in 2018 when the company had to close 750 restaurants after a delivery contract with DHL led to shortages.\n\nDisruptions across the food and delivery industries are currently being caused by a shortage of HGV drivers, with a combination of fewer drivers from EU member states post Brexit and enforced isolation with drivers being contacted by NHS Test and Trace.\n\nThe Road Haulage Association believes there is a shortfall of about 100,000 lorry drivers across the country.\n\nDixons Carphone, which owns Currys PC World and Carphone Warehouse, said on Thursday it would pay new lorry drivers a £1,500 bonus amid the shortage.\n\nExisting drivers will get a £1,500 retention bonus, while those who refer a friend for a driver vacancy will get £1,000. In addition, it will launch a scheme where over 21-year-olds who have held a drivers licence for more than a year will get the costs of training and tests paid for by the company.\n\nLast month dairy giant Arla, which supplies milk to all major UK supermarkets, said a lorry driver shortage has forced it to cut back on its deliveries. Recently M&S also warned it could be forced to reduce opening hours.\n\nTesco also said in July it would offer a £1,000 joining bonus for new drivers, and Arla pays £2,000 to drivers willing to work weekends.\n\nIn July, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced a temporary extension of lorry drivers' working hours, from nine to 10 hours a day.\n\nHowever, the RHA said the relaxation was a \"sticking plaster\".\n\nFrom 16 August, people who have been fully vaccinated will not have to self-isolate if they are contacted by NHS Test and Trace when they have come into contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid. They will instead be advised to take PCR test as soon as possible.", "The new season will see the return of full capacity crowds Image caption: The new season will see the return of full capacity crowds\n\nThe Premier League is back tonight, with clubs preparing for the return of full capacity crowds for the first time since March 2020.\n\nThe easing of Covid restrictions means stadiums will have no social distancing measures in place in the stands.\n\nHowever, there remains uncertainty over whether so-called \"vaccine passports\" will be introduced from October.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson announced last month there was a plan to make proof of full vaccination mandatory from the end of September at venues where \"large crowds gather\", potentially including sporting venues with capacities of 20,000 or more.\n\nEarlier this week, the Premier League revealed new matchday protocols for the 2021-22 season, stating fans \"must be prepared to prove\" they are fully vaccinated or have had a negative Covid test in the previous 48 hours.\n\nFans must also follow a new \"supporter code of conduct\" which includes wearing masks indoors, avoiding close contact and following one-way systems.\n\nYou can check the Covid measures in place for different clubs here.", "Eve Aston was remembered by her mother as 'very jolly, sassy, sociable'\n\nThe mother of a Manchester Arena bombing survivor says she is \"so proud to have had her in my life\" after the 20-year-old was found dead at home.\n\nThe cause of death is not yet known.\n\nMs Aston's family said she had suffered post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the wake of the 2017 blast at an Ariana Grande concert and had been \"getting back to her old self\" in the weeks before she died.\n\nHer body was found in her room at home in Wolverhampton on 23 July.\n\n\"I'm heartbroken, I can't believe it's happened,\" Mrs Aston said.\n\nTwenty-two people died and hundreds more were injured in the 2017 attack\n\nMrs Aston described singer Grande as the \"absolute idol\" of her daughter who, aged 17 at the time, was \"so, so happy\" to have tickets to the show.\n\nTwenty-two people were killed and hundreds more injured when suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated a homemade device at the end of the concert.\n\nAlthough physically uninjured, Ms Aston's family said she bore mental scars from the night.\n\n\"She wasn't sleeping, she kept seeing images in her head,\" Mrs Aston said, adding that while her daughter was able to get help, the family was generally left \"really disappointed\" in the lack of support.\n\nMs Aston would return to Manchester regularly to lay flowers for the victims.\n\nAt the time of her death it seemed like she was recovering, explained Mrs Aston, who said: \"It's come as such a shock.\"\n\nThe family set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for the 20-year-old's funeral, which has so far generated almost £8,000.\n\n\"She was a wonderful person, so precious,\" Mrs Aston remembered. \"I'm so proud to have had her in my life.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "Every night terrified young men and women across the city send me desperate messages begging for help. \"Pray for us,\" says one. \"The situation is critical, we are very worried,\" says another.\n\nKabul is in a state of shock and disbelief. In the past week the Taliban has swept across the country and seized more than a dozen provincial capitals. With the fall of Kandahar and Herat, the insurgents now have their sights set on the greatest prize of all - the capital.\n\nI've been reporting from Afghanistan for more than a decade. Over the years, I've spent time with journalists, female judges, female members of parliament, human rights activists and university students. Many have become good friends.\n\nThey all say the same thing - we stepped out on a limb because we were encouraged by the Americans and their allies to do so. For 20 years the West has inspired, financed and sheltered this new generation of Afghans. They have grown up with freedoms and opportunities that they fully embraced.\n\nNow they tell me they feel completely abandoned by the democratic world they thought they were part of.\n\nIn my most recent trip to Kabul, I spoke to Taliban frontline commanders and foot soldiers. They told me they are determined to re-impose their version of Sharia law, which would include stoning for adultery, amputation of limbs for theft and preventing girls from going to school beyond the age of 12.\n\nThis is not the Afghanistan and the Kabul that these young women know or want. But as the Taliban prepare to march towards the capital, there doesn't seem to be anywhere to run or hide.\n\n\"There are rumours circulating that the Taliban will take over and they will kill everyone affiliated with the government and the US. We are very scared,\" one told me.\n\nThe only response from the Americans and their Western allies to these pleas for help, for the moment, has been silence.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace: \"I think we are heading towards a civil war\"\n\nAfghanistan is \"heading towards civil war\" as the UK prepares to withdraw its citizens, allies and troops, the defence secretary has said.\n\nBen Wallace told BBC Breakfast that it was likely that poverty and terrorism would increase in the country.\n\nBut he said the UK would have the right to intervene if terror plots against it were planned from Afghanistan.\n\nMr Wallace blamed former US President Donald Trump's \"rotten deal\" with the Taliban in 2020 for the withdrawal.\n\nThe defence secretary said around 600 troops were being sent to Afghanistan to ensure the safe return of about 500 Foreign Office and other UK government officials, along with around 3,000 British citizens working in other roles, such as security guards for aid agencies.\n\nHe said about 2,000 Afghan interpreters and \"other people we have an obligation to\" would also be transported to the UK, joining about 3,000 who have already been taken out of the country.\n\nWith the withdrawal facing criticism from former military figures and Tory backbenchers, Mr Wallace rejected the suggestion that the UK's 20 years in the region had been a failure.\n\nHe pointed to the three million women and girls who had received an education during the time the Taliban had been forced out of power. \"You can't take away from people that education,\" he said.\n\nBut he said he had \"concerns\" about reports by BBC journalists in Afghanistan of \"pretty horrendous things on the ground\", as tens of thousands of people have had to flee their homes and the Taliban is beginning to reassert its hardline rule over its captured cities.\n\n\"I think we are heading towards a civil war,\" he said, adding that as states fail, both poverty and terrorism grows.\n\nBut Mr Wallace said that the UK could act if Afghanistan again began to harbour terrorists who presented an international threat - as it did when it offered a safe haven to Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda group, responsible for the 11 September attacks which killed thousands in New York.\n\n\"UK forces retain the capability to defend its citizens\" if nations do not take action against terrorists in their midst, he said.\n\n\"Under international law we have the right to defend our country against imminent threats.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Secunder Kermani reports on life in a town recently taken by the Taliban\n\nThe deal signed between Mr Trump and the Taliban in February 2020 pledged to withdraw US troops and those of Nato allies in 14 months if the Taliban upheld promises to proceed with national peace talks and not allow al-Qaeda or other militants to operate in areas it controlled.\n\nThe Taliban stopped attacks on international forces as part of the agreement, but continued to fight the Afghan government. In recent days, it has seized several key cities as it advanced across the country.\n\nMr Wallace said the deal had \"undermined the government of the day\" in Afghanistan.\n\nWendy Rayner, whose husband Peter died in action in Helmand province in 2010, said the withdrawal undermined the sacrifice of soldiers who lost their lives.\n\n\"My husband died to give them a better life, and by them not having a better life, it's taken away his fight,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"All these young people in Afghanistan that are having their families slaughtered because nobody cares, because we've just left them in the lurch - it's just going to create another terror threat. They're going to hate us and I don't blame them.\"\n\nFormer defence minister and Tory MP Johnny Mercer, who served in Afghanistan, said it was \"deeply humiliating\" to see the military's work over two decades overturned so quickly by the Taliban.\n\nBut he said it was \"simply not true\" that the UK could not continue to support Afghan security forces after the US departure.\n\n\"The political will to see through enduring support to Afghanistan has not been there and a lot of people are going to die because of that,\" he said.\n\n\"It's a world tragedy and we are going to reap the repercussions of this over many years to come.\"\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel said the government had \"serious, serious concerns\" about the Taliban advance and said Afghanistan was \"a tragedy unfolding, a humanitarian crisis emerging\".\n\nAs several European countries suspended deportation of rejected Afghan asylum seekers due to the worsening security situation, Ms Patel said the UK government's deportation policy was \"always under review\".\n\nShe said the government was focused on its \"enormous resettlement programme\" of UK and Afghan nationals who have worked for the British government.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBut Labour's shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy called on the prime minister and foreign secretary to \"come out of hiding\" and demonstrate a clear strategy to address the crisis in Afghanistan.\n\nThere must be \"no red tape or delays\" to resettling Afghan nationals who assisted the British military in the UK, Ms Nandy said.\n\nFormer International Development Secretary Rory Stewart said the withdrawal was \"an absolute betrayal... totally heartbreaking and totally unnecessary\".\n\n\"There was no reason for us to do this, and by doing this we've broken Afghanistan in a matter of weeks,\" he said.\n\nTom Tugendhat, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said Afghan forces had \"stepped up\" in recent years, allowing Nato to end its involvement in the fighting and bringing an end to British combat casualties.\n\n\"Now we've just pulled the rug from under them,\" he said. \"We've taken away their air support, taken away their logistics.\"\n\nMr Tugendhat said the war had cost £40bn and taken the lives of more than 450 British soldiers, but he said the future commitment would have only been for 750 soldiers as part of a 10,000-strong Nato force, assisting 400,000 Afghan security forces.\n\nHe contrasted the decision in Afghanistan to post-war Germany, where UK troops were only withdrawn in 1991. \"Endurance matters, staying matters, being an ally matters,\" Mr Tugendhat said.", "Tributes have been paid to a \"gorgeous and intelligent\" two-year-old boy allegedly murdered.\n\nReid Steele was taken to University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, after being found in a critical condition at a house in Bridgend, on Wednesday.\n\nA 31-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder and detained under the Mental Health Act.\n\n\"He was a super, super-happy, wonderful and intelligent little boy who lit up everyone's lives,\" his family said.\n\nThey added: \"He loved the garden and the beach, picking raspberries and going for walks collecting shells.\n\n\"He was a very chatty little boy and would happily speak to anyone.\"\n\nThe woman remains on police bail and has been transferred into the care of health services.\n\nSouth Wales Police said it was not looking for anyone else.\n\nPeople have started leaving flowers near to the house where the boy was found\n\nDet Ch Insp Matt Davies said he understood the \"very sad and tragic\" incident would have caused concerns in the Broadlands area of the town.\n\n\"I must stress we are not currently looking for anyone else in connection with this matter at this time,\" he added.\n\n\"The family continue to be supported by dedicated family liaison officers and I would appeal to people to refrain from speculating on social media at what is a very difficult time for all concerned.\"\n\nPolice are not looking for anyone else in connection with the boy's death\n\nBridgend county council is offering advice on where residents can access additional support and help while the investigation is underway.\n\nCouncil leader Huw David said: \"This tragic news has left local people shocked and saddened, especially as it has occurred so soon after the harrowing death of five-year-old Logan Mwangi.\n\n\"Our heartfelt thoughts and condolences are with the family and friends of the little boy at this extremely distressing and traumatic time.\n\n\"Communities throughout Bridgend county have been expressing their grief and sympathy even as they continue to support one another.\"\n\nOfficers were called to an address on the Broadlands estate in Bridgend on Wednesday evening\n\nPeople have been leaving flowers and cuddly toys at a site about half a mile from the house on Parkwood Heights.\n\nA lion, a gorilla, and a rabbit are among the toys that have been left by schoolchildren and their parents.\n\nOne said the \"precious little boy\" would always be in their thoughts while another teddy bear has written on its belly: \"RIP Little Man. Sleep Tight.\"\n\nBetween the bouquets of flowers are large single sunflowers.\n\nTributes have been left to two-year-old Reid Steele\n\nIan Spiller, councillor for Laleston, Bryntirion and Broadlands, said: \"The community is absolutely devastated by the news, we are all in complete shock especially after the events that occurred last week.\n\n\"To have this happen in another community - in our community in Bridgend. I am absolutely speechless and our support goes out to those affected.\"\n\nMr Spiller added that he was aware of the community's \"need to grieve and show support\" at this time.\n\nIn a post on the community hub, he asked people to show their \"love and support from a distance and not to be intrusive to the family concerned\".\n\nHe asked people to use an area of grass at the corner of Careg Llwyd to leave tributes and flowers.\n\nHe also said Bethel Baptist Church in Laleston would open between 14:00 and 16:00 on Friday, while the chapel at Maes y Fedwen, Broadlands, was open all day for anybody who would like to grieve or pay respects.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA man stabbed by a terrorist on a south London street feared he would bleed to death, an inquest has heard.\n\nThe man overheard the phrase \"he's not going to make it\" in an ambulance after being stabbed by Sudesh Amman, 20, on Streatham High Road on 2 February 2020.\n\nArmed police shot Amman dead before two passers-by helped the victim, the Royal Courts of Justice heard.\n\n\"They cut off my clothes, they saved my life. I will never forget,\" he said in a police statement read out in court.\n\nAnother victim, a woman who was pushing a bike, also survived being stabbed. In a highly unusual move, neither of their names were mentioned during the hearing.\n\nSudesh Amman was jailed for 40 months in 2018 for preparing and engaging in acts of terrorism\n\nThe man told police he did not realise at first that he had been stabbed.\n\nThe inquest heard he walked three or four metres before falling over, at which point two passers-by, Katherine Day and Thomas Baldwin, performed first aid.\n\nHe said: \"They cut off my clothes, they saved my life. I will never forget.\n\n\"The woman was crying, saying: 'Please don't go. Where's the ambulance?'\n\n\"It really hurt when they put me on the ambulance bed. I heard someone say: 'We can't drive, he's not going to make it.'\"\n\nHe added: \"Thank God for the doctors, or I would be dead.\"\n\nOn Wednesday, the inquest heard that a nine-man surveillance team had been following Amman after his release from prison, 10 days before the stabbings.\n\nOne officer told the inquest how he feared for his life after witnessing Amman \"plunge\" a knife into the upper back of a woman wearing a bright pink jacket.\n\nIn her statement, read out to the jury, the victim said she suddenly felt pain in her right shoulder.\n\nShe told police: \"I took about four steps forward when I heard people shout: 'She's been stabbed.'\n\n\"I thought if I had been stabbed, why were people walking past me? I doubted myself.\n\n\"Due to the pain I dropped my bike on to the floor.\"\n\nShe suffered a small wound to her back and was discharged from hospital later that day.\n\nAmman was placed in a bail hostel in Streatham after his release from prison\n\nThe inquest previously heard there had been concerns about Amman's imminent release from HMP Belmarsh on 23 January 2020, part-way through a 40-month sentence for preparing and engaging in acts of terrorism.\n\nHowever, the request was turned down by the governor because the offence Amman was jailed for did not justify him serving further time in prison.\n\nJurors have also heard that Amman was spotted buying items later used to fashion a fake suicide belt but the Probation Service was \"satisfied\" that in making the purchases he had not breached any licence conditions.\n\nThe inquest has been adjourned until Friday.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Pupils use their GCSE results to progress to A-level, courses in Further Education, training or employment\n\nThere has been a rise in the number of top GCSE grades in Northern Ireland.\n\nGrades A* and A were awarded to just under 40% of entries, which is up from 37.1% in 2020.\n\nAs exams were cancelled for a second year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, pupils' results were based on grades calculated by schools.\n\nSimilar arrangements for A-levels saw a record number of entries awarded top grades on Tuesday but the rise in results at GCSE has been less dramatic.\n\nIan Bell, principal at Movilla High School in Newtownards, said his pupils had done \"remarkably well in some very difficult circumstances\".\n\n\"Sometimes I think it's very easy for people to jump to conclusions where they think 'oh it seems that they were easier' or 'it was an easier process' and I would certainly refute that and I'm sure every other principal in the province would refute that too,\" he said.\n\nIan Bell said pupils had had to deal with events \"over which they had no control\"\n\n\"Hopefully, things as they start to return to normal, we will be able to get back to our normal procedures, but I don't think the examination systems have anything to lose from learning some of the lessons we've had, especially over the last two years.\"\n\nThe pupils at the high school said their whole summer had \"been leading up to results day\" and that there were a lot of nerves in the last few days.\n\n\"Last night I was really nervous, but I was excited to come and see everybody, \" one pupil said.\n\nThe pupils at Movilla High School say they dealt with a lot of uncertainty\n\n\"It was hard going into this year because you're going into uncertainty and you didn't know would exams go on or would exams be cancelled, but I think we had to just go head on and do the best that we possibly could.\"\n\nAbout 29,000 students in Northern Ireland received their GCSE results on Thursday.\n\nOthers received results for BTec, vocational or entry level qualifications.\n\nAaron (left) and Angus (right) celebrate their results with parents Bill and Cathy at Campbell College\n\nTeachers will have used evidence like classwork, homework, coursework and in-class tests to provide grades for pupils.\n\nGrades calculated by schools were also used to give pupils their GCSE results in 2020 after exams were cancelled.\n\nThere has been some criticism that the assessment system used has led to a grade-inflation, but one Londonderry principal believes there are some benefits for pupils not having to sit traditional GCSE exams.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio Foyle, Michael Allen, principal of Lisneal College in the Waterside, said there was \"certainly elements I prefer\" about using an evidence-based method for the determination of grades.\n\nMichael Allen said there were some positive aspects to exams being cancelled\n\n\"Examinations and grades are pre-determined by the exam boards so the number of kids who achieve an A*, A or B is already pre-determined,\" he said.\n\n\"By removing the algorithm I think we are actually seeing what young people are actually capable of before examination boards are in a position to manipulate results.\"\n\n2019 was the most recent year in which a full exam series took place.\n\nPupils had to come in to collect their GCSE results\n\nJust under a third of all GCSEs in Northern Ireland were awarded A* or A in 2019, and that has risen to 39.9% of entries this year.\n\nAbout nine in every 10 (89.6%) entries were awarded A* to C grades, similar to 2020.\n\nGirls continue to outperform boys in achieving the top grades.\n\nJust under half of entries from girls in 2021 received A* or A grades compared to about a third of entries from boys.\n\nPupils shared news of their results with family and friends\n\nIn 2020, almost one in every eight GCSE entries (12.4%) in Northern Ireland was awarded the top A* grade, a rise from 8.1% of entries in 2019.\n\nMore than one in three GCSE entries (37.1%) received the top A* or A grades in 2020.\n\nThe vast majority of GCSEs in Northern Ireland are taken by pupils through the exams board CCEA and results were available from 08:30 BST on Thursday.\n\nMany pupils went to their school to pick up results as unlike A-levels, they cannot receive them online.\n\nAbout 98% of entries are through CCEA, with the remainder through English and Welsh exam boards.\n\nThat means some pupils in Northern Ireland received results in the form of numbers as well as letters.\n\nThat is because GCSEs in England are graded numerically from nine to one.\n\nPupils use their GCSE results to progress to A-level, courses in further education, training or employment.", "Apple says its announcement of automated tools to detect child sexual abuse on the iPhone and iPad was \"jumbled pretty badly\".\n\nOn 5 August, the company revealed new image detection software that can alert Apple if known illegal images are uploaded to its iCloud storage.\n\nPrivacy groups criticised the news, with some saying Apple had created a security backdoor in its software.\n\nThe company says its announcement had been widely \"misunderstood\".\n\n\"We wish that this had come out a little more clearly for everyone,\" said Apple software chief Craig Federighi, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.\n\nHe said that - in hindsight - introducing two features at the same time was \"a recipe for this kind of confusion\".\n\nApple announced two new tools designed to protect children. They will be deployed in the US first.\n\nThe first tool can identify known child sex abuse material (CSAM) when a user uploads photos to iCloud storage.\n\nThe US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) maintains a database of known illegal child abuse images. It stores them as hashes - a digital \"fingerprint\" of the illegal material.\n\nCloud service providers such as Facebook, Google and Microsoft, already check images against these hashes to make sure people are not sharing CSAM.\n\nApple's software chief Craig Federighi said messages had been \"jumbled\"\n\nApple decided to implement a similar process, but said it would do the image-matching on a user's iPhone or iPad, before it was uploaded to iCloud.\n\nMr Federighi said the iPhone would not be checking for things such as photos of your children in the bath, or looking for pornography.\n\nThe system could only match \"exact fingerprints\" of specific known child sexual abuse images, he said.\n\nIf a user tries to upload several images that match child abuse fingerprints, their account will be flagged to Apple so the specific images can be reviewed.\n\nMr Federighi said a user would have to upload in the region of 30 matching images before this feature would be triggered.\n\nIn addition to the iCloud tool, Apple also announced a parental control that users could activate on their children's accounts.\n\nIf activated, the system would check photographs sent by - or to - the child over Apple's iMessage app.\n\nIf the machine learning system judged that a photo contained nudity, it would obscure the photo and warn the child.\n\nParents can also choose to receive an alert if the child chooses to view the photo.\n\nPrivacy groups have shared concerns that the technology could be expanded and used by authoritarian governments to spy on its own citizens.\n\nWhatsApp head Will Cathcart called Apple's move \"very concerning\" while US whistleblower Edward Snowden called the iPhone a \"spyPhone\".\n\nMr Federighi said the \"soundbyte\" that spread after the announcement was that Apple was scanning iPhones for images.\n\n\"That is not what is happening,\" he told the Wall Street Journal.\n\n\"We feel very positively and strongly about what we're doing and we can see that it's been widely misunderstood.\"\n\nThe tools are due to be added to the new versions of iOS and iPadOS later this year.", "Two of the victims of Thursday's shooting were three-year-old Sophie Martyn and her father Lee.\n\nThey were killed alongside the shooter's mother Maxine Davison, Stephen Washington and Kate Shepherd, Devon and Cornwall Police revealed earlier on Friday.\n\nTwo other people were injured by Jake Davison, when he went on a shooting spree in the Keysham area of Plymouth using a firearm he was licenced to hold.\n\nDavison turned his weapon on himself before the arrival of armed police.\n\nChief Constable Shaun Sawyer said: \"We've never in my time had homicide followed by a rampaging firearms attack on random members of the public and then taking one's life.\"", "Thousands of people are living in makeshift camps in Kabul after fleeing the Taliban insurgency\n\nThe Taliban seized the cities of Ghazni and Herat on Thursday, in the most dramatic string of captures since launching their offensive.\n\nTaking the strategically important Ghazni increases the likelihood the Taliban could take the capital Kabul.\n\nThere is also heavy fighting in the second largest city, Kandahar.\n\nThe insurgents have moved at speed, seizing new territories almost daily, as US and other foreign troops withdraw after 20 years of military operations.\n\nThe city of Qala-I-Naw also fell to the Taliban, who now control about a third of the country's regional cities and most of northern Afghanistan. The group's rapid advance has dealt a crushing blow to government security forces.\n\nSources have told the BBC that Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, is also now in the hands of the Taliban, though this has not been confirmed.\n\nThousands of civilians have been displaced, fleeing to Kabul to try and escape the fighting.\n\nTaking Ghazni is a significant gain due to its location - it is 150km (93 miles) from Kabul, and is on the major Kabul-Kandahar motorway, linking militant strongholds in the south to Kabul.\n\nA provincial council member in the city told the BBC that the Taliban had taken most of the centre, with only a police base on the outskirts controlled by the Afghan security forces.\n\nHerat, which has been under siege for weeks, is also a major win for the militants. It is Afghanistan's third largest city, lies on significant ancient trade routes and is seen as the gateway to Iran.\n\nOn Thursday, video on social media showed the insurgents running through a central Herat street firing their weapons, and the Taliban flag was seen flying over the police headquarters. A regional council member confirmed to the BBC that the city had fallen to the militants.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Secunder Kermani reports on life in a town recently taken by the Taliban\n\nMeanwhile in Kandahar, once the Taliban's stronghold, heavy fighting was reported and the militants claimed to have taken over its prison and released all of the inmates, although this has not been confirmed.\n\nIf Kandahar falls into militant hands, it will be the biggest loss yet for Afghan security forces.\n\n\"Life as we know it is getting harder day by day,\" a woman in Kandahar told the BBC, adding \"both sides are just using… us as pawns in their own power-hungry games\".\n\nThe US embassy in Kabul said it was hearing reports that the Taliban was executing Afghan troops who were surrendering, saying it was \"deeply disturbing and could constitute war crimes.\"\n\nThis 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 U.S. Embassy Kabul 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. End of twitter post by U.S. Embassy Kabul\n\nThe US said it was sending 3,000 troops to the airport in Kabul to help evacuate a \"significant\" amount of embassy staff on special flights.\n\nThe UK later said it was deploying about 600 troops on a short-term basis to provide support to British nationals leaving the country. The number of staff working at the British embassy in Kabul has abeen reduced to a core team.\n\nMore than 1,000 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan in the past month, according to the UN.\n\nJust this week thousands of people from northern provinces have become internally displaced, travelling to Kabul to seek safety. An estimated 72,000 children arrived in the capital in recent days and are mostly sleeping on the streets, according to Save the Children.\n\nMakeshift camps have been established on scrubland on the outskirts of the capital, while many others have reportedly been sleeping on the streets or in abandoned warehouses.\n\n\"We have no money to buy bread, or get some medicine for my child,\" a 35-year-old street vendor who fled Kunduz province after the Taliban set fire to his home told the BBC.\n\nIn response to the insurgency, the German government has threatened to end its annual financial support of $500m (£360m) to Afghanistan if the Taliban gains complete control of the country.\n\nGermany has also suspended the forced repatriation of Afghan citizens whose asylum applications have failed. The French and Danish governments said they would follow the same policy.\n\nOn Wednesday, Afghanistan replaced its army chief, General Wali Mohammad Ahmadzai, who had only been in the post since June.\n\nAlso on Wednesday, President Ashraf Ghani flew to the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif - traditionally an anti-Taliban bastion - to try to rally pro-government forces there.\n\nMazar-i-Sharif lies close to the borders with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and its loss would mark the complete collapse of government control over northern Afghanistan.\n\nPresident Ghani held crisis talks in Mazar-i-Sharif with ethnic Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum and prominent ethnic Tajik leader Atta Mohammad Noor about defending the city.\n\nMr Dostum, a veteran commander, was quoted as saying: \"The Taliban have come to the north several times but they were always trapped.\"\n\nFor years, Mr Ghani tried to sideline the warlords in an attempt to boost the Afghan National Army, and now he is turning to them in his hour of need, the BBC's Ethirajan Anbarasan says. Earlier this week, the president also agreed to arm pro-government militia.\n\nAre you in Afghanistan? Do you have links to Ghazni? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "UK police have been involved for months in the case of a British man arrested in Germany on suspicion of spying for Russia, the Met boss has said.\n\nThe 57-year-old man, named only as David S, worked at the British embassy in Berlin and was detained on Tuesday.\n\nHe is alleged to have passed documents to Russian intelligence for money.\n\nMetropolitan Police commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said police had been working closely with German authorities and the UK government over the issue.\n\nShe told LBC Radio: \"I think it's a very good example of international co-working.\"\n\nMI5 and other UK agencies had been working alongside bodies including the BKA - Germany's federal criminal police office - and prosecutors ahead of the arrest in Potsdam, outside Berlin.\n\nThe man's home and workplace have been searched and he appeared before a judge on Wednesday. He was ordered to remain under arrest pending further inquiries.\n\nDame Cressida said: \"If this person is charged, we will support any trial, wherever that may be.\n\n\"At the moment the Germans are most certainly handling it.\"\n\nShe added of the arrest that \"these things are, thankfully, very rare\".\n\nThe arrest of a security guard at the British Embassy in Berlin is a reminder that old-fashioned spying has not gone out of fashion.\n\nStories of betrayal, bribes and stolen documents make for racy tales with all the elements of spy fiction.\n\nBut the truth is that nothing in the Berlin case should surprise us. What is alleged to have happened is not very unusual, even if we do not hear about it very often.\n\nIn recent years, Western states have called out Russia for the aggressive actions of its intelligence services - for instance the GRU, Russian military intelligence, using nerve agent in Salisbury or blowing up an arms depot in the Czech Republic, both actions killing innocent people.\n\nBut you will not hear the same complaints when it comes to the allegation involving the British Embassy in Berlin.\n\nThat is because if it turns out to be true, following the legal process, then it would be business as usual when it comes to more traditional spying.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police said officers from the force's Counter Terrorism Command - which investigates alleged breaches of the Official Secrets Act - were liaising with their German counterparts.\n\nThe suspect is understood to have been a security guard working as a contractor at the embassy. Prosecutors said he was hired as a local staff member at the embassy.\n\nLord Ricketts, former national security adviser, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme \"we're probably not looking at highly classified information being passed to the Russians - a security guard would not have access to that\".\n\nHe said it was a \"reminder\" that \"old-fashioned\" methods of spying were still being carried out, not just cyber-hacking and social media disinformation. The fact German and British authorities knew about the alleged spying and tracked it show that our defences \"are not in bad shape at all\", he added.\n\nMPs have called for a security review of UK embassy contractors following news of the man's arrest, with Chris Bryant - chair of the all-party parliamentary Russia group - saying it could be \"one of the most serious security breaches at a UK embassy for many years\".\n\nAnd Tobias Ellwood, chair of the commons defence select committee, called on the government to review the security of all contractors working at UK embassies, the Daily Telegraph reported.\n\nThe German Foreign Ministry said it was taking the case \"very seriously\", with Foreign Minister Heiko Maas telling reporters: \"Spying on a close ally on German soil is absolutely unacceptable and we are in full solidarity with our British friends.\"", "People who have recently taken a Covid test are being asked to record a cough on their smartphone or computer as part of a drive to improve detection rates.\n\nThe government also wants people to provide short voice and breathing sound samples as it looks at developing an app for wider use.\n\nUS researchers have already created an algorithm that detects Covid from coughs with a near-100% accuracy rate.\n\nIt is hoped this type of technology will make diagnosis cheaper and easier.\n\nFor the Department of Health and Social Care's research project, adults who have taken a Covid test in the last 72 hours can submit the barcode they have received from the NHS via their mobile, laptop, tablet or desktop computer.\n\nThey then record their breathing, coughing and a read-out sentence.\n\nResearchers compare the test results - showing an infection or a clean bill of health - with the recordings, as they seek to refine the technology.\n\nThe recordings can be sent after a PCR test or lateral flow test (pictured)\n\nA team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed an algorithm last year which picked up 98.5% of Covid infections.\n\nThe accuracy rate was 100% among participants who had reported no other symptoms.\n\nLast year, the UK awarded two contracts to Japanese technology conglomerate Fujitsu to explore potential applications of voice and cough data.\n\nIt also recently awarded a contract to Ipsos Mori for data collection.", "Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by the conflict\n\nThe first US troops are arriving in Afghanistan to help diplomatic staff and others leave, as many countries scramble to evacuate workers and citizens amid a rapid Taliban advance.\n\nOn Friday, militants captured Pul-e-Alam, capital of Loghar province, just 80km (50 miles) from the capital Kabul.\n\nThe UN chief said the situation was spinning out of control with devastating consequences for civilians.\n\nMore than 250,000 people have been forced to leave their homes so far.\n\nThe Taliban advance comes as US and other foreign troops withdraw after 20 years of military operations. The fighting has raised fears that gains in human rights made since the militants were ousted from power in 2001 could be swiftly reversed.\n\nLife under the Taliban in the 1990s saw women forced to wear the all-covering burka, education restricted for girls over 10, and brutal punishments including public executions.\n\nAlso on Friday, the Taliban seized the country's second-largest city Kandahar and the nearby city of Lashkar Gah, as well as Herat in the west. They now control about a third of Afghanistan's provincial capitals.\n\nPentagon spokesman John Kirby called the recent advances \"deeply concerning\", but downplayed any suggestion that Kabul was under imminent threat from the group.\n\nMost of the 3,000 troops being sent to help evacuate US diplomatic staff will arrive by the end of the weekend. The US intends to airlift thousands of people a day out of Kabul.\n\nThe latest US intelligence assessment suggests the militants could try to advance on the national capital within 30 days.\n\nThe US embassy there informed staff that an incinerator and other tools were available to destroy sensitive material, including documents and equipment such as flags that could be used in propaganda.\n\nThe UK, which is sending 600 troops to aid the evacuation of British nationals and former Afghan staff, said staffing at its embassy would be reduced to an absolute minimum - as did Germany.\n\nDenmark and Norway are closing their embassies altogether.\n\nUN Secretary General António Guterres called on the Taliban to end the fighting and urged the international community to make clear that power seized through military force is unacceptable.\n\n\"Every day the conflict is taking an even bigger toll on women and children. Continued urban conflict will mean continued carnage with civilians paying the highest price,\" he said.\n\nFood and medical supplies are dwindling and critical infrastructure including schools and clinics has been destroyed, he said. The UN has appealed to neighbouring countries to keep their borders open, to allow people to reach safety.\n\nMore than 1,000 civilians were killed in Afghanistan in the past month alone, according to the UN.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Secunder Kermani reports on life in a town recently taken by the Taliban\n\nMakeshift camps have been established on scrubland on the outskirts of the capital, while many of those seeking safety in Kabul have been sleeping on the streets.\n\nAbout 72,000 children are among those fleeing to the capital in recent days, according to Save the Children.\n\nZuhal, a 20-year-old student who has been helping those displaced, told the BBC: \"Ceasefire, just like an immediate ceasefire, just stop the fighting because we cannot get up another day and see a child filled with blood, a mother crying for her son - we cannot see that anymore.\"\n\nIn a separate development, Canada said it planned to resettle more than 20,000 vulnerable Afghans including women leaders, human rights workers and reporters.\n\nAre you in Afghanistan? How have you been affected? haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "A film festival in Spain has defended its decision to give Johnny Depp an honorary award after being criticised by domestic abuse charities.\n\nDepp lost a libel case in 2020 over an article labelling him \"a wife beater\".\n\nThe San Sebastian Film Festival, which is due to give him an outstanding contribution award next month, said the star had not been convicted \"of any form of violence against women\".\n\nWomen's Aid has said the honour is disrespectful to abuse survivors.\n\n\"When a perpetrator is celebrated, allowing them to continue to garner success and public approval suggests that abuse is acceptable and does not matter,\" the Women's Aid Federation said earlier this week.\n\nDepp, whose films include Edward Scissorhands and the Pirates of the Caribbean series, sued The Sun after it claimed he had assaulted his ex-wife Amber Heard.\n\nA High Court judge ruled last year that the article has been \"substantially true\". It was not a criminal trial and Depp has not faced any charges relating to domestic abuse.\n\nIn a statement on Friday, the festival said it had been accused \"of failing to display ethical behaviour in regard to violence against women\".\n\nIt said it had a commitment to fighting \"inequality, the abuse of power and violence against women\", but was also committed to the \"presumption of innocence\" and \"right to reintegration\".\n\nThe actor has denied abusing Amber Heard, whom he divorced in 2017\n\n\"According to the proven data which we have to hand, Johnny Depp has not been arrested, charged nor convicted of any form of assault or violence against any woman,\" it continued.\n\n\"We repeat: he has not been charged by any authority in any jurisdiction, nor convicted of any form of violence against women.\"\n\nDepp, 58, is also due to be honoured at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Czech Republic later this month.\n\nHis latest film Minamata, about photographer W Eugene Smith and the mercury poisoning that befell the titular Japanese town, opens in UK cinemas this weekend.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Turkey is one of several Mediterranean countries to be affected by wildfires during high temperatures\n\nJuly was the world's hottest month ever recorded, a US federal scientific and regulatory agency has reported.\n\nThe data shows that the combined land and ocean-surface temperature was 0.93C (1.68F) above the 20th Century average of 15.8C (60.4F).\n\nIt is the highest temperature since record-keeping began 142 years ago. The previous record, set in July 2016, was equalled in 2019 and 2020.\n\nExperts believe this is due to the long-term impact of climate change.\n\nIn a statement, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said that July's \"unenviable distinction\" was a cause for concern.\n\n\"In this case, first place is the worst place to be,\" NOAA administrator Rick Spinrad said in a statement.\n\n\"This new record adds to the disturbing and disruptive path that climate change has set for the globe.\"\n\nThe combined land and ocean-surface temperature was 0.01C higher than the 2016 record.\n\nIn the Northern Hemisphere, land-surface temperature reached an \"unprecedented\" 1.54C higher than average, surpassing a previous record set in 2012.\n\nThe data also showed that July was Asia's hottest month on record, as well as Europe's second hottest after July 2018.\n\nThe NOAA statement also included a map of significant climate \"anomalies\" in July, which noted that global tropical cyclone activity this year has been unusually high for the number of named storms.\n\nEarlier this week, a report from the United Nations said that climate change is having an \"unprecedented\" impact on earth, with some changes likely to be \"irreversible for centuries to millennia.\"\n\nUN Secretary General António Guterres said that the findings were \"a code red for humanity.\"\n\n\"If we combine forces now, we can avert climate catastrophe. But as today's report makes clear, there is no time for delay and no room for excuses,\" he said.\n\nThe authors of the report say that since 1970, global surface temperatures have risen faster than in any other 50-year period over the past 2,000 years.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "The BBC has uncovered new evidence about the teenage killer of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, the two sisters murdered last summer in a Wembley park in London.\n\nDanyal Hussein was a member of a web forum, run by an American self-styled black magician, whose instructions about demonic pacts mirror steps taken by the killer.\n\nThe American has encouraged murder in some of his writings, including for a violent Satanic group that’s been cited as an influence on seven young men convicted of neo-Nazi terror offences in the UK over the past two years.\n\nThe BBC’s Daniel De Simone has been investigating the background.", "Banksy has confirmed pieces of street art in Norfolk and Suffolk - including this one in Great Yarmouth - are genuine\n\nBanksy has confirmed 10 pieces of street art that have appeared along the east coast of England are by him.\n\nPeople have flocked to see the pieces that began appearing a week ago in Great Yarmouth, Gorleston and Cromer, Norfolk; and Lowestoft and Oulton Broad in Suffolk.\n\nWhile many believed they were by Banksy, the famously secretive artist remained silent.\n\nHowever, he has now claimed responsibility via his Instagram page.\n\nIs this Banksy? An Instagram video shows a hooded figure spraying the rat mural on the sea wall in Lowestoft\n\nThe first of the murals - a couple appearing to dance atop a bus shelter, accompanied by a man playing an accordion - came to light in Admiralty Road, Great Yarmouth, quickly followed by an arcade-style toy-grabbing crane in Gorleston, and a child holding a crowbar in Lowestoft.\n\nOther suspected Banksy works showed three children in a boat in Oulton Broad, a giant gull scavenging \"chips\" from a skip and a cocktail-sipping rat reclining in a deckchair, both in Lowestoft, and a group of hermit crabs in Cromer.\n\nArguably the most unusual piece was discovered on Sunday morning at Merrivale Model Village in Great Yarmouth. A new model of a miniature stable appeared, featuring a stencilled rat character and the slogan \"Go big or go home\" and apparently signed by the artist.\n\nA miniature thatched stable signed by the secretive graffiti artist appeared at Merrivale Model Village\n\nA child is depicted building a sandcastle with a crowbar on London Road North, Lowestoft\n\nBanksy confirmed he was the creator of the murals by sharing a video on his Instagram page of him travelling to each site in a campervan, titled \"A Great British Spraycation\".\n\nWalking along a beach with a cool box containing spray paint, the artist is first seen completing the mural of the cocktail-sipping rodent before venturing to the other locations.\n\nRodents are often featured in Banksy's work\n\nThe video also features reactions from passers-by, with one woman describing the mural of a girl building a sandcastle with a crowbar next to a broken paving slab as \"mindless vandalism\".\n\nWhile some were not impressed by the new installations, one Instagram user commented on the video saying: \"Thanks for your art in my hometown (Lowestoft), I went and enjoyed them all yesterday.\"\n\nThe statue of Frederick Savage was given some new accessories in the form of a fake ice cream and tongue\n\nThe pieces had been the talk of the town since appearing last Friday, but some of the artist's works had gone largely unnoticed until the video and a list on Banksy's website was released.\n\nA fake ice cream cone and tongue were added to the statue of Frederick Savage, the mayor of King's Lynn between 1889 and 1890, which stands on Guanock Place.\n\nA mural of two children being flung into the air in an inflatable boat as an adult pumps it up while drinking was also part of Banksy's \"spraycation\". It was painted at Gorleston's model boat pond.\n\nBanksy listed this mural on his website as part of his \"Great British Spraycation\"\n\nIn the final shot of a video on Bansky's Instagram page, a motorhome can be seen driving away from Merrivale Model Village\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nBrentford celebrated their return to the top tier after a 74-year absence with a memorable, magnificent victory over woeful Arsenal as they opened their Premier League campaign in style.\n\nThomas Frank's side were vibrant, skilful and energetic on a night of high emotion at the Brentford Community Stadium, making the perfect start to the season, but inflicting serious pain on the Gunners in a sobering 90 minutes for the visitors.\n\nBrentford took to life in the big time with ease and fully deserved the lead given to them after 22 minutes when Sergi Canos drove low past keeper Bernd Leno at the near post, although Arsenal complained bitterly that the ball had gone out of play in the build-up.\n\nOnly Emile Smith Rowe truly rose above the mediocrity for Arsenal, forcing a save out of Brentford keeper David Raya - who also brilliantly denied Nicolas Pepe late on - before the home fans exploded in noise and elation when they scored a second with 17 minutes left.\n\nArsenal, without strike pair Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang through illness, paid the price for a hopeless attempt to defend substitute Mads Bech Sorensen's routine long throw. New £50m defender Ben White was particularly culpable as Christian Norgaard arrived to head home.\n\nBrentford's supporters, understandably, celebrated wildly at the final whistle, but this was a result and performance that instantly turns the spotlight on Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta as he desperately needs an improvement on last season.\n\nBrentford could not have made a better start to life in the Premier League, showing the pedigree that has made them such an entertaining side on their journey to this stage.\n\nOn a thunderous night at the Brentford Community Stadium, the arena was alive with noise and excitement well before kick-off - and what happened when the action started only raised those levels.\n\nTough days will inevitably lie ahead for the top-flight newcomers, but this was a night when the Bees showed what they were all about under charismatic manager Frank.\n\nOnce they realised Arsenal had little offer after the early exchanges, Brentford took charge and Bryan Mbeumo had already struck the post before Canos opened the scoring.\n\nThey grew in confidence, winning the physical challenges, attacking swiftly and, on the rare occasions he was called upon, keeper Raya looked a class act.\n\nFrank and his players rightly savoured the moment at the final whistle - in front of supporters who did themselves huge credit with the standing ovation given to Arsenal substitute Bukayo Saka, who was racially abused after missing a penalty in England's Euro 2020 final loss to Italy.\n\nThis was quite simply how Brentford would have scripted it. No-one can begrudge them their victory - and the manner in which they revelled in it.\n\nAbject Arsenal get what they deserved\n\nArsenal were handed a difficult opening assignment as there is always an element of jeopardy attached to a visit to a newly-promoted side.\n\nThis, however, was light years from what will be required this season and manager Arteta has work to do to knock the Gunners into shape on this evidence.\n\nYes, he was missing strikers Lacazette and Aubameyang, while Saka only started on the bench, but the lack of resolve, the lack of a coherent plan and lack of threat when they needed to fight their way back into contention was alarming.\n\nOnly Smith Rowe looked capable of providing a spark while it was a harrowing start to life at Arsenal for expensive summer acquisition White. He was tormented throughout and part of a desperate attempt to defend the throw-in that led to Brentford's second goal.\n\nArsenal are familiar with the criticisms that will be aimed at them, namely a failure to match the fight and physical assets of opponents, but here they can have no answer to the charges. They were weak in all areas, especially in defence, with Pablo Mari and Calum Chambers also on the rack throughout.\n\nKeeper Leno was at fault for the first goal, put his defence under pressure playing out from the back and almost gifted Brentford a third, providing evidence why Arteta is in the market for a new number one.\n\nThis was a thoroughly wretched night in every respect for Arteta and his players. They will hope it is a one-off, but the club's detractors will say they have seen too many nightmares like this.\n• None Attempt missed. Emile Smith Rowe (Arsenal) right footed shot from the right side of the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Reiss Nelson.\n• None Attempt blocked. Reiss Nelson (Arsenal) left footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Kieran Tierney with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Albert Sambi Lokonga (Arsenal) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Kieran Tierney.\n• None Nuno Tavares (Arsenal) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. Pablo Marí (Arsenal) header from the right side of the six yard box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Emile Smith Rowe with a cross following a corner.\n• None Attempt saved. Nicolas Pépé (Arsenal) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Kieran Tierney.\n• None Attempt missed. Granit Xhaka (Arsenal) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Albert Sambi Lokonga.\n• None Attempt missed. Nuno Tavares (Arsenal) left footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by Albert Sambi Lokonga. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "Westminster Council's leader admitted the mound had opened too early\n\nThe deputy leader of a London council responsible for the ballooning costs of the Marble Arch Mound has resigned.\n\nMelvyn Caplan stepped down immediately after total costs nearly doubled to £6m, up from a forecast of £3.3m.\n\nTicketholders were offered refunds for the artificial viewing platform which temporarily closed within two days of opening on 26 July.\n\nA review to \"understand what went wrong and ensure it never happens again\" is under way, Westminster Council said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOrganisers had hoped the mound would attract 200,000 ticketholders with \"millions expected to pass through the area to take a glimpse of the attraction\" before it is taken down in January.\n\nTickets for the attraction were priced at between £4.50 and £8 but it has since been made free to visit for the month of August after its plants and grass began to die.\n\n\"It's a bit weird you have to pay to walk up a hill,\" one person told the BBC. \"No-one has really explained why it's here,\" said another.\n\nConservative Melvyn Caplan had been a councillor since 1990\n\nThe 25m mound, designed by Dutch architects MVRDV, was intended to attract visitors back to the heart of London.\n\nIn a statement, council leader Rachael Robathan branded the rise in costs \"totally unacceptable\" and accepted her deputy's resignation \"with regret\".\n\nShe said: \"Doing nothing was never an option. So when the mound fully reopens in September, I hope that people will come and see it for themselves.\n\n\"The mound may delight or divide views and that's OK, but we're confident that in the end it will fulfil its original brief - to get people back into the West End and remind them of why this is a world-class city.\"", "Actress Una Stubbs, who appeared in some of the best-loved shows on British TV from the 1960s to the 2010s, has died at the age of 84.\n\nShe found fame in Cliff Richard's 1963 film Summer Holiday before starring in hit sitcom Till Death Us Do Part.\n\nThe actress went on to appear in shows like Worzel Gummidge, The Worst Witch, EastEnders and Sherlock.\n\nHer agent paid tribute to her as \"a wonderful actress\" and \"graceful, gracious and kind and constant friend\".\n\nAfter starting her career as a dancer, Stubbs became a fixture on the small screen in the 60s when she played Alf Garnett's exasperated daughter Rita in Till Death Us Do Part and the 1980s follow-ups 'Til Death and In Sickness and In Health.\n\nTony Booth, Una Stubbs, Warren Mitchell and Dandy Nichols starred in Till Death Us Do Part\n\nShe was also a regular on the game show Don't Say A Word and its follow-up Give us a Clue, and became a favourite of young audiences as Aunt Sally in Worzel Gummidge.\n\nShe starred in another children's hit, The Worst Witch, in the late 1990s, as well as playing Caroline Bishop in soap EastEnders and appearing in comedies The Catherine Tate Show and Benidorm.\n\nHer last major role saw her play Sherlock's landlady Mrs Hudson in the BBC drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch.\n\nSherlock creator Steven Moffat remembered Stubbs as \"the loveliest light on Baker Street\".\n\nWriting on Instagram, he said: \"What a woman, what a talent, what a star - and just about the kindest, nicest, funniest person you could meet.\n\n\"I don't know how anyone even starts summing up that career - Till Death Us Do Part, Fawlty Towers, the incomparable Aunt Sally in Worzel Gummidge... and, of course, the irreplaceable heart and soul of Sherlock\".\n\nIn a statement, Stubbs' sons Joe and Christian Henson and Jason Gilmore said: \"Mum passed away quietly today with her family around her, in Edinburgh. We ask for privacy and understanding at this most difficult and sad of times.\"\n\nHer agent Rebecca Blond, who represented Stubbs for more than 20 years, said she would \"miss her enormously and remember her always\".\n\nThe veteran actress had been ill for a few months, Blond told BBC News.\n\nShe said: \"We are desperately sad to have lost not only a wonderful actress, whose screen and stage career, spanning over 50 years, was so extraordinarily varied, from Till Death Us Do Part to Sherlock, as well as memorable performances in the West End, at the Old Vic, Donmar Warehouse, Sheffield Crucible and National Theatre, but also a wickedly funny, elegant, stylish, graceful, gracious and kind and constant friend.\n\n\"She was also a highly respected and exhibited artist.\"\n\nStubbs exhibited in the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition, and her passion for art made her the perfect choice to co-host BBC One's The Big Painting Challenge in 2015.\n\nStubbs with Michael Aspel and Lionel Blair on Give Us A Clue\n\nBroadcaster Gyles Brandreth paid tribute, saying it was \"a sad day\".\n\nHe wrote: \"Such a funny, lovely, gifted lady - a marvellous actress with a special style & a great (and impish) sense of humour.\"\n\nFellow dancer and actress Bonnie Langford said it was \"such a loss\".\n\nShe said: \"She made everything look so effortless. A consummate professional, kind, gracious, elegant, versatile and fun. Her Aunt Sally was a masterclass alone.\"\n\nOther tributes came from across the entertainment industry.\n\nThis 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 Mark Gatiss 💙 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.\n\nThis 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 2 by Floella Benjamin 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.\n\nThis 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 3 by Jessica Fox 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.\n\nThis 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 4 by Lucy Benjamin 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.\n\nThis 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 5 by Paul Weller 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.\n\nStubbs started her career at the age of 16 as a chorus girl at the London Palladium, and was the Dairy Box girl in TV chocolate adverts in the 1950s.\n\nShe auditioned for Summer Holiday as a dancer, but ended up being given one of the main roles. She had no formal acting training, saying: \"I've been to the school of observation. I learned everything there.\"\n\nShe maintained a long career that saw her remain popular with successive generations. \"Different age groups recognise me for different things,\" she said.\n\nShe starred on stage as well as screen, including in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night - which she described as her most challenging part - and in the original cast of the National Theatre adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.\n\nIn her private life, Stubbs was married and divorced twice, to actors Peter Gilmore and Nicky Henson, and had three sons.\n\nStubbs and Nicky Henson just after their wedding in 1969\n\nShe once said she felt she spent most of her life \"doing two jobs, motherhood and acting, and only being so-so at both of them\".\n\nBut she also spoke about the resilience she found under pressure. \"I am amazed at the strength I found,\" she told The Guardian in 2007.\n\n\"When I think of what a lightweight girl I was, expecting roses to grow around the door, expecting everyone to be perfect... but of course, it's the layers you grow that make you into a person.\n\n\"I realise on reflection that I'm a strong person - even steely, actually - but I had no idea.\"\n\nUna Stubbs and singer Mary Millar in a picture taken when they appeared on the Dick Emery Show in 1963\n\nUna Stubbs appeared in an episode of Fawlty Towers in 1979\n\nStubbs appeared in the Keeping Up Appearances Christmas Special in 1995\n\nStubbs (right) pictured in a 2006 episode of EastEnders with Emma Barton and Barbara Windsor\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion, email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "James Markham died of a stab wound to the lung\n\nA 14-year-old boy has appeared in court charged with murdering a married father of three who was stabbed to death outside his home in north-east London.\n\nJames Markham, 45, died on Monday night after confronting a group of youths shouting and swearing outside his home in Churchill Terrace, Chingford.\n\nThe teenager appeared at Stratford Youth Court on Friday charged with possessing a knife in public.\n\nThe boy is in youth detention and will appear at the Old Bailey on 17 August.\n\nThe teenager, who cannot be named due to his age, spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth and address.\n\nHe is further charged with breaching a criminal behaviour order (CBO).\n\nA group of youths had yelled at Mr Markham's daughter, the court heard\n\nMr Markham has been described by friends as a \"man with a good heart and a good soul\".\n\nAnother 14-year-old boy and a girl, 16, have been released under investigation.\n\nA second boy, also 14, had been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder and a 16-year-old girl was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Sharing the exam news at Ark Burlington Danes Academy in west London\n\nGCSE students have received another set of record grades, in the second year of Covid disruption to exams in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nTop grades (7/As and above) rose to 28.9% from 26.2% last year, while grades 4/Cs and above - seen as passes - rose to 77.1% up from 76.3%.\n\nThis is a smaller rise than last year, the first time exams were cancelled and teacher assessed grades were used.\n\nExams regulators have insisted the process has been fair and thorough.\n\nTeachers submitted grades for the more than half a million pupils on GCSE courses this year, using evidence such as mock exams, course work and tests.\n\nThere were more top GCSE grades, but the increase was not as sharp as at A-level\n\nThere are different devolved systems for GCSEs:\n\nThe two years of replacement grades, after exams were cancelled in the pandemic, have had significantly higher results, for GCSEs and A-levels.\n\nExam officials say it reflects that no one has had a bad day in an exam and that pupils had multiple chances to show their best potential.\n\nEngland's exam watchdog Ofqual said the system was fair, each centre had its assessment policy reviewed and samples of work were checked during a \"quality assurance\" process.\n\nExam boards say that below 1% of grades were changed in the checking process.\n\nAs well as getting GCSEs, more than half a million vocational qualifications were also issued, including for 230,000 BTec students.\n\nSchools Minister Nick Gibb defended the way GCSE results had been awarded, saying this had been a \"very different year\" and it was right that exams were cancelled.\n\n\"This was the best alternative to exams,\" he told BBC Breakfast. \"I think people can be confident of the grades that have been awarded this year.\"\n\nMr Gibb said longer term, he wanted to get back to a pre-pandemic system where there are no \"significant changes\" year-on-year in the grades awarded to students.\n\nLabour's Shadow Education Secretary Kate Green said the exam results were a \"stark warning\" of a widening social divide.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. GCSE results day: \"It's amazing, I can't believe it\"\n\n\"Children on free school meals have been abandoned by this government and students in state schools are again being outstripped by their more advantaged private school peers,\" she said.\n\nJon Andrews of the Education Policy Institute think tank warned the higher results should not \"distract us from the huge learning losses that students have faced\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Schools minister: \"People can be confident of the grades awarded\"\n\n\"There is a risk that higher grades awarded to young people conceal the underlying losses that they have experienced from the pandemic.\"\n\nProf Alan Smithers, of the Centre of Education and Employment Research, at Buckingham University, said it would be difficult for the government to reverse the trend of increasing grades over the coming years - as the higher grades are popular with parents and schools.\n\n\"It will be quite a task for the government to put the genie back into the bottle,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. It is \"pretty astonishing\" that the education secretary is still in his job, says the Labour leader.\n\nBut head teachers say the replacement grades used this year will allow pupils to progress to the next stage of their education.\n\nNational Association of Head Teachers leader Paul Whiteman said it was important that these pupils have access to any additional academic or pastoral support they need as they progress into the next stage of their education.\n\nGeoff Barton, of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: \"It is important to focus on the achievements of this cohort rather than fixate on comparisons with other years, which are somewhat meaningless.\"\n\nSyeda in Dagenham got all grade 9s in her GCSE results\n\nSyeda had been hoping for high grades after sitting 62 assessments, instead of the usual exams, at Sydney Russell School in Dagenham, east London.\n\nAnd her hopes have been realised. \"I did it. I got all 9s in my GCSEs and two distinctions,\" she said.\n\n\"It's the best possible results and I'm so proud of myself. I think there is a big sense of relief.\"\n\nHer mum, Shahima came to the school with her to share the experience.\n\nShe says: \"I'm extremely, extremely proud of Syeda. She's put so much effort and hard work into this and lots of sleepless nights.\"\n\n\"It has been a bit crazy for everyone involved in this process this year,\" she says.\n\nRoman says he would have preferred the regular exam system\n\nRoman is celebrating four grade 7s and four grade 8s in his GCSEs.\n\n\"I'm definitely satisfied, but in a sense I feel I've been bumped down a few grades due to some exams being very different and out of the ordinary this year compared to other years.\"\n\nHe says the challenges he's faced over the past two years have had an impact.\n\n\"It's been a rollercoaster. So many ups and downs and so many battles, both mental battles and physical ones.\"\n\nHe says he would actually have preferred to sit exams as he feels one exam at the end would have been easier than the constant pressure of lots of tests.\n\n\"I don't think anyone could have ever imagined stuff like this,\" she says\n\n\"But the fact is that we have got through it - and hopefully our results tomorrow will prove that we have worked hard.\"\n\nTo those people who criticise the value of this year's grades, Syeda says: \"I would tell them they should try and be in our place.\"\n\n\"I don't think anyone can know what it is like unless you are experiencing it yourself.\"\n\nShe is aiming to sit A-levels next year and study English literature at the University of Cambridge.", "Sam Rospigliosi says she feels desperate to get a jab for her daughter Veronica\n\nSome parents in England say they are still struggling to get a Covid vaccine for their clinically extremely vulnerable children, nearly four weeks after they were added to the rollout.\n\nAt-risk 12 to 15-year-olds and those living with someone with a weak immune system became eligible on 19 July.\n\nNHS England say vaccinations will start from 23 August at the latest.\n\nBut families and GPs have told the BBC they are frustrated by a lack of information.\n\nParents say they are still waiting to hear how and when they will be contacted and worry their children could return to school with minimal protection after one jab.\n\nSam Rospigliosi's 15-year-old daughter Veronica has severe neurodisabilities and she is desperate to get her vaccinated - but after spending the last two weeks contacting her south-west London GP, local NHS and MP, she is no further forward.\n\n\"It is overwhelming and incredibly upsetting to be in this position - we really do feel very desperate,\" she said.\n\n\"Time is being squandered. The urgency of the vaccine rollout for our clinically vulnerable kids appears to have been forgotten, and once again, we have had to push hard for something which has been rightfully ours all along.\"\n\nAli Mercer from Abingdon in Oxfordshire has a 14-year-old autistic son who is on the learning disabled register, and a 17-year-old daughter.\n\nHer daughter, who turns 18 next month, received a jab on Wednesday last week - but her son Tom is still waiting.\n\n\"I'm really concerned and upset that Tom hasn't been called in for his jab yet,\" she said.\n\nAli Mercer is concerned her son Tom has not been contacted yet for a Covid vaccine\n\n\"It horrifies me to think of him getting ill with Covid and becoming really sick and struggling to express how he's feeling and to understand what's happening.\n\n\"And then there's the risk of long Covid. So I feel the stakes are really high and it's urgent that he and other children like him should be protected as soon as possible.\"\n\nThe government was advised by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) in July that Covid vaccines should be offered to 12 to 15-year-olds who had:\n\nBut several weeks on, GPs also say they are still waiting for \"search guidelines\" to help them identify, from patient health records, which children are eligible for a vaccine - and that is making an already complicated process more time-consuming.\n\n\"I can understand that this will be very stressful for the children and their parents who would want to ensure they receive at least one dose of vaccine before the new school year starts,\" said Prof Azeem Majeed, head of the department of primary care and public health at Imperial College London.\n\n\"This issue is outside the control of GPs and paediatricians, and we are awaiting further guidance from NHS England about how the programme will be implemented,\" he said.\n\nDr Gary Howsam, vice chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said they had been assured the guidance would be available soon and parents of eligible children would be invited in due course.\n\nBut NHS England says it sent out a letter within days of the advice, issuing guidance to GPs on how to proceed.\n\n\"GP-led vaccination centres are already contacting children and their parents, with thousands vaccinated in a matter of days following the necessary safety checks and training,\" an NHS spokesman said.\n\n\"Local services are on track to offer a vaccine to eligible 12 to 15-year-olds by the start of the school year, as originally planned.\"\n\nThis includes sending invites to 37,000 vulnerable children in England and 114,000 children who live with someone with a weak immune system.\n\nIn the meantime, GP leaders are urging parents not to contact their GP practice directly about the issue.\n\nLast week the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health described the vaccine rollout to under-18s as \"shambolic\", saying doctors had been \"left in the dark\" about plans for the programme which left them unable to answer questions from worried parents.\n\nThe college says it is hopeful things are starting to move in the right direction.\n\nIn Wales, letters are being sent to eligible 12 to 15-year-olds inviting them to be vaccinated.\n\nIn Northern Ireland, paediatricians from each trust were asked to identify eligible children and invite them to attend dedicated vaccination centres.\n\nAnd in Scotland, the NHS said as of 12 August, 23% of eligible 12 to 15-year-olds and 34% of those aged 16 and 17 had received a first dose of the vaccine.", "Firefighters are tackling a large roof blaze near the Fish Quay in North Shields\n\nFirefighters are tackling a large blaze at a building in North Tyneside.\n\nEmergency services were called to the derelict building on Brewhouse Bank, near the Fish Quay in North Shields, just after 16:00 BST on Friday.\n\nWitnesses have reported being able to see billows of smoke from as far away as South Shields across the River Tyne.\n\nFirefighters are urging people to stay away from the area and keep their doors and windows shut because of the large amount of smoke.\n\nFirefighters are urging people to stay away from the area because of the large amount of smoke\n\nA large number of tyres are in the burning building along with general waste and rubbish.\n\nTyne and Wear Fire Service said there were 10 appliances and an aerial ladder at the scene.\n\nThe fire has broken out in a derelict building\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The cost of NHS coronavirus tests for international arrivals to the UK have been reduced, the government has said.\n\nTest and Trace tests have been cut from £88 to £68 for people arriving from green-listed countries and for those coming from amber-listed countries who are fully vaccinated.\n\nMeanwhile, the price of two tests for amber arrivals who have not had both jabs has been cut from £170 to £136.\n\nThe prices of all providers of day two and eight tests are to be reviewed.\n\nIt comes after Health Secretary Sajid Javid asked the competition watchdog to investigate \"excessive\" pricing and \"exploitative practices\" among PCR Covid test firms.\n\nHe said misleading pricing will be clamped down on and providers failing to meet necessary standards will be removed from the government's approved list.\n\nNHS Test and Trace advertises its tests alongside private companies' packages and they are available to purchase to fulfil the government's testing requirements for international travel.\n\nThis is the second time the price of NHS tests has been reduced; previously the cost of a day two and eight package was £210.\n\nIt is understood that if the review finds private companies are offering terms that are unfair and therefore unenforceable, enforcement action could be taken by the Competition and Markets Authority or Trading Standards.\n\nIf businesses are found to have breached consumer law, they could be subject to a court order to stop operating and told to compensate consumers.\n\n\"I am determined to protect consumers and hardworking families from exploitative practices and ensure high quality tests are available at a reasonable price,\" said Mr Javid.\n\n\"Too many providers are acting like cowboys and that needs to stop. The public should be allowed to enjoy their summer holidays without having to face excessive costs or anxiety.\n\n\"Any provider found to be misleading the public will be kicked off.\"\n\nHolidaymakers have complained of high prices and poor service from many of the 400-plus firms offering PCR tests and there have been reports that some have not got full accreditation.\n\nAccording to reports, PCR test prices can range from as little as £20 to more than £500. There have also been complaints from consumers that they have not received test results or have been sent damaged PCR kits.\n\nThe government said providers must use laboratories that are either accredited or undergoing accreditation by the independent United Kingdom Accreditation Service, and that businesses that fail to meet standards will be removed from its list of approved providers.\n\nThe CMA has previously said formal investigations can take a long time, but in this instance it will provide advice to Mr Javid with a view to taking swift action.", "Rugby player-turned-pundit Ugo Monye has become the 15th and final celebrity to be confirmed for the 2021 series of Strictly Come Dancing.\n\nMonye will join Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty, BBC Breakfast's Dan Walker, actress Nina Wadia and 11 other stars when the BBC show returns next month.\n\nThe former England player, soon to be seen as a team captain on A Question of Sport, said it was \"a dream come true\".\n\n\"I love an outfit at the best of times, so bring on the sequins!\" he went on.\n\nThe announcement came hours after the participation of Olympic gold medallist Peaty was revealed, along with that of comedian and Loose Women panellist Judi Love.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Adam Peaty: I'm going to be very uncomfortable on Strictly\n\nThe trio were the final celebrities to be named for the 19th series of Strictly, which will be the normal length after being slightly shorter in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.\n\nBruno Tonioli will be absent from the judges' desk, replaced by long-serving professional dancer Anton Du Beke. Four new professionals have also been revealed.\n\nHere are 2021's celebrity contestants in full:\n\nThe former Harlequins winger won 14 international caps for England and also played two Tests for the British & Irish Lions.\n\nAfter retiring in 2015, he moved into the media and his Strictly signing comes weeks after he was named among a new line-up on the BBC's long-running A Question of Sport.\n\n\"Strictly is the biggest entertainment show on TV and I can't wait to show everyone I've got more than just dad dancing moves,\" he said in a statement.\n\n\"My two beautiful daughters never had a chance to see me on the rugby pitch, so to know they can watch me waltzing and twirling every week is really special to me.\"\n\nSwimmer Peaty will be hoping to follow the two gold medals he won at the recent Tokyo Olympics with Strictly's coveted glitterball trophy.\n\nThe 26-year-old won the 100m breaststroke in Tokyo, becoming the first British swimmer to defend an Olympic title. He also scooped gold in the mixed 4x100m medley relay and silver in the 4x100m medley relay.\n\n\"I'm not the most fluid on land,\" he told BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat. \"But, saying that, I am an athlete. I am used to working hard.\"\n\nIn a separate statement, Peaty said he was \"really looking forward to doing something totally different and challenging myself away from the pool\".\n\nJudi Love is a TV presenter, stand-up comedian, online comedy star and OK! magazine columnist.\n\nShe said she had watched Strictly for years and \"admired the phenomenal abilities of these dancers and celebrities that have taken part and dedicated themselves to learning a new craft\".\n\nShe added: \"I'm truly looking forward to pushing myself in something that I could have only dreamed of doing and now it's actually coming true!! I can't lie I'm soooo nervous but excited at the same time.\"\n\nThe EastEnders actress, who has played Frankie Lewis in the BBC soap since 2020, is set to become Strictly's first deaf dancer.\n\n\"To be the first deaf contestant on Strictly Come Dancing is so exciting and a little bit scary,\" she said in a statement. \"I hope I will do the deaf community proud and break down more barriers.\n\n\"But I am also very excited to learn an incredible new skill, and even better I get to learn whilst wearing beautiful dresses made especially for me!\"\n\nAyling-Ellis, who communicates using British Sign Language, made history by becoming the first deaf actor to play a deaf character in EastEnders' fictional Walford suburb.\n\nFormer EastEnders and Goodness Gracious Me actress Wadia admitted she was \"so scared\" when her name was added to the line-up.\n\n\"I like dancing like no-one's watching,\" she told ITV's Lorraine after she was revealed. \"So we just need to blindfold the judges and I'm going to win,\" she joked.\n\nWadia played Zainab Masood (later Khan) in EastEnders between 2007 and 2013 and is also known for her role in BBC comedy Still Open All Hours.\n\n\"A lot has happened in the last couple of years, and I just want to grab life by the balls and enjoy it,\" she said.\n\nThe 19-year-old has more than 9.5 million followers on TikTok and is known for presenting CBBC's Matilda and the Ramsay Bunch, which features her family - including her father, chef Gordon.\n\nShe said she \"can't wait to get my dancing shoes on and show my dad how it's done\".\n\nHe wished her well in a video when she was announced as a contestant on ITV's This Morning, signing off with the warning: \"Don't date those dancers.\"\n\nAsked if she thought she had an advantage by posting dance videos on social media, Ramsay replied: \"Yeah, I guess that's true. You've got to learn them and you've got to remember them for the video, but luckily that's not live and you can do as many takes as you need.\"\n\nThe actor rose to fame by playing John Willoughby in the 1995 film Sense and Sensibility, on which he met his future wife Dame Emma Thompson.\n\nWise also appeared in Cranford, played Lord Mountbatten in The Crown, and created the 2019 film Last Christmas with Dame Emma, whom he married in 2003.\n\nHe dedicated his Strictly appearance to his late sister Clare, with whom he wrote the book Not That Kind of Love.\n\n\"My beautiful sister was a huge disco queen,\" he said. \"She left our world almost exactly five years ago in a glitter ball coffin. This is for her.\"\n\nDan Walker has been a regular presenter of BBC Breakfast since 2016, when he replaced Bill Turnbull.\n\nHe said on Tuesday he was \"excited, a little bit worried, mostly terrified\" about joining Strictly.\n\nKeen sports fan Walker presented BBC Olympic Breakfast throughout this year's games. He also hosted Football Focus for 12 years and has covered many major events, including Wimbledon, the Grand National and Royal Ascot.\n\nOther presenting roles have included The One Show and Songs of Praise.\n\nHe added: \"My kids have only ever asked me to go on two shows… Saturday Mash Up and Strictly. I did Saturday Mash Up this summer so… it's time to embrace the sequins.\"\n\nKatie McGlynn meanwhile said she was getting ready \"to shake my shimmy\".\n\n\"I'm really not a dancer, but I'm so excited to learn a new skill on this crazy journey and cannot wait to slip into some sequins along the way,\" she said.\n\nThe actress, who plays newcomer Becky Quentin in Hollyoaks, formerly starred as Sinead Tinker in Coronation Street. The role earned her a Bafta nomination and a National Television Award in 2020. She also featured in the BBC One drama series Waterloo Road and The Syndicate.\n\n\"A lot of my roles have involved quite serious and challenging storylines, so I'm fully ready to let my hair down and do something different, even if it is completely outside of my comfort zone,\" she added.\n\nSara Davies, 37, became the youngest ever dragon on the BBC show's panel of entrepreneurs when she joined in 2019.\n\nKnown as the Den's \"Crafting Queen\", Davies started her business Crafter's Companion when she was still a student. It now employs nearly 250 people.\n\nThe County Durham-born entrepreneur said her \"mam and dad are going to be so excited\" about her joining Strictly.\n\n\"I'm really nervous because so far the producers keep asking me if I can dance. Truth be told - I haven't got a clue! I've not danced since I did ballet lessons when I was little.\"\n\nShe added: \"The business world has taught me that tenacity, drive and determination deliver results, I hope that I can bring that to the dance floor. And I'm excited to see the impact of all those hours of training on my mum tum!\"\n\nThe singer and guitarist, who scored seven UK number one singles with McFly between 2004 and 2007, is taking to the dance floor exactly a decade after his bandmate Harry Judd lifted the coveted glitterball trophy.\n\nFletcher has also carved out a successful sideline as a children's author, and his family could do a unique reality TV double after wife Giovanna won I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! last year.\n\nHe said he was \"incredibly excited\" but also \"totally terrified\" to do Strictly. \"My kids were excited too until I started showing them my best dad-dancing in the kitchen,\" he said. \"I'm not sure how far they'll get me in the competition but I can't wait to add some new moves to my embarrassing dad-dancing repertoire.\"\n\nThe Blackburn-born presenter rose to fame hosting Big Brother's Bit on the Side in 2013, and has since appeared on shows like The Voice UK and Trending Live!.\n\nIn September, she will co-present a one-off revival of Channel 4's The Big Breakfast alongside comedian Mo Gilligan.\n\nShe said she was \"beyond chuffed\" to be on Strictly. \"I absolutely love the show and am fully committed to making the most of every second of the Strictly experience,\" she said. \"Bring it on!\"\n\nThe comic actor is best-known for his double act with David Mitchell in TV shows like Peep Show, That Mitchell and Webb Look and Back. Like Fletcher, he has also become an author.\n\nAnd Webb has form on the dance floor - he won Let's Dance For Comic Relief in 2009.\n\n\"It's a big, generous, joyful show and I can't wait to get packed into a spandex onesie and fired from a glitter cannon directly at Claudia Winkleman,\" he said.\n\nActor and children's TV presenter Stephenson is best known as the face of children's television channel CBBC, which he hosts live from the channel's Salford HQ.\n\nHe has presented such CBBC shows as Blue Peter and Saturday Mash-Up! and is an ambassador for children's mental health charity Place2Be.\n\n\"I cannot wait to experience it all: the costumes, the orchestra, even Craig's glare,\" he said of his participation in Strictly. \"I am ready!\"\n\nThe actor and children's TV presenter added he was already \"impatient to take part\" after being unveiled on Friday morning's Newsround news bulletin.\n\n\"I have dreamt about being on this show, and I know for a fact it is going to exceed every expectation,\" he said.\n\nWhaite is a chef, TV presenter and cookery author. He won the third series of The Great British Bake Off in 2012 at the age of 23.\n\nSince then he has presented TV shows and has a cooking segment on Steph's Packed Lunch on Channel 4.\n\nHe has also published five cookery books and runs his own cookery school, John Whaite's Kitchen.\n\n\"I'm so grateful, excited, and nervous to be joining the Strictly 2021 family,\" he said. \"I've been wearing sequins and jazzy attire since I was three years old and can't wait to hurl myself, full throttle, around the most glamorous dance floor on Earth.\"\n\nWhaite will be part of the show's first all-male partnership. He will follow in the footsteps of boxer Nicola Adams, who was the first celebrity to have a same-sex partner last year.\n\nThe 2012 Bake Off winner described his partnership as \"a great step forward in representation and inclusion\".\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion, email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "The first week of August saw 1.7m active job ads in the UK, new research has found.\n\nJob ads for photographers and broadcasting equipment operators saw the largest rise, up 19% on last week, according to the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC).\n\nDemand for insurance underwriters is up 15.5%, while new roles for agricultural staff rose by nearly 10%.\n\nThe spike comes in the three weeks since Covid restrictions were lifted.\n\nJob ads for plasterers are also up by 8%, while adverts for decorators are up by 4.7%.\n\nThe REC also found that the last three weeks have seen the highest numbers of new job postings since mid-May.\n\nBut job adverts were down for playworkers by over 20%, while ads for teaching and educational professionals declined by 14.7%.\n\nFour out of the UK's top ten hiring hotspots were in North West England, while four out of the bottom ten local areas for growth in active job postings were in Scotland.\n\nThe highest growth in the first week of August was Blackpool with over 5%, closely followed by West Dunbartonshire, the Wirral and Norwich and East Norfolk.\n\nThe job advert data was analysed between 26 July and 8 August 2021.\n\nActive job advert postings for nurses saw no change during this period.\n\nKate Shoesmith, deputy chief executive of the REC said that employers are \"desperate\" to find \"good staff to help them recover and grow in the coming months\".\n\nPhotographers are now in high demand, perhaps due to restrictions relaxing around weddings\n\n\"Recruiters are working flat out to help find the best people but there are shortages of workers in almost every sector across the country,\" she explained.\n\nWhile she said that this is \"starting to translate\" into higher pay and better benefits for some workers in particular sectors, she added that employers also need \"more support from government\", including a more flexible immigration system and an \"effective, long-term plan on skills.\"\n\n\"We mustn't overlook the thousands of workers who need a chance to skill up and improve their earnings but this alone won't meet demand,\" she added.", "Last updated on .From the section Athletics\n\nBritish sprinter CJ Ujah has been suspended from competition after testing positive for a banned substance.\n\nUjah, 27, was part of Team GB men's 4x100m relay team which won silver at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics this month.\n\nHe has been provisionally suspended, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said.\n\nThe AIU said a test showed the \"presence/use of a prohibited substance (Ostarine and S-23).\"\n\nA UK Athletics spokesperson said the governing body does not comment on ongoing processes.\n\nUjah, who has yet to comment, won the 100m at the British Championships in June.\n\nBritain's men's quartet missed out on the 4x100m title by just a hundredth of a second in Tokyo.\n\nUjah ran the opening leg as anchor runner Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake was overhauled on the line by Italy's Filippo Tortu.\n\nWorld Athletics Anti-Doping rules state that in instances where an athlete who has committed an ADRV competed as a member of a relay team, \"the relay team shall be automatically disqualified from the event in question, with all resulting consequences for the relay team, including the forfeiture of all titles, awards, medals, points and prize and appearance money\".\n\nEnobosarm, or Ostarine, is listed as an anabolic agent - banned at all times - in the World Anti-Doping Agency's list of prohibited substances.\n\nThe UK Anti-Doping (Ukad) website said it has \"similar effects to testosterone\".\n\nS23 is a Selective Androgen Receptor Modulator (Sarm), which, according to the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) \"have similar anabolic properties to anabolic steroids\".\n\nUjah can request analysis of the B-sample - kept for storage while the A-sample is analysed - and should that confirm the Adverse Analytical Finding [AAF], the case will be referred to the Anti-Doping Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport [Cas ADD].\n\nIn turn, the International Testing Agency (ITA) said: \"The Cas ADD will consider the matter of the finding of an Anti-Doping Rule Violation [ADRV] and the disqualification of the men's 4 x 100 relay results of the British team\".\n\nThree other athletes have been suspended after tests carried out during the Tokyo Olympics.\n\nThey are Bahrain's 1500m runner Sadik Mikhou, shot putter Benik Abramyan of Georgia and Kenyan sprinter Mark Otieno Odhiambo.\n• None Six challenges across six weeks to keep your child or teenager busy this summer\n• None Can you guess which of these are the real items and which are sugary fakes?", "Zia Ghafoori says he cannot believe how quickly the country is falling to the Taliban Image caption: Zia Ghafoori says he cannot believe how quickly the country is falling to the Taliban\n\nA former Afghan interpreter who worked for the US military tells BBC News that he and other Afghans who have escaped the country are consumed with worry at the worsening security situation.\n\n“We weren’t expecting this, for the Taliban to take over so many places so quickly,\" says Zia Ghafoori, who was wounded while attached to a US Special Forces unit in 2008.\n\n\"We thought there was a back-up plan from the [the US and its coalition allies] to save the Afghan government and save Afghan families.”\n\nSpeaking from the state of North Carolina, where he now lives, he continues: “I think children will not get to be children. Females will be taken from their homes and married to Taliban fighters.”\n\n“Our families are in danger right now. We don’t know what to do, where to go, or who’s going to take action. We could lose everybody.”\n\nMr Ghafoori, 37, added that he is concerned for the fate of thousands of Afghan interpreters who remain in the country.\n\n“Everyone is worried about their families. Their parents. I fear they’re going to get tortured,” Mr Ghafoori said.\n\n“Someone must think about those families that are over there.”\n\nRead more: From Afghan interpreter to US homeless", "A retired primary school teacher who \"made up\" stories for his classes in the 1970s has finally had them published after nearly 50 years.\n\nKeith Godwin, who taught at Cwmcarn Primary School in Caerphilly county, said: \"I made them up out of my head and I used to just tell them at the end of the day.\n\n\"The trouble was I enjoyed reading them as much as they enjoyed hearing them.\"\n\nOne former pupil said he had been searching for the stories online over the years, hoping they had been published, calling them \"the highlight of the school day\".\n\nAfter getting in touch with former pupils via Facebook, one took it upon themself to type them out so the stories could finally be printed.", "The number of migrants detained at the US-Mexico border in July exceeded 200,000 for the first time in 21 years, government data shows.\n\nA total of 212,672 migrants were apprehended by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), including an all-time high of 19,000 unaccompanied minors.\n\nIt continues a trend of rising migrant numbers this year, despite the White House urging people to stay away.\n\nExperts say many migrants are fleeing violence and extreme poverty.\n\nThe July figure represents the highest monthly total since April 2000 - the latest sign of the growing humanitarian crisis facing the Biden administration.\n\nAttempted migrant crossings have historically dipped during the hot summer months along the nearly 2,000-mile southern border.\n\nBut July's numbers are a 13% increase from June, when over approximately 188,000 migrants were detained by US border control. In May, 180,000 migrants were stopped in attempted crossings.\n\nOn Thursday, US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas described the situation as \"one of the toughest challenges\" the country faces.\n\n\"It is complicated, changing and involves vulnerable people at a time of a global pandemic,\" he said.\n\nIt is also proving politically troublesome for President Joe Biden. An AP-NORC poll in May found that 54% of Americans disapprove of how the Democrat is handling immigration issues.\n\nIn early August, the Biden administration announced that it would indefinitely extend a Trump-era pandemic policy that allows the US to swiftly expel undocumented migrants. Unaccompanied children and some families are exempt.\n\nMore than 45% of July's total were processed for expulsion under this policy, known as Title 42.\n\nMany, however, re-attempt the crossing.\n\nCBP data shows that 27% of the migrants detained last month had at least one prior encounter with authorities in the past year. The remaining 154,288 were recorded as \"unique individuals\". Between 2014 and 2019, the re-encounter rate stood at 14%.\n\nUS authorities have also begun controversial \"expulsion flights\" that fly Central American families to southern Mexico. Officials have said they hope that these families return to their home countries, rather than the US border.\n\nBut activists have warned that many families are dropped off in areas that put them at risk. Earlier this week, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees called the practice \"a troubling new dimension\" in Title 42 enforcement.\n\nMr Mayorkas said that the migrants are being taken to \"where it's far more difficult to try again.\"\n\n\"We are working with Mexico to ensure for individuals subject to the expulsion flights [that] their needs are addressed.\"\n\nTens of thousands of people from the Central American nations of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras have tried to enter the US in recent years.\n\nThe reasons migrants give for why they undertake the dangerous journey are varied: family, better economic opportunity, or the chance to escape violence and corruption.\n\nAt times it seems like the word \"crisis\" is applied to the situation on the US southern border almost every month. Certainly, it is important to distinguish between when it is real and the constant overuse of the word for political ends.\n\nHowever, when the number of migrants reaching the border after the gruelling trip north is at its highest level in more than two decades and the figure for unaccompanied minors is at its highest ever recorded, then clearly something especially complex is happening.\n\nFor those attempting the journey, the motivations over the past 18 months of the coronavirus pandemic have become even more urgent. The lack of stable work in much of the region has become desperate as the ongoing pandemic batters the rural economies in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras month after month.\n\nHowever, political conditions are also in play as well as economic ones. There has been a noticeable uptick in the number of migrants from Nicaragua amid its political crisis and the instability in Haiti following the assassination of its president last month has also played a role.\n\nAid agencies and migrant rights groups have urged the Biden administration to treat this as a humanitarian crisis rather than a security one. However, with no obvious end in sight to the poverty and sense of crisis prompting the migrants travel north, the high rate of apprehensions is likely to continue for some time.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Risking everything for an American dream", "The Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan, almost 20 years after being ousted by a US-led military coalition.\n\nEmboldened by the withdrawal of US troops, they now control all key cities in the country, including Kabul.\n\nThe Taliban took some areas from government by force. In other areas, the Afghan National Army withdrew without a shot being fired.\n\nAlthough renewed clashes had been going on for several weeks, from 6 August the Taliban made a more rapid advance across the country, as they took control of provincial cities.\n\nThe maps below start in early July and show the 400 or so government districts as they fell to the Taliban.\n\nUS forces based outside Afghanistan had launched air strikes against Taliban positions earlier last week, but they failed to slow the advance of the insurgents.\n\nAlthough most US troops left in July, several thousand returned to Kabul at the weekend to help evacuate American and allied personnel from the capital.\n\nThe airport in the capital was the only official route out of the country after the Taliban took control of all the major border crossings.\n\nCustoms duty on goods entering the country via crossings they control is now collected by the Taliban - although exact amounts are unclear as the volume of trade has fallen as a result of the fighting.\n\nBut, Islam Qala on the border with Iran was, for example, capable of generating more than $20 million per month.\n\nDisruption to the flow of imports and exports has affected prices of essential goods in the markets - fuel and foodstuffs in particular.\n\nUS troops and their Nato and regional allies forced the Taliban from power in November 2001. The group had been harbouring Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures linked to the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US.\n\nBut despite a continued international presence in the region, billions of dollars of support and training for the Afghan government forces, the Taliban regrouped and gradually regained strength in more remote areas.\n\nA BBC study in 2017 showed the Taliban were in full control of a number of districts. But the research also showed they were active in many other parts of the country, mounting weekly or monthly attacks in some areas, suggesting significantly higher strength than previous estimates.\n\nIn 2017 about 15 million people - half the population - were reported to be living in areas either controlled by the Taliban or where the Taliban were openly present.", "Teenagers in the US have been receiving the vaccine\n\nDrop-in vaccine clinics will begin this weekend for 16 and 17-year-olds.\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf said some clinics would start immediately, with all Pfizer drop-in centres in mainland Scotland following on Tuesday.\n\nThe Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) made the recommendation to add this age group on Wednesday.\n\nThe Scottish government has said all 16-17-year-olds will be offered a first dose by late September.\n\nHealth boards have been advised that the cohort can be vaccinated in drop-ins from Saturday, provided staff training and information resources are in place.\n\nAvailability will be advertised locally before the full national rollout on Tuesday.\n\nAnyone in this age group who lives in mainland Scotland can also book an appointment via the online portal at NHS Inform.\n\nEligible young people in Shetland, Orkney and Western Isles will be contacted by their health board and invited to attend clinics.\n\nCensus data suggests there are about 109,000 16 and 17-year-olds living in Scotland.\n\nMr Yousaf said: \"In line with the latest advice from the JCVI, those who are 16 and 17 will be offered a first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.\n\n\"We know that drop-in clinics make it easier for young people to fit getting vaccinated into their busy lives. I am therefore pleased to announce that some clinics will be able to start to offer 16-17-year olds the Pfizer vaccine this weekend. Arrangements differ across the country, and you should check your local health board's social media channels to see what is available in your local area.\"\n\nThe Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine is the only one approved for under 18s\n\nHe added: \"I would urge all eligible young people to take up the offer of vaccination. You can find out where your nearest drop-in clinics are by visiting NHS Inform which will direct you to the latest information from your local health board - or through your local board's social media channels.\n\n\"Our route out of this pandemic is getting as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible, that is why I am urging young people to take up the offer of the vaccine by dropping into a clinic or by booking an appointment.\"\n\nAfter the UK's vaccine advisory body confirmed the extension of the vaccine rollout, Nicola Sturgeon said their advice was \"good news\" and the step forward she had been hoping for.\n\nThe first minister said she hoped the experts would also recommend the vaccine for more young people in the future.\n\nUp until now, children over 12 have only been able to get a jab if they have certain health conditions, live with others who are at a high risk or are nearing their 18th birthday.\n\nOther countries have already been routinely vaccinating children over 12.\n\nThe US has been doing so from May, as well as some European countries such as France and Italy, after the EU gave them the go-ahead. Other countries that are vaccinating children include Brazil, Japan, Israel and Hong Kong.\n\nPfizer-BioNTech is the only vaccine approved for those under-18 in the UK.\n\nAdvice is still to be announced by the JCVI on the interval between first and second doses for the 16-17 age group.\n\nIt said it expected one dose of the vaccine to give good protection against severe illness and hospitalisation.", "A record-breaking bat that flew more than 1,200 miles (2,018 km) from London to Russia died after being attacked by a cat.\n\nThe female Nathusius' pipistrelle bat, the size of a human thumb, was discovered in Russia's Pskov region.\n\nThe bat, whose wing had a \"London Zoo\" marking, was rescued by a bat rehabilitation group but later died.\n\nIt is the furthest recorded journey by a bat from Britain across Europe, beating all known British records.\n\nThe pipistrelle bat, which weighed 8g (0.3 oz), was discovered by Russian resident Svetlana Lapina in the small village of Molgino and the finding was reported to the Bat Conservation Trust in the UK.\n\nLisa Worledge, head of conservation services at the Bat Conservation Trust, said: \"This is a remarkable journey and the longest one we know of any bat from Britain across Europe. What an Olympian.\n\n\"Her journey is an exciting scientific finding and another piece in the puzzle of bat migration. The movements of Nathusius' pipistrelles around the UK and between the UK and the continent remain largely mysterious.\"\n\nHer wing had a marking after being ringed in 2016 in London by bat recorder Brian Briggs.\n\nMr Briggs said: \"This is very exciting. It's great to be able to contribute to the international conservation work to protect these extraordinary animals and learn more about their fascinating lives.\"\n\nThis record is topped by only one other known bat journey in Europe - that of a Nathusius' pipistrelle that migrated from Latvia to Spain in 2019, a record-setting 1,382 miles (2,224km).\n\nThe expanding range of the Nathusius' pipistrelle's migration is linked to climate change, with future climate change predicted to further impact on the species.\n\nThere have been more than 2,600 Nathusius' pipistrelles recorded in the UK since the national Nathusius' pipistrelle project launched in 2014 to shed light on their breeding, distribution and migration behaviours.\n\nMaternity colonies are known in Kent, Northumberland, Surrey and Greater London.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The coastguard moved 650 people from Limni, in the north of the island of Evia\n\nGreece's prime minister has talked of a \"nightmarish summer\" as forest fires continue to ravage the country.\n\nThousands have been evacuated from their homes, and more than 1,000 firefighters have been deployed to bring the flames under control.\n\nGreece is experiencing its worst heatwave in more than 30 years.\n\nAuthorities have warned that the risk of further fires remains high in many regions, including Athens and Crete.\n\nPrime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the government's priority has been \"first and foremost , to protect human lives\".\n\nIn the last 10 days, more than 56,000 hectares (140,000 acres) have been burnt in Greece, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.\n\nMore than 2,000 people have been evacuated from the island of Evia by ferry\n\nDozens of wildfires have broken out in the last 24 hours with the largest fronts in Evia - Greece's second largest island - and areas in the Peloponnese including Arkadia and Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games.\n\nIn Evia, more than 2,000 people have been evacuated via ferry. Ten ships are waiting at Pefki, in the north of the island, ready to evacuate more people if needed, a Coast Guard spokesperson told AP news agency.\n\nOn Saturday, a fire just north of Athens on Mount Parnitha spread smoke across the capital. Authorities set up a hotline for people with breathing difficulties, according to AP news.\n\nThousands of people have been evacuated from the area since Thursday but by Saturday the flames had receded. However with strong winds forecast, there are concerns that the fire could flare again.\n\nOne resident, who was sitting in a car park with his girlfriend, said they had only spent one night in their newly built house before they had to flee. He had spent four hours trying to use a garden hose to save his property.\n\nA number of countries have offered assistance in tackling the fires\n\nA number of countries have offered support to Greece. Nations including the UK, France, Romania and Switzerland have sent firefighters to the area.\n\nIn Turkey, authorities have been struggling to contain a number of blazes, which have been described by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the country's worst wildfires.\n\nTens of thousands of hectares have been destroyed in Mediterranean and Aegean provinces.\n\nClimate change increases the risk of the hot, dry weather that is likely to fuel wildfires.\n\nThe world has already warmed by about 1.2C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.\n\nAre you in the area? Have you been affected by the fires? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nTom Daley won bronze in the men's 10m platform at Tokyo 2020 after boxer Galal Yafai became Olympic flyweight champion.\n\nDaley claimed his second medal in Tokyo a few hours after Yafai beat Carlo Paalam of the Philippines to win Britain's 19th gold of the Games.\n\nIn the velodrome, Matt Walls and Ethan Hayter added a third medal, winning silver in the men's madison.\n\nTeam GB are fourth in the medal table, with 61 in total.\n\nThere are further chances for golds on Saturday in athletics and equestrian.\n\nOn the penultimate day of competition, Team GB are above Australia and the Russian Olympic Committee, who have both won 17 golds.\n\nAt Rio 2016, Daley was heartbroken after bombing out of the men's 10m platform semi-finals.\n\nFive years later, he qualified fourth for the final in Tokyo behind Chinese pair Cao Yuan and Yang Jian, and Aleksandr Bondar of the Russian Olympic Committee.\n\nThe 27-year-old, who won gold in the synchronised event with Matty Lee, led the competition through the halfway point and was guaranteed his second medal of the Games after his final attempt, with the trio who finished above him in the semi-finals still to dive.\n\nBondar was too far behind to challenge, and though Cao and Yang took gold and silver respectively, Daley wrote his name in the history books as the first British diver to secure four Olympic medals.\n\nDaley reached two finals on his Olympic debut, aged 13, at the 2008 Games and won his first Olympic medal at London 2012 - a bronze in the 10m platform.\n\nFour years later, it was another bronze, this time in the synchronised event alongside Daniel Goodfellow.\n\nTwice an individual world champion, Daley finally ended a long wait for Olympic gold alongside Lee in an emotional and nerve-filled men's synchronised 10m platform final last week.\n\nFormer car factory worker Yafai was determined to persevere with his Olympic dream after his defeat by Cuba's Joahnys Argilagos in the second round at Rio 2016.\n\nSince then, the 28-year-old has enjoyed a steady stream of medals, winning silver at the 2017 Europeans, gold at the 2018 Commonwealths and bronze at the 2019 European Games.\n\nThe Birmingham fighter, whose brothers Gamal and Kal are both pro boxers, claimed his biggest title of all and Great Britain's fifth boxing medal of a guaranteed six in Tokyo with a 4-1 points decision victory over Paalam at the Kokugikan Arena.\n\nBronze medals have already been secured by Kariss Artingstall and Frazer Clarke, while Pat McCormack and Ben Whittaker won silver.\n\nWith Lauren Price guaranteed at least a silver and GB's sixth boxing medal of the Games in Sunday's middleweight final, Tokyo 2020 will be Britain's most successful Olympics in the boxing ring since 1920.\n\nMatt Walls and Ethan Hayter's madison silver marks a sixth medal on the cycling track for Team GB in Tokyo - more than any other nation.\n\nWalls, 23, has finished on the podium for the second time on his Olympic debut aftertaking gold in Friday's omnium, while their efforts produced a second madison medal in two days, after Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald's dominant gold-medal ride on Friday.\n\nWalls and Hayter held the gold medal spot after 10 sprints, having made a strong and consistent start but faded in an open race before a breathless final sprint secured silver.\n\nIt was still not enough to overhaul reigning world champions Denmark, who won gold, with France third.\n\nWhere could Team GB win more medals on day 15?\n\nBritain has three athletes in the men's 1500m final (12:40 BST), with Jake Wightman, Jake Heyward and Josh Kerr all in action.\n\nElsewhere in track and field, Morgan Lake competes in the high jump final (11:35), Eilish McColgan and Jess Judd are in the 10,000m final (11:45), and the British quartet of Emily Diamond, Zoey Clarke, Laviai Nielsen and Nicole Yeargin will hope to finish on the podium in the 4x400m relay final (13:30-14:00).\n\nIn showjumping, Holly Smith (on Denver), Harry Charles (Romeo 88) and Ben Maher (Explosion W) qualified seventh for showjumping's team event final (11:00).\n\nWhat else has happened on Saturday?\n• None as they beat France 87-82 in Tokyo.\n• None to take gold in the women's marathon.\n• None Norway won their first ever Olympic beach volleyball medal, with their men's team beating the Russian Olympic Committee in the gold medal match.\n• None Nelly Korda won the USA's first women's Olympic golf title since 1900.\n• None Find out these athletes favourite One Hit Wonders\n• None How it all started for Blossoms and why they are still true to Stockport", "The fall of two regional capitals in 24 hours is a blow to security forces, seen here in the city of Herat\n\nThe Taliban say they have taken control of the city of Sheberghan in the northern Afghan province of Jawzjan.\n\nAn Afghan defence ministry spokesman told the BBC government forces were still in the city and would clear out the Taliban \"soon\".\n\nThis is the second regional capital to fall to the militants, after Zaranj in the south-western province of Nimroz fell on Friday.\n\nIt is a major blow to security forces, with battles raging across the country.\n\nThere are also reports of heavy fighting in Kunduz in the north and Lashkar Gah in the south.\n\nViolence has escalated across Afghanistan after US and other international forces began to withdraw their troops from the country, following 20 years of military operations.\n\nTaliban militants have made rapid advances in recent weeks, capturing large swathes of the countryside, and are now targeting key towns and cities.\n\nSheberghan is a stronghold of the former Afghan vice-president and warlord, Abdul Rashid Dostum, whose supporters have been leading the fight against the insurgents.\n\nLocal media reports that 150 people travelled to the city to help Afghan forces.\n\nThe Taliban first took control of the governor's compound on Friday during intense fighting, before it was retaken by Afghan security forces.\n\nHowever, the region's council chief, Babur Eshchi, told the BBC the militants were now in control of the whole city, except an army base, where fighting was still going on.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Afghan interpreter relocated to UK: \"A better life for my wife and children\"\n\nAfghan defence ministry spokesman Fawaad Aman told the BBC's Newshour programme government forces were still in \"the majority\" of the city, including the airport, and insisted Sheberghan would be \"clear of terrorists soon\".\n\nBut he conceded the Taliban had captured parts of the city, and that government troops had retreated \"to prevent civilian casualties\".\n\nAccording to the Afghan defence ministry, US B-52 bombers have hit Taliban positions in the city.\n\nTaliban officials meanwhile said they had taken a prison in Sheberghan. Video on social media shows hundreds of inmates leaving the city jail.\n\nOther provincial capitals under pressure include Herat in the west, and the southern cities of Kandahar and Lashkar Gah.\n\nThe Afghan military says dozens of Islamist fighters, including senior commanders, have been killed in Lashkar Gah. The Taliban however have denied the military's version of events.\n\nAnd in the Afghan capital Kabul this week, the Taliban shot dead President Ashraf Ghani's former spokesman and carried out a bomb attack on the house of the acting defence minister.\n\nTaliban fighters have also captured key border crossings with neighbouring countries in recent weeks.\n\nThe militant group has closed the border with Pakistan, and pictures show dozens of Afghans stranded on the Pakistani side, unable to return to their families.\n\n\"We came [to Pakistan] to attend a funeral three days ago. Now the border is closed. We're sitting here. We have no food and no money,\" a man trying to get home to Kandahar told Reuters news agency.\n\nThe US and UK governments have urged its citizens to leave the country immediately because of the worsening security situation.\n\nOn Friday, the British Foreign Office warned that militants were very likely to carry out attacks in Afghanistan. The US said citizens can receive a repatriation loan if they cannot afford to pay for a commercial flight themselves.", "Princess Charlotte gently holds a Red Admiral, which she found near her family's home in Norfolk\n\nPrincess Charlotte and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have joined the Big Butterfly Count - a national conservation survey to track the number of diversity of the insects.\n\nA photo taken by the duchess shows her six-year-old daughter with a Red Admiral near their home in Norfolk.\n\nThe Cambridges said on social media that butterflies were \"vital parts of the ecosystem\".\n\nThe count, organised by Butterfly Conservation, ends on Sunday.\n\nAs well as the Red Admiral in Princess Charlotte's hands, the duke and duchess shared images of Peacock butterflies perched on buddleia, spotted during their butterfly count.\n\nThe Cambridges said: \"Butterfly Conservation are encouraging us all to count these incredible creatures because not only are they beautiful creatures to be around but they are also extremely important.\n\n\"Butterflies are vital parts of the ecosystem as both pollinators and components of the food chain.\"\n\nThey said \"hopefully\" people taking part in the butterfly count would be able to beat last year's total.\n\nStarting on 16 July, participants in the count were urged to pick a spot and spend 15 minutes watching for butterflies - and some moths which fly during the daytime - before submitting their sightings.\n\nButterfly Conservation provides an ID chart and a smartphone app to help identify the butterfly species and record any sightings.\n\nThe duke and duchess urged people to help count these \"beautiful\" and \"extremely important\" creatures\n\nBefore the count began, the wildlife charity said many species of butterfly appeared to have been affected by the unusually cold and wet spring this year.\n\nSpeckled wood butterflies were being seen in particularly low numbers, while small tortoiseshells, commas, green-veined whites, large whites and red admirals were also being spotted in smaller numbers compared with the 10-year average.\n\nConservationists have warned the UK is seeing a rising number of extreme weather events, thought to be the result of climate change, and want to learn about their effects on native butterflies in order to understand the likely long-term impact on wildlife.\n\nSome species are being found in new parts of the country, while others are becoming harder to find at all, Butterfly Conservation said.\n\nLast year saw the lowest average number of butterflies logged in the 145,000 survey submissions sent to the charity since the count began 12 years ago, and Butterfly Conservation's scientists want to see if that trend continues.\n\nAlthough last year's count was the lowest in 12 years, the duke and duchess said \"hopefully\" numbers will rise", "About 70% of all positive tests for Covid-19 in the past week in Northern Ireland were among people younger than 40\n\nThe past month has seen a considerable rise in coronavirus cases in Northern Ireland.\n\nHospitalisations have increased. As have deaths.\n\nBut the data also indicates that the vaccine has been doing its job - things are nowhere near as bad as the last surge at the start of the year.\n\nNorthern Ireland has the highest infection rate in the UK. And by quite some margin.\n\nThe latest data from the UK government, for the seven days up until 1 August, puts Northern Ireland's infection rate (per 100,000 population) at more than three times that of Wales and Scotland:\n\nThe Republic of Ireland's government doesn't publish a seven-day infection rate, but it can be worked out. For the same period, it was 185.2 - much lower than Northern Ireland's.\n\nThere are indications that the Republic's rate is on the rise. However, it's worth noting that during the latter half of July, Ireland was seeing similar numbers of daily cases as Northern Ireland - despite having two and half times the population.\n\nThere was a slight decrease in Northern Ireland's case numbers at the beginning of the week and the latest infection rates from the Department of Health (DoH) indicate a fall in comparison to the previous seven days.\n\nBut the department's dashboard also records that case numbers started to rise again at the end of the week.\n\nIn any case, the numbers are fairly clear - right now, coronavirus is spreading in Northern Ireland more quickly than in Britain and the Republic.\n\nThe big question is, why? That's difficult to answer by looking at infection rates alone.\n\nSo let's look closer at who is getting infected.\n\nYounger adults seem to be driving the higher rate of infection.\n\nData from the DoH shows that over the past week, almost 70% (68.7%) of all positive tests for Covid-19 were among people younger than 40.\n\nAnd this isn't overly surprising - for a few reasons.\n\nYounger adults will naturally make up a large part of the workforce who are on the move and mixing with other people.\n\nSocialising will also be affecting this increased rate.\n\nAnd perhaps, the most important factor - a lower rate of vaccination among those aged 18-39.\n\nWe'll look at vaccination rates in more depth below, but - in short - the figures show that young adults in Northern Ireland are less likely to have had a vaccine dose than older people.\n\nOf course, vaccination does not stop transmission of coronavirus, but a number of studies have indicated that it reduces that risk.\n\nVaccinations opening to 16 and 17 year olds might have an effect - but it'll take a few weeks before the figures give any hint of this.\n\nFor now, Northern Ireland has roughly the same seven-day rolling average for new cases as we saw around seven months ago.\n\nThat was around the peak of the winter surge in January, when more than 1,000 hospital inpatients were Covid-positive, and about 20 people with the virus were dying every day.\n\nThings are nowhere near as bad at that now.\n\nThat's looking at our current caseload in a positive light.\n\nAnother - equally accurate - way of looking at the data is that we have many more people in hospital than we did just a month ago, and our death rate hasn't been as high for five months.\n\nThe vast majority of adults in Northern Ireland have had at least one dose of vaccine.\n\nThe DoH's latest figures show that 84.2% of adults in Northern Ireland have had a jab.\n\nThe effort to roll out the vaccination programme has been impressive.\n\nThat said, Northern Ireland has the lowest rate of first dose vaccination in the UK.\n\nA gap between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK started to open in late June and then widened.\n\nIt's been closed slightly over the past week or two.\n\nNorthern Ireland has also fallen behind the Republic of Ireland in terms of vaccinations.\n\nThis indicates an impressive recent performance by the Republic, given that its vaccination programme began later - and more slowly - than the UK's.\n\nBy last weekend, the Republic had vaccinated about 87% of its adult population.\n\nWhen it comes to second doses, Northern Ireland is at a very similar level to England and Scotland (around 73-74% of the adult population).\n\nThis is behind Wales (82.7%) and the Republic (around 76%).\n\nThe latest development in the vaccination story is, of course, the opening of vaccinations to 16 and 17 year olds in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe Republic opened up its vaccination programme to these ages at the end of July.\n\nIt's also expected that registration will open on 12 August for 12-15 year olds in Ireland to get a jab.\n\nYounger adults in Northern Ireland have the lowest uptake rate for vaccinations of any age group.\n\nJust shy of 64% of people aged 18-29 have had a vaccine jab. Between 30-39, it's 72%.\n\nBy comparison, all age groups above 50 are at least 90% vaccinated, and vaccination rates are particularly high in those over 60 (around 99.8%).\n\nIn comparison to Northern Ireland, uptake rates for young adults are higher in Scotland and Wales, but roughly similar in England.\n\nAt midnight on 5 August, there were 226 people in Northern Ireland's hospitals with Covid-19.\n\nThis represents a drop since the end of July, but it's still quite an increase in the space of a few weeks - there were 66 Covid-positive inpatients a month previous.\n\nBut it's also worth remembering that at one point, we had more than a thousand people in hospital with the virus.\n\nMedics have also expressed concerns about unvaccinated pregnant women contracting the virus.\n\nFigures released by the Belfast Trust show that 12 pregnant women were treated in hospital in the week up to 5 August.\n\nThe age profile of Covid-positive inpatients has also changed in comparison to what we saw in January.\n\nIt's true that the majority of people in hospital with Covid-19 in Northern Ireland are over the age of 70.\n\nBut consider the proportion of Covid inpatients being treated between the ages of 20 and 39.\n\nAs of 5 August, that number was 29 - meaning about 13% of Covid-positive inpatients are aged 20-39.\n\nOn 25 January, there were also 29 people in hospital with Covid in that age bracket - but that made up just 3% of inpatients.\n\nIn short, younger adults are now making up a greater proportion of inpatients with Covid.\n\nUndoubtedly, the lower rate of vaccination among young adults in Northern Ireland goes some way to explaining this.\n\nMirroring the rise in Covid-positive inpatients, is the increase in ICU patients who have the virus - currently 37.\n\nOn a positive note, the rate of Covid admissions to hospital has been falling - albeit slowly - since the end of July.\n\nIn theory, this should mean a further drop in the number of people in hospital with the disease.\n\nNorthern Ireland's death rate saw a relatively sharp increase over the past two weeks.\n\nOver that period, the DoH has recorded 43 deaths.\n\nIn the preceding 14 days it was 13.\n\nThe latest seven-day rolling average for deaths is three.\n\nThat's a far cry from mid-January when it was 23.\n\nBut it's also worth noting that the DoH recorded a rolling average of zero between 17 May and 12 July.\n\nNisra has now recorded 3,046 Covid-related deaths in Northern Ireland.\n\nThis differs from the DoH's figure of 2,213 because the department counts deaths within 28 days of a positive test for the virus, while Nisra counts the death certificates where Covid is mentioned.", "A row of houses on Forge Mews is accessed via Old Bassaleg Bridge\n\nFears a bridge could potentially \"collapse under its own weight\" have led to residents being advised to leave their homes.\n\nNewport City Council said it had closed Old Bassaleg Bridge, which serves properties on Forge Mews in Bassaleg, following a structural review.\n\nThe council said temporary accommodation would be provided to anyone who decided to leave their home.\n\nResident Alison Williams said she was \"shocked and stressed\".\n\n\"They've closed our river bridge off, which has closed our access off,\" she said.\n\n\"It means emergency vehicles can't come into our street. So if there is a fire, ambulance, it won't happen.\"\n\nA nearby footbridge has also been closed as well as the road\n\nShe said the council told residents about the three-week closure by letter on Tuesday.\n\nOfficials offered her temporary accommodation, but the route could be closed for \"anything up to six months\", Ms Williams added.\n\n\"I've got two kittens, there's no way I'm going to put them into a hotel,\" she said.\n\n\"We have strongly advised the residents of Forge Mews to leave their homes as soon as possible,\" said a council statement.\n\n\"This is because the bridge closure would prevent emergency services from accessing the street in the event of an emergency.\"\n\nThe council said remedial work on the Old Bassaleg Bridge would start as \"soon as possible\".\n\n\"This is a serious situation, and it is our assessment that the bridge poses too great a risk to remain open,\" it said.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Logan was found dead in the River Ogmore last Saturday\n\nAbout 200 people have gathered to pay tribute to a five-year-old boy who was found dead in a river.\n\nLogan Mwangi, also known as Logan Williamson, was discovered in the River Ogmore, Aberkenfig, Bridgend county, last weekend.\n\nThe community released balloons and bubbles near the scene at Pandy Park on Saturday.\n\nHis mother and step-father appeared in court on Friday charged in connection with his death.\n\nCounty councillor Tim Thomas said Saturday's event showed \"just how many people have been touched by this incident\".\n\n\"There have also been calls for a lasting tribute to Logan,\" he said.\n\n\"Lots of people have contacted me to talk about their feelings.\n\n\"Lots of people have been hurt by the incident and I hope there will be some kind of support for those affected.\"\n\nBalloons were released at Pandy Park on Saturday\n\nA growing collection of toys and floral tributes have also been left at the park\n\nResident Jess Saunders said: \"We needed to come and see and bring things.\n\n\"It's been a big shock. Lots of people have got small children around here - so it's very sad.\"\n\nMr Thomas, the councillor for Ynysawdre, said a bench in red - Logan's favourite colour - had been suggested as a lasting tribute.\n\n\"Some people have asked if they can contribute towards it,\" he said.\n\n\"I've asked St Brides Minor and Ynysawdre community councils for a bench on behalf of the local community.\"\n\nThis Facebook post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Facebook The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts. Skip facebook post by PYLE RFC This article contains content provided by Facebook. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Facebook 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. Facebook content may contain adverts.\n\nLogan's step-father John Cole, 39, has been charged with murder.\n\nHe and Logan's mother, Angharad Williamson, 30, both from Sarn, have been charged with perverting the course of justice.\n\nA 13-year-old boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, also appeared in court on Friday charged with perverting the course of justice.\n• None Three in court over five-year-old's death in river\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The girl died in hospital after the ambulance service was called to a house in Park Avenue, Dungannon, on Friday afternoon\n\nA man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a two-year-old girl from Dungannon, County Tyrone, died in hospital.\n\nThe Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said the child was admitted after the ambulance service was called to a house in Park Avenue on Friday afternoon.\n\nIt was reported the girl had suffered a serious head injury.\n\nA post-mortem examination is to be carried out to establish the cause of death.\n\nDet Ch Insp John Caldwell said the PSNI's \"thoughts are with the child's family\" and they are being supported by family liaison officers.\n\nFermanagh and South Tyrone MP Michelle Gildernew said the community was in \"shock at the news\".\n\nShe called for anyone who has information about the incident to contact police,\n\n\"My thoughts are with all those affected by this tragedy,\" the Sinn Féin MP added.", "Verphy Kudi had a duty to keep Asiah safe, the CPS said, but she \"selfishly chose to put her own need to party and be with her friends above all else\"\n\nA mother who left her daughter alone to starve to death as she partied for six days has been jailed.\n\nVerphy Kudi admitted the manslaughter of 20-month-old Asiah Kudi, who was left at her Brighton flat as she celebrated her 18th birthday in December 2019.\n\nShe travelled to London and Coventry, and had acted like a \"carefree teenager\", Lewes Crown Court was told.\n\nKudi, 19, of no fixed address, has been jailed for nine years.\n\nJudge Christine Laing QC told Kudi that Asiah \"was a helpless child\" who \"relied completely on you as her mother to provide for her needs\".\n\nShe said: \"It is almost unbearable to contemplate her suffering in the final days of her life, suffering that she endured so that you could celebrate your birthday and the birthdays of your friends as a carefree teenager.\"\n\nProsecutor Sally Howes QC told the court CCTV covering Kudi's home showed she had left Asiah alone in the flat for five days, 21 hours and 58 minutes.\n\nKudi left Brighton on 5 December and went to London, where she spent her birthday with her boyfriend.\n\nTwo days later she attended a concert in Elephant and Castle, south-east London, where she had the DJ announce her birthday, the court was told.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Footage shows Verphy Kudi partying and then returning to her flat\n\nOn 9 December she moved on to a birthday party in Coventry - 150 miles from Brighton - before returning to London the next day and then home on 11 December, the court heard.\n\nWhen she returned home, Kudi called 999 and told paramedics her baby wasn't waking up.\n\nAt just after 18:20 GMT an ambulance crew found Kudi \"incoherent, distressed and distraught\", the court was told.\n\nThe paramedics discovered Asiah was not breathing, and rushed her to the Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital, where she was pronounced dead soon after arrival, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.\n\nA post-mortem examination concluded the cause of death was starvation and influenza, with reported signs of dehydration and severe nappy rash, the CPS added.\n\nLibby Clark, of CPS South East, said: \"Asiah's mother Verphy Kudi had a duty to keep her safe from harm, but instead selfishly chose to put her own need to party and be with her friends above all else.\n\n\"The consequences of her decision meant that Asiah must have suffered dreadfully during the days and nights that she was alone in the flat.\n\n\"This follows a history of multiple earlier occasions of abandonment and neglect.\"\n\nWhen Kudi was first interviewed by police she claimed she had been with her child at the flat all the time, except for one visit she made with her to London.\n\nBut officers found the CCTV footage, and also discovered phone footage taken during her time away from home.\n\nIn a statement, Asiah and Verphy's family said: \"We are saddened by the current situation and as a family we have many unanswered questions.\n\n\"Verphy has experienced so much at such a young age and we have always done what we can to support her.\"\n\nThe statement said the family was \"in the midst of an unbearable tragedy\".\n\nIt added: \"Not only are we coming to terms with what has happened today but we are also still grieving for our beloved Asiah.\"\n\nBrighton & Hove Safeguarding Children Partnership said in a statement: \"We are currently working with our partners to look into what happened and are conducting a child safeguarding practice review.\"\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Afghan government forces and allied militia are fighting against the Taliban in key cities across the country\n\nAfghan journalists who work for the British media will be allowed to relocate to the UK if they are under \"imminent threat\" from the Taliban, the foreign secretary has said.\n\nIn a letter to UK media organisations, Dominic Raab said cases would be considered \"on an exceptional basis\".\n\nBritish news outlets had urged No 10 to treat Afghan journalists the same as the British Army's Afghan interpreters.\n\nIt comes as a top Afghan media officer was killed by the Taliban on Friday.\n\nDawa Khan Menapal, the director of Afghanistan's media and information centre, was shot dead as he was leaving a mosque in his car in the Afghan capital of Kabul. The Taliban said he had been \"punished for his deeds\".\n\nTaliban militants continue to make rapid advances in Afghanistan, taking swathes of countryside and targeting key cities, following the decisions by US and Nato forces to leave the country.\n\nLocal officials said insurgents had captured the city of Zaranj, in Nimroz province, on Friday afternoon, in a significant blow to government forces.\n\nThis 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 TOLOnews 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.\n\nAlso on Friday, the UK government advised all UK nationals to leave Afghanistan due to the \"worsening security situation\".\n\nThe Foreign and Development Office has updated its travel advice to urge Britons to leave by commercial means, and to make the British embassy in Kabul aware of their plans.\n\nMr Raab's letter follows a plea from a group of newspapers and broadcasters who wrote to the UK government to urge that Afghan journalists, translators and fixers be treated the same as interpreters who worked for the British armed forces.\n\nSince 2013, some Afghan interpreters who had put their lives at risk by working with the British military have been permitted to relocate to the UK, with their families.\n\nMr Raab wrote that the \"freedom\" of global media outlets was a \"priority\" for the government.\n\nHe added: \"The vibrant Afghan media is one of the greatest successes in Afghanistan in the last 19 years, and it should be celebrated and protected.\n\n\"Your letter highlighted the threat faced by Afghan staff who have worked for your media organisations in Afghanistan, in particular the risk of reprisals they face from the Taliban from their association with the UK.\n\n\"Under existing schemes, we are able to consider individual cases for relocation on an exceptional basis, where there is evidence they are under imminent threat due to the nature of their engagement with the UK.\n\n\"Journalists (and those supporting them) can be eligible for our support, depending on the individual circumstances that apply.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Afghan interpreter relocated to UK: \"A better life for my wife and children\"\n\nEarlier this year plans to relocate hundreds more Afghan interpreters and their family members were announced, with more than 3,000 expected to be allowed to settle.\n\nOn Thursday a flight of 104 people, made up of interpreters and their family members, arrived at a Midlands airport as part of the UK's ongoing relocation programme.\n\nOne interpreter, called H, said that while he was happy for his wife and children to be in Britain he was sad to have left his family behind.\n\nLast month, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said all British troops assigned to Nato's mission in Afghanistan would be returning home, and most had already left.\n\nThe US has said it will withdraw all forces by 11 September.\n\nBut Britain's most senior general, General Nick Carter, warned Afghanistan could slide into civil war once foreign troops leave.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics", "Thousands of comedy fans gave Peter Kay a standing ovation as he made his live return after several years away, with two quickly sold-out charity shows at the Manchester Apollo on Saturday.\n\n\"I've never in my life had a standing ovation when I came on,\" he joked. \"I'm going to go away for four more years.\"\n\nThe Bolton comic was taking part in two Q&A sessions, called Doing it for Laura, at the 3,500 capacity venue.\n\nIt was to raise money for 20-year-old Laura Nuttall's brain cancer treatment.\n\nThe live gigs, which sold out within 30 minutes on release last week, marked a rare public appearance for one of the nation's best-loved comedians. And Kay said that getting back on stage was like \"getting in a hot bath\".\n\nIn late 2017, the Phoenix Nights star cancelled his tour and all future work projects due to \"unforeseen family circumstances\".\n\nHe returned the year after with the finale of his BBC TV show Car Share, but has not appeared live since.\n\nThis weekend's matinee and evening shows were staged in aid of Manchester University student Ms Nuttall, who was diagnosed with having an aggressive form of brain cancer - glioblastoma multiforme - in October 2018, during her first term at King's College London.\n\nBrain scans showed six tumours, and she was told she had 12-18 months to live.\n\nSince then, Ms Nuttall, who was in the audience on Saturday, has been undergoing immunotherapy in Germany as one of the few avenues of treatment available, alongside a costly complex cell vaccination programme, with each jab costing £27,000.\n\nLaura Nuttall (left) with her mum Nicola and dad Mark ahead of Saturday's shows\n\nAt the Apollo, her sister Gracie introduced Kay and told the audience their family was \"eternally grateful\" to them for \"potentially saving my sister's life\".\n\nSoon after her initial diagnosis, Laura's mum Nicola said the family received an unexpected call from Kay, who she had previously met nearly 20 years ago when working at Granada television.\n\n\"He just called up out of the blue and said, 'How can I help?'\" she said previously.\n\nThis 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 Sheldan Keay 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.\n\nThose in attendance on Saturday were required to provide either proof of having been double vaccinated, or a negative Covid test.\n\n\"People have been bringing them to the gate in bags,\" quipped Kay, about the lateral flow tests.\n\nAnswering questions submitted by fans, he revealed he had written two Christmas special episodes of one of his shows, Max and Paddy, with Paddy McGuinness, but that they had never got round to making them.\n\nPeter Kay, pictured arriving at the Manchester Apollo, said he was \"nervous\" about his return to the stage\n\nHe also admitted he can no longer buy garlic bread from the supermarket, when quizzed about his famous catchphrase.\n\nThe first show, which ended as it started with a standing ovation, ran over by an hour, causing the evening crowd to queue in the rain for a later-than-advertised second instalment.\n\nMany also paid way over the asking price after tickets had been snapped up by touts.\n\nFans queued outside the venue to see Kay's return\n\nOfficial funds raised from the event will go mostly towards Ms Nuttall's treatment, but with some cash going to the Brain Tumour Charity.\n\nShe previously posted on her fundraising page: \"I still can't quite believe this is really happening!\"\n\nKay's only other public appearance in recent times was on Cat Deeley's BBC Radio 2 show this year to talk about his love of music, and in particular the Mamma Mia! musical.\n\nHe announced this week that a string of planned \"dance-a-thons\", which ended up being cancelled last year due to the pandemic, had now been rescheduled for 2022.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nLaura Muir woke after a couple of hours of sleep and shot a panicked look at the beside table to check the precious chunk of metal was there.\n\nThe Olympic silver medal she had won the previous evening was where she left it. It had happened. The 28-year-old had finally claimed the prize she has craved, having faded from contention to seventh in the 1500m final in Rio five years earlier.\n\nBefore finally getting to bed sometime after seven in the morning, Muir watched her race back a couple of times. Just to make sure. \"But I really still can't believe it,\" she told BBC Scotland.\n\n\"This time yesterday I hadn't even raced. I've waited so long for this but now I've got a medal and it's surreal.\"\n\nThe magnitude of what she had achieved had been reinforced during the anxious hours leading up to the final.\n\nWhiling away the interminable build-up, Muir found herself searching for Scottish Olympic medallists on the internet. The most recent individual track and field successes she found were Liz McColgan and Yvonne Murray in 1988. Five years before she was born.\n\n\"When I saw it was Yvonne and Liz, it was like 'wow',\" she say, speaking just a few hours before fellow Scot Jake Kerr claimed bronze in the men's 1500m. \"When you think how big their names are in Scottish sport and I'm part of that now is so strange. I just can't believe it's now done.\n\n\"There was so much uncertainty. You didn't know if you were going to get traced, if you were going to test positive for Covid, if the event would be postponed - so many things have to go right and only one has to go wrong so to get on the start line in one piece, be fit, and deliver was such a relief.\n\n\"I knew I would cry after the race regardless of whether I won a medal or not, but I'm just glad they were happy tears.\"\n\nWhile it was relief for Muir, it was joy for all those back home in Scotland watching. Among them were members of Dundee Hawkhill Harriers, the club where the Milnathort-native first developed her talents.\n\nHer studies as a vet subsequently took Muir to Glasgow and she still lives and trains in the city, eschewing temptations to go elsewhere.\n\n\"It's a huge part of what I do because I want to be someone they can relate to,\" she says of those young people in her homeland. \"I'm from Scotland, I train in Scotland, I'm just like them.\n\n\"I just hope this medal inspires a few more Scottish people to be involved in sport and maybe winning their own medal some time down the line.\"", "Ed Sheeran has been named in the squad list for Ipswich Town for their upcoming season.\n\nThe singer, who lives in Suffolk and is a Tractor Boys fan, is already sponsoring the shirts of the men's and women's first-teams this campaign.\n\nThe chart-topping artist has now been given the number 17 shirt for the official squad list for 2021-2022.\n\n\"When Ipswich told me I thought they were joking but I love the idea,\" Sheeran said.\n\n\"I think this is going be a great season and I'm honoured to be a part of it. I just hope this squad number is only ceremonial because I want to see us promoted and that's not going to happen if I'm playing.\"\n\nIpswich Town start their third successive season in the third tier of English football on Saturday, against Morecambe.\n\nEd Sheeran, pictured with his wife Cherry, has been a regular visitor to Portman Road\n\nSheeran, from Framlingham, played a live-streamed, no-audience gig at the club's Portman Road ground in June.\n\nIpswich Town chief executive Mark Ashton, said the club saw him wearing the number 17 when he performed that concert so he and manager Paul Cook \"spoke about it and we agreed to offer Ed the chance of that squad number\".\n\nHe added: \"It's our way of thanking him for his support and we look forward to welcoming him to Portman Road this season.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "More than 180 vaccines were given to 16 and 17-year-olds at the SSE arena on Friday morning\n\nThe first young people aged 16 and 17 in Northern Ireland have received a vaccination against Covid-19.\n\nIt is the first part of the UK to give jabs to teenagers in this age group with no underlying health conditions.\n\nThe move follows a recommendation by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).\n\nMore than 180 vaccinations were administered to 16 and 17-year-olds at the SSE arena in Belfast on Friday morning.\n\nConfirming the number, lead nurse at the regional vaccination centre Pauline Wilson said there was a sense of excitement among young people in line for their jab.\n\n\"The general feedback is that they're pleased to be here and they're looking forward to things opening up again,\" she said.\n\n\"It's their turn and they are keen to get their vaccinations.\"\n\nBethany Holden, 16, was among those to receive the vaccine at the SSE Arena in Belfast on Friday.\n\nBethany Holden said she got the vaccine to protect herself and others\n\nShe said she \"just wanted to get it done really\".\n\n\"I'm glad to get it done to get back to school, just so I'm more protected and protecting other people as well,\" she added.\n\nRegional vaccination centres in Northern Ireland are providing a walk-in service for first doses of Pfizer vaccines for those aged 16 and 17.\n\nFor those who prefer to book, an online booking platform will be available in the coming days.\n\nThe first vaccination will also be available at pop-up walk-in clinics across Northern Ireland.\n\nID and proof of date of birth are required when attending either a regional vaccination centre or walk-in vaccination clinic.\n\nSome examples of ID include exam and birth certificates, school bus passes, work ID and provisional driving licences.\n\nBBC News NI understands that staff want young people to receive their jab and will be flexible about what type of ID is brought.\n\nOne dose will provide some protection for young people as they return to school in September.\n\nHealth authorities are encouraging an early take up so that it is more effective when the new term starts.\n\nSignalling the move to extend the vaccination programme, Health Minister Robin Swann welcomed the latest advice.\n\n\"When formulating advice in relation to childhood immunisations, JCVI has consistently held that the main focus of its decision should be the benefit to children and young people themselves, weighed against any potential harms from vaccination to children and young people,\" he said.\n\nQueen's University Belfast virologist Connor Bamford said a high vaccine uptake among 16 and 17 year-olds was key to making \"the winter safer for all of us\".\n\n\"Upwards of 80% is what we would like, that is realistic,\" he told BBC Radio Foyle.\n\n\"For their own health it is very good for them to get the vaccine, it is certainly safer than getting Covid.\n\n\"And on the other hand it will help stop and slow down transmission, particularly for that older group who are socialising more. If we slow transmission down it will stop it creeping up into more vulnerable groups.\"\n\nDr Tom Black, chairman of the British Medical Association (BMA) in Northern Ireland, said young people \"take a very small risk for a huge benefit\" by getting the vaccine and will not only protect themselves but \"protect others\" too.\n\nHe said they should \"take the example\" of older generations who have experience of vaccinations helping to prevent the spread of other health concerns.\n\n\"It's just so important that we keep the pressure on here, we keep persuading and convincing people that they need to get their vaccination,\" he told BBC News NI's Good Morning Ulster.\n\nDetails of the latest walk-in clinics are listed here.", "Police were called to an address in Noel Park Road in Wood Green\n\nTwo police officers and a social worker have been attacked in north London.\n\nPolice were called to assist the social worker who was attempting to check on the welfare of children in Wood Green at about 19:20 BST on Friday.\n\nThe 61-year-old social worker was stabbed multiple times, a police officer was slashed and a second officer was assaulted.\n\nA 33-year-old man who was arrested at the scene on suspicion of grievous bodily harm remains in custody.\n\nTwo other men were also arrested at a nearby property in connection with the incident. The Met said the nature of their involvement was still being established.\n\nThe officers have left hospital while the social worker's condition has been described as non-life changing.\n\nScotland Yard said when entry was refused, the officers forced entry leading to the attack in a communal part of the building in Noel Park Road.\n\nSteps have been taken to ensure the welfare of the children who were the subject of the initial welfare visit, police said.\n\nThe officers have left hospital while the social worker's condition has been described as non-life changing\n\nThe Met has appealed for anyone with information on the attack to contact the force or Crimestoppers anonymously.\n\nCh Supt Treena Fleming, policing commander for Haringey and Enfield, said she was appalled by the attack.\n\n\"Social workers play a vital role in ensuring that vulnerable people in our community, including children, are safe and protected,\" she said.\n\n\"This incident shows just how much of a threat knives pose to everyone in Haringey and across London.\"\n\nIn a joint statement, the leader of Haringey Council, councillor Peray Ahmet, and the local authority's chief executive, Zina Etheridge, said it was a shocking incident.\n\n\"Social workers do an incredibly important job. Their safety is of uppermost importance to us,\" they said.\n\n\"This type of incident, while rare, is an important reminder that frontline staff across the public sector put themselves in harm's way to do their jobs and we should all express our thanks and support for them as they do so.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The attack on the tanker as it sailed past the Omani island of Masirah killed two people\n\nThe US military's Central Command has announced the results of its forensic investigation into last week's fatal drone attack on a merchant tanker off Oman.\n\nIt says explosives experts concluded that the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was produced in Iran.\n\nThe evidence has been shared with explosives experts in Britain and Israel who concurred with the findings.\n\nThe attack on the MT Mercer Street killed two people.\n\nThe vessel is managed by the London-based Zodiac Maritime, a company owned by Israeli shipping magnate Eyal Ofer.\n\nA British security guard, Adrian Underwood, and the ship's Romanian captain lost their lives as the ship sailed past the Omani island of Masirah.\n\nBritain, the US, Israel and Romania, were quick to blame Iran which has denied any involvement. It said if there was any proof then it should be made public.\n\nNow a statement from Centcom has shed some light on what it says its investigation has revealed.\n\nThroughout the past week an explosive investigations team from the US Navy's aircraft carrier the USS Ronald Reagan has been examining the evidence left behind by the drone attack.\n\nAfter interviewing the survivors and studying the explosive residue they have concluded that the ship was targeted by three drones in all.\n\nThe first two, launched at the ship on the evening of Thursday 29 July, missed their target. But the third drone, launched early on Friday 30 July and loaded with a military grade explosive, hit the pilot house and exploded, killing the two men and leaving a 2-metre diameter hole.\n\nInvestigators say explosive chemical tests had identified the residue as RDX, a nitrate-based explosive, indicating that the UAV was rigged to cause injury and destruction.\n\nThe investigators also recovered part of the drone's wing and after further testing they concluded that the drone was produced in Iran. A joint statement issued by all the G7 nations on Friday condemned Iran's actions and said its actions threatened peace and stability.\n\nAn explosive investigations team from the US Navy's aircraft carrier the USS Ronald Reagan has examined evidence left behind\n\nIran and Israel have been engaged in an undeclared and so-called \"shadow war\" for some time now.\n\nIsrael is widely assumed to be behind a series of sabotage acts on Iran's nuclear programme, including the assassination of key scientists. It has also attacked Iranian ships suspected of carrying oil to Syria that is destined for Iran's militia ally in Lebanon, Hezbullah.\n\nIran has been targeting Israeli-linked shipping with limpet mines, something which the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps train intensively for. But last week's deadly drone attack marked a major escalation, killing some of those onboard and dragging in a major western power.\n\nDays later there was a second attack on shipping with armed men briefly seizing control of another merchant tanker, the MV Asphalt Princess, before leaving it to go on its way.\n\nThe incidents come at a time of heightened tension in the region as the new, hardline President Ebrahim Raisi takes power in Iran and talks aimed at reviving the moribund deal to curb Iran's suspect nuclear programme falter in Vienna.", "Hundreds of people in Greece have been rescued from an island near Athens as wildfires spread to the coast.\n\nThe coastguard moved 650 people from Limni, in the north of the island of Evia, after a severe heatwave sparked fires across the country.", "How are GB doing?\n\nGreat Britain have ended the penultimate day of Tokyo 2020 with 63 medals, one more than at this stage at London 2012 and three fewer than Rio 2016 after 15 days. The 20 gold medals are seven behind Rio and eight behind London. The final day in Rio delivered Joseph Joyce's boxing silver medal. In London, Anthony Joshua won boxing gold on the last day amongst three medals.\n\nThis year though, there are track cycling events on the last day with Jack Carlin and Laura Kenny as strongest potential medallists. In addition, Team GB have a guaranteed 64th medal from Lauren Price and Callum Hawkins amongst the best marathon runners.\n\nAs expected, ROC won three gold medals to overtake Great Britain on the medal table on day 15. Both have 20 gold medals but ROC have won five more silvers. On Sunday, ROC have two opportunities to win golds - in rhythmic gymnastics and handball. Russia won both of these events at the last Olympic Games and are favourites to win both again. To finish fourth on the medal table, Great Britain probably need to win two gold medals on Sunday and hope that ROC do not win both of these events.\n• None Britwatch: A daily guide on how Team GB are doing in Tokyo\n• None Find out these athletes' favourite One Hit Wonders\n• None How it all started for Blossoms and why they are still true to Stockport", "The Archbishop of York has said many people in England feel left behind by \"metropolitan elites in London and the South East\" and are \"patronised as backwardly xenophobic\".\n\nWriting in the Telegraph, Stephen Cottrell called for \"an expansive vision of what it means to be English\".\n\nHe added that stronger regional government in England would help the country \"rediscover a national unity\".\n\nThe government said it was increasing the powers available to local leaders.\n\nArchbishop Cottrell is currently the most senior figure in the Church of England, with the Archbishop of Canterbury due to return from a three-month sabbatical in a few weeks.\n\nLamenting the loss of national identity in England, Archbishop Cottrell, who was born in Essex, wrote: \"Many English people feel left behind by metropolitan elites in London and the South East, and by devolved governments and strengthened regional identities in Scotland and Wales.\n\n\"Their heartfelt cry to be heard is often disregarded, wilfully misunderstood or patronised as backwardly xenophobic.\"\n\n\"What we need is an expansive vision of what it means to be English as part of the UK. This will help us rediscover a national unity more fractured than I have ever known it in my lifetime,\" he added.\n\nArchbishop Cottrell's comments come after the Euro 2020 football tournament sparked a debate about English patriotism.\n\nIn his article for the Daily Telegraph, the archbishop suggested the different nations of the UK should sing their own individual anthems when they play each other in sporting events, before singing the national anthem, God Save the Queen, together.\n\nIt comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Scotland earlier this week to promote the benefits of the union - his first trip since a pro-independence majority was returned at the Holyrood election in May.\n\nArchbishop Cottrell also argued there should be greater devolution for England, suggesting: \"Westminster would hold on to those big issues to do with our shared sovereignty, while empowering the separate nations and regions to serve their own localities better.\"\n\nHowever, last month Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove, who is responsible for devolution policy and strengthening the union, said the system meaning only English MPs vote on matters that affect England should be scrapped.\n\nHe said the \"English votes for English laws\" procedure, which was introduced in 2015, had \"not served our Parliament well\".\n\nThe prime minister has also promised to \"level up\" the country, offering opportunities and investment to communities that felt left behind, such as in the Midlands and northern England.\n\nIn response to Archbishop Cottrell's comments a spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: \"We are investing billions of pounds to support and regenerate local communities, empowering people to have more control over their areas.\"\n\nThe spokesperson highlighted plans for new \"county deals\", which would aim to give other local leaders the same powers as metro mayors.", "Students who are double-vaccinated against Covid-19 are being offered the chance to win one of 10 £5,000 jackpots at an English university.\n\nThe University of Sussex scheme is the latest incentive on offer to drive up vaccination rates among young people.\n\nAll students are being entered into the draw, with 10 winners able to claim a £5,000 prize each, if they can prove they are double-jabbed or exempt.\n\nMinisters are urging universities to be creative in efforts to boost take-up.\n\nProfessor Adam Tickell, the vice-chancellor at Sussex, said the prize raffle was worth it if the numbers being vaccinated could be boosted even slightly.\n\n\"We know take-up among young people is patchy,\" he said. \"We know they're not against the vaccine, they're just not getting round to it.\"\n\nHe added the financial cost to the university of the scheme was small compared to the human and social cost of potential disruption to students.\n\n\"We know transmission rates are lower with vaccination, and the risk of serious illness for our staff and students is much lower in people who've been vaccinated.\"\n\nMalvina says students need to keep each other safe by getting vaccinated\n\nVaccination remains voluntary for students, and there has been growing concern about the relatively low take-up by young adults.\n\nMalvina Sakurai Yau, 19, who is going into her third year of an International Relations degree at Sussex, had her first jab in June, and is waiting for her second.\n\nShe said that although Covid-19 is generally a mild disease for younger people, vaccination is the best option because \"you don't know what would happen if you caught it.\"\n\nShe added: \"Coronavirus is such a big thing at the moment, and it's important we protect our community and the people around us.\n\n\"We are all fellow-students. Our lectures are with quite a lot of other people and we don't know about the health background of these other people, or if they're in contact with people at risk.\n\n\"A lot of us are just yearning to be back on campus and for the chance to do things in person - this is going to help.\"\n\nThe university says its scheme is designed to provide an incentive for students to have both doses.\n\nThe prize draw will be in late November, to allow students who have their first dose on arrival at university a chance to win.\n\nSome students with their 18th birthday in late August or September, may not have been able to have both doses before starting their first year at university.\n\nWinners will be selected randomly and can claim their prize by presenting proof of both doses of a coronavirus vaccine or medical exemption.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid vaccine: How are young people responding to the jab?\n\nProfessor Tickell got the idea after hearing on a BBC programme that universities in the US were offering incentives for vaccination.\n\nRecent NHS England data revealed those aged 18 -34 now make up more than a fifth of those admitted to hospital with Coronavirus.\n\nThe government has said proof of vaccination will be required for nightclubs from September.\n\nUniversities minister Michelle Donelan said: \"Vaccines are the surest way to put Covid behind us and for students to reclaim the freedoms that enrich university life.\n\n\"The department is encouraging universities to look at creative ways to boost uptake, and to discuss the possibility of pop-up centres with local health partners - making it quick and easy for students to grab a jab.\"\n• None Uni clearing may be 'much more competitive' - Ucas", "The owl had become a popular sight for visitors to Central Park\n\nA beloved owl who became a well-known resident in New York's Central Park has died.\n\nBarry the barred owl was flying low in search of a meal when it collided with one of the park's maintenance trucks on Friday morning, park authorities said.\n\nThe owl's death has prompted bird lovers across the world to share their photos and memories of Barry.\n\nA Twitter page dedicated to birds in the park said they would miss Barry's \"wondrous and beautiful presence\".\n\nThe owl had become a popular sight for visitors to Central Park, especially last year when the pandemic hit, and many bird watchers would visit to try and photograph the park's star resident.\n\nAccording to Central Park Conservancy, the incident happened at 02:30 local time, when the owl \"made contact\" with the pick-up truck. \"It's with a heavy heart we share that a barred owl, a beloved Central Park resident, passed away early this morning,\" it said on Twitter.\n\n\"The barred owl's presence in Central Park brought so much joy, reminding all of us that the Park is a vital greenspace for all New Yorkers, including the wildlife that call it home.\"\n\nThis 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 David Lei 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.\n\nBecoming quite the icon for bird watchers in Central park, Barry even had a Twitter fanpage.\n\n\"Words cannot express our devastation at the loss of our bea-hoot-iful Barry,\" an emotional post said, adding: \"We are utterly heartbroken, frankly, angry, and we are mourning with you.\"\n\nMany bird lovers shared similar feelings of anger, demanding to know why the vehicle was driving around at a time when many nocturnal creatures hunt.\n\nThis 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 2 by Deborah Shapiro 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.\n\nThe Central Park Conservancy, which is responsible for the care and maintenance of the space, said the team were carrying out scheduled works and followed all protocols by travelling slowly at 15mph (24km/h) with the vehicle's lights and flashers on.\n\nSince the creation of the park, more than 280 bird species have been recorded there. In 2018 a mandarin duck became a social media superstar as photos of his stunning multi-coloured feathers made every online influencer swoon.\n\nThis Facebook post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Facebook The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts. Skip facebook video by New York City Department of Parks & Recreation This article contains content provided by Facebook. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Facebook 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. Facebook content may contain adverts. End of facebook video by New York City Department of Parks & Recreation", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nA German coach has been thrown out of the Olympics for appearing to punch a horse who was refusing to jump or trot during the modern pentathlon.\n\nCoach Kim Raisner was heard on German TV urging tearful athlete Annika Schleu to \"really hit\" the horse while she struggled to control Saint Boy during the showjumping round of Friday's women's event.\n\nSchleu had been leading the event before the equestrian, where athletes are given just 20 minutes to bond with a horse they have never ridden.\n\nModern pentathlon's governing body, the UIPM, said it had reviewed video footage that appeared to show Raisner - who competed at the 2004 Olympics in modern pentathlon - striking the horse with her fist.\n\n\"Her actions were deemed to be in violation of the UIPM competition rules, which are applied to all recognised modern pentathlon competitions including the Olympic Games,\" the governing body said in a statement.\n\n\"The UIPM Executive Board [EB] has given a black card to the Germany team coach Kim Raisner, disqualifying her from the remainder of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.\n\n\"The EB decision was made today at the Tokyo Stadium before the resumption of the men's modern pentathlon competition.\"\n\nSaint Boy is not among the horses due to be ridden during Saturday's men's modern pentathlon competition.\n\nThe horse cleared just four fences before crashing into the fifth and then repeatedly refused to jump, eliminating Schleu with zero points as it had done earlier to another competitor, Gulnaz Gubaydullina.\n• None Find out these athletes favourite One Hit Wonders\n• None How it all started for Blossoms and why they are still true to Stockport", "Family members of the victims of the 11 September 2001 terror attacks have called on President Joe Biden to stay away from memorial events unless he declassifies files about the attacks.\n\nNearly 1,800 people signed a letter calling on him to release documents that they believe implicate officials from Saudi Arabia in the plot.\n\nThey say that if he refuses, he should not attend ceremonies next month to commemorate the 20th anniversary.\n\nThe attacks were committed by the Al Qaeda terror group, investigators say, and triggered the US invasion of Afghanistan. Fifteen of the 19 plane hijackers were Saudi nationals.\n\n\"We cannot in good faith, and with veneration to those lost, sick, and injured, welcome the president to our hallowed grounds until he fulfils his commitment,\" says the letter from family members, first responders and survivors.\n\nThey call on President Biden to stay away from the three sites where the attacks took place - in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania.\n\nThe families have long argued that Saudi officials had advance knowledge of the attack, and did nothing to stop it. They have sued the government of Saudi Arabia, which has denied being involved.\n\nLast month, the lawsuit saw several top former Saudi officials questioned under oath. The depositions remain sealed, further upsetting families.\n\n\"Since the conclusion of the 9/11 Commission in 2004 much investigative evidence has been uncovered implicating Saudi government officials in supporting the attacks,\" the families' statement continues.\n\n\"Through multiple administrations, the Department of Justice and the FBI have actively sought to keep this information secret and prevent the American people from learning the full truth about the 9/11 attacks.\"\n\nThe administrations of George W Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump also declined to declassify the documents, citing national security concerns.\n\n\"Twenty years later, there is simply no reason - unmerited claims of 'national security' or otherwise - to keep this information secret,\" the group writes. \"But if President Biden reneges on his commitment and sides with the Saudi government, we would be compelled to publicly stand in objection to any participation by his administration in any memorial ceremony of 9/11.\"", "Four million people in Scotland will be offered the flu jab this year\n\nFour million people are to be offered flu jabs this year in Scotland's largest-ever winter vaccination programme.\n\nThe free vaccine has been extended to protect as many lives as possible and avoid additional pressure on the NHS.\n\nIt is believed immunity may be diminished due to lower levels of the flu virus circulating last year as a result of lockdowns.\n\nThe flu vaccination programme will begin in September.\n\nScotland's deadliest flu epidemic in recent times was in 1989 when 2,400 people died in the seven days to Christmas Eve.\n\nResearch from Public Health England, carried out in the first pandemic wave before any Covid vaccine had been made or given, suggested risk of death was more than double for people who caught flu on top of coronavirus, compared with coronavirus alone.\n\nIn March this year, public health expert Dr Susan Hopkins warned that the NHS had to be \"ready\" for surges in flu and other similar illnesses.\n\nShe said the UK must prepare for a \"hard winter\" because the population immunity to respiratory viruses other than Covid could be lower than usual.\n\nIt is believed immunity could be low due to last year's lockdowns\n\nPreviously, the jab was limited to over-65s, those with certain health conditions, pregnant women, healthcare workers and carers.\n\nBut for the 2021-2022 flu season, the following will be invited to receive the free vaccine:\n\nHealth conditions considered to put people in an \"at risk\" groups include asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, multiple sclerosis, heart and lung diseases, or autoimmune disorders.\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf said flu could be\"extremely serious and infectious\". With Covid-19 still circulating in the community, he encouraged people in Scotland to get vaccinated against flu too.\n\n\"This will help to protect those most at risk as well as ease pressure on our National Health Service and social care services,\" he said. \"The vaccines are safe and the best way to help protect you, and others, from flu this winter.\"\n\nDeputy chief medical officer Dr Nicola Steedman said: \"The public health measures put in place to help fight against Covid-19 meant that the circulation of flu viruses was very low last season.\n\n\"As restrictions continue to lift and we get back to living our lives more normally it is important this year, more than ever, that you receive your flu vaccine if you are eligible, and before flu starts to spread widely. It only takes a few minutes to be vaccinated, and it helps to provide protection from flu for the period of time that flu is likely to be circulating in Scotland.\"\n\nMs Steedman also said the Joint Committee on Vaccine and Immunisation (JCVI) had published interim advice on providing a third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to those eligible in the autumn.\n\nShe added: \"Any such extension to the vaccine programme would run alongside the vital flu programme, to protect those at risk from flu this winter. We will take this into account while we await the final JCVI recommendations. But we urge people not to forget about flu, and to come forward for their flu vaccination this year.\"", "Snickers in Spain has pulled a controversial TV advert that was heavily criticised for being homophobic.\n\nThe 20-second commercial shows Spanish influencer Aless Gibaja transform into a bearded man with a low voice after eating a Snickers ice cream.\n\nThe video went viral this week, with some calling for a boycott of Snickers.\n\nThe chocolate brand has now apologised for any \"misunderstanding that may have been caused\" by the film.\n\nIn it, Mr Gibaja is at a beach bar with a friend where he asks a waiter for a \"sexy orange juice with vitamins A, B and C\".\n\nThis 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 Mario Montes 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.\n\nThe waiter, looking confused, offers him the Snickers ice cream. After taking a bite, Mr Gibaja appears to transform into a bearded man.\n\n\"Better?\" the friend asks. \"Better,\" replies the man. A slogan reads: \"You're not yourself when you're hungry.\"\n\nThe advert unleashed a wave of accusations on social media that the brand was insulting gay men.\n\n\"It is shameful and regrettable that at this point there are companies that continue to perpetuate stereotypes and promote homophobia,\" the State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Trans and Bisexuals tweeted.\n\n\"I wonder to whom it might seem like a good idea to use homophobia as a business strategy,\" she wrote on Twitter.\n\n\"Our society is diverse and tolerant. Hopefully those who have the power to make decisions about what we see and hear in commercials and TV shows will learn to be too.\"\n\nThe left-wing party Podemos noted how the advert had followed a slew of homophobic hate crimes in Spain in recent months.\n\n\"In the face of a wave of LGBTI-phobia, including attacks and even murders, Snickers can't think of a better idea than to create a trashy commercial that tells you that you are not yourself if you are effeminate,\" it said on Twitter.\n\nIn May, five gay men were injured in three attacks during a single weekend in Barcelona.\n\nOn Thursday, Snickers Spain said it was deleting the advert and apologised for \"any misunderstanding\" it may have caused.\n\n\"In this specific campaign, the aim was to convey in a friendly and casual way that hunger can change your character,\" it said in a statement posted online.\n\n\"At no time has it been intended to stigmatize or offend any person or group.\"\n\nA spokesperson for parent company Mars Wrigley said the firm wholeheartedly apologised for any harm caused by the advert and recognised that it \"got it wrong\".\n\n\"We take equal rights and inclusion seriously, we want a world where everybody is free to be themselves and we believe that as an employer and advertiser we have a role and a responsibility to play our part in creating that world,\" the firm's spokesperson added.\n\nIn 2008, a Snickers advert that featured the A-Team's Mr T calling a speed walker a \"disgrace to the man race\" was pulled after accusations it was offensive to gay people.\n\nCorrection 24 August 2021: An earlier version of this article omitted trans when translating the Federación Estatal LGTB into English and this line has been amended.", "Tokyo Olympics: Day-by-day guide to the key events and British medal hopes\n\nLast updated on .From the section Olympics", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. At least 10 people were injured when a man attacked passengers with a knife on a Tokyo commuter train\n\nA man attacked fellow passengers with a knife on a Tokyo commuter train late on Friday, injuring 10.\n\nThe suspect, 36, allegedly told police he became angry when he saw women who \"looked happy\" and wanted to kill them, according to local media reports.\n\nOne victim, a female student, is said to be seriously injured, while the others suffered less severe injuries.\n\nViolent crime is rare in Japan and tight security measures are in place in Tokyo, which is hosting the Olympics.\n\nThe man attacked passengers on a train near Seijogakuen station at about 20:40 (11:40 BST) on Friday.\n\nThe train was brought to an emergency stop by the driver after they heard noises coming from inside the carriages.\n\nAccording to investigators, the suspect jumped onto the tracks and fled. Train crew guided the passengers along the tracks to the nearest station.\n\nNine out of the 10 injured were taken to hospital\n\nOne witness, who was on the train, told NHK news that people suddenly started running towards him, fleeing from one car to another.\n\nThe suspect later walked into a convenience store and told staff that he was \"the suspect in the incident reported by news media\" and was tired of fleeing.\n\nTokyo Metropolitan Police confirmed early on Saturday they had seized a man in his 30s but did not confirm reports of his arrest or give any further details.\n\nNine out of the 10 injured were taken to hospital while the other walked away from the scene.\n\nDespite Japan being one of the safest countries in the world, there have been a number of knife attacks in recent years.\n\nIn 2019, a man attacked a group of schoolchildren waiting for a bus in Kawasaki. Two people were killed and at least 18 were injured.\n\nDid you witness what happened? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.\n• None Two killed in attack on Japanese schoolchildren", "University clearing may be more competitive for some students this year, the boss of the admissions service Ucas has said.\n\nClare Marchant suggested it would still be a \"good year for clearing\", and predicted a record number of applicants would get places that way.\n\nBut she added: \"Are there going to be hotspots potentially where it is much more competitive? Absolutely.\"\n\nStudents will get their A-level, BTec and Scottish Higher results on Tuesday.\n\nExams were cancelled again this year because of the pandemic, and grades have been decided by teachers' estimates.\n\nClearing is how universities fill spare places, and students apply for a course through clearing after they have their results. It is often used by students who either got different grades than they expected, or if they have changed their mind about a course.\n\nMs Marchant, who is the chief executive of Ucas, urged students using clearing to make a decision about courses \"in a matter of days\" rather than waiting weeks.\n\n\"At the most selective institutions at the most selective courses it is likely to be a bit more competitive because there might be slightly reduced courses in clearing, albeit there will still be thousands,\" she said.\n\nThere have been predictions that this year could be a record year for top results like A* and A, as grades are decided not by exams but by teachers who consider students' coursework, mock exams and essays.\n\nAnd if more pupils receive high grades, some have suggested there could be a crush for places at the most sought-after universities and courses.\n\n\"I think it would be disingenuous of me not to point out that for those most selective courses at the most selective institutions it is likely to be more competitive,\" said Ms Marchant.\n\n\"There will be thousands of courses from higher tariff institutions in clearing, but they are likely to be slightly down on previous years.\"\n\nHigher tariff institutions are those considered the most selective as they traditionally require higher exam grades.\n\nMs Marchant also mentioned medicine courses, which have been so oversubscribed that the University of Exeter has encouraged students to delay by offering £10,000.\n\n\"Certainly medicine is one of those most competitive courses and it's capped as well and so at the most selective institutions I imagine that is going to be increasingly competitive,\" she said.\n\nBut she said she still believed there could be a record number of clearing places taken - 90,000 - compared to 83,000 last year.\n\nEarlier this week, Ms Marchant told the BBC that there will be a huge spike in demand for university places over the next four years.\n\nHowever a survey of current students found that only about a quarter felt they got good value for money from university over the past year. Many thought their fees and living costs were not justified by the disrupted teaching during the pandemic.\n\nWhat questions do you have about this year's results?\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf 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 send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nFirst LV= Insurance Test, Trent Bridge (day four of five) India need a further 157 runs to win\n\nJoe Root stroked a century of the highest class to give England hope of beating India in a see-saw first Test at Trent Bridge.\n\nOn a compelling, thrilling and competitive fourth day, captain Root was magnificent in making 109.\n\nWith Sam Curran, Jonny Bairstow, Dom Sibley and Dan Lawrence chipping in, England - who at one stage looked in danger of being beaten with a day to spare - reached 303 in their second innings, setting India 209 to win.\n\nPace bowler Jasprit Bumrah ran through the lower order with the second new ball to take 5-64 and finish with match figures of 9-110.\n\nIndia were given an hour to bat and looked set to come through unscathed before Stuart Broad had KL Rahul caught behind for 26.\n\nThere was still time for Rohit Sharma to survive a tense England review as India closed on 52-1, needing another 157 for victory.\n• None 'So classy James Bond should buck his ideas up' - Root shows why he's England Atlas\n\nThere have been times in this match when England looked floored - when they were bowled out for 183 in the first innings, when India reached 205-5 in response and when England found themselves 46-2 on the fourth morning.\n\nHowever, thanks to the sheer brilliance of Root, they are still in the contest going into what could be a grandstand final day.\n\nOn top of Root's knock, a packed Trent Bridge was treated to the skill of Bumrah and the shots of Curran and Bairstow. Even Sibley's vigil was strangely satisfying.\n\nThere were moments of pure theatre. As India burned their final review in a desperate bid to remove Root, Virat Kohli was taunted by the home fans. Curran duelled with Mohammed Siraj, while Kohli went face-to-face with Ollie Robinson.\n\nAs India began their chase, the growing gloom added to the drama, play seemingly always on the verge of being suspended until the sun appeared for Broad to remove Rahul.\n\nRain is forecast for Sunday, but it was also due to spoil what turned out to be a memorable Saturday. The hope is that this absorbing contest can be played to a conclusion.\n\nRemarkable Root does it again\n\nFor much of 2021, Root has almost single-handedly carried England's flimsy batting. This was more of the same, a captain's knock that altered their course from defeat to an outside chance of victory.\n\nWhen Root arrived, England were still 49 behind, yet he instantly changed the tempo with flowing cover drives and urgent running.\n\nHe added 89 with Sibley, who twice could have been run out and overturned an lbw in his 28 from 133 balls. Bairstow, with 30, Lawrence's 25 and a punchy 32 from Curran provided further support.\n\nWhen Root drove down the ground to reach his 21st Test century, it sparked prolonged and emotional celebrations, with the Yorkshireman signalling to wife Carrie and beating his chest in the direction of the vocal England fans.\n\nRoot fell in Bumrah's first over with the second new ball, sparking a final England slide of four wickets for 29 runs.\n\nHe left to a rapturous ovation, with everyone inside Trent Bridge knowing they had witnessed one of the great Test innings.\n\nIndia have only once won the first Test in a series in England - in 1986 - and they remain favourites for a repeat despite Root.\n\nThey were helped by some loose shots. Sibley drove at a wide one to give an inside edge, Bairstow sloppily pulled straight to deep square leg and Jos Buttler was bowled offering no stroke.\n\nAnd, just as Root and Curran were building momentum and India were feeling the heat from the crowd, Bumrah intervened.\n\nExtra bounce induced an edge from Root, Curran shovelled to mid-on and Stuart Broad was bowled first ball off his pads by a searing inswinging yorker.\n\nRobinson's slice to third man was the signal for the chase to begin, Rohit and Rahul facing a potentially perilous period against a revved-up England.\n\nThe openers managed to silence the crowd, only for Broad to change ends and remove Rahul, before Rohit and Cheteshwar Pujara added some late runs on what remains a true pitch.\n\n'One of the great innings of all time' - what they said\n\nFormer England captain Michael Vaughan on BBC Test Match Special: \"We have witnessed one of the great innings of all time. We have seen Root play plenty of magnificent innings but that was just pure.\n\n\"He would never admit it but he does carry this batting line-up.\n\n\"It was a wonderful day of Test cricket. From where England were two days ago to where they are now, they have a glimmer of hope of winning because of their captain.\"\n\nFormer India wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta: \"This has been a great advert for Test cricket. It has seemed like every over, maybe even every delivery, has been a key moment.\n\n\"Joe Root, what a masterclass. He showed how good he is and how far he is head and shoulders above the rest of England's batters.\"\n\nBBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew: \"If you think of that target as an apple, India have taken a healthy bite out of it.\"\n• None Find out these athletes' favourite One Hit Wonders\n• None How it all started for Blossoms and why they are still true to Stockport", "Other countries have already been offering youngsters Covid vaccinations\n\nAll teenagers aged 16 and 17 in Wales will be offered Covid-19 vaccinations, the Welsh government has confirmed.\n\nHealth Minister Eluned Morgan said work was under way to expand the vaccination programme.\n\nIt follows new advice to offer 16 and 17-year-olds a first dose of the jab from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).\n\nThere are 67,142 teenagers in the age bracket in Wales - some have already been eligible for the jab.\n\nMs Morgan said: \"In line with the other nations of the UK, the Welsh government welcomes the latest JCVI advice and thanks them for their expertise and considered judgement on such important issues.\n\n\"We are now working with the NHS on the arrangements needed to offer the vaccination to all 16 and 17-year-olds in line with the JCVI advice.\"\n\nThe JCVI said advice on when to offer the second dose will come later.\n\nIt is not clear when the Welsh NHS will begin to offer the vaccinations. A spokesperson said the details are being finalised and arrangements will be confirmed \"very shortly\".\n\nPlaid Cymru's health spokesman Rhun ap Iorwerth said he hoped ministers would \"act quickly to roll out those vaccines\", and said schools need to be made as \"safe as possible\" ahead of their reopening in September.\n\nThe Welsh Conservatives said the roll out was \"great news and only made possible through the British government's procurement of plenty of vaccines\".\n\nThe only vaccine approved for use in the UK for under-18s is the Pfizer-BioNTech jab.\n\nUntil now children aged 12 or older have been offered jabs if they have health conditions that make them vulnerable to coronavirus, they live with others who are at high risk or are near to having their 18th birthday.\n\nIn Wales 9,618 16-17 year olds have already had a first dose.\n\nOther countries, such as the US and France, have already been vaccinating children over the age of 12.\n\nRecent figures show 75% of 18-29 year olds have had their first jab in Wales\n\nLaura Doel, director of NAHT Cymru, said the headteaching union would \"continue to urge ministers to ensure that alternative safety measures are put in place\" in schools \"such as better ventilation and a properly functioning test and trace system that takes into account how schools function\".\n\nThe JCVI has effectively set much of the UK's vaccine policy throughout the pandemic, although it is up to the Welsh government and other UK nations to decide if they follow the advice.\n\nSupplies have been purchased by the UK government, and distributed by the different NHS bodies in the four nations.\n\nThe committee said it expected one dose of the vaccine to give good protection against severe illness and hospitalisation in the 16 and 17 age group.\n\nRecent figures show that 75% of 18 to 29-year-olds have had their first jab in Wales.\n\nThe Covid case rate fell on Wednesday to 136.3 new infections per 100,000 people.\n\nMost lockdown rules are set to be eased this weekend, with social distancing laws set to be scrapped, and legal limits on who you can meet set to end.", "Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union\n\nThe British and Irish Lions lost an agonisingly close series decider to South Africa as Morne Steyn's late penalty sealed a 19-16 victory.\n\nSteyn, 37, landed the kick that decided the 2009 series and proved little had changed as he put the Springboks ahead with two minutes left.\n\nThe Lions led at half-time after Ken Owens' try and composed kicking from replacement fly-half Finn Russell.\n\nCheslin Kolbe crossed and from there it was all down to the goal-kickers.\n\nRussell - who came on for an injured Dan Biggar in the 11th minute - landed a long-range effort to tie things at 13-13 with 18 minutes remaining.\n\nHe and Steyn then traded kicks, before the Springbok 10 dealt the final blow to add a Lions series win to their 2019 World Cup success.\n\nThe victory capped off an impressive turnaround after South Africa lost the first Test, but there were no fans to celebrate in Cape Town Stadium because of coronavirus restrictions.\n• None Listen: The final Test review with Kearney, Williams and Skinstad\n\nRussell rises to occasion in first half\n\nIt felt as if there was much more than a series on the line coming into the decider, with the build-up focused on the unentertaining style of the first two Tests and complaints from both sides about officiating.\n\nThe match did at least deliver on late drama, but with just six tries scored across the series questions may remain over the ability of the game to attract new fans in its current form.\n\nThe early entrance of Russell after Biggar departed with what looked like an injury to his right leg suggested the Lions might be forced to move to a more exciting gameplan than the reliance on physicality and kicking of the first two Tests.\n\nThe Scotland 10 - often labelled a maverick for his canny kicking for both club Racing 92 and country - looked composed as he took to the field with a smile for each of his team-mates.\n\nRussell had not played for five weeks because of an Achilles injury but looked undisturbed as he sent a penalty straight through the middle of the posts.\n\nThat would be his last kick on goal of the first half as the Lions showed ambition, with Russell sending a kickable penalty to the corner to set up Owens' try in a driving maul before nailing the conversion.\n\nThe Lions looked confident with the ball in hand and Russell sent two more opportunities for three points to the corner - a good idea at the time that was perhaps proved foolish by the final scoreline.\n\nPollard did no such thing and instead kept his side within four points after a second successful penalty before half-time.\n\nThe momentum had drastically swung at half-time in both the previous Tests, with the Lions bouncing back for victory in the first and South Africa winning the second.\n\nThis time, neither side made a move initially as multiple stoppages slowed play and the game began to lose momentum.\n\nThe Lions had made it clear during the week that they wanted to play with tempo. They were stripped of that ability, but at least remained ahead on the scoreboard as Pollard missed two penalties.\n\nThe match was eventually revived as South Africa won the high ball once again and Willie le Roux drew Jack Conan in, giving Kolbe all the space he needed to run round Liam Williams and score.\n\nA lengthy review proceeded to check whether Springbok eight Jasper Wiese had knocked the ball on in the air, but the try stood.\n\nRussell took another step on the road to Test greatness with a nerveless penalty from just inside South Africa's half to level things at 13-13.\n\nBut the Lions immediately conceded a penalty themselves and Steyn gave the Springboks the lead.\n\nThe Lions' hopes were high as they again kicked to the corner with 10 minutes remaining, but Mako Vunipola was held up over the line.\n\nThe tourists gave Steyn another chance to kick with two minutes left and the Springbok 10 once again ended Lions dreams, a defeat made all the more difficult to accept by the sacrifices players had made to complete the tour in a strict coronavirus bubble.\n\nFor South Africa, whose Test series almost ended before it began when most of the squad tested positive for coronavirus in the build-up and who had only managed one warm-up Test since the 2019 World Cup, it is a remarkable victory.", "Glasgow's Euro 2020 fan zone has been linked to more than 100 cases of Covid-19.\n\nThe Uefa football festival took place at Glasgow Green for the duration of the tournament in June and July.\n\nIn response to a freedom of information (FOI) request, Public Health Scotland (PHS) has revealed 103 cases were traced back to the event.\n\nThe Scottish government said that this number represented a \"very small proportion\" of those who attended.\n\nIn the days before the tournament kicked off, it gave the go-ahead to the fan area which could hold up to 6,000 people per day.\n\nScotland fans gathered to watch all matches, including the return of the Scotland men's team to a major competition for the first time in 23 years.\n\nMitigations were in place, with tables spaced out in the viewing area, and tests were mailed to thousands of ticket holders ahead of time.\n\ntThere was still concern over whether the zone would result in a spike in coronavirus cases.\n\nHowever, official figures released after the FOI request by the PA news agency show just 5% of the 2,000 football-related cases were linked to the fan zone.\n\nThe figure is still a substantial increase since 30 June, when a PHS report said 55 cases were linked to the facility.\n\nAlmost two weeks remained of the tournament when the report was released, but attendances had dropped as a result of Scotland being eliminated in the group stages, so it remains unclear what caused the increase in the final stages of the tournament.\n\nSpaced-out tables and encouragement to take part in pre-event testing were in place to mitigate risks at the fan zone in Glasgow\n\nThe report found that almost two thirds (1,294) of the cases linked to Euro 2020 activity occurred due to travel between Scotland and London to watch Scotland play England.\n\nA Scottish government spokeswoman said: \"Thousands of people took the opportunity to visit the Euro 2020 fan zone, which was created to provide a highly-regulated outdoor space with robust mitigations in place to minimise transmission.\n\n\"Compliance with mitigations was generally very good and 103 cases represents a small proportion of those who attended.\n\n\"Data from Public Health Scotland and NHS contact tracing shows no evidence of an outbreak at the fan zone, and that the increase in case numbers during the tournament reflects an increase in prevalence of the virus in broader society.\"", "Those waiting for more than a year for an operation has risen to almost 388,000 compared to 1,600 before the pandemic began, NHS statistics shows\n\nUp to 14 million people could be on NHS waiting lists in England by next autumn, new analysis suggests.\n\nCurrently, some five million are waiting for routine operations and procedures - many of whom are in pain.\n\nBut the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned there is a huge hidden backlog of patients who are still yet to come forward for treatment.\n\nThe government pointed to the £1bn it had given to the NHS this year to clear the backlog.\n\nThere have been repeated warnings over the length of hospital waiting lists in England. A record number of patients are currently waiting for surgery - such as hip or knee replacements - with more than 385,000 patients waiting more than a year, compared to just 1,600 before the pandemic.\n\nLast month Health Secretary Sajid Javid said he had been shocked to learn that waiting lists could rise to 13 million patients.\n\nThe IFS decided to crunch the numbers to see whether this was likely - it said Mr Javid's warning is \"well within the realms of possibility\".\n\nIn order to stop numbers getting that high, the NHS needs to treat even more patients than it did before the pandemic, the IFS said.\n\nExplaining how it reached its conclusions, the IFS said that after Covid hit in March last year, seven million fewer people joined waiting lists than was normal.\n\nIt is not yet known how many of these \"missing patients\" will come forward for treatment - but the IFS predicts that their return will increase waiting lists and put the NHS under more pressure.\n\n\"Even if only two-thirds of the missing patients return then with capacity at 95% of pre-pandemic levels - much more than the NHS is currently managing - waiting lists could easily exceed 13 million (and keep growing),\" said the IFS.\n\n\"Expanding capacity will be the only solution to cutting waiting lists in the future.\"\n\nAnd the IFS said the number could even soar to 14 million by autumn 2022 - and continue to increase - if 80% of the missing patients return and the NHS operates at 90% of its capacity levels in 2019.\n\nThis report argues there are millions of \"missing patients\" from the waiting lists who might have been expected to join it but haven't - perhaps because they're worried about Covid infections or their conditions haven't been picked up yet.\n\nThe researchers have looked at different scenarios depending on what happens next to these patients.\n\nIn one scenario, if the NHS can't treat more patients than it did pre-pandemic, the waiting list could rise to 14 million by next autumn.\n\nEven in the most optimistic projection, the IFS says it could rise to nine million by 2025, but that would need the NHS to be able to work at 5% more capacity than it did before the pandemic and would come at a cost of at least £2bn.\n\nIf the NHS can't boost capacity, the IFS warns, longer waiting lists will be with us for years to come.\n\nThe IFS said it was unlikely that all of the seven million missing patients would return, since some may have died, sought private treatment or chosen to live with their health issues - but they said most will probably come forward at some point.\n\nEarlier this year, the doctors' union urged people to remember that the waiting lists were not just \"numbers on a spreadsheet\". They are \"real people in pain\" who are distressed, the British Medical Association said.\n\nOne woman from Hampshire told the BBC that her hip pain was unbearable. \"It's like standing on jagged glass. I get so depressed about the pain I'm living with,\" she said.\n\nA new chief executive for NHS England was appointed last month - Amanda Pritchard. She acknowledged the NHS had \"big challenges ahead\", including the need to tackle backlogs.\n\nThe union for nurses said the IFS analysis showed the \"immense task\" that lies ahead - and called on Mr Javid to invest in the workforce.\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing added: \"A significant pay rise will demonstrate value and help retain experienced nursing staff whom health services can't afford to lose with this challenge ahead.\"\n\nAnd Labour's shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said the modelling should be a \"wake-up call for ministers\".\n\n\"Years of underfunding and cuts to healthcare had already left our NHS with ballooning waiting lists before the pandemic hit.\n\n\"Given these warnings it's now even more urgent that a long-term rescue plan is put in place to give the NHS the resources and staff it needs to bring down waiting lists and reducing waiting times for treatment.\"\n\nA spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said it was backing the health service with £9.6bn to help it recover from Covid.\n\n\"This includes dedicated investment of £1bn this year to tackle the backlog and reduce waiting lists, including by increasing capacity. The NHS is also trialling innovative ways to accelerate elective recovery and enable more hospitals to go further, faster.\n\n\"We will continue to support the NHS to deliver the appointments, operations and treatment people need.\"", "The scene at the US Capitol on 6 January has been described as a \"medieval battlefield\"\n\nTwo off-duty police officers who stood by as President Donald Trump's backers stormed the US Capitol in Washington DC on 6 January have lost their jobs.\n\nAlexander Everett and Caitlin Everett, a married couple from Seattle, were fired following the recommendations of an inquiry into the attack.\n\nIt says they trespassed onto restricted grounds and stood by in the immediate vicinity of an \"active insurrection\".\n\nAt least 535 rioters have been arrested since the attack.\n\nProsecutors have so far secured only a few convictions into the attack aimed at disrupting the confirmation of Democrat Joe Biden's victory in last year's presidential election.\n\nThe assault led to the political impeachment and acquittal of Republican Mr Trump, who was accused by lawmakers of inciting the riot - a claim the now former president has repeatedly denied.\n\nThe decision to sack the two police officers was taken on Friday by Seattle's interim police chief Adrian Diaz.\n\nAccording to the investigation, the two police officers downplayed their actions in Washington DC.\n\nMr Diaz said such behaviour by law enforcement officers could not be tolerated.\n\nThe Everetts attended the pro-Trump rally that took place before the mob entered the Capitol. They say they were yards away and did not witness the assault.\n\nLast month, several police officers who defended the US Capitol testified before a Congressional committee investigating the attack.\n\nOne officer, Aquilino Gonell, said he feared he would be crushed by the mob.\n\nAnother officer, Harry Dunn, who is black, said he was racially abused.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Capitol Hill police officer in tears as he testifies", "The prime minister visited a police college during his two-day visit to Scotland\n\nDowning Street says Boris Johnson will not self-isolate, after a member of his staff tested positive for Covid during a trip to Scotland.\n\nNo 10 said the visit was carried out in line with Covid protocols, and the prime minister has not been in close contact with a positive case.\n\nBut one source told the BBC that Mr Johnson had been close to the person who tested positive.\n\nLabour accused the PM of \"cooking up a reason to be above the rules\".\n\nMr Johnson visited Scotland on Wednesday and Thursday, travelling to the central belt and the north east.\n\nIt's understood the member of staff accompanied him on a visit to the Police College in Fife on Wednesday.\n\nIt's also understood the person travelled with the prime minister on a plane on the same day.\n\nThe source told the BBC the prime minister and staff member were \"side-by-side\" at points during the visit to Scotland.\n\nAnyone traced as close contact of a positive case currently have to self-isolate at home for 10 days under government rules.\n\nA Number 10 spokesperson said: \"The Prime Minister regularly visits communities across the UK and all aspects of visits are carried out in line with Covid guidance.\n\n\"The Prime Minister has not come into close contact with anyone who has tested positive.\"\n\nGovernment guidance says someone \"can be\" a close contact if they have had a face-to-face conversation within one metre with someone testing positive.\n\nOr, they can have been within one metre for one minute without face-to-face contact, or within two metres of the person for longer than 15 minutes.\n\nThe 15-minute period can count as a single contact, or multiple contacts over the course of one day.\n\nThe guidance says someone \"may also\" be a close contact if they have travelled in the same vehicle or plane as the person testing positive.\n\nThe prime minister and Chancellor Rishi Sunak have both isolated recently\n\nLabour party chair Anneliese Dodds said: \"It's clear the prime minister hasn't learned anything from what happened last time he tried to cook up a reason to be above the rules everyone else has to follow.\"\n\n\"Senior Conservatives are really taking the public for fools. This is yet another example of one rule for them and another for everyone else.\"\n\nMr Johnson recently left a period of self-isolation, when he was identified as a contact of Health Secretary Sajid Javid, after he tested positive last month.\n\nAlong with Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who was also identified as a contact, the PM initially tried to avoid quarantine through a workplace daily testing pilot Downing Street is taking part in.\n\nHowever, in a rapid U-turn, both Mr Johnson and his chancellor decided to enter isolation after their plans to take part in the scheme prompted a furious political backlash.\n• None What to do if you have Covid", "Sixteen and 17-year-olds across the UK are now being invited to book their Covid vaccine.\n\nGPs in England have been told they can contact this age group, while invites are also being sent out in Wales.\n\nIn Northern Ireland, walk-in centres are now open to older teenagers, and in Scotland they can register their interest online.\n\nMeanwhile, new figures show most patients in hospital with Covid in England continue to be unvaccinated.\n\nChildren aged 12 to 17 who are at higher risk of getting ill if they catch Covid - or live with people who have a weak immune system - have already been able to get vaccinated.\n\nIn England 240,870 under-18s had received a first dose by 1 August.\n\nThe opening of vaccinations to all 16 and 17-year-olds in England comes amid a drive to encourage young people to get jabbed.\n\nThe vaccine's benefits will be promoted to partygoers in nightclubs, including Ministry of Sound and Heaven.\n\nA campaign will also be rolled out across social media channels including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and TikTok, as well as on radio stations Kiss, Capital, Heart, Sunrise, and TalkSport, urging young adults to get jabbed.\n\nWalk-in centres in England will begin accepting people aged 16 and 17 from next week, but those in that age group are currently unable to book an appointment using the NHS website.\n\nIn Northern Ireland people aged 16 and up have begun to get the vaccine.\n\nElliot Aston, 16, from Newtownards told the PA News Agency it was good his age group was able to get the jab as \"we are probably the ones that are out and about the most\".\n\nBethany Holden, 16, who was among the first to receive the vaccine at the SSE Arena in Belfast on Friday, said she was glad to get the jab as she was \"more protected and protecting other people as well\".\n\nBethany Holden said she got the vaccine to protect herself and others\n\nChildren aged 12 to 15 who are clinically vulnerable to Covid or live with adults who are at increased risk of serious illness from the virus will be contacted by the NHS and invited for their vaccine over the coming weeks, NHS England said.\n\nJabs will also be offered to children aged 12 years and over who live with someone who is immunosuppressed, such as those receiving chemotherapy or who have had a transplant, with NHS England saying more than a million children and young people could now get the jab.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid said the vaccines were \"building a wall of defence against the virus\" and were \"the best way to protect people from serious illness\".\n\nSince 19 July, 1,467 people have been admitted to hospital with cases of the Delta variant, Public Health England (PHE) said.\n\nOut of these 808 (55.1%) were unvaccinated, while 512 (34.9%) had received both doses.\n\nPHE said: \"While vaccines provide high levels of protection, they are not 100% effective and will not stop everyone catching Covid-19.\n\n\"As more of the population gets vaccinated, we will see a higher relative percentage of vaccinated people in hospital.\"\n\nDr Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, stressed vaccines would not eliminate all risk and it was still possible to become unwell with Covid-19 and infect others.\n\n\"It is still vital that we exercise caution, particularly while cases are high,\" she added.\n\nSome 88.8% of the UK's adult population have now had one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, while 73.8% have had both jabs.\n\nDelta remains the dominant variant in the UK, making up about 99% of cases.\n\nThe brunt of Covid in the UK is clearly being born by the unvaccinated.\n\nOnly one in ten adults have now not had a single dose of the vaccine, and children rarely become severely ill.\n\nSo it is hugely telling when more than half of those in hospital are from the unvaccinated minority.\n\nBut this shouldn't be a surprise.\n\nThe latest estimate by the UK's Vaccine Effectiveness Expert Panel says two doses cuts the chance of you needing hospital treatment by 95% if you catch Delta.\n\nThat's not perfect, vaccines aren't an impenetrable shield; and yes there are still people in hospital who had both jabs.\n\nBut the way vaccines are rapidly transforming the pandemic - at least in wealthier countries - is incredible.\n\nOn Friday 31,808 new cases of Covid were reported across the UK along with a further 92 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.\n\nProf Sir Ian Diamond, the UK's national statistician, told the BBC the UK was seeing evidence of a decline in Covid infections across the country.\n\nHe said rates were still relatively high in many areas, but he expected to see a \"continued decline\" over the next four or five weeks.\n\nHe warned that he did not think \"we're in a position to say we have reached the end of Covid\" and said people should not stop showing a degree of caution.\n\nThe R number - which represents the average number of people one infected person will pass the virus on to - has also fallen in England to between 0.8 and 1.1, according to the latest government figures.\n\nLast week it was estimated as between 1.1 and 1.4.\n\nWhen the R number is above one, the number of cases keeps increasing.", "Thousands of people in Helmand province have been displaced by fighting in recent months\n\n\"The Taliban will have no mercy on us and the government won't stop the bombing.\"\n\nThe resident of Lashkar Gah in southern Afghanistan is one of thousands trapped or fleeing for their lives as fighting for control of the city rages between militants and government forces.\n\nThe BBC is not naming some interviewees in this article for security reasons.\n\n\"There are corpses on the roads. We do not know if they are civilians or the Taliban,\" the man told the BBC Afghan service in an interview on Whatsapp. \"Dozens of families have fled their homes and settled near the Helmand river.\"\n\nOther terrified locals told the BBC they had seen bodies lying in the streets.\n\nCapturing the besieged Helmand provincial capital would be of huge symbolic value to the insurgents as they continue their rapid advance after the pullout of foreign forces. Helmand was the centrepiece of the US and British military campaign.\n\nThe United Nations and other agencies are warning of a worsening humanitarian crisis. At least 40 civilians have been killed in Lashkar Gah in the past day, the UN said on Tuesday.\n\nAfghan government forces are battling the Taliban in three key cities\n\nThe Afghan army urged civilians to leave Lashkar Gah ahead of a major offensive against the Taliban, the hardline Islamist group that was driven from power by US-led forces 20 years ago.\n\nElsewhere in the south, Taliban are trying to capture Kandahar, their former stronghold, and clashes have also intensified in Herat in the west.\n\nFighting has been continuing in Lashkar Gah for days, with the militants now reportedly in control of most districts.\n\n\"We are going through difficult days,\" a student in the city told the BBC. \"The Taliban set fire to the ground and government air forces to the skies.\"\n\nAnother man said on Sunday: \"The Taliban can be seen on the city's roads. The presence of the Taliban has astonished people here.\n\n\"Shops are closed, and government military vehicles are lying destroyed in the middle of the road. The war continues within a few metres of the governor's office and the National Security Directorate.\n\n\"The central government said recently they had deployed new commandos to Lashkar Gah, but we didn't see them.\"\n\nHundreds of Afghan reinforcements have since reportedly been deployed to the city.\n\nAt the weekend, Attaullah Afghan, the head of Helmand provincial council, admitted that fighting seemed to be \"getting out of our control\".\n\nThe Taliban have made further advances this week, despite Afghan and US warplanes targeting the insurgents.\n\nThere are reports that Taliban fighters have taken positions inside homes, shops and the bazaar - people are trapped in their homes while fighting goes on in the streets.\n\nThe militants generally warn people via loudspeaker to leave but sometimes they enter houses - locals have just minutes to flee or risk being caught in crossfire as their homes become part of the battlefield.\n\n\"The Taliban told us if we didn't leave the house in half an hour, we would be counted among the police and Afghan forces,\" said the student the BBC Afghan service spoke to.\n\nDuring their rule in the late 1990s, the Taliban publicly executed people and restricted women's access to education and employment.\n\nThe Taliban say they have changed and would no longer resort to such violence - but many Afghans are sceptical.\n\nHuman Rights Watch has documented cases of reprisal attacks by the militants against civilians deemed to have supported the government.\n\nThe UN says civilians are bearing the brunt of the conflict and is urging all parties to do more to protect civilians or the impact will be catastrophic.\n\nThe thousands who've escaped the fighting now face a lack of food, drinking water and medicines.\n\nThis 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 UNAMA News 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.\n\nAid agencies do not have access to most of the displaced, and health centres and hospitals don't have capacity to deal with the number of casualties. Some health facilities have been destroyed, while others are inactive.\n\nA doctor in Lashkar Gah, Masood Khan, said an ever-increasing flow of severely wounded patients was arriving at his hospital, and he feared that others were unable to reach it. He said medical supplies were running low.\n\n\"We are receiving a lot of war wounded… There is fighting all around,\" Dr Kahn, an intensive care specialist at a hospital run by the health charity MSF, told the BBC on Monday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. General Sami Sadat: \"The battle is very intense in Lashkar Gah\"\n\nVideos of reported Taliban atrocities are being shared on social media, deepening fears of their possible return.\n\nThe United States and Britain say the group may have committed war crimes, accusing them of massacring dozens of civilians in revenge killings in Spin Boldak, on the border with Pakistan.\n\nThere are also reports that at least 40 Hazaras of the Shia Muslim minority were targeted and killed in Malistan in eastern Ghazni province.\n\nThe Taliban have dismissed the accusations as baseless, and are posting their own grisly images of civilian casualties in Afghan and US air strikes.\n\nA view of a shuttered market in Lashkar Gah on Monday\n\nThose trapped in the worsening fighting have few options.\n\n\"We have neither bread nor water in the house, and the electricity is completely cut off,\" a local businessman in Laskhar Gah told the BBC.\n\n\"I do not know where to go, there are clashes in every corner of the city.\"\n\nAn Afghan interpreter living in the city said his life was under threat from the Taliban because he had worked for the British forces.\n\n\"I have changed address three times. My own house has been captured by the Taliban and they are living there and they were asking for me,\" he said.\n\n\"We don't know what will happen in the future but they are looking from house to house to find the people who worked for Nato.\"", "Taliban security guards in Kabul, a year on from their triumphant return to power\n\nThe Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, two decades after being removed from power by a US-led military coalition.\n\nThe hardline Islamist group advanced rapidly across the country, seizing province after province before taking the capital Kabul on 15 August last year, as the Afghan military collapsed.\n\nForeign forces, who had agreed to leave, were stunned by the speed of the advance and had to accelerate their exit. Many Western-backed Afghan government leaders fled, while thousands of their compatriots and foreigners fearing Taliban rule scrambled to find room on flights out of the country.\n\nWithin weeks, the Taliban were in control of all of Afghanistan - something they had not managed to do in their first stint in power between 1996 and 2001.\n\nThe group had struck a deal with the Americans in 2020 for US troops to withdraw, following a bloody but ultimately successful guerrilla campaign lasting many years.\n\nTaliban fighters pictured in Laghman Province last year as they began a lightning offensive to retake the country\n\nUnder the deal, the Taliban committed to national peace talks, which never took place, and to preventing al-Qaeda and other militants from operating in areas that the Taliban controlled.\n\nFollowing the group's return to power, Afghanistan's economy imploded, leaving a huge portion of the population struggling to find enough money to eat and to access other essentials.\n\nBillions of dollars in Afghan assets held abroad are frozen as the international community waits for the Taliban to honour promises still to be met on security, governance and human rights, including allowing all girls to be educated.\n\nThe Taliban, or \"students\" in the Pashto language, emerged in the early 1990s in northern Pakistan following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.\n\nIt is believed that the predominantly Pashtun movement first appeared in religious seminaries - mostly paid for by money from Saudi Arabia - which preached a hardline form of Sunni Islam.\n\nThe promise made by the Taliban - in Pashtun areas straddling Pakistan and Afghanistan - was to restore peace and security and enforce their own austere version of Sharia, or Islamic law, once in power.\n\nFrom south-western Afghanistan, the Taliban quickly extended their influence. In September 1995, they captured the province of Herat, bordering Iran.\n\nExactly one year later, they captured the Afghan capital, Kabul, overthrowing the regime of President Burhanuddin Rabbani - one of the founding fathers of the Afghan mujahideen that resisted the Soviet occupation. By 1998, the Taliban were in control of almost 90% of Afghanistan.\n\nAfghans, weary of the mujahideen's excesses and infighting after the Soviets were driven out, generally welcomed the Taliban when they first appeared on the scene.\n\nTheir early popularity was largely due to their success in stamping out corruption, curbing lawlessness and making the roads and the areas under their control safe for commerce to flourish.\n\nBut the Taliban also introduced or supported punishments in line with their strict interpretation of Sharia law - such as public executions of convicted murderers and adulterers, as well as amputations for those found guilty of theft. Men were required to grow beards and women had to wear the all-covering burka.\n\nThe Taliban also banned television, music and cinema, and disapproved of girls aged 10 and over going to school. They were accused of various human rights and cultural abuses. One notorious example was in 2001, when the Taliban went ahead with the destruction of the famous Bamiyan Buddha statues in central Afghanistan, despite international outrage.\n\nThis time round, there has been no repeat of such excesses, but the Taliban are accused of a range of well-documented abuses, including killing opponents, as well as beating and detaining journalists and Afghans protesting for their rights.\n\nWomen are no longer allowed to go on long-distance journeys without a male chaperone and, while not required to wear the burka, have been ordered to cover their faces in public. Most women are not allowed to work.\n\nPakistan has repeatedly denied that it was the architect of the Taliban enterprise, but there is little doubt that many Afghans who initially joined the movement were educated in madrassas (religious schools) in Pakistan.\n\nPakistan was also one of only three countries, along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which recognised the Taliban when they were in power the first time round in Afghanistan. It was also the last country to break diplomatic ties with the group.\n\nAt one point, a Pakistani offshoot of the Taliban threatened to destabilise Pakistan from areas it controlled in the north-west. One of the most high-profile and internationally condemned of all Pakistani Taliban attacks took place in October 2012, when schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai was shot on her way home in the town of Mingora.\n\nA major military offensive two years later following the Peshawar school massacre greatly reduced the group's influence in Pakistan, though. At least three key figures of the Pakistani Taliban had been killed in US drone strikes, including the group's leader, Hakimullah Mehsud in 2013.\n\nSchoolgirl and rights activist Malala Yousafzai was shot by Taliban gunmen in October 2012\n\nThe attention of the world was drawn to the Taliban in Afghanistan in the wake of the 11 September 2001 World Trade Center attacks in New York. The Taliban were accused of providing a sanctuary for the prime suspects, Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda movement.\n\nOn 7 October 2001, a US-led military coalition launched attacks in Afghanistan: by the first week of December, the Taliban regime had collapsed. The group's then leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, and other senior figures, including Bin Laden, evaded capture despite one of the largest manhunts in the world.\n\nMany senior Taliban leaders reportedly took refuge in the Pakistani city of Quetta, from where they guided the Taliban. But the existence of what was dubbed the \"Quetta Shura\" was denied by Islamabad.\n\nDespite ever higher numbers of foreign troops, the Taliban gradually regained and then extended their influence in Afghanistan, rendering vast tracts of the country insecure, while violence in the country returned to levels not seen since 2001.\n\nThere were numerous Taliban attacks on Kabul and in September 2012, the group carried out a high-profile raid on Nato's Camp Bastion base.\n\nPakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike in 2013\n\nHopes of a negotiated peace were raised in 2013, when the Taliban announced plans to open an office in Qatar. But mistrust on all sides remained high and the violence went on.\n\nIn August 2015, the Taliban admitted they had covered up Mullah Omar's death - reportedly from health problems at a hospital in Pakistan - for more than two years. The following month, the group said it had put aside weeks of infighting and rallied around a new leader, Mullah Mansour, who had been the deputy of Mullah Omar.\n\nAt about the same time, the Taliban seized control of a provincial capital for the first time since their defeat in 2001, taking control of the strategically important city of Kunduz.\n\nMullah Mansour was killed in a US drone strike in May 2016 and replaced by his deputy Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, who remains in control of the group.\n\nIn the year following the US-Taliban peace deal of February 2020 - which was the culmination of a long spell of direct talks - the Taliban appeared to shift their tactics from complex attacks in cities and on military outposts to a wave of targeted assassinations that terrorised Afghan civilians.\n\nThe targets - journalists, judges, peace activists, women in positions of power - suggested that the Taliban had not changed their extremist ideology, only their strategy.\n\nDespite grave concerns from Afghan officials over the government's vulnerability to the Taliban without international support, new US President Joe Biden announced in April 2021 that all American forces would leave the country by 11 September - two decades to the day since the felling of the World Trade Center.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Hibatullah Akhundzada is a religious scholar and he is former head of the Taliban courts\n\nHaving outlasted a superpower through two decades of war, the Taliban began seizing vast swathes of territory, before once again toppling a government in Kabul in the wake of a foreign power withdrawing.\n\nThey swept across Afghanistan in just 10 days, taking their first provincial capital on 6 August. By 15 August, they were at the gates of Kabul.\n\nTheir lightning advance prompted tens of thousands of people to flee their homes, many arriving in the Afghan capital, others heading for neighbouring countries.\n\nThe future for Afghans living under the Taliban's rule remains highly uncertain. While most are relieved war is over, millions are struggling to survive.\n\nNo country has recognised the Taliban government in the year since they returned to power.\n\nThe August 2022 killing in a US drone attack of al-Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul will do nothing to persuade Taliban critics that the group has turned over a new leaf.\n\nHardliners in the movement appear to have the upper hand on issues such as female employment, freedom of speech and secondary education for girls, meaning that desperately needed foreign-held funds are unlikely to be released any time soon.", "The fall of Zaranj will be seen as a heavy blow to Afghan government forces (pictured)\n\nA city in southwestern Afghanistan has become the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban since the militants launched a sweeping offensive earlier this year.\n\nLocal officials said the Taliban had captured Zaranj, in Nimroz province, in a major blow to government forces.\n\nThe insurgents continue to make rapid advances across the country as foreign troops withdraw.\n\nThey have taken swathes of countryside and are now targeting key cities.\n\nOther provincial capitals under pressure include Herat in the west, and the southern cities of Kandahar and Lashkar Gah.\n\nThe UN's special envoy for Afghanistan, Deborah Lyons, on Friday said the war there had entered a \"new, deadlier, and more destructive phase\", with more than 1,000 civilians killed in the past month.\n\nShe warned that the country was heading for \"catastrophe\", and called on the UN Security Council to issue an \"unambiguous statement that attacks against cities must stop now\".\n\nLater on Friday, the UK government advised all its citizens in Afghanistan to leave because of the worsening security situation.\n\nTaliban insurgents claimed victory in Zaranj - a major trading hub near the Iranian border - in a post shared on Twitter.\n\n\"This is the beginning, and see how other provinces fall in our hands very soon,\" a Taliban commander told Reuters news agency.\n\nPictures posted on social media showed civilians looting items from government buildings. Taliban insurgents were photographed inside the local airport and posing at the entrance to the city.\n\nThe militants made a sustained bid to seize the city after capturing surrounding districts.\n\nBut Nimroz's Deputy Governor Roh Gul Khairzad told reporters that Zaranj had fallen \"without a fight\".\n\nShe and other local officials complained of a lack of reinforcements from the Afghan government.\n\n\"The city was under threat for a while, but no one from the central government listened to us,\" Ms Khairzad said.\n\nThe last time the Taliban captured a provincial capital was in 2016, when they briefly held the northern city of Kunduz.\n\nThe militants launched a major military campaign in May, to coincide with the phased withdrawal of US and Nato forces after 20 years of military operations. The capture of Zaranj will add to their momentum, analysts say.\n\nOvernight, US and Afghan forces launched air strikes on the group's positions in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province.\n\nGovernment troops have vowed not to lose the strategically significant city, and fighting there has been fierce. Officials have urged civilians to evacuate, with thousands trapped or fleeing for their lives.\n\nIn Herat, people have also been fleeing their homes in anticipation of a government offensive against Taliban positions.\n\n\"We have nothing left and we do not know where to go,\" one resident told AFP news agency.\n\nEarlier on Friday, the director of Afghanistan's government media centre was assassinated by Taliban militants in the capital, Kabul. Dawa Khan Menapal was shot dead as he left a mosque in his car.\n\nThe Taliban said he had been \"punished for his deeds\".\n\nAfghan government colleagues condemned the killing as shocking and cowardly.\n\nUS Chargé d'Affaires to Afghanistan Ross Wilson tweeted that he was \"saddened and disgusted\" by the killing, adding: \"These murders are an affront to Afghans' human rights and freedom of speech.\"\n\nDays earlier, an attack on the Afghan defence minister's house in Kabul left at least eight people dead. The minister, Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, was not at home at the time.\n\nAt a UN Security Council meeting on Friday, representatives voiced concerns over the growing bloodshed.\n\nAfghanistan's envoy Ghulam Isaczai called on the Security Council to take action to pressure the militants to halt their attacks and take part in meaningful peace talks.\n\n\"It is our collective responsibility to stop them from destroying Afghanistan and threatening the world community,\" he said.\n\nMeanwhile, the chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission told the BBC that countries within the region in particular needed to tell the Taliban that coming to power through violence would mean that their government would not be recognised.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Shaharzad Akbar: The immediate future seems really bleak", "Ant McPartlin and Anne-Marie Corbett wed at St Michael's Church in Heckfield, Hampshire\n\nAnt McPartlin and Anne-Marie Corbett have married at a star-studded wedding ceremony.\n\nThe pair beamed as they waved to photographers and cheering fans following the wedding at a quaint rural church in Hampshire.\n\nThe couple shared a kiss before departing the venue in a black Rolls Royce.\n\nThey and their guests exited St Michael's Church in Heckfield through a specially-constructed arch made of hydrangeas and roses.\n\nMcPartlin and TV sidekick Declan Donnelly, pictured before the ceremony, wore matching suits\n\nMcPartlin previously described his now wife as his \"rock\"\n\nThe couple waved at photographers and fans who gathered for the occasion in rural Hampshire\n\nTelevision presenters Cat Deeley and Patrick Kielty, who are married, were among those who attended\n\nPhilip Schofield said the ceremony was \"great fun\"\n\nCrowds gathered to cheer the couple, who left in a black Rolls Royce\n\nSchofield said the ceremony was \"amazing\" and \"great fun\" as he left the church.\n\nA large group of photographers were gathered outside the venue to capture the occasion.\n\nDozens of fans were also standing outside the church to catch a glimpse of the happy couple.\n\nTelevision presenter McPartlin, 45, and 43-year-old Corbett, who was formerly his personal assistant, have been in a relationship since 2018.\n\nThey got together following McPartlin's separation from Lisa Armstrong, his wife of 11 years, earlier in 2018.\n\nMcPartlin and Corbett were reportedly planning to marry abroad but opted to host the ceremony in the UK because of the pandemic.\n\nCorbett has two daughters from her relationship with ex-husband Scott Corbett.\n\nBritain's Got Talent presenter McPartlin, from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, has previously described Corbett as his \"rock\" after she supported him following his 2018 drink-driving arrest and stint in rehab.\n\nAmanda Holden, his Britain's Got Talent co-star, apologised for not being able to make the ceremony as she is on holiday.\n\nShe wrote on Instagram that she was \"so sorry\" to miss the special day, adding: \"Sending our love and huge congratulations to Ant & Amzie on this amazing day.\"\n\nOther guests included married television presenters Patrick Kielty and Cat Deeley, singer Alesha Dixon and former footballer Frank Lampard and his television presenter wife Christine.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nParis St-Germain are in talks with Lionel Messi's representatives about the Argentina forward joining the Ligue 1 club following his Barcelona exit.\n\nBBC Sport has been told the Messi camp contacted PSG on Thursday once it became clear Barcelona were unable to honour the contract they had agreed.\n\nFurther talks are taking place on Saturday amid increasing confidence a deal can be put together.\n\nBarca say Messi will give a news conference on Sunday at 11:00 BST.\n\nOn Thursday, the Catalan club said Messi, a free agent, would not stay at the club.\n\nThey blamed \"financial and structural obstacles\" for the player leaving after 21 years.\n\nOn Friday, Barca president Joan Laporta said keeping Messi could have put the club at risk for 50 years.\n\nMessi, 34, has been a free agent since 1 July when his contract expired. He had agreed a new five-year contract on reduced wages - but the club still had to slash their wage bill to afford him, and were unable to do so.\n\nThe Argentina captain is Barcelona's record scorer with 672 goals and has won 10 La Liga titles, four Champions Leagues and seven Copa del Reys, as well as claiming the Ballon d'Or on a record six occasions.\n\nOn Saturday Barca boss Ronald Koeman said he wished Messi the best.\n\nWriting on Twitter, Koeman said: \"Still hard to understand that you will not play for FC Barcelona anymore.\n\n\"Thanks for everything you have done for our club Leo. I really enjoyed the full season we worked together.\n\n\"I am impressed with your work ethic and desire to win. It makes you the best player in the world. For now, I wish you and your family the best!\"\n\nIt is felt Messi is comfortable with the idea of joining PSG, given he knows a number of their players already.\n\nNeymar played at Barcelona from 2013-2017 before his world record £200m move to PSG, and Messi remains close to the Brazilian.\n\nMessi was pictured with Neymar, plus Argentina team-mates Angel di Maria and Leandro Paredes and fellow PSG star Marco Verratti on holiday earlier this month.\n\nThe deal would be possible under Financial Fair Play because PSG's recruitment this summer has centred largely around out-of-contract players in the form of defender Sergio Ramos, midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum and goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, while right-back Achraf Hakimi joined from Inter Milan.\n• None Find out these athletes favourite One Hit Wonders\n• None How it all started for Blossoms and why they are still true to Stockport", "Ronnie Alexander died while working at the Ayrshire wind farm three years ago\n\nA construction company and a security firm have admitted breaching health and safety rules in an incident which led to the death of a 74-year-old wind farm security guard.\n\nHe had been \"exposed to extreme weather conditions\" for several hours at the Afton wind farm construction site, near New Cumnock.\n\nAnother security guard was also exposed to the heavy snow and cold.\n\nAt Ayr Sheriff Court, construction firm Northstone (NI) Ltd and security firm Corporate Services Management admitted failing to provide a reliable source of heating at the site.\n\nThe companies also failed to provide an adequate system of communication so their staff could contact the emergency services.\n\nThey also failed to ensure there was a plan in place to evacuate the security guards in an emergency.\n\nLawyers for both firms offered their condolences to the family of Mr Alexander during the court hearing.\n\nThe tragedy unfolded on 21 January 2018, after The Met Office issued a yellow \"be aware\" warning for heavy snow across large swathes of Scotland.\n\nMr Alexander's family became concerned when he failed to return from a 12-hour shift at the wind farm near New Cumnock.\n\nThey tried to call his mobile phone but the signal at the construction site was patchy at best, and they could not make contact.\n\nA search was mounted for Mr Alexander after his grandson raised the alarm at about 20:20.\n\nThe family were told at 01:00 that Police Scotland's Mountain Rescue Team had found the security guard about a mile from his cabin and more than six hours after his shift finished.\n\nHe was airlifted off the site with a younger colleague.\n\nMr Alexander died on 22 January and the cause of death was confirmed as hypothermia.\n\nIn a statement, Mr Alexander's widow Mary, from Kilmarnock, said the couple had been married for almost 50 years.\n\nShe said: \"While we now know what happened that night it pains us to imagine what Ronnie felt - not just the physical struggle but enduring it alone. Because of this, we'll never really have peace or closure.\"\n\nHis daughter Laura Alexander said: \"The only saving grace is that the rescuers found our dad and the hospital kept him alive long enough so he wasn't alone at the very end and we got to say goodbye.\n\n\"We now just hope all industries, not just wind farms, who rely on remote workers take a hard look at themselves, their support procedures and back-up plans to make sure people are safe.\"\n\nMr Alexander was employed by Corporate Services Management - known as CSM Facilities - and Northstone is the parent company of Farrans Construction, the wind farm contractor for the site.\n\nThey both appeared on a Section 76 indictment at Ayr Sheriff Court.\n\nNorthstone admitted failing to ensure a safe system of work at the Afton wind farm site, in particular:\n\nThe documents stated that both security guards were exposed to extreme winter weather conditions on 21 January without adequate heating or means of communicating with the emergency services \"as a result of which Ronald Alexander suffered hypothermia and died\".\n\nCorporate Services Management admitted failing to ensure the health, safety and welfare of its two employees between 1 October 2016 and 22 Jan 2018.\n\nFollowing the court hearing Northstone issued a statement in which it expressed its deep regret.\n\nThe statement said: \"Northstone accepts that on this occasion at Afton Windfarm we did not meet the high health and safety standards that we seek to achieve to protect our employees, customers, clients, subcontractors and communities.\n\n\"We deeply regret that this resulted in the death of Mr Ronald Alexander. Our thoughts and sincerest sympathies remain with his family and friends.\"\n\nIt added that the company took \"immediate action\" to prevent a re-occurrence.\n• None Dad died after 'seven hours in the snow'", "There could be an \"highly lethal\" terror attack at Kabul airport within hours, a minister has warned.\n\nArmed Forces minister James Heappey said there were \"very credible\" reports of a \"severe\" threat in the capital.\n\nThe Foreign Office last night issued new guidance telling anyone near the airport to \"move away to a safe location and await further advice\".\n\nIt comes amid a race to airlift thousands from Afghanistan before foreign troops depart.\n\nThe US has set a deadline of 31 August for the withdrawal of its troops, with President Joe Biden rejecting calls from Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other allies for an extension.\n\nMr Heappey did not give a date for the last UK evacuation flights, but said it was likely that UK and other foreign troops would have to leave before the last American airlifts.\n\nOn Thursday, Mr Johnson said the \"overwhelming majority\" of eligible people had been evacuated from the country.\n\nHe added that about 15,000 had been flown out by the UK so far.\n\nKabul airport is currently being defended and run by the US, which has 5,800 troops on the ground - with the help of more than 1,000 UK troops.\n\nIn the update issued on Wednesday evening, the FCDO also warned that travelling by road was \"extremely dangerous\" with people alleged to have been \"mistreated\" on their way to the airport.\n\nThe US advised Americans in Afghanistan not to travel or gather at the airport \"because of security threats outside the gates\". Australia has also issued an alert, telling those outside the airport to leave immediately.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday, Mr Heappey said: \"There is now very, very credible reporting of an imminent attack and hence why the Foreign Office advice was changed last night.\"\n\nHe later told BBC Breakfast: \"The credibility of the reporting has now reached the stage where we believe that there is a very imminent, highly lethal attack possible within Kabul.\"\n\nAsked by Sky News whether an attack could occur in the coming few hours, Mr Heappey replied: \"Yes.\"\n\nStressing the \"severe\" nature of the threat, he told the BBC that it had created an \"extraordinarily challenging situation, both on the ground and as a set of decisions to be taken in Whitehall\".\n\n\"People are desperate, people are fearing for their lives anyway, and so I think there's an appetite among many in the queue to take their chances,\" he said.\n\nCrowds of people are waiting outside Kabul airport\n\nHe said UK troops were doing their best to provide security for those queuing, but the \"reality\" was that they were only holding \"defined bits of ground\" at the airport and at the hotel where people were being processed, and would therefore be \"relying\" on the Taliban for security beyond that.\n\nCol Richard Kemp, former head of British forces in Afghanistan, said the risk of a terror attack had been present from the start of evacuation efforts.\n\nHe told BBC Breakfast: \"I have no doubt that our forces are fully aware of the threat and already, for days now, have been taking measures to try and mitigate it, to prevent something like that happening.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Mr Heappey added that nearly 2,000 people have been evacuated on eight RAF flights in the past 24 hours, with 11 more flights scheduled on Thursday.\n\nAsked about the estimate that nearly 2,000 people eligible for the UK government's relocation programme - the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) - remained in Afghanistan, Mr Heappey said the actual number was \"potentially half\" of that.\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace told MPs that some Afghans wanting to flee to Britain may be better off trying to reach one of the country's borders and making their way to a third country.\n\nSpeaking in an online meeting, Mr Wallace is reported to have signalled there were few places left on evacuation flights and said \"not everyone is going to get out\".\n\nBut former Tory defence minister Tobias Ellwood, one of the MPs at the meeting, has said any land corridors would have to be agreed with the Taliban if the UK was to avoid the risk of putting people in harm's way.\n\nAnother Conservative MP, Julian Lewis, said he had raised the issue of 12 academics in Afghanistan who are at risk from the Taliban.\n\nMr Wallace told the MPs that all cases raised with him of people who are in serious danger would be considered by the teams processing urgent requests for evacuation.\n\nIt's incredible and very distressing to see huge numbers of people still turning up to the airport.\n\nWhole families, old women sitting in wheelbarrows because they are unable to walk, young children being carried by their parents.\n\nJust an endless stream walking through the filth, the dust, the heat. At times, they're facing gunshots.\n\nA large number of them have no realistic chance of boarding the evacuation flights because they just don't have the right paperwork, making it even more difficult for the handful that do have the right paperwork or are foreign citizens to push their way through the crowd.\n\nI was speaking to one elderly woman yesterday, her son was a former interpreter for the US Army.\n\nThey had all been told to go to the airport but they'd spent six days and six nights living in awful conditions in a kind of make-shift camp.\n\nI asked her, given all of this, isn't it worth just sticking it out in Afghanistan and seeing how things go?\n\nShe said: \"We just don't have that option. The Americans should shoot us or they should let us through - but we are not staying here.\"\n\nAny information about the threat from IS-K (a branch of the Islamic State group) or warnings about potential attacks from suicide bombers takes a long time to filter down to those people making their way to the airport - and they're so desperate that their priority is just to find some way out.\n\nLabour MP Yvette Cooper, who chairs the Home Affairs Select Committee, said the latest government advice was a \"further blow to desperate families who have been struggling to get to the airport\".\n\nShe said so many people who have worked with the UK government and military were now at grave risk.\n\nThe BBC's chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet said many Afghans would remain unaware of the Foreign Office advice and would continue to make their way to Kabul airport.\n\nSince the Taliban takeover, more than 82,000 people have been airlifted out of Kabul airport, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.\n\nMr Blinken said the Taliban had promised to allow foreigners and Afghans to leave beyond the end of August, adding that the US and its allies had \"a responsibility to hold [the Taliban] to that commitment\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA consultation is launching to seek people's views on whether beavers should be reintroduced to England's rivers.\n\nThe creatures were once widespread throughout Britain, but were hunted to extinction 400 years ago.\n\nStudies have shown that the return of the mammals could help to restore river habitats.\n\nBut the National Farmers' Union warned that beavers' dams can cause disruption.\n\nThe consultation will last for 12 weeks.\n\nEnvironment Secretary George Eustice said: \"Today marks a significant milestone for the reintroduction of beavers in the wild.\n\n\"But we also understand that there are implications for landowners, so we are taking a cautious approach to ensure that all potential impacts are carefully considered.\"\n\nThe steps towards bringing beavers back to England follows reintroduction programmes in Scotland, which have led to established wild beaver populations. Trials in Wales and England have also been assessing the mammal's impact on the environment.\n\nA five-year study of beavers that were reintroduced to the River Otter in Devon found that the creatures were beneficial to the environment.\n\nBeavers are often described as eco-engineers - their dams create wetland habitats where wildlife can flourish. The animals transport logs, branches, stones and mud to build the barriers across rivers. The dams help create pools of deep water that deter predators.\n\nThe River Otter study found that the natural constructions also act as natural flood barriers, protecting homes downstream.\n\nBeavers were once native to Britain but were wiped out 400 years ago\n\nEva Bishop, from the Beaver Trust, said a national policy for the animals was an important step.\n\n\"We hope to see beavers accepted back in the countryside like any other native wild animal - particularly as they have a role to play in nature's recovery and British wildlife resilience in the climate emergency,\" she said.\n\nHowever, the River Otter study also concluded that beavers can cause localised problems for some landowners.\n\nAnd the National Farmers' Union urged caution over widespread reintroductions, warning that beavers can damage trees and impede drainage from farmland.\n\nNFU spokesman Richard Bramley said: \"Where there is a financial impact on a farm business, adequate compensation must be made and an exit strategy must be in place should major issues occur.\"\n\nThe government has also announced plans to give beavers legal protection in England as a native species.\n\nThis makes it an offence to deliberately capture, kill, disturb or injure the mammals, or to damage breeding sites or resting places.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Under the policy, asylum seekers will have to remain in Mexico while their claims are processed\n\nThe US Supreme Court has ordered President Joe Biden to reinstate a policy of making asylum seekers stay in Mexico while claims are processed.\n\nThe policy was put in place by his predecessor, Donald Trump, as part of his measures to restrict the number of asylum seekers entering the US.\n\nBut Mr Biden suspended it on his first day of office.\n\nRights groups say the policy subjects migrants to dangerous conditions in Mexico's border towns.\n\nOn Tuesday, the Supreme Court rejected a bid to block a Texas-based judge's ruling requiring the government to revive the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) policy.\n\nIt said the Biden administration had \"failed to show a likelihood of success\" on the claim that rescinding the policy was not \"arbitrary and capricious\".\n\nThe Biden administration can make another attempt to try and end the policy.\n\nThe American Civil Liberties Union has called on Mr Biden to try again and provide a \"fuller explanation\" for why the policy should be terminated.\n\nSome 70,000 migrants were enrolled in the MPP policy. A month after Mr Biden's inauguration, his administration began to gradually process these tens of thousands of people waiting in Mexico, allowing them into the US while their cases are heard.\n\nIt's not yet clear how many people will be affected by the ruling.\n\nThe US Homeland Security department said it regretted the Supreme Court's decision and would \"continue to vigorously challenge it\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Risking everything for an American dream", "More than 30 million copies of Nevermind have been sold worldwide\n\nSpencer Elden, the man who was photographed as a baby on the album cover for Nirvana's Nevermind, is suing the band alleging sexual exploitation.\n\nThe cover depicts Elden as a four-month-old in a swimming pool, grasping for a dollar bill that's being dangled in front of him on a fishing line.\n\nNow 30, Elden says his parents never signed a release authorising the use of his image on the album.\n\nHe also alleges the nude image constitutes child pornography.\n\n\"The images exposed Spencer's intimate body part and lasciviously displayed Spencer's genitals from the time he was an infant to the present day,\" legal papers filed in California claim.\n\nNon-sexualised photos of infants are generally not considered child pornography under US law.\n\nHowever, Elden's lawyer, Robert Y. Lewis, argues that the inclusion of the dollar bill (which was superimposed after the photograph was taken) makes the minor seem \"like a sex worker\".\n\nThe legal case also alleges that Nirvana had promised to cover Elden's genitals with a sticker, but the agreement was not upheld.\n\nElden alleges his \"true identity and legal name are forever tied to the commercial sexual exploitation he experienced as a minor which has been distributed and sold worldwide from the time he was a baby to the present day\".\n\nHe claims he \"has suffered and will continue to suffer lifelong damages\" as a result of the artwork, including \"extreme and permanent emotional distress\" as well as \"interference with his normal development and educational progress\" and \"medical and psychological treatment\".\n\nHe is asking for damages of at least $150,000 (£109,000) from each of the 15 defendants, who include surviving band members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic; the managers of Kurt Cobain's estate; Cobain's former wife Courtney Love; and photographer Kirk Weddle.\n\nRepresentatives for Nirvana and their record labels have yet to respond to the claims.\n\nElden has recreated the album cover several times as a teenager and adult - always wearing swimming trunks - to mark Nevermind's 10th, 20th and 25th anniversaries.\n\nHowever, he has sometimes expressed ambivalence about the photoshoot. In 2016, he told Time Magazine that he \"got a little upset\" about his notoriety as he grew older.\n\n\"I just woke up already being a part of this huge project,\" he said. \"It's pretty difficult - you feel like you're famous for nothing.\n\n\"It's hard not to get upset when you hear how much money was involved,\" he continued. \"[When] I go to a baseball game and think about it: 'Man, everybody at this baseball game has probably seen my little baby penis,' I feel like I got part of my human rights revoked.\"\n\nIn other interviews, he has been more upbeat about the image.\n\n\"It's always been a positive thing and opened doors for me,\" he told the Guardian six years ago. \"I'm 23 now and an artist, and this story gave me an opportunity to work with Shepard Fairey for five years, which was an awesome experience. He is a huge music connoisseur: when he heard I was the Nirvana baby, he thought that was really cool.\"\n\nIn 2008, Spencer's father Rick recounted the photo shoot to US radio network NPR, saying he had been offered $200 to take part by Weddle, who was a family friend.\n\n\"We just had a big party at the pool, and no one had any idea what was going on!\"\n\nThe family quickly forgot the photoshoot until, three months later, they saw the Nevermind album cover blown up on the wall of Tower Records in Los Angeles.\n\nTwo months after that, NPR's article said, \"Geffen Records sent 1-year-old Spencer Elden a platinum album and a teddy bear\".\n\nThe album, which included the hits Smells Like Teen Spirit, Come As You Are and Lithium, went on to sell 30 million copies around the world.\n\nSpeaking to the Guardian in 2019, Weddle said he was still in contact with Elden, and acknowledged he was \"conflicted about the picture\".\n\n\"He feels that everybody made money off it and he didn't,\" the photographer said. \"I think he deserves something. But it's always the record labels that make the money.\"\n\nYou may also be interested in:\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "The media watchdog Ofcom has withdrawn from the equality workplace scheme run by Britain's best-known LGBTQ+ charity.\n\nThe Diversity Champions scheme is run by Stonewall and organisations which are members get advice on making workplaces inclusive.\n\nOfcom said it had withdrawn because of the need to remain impartial and independent at all times.\n\nStonewall said it fully respects Ofcom's decision - but it was sad its scheme is seen by some as unimpartial.\n\nHundreds of private and public organisations - including the BBC - are members of the Diversity Champions scheme.\n\nIn return for an annual payment, members receive advice on issues such as the use of personal pronouns at work, and whether single-sex toilets should be accessible to transgender people.\n\nOfcom is the latest organisation to leave the scheme. In March the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) announced it had also withdrawn, citing cost issues.\n\nOfcom, in a statement to the BBC, said: \"As the communications regulator, an important part of our responsibility is to ensure we remain impartial and independent at all times.\n\n\"Our commitment to supporting the rights and freedoms of LGBTQ+ people is as strong as ever.\"\n\nOfcom also said that, \"having laid the foundations that will help us improve support for LGBTQ+ colleagues, we're confident that we can move ahead positively, without continuing with the Diversity Champions programme\".\n\nDespite leaving the Diversity Champions scheme, Ofcom confirmed it will still participate in Stonewall's Equality Index, where employers are judged and ranked on their inclusive workplace policies.\n\nIn December, Ofcom's chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes appeared to suggest at a parliamentary select committee that the BBC should not talk to a charity called the LGB Alliance, which has emerged as a rival to Stonewall.\n\nCritics accuse the LGB Alliance of transphobia, because it campaigns for lesbian, gay and bisexual rights, but not transgender people. It denies the allegation.\n\nAfterwards Ofcom said that Dame Melanie had not meant to imply that broadcasters should not talk to gender-critical groups. And today they told me that her comments at the time had been misinterpreted, and that she was simply seeking to make the point that all in-air debates must be balanced.\n\nI understand there is some frustration within the organisation about the circumstances of that particular exchange and the subsequent reporting of it.\n\nOfcom's decision to withdraw from Stonewall's scheme - which supports trans rights - could be seen as a way to avoid being seen as taking sides in any debate on trans issues.\n\nIn May, a barrister-led report into two incidents at the University of Essex - where female academics who were accused of transphobia had speaking engagements withdrawn - found that Stonewall may have given incorrect and potentially illegal advice to the University, something it denies.\n\nIn the past, Stonewall has denied giving misleading advice to employers, and maintained that there is no clash between trans and women's rights.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nancy Kelley: \"I’m comfortable with our direction as an organisation\"\n\nIn a statement, Stonewall said: \"We fully respect Ofcom's decision and will continue to work with them in their role as the UK's communication regulator.\n\n\"It is sad, however, that involvement in a programme that supports an inclusive workplace for LGBTQ+ employees should be in any way regarded as an unimpartial act.\n\n\"As with every membership programme, organisations come and go depending on what works best for their inclusion journey at the time, and we're very proud of the work we've done with Ofcom and wish them the best in their ongoing efforts to support all of their LGBTQ+ employees. It's a simple human right that everyone, including LGBTQ+ staff, is free from discrimination and prejudice at work, and our Diversity Champions programme is one way for organisations to be supported in this.\"\n\nCorrection: An earlier version of this article referred to the types of advice provided by the Diversity Champions scheme, including transgender people's access to single-sex toilets. However the wording used did not accurately reflect Stonewall's position on the issue and so this line was amended on the 27th August.", "This study on waning vaccine effectiveness once again illustrates why we need to get used to Covid circulating.\n\nThis is not a virus that’s going to go away.\n\nThe vaccines do not work like they do for measles which provide life-long immunity.\n\nImmunity was always expected to wane.\n\nAnd another factor to consider is that repeated exposure to the virus is likely to increase the risk of a breakthrough infection – the increased likelihood over time of infection post-jabbing may not be all related to waning immunity.\n\nWhatever the cause though, experts have been clear we should expect to be repeatedly infected over our lifetimes.\n\nThe important thing is that each re-infection should be milder as the vaccines remain highly effective at preventing serious illness.\n\nWhat the vaccines have effectively done is taken the edge off the virus – given our immune system a head-start so those early infections are milder than they would have been for most.\n\nWhat’s not clear yet is the merits of offering the most vulnerable a booster jab. It is likely to be a fine judgement call as there are so many unknowns – although the expectation is some will be offered it.", "Goldman Sachs will introduce the policy from 7 September\n\nGoldman Sachs has made it compulsory for its staff to be fully vaccinated against coronavirus in order to work in its US offices.\n\nThe investment bank said from 7 September all employees, along with clients and visitors, would need to be doubled jabbed to enter its buildings.\n\nGoldman said it would also introduce mandatory once-a-week testing from the same date for staff.\n\nWorkers who are not fully vaccinated will be expected to work from home.\n\nGoldman told the BBC the policy was being introduced in the US, where workers returned the office in July, and not at its sites around world.\n\nProof of vaccination status will be required via an app from October, it added.\n\nA spokesperson said that from Wednesday face masks would also be required - regardless of vaccination status - in all common areas of its buildings, such as lobbies, lifts, hallways, restrooms and cafes, except while seated for eating and drinking.\n\nThe bank had previously ordered its US bankers to disclose their vaccine status before returning to the office but refrained from mandating them.\n\nThe announcement comes after Pfizer's two-dose vaccine received full approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The vaccine had initially only been given emergency use authorisation.\n\nThe approval is expected to set off more vaccine mandates by employers and organisations in the US at time when infections are rising and vaccine hesitancy remains high.\n\nLast month, Goldman announced bankers returning to its London head office would be required to wear masks in the building, despite the easing of the UK government's coronavirus restrictions.\n\nBut Richard Gnodde, the head of Goldman Sachs International, said the bank would not insist on people being vaccinated, nor would it force people to return if they felt uncomfortable doing so.\n\n\"[We will] continue to manage our exit from this in a cautious and appropriate way to make sure that our people feel comfortable,\" he told the BBC.\n\nBanks have been split over whether staff should come back to the office full time or work from home for some or all of the week.\n\nGoldman Sachs' group chief executive, David Solomon, has described working from home as \"an aberration\", while James Gorman, the boss of rival US investment bank Morgan Stanley said: \"If you can go into a restaurant in New York City, you can come into the office.\"\n\nMeanwhile, NatWest has said some 55% of its workforce would adopt a hybrid model of working between the office and home.", "Secondary pupils must wear face coverings at all times while in school\n\nScotland's record number of Covid cases is partly being fuelled by the return of schools after the summer holidays, the deputy first minister has said.\n\nJohn Swinney said the data showed that high numbers of young people had tested positive in recent days.\n\nAnd he said the case for secondary pupils continuing to wear facemasks in school was growing \"ever stronger\".\n\nA total of 5,021 new cases of the virus were reported on Wednesday, a record high for the second day running.\n\nThat was up from 4,323 in the previous 24 hours - although the rate of positive results being returned was down from 14.5% to 11%.\n\nTuesday's figure had led First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to warn that the country was at another \"fragile and pivotal moment\" in the pandemic.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she could not rule out the possibility of some Covid restrictions being reintroduced - although the levels of serious illness remain relatively low at this stage.\n\nAbout a third of the new cases were in the under-19s age group - with almost 42% of 16 and 17 year olds having had their first dose of a vaccine.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme, Mr Swinney said there was no doubt that pupils and staff returning to school over the past fortnight had contributed to the \"unprecedented\" number of cases.\n\nHe added: \"Cases have risen very significantly within Scotland and we are looking closely at why that is the case.\n\n\"Undoubtedly the gathering of people together in schools will have fuelled that to some extent, and you can see that in the proportion of younger people who are testing positive.\"\n\nMr Swinney stressed that the government wanted to avoid school closures \"at all possible costs\", with the priority being to ensure that children's education was not disrupted any more than it had already been.\n\nHe said: \"A few weeks ago we were being criticised for insisting on the retention of face coverings within secondary schools - people were telling us we shouldn't do that.\n\n\"But of course, the justification for it appears to me to be ever stronger because of the need to try to avoid the circulation of the virus within the school environment.\"\n\nSecondary pupils must wear face coverings at all times when they are in school - including while sitting at their desk - for at least the first six weeks of term.\n\nBut Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville told the BBC last week that the requirement would be dropped earlier if possible.\n\nShe said the government was \"erring on the side of caution\" by keeping the rule in place after the summer holidays despite most other Covid restrictions being lifted.\n\nThe number of Covid cases in schools is released weekly, usually on a Friday.\n\nIt goes into detail of the age groups affected, the test positivity rate and how many young people are isolating. For context, just before schools stopped for the summer, there more than 900 cases and almost 29,000 isolating because they were a contact.\n\nWe should get the first report of this term at the end of the week. It will be worth looking out for just how many of these new cases are in school pupils. I expect we'll see a big drop in the number isolating, compared to last term, when there were more strict rules in place.\n\nThe latest figures from National Records of Scotland showed that Covid was mentioned on the death certificates of 41 people over the past week - the same total as the previous week.\n\nOf these, 12 deaths were of people aged under 65, six were people aged between 65-74 and there were 23 deaths of people aged 75 or over.\n\nThe majority - 28 - were male, with 13 female, while 20 of the country's 32 council areas recorded at least one Covid-related death.\n\nMr Swinney said acute illness remained relatively low in Scotland despite the country recording the highest number of cases it has ever seen, with the pressure on the NHS not as great as it was in other stages of the pandemic.\n\nHe said there were no plans to cancel large-scale events such as football matches and concerts \"at this moment\".\n\nAnd he said the government had to ensure that any new restrictions were proportionate based on the pressure the NHS was under, adding: \"that's the key assessment that ministers have to make\".\n\nHe added: \"In terms of fulfilling our legal obligations to apply any restrictions to the freedoms that individuals enjoy, we have to be able to be satisfied there is a proportionate danger and risk in having to act in that fashion\".\n\nMr Swinney also said the focus for now would be on attempting to ensure people followed the \"baseline measures\" such as wearing face coverings in shops and on public transport, trying to socially distance where possible and following good hand and cough hygiene.\n\nHe said that doing so would help to limit the circulation of the virus and avoid any further restrictions having to be applied in the future.", "Just Eat will create more than 1,500 customer service jobs in north-eastern England in the next 12 months.\n\nThe jobs will be based at a new facility in Sunderland as part of a £100m investment in the region by the firm over the next five years.\n\nCurrently, the takeaway food firm has more than 2,000 UK-based employees.\n\nNew employees will begin working from home and the firm will offer employees the option to work from the office in the coming months.\n\nJust Eat said it had already hired 300 staff in Sunderland and noted that customer satisfaction had gone up as a result.\n\nPreviously, the firm had outsourced the majority of its customer service roles to Bulgaria and the Philippines.\n\nIts UK managing director, Andrew Kenny, said the move was about positioning the firm for future growth. \"The [takeaway] industry has changed a lot over the past 18 months,\" he told the BBC's Today programme.\n\n\"New trends have emerged such as significant growth over breakfast and lunch. We're very confident that many of the behaviours that kicked off during Covid will sustain themselves.\"\n\nThe delivery platform has more than 58,000 restaurant partners across the UK.\n\nCouncillor Graeme Miller, leader of Sunderland City Council, said: \"We're thrilled to have supported Just Eat to make its move to Sunderland, joining a dynamic business community and creating jobs and opportunities for people across the city.\"\n\n\"We're immensely proud of our skilled people and look forward to seeing how they drive the onward success of the Just Eat business,\" he added.\n\nThe office, in Houghton le Spring, was previously occupied by Npower and will provide a gym, lounge and catering area across its 20,000 sq-m space.\n\nJust Eat was founded by a group of five Danish entrepreneurs in 2000 and launched a year later.\n\nLast year, online food ordering company Takeaway.com won a battle for the UK-listed Just Eat with a £5.9bn all-share offer.\n\nIt made Just Eat Takeaway.com one of the world's largest meal delivery companies.\n\nEarlier this month, the company reported that sales rose 52% in the first half of 2021, reflecting a robust growth in orders during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nIn June, consumer organisation Which? researched the price of ordering meals for between two to four people from five restaurants and cafes.\n\nOn average, Which? found that ordering through Just Eat was 7% more expensive than ordering directly from the restaurant.", "Further delays could make crucial studies \"biologically impossible\", researchers say\n\n\"The window of opportunity\" to conduct crucial studies into how the Covid-19 pandemic started is closing, senior scientists have said.\n\nA team appointed by the World Health Organization to find the cause of the outbreak say the process has stalled.\n\nAnd further delay could make crucial studies \"biologically impossible\".\n\nIn an article in the scientific journal Nature, they call on political and scientific leaders to expedite those studies \"while there is still time\".\n\nDutch virologist Prof Marion Koopmans, a member of the WHO team, told BBC Radio 4's Inside Science programme the risk of pandemics was increasing.\n\n\"Because of the way the world is changing - population increase, crowding and more interaction between humans and animals, we need to learn where things go wrong and how we can avoid that in the future,\" she said.\n\nThe WHO team visited Wuhan in January and published a report in March recommending:\n\nSimilar to the Ebola outbreak, the coronavirus's \"ancestor\" is believed to have been a disease carried by wild bats\n\nBut since farmed animals have a limited lifespan and blood banks store donations for a fixed period, the researchers are worried that valuable biological information may already have been lost.\n\nThe politically contentious issue of whether the virus might have escaped from a laboratory in China had also made some of the work more difficult, Prof Koopmans said.\n\nAll the lines of inquiry were relevant, she said, \"but when accusations get mixed with the scientific questions, things become quite difficult\".\n\nIn their report, however, the team concluded while it was impossible to determine how the virus had infected the first humans, \"all available evidence\" suggested it had a natural animal origin and was \"not a manipulated or constructed virus\".\n\nThe closest relative to Sars-Cov-2, Prof Koopmans said, was a virus found in wild bats.\n\nBut there remained a significant \"time gap\" in the evolution of that virus into the one that infected humans that could be explained only by taking samples from the animals that may have provided an \"intermediate host\".\n\nThe report itself, however, sparked controversy that now threatens to overshadow the science.\n\nThe team essentially \"graded\" the different possible origin scenarios.\n\nLab-leak theories centre on the Wuhan Institute of Virology\n\nMost likely, they said, was a farmed animal, possibly a wild species on a fur farm, was that \"intermediate host\" between bats and humans.\n\nAnd the possibility the virus leaked from a laboratory in China was \"highly unlikely\".\n\nBut this led some scientists and commentators to suggest the \"lab-leak theory\" had been dismissed.\n\n\"In retrospect, the exact phrasing - 'extremely unlikely' - maybe wasn't the smartest way of putting things, given that that has become the core of the debate,\" Prof Koopmans told BBC News.\n\n\"But it really was about - given everything we know, where would you prioritise [the next scientific steps].\"\n\nThe continuing furore over the lab-leak theory has centred on the Wuhan institute of Virology, where the WHO team spent time interviewing researchers.\n\n\"If we're talking about an accident in that laboratory, then you would still have to have that exact same virus in the lab for it to be accidentally released,\" Prof Koopmans said. \"We found no indication of that.\"\n\nHowever, other scientists would like to examine the database of viruses held by the WIV, which was taken offline on 12 September 2019.\n\nAmid the lab-leak debate, President Joe Biden ordered US intelligence to hold its own investigation.\n\nBut its report, delivered to the president this week, was unable to reach a conclusion about whether the virus emerged naturally or as a result of an accident at a lab, according to US media.\n\nMeanwhile, Prof Koopmans said we may never find \"patient zero\" in the case of the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nBut without the more scientific studies, there was no chance of reaching a conclusion about the vital question of how a bat virus had unleashed a pandemic that was continuing to cause sickness, death and economic chaos around the world.\n\n\"We have to really try - but there's no guarantee of success,\" she said..\n\n\"But what we do need to learn is, how can we recognise which are the really 'bad bugs'.\n\n\"There is a whole range of [bat viruses], so which of those really are the high-risk ones?\n\n\"And how can we recognise that?\n\n\"That's the kind of thing that we really could learn and take forward from these studies.\"\n\nHear the interview with Professor Marion Koopmans in full on Inside Science on BBC Sounds.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ex Royal Marine meets the pilot who airlifted him from Afghanistan on Paralympics flight\n\nBBC presenter JJ Chalmers has said he \"burst into tears\" when he realised the pilot flying him to the Tokyo Paralympics was the same man who flew him home injured from Afghanistan.\n\nChalmers was injured in a bomb blast while serving as a Royal Marine Commando in Afghanistan in 2011.\n\nWhile on the plane to Tokyo to cover the Paralympics for BBC Radio 5 Live, an air stewardess pulled him aside and said the pilot had recognised his name.\n\nChalmers - whose full name is Lance Corporal John James Chalmers - was flown home in an induced coma and had more than 30 operations after treading on an explosive device in Helmand Province.\n\nTen years later, he told 5 Live Breakfast he was on the plane to Tokyo - already \"so excited\" to be on the way to do his dream job of presenting at the Paralympics - when the air hostess came over.\n\n\"She sort of brought me to one side she said: 'Mr Chalmers am I right in saying you served in Afghanistan?' And I was like where is this going? What is going on here?\n\n\"And she said: 'Our pilot actually flew you back from Afghanistan, flew you back into the UK when you were injured 10 years ago, and he's noticed that and he'd like you to come this way, he's going to take the plane off and then he's going to come and have a word with you.'\n\n\"And I burst into tears, that was my reaction to that.\"\n\nChalmers was on patrol when the bomb went off, killing two of his colleagues and an Afghan interpreter\n\nChalmers said at first he felt some apprehension towards meeting the pilot.\n\n\"He's seen me unconscious, but like someone so profound and important in my life that you never think that you're going to meet, so I was overwhelmed by emotion,\" he said.\n\nAnd he said he was glad to be travelling with Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson, as \"I would've just been a blubbering mess otherwise.\"\n\nExplaining how the pilot realised he was onboard, Chalmers said: \"They get the passenger manifest three days before and he always takes a bit of a glance down and he said, particularly when you're working on something like this, you know there's going to be athletes and what not on board.\n\n\"He recognised my name, he googled it, and he found one of the first articles come up gave the specific date that I was injured, on 27 May 2011.\n\n\"So he took out his old RAF flying log, and he looked down it, and did the maths and figured out - yeah, right enough it was him that had brought me back and so he brought the log along with him.\n\n\"It was really nice... we were able to just talk like two veterans and it was really nice to, you know, pass the time talking to someone that sort of had a familiar background to what I did.\"\n\nThe pilot got out his old RAF flying logbook and found Chalmers' name\n\nChalmers said that when he got off the plane he told the pilot: \"I owe something that I'll never be able to repay to you, I'm unbelievably grateful for what you did for me - thank you - and in fairness his response was just perfect it was: 'We all had a job to do, that's what you did, that's what I did, that's what we all did.'\"\n\nAfter leaving the military, Chalmers won medals in non-amputee cycling in the Invictus Games and has since become a TV presenter, hosting coverage of the Paralympics. He also starred in Strictly Come Dancing last year.", "Friends Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham Fr Alan Griffin previously tried to take his own life after testing positive for HIV\n\nThe Church of England has expressed \"deep regret and sorrow\" over a mishandled inquiry into a priest who killed himself after false child abuse allegations.\n\nFather Alan Griffin, 78, who died last November, spent a year under scrutiny without ever hearing the claims.\n\nA coroner previously said the claims were \"supported by no complainant, no witness and no accuser\".\n\n\"We take responsibility for what went wrong,\" the Church said.\n\n\"We acknowledge that there were either poor processes or systems, or mistakes, that led to unreasonable pressures on Fr Alan,\" the Diocese of London and Lambeth Palace said in a submission to the coroner.\n\nIt added a new head of safeguarding \"with 30 years policing experience\" had been installed at the start of the month.\n\nLast month, Coroner Mary Hassell's Prevention of Future Deaths report was published following the inquest into Fr Griffin's death at his home in Wapping, east London, on 8 November 2020.\n\nCopies of the coroner's report were sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury's residence at Lambeth Palace\n\nRecording the death as a suicide, the coroner said: \"He was an HIV positive (viral load undetectable) gay priest.\n\n\"He killed himself because he could not cope with an investigation into his conduct, the detail of and the source for which he had never been told.\n\n\"Fr Griffin did not abuse children. He did not have sex with young people under the age of 18. He did not visit prostitutes. He did not endanger the lives of others by having sex with people whilst an HIV risk.\"\n\nThe investigation into Fr Griffin began because an official in the Anglican Diocese of London suggested to his archdeacon that he undertake a \"brain dump\" of information he had acquired before his retirement.\n\n\"We accept that the concerns raised in respect of Fr Griffin were unsubstantiated,\" the church said in its submission to the coroner.\n\n\"We accept that good practice around evidence gathering, verification, and evaluation of information prior to action was lacking.\n\n\"We fully accept that there was no subsequent verification of the information shared by/with the head of operations.\"\n\nArchbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby was sent a detailed report by the coroner\n\nThe coroner addressed many concerns in her report, which she sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury, pointing out the \"breadth of the systemic and individual failings that have come to light during the course of this inquest\".\n\nThe Church apologised to the coroner for the delay in responding to the inquest process and \"for the points at which we did not engage as effectively as we could have done\".\n\n\"It is a matter of significant regret that, even following the death of Father Griffin, there were a number of lost opportunities to review learning from the handling of this case prior to the inquest,\" it added.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "England saw a rise in young adults taking up smoking during the first lockdown, according to a study.\n\nThe number of 18 to 34-year-olds who classed themselves as smokers increased by a quarter, from 21.5% to 26.8%, says Cancer Research UK.\n\nThe data does not explain why the changes occurred but experts believe many turned to cigarettes in response to stress.\n\nAt the same time, heavy drinking increased across adults of all ages.\n\nThe findings, published in the journal Addiction, come from monthly surveys, each involving hundreds of people, about tobacco and alcohol use.\n\nResearchers compared the responses given in the seven months prior to the first lockdown in spring 2020 with those given during it.\n\nBased on population estimates for England, the findings suggest an extra 652,000 young adults were smoking, compared with before the pandemic, say researchers.\n\nThe data also suggests the pandemic may have been a trigger for many smokers, including young adults, to think about attempting to quit tobacco.\n\nThere were increases in the number of existing smokers quitting successfully, and overall levels of smoking in adults remain stable, according to the figures.\n\nGiven that older people report being more worried about becoming seriously ill from Covid, health concerns may have served as a greater deterrent to them than to younger people, say investigators.\n\nLead researcher Dr Sarah Jackson, from University College London, said: \"The first lockdown was unprecedented in the way it changed people's day-to-day lives.\n\n\"We found that many smokers took this opportunity to stop smoking, which is fantastic. However, the first lockdown was also a period of great stress for many people, and we saw rates of smoking and risky drinking increase among groups hardest hit by the pandemic.\n\n\"It will be important to keep a close eye on how these increases in smoking and drinking develop over time to ensure appropriate support is made accessible for anyone who needs it.\"\n\nCancer Research UK warns there is no safe level of smoking and that it is not a healthy way to relax or relieve anxiety.\n\nDeborah Arnott, chief executive of health charity ASH, said swift action was needed to reverse this worrying trend.\n\n\"The growing number of young adult smokers is a ticking time bomb, as smoking is an addiction which puts people on a path to premature death and disability which is hard to escape. The government has committed to publish a new Tobacco Control Plan this year, which is welcome.\n\n\"The new figures provide proof, if it were needed, that unless the plan is sufficiently ambitious and well-funded it will not deliver the government's ambition for England to be smoke-free by 2030.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mauritius has moved a symbolic step closer to wresting control of the Chagos Islands, in the Indian Ocean, from the UK.\n\nThe Universal Postal Union (UPU), a UN agency in charge of the world's postal policies, voted to block the use of UK stamps from the remote archipelago.\n\nAll post from the Chagos Islands must now bear stamps from Mauritius.\n\nThe UK says it will not cede control until the islands are no longer needed for security purposes.\n\nThe US currently uses the largest of the islands - Diego Garcia - for a military air base on what the UK describes as the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT).\n\nThree powerful UN bodies have already ruled that the archipelago, which has a population of about 3,000, is part of Britain's old empire and should be handed to Mauritius immediately.\n\nA set of pretty postal stamps showing sea slugs and angel fish might not seem like the sharp end of international diplomacy, the BBC's Africa correspondent Andrew Harding says.\n\nBut he adds that the near unanimous vote by the UPU to make those stamps illegal worldwide, is a blow to Britain, and another sign of its growing isolation over its claim to the Chagos Islands.\n\nThe next step could see Mauritius seeking to ban international flights over the area - a vast chunk of the Indian Ocean.\n\nAll indications so far show that on the Chagos issue Britain has almost no allies left, our correspondent says.", "Last updated on .From the section Disability Sport\n\nCoverage: Follow on Radio 5 Live and on the BBC Sport website Sarah Storey put in another world record-breaking performance on her way to claiming her 15th Paralympic title, as Great Britain claimed six medals on the first day of Tokyo 2020. The 43-year-old smashed her world best by more than four seconds in the C5 3,000m individual pursuit qualifying and in the final caught team-mate Crystal Lane-Wright, who matched her silver medal from Rio 2016. Storey is just one behind Mike Kenny's British record of 16 golds. There was also silver for tandem pair Steve Bate and Adam Duggleby in the B 4,000m pursuit. Bate and Duggleby were defending champions but the Dutch pair of Tristan Bangma and Patrick Bos, who set a world record in qualifying, caught the Britons in the final. And there were three swimming medals for ParalympicsGB, with silvers for Reece Dunn in the S14 100m butterfly and Tully Kearney in the S5 200m freestyle, as well as bronze for Toni Shaw in the S9 400m freestyle.\n• None Read more about GB's medal success in the pool\n• None What happened on day one in Tokyo? The opening day belonged to Storey though. After her blistering qualifying race, she started the final at at the Izu Velodrome in determined fashion and caught Lane-Wright after 1,750m of their race. She has now won medals at each of the eight Games she has attended and her heat time of three minutes 27.057 seconds destroyed the world record she set in Rio. \"It's quite overwhelming,\" she said. \"I don't know if it will sink in until I get home. I came here with a really solid plan of what I wanted to do and I've delivered it, so it kind of blows your mind a bit. \"I talked before about breaking your personal best, in my case a world record, a small margin at a time. And I just knocked 4.3 seconds off. \"I've done so much training, and everyone's been reminding me how much work I've done and how I deserve to be that fast, but you don't like to presume. So it took me by surprise, but a good surprise. \"I think about one race at a time and maybe I'll think about these things afterwards. But it does feel pretty surreal.\" Storey, who was born without a fully functioning left hand, started her career as a swimmer at Barcelona in 1992 and competed at four Games, winning 15 Paralympic medals, including five golds, before switching to cycling in 2005. Since then, the mother of Louisa (8) and Charlie (3) has been almost unbeatable both on the track and the road. \"I knew I had it in me to go sub 3.30,\" she added. \"It's been a target of mine since I went 3.32 at the London Games. I knew I just needed the right day and the right preparation. \"It's been an incredibly difficult preparation for these Games because it's so different to what I'm used to. I just had to call on all my experience for staying calm under the pressure and I'm just glad it's paid off. \"It's fantastic to see the event getting faster, and I just need to keep getting faster as well. So I just had to keep a cool head.\" She next goes on Tuesday in the C5 road time trial - another event where she is defending champion - before the road race on Thursday, 2 September. For Lane-Wright, who also set a personal best in the heats, it is the second silver medal at consecutive Games in the event. \"I don't think I've reached my full potential. I think I can keep getting better,\" she said. \"As much as I'm up against Sarah, it's me against me. I can only control what I can do. To get such a good PB this morning, I'm so pleased.\" As well as the action in the velodrome and the pool, there was GB representation in four other sports on the opening day The wheelchair rugby team were 50-47 winners over Canada in Pool B but there was a big shock in Pool A where defending champions Australia lost 54-53 to Denmark. The women's wheelchair basketball team paid the price for a disappointing third quarter against Canada as they lost 73-54. GB led 29-26 at the break but their opponents pulled clear in the second half and they will now have to focus on their next game against hosts Japan on Thursday. Strictly Come Dancing star Will Bayley, world champion Ross Wilson and Aaron McKibbin all made winning starts to their table tennis campaigns but there was no joy for Piers Gilliver or Gemma Collis-McCann in the sabre events at the wheelchair fencing.\n• None An hour of music from the 23-time Grammy winner\n• None Why do good cops go bad?: The story of one America's most corrupt police squads", "Researchers say they are seeing some waning of protection against Covid infections in double-jabbed people.\n\nThe real-world study includes data on positive Covid PCR test results between May and July 2021 among more than a million people who had received two doses of Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine.\n\nProtection after two shots of Pfizer decreased from 88% at one month to 74% at five to six months.\n\nFor AstraZeneca, the fall was from 77% to 67% at four to five months.\n\nWaning protection is to be expected, say experts.\n\nAlthough some breakthrough infections may be happening, vaccines are still doing a very good job at protecting people against severe Covid illness and deaths.\n\nPublic Health England estimates that around 84,600 deaths and 23 million infections have been prevented as a result of the Covid-19 vaccination programme in England so far.\n\nProf Tim Spector, lead investigator on the Zoe Covid Study app behind the research, said the findings could explain recent breakthrough infections that some fully vaccinated people have been reporting.\n\nProf Spector said: \"Waning protection is to be expected and is not a reason to not get vaccinated.\n\n\"Vaccines still provide high levels of protection for the majority of the population, especially against the Delta variant, so we still need as many people as possible to get fully vaccinated.\"\n\nHe estimates that protection against infection could drop to 50% by the winter and boosters will be needed, but other experts urge caution about making predictions for the months ahead.\n\nThe UK is expected to begin offering some people a third Covid booster jab next month, but is waiting for recommendations from an independent advisory body called the JCVI which is looking at evidence to support a decision.\n\nProf Spector said: \"Many people may not need them. Many people may have had a natural booster because they've already had a natural Covid infection, so will effectively have had three vaccines.\n\n\"So I think the whole thing needs to be much more carefully managed than just giving it to everybody which would be a huge waste and ethically dubious given the resources we have. I think we need a more targeted approach than last time.\"\n\nThis study once again illustrates why we need to get used to Covid circulating - this is not a virus that's going to go away.\n\nThe vaccines do not work like they do for measles which provide life-long immunity. Immunity against Covid was always expected to wane.\n\nAnd another factor to consider is that repeated exposure to the virus is likely to increase the risk of a breakthrough infection - the increased likelihood over time of infection post-jabbing may not be all related to waning immunity.\n\nWhatever the cause though, experts have been clear we should expect to be repeatedly infected over our lifetimes.\n\nThe important thing is that each re-infection should be milder as the vaccines remain highly effective at preventing serious illness.\n\nWhat the vaccines have effectively done is taken the edge off the virus - given our immune system a head-start so those early infections are milder than they would have been for most.\n\nWhat's not clear yet is the merits of offering the most vulnerable a booster jab. It is likely to be a fine judgement call because there are so many unknowns - although the expectation is some will be offered it.\n\nDr Simon Clarke, an expert in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said infection levels in the community would alter a person's chance of encountering and catching Covid at any given time, making it hard to draw firm conclusions about waning immunity.\n\nDr Alexander Edwards, also from the University of Reading, said it was important to understand when booster doses might be needed and for whom.\n\n\"Vaccination does not, unsurprisingly, make people invulnerable, and does not prevent all infections. Variants have real and significant impact on public health, and a lot of people are still tragically dying in the UK from this nasty virus.\n\n\"The vaccines we have are remarkably safe and effective, and still remain far better than other vaccines that give massive benefits.\"\n\nHe added: \"We must pro-actively plan our public health strategy to account for imperfect protection, and for the possibility of falling protection over time.\"\n\nA similar study was published by the Office for National Statistics and the Oxford Vaccine Group last week.\n\nBased on PCR test results from nearly 400,000 people who had been infected with the Delta variant in the UK, it found two doses of the Pfizer vaccine was initially more than 90% effective against symptomatic Covid infection, compared with around 70% for the AstraZeneca vaccine.\n\nBut over the course of three months, the protection from Pfizer fell significantly whereas immunity with the AstraZeneca jab remained more stable.\n\nProf Adam Finn, a government vaccine adviser, said other studies had shown that the vaccines maintained good protection against serious illness and hospitalisation.\n\nBut he said: \"We do need to watch out very carefully to see if this waning against milder disease begins to translate into occurrence of more severe cases because then boosters will be needed.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The products at the centre of the health scare have been recalled\n\nPork scratchings linked to salmonella poisoning have left at least 12 people needing hospital treatment.\n\nConcerns have been raised about snacks made by Tayto Group Ltd at its factory in Bolton, Greater Manchester, the Food Standards Agency said.\n\nSome Mr Porky, Jay's and The Real Pork Crackling Company products have been recalled and withdrawn from sale.\n\nTayto Group Ltd said production would resume once all necessary checks had been completed.\n\nThe FSA said testing had found a total of 176 reported cases of salmonella poisoning were potentially connected to the products, dating back to September 2020, although the link was only established earlier this month.\n\nPublic Health England confirmed it was aware of 12 people needing hospital treatment.\n\nIn a recall alert, the FSA issued further details about the snacks, which have best before dates up to and including 19 February 2022.\n\nTina Potter, the FSA's head of incidents, said it was \"really important that consumers follow this advice to avoid the risk of becoming ill with salmonella poisoning\".\n\nShe added: \"The food business involved has voluntarily suspended its production to put additional controls in place to improve the safety of their products.\"\n\nProduction of the snacks was halted at the Tayto Group Ltd factory in Bolton\n\nSymptoms of salmonella poisoning can include diarrhoea, stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting and fever.\n\nWhile infections are often mild, they can become more severe and need hospital treatment, especially in the very young and those with weak immune systems.\n\nDr Lesley Larkin, an infections specialist at Public Heath England, said a link to the products had been established via genome sequencing and other investigations.\n\nDr Larkin said: \"These investigations, together with those carried out by local authorities, have indicated the source of infection is pork scratchings produced by a single company in the UK.\n\n\"The FSA has acted on these findings to mitigate any further risk to public health from the contaminated food.\"\n\nTayto Group Ltd operates from six sites across the UK manufacturing a range of products including pork scratchings, crisps and popcorn.\n\nA spokesman said: \"The safety of our products is of the utmost importance, which is why we have taken the decision to initiate a precautionary recall for some products.\n\n\"We are working closely with the local environmental health team and the FSA at this time.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Nausheen snaps herself in the mirror of a lift. She endured constant dread it could all go wrong\n\nSafehouses. Teenage Taliban guards. Anxious waits for embassy calls. Airport chaos. And throughout, the constant fear this could end in disaster for you and your loved ones.\n\nThis is the story of Nausheen and her struggle to find a way out of Kabul as the Taliban took charge of the Afghan capital. Her name has been changed to protect her and her family.\n\nI'm speaking to Nausheen by phone. It's the afternoon of Saturday the 21st of August. She has been sitting inside a minibus outside Kabul airport for almost 20 hours, with no access to food or a toilet, in a desperate attempt to board a military aircraft as part of India's emergency evacuation plan.\n\nBut this is not the final chapter. Far from it. How did it come to this?\n\nRewind to 15 August. Nausheen, an Indian married to an Afghan with relatives in both countries, is booked on an Air India flight on the 19th from Kabul to Delhi. But as the Taliban take over Kabul, all commercial flights, including hers, are cancelled.\n\nShe wakes on the 15th to find that most embassies have shut down overnight and their staff are fleeing at the first possible opportunity.\n\nHer husband wants her out of Afghanistan as soon as possible. She grabs her passport and blue chadari (burqa) and, with her husband, rushes to the Indian embassy to ask about evacuation flights.\n\n\"When we reached the Indian embassy, luckily it was still functional. But you could sense the tension in the air. They were destroying all the documents and burning all paperwork. The staff told us they would continue working until that evening. I wanted to get visas for the rest of my family here in Afghanistan. They asked me to come back in the evening with passports and other documents. So I went back home.\n\n\"People were running haphazardly fearing the Taliban. My husband held my hand, and we ran towards our home. It felt as if the entire city was out on the street, running towards the airport. It was horrific. When I reached home, the security staff of the building had changed from proper uniforms to kurta-pyjamas. My building was surrounded by the Taliban.\"\n\nNausheen and her husband pick up documents and go back to the embassy. Luckily they also get visas for the rest of the family.\n\nThen begins the wait for that phone call from the Ministry of External Affairs of the government of India. As an Indian, she is on her country's priority list.\n\n\"I got a message from the ministry on 19 August. I needed to reach (a location we cannot reveal for security reasons) where many others who were part of the evacuation plan were to assemble. I was leaving behind my whole family, and it wasn't easy. But my family was concerned about my safety and there was hardly any time to think. We had been asked to carry only a small handbag. So, I picked up my laptop, hard drives, phone, a power bank and left.\"\n\nThere are 220 other passengers at the safe house, waiting to be evacuated. Indian Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and a few Afghan families as well.\n\nBut the safehouse does not feel secure and the next two days are filled with anxiety.\n\n\"There were no arrangements, we had no information on when we would get evacuated. No security was given to us inside the safehouse. In fact, the Taliban were standing outside guarding us, so that no other fringe groups could attack us. We felt very vulnerable. We couldn't sleep out of fear.\"\n\nA sudden evacuation order comes at 22:00 on 20 August. In the next hour and a half, some 150 passengers leave for the airport in seven minibuses.\n\n\"We were escorted by the Taliban. One car led us from the front, and another was behind. We reached the airport around 00:30. Large crowds were desperately waiting outside in an attempt to flee the country. The Taliban were firing rounds from one side and from the other the Americans were firing tear gas shells to control the crowd. We were taken to the northern gate, which is mostly used by the military.\"\n\nBut they are now denied access into the airport by the Americans who control it. They spend the night in the buses, with no evacuation plan in effect.\n\n\"There were children, women and sick people with us. We were stranded on the road. Some women had their periods, but we had no access to the toilet. We were sitting in an open space, and anyone could have attacked us.\"\n\nIt is about to get worse.\n\nNausheen took a secret snap of one Taliban guard. She said some appeared only teenagers\n\n\"At 9:30 on 21 August, the Taliban came to our buses and started questioning our co-ordinator. They snatched his phone and slapped him. We didn't know what was going on.\n\n\"We were driven to an industrial area where we were detained. These were very young Taliban men, some looked as young as 17 or 18. We were scared for our lives and thought it was all over. Those few hours were the most dangerous of my life. We thought we won't be able to meet our family again. We won't be able to go home.\"\n\nMen and women are made to sit separately in a park. The Taliban take away passports and start questioning them. The Indian women married to Afghans are separated from the rest of the Indians.\n\n\"I said 'I am an Indian and would prefer being with Indians' to which they said I must stay with the Afghans. I started fearing what they were going to do to my Indian brothers and sisters. What if they take them somewhere and do something to them?\n\n\"One Taliban asked me - why do you want to leave this country? We are trying to build it. He asked if I would come back to Afghanistan. I said no, we are scared of you. They reassured us that there's nothing to fear and gave us water to drink but made no eye contact.\n\n\"Later, they told us that there was a security threat, and they were ensuring that we were safe. I also received a message from a friend from the Indian group that I was separated from, and she told me that the Taliban fed them and took good care of them.\"\n\nA Taliban spokesperson later tells Afghan media they had detained the passengers because they had suspicions and wanted to ensure everyone's safety and security - rejecting reports of a kidnapping.\n\nThe Taliban took Nausheen and others from the airport but denied they had been kidnapped\n\nAfter a couple of hours, Nausheen is put on a bus with Afghans and other Indian women married to Afghans. The other Indian groups join them on their way back to the airport. At 14:00, they are back at the northern gate and the wait to enter the airport begins all over again.\n\n\"The Ministry of External Affairs was trying to get us inside the airport, but it wasn't working. I felt very angry that we had informed them about our detention by the Taliban and how stranded we felt but still nothing was being done about it. We are not aware of what negotiations were happening behind closed doors but as someone who was stuck there, I felt desperate and vulnerable.\n\n\"If they weren't sure, they shouldn't have asked us to come out of our homes. We would have been hiding inside our homes. We won't have stepped out in so much danger. Now we are out in the open.\"\n\nIt's still the 21st. It's been horrible but things are not slowing down. They are still outside the airport.\n\nAt 17:00 Nausheen's group is informed by the Ministry of External Affairs it will be taken inside the airport in the next 15 to 20 minutes. It doesn't happen.\n\nAt 18:00 another call comes from the ministry. They are asked to go back to the safehouse.\n\nSleepless, hungry and emotionally broken, Nausheen is told the evacuation might happen later in the night. But they have been told that so often. They have been without sleep for three days and some have young children.\n\nAt 20:00, exhausted and disheartened, Nausheen decides to go back home.\n\nLater, a group of Indians and Afghans are successfully evacuated on an Indian Airforce C-17. Nausheen has missed out.\n\n\"I was told by others that it happened very quickly. They were taken back to the airport soon after they reached the safehouse. They had no time to inform me, and I got left behind. Now they all are inside the airport. I don't want to be harsh on myself for leaving the safehouse. We were mentally and physically drained.\"\n\nThe next day, the 22nd, Nausheen is contacted twice by the Ministry of External Affairs and her name is added to a new list of people to be evacuated. And on 23 August she is contacted by the ministry at 02:30 and told to reach at a particular location by 05:30.\n\nThe airport itself was chaos, as Afghans flooded it, desperate to flee\n\nAt 08:00, two minibuses, with a capacity of 21 seats each but carrying up to 80 passengers, reach the main gate of Hamid Karzai International airport. The scene outside is no better than before.\n\n\"A large number of people were still trying their luck. We saw the Taliban lashing people with whips. They were firing in the air. We were asked to keep all windows shut and curtains drawn. It was scary. There were Taliban members at the main gate, and we saw some even inside the main gate. We were brought further in and could see American soldiers. They were waving at us. Some Indian officials came to check our passports.\"\n\nIt's 11:20. Nausheen and the others are sitting on the tarmac waiting for an Indian aircraft to get permission from the Americans to land.\n\nAfter an hour she says she is inside a military aircraft heading to Tajikistan and her phone soon switches off.\n\nNausheen arrives at Delhi's Indira Gandhi international Airport at 09:40 India time on 24 August. It's been a hellish nine-day ordeal.\n\nI call her soon after she lands and say \"welcome home\".\n\n\"I don't know what to make of this. I'm here but my husband, my family are still in Afghanistan. It's only sinking in now what horror I've been through. While we were in Kabul, we didn't have a minute to think about all that was going on but once we landed in Dushanbe (Tajikistan), things started sinking in. I'm numb. I'm now praying that my husband and in-laws also get evacuated soon. Until then, I won't feel I'm home.\"", "Police said the attack happened at the Barry Sidings Countryside Park in Pontypridd\n\nA three-year-old child has been seriously hurt in a dog attack.\n\nPolice said a member of the public stepped in to help the child in the attack at Barry Sidings Countryside Park in Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, on Sunday afternoon.\n\nSouth Wales Police said the child was taken to hospital with serious but not life-threatening injuries.\n\nPolice have said the dog has been seized under the dangerous dogs act as officers investigate the incident.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Self-catered accommodation in the UK is costing on average 40% more than in the summer of 2019, according to consumer group Which?.\n\nIts analysis, with BBC Panorama, suggests holidaymakers are paying an average of £300 more per week in August compared to before the pandemic.\n\nBrighton is among the seaside resorts with soaring prices, with average rental costs almost doubling.\n\nThe data is from AirDNA, which monitors websites such as Airbnb and Vrbo.\n\nBBC News has approached Airbnb for comment. The company has previously claimed figures from third-party organisations can be misleading.\n\nWatch BBC Panorama: The Great British Staycation? at 19:30 BST on Wednesday on BBC One, or later on BBC iPlayer\n\nMore than 20 million Britons planned to holiday in the UK this year, according to research by market research company Opinium.\n\nThe average cost of one night of self-catered accommodation for two people in Brighton was £109 in 2019, but is now £206 - a rise of 89% - according to AirDNA's data.\n\nMeanwhile, stays in St Helier in Jersey increased by 76% on 2019, and Lyme Regis on the south coast jumped up 74%.\n\nCatherine Lane, who lets out six properties in Brighton, told BBC Panorama she put up some of her prices this year because her costs had risen considerably.\n\n\"Now we have to have cleaning and sanitation costs, which are much higher. We have to have time for the cleaners to disinfect the place,\" she said.\n\nShe said prices had gone up to meet the high demand, but added: \"A lot of pricing we don't have control over.\n\n\"If you're booking by third-party advertising website, they're putting commissions on the actual end price.\"\n\nHoliday booking site Vrbo told BBC Panorama it \"does not set, change or influence the property prices a host chooses\".\n\nWhich? also looked at how big the price difference can be between holidaying in the UK and travelling abroad - even when flights are factored in.\n\nIts research compared prices for late August getaways for two people in the UK and abroad, looking at the cheapest, highly-rated hotel available in a central location, as well as transport costs.\n\nFor a coastal break, it found a week in Brighton for £1,131, while a hotel in Nice in the south of France, which included flights, cost £1,085.\n\nElsewhere, a week in Lake Windermere in the England's Lake District cost £2,424, compared to just £802 for flights and accommodation for a week in Lake Garda in northern Italy.\n\nWhich? compared properties near Lake Windermere (left) and Lake Garda (right)\n\nWhich? travel editor Rory Boland said: \"We're not talking about £10, we're not talking about the cost of a meal out. We're talking… hundreds and hundreds of pounds.\"\n\nHe said the reason behind the differences in price wasn't just down to the pandemic.\n\n\"When we looked at it, accommodation prices in 2019 were more expensive in the UK than they were abroad. So this isn't a pandemic problem only, the pandemic has made it worse,\" Mr Boland added.\n\nWatch BBC Panorama: The Great British Staycation? at 19:30 BST on Wednesday on BBC One, or later on BBC iPlayer", "More than 82,000 people have been airlifted from Kabul since the Taliban gained control\n\nA number of nations say there is a high threat of a terrorist attack at Kabul airport and have warned their citizens not to travel there.\n\nAustralia, the US and UK have issued alerts to their citizens. Those already outside the airport are advised to leave the area immediately.\n\nMore than 82,000 people have been airlifted from Kabul, which fell to the Taliban 10 days ago.\n\nCountries are rushing to evacuate people by a 31 August deadline.\n\nThousands of people are still waiting inside and outside the airport, hoping to fly out of the country.\n\nThe Taliban have opposed extending the deadline but also promised to allow foreigners and Afghans to leave the country beyond 31 August, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.\n\nOn Thursday, Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Marise Payne, said: \"There is an ongoing and very high threat of a terrorist attack\".\n\nIt comes hours after the US State Department told those waiting at the Abbey Gate, East Gate or North Gate to \"leave immediately\".\n\nThe UK issued similar advice asking people there to \"move away to a safe location and await further advice\".\n\nThe Foreign Office said that the security situation in Afghanistan \"remains volatile\" adding that there was \"an ongoing and high threat of a terrorist attack\".\n\nNone of the countries gave any further information on the security threat.\n\nCountries are attempting to finish evacuations by the 31 August deadline\n\nIn a speech on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden said the US-controlled airlift would have to come to an end soon because of an increasing threat from the Islamic State group in Afghanistan.\n\nAbout 19,000 people have been evacuated on US-organised flights in the past 24 hours, Mr Blinken said on Wednesday, with airlifts stepped up in recent days amid scenes of chaos.\n\nHe said that the US was still on track to complete operations at Kabul airport by the end of the month.\n\n\"Only the United States could organise and execute a mission of this scale and this complexity,\" he told reporters in Washington.\n\n\"The Taliban have made public and private commitments to provide and permit safe passage for Americans, for third-country nationals and Afghans at risk past August 31st,\" he said.\n\nHe added that the US would help those who wanted to leave Afghanistan \"not just during the duration of our evacuation and relocation mission, but every day thereafter\".\n\nThe US is committed to getting as many Afghans as possible, Mr Blinken said\n\nUp to 1,500 US nationals could still be in the country and the administration was making exhaustive efforts to trace them, the secretary of state said.\n\nThe CIA and the US military have been carrying out clandestine operations to extract Americans using helicopters and ground troops, US and other officials have told the Wall Street Journal.\n\nThe perilous operations have been both inside and outside of Kabul, the paper says.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Tears on the tarmac as Afghan journalist Wahida Faizi speaks to the BBC's Lyse Doucet\n\nThe Pentagon has said 10,000 people are still waiting to be evacuated from Kabul airport by US aircraft. There are fears for thousands more Afghans who are desperate to leave but cannot reach the site.\n\nBBC correspondents say many of those being turned back by the Taliban at the airport gates appear to have travel papers.\n\nPresident Joe Biden tweeted that the US would \"do everything\" to \"provide safe evacuation\".\n\nThis 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 Joe Biden 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.\n\nThe UK said its evacuation operation was moving at \"significant pace\", with some 1,200 people flown out on Wednesday.\n\nForeign Secretary Dominic Raab said his government would use \"every hour and day that we've got left\" to fly British nationals and eligible Afghans out.\n\nKabul airport is currently being defended by 5,800 US and 1,000 British troops.", "Pen Farthing has rented a cargo plane to get the rescue animals out of the city\n\nThe UK says it will help evacuate staff and animals from a charity sanctuary in Afghanistan.\n\nPaul \"Pen\" Farthing had accused ministers of cutting him off after supporters funded a chartered plane.\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace now says that if Mr Farthing arrives at Kabul airport with his animals \"we will seek a slot for his plane\".\n\n\"If he does not have his animals with him he and his staff can board an RAF flight,\" he added on Twitter.\n\nRoyal Marine veteran Mr Farthing founded the Nowzad animal shelter, rescuing dogs, cats and donkeys after serving in Afghanistan in the mid-2000s.\n\nHe has said he would not leave the country without his staff or animals.\n\nOn Tuesday, Mr Wallace said he was not prepared to prioritise animals ahead of the evacuation of people \"in real danger\".\n\nHe said he couldn't push them through Taliban checks or crowds.\n\nVet Iain McGill told the BBC that a private flight funded by donations is on standby to rescue the group.\n\n\"The important thing about this mission is that it's a humanitarian mission. It is to rescue Pen Farthing, his 68 staff, and 130 other vulnerable Afghan people,\" Dr McGill said.\n\n\"It will also rescue over 150 cats and dogs, many of them belonging to UK servicemen and women. The important thing is that every seat on that plane will be filled on the flight back to the UK.\"\n\nThis 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 Rt. Hon Ben Wallace MP 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.\n\nMr Wallace said he had authorised the Ministry of Defence to facilitate the processing of Pen Farthing's staff to fly to the UK.\n\nHe added: \"I have been consistent all along, ensuring those most at risk are processed first and that the limiting factor has been flow THROUGH to airside NOT airplane capacity.\n\n\"No-one has the right in this humanitarian crisis to jump the queue.\"\n\nOn Tuesday, Mr Farthing had told Sky News that he had never asked for pets to be prioritised over people and was prepared to wait for the go-ahead for his own aircraft to take off.\n\n\"I've got absolutely no confirmation,\" he said and \"nothing in writing\" to prevent staff being stopped and turned around at a Taliban checkpoint.", "A man in his 20s has been shot in the leg in Newtownabbey, County Antrim.\n\nThe attack happened at Knockenagh Avenue at about 22:00 BST on Tuesday.\n\nDet Insp Kerry Brennan described it as a \"brutal attack\".\n\nShe said detectives were trying to establish a motive for the shooting.\n\n\"Those who are involved in these attacks do not represent the interests of this community, nor do they contribute anything to it,\" she said.\n\n\"They do it to try and exert influence or gain control of those they claim to represent.\"\n\nDetectives want anyone who has information about the attack to contact them on the non-emergency number 101.", "There is still time for firms to \"speak up and help\" Afghans being displaced by the current humanitarian crisis, the co-founder of AirBnB has said.\n\nIt comes after the accommodation platform promised to provide free temporary lodging for 20,000 refugees.\n\nRelatively few companies have offered help in the crisis so far, but Brian Chesky told the BBC he expected more would feel \"compelled\" to.\n\n\"I do think nearly every business can help in their own way,\" he said.\n\n\"And the time is now - it's not just helping, it's helping quickly because if people are displaced and need to be resettled, every hour counts.\"\n\nThe tech boss told the BBC the displacement of people fleeing the Taliban was \"the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time\".\n\nHowever, he could not say how long refugees would be able to stay with AirBnB hosts, only that it \"is really up to how long our hosts can house them and also the need\".\n\n\"Most of these people aren't looking for long-term housing, they're looking for a temporary housing before they decide where they want to live,\" he added.\n\n\"And there's a pretty extensive protocol to work with the settlement agencies to figure out where they actually want to start their lives... but you know I want to make sure we can go as big as possible for these people.\"\n\nSince Taliban militants took over Afghanistan, AirBnB has put up about 200 Afghan refugees in its listed properties, leading to questions about whether it will be able hit its 20,000 pledge.\n\nBut Mr Chesky said the firm had successfully offered homes to 225,000 frontline workers during the pandemic.\n\n\"We would have not made a public commitment I didn't think we could fulfil,\" he said.\n\nThe refugees will stay with AirBnB hosts all over the world and will be fully vetted by the firm's NGO partners, which include International Rescue Committee and Church World Service.\n\nThere have been security fears over the evacuation of Kabul after someone on the UK's no-fly list was flown into Birmingham over the weekend.\n\nMr Chesky urged potential hosts to embrace the opportunity, saying: \"When you take someone into your home sometimes you gain as much as the person you're providing housing for.\n\n\"There's just something about that experience that we've heard is one of the most meaningful experiences in people's lives, to be able to care for a family.\"", "The road was closed for more than seven hours following the collision\n\nA top eventer has spoken of his devastation after four horses died when the vehicle carrying them was struck by a lorry on the A9 near Perth.\n\nNick Gauntlett was heading to the Land Rover Blair Castle International Horse Trials at the time of the crash at about 14:45 on Tuesday.\n\nThe horse transporter had broken down when it was hit by the lorry.\n\nHis horse, Party Trick, died alongside three animals belonging to US-born eventer Sophie Hulme.\n\nPolice Scotland are investigating the circumstances of the crash and said two people were taken to hospital for treatment.\n\nNick Gauntlett, pictured here on a different horse, said he and his family were \"heartbroken\" over the horses' deaths\n\nMr Gauntlett, who is an international eventer and coach, is based in Chipping Sodbury, South Gloucestershire.\n\nParty Trick was born in 2012 and was both a competition horse and breeding stallion.\n\nWriting on Facebook, Mr Gauntlett said: \"My amazing family are fine and that is definitely the main thing.\n\n\"You don't need the details, but we lost all four horses on board. We are obviously all heartbroken.\"\n\nGloucestershire-based Ms Hulme, who was already at Blair Castle, said: \"I am so absolutely devastated and at a loss for words.\n\n\"Three of my lovely horses my precious babies are gone. Taken far too soon from this world.\n\n\"My world is completely upside down at the moment.\"", "The boss of supermarket Iceland says the supply chain chaos is getting worse, just as retailers start planning for the key Christmas period.\n\nRichard Walker told the BBC he estimated the UK's shortage of lorry drivers was now about 100,000, with the company itself about 100 short.\n\nTesco boss John Allan said \"there may be some shortages\", but people should not \"over-dramatise\" and panic-buy.\n\n\"It's very easy to make a drama out of a modest crisis,\" he told the BBC.\n\nThe continuing shortage of HGV drivers is starting to make retailers nervous, as they are about to start planning for the key trading period.\n\nThe government said there was a \"highly resilient\" food supply chain and it was taking measures to tackle the driver shortage.\n\nBut Mr Walker said: \"The reason for sounding the alarm now is that we've already had one Christmas cancelled at the last minute.\n\n\"I'd hate this one to be problematic as well,\" he added. \"We start to stock-build from September onwards for what is a hugely important time of year,\" he added.\n\n\"We've got a lot of goods to transport between now and Christmas and a strong supply chain is vital for everyone.\"\n\n\"The driver shortage is impacting the food supply chain on a daily basis and leading to shortages on the shelves,\" Mr Walker said.\n\n\"We've had deliveries cancelled for the first time since the pandemic began, about 30 to 40 deliveries a day.\"\n\nThe simple solution he said, was for heavy goods vehicle drivers to be added to the UK's skilled workers list, to help get drivers recruited from overseas.\n\n\"These men and women, these HGV drivers, have kept the show on the road for 18 months during the pandemic and it's criminal that we're not viewing them as skilled workers,\" he told the BBC.\n\nAsked if Brexit is responsible for the supply chain problems, Mr Walker responded: \"I think so, but it's a 'self-inflicted wound' rather than an inevitable consequence of Brexit, caused by the government's failure to appreciate the importance of HGV drivers and the work they do for us.\"\n\nTesco chairman Mr Allan echoed the warnings, but felt the situation was unlikely to develop into a crisis. \"There may be some shortages at Christmas, but I wouldn't want to overdramatise the extent to which that would be the case.\"\n\nHe said that normally, the supermarket industry would start building stocks now in readiness for Christmas, but \"at the moment we're running very hard just to keep on top of the existing demand and there isn't the capacity to build stocks that we would like to see\".\n\nHe said Tesco, like all its rivals, was \"very short of drivers\".\n\nFirms from a number of sectors in the UK have been battling with a supply chain crisis due to a shortage of lorry drivers.\n\nSteve Murrells, chief executive of the Co-operative Group, warned that current food shortages were \"at a worse level than at any time I have seen\".\n\nHe told the Times that the Co-op had significantly reduced its range of some products to help serve customers.\n\nMr Murrells said the disruption to supply had been driven by \"Brexit and issues caused by Covid\" and the firm was retraining staff as lorry drivers to help fill vacant roles.\n\nA government spokesperson said: \"We have a highly resilient food supply chain. We have well-established ways of working with the food sector and are working closely with them to ensure businesses have the labour they need.\n\n\"We have put in place a package of measures to tackle the HGV driver shortage. Additionally, our Plan for Jobs is helping people across the country retrain, build new skills and get back into work. As part of this, we are streamlining the process for people to get their HGV licence.\"\n\nTesco has been offering lorry drivers a £1,000 joining bonus amid a chronic shortage of drivers in the industry.\n\nOther companies are also understood to be offering similar incentives for HGV drivers after disruption to supply chains led to product shortages. Morrisons said it was working on schemes to train staff to become lorry drivers.\n\nOn Friday, Logistics UK, which represents freight firms, and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) wrote to the government to plead for new measures to alleviate the problem.\n\nProblems with shipping goods in from overseas could also hit Christmas, according to toy retailer boss Gary Grant.\n\nThe chairman of The Entertainer told the Mail Online that he had to contend with shortages of containers to bring goods in from Asia and a jump in shipping costs.\n\n\"What is unique to us is that Christmas is a fixed date, so we are under extreme pressure at the moment to move as much stock as we can, but are significantly behind with the shipment of products,\" he said.\n\n\"There's not a shortage of toys, but what will happen as when we get nearer to Christmas, the suppliers will not have back-up stock that we've previously relied upon. So the range of stock we have may be narrower.\"\n\nHe warned that popular toys such as Paw Patrol, Barbie and Rainbocorns could be in short supply.", "Police forces in England and Wales must be given clearer guidance about when they can use Tasers to control suspects, according to the police watchdog.\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has reviewed controversial cases of Taser use.\n\nIt found black people were more likely to face a Taser and some officers were not considering the risk of injury to vulnerable people.\n\nBut police chiefs say the IOPC report is vague and lacking in detail.\n\nThe National Police Chiefs Council said the IOPC report only looked at a fraction of Taser use.\n\nThe IOPC is warning that the use of Tasers risks losing its legitimacy in the eyes of the public if the concerns are not addressed.\n\nAnd it said Tasers have been used in \"unsafe locations or circumstances\", and too often to get suspects to do what the police are asking, rather than in response to a physical threat.\n\nThe report also raises concerns about the use of Tasers on children.\n\nThe IOPC's director, Michael Lockwood said: \"People from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds deserve a clear and transparent answer from police on why such disproportionality still exists - failure to address this risks undermining the legitimacy of policing.\"\n\nHome Office data shows large increases in Taser use, and greater numbers of officers being trained to use them. The number of incidents where they have been used doubled to around 32,000 in 2019/20.\n\nThe device also featured prominently in the recent court case of police officer Benjamin Monk, who was convicted of manslaughter when he kicked to death the former footballer Dalian Atkinson. This followed an \"excessive\" 33-second Taser deployment.\n\nThe inquest into the death of Marc Cole also found that a Taser played a part in his death.\n\nMr Cole died after suffering a cardiac arrest in 2017, following use of Taser for a total of 43 seconds. He had been experiencing a mental health crisis and was self-harming during the incident.\n\nMarc Cole was Tasered three times while behaving erratically after taking cocaine\n\nSome senior police officers are increasingly advocating that all officers should carry a Taser to protect them.\n\nThe report says: \"We found in some cases that officers failed to identify, and as a result failed to consider, how a person's vulnerabilities might affect their ability to understand and comply with instructions.\"\n\nIt also concludes: \"Taser should not be used merely to elicit compliance with instructions or procedures where there is no threat, or the threat has been substantially reduced to the point where it is no longer proportionate or necessary.\"\n\nFour inquests in recent years found that Tasers contributed to a person's death.\n\nThe report recommends senior police officers re-examine the types of situations where a Taser should not be used, in particular, when vulnerable people or children are involved.\n\nThe IOPC also wants police to consider how officers can further reduce the risk of using the devices, and reinforce that they should not be used to obtain compliance.\n\nThe College of Policing, which considers police policy, has been asked to examine the implications of the report with regard to race.\n\nAnother recommendation is that police create \"scrutiny panels\" to examine the use of Tasers, which should be independently chaired by members of the public and reflective of communities.\n\nBut the National Police Chiefs Council criticised the report. Chief Constable Luci D'Orsi said it \"regrettably ignores extensive pieces of work that are already well under way and, indeed, other areas where improvement could be made\".\n\nShe said she had advised the IOPC of her concerns.\n\nShe said: \"I am extremely disappointed that it did not engage with policing, attend a Taser training course or consult the national independent experts who we work with whilst undertaking its initial research.\"\n\n\"Only 101 Taser uses over a five year period were reviewed and these were all ones that had been investigated by the IOPC. It is concerning that this only represents 0.1 per cent of all Taser uses in the same period, which totals 94,045.\"\n\nThe police are able to use Tasers when they are faced with serious threat of violence and they consider that the use of the Taser is \"reasonable and proportionate\" to the threat they face.\n\nTasers were first authorised for use by police in 2004. In 2007 they began to be issued to non-firearms officers.\n\nTasers can be used to \"red dot\" a suspect, by pointing a laser sight at them, \"arced\" to show someone the capabilities of the weapon.\n\nThey can also be used to \"drive-stun\" a suspect by placing the Taser against their body, but this is no longer part of police training.\n\nWhen a Taser is fired a pair of probes attached to wires are ejected. The probes hit the subject and send a five second electrical discharge, incapacitating them.\n\nThe Taser stores data about when it is used and for how long, which can be examined in post-incident investigations. Tasers are discharged in around 11% of cases.", "Dr Anne McCloskey says she stands by her comments about the vaccines\n\nA Londonderry GP has been suspended for comments she made about the Covid-19 vaccination programme.\n\nDr Anne McCloskey, a former Aontú councillor, expressed concerns in a social media video about young people being given the Covid-19 vaccine.\n\nThe Health and Social Care Board (HSCB) said it was suspending Dr McCloskey \"as a precautionary measure while it undertakes a full investigation\".\n\nDr McCloskey cannot work for the health service during that time.\n\nThe HSCB said that suspension was \"not an automatic occurrence when undertaking an investigation\".\n\nIn the nine-minute video posted on Sunday, Dr McCloskey made a number of claims, including that there was not enough evidence that it was safe for young people to be vaccinated.\n\nDr McCloskey said she was \"distraught\" by the number of young people \"damaged\" by \"unlicensed and unapproved\" vaccines.\n\nShe said many young people had been \"coerced, bribed or bullied\" into being vaccinated and that vaccines were \"malevolent\".\n\nThere is no evidence to support Dr McCloskey's comments.\n\nHealth chiefs say the risk of becoming ill from Covid-19 is about 90% lower if you have been vaccinated.\n\nThe largest study of its kind has indicated that younger people gain more protection from being vaccinated than older people.\n\nThe HSCB ordered an investigation into Dr McCloskey after receiving complaints \"from both GP colleagues and members of the public around her behaviour, comments and conflict of interest\".\n\nThe board said it \"takes a very serious view of this\".\n\n\"Patients often turn to GPs as a source of medical advice and GPs must inspire confidence and trust in patients,\" said the board.\n\n\"We can confirm that the HSCB is carrying out an urgent investigation into the comments/views expressed by Dr McCloskey on social media and WUC is currently progressing with its own separate investigations and internal processes in relation to the matter.\"\n\nThe board said Dr McCloskey works on a sessional basis for Western Urgent Care, which is the organisation responsible for GP out-of-hours services in the western part of Northern Ireland.\n\n\"This means that she does not frequently work for the service,\" the board said.\n\nDr McCloskey says her views have been in the public domain since last March\n\nFoyle SDLP MLA Sinead McLaughlin said she had also lodged a complaint in relation to the video with the General Medical Council (GMC).\n\nThe GMC said it would \"examine any allegations to determine whether further action is required\".\n\n\"We expect doctors to justify trust in the profession and the spread of misinformation during the pandemic is a serious concern,\" said the GMC.\n\nDr McCloskey, who came out of retirement at the start of the pandemic, said her views had been in the public domain since last March when she first spoke out against lockdowns.\n\nShe said she was not anti-vaccination but that she was against the \"mandatory imposition of vaccines\" on young people.\n\nThe GP said she believed the investigations were revealed to the media before she had seen a private email informing her of the move.\n\nIn October, last year Dr McCloskey stood down from Derry City and Strabane District Council because of differences of opinion with her party Aontú over Stormont's handling of Covid-19.\n\nShe also stood down as the party's deputy leader.\n• None Covid vaccine safety - What we know", "Working women in Afghanistan must stay at home until proper systems are in place to ensure their safety, a Taliban spokesman has told reporters.\n\n\"It's a very temporary procedure,\" spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.\n\nThe Taliban, which enforced a strict version of Islamic law when they ran Afghanistan before 2001, retook full control of the country nine days ago.\n\nThe UN has highlighted \"credible\" reports of abuses by the Taliban, notably restrictions on women.\n\nUN Human Rights High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet said on Tuesday that women's rights were a \"fundamental red line\".\n\nIn his news conference in Kabul on Tuesday, the Taliban spokesman also addressed the US-led evacuation from the capital, Kabul.\n\nUS troops control Kabul airport from where some 58,700 people have been evacuated so far. Mr Mujahid reaffirmed the Taliban's position that the operation should end by 31 August.\n\nThousands of Afghans are desperate to reach Kabul airport while evacuations are continuing there\n\nOn the situation of Afghan women, he said that any restrictions would be short-lived.\n\n\"Our security forces are not trained (in) how to deal with women - how to speak to women (for) some of them,\" Mr Mujahid said. \"Until we have full security in place... we ask women to stay home.\"\n\nAs well as expressing concern over women's rights, Ms Bachelet also said she had received reports of the recruitment of child soldiers and summary executions by the Taliban.\n\nShe was speaking at an emergency meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Afterwards, the council endorsed a resolution affirming its \"unwavering commitment\" to the rights of women and girls.\n\nBut the resolution fell short of what many human rights groups had called for - in particular, it did not recommend the appointment of a special UN investigator for Afghanistan.\n\nSince their return to power, the militants have tried to convey a more restrained image, promising rights for women and girls and some freedom of speech.\n\nPresident Biden is holding talks with leaders of the other G7 leading industrial countries on Tuesday.\n\nThousands of people including British citizens, other foreign nationals and Afghans eligible for resettlement abroad are still waiting to get out.\n\nKhalid, an Afghan who worked as an interpreter for the British Army, told the BBC about his relief - tinged with sadness - at leaving the country. He and his family are now in the north of England.\n\n\"When you leave your country, your people, especially your sister, your brothers, your mother, your everyone… because of those things I was sad, but now I am happy in the UK,\" he said.\n\nEven before the Taliban retook control, more than 550,000 people had been forced to flee their homes this year due to fighting, according to the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency.\n\nMeanwhile, the head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) held a secret meeting in Kabul with Taliban founder Mullah Baradar, sources told US media.\n\nIf confirmed, it would be the highest-level meeting so far between the US and the Taliban since the fall of Kabul and the removal of the US-backed government.", "England v India: Brilliant hosts dominate first day of third Test Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nThird LV= Insurance Test, Emerald Headingley (day one of five) England produced a stunning all-round display to take complete control of the third Test against India on the first day at Headingley. In a complete turnaround from their miserable defeat in the second Test at Lord's, the home side dismissed India for only 78 and then serenely moved to 120-0, a lead of 42. They were led by the peerless James Anderson, who claimed 3-6, including India captain Virat Kohli, as England exploited the seam movement on offer. Craig Overton, in for the injured Mark Wood, also took three wickets, and both he and Sam Curran had the chance of a hat-trick after taking two wickets in two balls. India lost their last seven wickets for 22 runs, at one stage losing four wickets for no runs in the space of six balls. England's day was further improved by the 60 not out made by Haseeb Hameed, restored to open the batting in Test cricket for the first time since 2016. With Rory Burns moving to an unbeaten 52, England's opening partnership passed India's total to leave the hosts in a perfect position to level the five-match series at 1-1.\n• None Watch Today at the Test on BBC iPlayer England's complete performance was as impressive as it was unexpected, given the way India had the better of the first two Tests, particularly when the hosts capitulated at Lord's. Two years ago to the day, Ben Stokes' individual brilliance gave England one of their most famous victories of all-time when Australia were defeated on this ground. Now, with their talismanic all-rounder just one of a lengthy list of absentees, Joe Root's side collectively reversed the momentum in what could turn into a stellar series. Everything went their way from the moment Kohli won the toss and elected to bat, giving England an opportunity to bowl that otherwise only the bravest captain would have chosen. Overton justified his selection over Saqib Mahmood, England's catching was vastly improved, while Hameed vindicated his promotion in place of the discarded Dom Sibley. India, by contrast, were awful - their batting loose, bowling without venom and fielding scruffy. The past has shown us that even the longest odds can be overcome at Headingley - England won from being bowled out for 67 in Stokes' Test - and an India victory from here would rank alongside that incredible comeback. Root said he was not disappointed to lose the toss. It took Anderson only five deliveries to show why. KL Rahul was drawn into a needless drive and, soon after, Cheteshwar Pujara prodded at a beautiful outswinger. When Kohli was again seduced into playing away from his body, Anderson was at the centre of England's emotional celebrations. Collectively, England held their length to take advantage of the slight encouragement offered by the pitch. As Ollie Robinson had Ajinkya Rahane and Rishabh Pant either side of lunch to take wicketkeeper Jos Buttler to five catches, Rohit Sharma was stuck at the other end with only 18 from his first 100 balls. It was Rohit's demise that began the real carnage. Overton dragged back his length and a horrible pull was caught at mid-on. From the next ball, also shorter, Mohammed Shami fenced to third slip. In the next over, Ravindra Jadeja played across Curran to be leg before, while Jasprit Bumrah joined Shami in registering a golden duck, meaning both of the tailenders who engineered England's Lord's downfall were out first ball. When Mohammed Siraj guided to first slip Root to give Overton his third wicket, India were dismissed for their lowest total against England in 47 years. England's poor run of results - they are without a win in seven Tests - is largely down to batting fragility. The latest reshuffle has seen Dawid Malan recalled to bat at three and Hameed join Burns to form England's 18th different specialist opening pair in nine years. The result was England producing only their third opening stand of 100 or more since 2016 as Hameed and Burns made the previously tricky surface look docile. Hameed mixed solid front-foot defence with wristy clips and punchy cuts. His only error was an edge off Bumrah on 47, with Rohit's drop at second slip giving Hameed the boundary that took him to his first Test half-century on home soil. Left-hander Burns swatted Siraj for six over square leg and reached his own half-century just before the close as the Headingley crowd taunted India in the evening sunshine. By the end, England had laid the perfect platform for a huge first-innings total, and they will hope Malan can cash in on Thursday to add further success to their raft of changes. 'A perfect day for England' - what they said England bowler James Anderson on BBC Test Match Special: \"We had a really low week at Lord's, but we had a good few days off to let that pass. We came here hungry and ready to show fight. \"We did that with the ball - the whole attack did really well. Then the two guys with the bat showed so much skill and fight.\" Former England captain Michael Vaughan: \"It's been the perfect day. England have been exceptional. It was a magnificent performance by the bowlers. It is exactly what England needed. \"India batted appallingly considering the amount of talent that they have in their changing room. KL Rahul set the tone with a poor drive, Virat Kohli with a poor stroke, Rishabh Pant with a nothing stroke, Rohit Sharma with a half-hearted pull shot, Ravindra Jadeja just missing a full straight delivery.\" BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew: \"England haven't done anything wrong today. It's hard to imagine India having a worst day than this.\"\n• None 78 is India's third-lowest total against England - and their lowest since being bowled out for 42 at Lord's in 1974.\n• None It is India's third-lowest total after winning the toss and choosing to bat first against any side.\n• None England passed the opposition's total without losing a wicket for only the fifth time in Tests.\n• None An hour of music from the 23-time Grammy winner\n• None Why do good cops go bad?: The story of one America's most corrupt police squads", "Government plans to decarbonise homes are too complicated and confusing, according to a coalition of consumer and industry groups.\n\nThey've written to the prime minister to say that current schemes to adapt homes go wrong far too often.\n\nThe open letter, from Citizens Advice and others, calls for more financial support for making changes.\n\nOtherwise, they argue, efforts to curb emissions from millions of homes in the UK will be at risk.\n\nTackling energy use in the residential sector is seen as key to the government's aim of getting to net zero by 2050.\n\nNet zero involves reducing greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible and then balancing out any further releases by absorbing an equivalent amount from the atmosphere by, for example, planting trees.\n\nThe carbon generated by home heating amounts to about 20% of all UK emissions.\n\nBut the government's current efforts to help householders to adapt their homes are \"too complicated\", and too often things go wrong, say industry and consumer groups.\n\nTraditional gas boilers will need to be replaced if the UK is to hit net zero emissions by 2050\n\nThe coalition includes Citizens Advice, the Federation of Master Builders, the Aldersgate Group and Which?\n\nThey argue that the process of installing low-carbon heating, upgrading insulation or putting in smart technologies is \"time consuming, confusing and stressful\".\n\nThey cite the example of the Green Homes Grant, a scheme that was designed to help people insulate their homes.\n\nIt was scrapped in March this year after reaching just 10% of the houses that the government had promised would be improved.\n\nAccording to the coalition, simply choosing the right technology or finding a reputable installer demands huge amounts of time, knowledge and effort.\n\nFar too often, things go wrong with poor installation and technologies not working as expected.\n\nThe letter to the prime minister says there are three key concerns that need to be addressed to ensure that plans to decarbonise homes don't fail.\n\n\"Our evidence is clear. Right now, making green changes to homes is too confusing and too often things go wrong for those trying to do the right thing,\" said Dame Clare Moriarty, chief executive of Citizens Advice.\n\n\"The public is behind the net zero transition, but they need the right information and tools, particularly when it comes to adapting their home.\n\n\"By getting things right now, the government can give people the confidence to make changes and play their part in getting to net zero.\"\n\nA close up look at solar panels on a rooftop\n\n\"I think solar panels are a very good idea, especially for people who want to contribute to a cleaner environment.\"\n\nThat's the view of Michael, a homeowner in Liverpool who decided to ditch his gas heating for solar power a few years ago.\n\nAll went well until his roof began to leak and damaged the ceiling in a bedroom. The first time it happened, the fitter repaired the problem.\n\nWhen it happened again in the same spot, Michael found the company had gone out of business.\n\n\"This trader had not been properly checked, I don't think they had a necessary qualification to be to be installing solar panels.\"\n\nDespite an insurance scheme that was meant to help out in circumstances like this, Michael has been unable to get his roof fixed.\n\n\"There is no effective guarantee, no effective accountability and responsibility which should have been in place to stop all this happening,\" he said.\n\nIn response to the letter, a government spokesperson said: \"We are investing £1.3bn this year alone to support people to install energy efficiency measures in their homes, with upgrades to 50,000 low-income households already underway.\n\n\"Our Simple Energy Advice service offers clear information on what financial support is available for people to make home improvements so they can save money on their energy bills.\"\n\nIn a separate study, the National Housing Federation said that England's homes produce more carbon emissions every year than all the country's cars.\n\nThe Federation, which represents housing associations across England, says that the emissions from homes are so high because of gas central heating and poor insulation.", "OnlyFans has announced that it will delay making changes to policy on content creation, following a widespread backlash by its users.\n\nThe content subscription service announced plans last week to block sexually explicit photos and videos from October.\n\nOn Wednesday, it tweeted that it has \"suspended the planned 1 October policy change\".\n\nIt is currently unclear if the delay will be permanent.\n\nOnlyFans wrote on twitter that it would \"continue to provide a home for all creators\".\n\n\"Thank you to everyone for making your voices heard,\" said the company.\n\n\"We have secured assurances necessary to support our diverse creator community and have suspended the planned 1 October policy change.\n\n\"OnlyFans stands for inclusion and we will continue to provide a home for all creators.\"\n\nAnd in an email to its content creators, it said: \"The proposed 1 October 2021 changes are no longer required, due to banking partners' assurances that OnlyFans can support all genres of creators. \"OnlyFans is committed to providing a safe and dependable platform for all creators and their fans.\"\n\nOne OnlyFans creator, from London, welcomed the announcement but said those who had already found new homes for their content may still not return.\n\n\"So it is short-term good news for sex workers reliant on the platform - and I would like to see this as the start of increased support, celebration and championing of sex-worker rights by OnlyFans,\" he told BBC News.\n\n\"But I think there may well have been enough anxiety caused to see many models continuing the move to other platforms.\"\n\nOnlyFans makes its money by taking 20% of all payments made to its content creators.\n\nThe platform reported a 75% increase in new creators in May last year, during lockdown.\n\nWariness from investors was originally claimed to be the reason for last week's announcement.\n\nBut founder Tim Stokely blamed banks penalising the company for supporting sex workers.\n\n\"JPMorgan Chase is particularly aggressive in closing accounts of sex workers or... any business that supports sex workers,\" he told the Financial Times on Tuesday.\n\nBut a JPMorgan spokeswoman told BBC News it had \"no such policy\".\n\nIn June, a BBC News investigation found children had used fake ID to set up accounts on the site.\n\nAnd the children's commissioner for England said OnlyFans needed to do more to stop under-age users.\n\nIn response to the investigation, OnlyFans said it had closed the accounts flagged and refunded all active subscriptions.", "Lee Peacock, 49, was found on a canal barge near Ferrymead Avenue in Ealing\n\nA man wanted by police in connection with a double murder has been found with \"life-threatening\" injuries, believed to be self-inflicted.\n\nLee Peacock was discovered on Wednesday evening by Met Police officers who had been called to a canal barge in Ealing.\n\nOfficers said they were confident the injured man was the 49-year-old being sought over the deaths of two people in central London on 19 August.\n\nMr Peacock is in a critical condition in hospital.\n\nClinton Ashmore and Sharon Pickles were fatally stabbed within hours of each other\n\nSharon Pickles, 45, and Clinton Ashmore, 59, were discovered fatally stabbed in Westminster last week.\n\nBoth had been stabbed in the neck.\n\nPolice believe the two killings are linked and that Mr Peacock knew both the victims.\n\nThe Met's Directorate of Professional Standards has been informed and the incident has been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct who have indicated that they will be conducting an independent investigation.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Tottenham\n\nEngland captain Harry Kane says he will be \"staying at Tottenham this summer\" and is \"100% focused on helping the team achieve success\".\n\nManchester City were keen to sign Kane, who believed he had a gentleman's agreement with chairman Daniel Levy to leave Spurs this summer.\n\nBut Levy has refused to enter into negotiations for the striker, 28.\n\nKane played his first game of the season on Sunday, coming on as a substitute in the 1-0 win over Wolves.\n\n\"It was incredible to see the reception from the Spurs fans on Sunday and to read some of the messages of support I've had in the last few weeks,\" he wrote in a social media post on Wednesday,\n\n\"I will be staying at Tottenham this summer and will be 100% focused on helping the team achieve success.\"\n\nSpurs boss Nuno Espirito Santo said it was \"fantastic news\" to see Kane's immediate future resolved.\n\n\"I think since Harry joined us he has been working so this is what we value. His attitude in training has been excellent,\" said the Portuguese.\n\n\"It's finished, Harry is going to be with us.\"\n\nAsked whether he was concerned about the word \"summer\" in Kane's statement, and if the issue was likely to arise again in the January transfer window, Nuno replied: \"I'm not worried at all. It's day by day.\n\n\"He's an option for tomorrow. This is the only thing and is my only thought, trying to make the best decisions to help the team and Harry is one of the options for tomorrow.\"\n\nTottenham face Pacos de Ferreira in the Europa Conference League play-offs on Thursday, looking to overcome a 1-0 away defeat in the first leg last week.\n\n\"He is an option. It is great news for everybody,\" added Nuno.\n\n\"We are all very happy. [He is] one of the best players in the world. Delighted to have one more option for the season ahead of us.\"\n\nKane, whose contract at Spurs runs to 2024, has reaffirmed his commitment to the club just six days before the transfer window closes on 31 August.\n\nThe transfer saga has dominated the summer after he was first linked with City in May, with Tottenham left reeling by reports Kane wanted to leave.\n\nAs speculation around his future increased, the club issued a statement saying: \"Our focus is on finishing the season as strongly as possible. That's what everyone should be focused on.\"\n\nDays later he said he wanted a \"a good, honest conversation\" with Levy about his future.\n\nAfter England lost in the Euro 2020 final to Italy, there were reports a £160m deal had been agreed with City - which had always been Kane's preferred destination if he left north London.\n\nBut sources told the BBC City would not be willing to pay that much.\n\nThen at the beginning of August, Kane, who has been on an extended holiday after Euro 2020, did not turn up as scheduled at the training ground for his coronavirus tests.\n\nLater that week, he released a statement saying he \"never refused to train\" and would return to the club as planned.\n\nCity boss Pep Guardiola confirmed City's interest on 6 August, but added: \"If Spurs don't want to negotiate then there is nothing more to say.\"\n\nKane missed the first two games of the season, a 1-0 win over City in the Premier League and a Europa Conference League defeat away to Pacos de Ferreira.\n\nAnalysis - Levy gets his way\n\nHarry Kane was right to mention Tottenham's supporters in his statement.\n\nTheir reaction to his introduction at Wolves on Sunday was crucial in determining how this summer's longest-running transfer saga played out.\n\nLevy was determined to hold Kane to his contract, which still has three years to run.\n\nYet Levy would have had a tough call to make if keeping Kane meant opposing his own fans.\n\nBut by proclaiming Kane as \"one of our own\" at Molineux, the Tottenham fans signalled their willingness to forget the England skipper's barely concealed desire to leave.\n\nThe can may just be being kicked down the road to subsequent transfer windows of course. After all, Kane is unlikely to become less ambitious over time.\n\nBut for now, Tottenham's world-class striker stays where he is. Levy has got his way again.\n\nAnd while the news is a blow for Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola, it could hardly be argued the Blues are now in a position of weakness.\n\nThe £100m arrival of Jack Grealish has strengthened what was already the strongest squad in England and Guardiola has already proved adept at improving players, so more can be expected of last summer's signing Ferran Torres.\n\nThe word from the City camp is that they still feel in a very strong position to compete.\n• None Our coverage of Tottenham Hotspur is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything Spurs - go straight to all the best content", "The South West, including Cornwall, has seen a recent spike in Covid-19 cases\n\nCovid-19 cases in the south-west of England are \"by far\" the highest among 15-24 year olds, according to Public Health England (PHE).\n\nProf Mike Wade, deputy regional director, said this age bracket had 1,700 cases per 100,000.\n\nHe said there had also been an increase among those aged 60 and over.\n\nThe latest PHE figures show the South West has a rate of 461 cases per 100,000 - the highest rate across the English regions.\n\nProf Wade said while there had been \"small increases\" in the number of people in hospital with Covid-19 in the South West, Covid-related deaths remained low.\n\nHe said that an increase in cases among the over 60s was \"natural\" as this age group began to \"engage more in hospitality and entertainment\".\n\nSpeaking at a briefing on Wednesday afternoon, he said the latest figures showed just over 5,000 cases could possibly be linked to the Boardmasters festival held in Newquay - an increase from 4,700 on Monday.\n\nHe said despite the rise, there was \"no real basis\" for large-scale events not to continue, \"provided authorities are engaging effectively with the event organisers and mitigations are being put in place\".\n\nBoardmasters festival was held at Watergate Bay in Cornwall and was headlined by Gorillaz, Jorja Smith and Foals\n\nPHE also warned that it expected to see a high influx of visitors to the South West during the bank holiday weekend.\n\n\"Covid-19 has not gone on holiday,\" Prof Wade said.\n\n\"Day trippers and holidaymakers need to protect themselves and others from Covid-19.\"\n\nHe reiterated words of caution from head of Visit Cornwall Malcolm Bell, warning visitors to ensure they had pre-booked plans and to take a lateral flow test before travelling.\n\nCovid cases across the South West have seen a recent surge; in Cornwall there are 804 cases per 100,000 people, double the previous week's figure.\n\nIn Devon, West Devon has the highest rate of cases at 729 per 100,000 people in the seven days up to and including 21 August.\n\nIn Somerset, Sedgemoor has recorded some of the highest rates in England in the last week.\n\nPublic health officials said low levels of natural immunity in unvaccinated residents could be partly to blame for the escalating figures.\n\nAnya Dawson and Lucy Holt said they were not going to give up their summer holiday\n\nFriends Anya Dawson and Lucy Holt from Wiltshire said they still wanted to holiday in St Ives in Cornwall despite the rising cases.\n\n\"We're spending more time away from the crowds but we're not avoiding anything,\" they said.\n\n\"We still wanted to get away and enjoy our summer.\"\n\nLiv Ward from Dorset said she came to get away from the crowds but was shocked to see a busy St Ives.\n\n\"I feel as if you're outside enough then maybe you can get away with it but lack of social distancing and stuff is concerning.\n\n\"But I think people just want to have a good time.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Northern Ireland households and businesses are facing substantially higher gas bills this winter, the Utility Regulator has warned.\n\nJohn French said \"unprecedented\" increases in international wholesale prices were to blame.\n\nWholesale energy costs make up about half of gas and electricity bills.\n\nMr French said consumer gas prices would increase in September, but electricity prices would not be affected until next year.\n\nHe suggested gas bills could increase by more than £100 a year.\n\nHe said: \"It is likely that tariffs will increase from the current average household bill of about £515 per year, to be closer aligned with the average gas bills in GB (£625) and the Republic (£782).\n\nThe Fuel Poverty Coalition group said it was concerned about the possibility of many households being \"at risk of fuel poverty this winter\".\n\nIt highlighted that this is most common among older people, households with babies and young children, adults with disabilities and people living with long-term health conditions.\n\nIts chairperson, Pat Austin, advised consumers to take early \"practical steps\", such as making \"energy efficiency improvements or budgeting a little extra if they can each week to help cover the increased cost\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRaymond Gormley, head of energy at the Consumer Council, said people should \"seek help\" when they need it.\n\n\"While not practical for everyone, it is advisable to try to keep an energy budget aside for the coming winter,\" he added.\n\nElectricity prices have already increased this year.\n\nFor example, the regulated provider Power NI increased its tariffs by almost 7% in July with other providers increasing prices by up to 20%.\n\nMr French said he did not expect the regulated price to increase further this year.\n\nHowever, the picture is more uncertain next year and the higher gas prices could potentially feed through into higher electricity prices.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Joan Lawrence says \"every single day is a nightmare\" since her daughter's disappearance\n\nThe mother of missing Claudia Lawrence has said she is in \"utter shock\" and \"very, very churned up\" about a new police search for her daughter.\n\nA popular fishing spot near York is being searched by police investigating the suspected murder of Ms Lawrence.\n\nThe 35-year-old's disappearance has remained a mystery since she failed to turn up for work at the University of York in March 2009.\n\nJoan Lawrence said \"every single day is a nightmare\" since Claudia disappeared.\n\n\"It's so much to take in in a short time and nothing seems to happen for a long, long time then everything came together and I haven't had time to really digest it,\" she told the BBC.\n\nNorth Yorkshire Police said its latest search at Sand Hutton gravel pits, about eight miles (13km) outside York, was expected to take a number of days.\n\nThe force said it could not disclose what had led officers to the location.\n\nMrs Lawrence said she had been told the search could take days or even several weeks.\n\n\"You are frightened what they are going to find, you wonder what has led up to it, you wonder if some information has come in.\"\n\nShe said her biggest fear was what the police might find.\n\n\"Because I've always had hope, haven't I?\n\n\"They would not be going to all this trouble and expense for nothing. There must be something, something has triggered it off from somewhere.\"\n\nThe search is expected to last a number of days, police said\n\nUniversity chef Ms Lawrence was last seen at 15.05 on Wednesday 18 March walking towards her home on Heworth Road.\n\nLater that evening she spoke to both her parents, Joan and Peter Lawrence, by phone, but the following day failed to arrive for her job at Goodricke College.\n\nA friend who became concerned when she failed to meet at a local pub that evening contacted Ms Lawrence's father, who reported her missing on 20 March.\n\nPeter Lawrence, died earlier this year without knowing what happened to his daughter.\n\nPeter Lawrence, seen here on the 10th anniversary of his daughter's disappearance, died in February\n\nMrs Lawrence said the search was \"very personal\" as it was \"about me and a daughter I haven't seen for 12 years, every single day is a nightmare\".\n\nShe credited her faith with giving her \"the courage and strength to get through\" the ordeal, and said: \"I wouldn't be here without it\".\n\n\"I've prayed daily for answers, even if they are bad, I've prayed daily for something, and I know it will come.\"\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.", "New GP guidance says regular blood tests should be staggered if clinically safe\n\nFamily GPs are being told to \"ration\" non-essential blood analysis due to a test tube shortage.\n\nThe vials used to collect samples to be sent to labs for testing are made in the US.\n\nBD, which makes the vials for the NHS across the UK, has warned of serious supply chain issues due to the pandemic and transportation issues.\n\nNHS Wales has issued guidelines which include a temporary pause of a number of blood tests.\n\nThe Aneurin Bevan Health Board has written to GPs in its area telling them to halve the number of blood tests they carry out.\n\n\"It's not something I've come across before,\" said one GP, who didn't want to be named.\n\nTheir surgery has had to postpone routine blood tests for patients who usually have an annual medication or chronic disease review.\n\nThey will continue at the moment for patients who clinically need them.\n\n\"Until the bottles run out, we will continue to carry out blood tests for those who clinically need them,\" the doctor said.\n\nBD said the shortage was being driven by the need for the tubes for testing Covid patients as well as routine testing for procedures that had been delayed due to the pandemic.\n\nIt said it was also facing \"transportation challenges that have affected all industries, including port and transport capacity, air freight capacity and UK border challenges\".\n\nIt is manufacturing at optimal levels to improve supply availability and has invested in manufacturing capacity expansion, it added.\n\nWales' Health Minister Eluned Morgan said the new clinical guidance was to preserve supplies for urgent cases.\n\n\"Patient safety remains the priority, and a test would only be delayed if the NHS have assessed it is clinically safe to do so,\" she said.\n\n\"People who require urgent care should continue to seek it as normal.\"\n\nHealth Minister Eluned Morgan said the new clinical guidance was to preserve supplies for urgent cases\n\nThe new guidance says GPs can \"reduce non-essential testing\" including vitamin D testing, and deferring routine infertility testing unless the patient is over 35.\n\nIt says allergy testing is \"not a priority at this time unless there is clinical need\" and routine wellness screening is \"not a priority\".\n\nNHS England has temporarily stopped some screening for infertility, pre-diabetes and allergies.\n\nThe new GP guidance says regular blood tests should be staggered if clinically safe and general practices in Wales have been advised to not stockpile vials.\n\nThey have also been told to not carry out blood tests at the surgery if patients are being referred on to hospital for further treatment.\n\nTests for patients at immediate high risk will be prioritised for the next three months.\n\nThis includes patients with conditions where tests might affect how it is treated.\n\nBMA Cymru, which represents doctors, has worked with the Welsh government and NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership on guidance on how to conserve supplies.\n\nIt is worried about balancing the effect of the shortage with the patients' needs and that it could lead to a backlog of cases after the pandemic.\n\nBMA Cymru worked with the Welsh government on guidance on how to conserve supplies\n\nBMA Cymru chairman, Dr David Bailey, said \"We've got a massive shortage across the UK for the next two or three months.\n\n\"We rely on these bottles for almost all of the blood tests that we do for patients, both in general practice and in hospitals, so we're going to have to ration them essentially.\n\n\"Patient care will be impacted and while we hope that impact will be minimal, we're coming out of a massive pandemic and have a big backlog of work.\n\n\"The very last thing we need is to push more work down the line, because we haven't actually got the tools to do the job.\"\n\nDiabetes Cymru's Joshua James said blood tests were \"essential\" in diagnosing type 2 diabetes.\n\nHe said: \"It is very important that those previously identified by their GP as being at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes receive their annual checks, including checking their blood glucose levels, and do not fall through the cracks due to a logistical issue.\"\n\nNHS Wales said it and the Welsh government were working closely with other nations to source alternatives to affected products.", "Sharon Graham would be Unite's first female leader\n\nSharon Graham looks set to become the first female leader of the Unite union, taking over from Len McCluskey.\n\nThe head of the union's organisation department was not Mr McCluskey's preferred choice.\n\nHe had backed Steve Turner, an assistant general secretary of the union who had run his previous campaigns for general secretary.\n\nBut in a text message to supporters this evening, Mr Turner - once seen as the favourite - appeared to concede.\n\nHe said: \"It appears Sharon has got it! Sorry it didn't work out for us.\n\n\"Thanks for everything and we will make the formal announcement tomorrow.\"\n\nGerard Coyne, the candidate seen as most sympathetic to Sir Keir Starmer, seems set to come third.\n\nInsiders are estimating that Ms Graham could have a majority of around 6,000 votes over Mr Turner, with Mr Coyne narrowly behind.\n\nThe health warning is that the formal vote count only gets under way on Wednesday.\n\nBut after ballots had been sorted in to respective piles, and extensively \"sampled\" to check for discrepancies, members of all three campaign teams that spoke to the BBC tonight expected a victory for Ms Graham.\n\nA fourth candidate, Howard Beckett, pulled out earlier in the contest and threw his support behind Mr Turner.\n\nUnite is the Labour Party's biggest trade union funder and, under Mr McCluskey, it strongly backed Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader.\n\nMr McCluskey has been very critical of Sir Keir's tenure and has funded legal challenges to the party over suspensions and expulsions.\n\nAlthough also on the Left, Ms Graham campaigned on putting more emphasis on the workplace, and far less on Westminster politics.\n\nThose who know her say she has little interest in Labour's internal wrangling.\n\nWhile Labour sources say they are relaxed about her expected win, she may still give them anxious moments.\n\nThe union gave the party £3m in the run up to the 2019 election, but when I previously interviewed Ms Graham she said she wanted to see \"payment by results\".\n\nWhile she did not campaign explicitly on reducing contributions to Labour, she did say she would not give the party \"a blank cheque\".\n\nAnd party and union could soon be at loggerheads over job cuts at Labour's HQ.\n\nBut it may be employers rather than Labour leaders who have the most to fear from her leadership.\n\nShe told the BBC: \"Unashamedly, I am talking about jobs, pay and conditions as the number one, number two and number three priorities of the organisation.\"\n\nShe said she often gets involved in industrial disputes when they turn hostile, and puts some of her victories down to what is called \"leverage\", meaning applying pressure on multi-national companies to resolve sometimes local problems.\n\nFor example, to help settle a dispute at a bus company in England she brought its behaviour to the notice of the Swedish government, putting the awarding of a potentially lucrative contract there at risk.\n\nHer likely victory was welcomed by left-wing campaign group Momentum, which praised \"the use of leverage to take on bad bosses\".\n\nHer \"back to the workplace\" message may have eaten in to some of Mr Coyne's support, as he also campaigned on less meddling in Labour's internal affairs.\n\nAnd with turnout expected to be even lower than the 12.2% achieved in the 2017 contest, those who are most active in the union are most likely to have voted.\n\nAnd many of them may have had direct experience of successful disputes led by Ms Graham.\n\nHer supporters say she is on the verge of a \"historic\" win.\n\nA spokesman for her campaign said: \"She has fought against the odds and triumphed. We were told she was a no-hoper, now it looks she has won.\n\n\"Unite workers have come behind her banner. It's time Unite went back to what it says on the trade union tin - fighting relentlessly for jobs, pay and conditions.\"\n\nLast year, another huge union, Unison, elected its first female leader, Christine McAnea.\n\nThere is certainly a change in style at the top of the union movement but it looks like there could also be a change of substance as Mr McCluskey's 11 year tenure at the top of Unite draws to a close.", "A popular fishing spot is being searched by police investigating the suspected murder of Claudia Lawrence.\n\nThe 35-year-old's disappearance has remained a mystery since she failed to turn up for work at the University of York in March 2009.\n\nNorth Yorkshire Police said its latest search at Sand Hutton gravel pits, about eight miles (13km) outside York, was expected to take a number of days.\n\nThe force said it could not disclose what had led officers to the location.\n\nDet Supt Wayne Fox, who took over as senior investigating officer in the case earlier this year, said teams of specialist officers, including underwater search teams, would spend several days at the site.\n\nHe said the searches were among \"several active lines of inquiry\" being pursued amid efforts to establish what happened to Claudia and \"identify any person responsible for causing her harm\".\n\nMs Lawrence's family had been notified about the search, he added.\n\nThe former gravel pits at Sand Hutton sit to the north-east of York, close to the busy A64.\n\nPopular with anglers, the site is believed to have been used as fishing ponds since the late 1960s.\n\nPolice cordoned off a large section of woodland surrounding the waters on Tuesday as officers searched undergrowth along a public bridleway which runs through the area.\n\nThe search is expected to last a number of days, police said\n\nUniversity chef Ms Lawrence was last seen at 15.05 on Wednesday 18 March walking towards her home on Heworth Road.\n\nLater that evening she spoke to both her parents, Joan and Peter Lawrence, by phone, but the following day failed to arrive for her job at Goodricke College.\n\nA friend who became concerned when she failed to meet at a local pub that evening contacted Ms Lawrence's father, who reported her missing on 20 March.\n\nThe Sand Hutton gravel pits lie in woodland north-east of York\n\nIn April 2009, police confirmed they were treating her disappearance as a case of suspected murder.\n\nNine people have been questioned in connection with her disappearance, but no charges have ever been brought.\n\nNorth Yorkshire Police said the investigation had been difficult because Ms Lawrence did not use social media or own a smartphone.\n\nThe force scaled back its investigation in 2017, however it said it would investigate any fresh lead or evidence in the case.\n\nPeter Lawrence, seen here on the 10th anniversary of his daughter's disappearance, died in February\n\nMs Lawrence's father, Peter, died in February without finding out what had happened to his daughter.\n\nThe 74-year-old had lobbied for a change in the law, which came into force in 2019, to allow relatives to take control of their missing loved ones' financial affairs.\n\nMr Lawrence was appointed an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2018 in recognition of his campaigning.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here.\n\nThe 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. Extinction Rebellion protesters have erected a structure in the centre of Oxford Circus\n\nNearly 200 people have been arrested at Extinction Rebellion demonstrations in London over the past four days.\n\nOn Wednesday, the climate change protesters blocked off roads near Oxford Circus, glued themselves to a giant table and formed a human chain around the area cordoned off by police.\n\nDozens were carried to police vans by officers who used loudspeakers to warn the crowd to leave or risk arrest.\n\nAt least 10,000 people congregated near the rallies since they began on Sunday.\n\nCurrently, 196 people have been arrested on suspicion of a variety of offences.\n\nThe Brazilian embassy, Piccadilly Circus and the Department for International Trade (DIT) were also targeted, with thousands listening to speeches and parading through the streets.\n\nThe group gave the DIT a mock award for \"making an outstandingly awful contribution to climate change\" and the embassy gathering was \"to show solidarity with indigenous people in the Amazon rainforest\".\n\nThe table, which had previously been erected in Seven Dials, represents an invitation to \"come to the table\" for discussions about fossil fuel. Chairs were left empty to represent an invitation to all those who identify as female, nonbinary or trans.\n\nJust after 14:00 BST about 50 female protestors converged on the road junction at the centre of Oxford Circus.\n\nA van drew up, the back doors were flung open, and women began to unload what looked like giant pieces of pink Lego.\n\nQuickly they began to assemble these in the middle of the road.\n\nAt the same time, 30 or so women formed a circle and superglued their hands together.\n\nOthers lay down in the road and padlocked themselves together with locks inside steel tubes.\n\nThe idea is to make it as difficult and as time consuming as possible for the police to dismantle the protest.\n\nWithin minutes, dozens of police officers arrived, charging into the middle of the group amid screams from the protesters.\n\nAnd the now familiar stand-off began, with police gradually tightening their cordons until - probably early tomorrow morning - they will go in and clear the remaining protesters from the streets.\n\nThe demonstrations are planned to continue next week\n\nThe demonstrations are planned to continue next week, when the activists will protest against the links between \"big finance, fossil fuels and the fossil of politics that is Westminster\".\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A US flag is seen posted in the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York, two days after the attack there Image caption: A US flag is seen posted in the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York, two days after the attack there\n\nThe BBC is covering the 20th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US, which led to the 20-year conflict in Afghanistan.\n\nThis is the story of Chris Cruz, who explains in an interview to BBC's OS programme why he decided to join the US army.\n\n\"My mother was heading to work on a normal 11 September day. As soon as she exited the subway, she was told to start running as the buildings were coming down. She literally saw them coming down and described people jumping out of the windows,\" says Chris.\n\n\"When she finally made it home, I - as an 11-year-old boy at the time - had to tell her that she had burn marks and blood spots on the back of her legs. She was in a state of shock.\n\n\"As I grew up, I realised... I had the ability to be part of an organisation that could defend and prevent these atrocities for all Americans.\n\n\"9/11 played a role, but not in a way of revenge. I didn't want to join out of bloodlust. I served two tours in Afghanistan. Both of those times I volunteered to go.\n\n\"I don't think our mission would have succeeded without our Afghan partners. I agree we couldn't be there forever, but we made a promise to keep our partners safe and that we wouldn't turn our backs on them, and that's exactly what we've done.\"\n\nChris adds: \"I do think the way we pulled out, the way we left it, was completely wrong. There needed to be a better exit strategy.\"", "Neither side would confirm the reports that William Burns (L) met Mullah Baradar (R) on Monday\n\nThe head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) secretly met the leader of the Taliban in Kabul on Monday, sources have told US media.\n\nNeither the Taliban nor the CIA would confirm the reported meeting between William Burns and Mullah Baradar.\n\nUS President Joe Biden has set a deadline of 31 August for American forces to leave Afghanistan. Allies - including the UK - want an extension.\n\nUS forces have been in Afghanistan since 2001, following the 9/11 attacks.\n\nSources have told US news outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Associated Press and broadcaster NPR about the CIA-Taliban meeting.\n\nHowever, they gave few details.\n\nIf confirmed, this would be the highest-level contact between the US and the Taliban since the militants took Kabul on 15 August, prompting the internationally backed Afghan government to flee.\n\nAbout 5,800 US troops are currently guarding Kabul airport as thousands of foreign nationals and Afghans try to leave the country.\n\nThe Washington Post says the discussions are likely to have involved the deadline for the US military to conclude its airlift.\n\nAlso on Tuesday, the Taliban said no more Afghans would be allowed to leave the country, nor would the deadline for the US withdrawal be extended.\n\nMullah Baradar is one of the four men who founded the Taliban in 1994. He was captured in a US-Pakistani operation in 2010 and spent eight years in prison.\n\nSince 2019, he has been the head of the Taliban political office in Qatar. In February 2020, he signed the Doha agreement on the withdrawal of US and Nato troops.\n\nHe was also the first Taliban leader to communicate directly with a US president, after having a telephone conversation with Donald Trump in 2020.", "Humza Yousaf and his wife Nadia El-Nakla allege their daughter was discriminated against\n\nCourt action is to be taken against a nursery over claims it discriminated against the wife and daughter of Scotland's health secretary.\n\nHumza Yousaf and his wife Nadia El-Nakla said Little Scholars in Broughty Ferry said it had no availability after applying for two-year-old Amal.\n\nThey said applications submitted by friends and family for \"white Scottish-sounding names\" were accepted.\n\nThe nursery denies the claim, saying it welcomes children from all backgrounds.\n\nMr Yousaf and Ms El-Nakla previously reported the nursery to the Care Inspectorate but also instructed a solicitor to initiate legal proceedings unless Little Scholars apologised and made a donation to an anti-racism charity within two weeks.\n\nThat deadline has now passed with the nursery continuing to deny the allegation - and Ms El-Nakla is proceeding with the action at Dundee Sheriff Court.\n\nA statement from their solicitor, Aamer Anwar, said: \"On Monday August 9 2021, a claim was intimated on the Little Scholars Day Nursery, Broughty Ferry, Dundee, for a breach of the Equality Act 2010, in respect of alleged discrimination suffered by Nadia El-Nakla and her daughter, Amal Yousaf.\n\n\"We received a response from those acting for the nursery on Monday August 23 2021.\n\n\"This response refutes that there has been any discriminatory behaviour, but fails to provide a reasoned explanation as to why there were repeated refusals to accommodate children with Muslim/minority ethnic names, whilst at the same time children with white/Scottish names were offered nursery places.\n\n\"This is all despite the fact that other bodies including the Care Inspectorate and the Equality and Human Rights Commission have expressed an interest in this case.\n\n\"Under the circumstances, Nadia El-Nakla has no option but to proceed with court action against the nursery.\"\n\nThe nursery has denied allegations of discrimination\n\nLittle Scholars said previously that it had regularly welcomed children and staff from a range of backgrounds \"including two Muslim families currently\" and that its owners were themselves of Asian heritage.\n\nA spokesman for the nursery said: \"A full and detailed response to the allegations made by Humza Yousaf and Nadia El-Nakla has now been provided to his legal representatives. We abhor discrimination in all its forms and it is not and would not be tolerated at the nursery.\n\n\"We refute the claims made by Mr Yousaf and Ms El-Nakla and any proceedings raised will be robustly defended.\"", "A tunnel could be built under the Irish Sea stretching from Portpatrick in Scotland\n\nDominic Cummings has described it as \"the world's most stupid tunnel to Ireland\".\n\nMany others agree with the prime minister's former chief adviser, that Boris Johnson's tunnel vision is a bit of a joke, pie in the sky, a vanity project.\n\nBut another of Mr Johnson's former aides, Guto Harri, thinks that the idea shouldn't be dismissed entirely.\n\nMr Harri said Mr Johnson has \"serious intent\".\n\n\"He wants to maintain the union and he wants to persuade the rest of the world that we're still big players and can build big things - and what would be bigger than a tunnel under the Irish Sea, linking Scotland and Northern Ireland?\" he said.\n\nMr Harri has been interviewed for Boris's Tunnel Vision, a documentary co-production for BBC Radio Ulster and Radio Scotland.\n\nHe was Boris Johnson's communications director for four years when the now prime minister was Mayor of London and he remembers how enthusiastic Mr Johnson was about a proposal to build a third London Airport in the Thames Estuary.\n\n\"I remember him ringing up a Tory MP in the House of Commons and singing Dolly Parton's 'Islands in the Stream. that is what we are' down the phone to him,\" he said.\n\nGuto Harri is a former GB News and BBC journalist, as well as a former advisor to Boris Johnson when he was Mayor of London\n\n\"He made it look as if it was a joke, but he was very serious.\"\n\nIn the end, Mr Harri said, a lack of finance and authority forced Mr Johnson to abandon his floating airport project.\n\nJust 12 miles separate Ireland and Scotland at the closest point - cultural and trade links go back centuries and ideas about a fixed link between the two countries have been put forward occasionally since the late 1800s.\n\nIt's a stormy stretch of water and there's the small matter of thousands of tonnes of World War Two munitions dumped in the Beaufort Dyke, a deep trench which runs down the middle of the Irish Sea.\n\nNevertheless, Boris Johnson has asked Sir Peter Hendy, the Network Rail Chairman, to include the idea of an Irish Sea fixed link in his major review of the UK's road, rail and air infrastructure.\n\nPortpatrick would be the proposed Scottish terminus of the tunnel\n\nIt's due to be published in the next few weeks.\n\nScottish architect, Prof Alan Dunlop, is one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the prime minister's plan.\n\nHe has drawn up his own design, modelled on the 650-mile Norwegian Coastal Highway, currently under construction, which will consist of a series of bridges and \"floating tunnels\".\n\nProf Dunlop's 'floating tunnel' would be connected and secured to the seabed by cables, similar to technology used on North Sea oil rigs.\n\nHe argues this would overcome challenges posed by the weather and the Beaufort Dyke, and that the tunnel would be a monumental engineering success as well as a vital economic and cultural link for two close neighbours.\n\nIt sounds far-fetched but tunnelling expert Mike Savill, of the international engineering company Mott MacDonald, said the idea would be worthy of serious consideration if the plan moves a step forward in the Hendy Review.\n\nHe told the BBC: \"If you ask an engineer can you build it, he will always say yes - but in the end it will be the politicians and the transport planners who will decide. It will always be driven by political will.\"\n\nHowever, political opinion in Scotland and Northern Ireland is sharply divided. Scottish Conservatives and Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionists are, not surprisingly, enthusiastic.\n\nThey argue that a tunnel would help cement their place in the union and boost trade and employment.\n\nGalloway and West Dumfries Conservative MSP (member of the Scottish Parliament), Finlay Carson, said he supports the idea for political and economic reasons.\n\nConservative MSP Finlay Carson said the link could help the economy\n\nHe said his priority was to see the A75 - the road linking Stranraer on the west coast to Gretna Green - improved but that he'd \"welcome anything which might help improve links between the so-called Northern Powerhouse and Scotland's Central Belt, right to the coast and across the Irish Sea\".\n\nHowever, the Holyrood and Stormont transport ministers, Graeme Dey of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and Nichola Mallon of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), are strongly opposed.\n\nThey believe it would be a colossal waste of money, which would be better spent on more pressing projects and, what's more, they see it as a Westminster power grab.\n\n\"This has been plucked out of thin air - there is no real substance to it,\" Mr Dey said.\n\nMs Mallon said the tunnel would eat up funds required elsewhere\n\n\"It's been deeply disrespectful to devolution, another example where Boris Johnston is stepping into the devolved sphere,\" said Ms Mallon.\n\nEast Antrim MP, Sammy Wilson of the DUP, said a tunnel would have to be a UK-wide project: \"If you left it to the individual devolved administrations, nothing like this would ever be built, because their aims would never coincide.\n\n\"The Scottish Nationalists would have their priorities and we'll have ours and they'll tend to be local, because of course we'll be chasing after local votes.\"\n\nPortpatrick, on the Galloway coast, was once a busy mail boat route to Donaghadee, in County Down.\n\nIts hinterland is being suggested as a possible entrance/exit point for the tunnel, should it ever get the go-ahead.\n\nLocals and visitors spoke to the programme about the idea of a tunnel connecting the devolved regions.\n\n\"I think it would be good,\" said one woman enjoying the sunshine and the view across the Irish Sea. \"Scotland and Ireland are good neighbours aren't they?\"\n\nA passer-by whistles when told the projected cost of a tunnel could be £20bn.\n\n\"Whew - would that money not be better spent on the health service?\" he said.\n\nAnother echoes Dominic Cummings' view: \"I think it's the stupidest idea I've ever heard.\"\n\nIn Portpatrick views are mixed on whether the tunnel is a good idea\n\nGuto Harri said that, with bigger priorities such as the National Health Service and social care reform, it is more likely, on balance, that the tunnel will not be built.\n\n\"But it is far from impossible,\" he added.\n\n\"The reality with Boris Johnson is that he could be prime minister for a long period of time.\n\n\"He could be out by Christmas, but if he is to be there for the best part of a decade, then this is an idea I think he would come back to. Then I think it more likely than not that this would get done.\"\n\nSir Peter Hendy's independent review is due to report soon. Perhaps then we'll find out more about the feasibility of Boris's Tunnel Vision under what the Ulster-Scots call 'The Narrow Sea'.\n\n'Boris's Tunnel Vision' will be broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland on Sunday 22 August at 11:30 BST.\n\nIt will be broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster on Friday 27 August at 17:30 and repeated on Bank Holiday Monday 30 August at 12:30.\n\nThe programme is a Yamal Production, presented by Mark Simpson and produced by John Deering.", "Katie McCabe, seen here just before she finished her trek, is already thinking of her next challenge\n\nA teenager from Devon has finished sailing around Great Britain in a trek she hopes will make her officially the youngest person to have done so.\n\nKatie McCabe, 14, from Topsham, set off from Exmouth in her 26ft (8m) wooden boat Falanda at the end of June.\n\nShe returned on Saturday afternoon, with other vessels and an enthusiastic crowd welcoming her back.\n\nShe has also raised thousands of pounds for charity during her 1,600 nautical mile (3,000km) challenge.\n\nShe carried out her anticlockwise journey with her father, David McCabe, sailing about five miles (8km) behind her for insurance reasons.\n\nHowever, she was alone for her vessel's piloting.\n\nShe was raising awareness of marine pollution and raising money for two charities, including Sea Shepherd UK.\n\nA Just Giving page for Sea Shepherd UK had an original target of £6,000. She has raised more than £10,000 so far.\n\nSpeaking in Torbay on Saturday before setting off on the last leg of her trip, she said she was already thinking ahead to her next challenge.\n\nShe said: \"Ellen MacArthur is amazing and so is Laura Dekker, and I'd like to do something like they've done, so maybe racing [is what] I'd like to try next.\"\n\nThe current youngest person to sail solo around Britain is Timothy Long, from Aylesbury, who sailed around Britain last year, aged 15.\n\nThe 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. Cars were swept away by the flash floods in Tennessee\n\nAt least 22 people have been killed and dozens more are missing following flash floods in the US state of Tennessee.\n\nRescue crews are still searching for dozens of people in rural Humphreys County, which is west of Nashville.\n\nThe record-breaking flooding began on Saturday, submerging entire roads and taking out telephone and power lines.\n\nEmergency workers are searching door-to-door in the worst-hit areas, with rescuers also combing through the debris of homes that were washed away.\n\nThe names of the missing have been listed on a notice board at an emergency centre in Humphreys County, with relatives left fearing the worst.\n\nOn the county's Facebook page, people have been desperately seeking any information that could help locate their missing friends and relatives.\n\n\"My niece was swept away,\" one woman wrote. \"Her family is still looking for her. They were told she was found but it wasn't her.\"\n\n\"Me and my family are looking for our 6-year-old cousin,\" another person wrote. \"Any information is appreciated.\"\n\nMany people in the town of Waverly are searching for missing friends and relatives\n\nMost of the missing are from the town of Waverly. The state's Governor Bill Lee visited on Sunday.\n\n\"The loss of life and property damage is devastating,\" he said. \"Our hearts are with the many Tennesseans experiencing loss and heartbreak.\"\n\nOne woman, Shirley Foster, discovered that a friend had died and approached Governor Lee as he walked through the town.\n\n\"I thought I was over the shock of all this,\" she told him, according to the Associated Press. \"I'm just tore up over my friend. My house is nothing, but my friend is gone.\"\n\nThousands of people in Humphreys County have been left without power, while a reunification centre has been set up at a school. People have been asked to donate items to help those displaced.\n\nEmergency officials expect the death toll to rise in the coming days.\n\n\"I would expect, given the number of fatalities, that we're going to see mostly recovery efforts at this point rather than rescue efforts,\" Tennessee Emergency Management Director Patrick Sheehan said.\n\nAt least 17 inches (43cm) of rain fell in Humphreys County in less than 24 hours Saturday, breaking Tennessee's one-day record.\n\nIt comes as another major weather event, Storm Henri, dumps heavy rain on the north-eastern US.\n\nStorm Henri has brought heavy rains to New York and other nearby states\n\nMore than 120,000 homes and businesses are without power in the region after the storm made landfall in Rhode Island late on Sunday.\n\nPresident Joe Biden, meanwhile, has approved disaster relief for the states of Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York, which have been hit by the storm.\n\nThe storm is forecast to weaken as it pushes out to the Gulf of Maine on Monday afternoon.\n\nMany factors contribute to flooding, but a warming atmosphere caused by climate change makes extreme rainfall more likely.\n\nThe world has already warmed by about 1.2C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.\n\nHow have you been affected by the extreme weather? If it is safe for you to do so, email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "Rob and Patrick faced homophobic abuse and were hit with bottles during a night out in Birmingham\n\nA man has been arrested in connection with a violent homophobic attack in Birmingham.\n\nRob and Patrick, in their 30s, were abused and attacked outside the Missing Bar in Bromsgrove Street, in the city's Gay Village on 15 August.\n\nHomophobic abuse was shouted from a car and the pair were then assaulted with bottles, West Midlands Police said.\n\nThe 31-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of wounding and remains in custody.\n\nThe couple from Bicester, Oxfordshire, told the BBC they had been at a friend's housewarming party and then decided to go dancing.\n\nPatrick was knocked unconscious in the attack and his partner suffered several deep cuts. Both needed treatment in hospital for their injuries.\n\nDetectives said they still wanted to speak to two other men - Sohail Khan, 24, and Ishaaq Ayaz, 21, both from Birmingham - about the attack.\n\nPolice said they wanted to speak to Ishaaq Ayaz (left) and Sohail Khan about the attack.\n\nPolice said they wanted to speak to Ishaaq Ayaz (left) and Sohail Khan about the attack\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "For days, thousands of fearful Afghans have waited outside the capital's airport in the hope of boarding a flight out\n\nThe rapid Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has left some fearing for their lives and seeking to escape the country, often by any means necessary.\n\nThe militant Islamist group is said to be carrying out door-to-door searches while violent scenes have also been reported at some Taliban-controlled checkpoints.\n\nThe militants seized control of major cities last week as part of a sweeping offensive that shocked international observers. It culminated in the fall of the capital, Kabul, which triggered the collapse of the Afghan government.\n\nNow, those who have worked for the government or other foreign powers, as well as journalists and activists, say they are fearful of reprisals and need to be evacuated. They have spoken to the BBC, but their names have been changed to protect their safety.\n\nUsman, who worked as an interpreter for the British armed forces, was sheltering with his wife and some neighbours when the Taliban came. He was woken in the early hours of the morning and told the group were nearby.\n\n\"They were searching door-to-door,\" he told the BBC's World at One programme. \"Everyone panicked - then the news spread to every other house.\"\n\n\"A neighbour said they were searching for weapons, documents and government vehicles. They were trying to find out who had worked for Nato or the government.\"\n\n\"I put on my clothes and just jumped over a wall and ran away,\" Usman said. \"I know that I am going to be killed. There is no other way.\"\n\nUsman was told he was eligible for relocating to the UK in December, but after all his paperwork was processed he received a letter of rejection on Friday. \"We are not feeling safe,\" he said. \"I'm really desperate.\"\n\nThe Taliban have been patrolling in Afghanistan's major cities\n\nHashem, a translator, was sheltering in an apartment in one of the country's biggest cities when he spoke to the BBC.\n\n\"I've been working with intermediary forces and thought the US and German governments would help,\" he said.\n\n\"I have had to destroy all my documents.\"\n\n\"I had the courage to go to Kabul airport, and someone from the Taliban told me there had been fake news spreading that the Americans would take people out.\"\n\n\"He told me to tell others not to go to the airport. We're discussing plans about what we can do to flee to another country.\"\n\nEvacuations have been taking place in recent days, but thousands of people remain desperate to leave\n\nIt is not just those who worked for international governments who are fearful. Two women who worked for a media outlet are in hiding and say the Taliban are searching for them.\n\nWithout a visa, however, they say travelling to an airport would be futile.\n\n\"They have twice called at my house... looking for me and my husband,\" one of the women, Aida, said. \"They are asking other members of my family where we are and they have also been sending me threatening texts.\"\n\n\"They say that when they find me they will kill me.\"\n\n\"I feel really desperate and stressed about what will happen to me and my family,\" she said.\n\n\"Right now we are like turkeys in our homes,\" her colleague, Saabira, said. \"We can't go out because the Taliban are all around us.\" She said her food supplies were running worryingly low.\n\n\"The Taliban are trying to find government [workers], journalists, and women's rights activists. We are really worried - what if they come to our home? What if they knock on our door?\"\n\n\"The airport is not possible for us because we haven't [got a] visa\" she said. \"We haven't got money or any support, so it's impossible.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Everybody got very emotional\": Hassina Syed describes getting out of Afghanistan on a British military plane\n\nMeanwhile, dozens of English language teachers who worked for the British council training Afghan school teachers are desperate to leave but have been denied visas to come to the UK.\n\n\"We are horrified and really scared,\" one said. \"For the past week, I couldn't speak English in front of anyone because I was scared they would realise I worked with foreigners and inform on me.\"\n\n\"I never considered going to Kabul airport, I have children and I couldn't risk their lives,\" he said. \"Our concern is that [the Taliban] are searching for specific people who provided services for foreign governments, it makes us scared.\"\n\n\"But when I see Kabul airport, I don't see any way to cross the crowd and get in.\"\n\n\"I want the UK government to consider the service that we provided for them,\" he said. \"If we remain in Afghanistan our lives are in great danger.\"", "As thousands of citizens and foreign nationals attempt to flee Afghanistan, scenes outside Kabul airport have become increasingly desperate.\n\nSince the Taliban took control of the country at the weekend and closed land border crossings, the capital's airport has become the only way out of the country for many.\n\nBut the militants have said they don't want Afghans to leave the country. They have set up checkpoints on Airport Road - shown in yellow, below - the main route to Hamid Karzai International Airport, and have attacked people.\n\nThe violence has left 12 people in the area, dead - killed by gunshots or in stampedes - since Sunday, an anonymous Taliban official told Reuters news agency, meaning the journey to the airport is an increasingly treacherous one.\n\nInside the walls of the airport compound, more than 4,000 US troops are in temporary control. Outside, heavily-armed Taliban fighters now ring the perimeter, generating an atmosphere of fear.\n\nTaliban fighters have control of the exterior of the airport\n\nThe militants are reportedly preventing Afghans - including some of those with visas - from getting to the tarmac.\n\nBut even before people fleeing reach the edge of the airport, they are being attacked en route, witnesses say.\n\nA correspondent for the LA Times newspaper saw dozens of Taliban firing into the air, aiming weapons at crowds and using sticks and rope to lash civilians as they tried to make their escape. Graphic images captured by Marcus Yam show at least one woman hurt and a young child left bloodied with what appears to be a head injury.\n\nA woman was injured on her way to the airport\n\nPhotos published by SBS showed an Afghan interpreter, who appeared to have been attacked, being treated for a gunshot wound.\n\nCrowds have also been gathering along the airport's perimeter to the north of the city - seen in the map above - over the past few days, with reports of a stampede injuring 17 people on Wednesday. Many have been trying to climb over barbed wire fences and there are reports of shots being fired.\n\nPeople have been scaling the boundary wall of Hamid Karzai International Airport\n\nAmong the crowds are families with children, many of whom have not had access to food and drink for days, reporters on the ground say. Footage shared on social media showed children being passed over a wall to foreign soldiers in the hope they might be able to escape.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A child is handed over the wall at Kabul airport, as the chaos continues\n\nOne girl in a pink jacket was hoisted aloft to a soldier on a ladder.\n\nA number of children have been seen being helped over walls at Kabul airport\n\nThe chaotic conditions emerged as European governments rushed to bring home their citizens - as well as Afghan colleagues.\n\nAfghan families have been seeking sanctuary with foreign troops\n\nAlthough the Taliban have said Afghans should stay in the country they have also claimed they are facilitating a safe exit for both foreigners and locals. \"We are preventing any form of violent, verbal clash at the airport among Afghans, foreigners and Taliban members,\" an official said.\n\nThe latest reports of Taliban violence and harassment come as a confidential UN document, seen by the BBC, says the militants are intensifying their hunt for people who worked for and collaborated with Nato and US forces.\n\nThe crush of people heading for the airport can be seen in satellite images of the area, with thousands converging in vehicles as they desperately tried to escape.\n\nImages of the chaos first emerged from Kabul airport on Monday as it was overrun by Afghans terrified at the prospect of Taliban rule.", "Antibody tests are to be widely offered to the UK public for the first time in a new programme that aims to find out more about how much natural protection people have after getting coronavirus.\n\nThe government scheme will offer tests to thousands of adults each day.\n\nAnyone over 18 will be able to opt in when having a PCR test from Tuesday - of those who test positive, up to 8,000 will be sent two home antibody tests.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid said it would be quick and easy to take part.\n\nThe first of the finger-prick tests would have to be done as soon as possible after the positive result, so the body would not have time to generate a detectable antibody response to the infection.\n\nThe second would be taken 28 days later and measure antibodies generated in response to the infection.\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency is to run the programme and will work alongside NHS test and trace services in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to use results to monitor levels of antibodies in positive cases.\n\nIts chief executive Dr Jenny Harries said the scheme would help the UK gain \"vital insight\" into the impact of the vaccination programme and immune responses to different variants.\n\nMr Javid said it would build on the \"massive wall of defence\" that was the vaccination programme and getting involved would help \"strengthen our understanding of Covid-19 as we cautiously return to a more normal life\".\n\nThe Department of Health said as well as helping it improve understanding about antibody protection, the scheme could give information about any groups of people who did not develop an immune response after getting coronavirus.\n\nScotland's Health Secretary Humza Yousaf welcomed news of the study, saying: \"It is vital that we have the fullest understanding possible of vaccine effectiveness and the immune response of the broader population.\n\n\"The rollout of this antibody testing study will help us achieve this and could play an important role in the battle to keep the virus under control.\"\n\nAntibody tests have been used previously in the UK during the pandemic but in limited numbers, largely on people involved in studies or surveys.\n\nOn Sunday, the UK reported 32,253 new cases and 49 deaths of people who had tested positive within the previous 28 days.", "Kabul airport has become the epicentre of the crisis in Afghanistan, with many thousands seeking to flee the country after the Taliban swept to power last week.\n\nThe BBC's chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet witnesses the atmosphere on the tarmac as men, women and children are evacuated from their homeland.", "Thousands of Afghans are trying to fly out of Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover\n\nPresident Joe Biden says efforts to evacuate people from Kabul airport are accelerating, with US troops expanding the perimeter around the site.\n\nMany thousands of Afghans have been queuing at the gates in desperate attempts to flee the country after the Taliban swept to power on 15 August.\n\nMr Biden said on Sunday that the US had flown nearly 28,000 people out of the airport in the past week.\n\nHe faces pressure to extend a deadline for evacuations beyond 31 August.\n\nThe president said discussions were taking place with leaders of other countries about pushing back the deadline, but that \"our hope is we will not have to\".\n\n\"There is no way to evacuate this many people without pain and the heart-breaking images you see,\" Mr Biden told reporters at the White House.\n\n\"We have made changes, including extending the access area around the airport - the safe zone,\" he said, adding: \"We have a long way to go and a lot can still go wrong.\"\n\nOn Monday, Vice-President Kamala Harris said the US would carry out \"a robust analysis of what has happened\" in Afghanistan in recent weeks.\n\n\"But right now there is no question that our focus has to be on evacuating American citizens [and] Afghans\" she said during a visit to Singapore.\n\nUS forces have evacuated nearly 28,000 people from Kabul in the past week\n\nEarlier, the Pentagon said in a statement that 18 commercial planes would be used to help transfer evacuees to third countries from safe sites outside Afghanistan.\n\nAt least 20 people have died as thousands queue outside Kabul airport, a Nato official told Reuters news agency, amid reports that some were being crushed to death.\n\nUK Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said the Taliban were co-operating and marshalling people into queues at Hamid Karzai International Airport, making the process faster for those hoping to leave.\n\nThe UK has evacuated 5,725 people since 13 August, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said late on Sunday.\n\nThe UK has more than 1,000 Armed Forces personnel deployed in Kabul.\n\nOn Sunday, the US Department of Defense announced the activation of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) to help with the evacuation.\n\nThis allows the US to mobilise civilian airlines to help in an emergency. It was last used ahead of, and during, the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the Gulf War of 1990-1991.\n\nAccording to the statement, the level one activation is for 18 planes: four from United Airlines; three each from American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Air Lines and Omni Air; and two from Hawaiian Airlines.\n\nActivating the CRAF will help military aircraft to focus on operations in and out of Kabul, the statement added.\n\n\"These civil reserve flights will help facilitate the safe transport [of evacuees] to third countries,\" Mr Biden said on Sunday. \"None will be landing in Kabul.\"\n\nThe president said a series of \"processing stations\" had been established in more than two dozen countries, where evacuees would be screened and cleared.\n\n\"We will welcome these Afghans who have helped America to their new homes - because that's who we are,\" Mr Biden added.\n\nThe news comes as White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan announced there were still several thousand US citizens thought to be in Afghanistan.\n\nSpeaking to CNN's State of the Union programme on Sunday, Mr Sullivan said he could not give a precise number, but noted that work was continuing to evacuate them.\n\nMr Sullivan also described the threat of attacks by the Islamic State group against the airport as \"real\" and \"acute\".\n\nThe civilian aircraft will help the US military with their evacuations\n\nTaliban official Amir Khan Mutaqi meanwhile has blamed the US for the \"evacuation drama\" at the airport.\n\nOn Sunday, Mr Mutaqi also addressed potential dissatisfaction within Taliban ranks, arguing that \"certain decisions are made in the long-term interest\" of the movement and its role in Afghanistan.\n\nHe said that the Taliban were in talks with \"all factions\" to reach an agreement on a future government.\n\nThe Taliban's swift takeover of Afghanistan has shocked its people and the world.\n\nUK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called an urgent meeting for Tuesday of the leaders of the G7 - the world's seven largest so-called advanced economies.\n\n\"It is vital that the international community works together to ensure safe evacuations, prevent a humanitarian crisis and support the Afghan people to secure the gains of the last 20 years,\" he tweeted.\n\nMr Johnson is expected to urge Mr Biden to keep American forces in Afghanistan beyond 31 August in order to allow evacuation flights to continue.\n\nFormer UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, meanwhile, has harshly criticised the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.\n\n\"You look round the world and the only people really cheering this decision are the people hostile to Western interests,\" he said.\n\nThe US plans a full withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan on 31 August.\n\nSeveral allied nations - including the UK - are calling for this deadline to be extended amid the ongoing evacuation, as US soldiers are currently controlling the airport.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Former PM Tony Blair: 'It's not just about the Afghan people... it's about our security'", "Police are looking for Lee Peacock in connection with the killing of two people in Westminster\n\nA man wanted in connection with two murders in London knew the victims, police have revealed.\n\nDetectives have told the public \"not to approach\" Lee Peacock, 49, who officers want to question about the killings in Westminster.\n\nA woman, 45, was found at a property in Ashbridge Street on Thursday night and a man, 59, was found early on Friday at a property in nearby Jerome Crescent.\n\nBoth had sustained knife injuries, police previously said.\n\nDetectives said they were keeping an open mind about any possible motive.\n\nPolice found the body of the woman in a property in Ashbridge Street\n\nLead investigator Det Ch Insp Wayne Jolley said: \"Lee lived locally in the area. We have a number of lines of inquiry in regards to trace his whereabouts.\n\n\"Both of the victims were known to Lee, we're not treating these as random attacks.\n\n\"I would urge anybody that knows the whereabouts of Lee Peacock to contact police immediately by calling 999.\"\n\nNeither the man nor the woman have yet been named.\n\nInquiries are under way to trace the woman's next of kin, while the man's have been notified and are being supported by specialist officers.\n\nNo arrests have been made.\n\nThe 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. Rob and Patrick faced homophobic abuse and were hit with bottles during a night out in Birmingham\n\nPolice have released details of three men they want to speak to in connection with a violent homophobic attack in Birmingham.\n\nRob and Patrick, in their 30s, were outside the Missing Bar in the city's Gay Village on Sunday.\n\nWest Midlands Police said homophobic abuse was shouted at them and the pair were assaulted with bottles.\n\nPatrick was knocked unconscious in the attack and his partner suffered several deep cuts.\n\nDetectives said they want to speak to Sohail Khan, 24, Mosin Mahmood, 31 and Ishaaq Ayaz, 21, who are all from Birmingham, in connection with the assault.\n\nPolice said they wanted to speak to Ishaaq Ayaz (left), Mosin Mahmood (centre) and Sohail Khan about the attack\n\nRob told the BBC he and Patrick, from Bicester, Oxfordshire, had been at a friend's housewarming party and decided to go dancing in the village.\n\nAs they left Missing Bar, on Bromsgrove Street, Rob said he made a joke towards a group of men in a car and they shouted homophobic slurs back.\n\nDetectives said one of them took Patrick's phone as he tried to film them and one of their female friends was dragged along by the SUV as she tried to get it back.\n\nThe woman, in her 20s, suffered a foot injury.\n\nOfficers said the men then attacked Rob and Patrick with bottles. Rob and Patrick needed treatment in hospital for their injuries.\n\nRob said he regretted chasing after the group but added: \"[The Gay Village] should be a safe area to be who you want and not have to tolerate people yelling homophobic remarks at you.\"\n\nSgt Marc Petford said the attack was \"outrageous\" and the force was determined to find the people responsible.\n\nThe attack happened outside the Missing Bar\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville is self-isolating after testing positive for Covid-19.\n\nMs Somerville announced the news on Twitter, saying she has lost her sense of smell.\n\nIt is not clear if she has recently met in person with other members of the Scottish cabinet or MSPs.\n\n\"After losing my sense of smell yesterday I went for a Covid test which has come back positive,\" Ms Somerville said.\n\n\"I'll now self isolate and continue to work from home. Keep yourself and others safe and please take a test if you have any symptoms.\"\n\nUnder the current guidance, people who test positive for Covid should isolate for 10 days from the day symptoms began.\n\nMs Somerville is SNP MSP for Dunfermline and replaced John Swinney as Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills after the election.\n\nA total of 3,190 new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Scotland over the last 24 hours, according to the latest government statistics.\n\nIt is the fourth day in a row that the number of new cases has been above 3,000, but lower than the 3,613 recorded on Friday.\n\nSince the beginning of the pandemic, 8,070 people have died after recently testing positive for Covid.", "A minute's applause has been held at Liverpool's first home game this season for a man who became the 97th victim of the Hillsborough disaster.\n\nAndrew Devine died aged 55 in July - 32 years after suffering life-changing injuries in the 1989 stadium crush.\n\nA coroner recently ruled he was the 97th fatality due to the disaster at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.\n\nFans at Saturday's game with Burnley chanted \"Justice for the 97\".\n\nMr Devine was 22 at the time of the disaster, when overcrowding occurred on the terraces of Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough stadium on 15 April 1989.\n\nThe crush followed overcrowding at an FA Cup game\n\nIn 2016, inquests concluded that the 96 fans who had died had been unlawfully killed.\n\nA senior coroner recently said Mr Devine, who died on 27 July, was the disaster's \"97th fatality\" and therefore the conclusion was the same.\n\nHe said the lifelong Liverpool fan had died from aspiration pneumonia, which had been caused by a brain injury due to oxygen deprivation and crush injuries.\n\nAn applause was held before Liverpool's first full-capacity home game since lockdown\n\nEarlier this year, South Yorkshire Police offered an \"unreserved apology\" to those affected by the crush, admitting that \"serious errors and mistakes were made\" by its officers both during the disaster and in subsequent investigations.\n\nThe force, along with West Midlands Police, agreed to pay damages to more than 600 people following a cover-up in the aftermath.\n\nTwo retired police officers and an ex-solicitor who were accused of altering police statements after the disaster were acquitted in May at the end of the latest trial on the tragedy.\n\nNo-one has ever been convicted over police actions concerning the disaster in what a senior government minister described as \"the greatest scandal of British policing of our lifetimes\".\n\nJordan Henderson carried a floral tribute to Mr Devine before the game\n\nIn his programme notes, Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson said the players knew Mr Devine from his visits to games and their training base.\n\n\"Andrew was an incredible person, someone who fought for 32 years against injuries that had been expected to end his life much sooner than they did,\" Henderson said.\n\n\"Knowing that people in this city and beyond are still suffering due to Hillsborough is heart-breaking, but all we can do is carry on being there for each other as best we can,\" he added.\n\nFans at Saturday's game, which Liverpool won 2-0, displayed a tribute mosaic featuring the number 97.\n\nThis 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 BBC Radio Merseyside 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.\n\nOutside of the stadium, the previously-named 96 Avenue walkway has been renamed 97 Avenue.\n\nArrangements have also begun for Mr Devine's name to be etched on Anfield's Hillsborough Memorial.\n\nLiverpool FC said the club's playing shirts would be amended for the 2022-23 season, with the 97 emblem featuring on the nape of neck.\n\nThe minute's applause ahead of Saturday's game was also held in tribute to people who had died with coronavirus.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "A man, woman and two young children were inside the property on Burdiehouse Drive at the time but no one was injured\n\nGunshots were fired at a house in Edinburgh during a targeted attack as children played nearby.\n\nDetectives said a window was damaged in the property on Burdiehouse Drive, Burdiehouse, at about 20:40 on Friday.\n\nA man, woman and two young children were inside at the time but no one was injured.\n\nPolice Scotland are keen to trace a small black hatchback car which was in the area and drove off towards Southhouse Broadway.\n\nDet Insp Bob Campbell said: \"Whilst this may be a targeted attack, the fact is that a number of shots were fired indiscriminately at the house with some ricocheting off the wall and into the garden.\n\n\"Children were playing in gardens nearby and there were people in the street at the time.\n\n\"Thankfully no one was injured but the gunman obviously has no regard for anyone in the area, including children, some of whom were really terrified by what happened.\"\n\nA window was damaged in the incident\n\nDet Insp Campbell urged anyone with information about the incident to contact officers or Crimestoppers, where information can be passed on anonymously.\n\n\"We recognise and understand the impact this incident will have had on the residents of Burdiehouse,\" he said\n\n\"Thankfully firearm incidents like this are rare in Edinburgh and I would stress that the city remains a safe place to live, work and visit.\"", "Last updated on .From the section The Hundred\n\nSouthern Brave were crowned the first men's Hundred champions after beating Birmingham Phoenix by 32 runs in an action-packed Lord's final.\n\nChasing 169, Phoenix's Liam Livingstone thrashed 46 from 19 balls, animating a raucous Lord's crowd with an effortless flow of boundaries, before the game swung in dramatic and unlikely fashion.\n\nTim David, only brought into the Brave's squad earlier this week, ran out Livingstone with a 60m direct hit from the deep - the in-form Livingstone agonisingly inches short.\n\nBirmingham still needed another 99 from 55 balls and Brave's impressive bowling attack closed out the game expertly to make the winning margin far greater than looked likely at one stage.\n\nTeacher-turned-Hundred star Jake Lintott had Moeen Ali caught for 36 from 30 balls.\n\nIreland international Paul Stirling earlier hit 61 from 36 balls for the Brave before Ross Whiteley's crucial 44 not out from 19 balls lifted them to 168-5.\n\nThe Oval Invincibles, winners of the women's final earlier in the day, joined the Brave with their trophy at the end of a special day at cricket's historic home.\n\nThe moment that turned the final\n\nThirty-three runs looks like a big winning margin, but when Livingstone was flying - the crowd on its feet as he hit sixes at will - Birmingham were ahead of the Brave in their chase.\n\nThe game turned with a moment of sheer brilliance, however, from the most unlikely Brave hero.\n\nDavid, an all-rounder born in Singapore, who he has played for internationally, only made his debut in Friday's eliminator after coming in as a late replacement for New Zealand international Colin de Grandhomme, who flew home before the final.\n\nThe big 25-year-old, who earlier took a fine diving catch, swooped on a loose ball after a diving attempt to catch Livingstone had gone down, turned and arrowed a throw directly into the stumps.\n\nHis Brave team-mates sprinted to meet him in celebration. Livingstone covered his face with his glove, seemingly distraught.\n\n\"As soon as he [Livingstone] was on his way back, Southern Brave were the champions,\" said former England captain Michael Vaughan on BBC Two.\n\nThis finale did not look possible at the start of the day when the weather forecast suggested a washout.\n\nThe match may not have come down to the final ball, but it was still an entertaining encounter with 22 sixes, some excellent fast bowling and impressive fielding.\n\nThe near-capacity crowd of 24,556, an encouraging number of those young children, were enthused for the majority of the time.\n\nThe Hundred will still not please everyone, but the moment when the two men's and women's winners held their trophies aloft side-by-side on cricket's most famous ground was special.\n\n\"It was a fitting occasion for the final, with lesser restrictions and families out,\" Manchester Originals captain and BBC pundit Carlos Brathwaite said.\n\n\"It has been a privilege to be part of a fantastic spectacle and the game on the field did it justice.\"\n\nBrave were worthy champions, finishing the tournament with seven consecutive wins after defeats in their opening two games.\n\nTymal Mills was sensational again in the final, taking 1-13 from 20 balls to push his case for an England recall. Their fast bowling attack - featuring Mills, George Garton, Chris Jordan and Craig Overton - has been of international quality throughout.\n\nLintott, who paused his teaching career earlier this year when given a county contract, has been a standout performer with his spin.\n\nThey have won the title without the injured Jofra Archer and internationals David Warner and Andre Russell, who pulled out because of the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\n\"It's been a real team effort and different people have turned up on different occasions,\" said captain James Vince.\n\n\"It was Paul Stirling and Ross Whiteley tonight, to get us runs on the board that made the difference.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Former PM Tony Blair: 'It's not just about the Afghan people... it's about our security'\n\nThe US withdrawal from Afghanistan was wrong and based on an \"imbecilic\" slogan, former PM Tony Blair has said.\n\nHe described the decision to withdraw troops from the country as \"tragic, dangerous and unnecessary\".\n\nMr Blair, who sent troops into Afghanistan 20 years ago, said UK involvement in Afghanistan was not a \"hopeless endeavour\" despite the Taliban takeover.\n\nAnd the sacrifice made by British troops \"was not in vain\", he added.\n\nMr Blair said achievements in the country over the past 20 years - including a generation growing up without Taliban rule - was a \"good cause\" that \"matters today\".\n\nSpeaking to broadcasters, the former Labour leader shared concerns, not only for the Afghan people who he said stood to lose out, but also for the security of Western countries.\n\nHe said the Taliban \"will give protection and succour to Al Qaeda - you've got Isis trying to operate in the country at the same time\".\n\n\"You look round the world and the only people really cheering this decision are the people hostile to Western interests,\" he added.\n\nIn his online article, his first statement since Kabul fell to the Taliban last week, Mr Blair said the decision to withdraw was made \"in obedience to an imbecilic political slogan about ending 'the forever wars'\".\n\nMr Blair said Britain had a \"moral obligation\" to stay in Afghanistan until \"all those who need to be are evacuated\".\n\nHe wrote on his website: \"We must evacuate and give sanctuary to those to whom we have responsibility - those Afghans who helped us and stood by us and have a right to demand we stand by them.\"\n\nThis should not be done \"grudgingly but out of a deep sense of humanity and responsibility\", he added.\n\nOn Sunday the Ministry of Defence said seven Afghan civilians had died in the chaotic crowds outside the city's international airport.\n\nThe US has a planned deadline of 31 August for withdrawal - but President Biden has said troops may stay past this date to help with evacuations.\n\nTony Blair with British forces in Helmand province in 2006\n\nMr Blair admitted mistakes had been made over Afghanistan, but \"the reaction to our mistakes has been, unfortunately, further mistakes\". He said while \"imperfect\", the \"real gains over the past 20 years\" were now likely to be lost.\n\nHe said the Afghan economy was now three times larger than when the UK invaded the country alongside the US in 2001 and some 200,000 Afghans went to university this year - including 50,000 women.\n\nThe withdrawal would have \"every jihadist group around the world cheering\", he said.\n\nRussia, China and Iran will take advantage, he said, adding: \"Anyone given commitments by Western leaders will understandably regard them as unstable currency.\"\n\nPeter Galbraith, former UN deputy special representative for Afghanistan, said all the coalition partners bore responsibility for the chaos unfolding.\n\n\"In terms of what was imbecilic, frankly it was the strategy that was followed for 20 years, which was to try to build a highly centralised state in a country that was as diverse - geographically and ethnically - as Afghanistan, and to engage in a counterinsurgency strategy without a local partner and the local partner was corrupt, ineffective, illegitimate,\" he said.\n\nHe added that coalition partners \"never seriously tried to address the corruption that was prevalent from the top\", acquiescing in \"fraudulent\" Afghan elections, and trying to fit facts into a predetermined strategy, \"rather than having a strategy that was based on the facts\".\n\nPresident Biden has vowed that \"any American who wants to come home, we will get you home\", but has described the evacuation as one of the \"most difficult airlifts in history\".\n\nMr Blair's intervention comes as shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy has urged her government counterpart Dominic Raab to step up efforts to get British and eligible Afghans to the UK.\n\nShe said she had heard of people being beaten, shot at or raped while trying to get documentation in Kabul.\n\nThe Foreign Office said it was trying to get people out as fast as possible, with more than 3,000 people having been evacuated from the country since last Sunday.\n\nIn an article in the Mail on Sunday, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the West's exit from Afghanistan was \"unedifying\" and would have \"consequences for us all for years to come\".\n\nHe praised the British soldiers working at Kabul's airport for dealing with \"unimaginable challenges - public order, overcrowding, searing heat and desperate people\".\n\n\"Soldiers trained for war are instead holding babies and co-ordinating crowds,\" he wrote.\n\nMr Wallace said there was \"no time to lose\" to get people out of the country but added the US would have his complete support if it chose to push back the deadline for leaving.", "US forces currently control the international airport in Kabul\n\nThe US has warned its citizens to avoid Kabul airport amid concerns about the potential for attacks by Afghanistan's branch of the Islamic State (IS) group.\n\nA security alert on Saturday told US citizens to stay away due to possible \"security threats outside the gates\".\n\nOnly those individually told to make the journey by a US government representative should do so, it said.\n\nUS defence officials said they were monitoring developments and looking at alternative routes.\n\nNo further details were given about the potential threat of an IS attack, and the group has not publicly threatened to carry out attacks in Kabul.\n\nThe US advice on Saturday came amid continued chaos outside the airport terminal and reports of people being crushed as thousands attempt to escape from Afghanistan, a week after the Taliban takeover.\n\nThe UK's Ministry of Defence said seven people died in the crowds and conditions there remained \"extremely challenging.\"\n\nCrowds have been gathering daily, hoping to be allowed on to a flight. Those who work with the US and its allies, as well as people who have campaigned on issues like human rights, fear they may face reprisals at the hands of the Taliban if they are unable to leave.\n\nWhat exactly happened at the airport gates on Saturday remains unclear.\n\nHowever, Sky News' chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay said that people at the front of the crowd of thousands were being \"crushed to death\", with British soldiers pulling those in danger from the throng.\n\nHe has described it as \"the worst day by far\", and said they believed people had died at the scene.\n\nIn a briefing on Saturday, the US Department of Defense said 17,000 people had been flown out of the airport, including some 2,500 US citizens.\n\nAn official said a \"small number\" of Americans and Afghans the US wanted to evacuate had faced harassment. In some cases, they had been beaten on their way to the airport.\n\nA spokesperson for the US State Department later told the BBC they issued the guidance to avoid large crowds outside the airport gates.\n\nIt is also because they now have the capacity to communicate with US citizens \"on a personalised basis\", to give them \"tailored instructions\" on how to travel, the spokesperson said.\n\nOther countries have also warned about the situation on the ground.\n\nGermany's government issued a statement saying the airport remains \"extremely dangerous and access to the airport is often not possible\", while the Swiss foreign ministry announced the security situation had \"deteriorated significantly in the last few hours\" and postponed a chartered evacuation flight from Kabul.\n\nUS forces are currently controlling the international airport. They are helping to evacuate their own citizens and those of other countries, including Afghans who worked with Western forces and fear for their safety under the Taliban.\n\nBut the US has set a withdrawal date of 31 August for their troops, and it is unclear what will happen after this date.\n\nSecurity forces try to prevent large crowds from entering Kabul airport\n\nNato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said that several countries from the alliance have proposed that Kabul airport remain open for evacuations beyond 31 August to allow them to get more people out.\n\nThe BBC understands the UK is one of these countries, and is requesting an extension of a few days.\n\nSome fear they will not be able to evacuate all their citizens, or all the Afghans they believe to be in danger, as they struggle to process all those queuing at the airport and to step up the number of evacuation flights.\n\nJosep Borrell, the EU's foreign policy chief, told AFP news agency that it was \"mathematically impossible\" for the US to evacuate all Afghans with travel permits by 31 August.\n\nThe EU had \"complained\" to the US that their security was too strict and was stopping Afghans who had worked for Europeans to enter the airport, he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"You've seen my British passport, these are my children\"\n\nSpeaking at a rally in the US state of Alabama on Saturday, former President Donald Trump criticised Joe Biden's \"botched\" handling of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, describing it as the \"most astonishing display of gross incompetence by a nation's leader\".\n\nFormer UK Prime Minister Tony Blair - who sent British troops into Afghanistan 20 years ago - said Mr Biden's decision to withdraw from Afghanistan was \"imbecilic... tragic, dangerous and unnecessary\".\n\nIn his first public comments since the Taliban seized Kabul last Sunday, Mr Blair said in a statement on his institute's website that the UK had a \"moral obligation\" to stay in the country until \"all those who need to be are evacuated\".\n\nMeanwhile, the Taliban are trying to consolidate their control over Afghanistan.\n\nMullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the group's co-founder, has now arrived in Kabul and is set to join talks on establishing a new government.\n\nHe is the most senior Taliban leader now in the country and is likely to become a leading figure in any Taliban-led government.\n\nA Taliban official told Reuters news agency that they hoped to have a model for governing Afghanistan within the next few weeks.\n\nIt will not be a democracy like in the West but it will \"protect everyone's rights\", he told the agency.\n\nMr Baradar signed an agreement with the US in 2020, in which the US agreed to withdraw all its forces from Afghanistan.", "Scott Harrington hopes the door will be used as part of a current display in the British Motor Museum\n\nAn avid fan of Only Fools and Horses has donated a \"significant sum\" to charity for a red garage door which featured in the TV comedy series.\n\nDel Boy's red no. 22 lock-up in Bedminster, Bristol, was replaced in May as part of a council revamp.\n\nBristol City Council gave the door to the Bottle Yard Studios which offered it to collector Scott Harrington.\n\nMr Harrington said he hoped to set up a museum to display memorabilia so people \"could take a trip down memory lane\".\n\n\"What started as a hobby has turned into a real passion for us and we regularly showcase our items free of charge for charitable events.\n\n\"Our long-term aim is to create our own family museum where people can take a trip down memory lane with us to celebrate key moments in our history represented by our memorabilia, to keep these moments alive,\" he added.\n\nThe garage doors which were a backdrop for scenes in the TV series\n\nHe also said he and his wife were in talks with the National Lottery Heritage Fund to help fund this venture.\n\nIn the meantime they hope the door will be displayed at the British Motor Museum in Warwickshire, alongside the Reliant Regal car from the show which is also there.\n\nThe council-owned garages in Duckmoor Road were built in 1962 at a similar time to the three high-rise blocks nearby - Southbow House, Winterstoke House and Whitemead House.\n\nWhitemead House featured as a filming location in Only Fools and Horses, portraying the exterior of Del Boy's fictional Nelson Mandela House which was supposed to be in Peckham.\n\nSite co-ordinator at the Bottle Yard Studios, Emma Reid said: \"The door represents a small but fun slice of British TV history made here in Bristol and we wanted to make sure it would be preserved for the future.\n\n\"When we found out about the other Only Fools and Horses items Scott had already collected, it seemed like the perfect home for it.\"\n\nThe donation has gone to the Film and TV Charity to help the industry recover from the pandemic.\n\nThe high-rise flats in the background were those used as the fictional Peckham home of Del Boy\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk\n• None Which memorabilia would you pay £££ for?", "Singer R. Kelly listens to his former tour manager testify at his trial in Brooklyn, New York\n\nA former tour manager for US R&B singer R. Kelly has testified that he bribed a government worker in 1994 to obtain a fake ID for then 15-year-old Aaliyah - so the singers could marry.\n\nDemetrius Smith said he paid $500 (£367) for an ID used by Mr Kelly, then 27, to wed Aaliyah, who was under age.\n\nMr Smith was giving evidence after he was granted immunity from prosecution.\n\nMr Kelly is on trial accused of sexual abuse, racketeering and bribery. He has denied the charges.\n\nSpeaking at the singer's trial on Friday in Brooklyn, New York, Mr Smith said the decision to obtain the document was made by Mr Kelly's \"associates\" after Aaliyah had said she was pregnant.\n\nR. Kelly wrote and produced Aaliyah's debut album, titled Age Ain't Nothing But A Number\n\nHe said that when he questioned the idea, pointing out that the teenager - whose full name was Aaliyah Dana Haughton - was \"too young\", he was asked \"whose side I was on\".\n\nMr Smith, 65, told the court that he then \"went to the welfare office, and I walked in, and I said: 'Hey, want to make some money?'\"\n\nEarlier court documents reportedly said the bribe was paid on 30 August 1994 - just one day before the marriage licence was issued.\n\nThe certificate, leaked at the time, listed Aaliyah's age as 18. The marriage was annulled months later.\n\nAaliyah died in a plane crash in 2001, aged 22. Her debut album, Age Ain't Nothing But a Number, was produced and written by R. Kelly.\n\nMr Kelly, 54, full name Robert Sylvester Kelly, is on trial also accused of being the ringleader of a two-decade-long scheme where he recruited women and underage girls for sex.\n\nIf he is convicted on all counts he could be sentenced to several decades in prison.\n\nThe singer is best known for hits including I Believe I Can Fly, Bump n' Grind and If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time.\n\nProsecutors have claimed the singer used bodyguards, drivers, lawyers and accountants to cover up his alleged crimes, and blackmailed victims by photographing and filming them having sex and then threatening to release the tapes.\n\nEven if he is acquitted, Mr Kelly still faces sex-related charges in Illinois and Minnesota, where he has also pleaded not guilty.\n\nHe has been in jail for the last two years and was moved in June to Brooklyn from Chicago for the trial.", "Pepper spray was used against some protesters in Melbourne\n\nPolice in the Australian cities of Melbourne and Sydney have clashed with thousands of people protesting against Covid lockdowns.\n\nIn Melbourne, mounted officers used pepper spray when elements of a 4,000-strong rally broke through police lines.\n\nPolice arrested 218 people, and at least seven officers were injured.\n\nIn Sydney, where lockdown measures have been extended for another month, more than 1,000 officers dispersed protests.\n\nIt came as the state of New South Wales (NSW), of which Sydney is the capital, recorded 825 new locally-acquired cases, the highest number for any Australian territory in a 24-hour period.\n\nIn Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, more than 2,000 protesters gathered before holding a largely peaceful march.\n\nPolice in the state of Victoria condemned the violence that broke out in Melbourne on Saturday.\n\n\"While there were some peaceful protesters in attendance, the majority of those who attended came with violence in mind,\" a spokeswoman said, quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald.\n\n\"The behaviour seen by police was so hostile and aggressive that they were left with no choice but to use all tactics available to them.\"\n\nMore than 4,000 anti-lockdown protesters gathered in central Melbourne\n\nAll those arrested face fines of A$5,452 (£2,850) for breaching Covid regulations, police said. Three people were also charged with assaulting police.\n\nStay-at-home orders were extended across Victoria on Saturday in a bid to contain a widening outbreak of Covid cases.\n\nThe protests in Sydney were smaller, with about 250 people taking part.\n\nDeputy NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon told reporters that one officer had been injured after being dragged into a road by a protester and that 47 arrests had been made.\n\nHe said police had stopped about 38,000 cars heading into the city centre and handed out 260 infringement notices to people across the state suspected of breaching lockdown regulations. He called the actions of the protesters \"deplorable\", saying the police response was not about stopping free speech but stopping the spread of coronavirus.\n\nPolice in Sydney also made dozens of arrests\n\nAbout 1,500 officers were deployed to disperse the protesters in Sydney and NSW police minister David Elliott said they had done an \"exemplary\" job.\n\nThe protests came hours after a lockdown in Sydney was extended until the end of September to slow the spread of a Covid outbreak.\n\nAuthorities also imposed a curfew on two million residents in the city's worst-hit suburbs.\n\nSydney residents have been under stay-at-home orders since late June. However, infections have more than doubled in the past week.\n\nCritics of the curfew say they do not think it is an effective virus control. NSW lawmakers have also criticised authorities for applying harsher restrictions in Sydney's poorer west and south-west suburbs.\n\nAustralia has been widely praised for its pandemic response and has recorded 978 deaths, fewer than many nations. But the emergence of the Delta variant in early June triggered a surge of infections.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada is a political and religious leader who is the third Supreme Commander of the Taliban\n\nThe Taliban took many by surprise as they swept across Afghanistan in just 10 days in August, quickly taking control of towns and cities.\n\nThe militant group has announced an interim government, declaring the country an \"Islamic Emirate\".\n\nThe cabinet will be led by Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, one of the movement's founders.\n\nSo, here's what is known about who is leading the Taliban today.\n\nHibatullah Akhundzada became the supreme commander of the Taliban in May 2016, and is now leader of the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.\n\nIn the 1980s, he participated in the Islamist resistance against the Soviet military campaign in Afghanistan, but his reputation is more that of a religious leader than a military commander.\n\nAkhundzada worked as head of the Sharia Courts in the 1990s.\n\nAfter first seizing power in the 1990s, the Taliban introduced and supported punishments according to their strict interpretation of Islamic law: they publicly executed murderers and adulterers and amputated thieves' limbs.\n\nUnder the leadership of the reclusive Mullah Mohammed Omar (who is thought to have died in 2013), the Taliban also banned television, music, movies, make-up, and stopped girls aged 10 and over from attending school.\n\nVery few images exist of former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, who died in 2013\n\nAkhundzada is believed to be in his 60s and has lived most of his life in Afghanistan.\n\nHowever, according to experts, he maintains close ties with the so-called \"Quetta Shura\" - the Afghan Taliban leaders said to be based in the Pakistani city of Quetta.\n\nAs the group's supreme commander, Akhundzada is in charge of political, military and religious affairs.\n\nMullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund is one of the four men who founded the Taliban in Afghanistan in 1994.\n\nHe is a longtime head the Taliban's powerful leadership council, or Rehbari Shura.\n\nHe served as foreign minister and deputy prime minister during the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan in 1996-2001.\n\nHe is under UN sanctions for his role in the government during that period.\n\nSirajuddin Haqqani is another of the group's top figures, who is on an FBI most wanted list.\n\nAfter the death of his father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, he became the new leader of the Haqqani network, which has been credited with some of the most violent attacks that have occurred in Afghanistan against Afghan forces and their Western allies in recent years.\n\nThe Haqqani network is currently one of the region's most powerful and feared militant groups. Some say it is even more influential than the Islamic State group in Afghanistan.\n\nThe Haqqani network is currently one of the most powerful and feared militant groups in the country\n\nThe group, designated by the US as a terrorist organisation, oversees the Taliban's financial and military assets along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.\n\nHaqqani is believed to be around 45.\n\nIn an opinion piece in the New York Times last year before the signing of the Doha agreement, Haqqani wrote: \"For more than four decades, precious Afghan lives have been lost every day. Everyone has lost somebody they loved. Everyone is tired of war. I am convinced that the killing and the maiming must stop.\"\n\nHe became a lynchpin of the insurgency after the militants were toppled by the US-led invasion in 2001.\n\nBut he was captured in a joint US-Pakistani operation in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi in February 2010.\n\nHe remained in prison for eight years, until he was released as part of a plan to facilitate the peace process. He has been the head of their political office in Qatar since January 2019.\n\nIn 2020, Baradar became the first Taliban leader to communicate directly with a US president after having a telephone conversation with Donald Trump. Before that, Baradar signed the Doha agreement on the withdrawal of US troops on behalf of the Taliban.\n\nThen US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Abdul Ghani Baradar met in September 2020 in Doha\n\nMohammad Yaqoob is the son of the founder of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammed Omar.\n\nHe is believed to be little more than 30 years old and is currently the leader of the group's military operations.\n\nFollowing the death of former Taliban leader Akhtar Mansour in 2016, some militants wanted to appoint Yaqoob as the group's new supreme commander, but others felt that he was young and lacking in experience.\n\nAs the Taliban advanced through the country, Yaqoob urged Taliban fighters not to harm members of the Afghan military or government and to stay out of abandoned homes of government and security officials who had fled, according to the Associated Press news agency.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nRomelu Lukaku scored his first ever Chelsea goal - almost a decade after his debut - as Thomas Tuchel's team deservedly beat Arsenal.\n\nLukaku, who was at Chelsea as a teenager, started at the Emirates after his £97.5m signing from Inter Milan and looks to have given the Blues an ominous new dimension.\n\nHis hold-up and link-up play caused Arsenal problems all day - and the Belgian duly gave them the lead.\n\nLukaku was involved in the build-up and then finished the move from close range into an empty net from Reece James' pass.\n\nJames got the second himself as he slammed the ball into the roof of the net from Mason Mount's pass to make it two wins from two in the league.\n\nLukaku almost made it 3-0 but his header was tipped onto the bar by Bernd Leno.\n\nArsenal, missing centre-back Ben White through Covid, have now lost more London derbies in the Premier League this season than last - after just two games.\n\nIt is only the third time Arsenal have lost their opening two Premier League matches in a season.\n• None Follow reaction to the game here\n• None Everything you need to know about Arsenal, all in one place\n• None Everything you need to know about Chelsea, all in one place\n\nEuropean champions Chelsea were already being tipped as major title contenders, having been one of the best teams around since Tuchel's arrival in January.\n\nThe one thing they lacked last season was a prolific goalscorer - but they now have that in Lukaku.\n\nFive days short of a decade after his Chelsea debut, this was his 16th appearance for the club - having been at West Brom, Everton, Manchester United and Inter Milan in the interim.\n\nAnd he gives the Blues a focal point up top and the clinical finisher that they have missed.\n\nThe 28-year-old opened the scoring when he held the ball up before playing it to Kovacic and then leaving Pablo Mari on the turf as he raced into the six-yard box to finish from James' cross.\n\nHe was also tackled by Granit Xhaka in the build-up to the second goal.\n\nChelsea could have had more goals - with Lukaku having eight of their 22 efforts himself - including the one Leno tipped onto the woodwork.\n\nKai Havertz went close to a third as well from Lukaku's pass but Leno stopped his shot with his legs.\n\nThe worry for Chelsea's title rivals will be in trying to find any weaknesses.\n\nTheir defence is almost unbreachable at times, midfielders N'Golo Kante - who was a second-half substitute - and Jorginho are two-thirds of the shortlist for the Uefa player of the year award, and Mount and Kai Havertz support Lukaku up front.\n\nNext up will be their biggest test of the season yet, away to Liverpool - who are also on six points - on Saturday.\n\nArsenal had never opened a league campaign with two defeats and no goals in their previous 117 seasons of existence - until now.\n\nThe Gunners, who lost 2-0 to Brentford in the season opener, started the game well in front of their biggest home crowd in almost 18 months.\n\nBukayo Saka laid the ball off for Emile Smith Rowe, whose 25-yard shot was saved early on.\n\nThe fans were on their feet cheering a good Nicolas Pepe run, but it eventually led to nothing - and they looked beaten from the moment Lukaku scored.\n\nTheir left side was exposed by James for both goals.\n\nJames was involved at the other end too - Arsenal felt they should have had a penalty when he shoved over England team-mate Saka. After a long video assistant referee review, the referee's decision not to give the penalty stood.\n\nIf Rob Holding had scored with a header from eight yards out in the second half, that could have sparked a comeback but he headed wide.\n\nArsenal have injury and illness problems - with £50m centre-back White out with Covid, Alexandre Lacazette recovering from the illness and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang only fit for the bench after catching the virus too.\n\nBut all signs are already pointing to another season of struggle. After two eighth-placed finishes in a row, could it get even worse?\n\nAugust 1992 was the first month of the Premier League. That was the last time before now Arsenal were in the relegation zone at the end of a day with more than one game played.\n\nMikel Arteta's side play West Brom in the EFL Cup on Wednesday, and their next league game is at champions Manchester City next Sunday.\n• None Attempt missed. Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Marcos Alonso.\n• None Attempt blocked. Hakim Ziyech (Chelsea) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Jorginho.\n• None Attempt saved. Kai Havertz (Chelsea) right footed shot from the right side of the six yard box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Romelu Lukaku.\n• None Attempt blocked. Reece James (Chelsea) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked.\n• None Substitution, Arsenal. Folarin Balogun replaces Gabriel Martinelli because of an injury.\n• None Attempt saved. Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea) header from the centre of the box is saved in the top right corner. Assisted by Mason Mount. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"You've seen my British passport, these are my children\"\n\n\"Get back, get back,\" screamed the British soldier at a crowd gathered in front of the secure compound where those being evacuated by the UK embassy are taken before flying out.\n\nIn front of him, many frantically waved their British passports in the air, hoping to be allowed through but a group of Afghan security guards wielding rubber hoses tried to push them back.\n\nMany in the crowd had not received any indication they would be evacuated, but had pitched up in any case, desperate for a route out of Afghanistan. Others, however, had received emails from the embassy telling them arrive here, and wait to be processed for a flight.\n\nThey include Helmand Khan, an Uber driver from west London, who had arrived with his young children in Afghanistan a few months back to visit relatives. He thrusts a handful of British passports towards me. \"For the last three days I'm trying to go inside,\" he tells me in despair, with his two young sons by his side.\n\nAlso here is Khalid, a former interpreter for the British army. His wife gave birth to a child just two weeks ago, and he's terrified the baby could die in such scenes. \"I've been here since the morning,\" he says, \"the Taliban lashed me on the back on my way.\"\n\nA short walk away is the main entrance to the compound. Thousands have turned up, the vast majority with no realistic prospect of being evacuated. British soldiers at times fired into the air to control the crowd. The only way to get inside is to somehow push your way through the crowd, and wave your documents in their faces, hoping they will allow you past. The situation seems even more chaotic at the airport gates manned by US soldiers, while in front of the main civilian entrance to the airport the Taliban have been regularly firing into the air and beating back crowds who try and surge inside.\n\nI'm constantly bombarded with questions by the Afghans who are trying to enter the British controlled compound, and who are at a total loss as to what to do. \"Can you help me?\" \"Will they let me in?\" Many try to show me documents they've brought with them, proving they spent time working with international forces or foreign embassies.\n\nOne young woman tells me she was an international basketball player. She has not had any contact with the British embassy, but says she's in fear for her life. She chokes up trying to describe her terror.\n\nThe Taliban insist all those linked to the government have been granted an amnesty. The group says it intends to establish an \"inclusive\" government, but many here are deeply anxious about the future.\n\nElsewhere in the city, things are far calmer. It feels like a different world. Shops and restaurants are opening up, though at a fruit and vegetable market stallholders tell me there are still significantly fewer people out and about. One man, selling cosmetic products, says there are far fewer women in particular, though it's not uncommon to see them on the streets.\n\nThe Taliban meanwhile are everywhere, patrolling in vehicles seized from the Afghan security forces. They say they're maintaining a presence to prevent looting and unrest, and some residents tell us they do feel more secure, not least because the militants are no longer carrying out targeted killings or bomb blasts.\n\nMany are still trying to establish what life under Taliban rule will look like. One taxi driver tells me he ferried a group of fighters across the city whilst playing music from the car stereo. \"They didn't say anything,\" he tells me whilst grinning, \"they're not strict like they were before.\"\n\nKhalid, a former interpreter for the British army, waits outside with his family\n\nBut other reports are emerging of the Taliban turning up at the homes of journalists or former government figures and questioning them. Many fear it's only a matter of time before they're targeted violently.\n\nBack close to the airport, and Khalid, the former interpreter with a young baby finally manages to make it into the holding compound.\n\nOthers are still struggling though and one British Afghan pleads with me to help. \"How can I take my children through this crowd,\" he asks? Many others, not eligible for evacuation but desperate to leave, will be left behind to face a deeply uncertain future.", "A concert in New York City's Central Park had to be stopped because of the approaching severe weather\n\nResidents on the US East Coast have been urged to prepare for one of the most powerful storms in years.\n\nTropical Storm Henri, which is expected to hit New York's Long Island and southern parts of New England on Sunday, has weakened from a hurricane.\n\nBut officials say the threats to the region remain high.\n\nA state of emergency has been declared in parts of New York state as winds of up to 75mph (120km/h) and as much as six inches (15cm) of rain are expected.\n\nOn Saturday - when the storm was initially upgraded to a hurricane - Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Deanne Criswell told CNN that \"even if it doesn't make landfall as a hurricane, the tropical force winds and the storm surge can cause significant damage\".\n\n\"We're going to see power outages, we're going to see downed trees, and even after the storm has passed, the threat of falling trees and limbs is still out there,\" she added.\n\nOn Saturday evening, a concert taking place in New York City's Central Park was abruptly stopped \"due to approaching severe weather\", police said.\n\nAbout 60,000 people were thought to be attending the \"homecoming\" concert - a celebration of the city's return to hosting large events following the restrictions caused by the pandemic.\n\nThe line-up of artists included Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, Paul Simon and also Barry Manilow - whose performance was cut short as concert-goers were told to make their way to the nearest exits.\n\nThis 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 Megan Palin 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.\n\nAbout six million people living near the coast in parts of Long Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts had been issued with hurricane warnings before the storm was downgraded.\n\nMore than 36 million people in large parts of southern New England as well as New York and New Jersey had received tropical storm warnings.\n\nNew York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency for Long Island and New York City as well as other parts of the state, pleading with residents: \"Please take this storm seriously.\"\n\nMassachusetts has closed its parks and beaches until Monday, the office of Governor Charlie Baker said.\n\nWith about 300,000 people predicted to lose electricity, officials urged \"all residents... to begin storm preparations today, and to pay close attention to local weather\".\n\nThis 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 2 by National Hurricane Center 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.", "A woman buries her head in her hands at the airport as thousands try to flee\n\nLast Sunday, as Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, a woman in Kabul and her teenage son packed their lives into two leather suitcases and set out for the airport.\n\nIn the suitcases were jewellery, watches, cash, hard drives and work papers, and what clothes they could fit, including winter clothes, in case they ended up somewhere cold.\n\nThe woman, D, didn't live in Kabul. She had already been running for a week. Her journey began when she fled the border city she called home as Taliban fighters closed in. As an outspoken women's rights activist, she didn't feel safe there anymore.\n\nIn Kabul, in a dress, headscarf, mask and gloves, D tried to find a taxi to take her and her son to the airport. Eventually she gave up and they walked for an hour in the bristling heat, carrying their suitcases.\n\nThe airport was a maelstrom of chaos. Men, women and children were scaling the airport walls, milling on the tarmac, squatting around the taxiways, sitting atop parked planes. Young men were clinging to departing US Air Force planes in a doomed bid for freedom.\n\nDusk fell on the beleaguered city, and D and her son waited patiently for a flight. Then they gave up. As they stepped back out into the hot night, they encountered a rush of people towards the airport. They were engulfed by the crowd, and someone among them snatched their bags.\n\n\"We helplessly saw them being stolen in front of our eyes,\" D told me down the phone from Kabul, her voice trembling.\n\n\"They just ran away with our bags,\" she said. \"We lost everything again.\"\n\n\"Things have been stolen from me for as long as I remember - my childhood, my youth,\" she said. \"My work and my family saved me.\"\n\nWith huge crowds gathered, many have failed to even get close to the airport\n\nFor close to two decades, D has run a women's rights group in Afghanistan, teaching girls to read and providing women with shelter, counselling and training for jobs.\n\nNow she feared retribution. Some of the fathers, husbands, brothers, uncles, and fiancés of the women she helped went to prison. In their march towards Kabul, the Taliban freed inmates from several prisons, and some of those men now could be roaming free.\n\n\"I am sure they came looking for me,\" D said. \"I don't know what would have happened if I didn't flee in time.\"\n\nD and her son fled her hometown days before the Taliban arrived. They took separate flights to Kabul, and her husband travelled later by road - a two day journey. After she reached the capital, D spoke to the guard at their building back home. He told her some men had come to the apartment.\n\n\"The first night after invasion they came looking for us,\" she said. \"They knocked on the door. The guard refused to open.\"\n\nThe guard told her he heard the men through the door, discussing plans to shoot him and search the apartment, but they left instead. The next morning, the men came again, climbed the wall, and entered the house. They peppered him with questions: Where were D and her family? Where were their cars?\n\n\"Since then, every night they have come looking for me. Every night. They have ransacked our home,\" D said. \"I don't know who they were. They wore scarves. I heard they were accompanied by local Taliban who stood behind.\"\n\nThe Taliban took control of Kabul with barely any resistance\n\nD's life is one of immense courage in the face of violence. During the war between the Soviet forces and the mujahedeen, she survived rocket attacks on her school. Her headmistress was murdered for refusing to wear a headscarf, she said. Another teacher was killed for alleged communist sympathies.\n\nAfter school she moved to Kabul. During the civil war of the 1990s, she got married, finished her studies, had children, and kept moving homes as the war wrecked neighbourhood after neighbourhood.\n\n\"It was like we were leading a life of picnickers,\" she said. \"Every time the fighting arrived in my neighbourhood, we would just pick up our bedding and move.\"\n\nWhen the Taliban seized control of the city in 1996, D lost her job. She returned to her looted apartment in Kabul and, defying a Taliban ban, began teaching girls from there. In the apartment at least, there was an oven on hand to burn the teaching materials if the need arose.\n\nIn 2001, a new war started, but the ousting of the Taliban allowed her to teach again at least. And she went on to do much more for Afghanistan's women and girls. It was never easy, she said.\n\n\"I have struggled all my life. I have never really enjoyed it. Even when you are working for women in Afghanistan, you are making enemies and becoming targets of many men.\"\n\nGirls have been taught in schools alongside boys since the Taliban was ousted in 2001. Now many fear for girls' education.\n\nAs the Taliban approached her hometown two weeks ago, D feared she would become a target again. When her three sons were young, the family received threats to kidnap them because of her work, she said. Two of her sons were sent abroad while the US kept the Taliban at bay. The eldest hasn't seen his father in a decade; the youngest in three years.\n\nLast Sunday, as Kabul fell, the three family members left in Afghanistan hunkered down once again in fear and anxiety.\n\n\"I am tired mum,\" D's son told her. \"How long should we run and hide because of your work? Why do we have to pay the price for what you do?\"\n\n\"My work and family were my only happiness,\" she said. \"They have stolen my happiness.\"\n\nAs the week ended, some hope arrived. D got word that there might be seats on a plane for her, her husband, and her son - either to the US or Europe.\n\nThey went back to the airport and waited again - on the run for the third time in three weeks. This time they took just three small bags containing their valuables. \"There's really nothing else to carry,\" D told me, over the phone from the airport. \"We will buy clothes when I reach wherever they take us.\"\n\nI asked her if her son was feeling better.\n\n\"Not really,\" she said. \"Running away was never his choice. It's always been a question of survival. It is the price my family has paid for my work.\"\n\nWhen she woke him on Friday to tell him they were going back to the airport he said, \"I want to sleep and I want to be free.\"\n\nThis was our last conversation, on Friday. D was in limbo, like thousands of others. Destination unknown. Life precarious. Jolted suddenly into a different existence.\n\n\"I didn't expect this to happen and so fast,\" she said. \"We had just finished painting the house. We were hoping to enjoy a peaceful life next year.\"", "New Zealand is grappling with dozens of infections\n\nThe arrival of the highly infectious Delta variant \"does raise some big questions\" about New Zealand's pandemic response, a minister has said.\n\nCovid-19 response minister Chris Hipkins said the variant \"changes the game considerably\" and makes existing protections \"look less adequate\".\n\nIt comes as the country announced a further 21 confirmed cases in the latest outbreak of the virus.\n\nNew Zealand had quashed earlier Covid outbreaks with rapid, strict lockdowns.\n\nThe country was praised for its efforts, which effectively stopped the spread of the virus. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has repeatedly referred to New Zealand as \"our team of five million\".\n\nAccording to Johns Hopkins University data, there have been 3,016 total confirmed cases in the country, and 26 reported deaths.\n\nBut authorities recently announced a snap lockdown after one man tested positive in Auckland with the Delta variant.\n\nThere are now 72 active cases. Seven schools in the city have reported positive cases among students, and the country has also announced six infections in the capital, Wellington.\n\nOfficials are now warning that they will probably extend the Auckland lockdown, which is set to expire on Tuesday.\n\nSpeaking to the media on Sunday, Mr Hipkins said eliminating the virus inside New Zealand was still the government's aim.\n\n\"The reality though is that a virus that can be infectious within 24 hours of someone getting it - that changes the game considerably,\" he told the televised Q+A political talk show on Sunday.\n\n\"It does mean that all of our existing protections... start to look less adequate and less robust,\" he said, adding that it raises \"some pretty big questions about what the long-term future of our plans are\".\n\n\"At some point we will have to start to be more open in the future.\"\n\nAccording to the New Zealand ministry of health website, as of Thursday more than 960,000 people were double vaccinated, and nearly 1.7 million had received a first dose, in a population of just under five million.\n\nBut critics have questioned the speed of the vaccine rollout. New Zealand has one of the lowest number of fully vaccinated people among the OECD - an international group of countries that are among the world's most prosperous economies.\n\nEarlier this month Prime Minister Ardern announced that national borders would remain closed until the end of this year. The aim was to vaccinate the population by then, she said.\n\nAfter that the country would move to a new individual risk-based model for quarantine-free travel.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jacinda Ardern: 'We cannot keep NZ border restrictions forever'", "A week after the Taliban takeover of the country, many Afghans are uncertain of what it will mean for their lives and their safety. Here, a young female student shares her fears about her future. The BBC is not identifying her to protect her safety.\n\n\"It is the seventh day since the country collapsed, the president escaped, and the Taliban, once again, came to power.\n\nFear has taken over my whole being, and as the days pass, I can feel how hope fades away from within me. It gets replaced with frustration. All I can see is darkness, uncertainty, and a not so bright future.\n\nI will be killed certainly. I have reasons to be...\n\nThis is how it feels when the ones you are afraid of occupy the country.\n\nImagine being on a long road, with no end, with hazy weather; alone.\n\nI have witnessed so many hurdles in my life, many that no other girl would be able to tolerate. I could manage to overcome them, but this...\n\nHey world, do you care what happens here? Do we matter to you? Do you see us? Do you?\n\nFor those who are listening, for those who care, I am writing this. I am saying this.\n\nWe are suffering here, we are being left behind.\n\nLiving with fear is no less than death. It is worse.\n\nIf you are listening to us, help us. Help us survive, and once again believe in light and rise; stronger than before.\n\nWe want our country back. Want our people to live the way they want, the way they deserve.\n\nTell your countries to stop war - war is ugly, it has a dirty face, it has no winner. The heart is too tiny to bear war, to bear its consequences.\n\nWe are the fruit of war, some young girls drown in uncertainties, in fear, in doubts... looking for somebody to help us survive. Looking at our families and crying for being unable to do anything.\n\nLooking at the sky and asking from him: do you see us, will you help us? Shall I have hope, that little hope!\n\nHey world, hey people living out there, lucky you! I envy the life you live.\n\nLook at us. I was the one with so many big dreams, dreams of helping others and now I am seeking help.\n\nThis is war. Will I be able to ever say: We did it? We could make it? Will I?\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How Afghanistan's media is changing under Taliban rule", "The crash happened in Whisby Road in Lincoln\n\nFive people were left seriously injured when two cars hit spectators at a car meet.\n\nPolice said the cars were being driven at high speed in front of a large crowd when they crashed in Whisby Road, Lincoln, at about 22:00 BST on Saturday.\n\nOne of those injured was described as being in a critical condition.\n\nDet Supt Peter Grayson, of Lincolnshire Police, urged anyone with dashcam or mobile phone footage to contact them.\n\nHe said: \"This is a very serious collision with profound physical consequences for those injured.\n\n\"The event had a large crowd, and we would like to speak to anyone who has not yet been spoken to as part of our investigations.\"\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Hollie spent months in hospital and nearly died after a kidney infection led to sepsis and a cardiac arrest\n\nA teenager who dreamed of a place in Wales' national football team says there needs to be better care for young adults, after sepsis left her disabled.\n\nHollie Smith, 19, from Cardiff, was set for a trial to get into the women's team when she was struck down by a kidney infection last year.\n\nIt developed into sepsis, her heart stopped, and the young striker was left needing round-the-clock care.\n\nHollie said more care facilities for young people were urgently needed.\n\n\"When I woke up from my cardiac arrest, I had lost the use of my right side - I could no longer stand, sit up, eat, dress, look after or wash and toilet myself,\" said Hollie.\n\n\"Considering I was about to trial for the Welsh national football ladies' team before going into hospital this was all a bit of a shock.\"\n\nPromising young footballer Hollie was about to have a trial for the Wales football team when she became ill\n\nAmid struggles with her mental health as she tried to adapt to such a brutal change, Hollie underwent months of intensive physiotherapy, which restored some of the movement she had lost.\n\nOn returning home from hospital in December, she faced a new routine of two carers, four times a day, helping her with even the most basic of tasks.\n\nAfter six weeks, disaster struck and she developed sepsis a second time - which affected her kidneys, lungs and brain.\n\nHollie was put in an induced coma for more than two weeks and was told she was \"very lucky\" to survive.\n\nBut life has since consisted of a hospital bed in the living room, with bumpers to protect her from injury when having seizures, a full ceiling hoist, a team of carers, and a daily cocktail of medications.\n\nJust weeks after returning home, Hollie developed sepsis for a second time and was put in an induced coma\n\n\"I can't do the most basic of tasks, whereas I'm watching other people my age going to university and driving, and what a normal teenager or young adult should be doing,\" she said.\n\n\"It's been pretty horrendous to be honest - I think only now is it all starting to sink in.\n\n\"I do try to be positive but at the moment it's quite hard, because with Covid, everything that needs to be done is considerably slower because of the pandemic.\"\n\nIncredibly - and with a fierce determination common in many sportspeople - the former footballer has been planning for the future and how she could use her experiences to help others.\n\n\"My personal goals are to go to college and resit my A-levels in order to give me a stepping stone to go on to university and study medicine.\n\n\"I also hope to start campaigning for better young disabled adults' facilities.\n\n\"Now, the long-term outlook for recovery is poor. However, I do hope in the future that I will be able to sit up with minimal assistance and be able to propel myself in a wheelchair and find a new sport to get into.\"\n\nHer family said they hoped to adapt their home to give Hollie as much independence as possible and have also been trying to raise funds for private physiotherapy and a personal-use defibrillator.\n\nHollie added she hoped to have enough for a holiday with carers provided \"so that my parents get a break too\".\n\nHollie's trophies: She's set herself fresh life challenges - including passing her A-levels exams, and wanting to study medicine\n\nIn the meantime, Hollie has highlighted that although her care has been excellent, there should be better facilities when young people experience sepsis or are learning to adapt to disability.\n\n\"I've been told that I meet the threshold for residential care. However, the only places I could go would be a care for the elderly facility, or a place for people with learning difficulties, and neither would really be able to meet my needs,\" she said.\n\n\"Also in hospital there is a children's hospital but no transition for young adults - I was on a ward with dementia patients and people sometimes four times my age.\n\n\"I just want young adults to be able to have more suitable surroundings and activities to do in hospital. Also, even after being in hospital, a lot of social services and facilities care is geared towards the elderly and I just feel that needs to change.\"\n\nBut she was keen to stress that the hospital team at University Hospital of Wales \"were and still are amazing with me and my family and I owe my life to them\".\n\nHollie returned from hospital to a very different life, but is focusing on the future and campaigning for better facilities for other young people\n\nCardiff council said it was \"committed to working with individuals to find the best way of meeting their needs to ensure the best outcomes can be achieved\".\n\n\"Although every effort is made to offer different types of facilities and care services so that younger people can live independently whilst accessing the support they need, we do recognise that, due to the city's demographics, many services have a focus on older people.\n\n\"That said, care services are regularly reviewed, and in order to identify how we can best deliver high-quality services to younger people with disabilities in Cardiff, a partnership project is due to begin shortly which will help us make improvements which best meet the needs of everyone requiring care in Cardiff.\n\n\"Importantly, we will work with Cardiff and Vale University Health Board where care is shared between health and the council.\"\n\nThe health board said its patient experience team had contacted Hollie to share her experience \"including what aspects could have been better\".\n\n\"When patients are admitted to hospital they are triaged and are placed on a ward with access to the most appropriate clinical expertise for their needs so they get the right care and treatment at the right time,\" said a Cardiff and Vale health board official.\n\nA Welsh government said decision on appropriate care \"should be considered for patients on an individual basis in consultation with the clinician responsible for their care\".\n\nIt added: \"We expect health boards to ensure there is no loss in the quality of any service provided, there is on-going engagement and good patient experience in the handover and transition of care from paediatric to adult services.\"", "Kenya in east Africa is home to vulnerable and endangered species that include lions, giraffes and the world's only two surviving northern white rhino species.\n\nIt is also a transit route for migratory whales, dolphins and endangered turtles.\n\nThe BBC’s Ferdinand Omondi reports from the marine parks and forest reserves of coastal Kenya.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nGabriel Jesus made his first start of the season in Manchester City's big win on Saturday Pep Guardiola highlighted Gabriel Jesus' \"incredible importance\" to Manchester City after he stole the show from £100m man Jack Grealish in the champions' demolition of Norwich. Grealish opened his City account on his Premier League home debut, one of three goals Jesus laid on for his team-mates against the outclassed Canaries. The Brazil striker has been linked with a move away from Etihad Stadium as a way of opening up funds for the purchase of Harry Kane from Tottenham but Guardiola was thrilled with Jesus's contribution from the right side of the attack. \"If one person deserves respect and prizes and everything, it is him [Jesus] because he never complains. He is fantastic and all of us have to learn from him,\" the Manchester City manager told BBC Sport. \"He can play as a striker, he can play left, he can play right - always what the team needs. He can play 10 minutes from the bench and he will play the best 10 minutes he can play.\"\n• None Follow reaction plus the rest of Saturday's Premier League action\n• None Everything you need to know about Manchester City, all in one place\n• None Everything you need to know about Norwich City, all in one place Jesus is yet to become a regular starter under Guardiola, making 54 Premier League substitute appearances alongside 78 starts since joining the club from Palmeiras for £27m in 2016. But with Sergio Aguero departing for Barcelona in the summer and City's intentions regarding Kane still uncertain, Guardiola hinted he will call upon the 24-year-old more this term. \"He has so much importance for me. It's not just when he makes an exceptional performance like today, it's every day,\" Guardiola added. \"One of the reasons why I am a manager in the best moments of my career, apart from the titles and trophies, is because you can work with people like Gabriel. He is an incredibly important player for us.\" England midfielder Grealish ingratiated himself with his new adoring fans thanks to his goal and typically busy display, but it was Jesus who unlocked the Canaries' cage to ensure this was a stroll. His clever movement, control and delivery created three of City's five goals, all from low, inviting balls across the face of the six-yard box that wreaked havoc among the Norwich defence. There was some fortune about the first two as Grant Hanley's attempted clearance flew in off Norwich keeper Tim Krul before City's second bounced in off Grealish's knee. Jack Grealish's goal was his first since January, when he struck in Aston Villa's 3-2 defeat at Burnley However, the lead was just reward for the imperious hosts, who saw a neat Ferran Torres finish chalked off in-between those goals after the video assistant referee noticed Bernardo Silva's clip on Milot Rashica in the build-up. Aymeric Laporte added the third, steering home a corner from close range, before Jesus guided Kyle Walker's through ball into the path of Raheem Sterling for the substitute to sweep home City's fourth. Riyad Mahrez also came off the bench to round off the rout, beating Krul one-on-one as City emphatically put any lingering worries over three successive defeats - this season and last - behind them. Bigger tests, of course, await with Arsenal, Leicester, Chelsea and Liverpool among their next five fixtures - with defeats in the Champions League final, Community Shield and league to Chelsea, Leicester and Tottenham respectively still relatively fresh in the mind. \"One week ago, we are not contenders to win the Premier League. Now we are scary!\" smiled Guardiola. \"Listen, we are same team except for Sergio, who went to Barcelona, and Jack coming in. We are the same guys and the same team we were last season - and last season was exceptional.\" Only two teams - Leicester in 2001-02 and Wigan in 2010-11 - have had a goal difference worse than Norwich's of minus eight two games into a Premier League season but they will take some solace that Liverpool and City are already out of the way, until next year at least. This scoreline was a repeat of Norwich's most recent visit there in July 2020, which came just 10 months after they provided one of the most memorable all-time Premier League surprises by beating City 3-2 at Carrow Road. Teemu Pukki and Todd Cantwell, scorers that evening, are among a handful of players remaining but neither had a sniff on Saturday as Norwich failed to force Ederson into a single save. They were unfortunate for City's opener as Hanley's clearance was going out for a corner until it struck Krul, still stationed at his near post, but they did not learn from the mistake of allowing space out wide to manager Daniel Farke's frustration. \"I am disappointed because four times we conceded more or less the same goal. Of course they have unbelievable quality but we also have to fulfil our work with more quality,\" said the Canaries boss.\n• None Attempt missed. Raheem Sterling (Manchester City) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Riyad Mahrez following a corner.\n• None Attempt blocked. Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.\n• None Goal! Manchester City 5, Norwich City 0. Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Rúben Dias with a through ball.\n• None Offside, Norwich City. Max Aarons tries a through ball, but Milot Rashica is caught offside.\n• None Attempt missed. Milot Rashica (Norwich City) right footed shot from the left side of the box is close, but misses the top right corner following a fast break. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "Mrs Barrott worked as a nurse at St James's Hospital in Leeds\n\nA man has been charged with murdering his wife at the couple's home.\n\nNurse Eileen Barrott, 50, was found seriously injured in Naburn Fold, in the Whinmoor area of Leeds, last Sunday, but died at the scene.\n\nHer husband Mark Barrott, 54, was arrested near Elgin, in Scotland, in the early hours of Thursday.\n\nMr Barrott is due to appear at Leeds Magistrates' Court on Monday charged with murder.\n\nMrs Barrott worked as a nurse at St James's Hospital in Leeds.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Don and Phil Everly, seen here backstage on Top of the Pops, had hits including All I Have To Do Is Dream\n\nDon Everly, the surviving member of the rock 'n' roll duo The Everly Brothers, has died at the age of 84.\n\nA family spokesperson confirmed Everly's death to the Los Angeles Times, but did not disclose the cause.\n\nEverly and his brother, Phil, had hits worldwide in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including Bye Bye Love and All I Have To Do Is Dream.\n\nThey were known for their close harmonies, and influenced groups like The Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel.\n\nThe pair had an onstage breakup in 1973 that led to a decade-long estrangement, but Phil later told Time magazine that the brothers' relationship had survived this.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Don Everly: Looking back at the band that inspired the Beatles\n\nEverly died on Saturday at his home in Nashville, according to the family spokesperson.\n\n\"Don lived by what he felt in his heart. Don expressed his appreciation for the ability to live his dreams... with his soulmate and wife, Adela, and sharing the music that made him an Everly Brother,\" a statement said.\n\nThe Everly brothers were the children of country and western singers and performed on the family radio show while growing up.\n\nIn their heyday, between 1957 and 1962, they had 15 US top 10 hits. These included Bye Bye Love and Cathy's Clown.\n\nThe duo called it quits during a performance in California in 1973, in which Phil smashed his guitar and walked off stage.\n\nDuring their time apart, both pursued solo careers with limited success.\n\nThey reunited a decade later with a concert in London, followed by a comeback album.\n\nIn a 1986 interview with the Associated Press news agency, Don Everly said the two were successful because \"we never followed trends\".\n\n\"We did what we liked and followed our instincts. Rock 'n' roll did survive, and we were right about that. Country did survive, and we were right about that. You can mix the two but people said we couldn't,\" he said.\n\nThe Everly Brothers were elected to the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in its first year, 1986, and they were given a lifetime achievement award at the Grammys in 1997.\n\nRolling Stone magazine has described them as \"the most important vocal duo in rock\".\n• None Looking back at the band that inspired the Beatles. Video, 00:01:47Looking back at the band that inspired the Beatles", "Around 300,000 carbon dioxide monitors are to be made available to schools in England next term to help improve ventilation and lessen Covid outbreaks.\n\nThe Department for Education said the portable monitors could be used to identify areas where more air-flow is needed.\n\nTeaching unions have been calling for urgent extra ventilation measures.\n\nThey welcomed the pledge, but added any ventilation needs picked up by the monitors must be acted upon.\n\nMost Covid safety restrictions have been relaxed in England's schools. Neither masks, bubble groups nor socially distancing rules are required this coming term.\n\nMany schools have been opening windows and doors to keep air moving around classrooms to lessen the likelihood of Covid outbreaks, but this is easier in warmer weather.\n\nPupils will be offered twice weekly Covid testing and two tests at school when the autumn term starts to lessen the amount of infection coming into school.\n\nHowever, those who have come into contact with a confirmed case will no longer have to isolate.\n\nThe removal of restrictions has left teachers and some parents concerned that the mass-mixing of pupils may lead to a spike in Covid cases.\n\nEducation Secretary Gavin Williamson said: \"Providing all schools with CO2 monitors will help them make sure they have the right balance of measures in place, minimising any potential disruption to education and allowing them to focus on world class lessons and catch up for the children who need it.\n\n\"By keeping up simple measures such as ventilation and testing, young people can now enjoy more freedom at school and college,\" he added.\n\nThe DfE says it is prioritising special schools and alternative provision for the delivery of CO2 monitors, as they are likely to have higher rates of vulnerable pupils.\n\nBut a statement on Friday made clear that this £25m batch of CO2 monitors has yet to be fully procured, less than two weeks before many schools return.\n\nHowever, it said: \"All schools and colleges are expected to receive at least partial allocations during the autumn term, enabling all settings to monitor areas where they believe airflow may be weakest.\"\n\nGeoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: \"In truth, this equipment should have been in place ready for the start of the autumn term, and arguably a lot earlier in the crisis, but it is a case of better late than never.\n\n\"Government guidance to schools and colleges on reducing the risk of coronavirus transmission highlights the importance of keeping spaces well ventilated, but doesn't go much further than recommending that windows should be opened to improve natural ventilation.\n\n\"This is challenging in the depths of a British winter and does not make for an environment which is conducive to learning. Our understanding is that carbon dioxide monitors will indicate when spaces need ventilating thereby reducing the need to keep windows open all the time.\"\n\nKevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: \"This is a really welcome first step in accepting our argument that funding is needed for good ventilation.\n\n\"It follows examples set by administrations in New York City, Scotland and Ireland.\n\n\"Sadly, Gavin Williamson failed to get on the front-foot over the summer but the initial investment of £25m in CO2 monitors is welcome now and will start to make a difference. It is vital, though, that government must also commit to supporting schools to address any ventilation problems identified by these monitors.\"", "Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has been urged to step up efforts to get British and eligible Afghans to the UK, amid claims some had been attacked while waiting to leave the country.\n\nLisa Nandy said she had heard of people being beaten, shot at or raped while trying to get documentation in Kabul.\n\nThe shadow foreign secretary urged Mr Raab to work with Nato partners to set up a safe corridor to the airport.\n\nThe Foreign Office said it was trying to get people out as fast as possible.\n\nA spokeswoman said the government's \"top priority\" was to \"do all we can to deliver on our obligations to British nationals, and those who have helped us\".\n\nMore than 3,000 people, including British nationals and Afghan staff, have been evacuated from the country since Sunday, the Foreign Office said.\n\nThere have been chaotic scenes outside Kabul airport as thousands of Afghans have desperately sought to leave the country and governments have scrambled to evacuate their citizens and eligible Afghan colleagues.\n\nThe US has warned its citizens to avoid the airport, with continued chaos outside the terminal.\n\nFormer UK PM Tony Blair - who sent UK troops into Afghanistan 20 years ago - has said the UK has a \"moral obligation\" to stay in the country until \"all those who need to be are evacuated\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy says there are reports of beatings and rapes outside Kabul airport\n\nAbout 4,500 US troops are in temporary control of Hamid Karzai International Airport, with about 900 British soldiers also on patrol at the site as part of efforts to secure the evacuation flights.\n\nMs Nandy told BBC News: \"The fact that people are being asked to carry documentation that links them to the United Kingdom in order to prove their eligibility but that is the documentation that makes them a target for the Taliban who are checking those documents en route.\n\n\"There are no safe corridors to the airport, there are makeshift camps that have sprung up where people are being beaten and even reports of rapes.\"\n\nThe Labour MP wrote in the letter to Mr Raab: \"My office is currently in touch with hundreds of people who cannot reach the Baron Hotel or Hamid Karzai International Airport, have been beaten at checkpoints or turned away - some with young children.\"\n\nShe said many of those stranded at the airport perimeter were women or girls, asking Mr Raab to consider establishing a military policing operation with Nato allies \"just outside the gate, or a processing zone inside\".\n\nShe also said the Baron Hotel in Kabul, where many British nationals are being told to travel for processing, is being blockaded by the Taliban.\n\nAfghans have been waiting near the airport as they try to leave Kabul\n\nTaliban militants have been manning checkpoints around the perimeter of the airport and blocking Afghans without travel documents from entering.\n\nTwelve people have been killed in or around Kabul airport since Sunday, according to a Taliban official quoted by the Reuters news agency.\n\nBut even those with valid papers have struggled to get to the airport, with reports that some have been beaten by Taliban guards.\n\nThe US embassy in Afghanistan has issued a security alert advising American citizens not to travel to Kabul airport, warning of \"potential security threats outside the gates\", while other countries, including Switzerland and Germany, have raised concerns about the situation outside the airport.\n\nMs Nandy praised those - including military and diplomatic staff - \"working around the clock to help people in difficult and dangerous circumstances\". But she said \"many, many people\" were \"in danger of losing their lives\".\n\nAnother Labour MP, Chris Bryant, said there were many reports of British nationals and families being unable to reach the Foreign Office through its dedicated telephone helpline.\n\nHe said calls either go \"straight to a voicemail sending people back to the [government] website or nothing at all\".\n\nThe Foreign Office said the line for UK nationals to request consular support was working.\n\nMr Blair said the decision to withdraw troops was \"tragic, dangerous, unnecessary\" and that it was not in the West or Afghanistan's interests. He said the move by US troops had \"every Jihadist group round the world cheering\".\n\nThe former Labour leader said: \"We must evacuate and give sanctuary to those to whom we have responsibility - those Afghans who helped us and stood by us and have a right to demand we stand by them.\n\n\"There must be no repetition of arbitrary deadlines. We have a moral obligation to keep at it until all those who need to be are evacuated. And we should do so not grudgingly but out of a deep sense of humanity and responsibility.\"\n\nThe US has a planned deadline of 31 August for withdrawal - but President Biden has said troops may stay past this date to help with evacuations.\n\nMr Blair admitted mistakes had been made over Afghanistan, but \"the reaction to our mistakes have been unfortunately further mistakes\". He said while \"imperfect\", the \"real gains over the past 20 years\" were now likely to be lost.\n\nSir Laurie Bristow, British ambassador to Afghanistan, has said the evacuation from Kabul has been \"without a doubt\" his greatest international challenge.\n\nThe diplomat has stayed in Afghanistan to help process visas, relocating from the embassy to an emergency handling centre at the city's airport.\n\nHe added that his team would continue to \"work tirelessly to get British nationals, Afghan staff and others at risk out of the country as quickly as possible as we also support Afghanistan's long-term future\".\n\nPen Farthing insists he will not leave Afghanistan without his staff and the charity's rescued animals\n\nMeanwhile, a former Royal Marine who founded an animal welfare charity in Kabul said he was now \"in talks\" with the Foreign Office about getting his staff out of Afghanistan.\n\nPaul \"Pen\" Farthing said 68 workers and their families were being processed, so they could \"hopefully\" come to the UK.\n\nThe Foreign Office confirmed it was in contact with Mr Farthing, with a spokeswoman saying it was \"working closely with the Home Office to offer assistance\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"You've seen my British passport, these are my children\"\n\nOn Thursday, Mr Farthing wrote on Twitter that his wife, Kaisa, had made it on to an evacuation flight out of the capital, Kabul.\n\nThis 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 Pen Farthing 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.\n\nSharing a photograph of the \"empty\" flight, he said the situation was \"scandalous as thousands wait outside Kabul airport being crushed as they cannot get in\", before warning people would get \"left behind\" in Afghanistan.\n\nHowever, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has insisted that no plane carrying Britons and Afghans to the UK has left Kabul empty, adding the government was \"absolutely ploughing through the numbers\".\n\nThe MoD has released a picture of people on an evacuation flight out of Kabul", "The Ever Given, part of the Evergreen fleet, was impounded for three months after its release\n\nThe huge container ship that blocked the Suez Canal in March - disrupting global trade - has passed back through the waterway without incident.\n\nThe Ever Given was among a convoy of vessels sailing from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said.\n\nIt had been offloading its cargo in Europe and is now en route to Asia.\n\nThe ship was refloated after a major six-day salvage operation that led to the death of one person.\n\nIt was then impounded for three months near the canal city of Ismailia while a compensation deal was agreed between Egypt and the Ever Given's owners.\n\nThis 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 هيئة قناة السويس Suez Canal Authority 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.\n\nThe SCA, in a series of tweets, said the Ever Given was escorted through the 193km (120-mile) canal by two tugboats and senior SCA guides.\n\nIt was one of 26 ships that travelled from north to south through the canal on Friday, while 36 ships sailed in the opposite direction, the SCA added, hailing the waterway as the \"shortest and fastest navigational route linking the east with the west\".\n\nThe Ever Given, one of the world's largest container ships, had been delivering its 18,300 containers to Rotterdam, Felixstowe and Hamburg and is now travelling to China.\n\nA satellite photograph reveals how the Ever Given was wedged across the canal\n\nThe 400m-long (1,312ft) ship became wedged across the canal after running aground amid high winds on 23 March, blocking it for hundreds of ships and disrupting global trade.\n\nFollowing its release, the SCA sought compensation for the Ever Given's Japanese owner Shoei Kisen for the cost of the salvage operation, damage to the canal's banks and other losses.\n\nThe terms of the deal were not disclosed but Egypt had eventually settled on a $550m (£397m) demand.", "Mark Frerichs, left, was taken by the Taliban in 2020\n\nCharlene Cakora, 57, spent a frantic week in Washington DC trying to convey a message to President Joe Biden: rescue her brother from Taliban captivity.\n\nMrs Cakora's brother, Mark Frerichs, was kidnapped by the group over a year ago. He is one of two remaining Americans thought to have been kidnapped by the Taliban during the US war in Afghanistan who is still unaccounted for.\n\nAmid the Afghan government's collapse, the fall of Kabul and chaotic scenes of thousands scrambling to flee the country being broadcast around the globe, his family said they were increasingly desperate for his return, and frustrated by the lack of progress from the government.\n\n\"We have been at war with the Taliban for 20 years. President Biden declared the war over on 31 August,\" Mrs Cakora told the BBC. \"When a war ends, each side get to have their prisoners come home. That is all we are asking for Mark.\"\n\nThe family had \"waited patiently\" through both the Trump and Biden administrations, she said.\n\n\"[We] were told that efforts were underway to get my brother home,\" she added. \"Well, they were not.\"\n\nAt least seven US civilians have been taken captive or gone missing during the war in Afghanistan. Of the total, one was reportedly killed, one escaped, and three were rescued or released. An eighth captive, Bowe Bergdahl, was a US soldier captured after deserting his post in 2009. He was released in 2014.\n\nMr Frerichs, 59, had been living and working in Kabul as a civil engineer for 10 years when he was kidnapped.\n\nA \"journeyman contractor\" who went from project to project, motivated by a desire to help people in need, he had found \"a good fit for himself in Afghanistan,\" Mrs Cakora said. \"Three days before he was kidnapped, he told me that he had just finished a municipal water project. He was so proud of it.\"\n\nThe US Navy veteran was lured to a meeting to discuss a potential project and taken against his will to Khost Province, a former national security official told the BBC.\n\nMr Frerichs and an Afghan colleague examine a project they worked on together\n\nIn Khost, the official said, he was handed over to the Haqqani Network, one of the region's most powerful and feared militant groups. The network's leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is one of the Taliban's top deputy leaders.\n\nAdvocates working to secure Mr Frerichs' release say that the \"only\" thing that the Taliban have mentioned when US officials have pressed for his return is the release of Bashir Noorzai, a Taliban-affiliated drug lord who has been imprisoned in the US for the last 16 years.\n\nNoorzai, who was arrested in 2005, was sentenced to life in prison in 2009 on charges that he imported over $50m (£36m) worth of heroin from Afghanistan and Pakistan into the US and other countries. He fought alongside the now-deceased Taliban founder Mullah Mohammed Omar against Soviet occupation in the 1980s, and is believed to have supplied the group with financial backing, weapons, ammunition and as many as 400 fighters.\n\nResponding to BBC queries, a state department spokesperson said that the US Special Representative for Afghanistan has pressed the Taliban for Mr Frerichs' release and raised the issue with Taliban representatives in Qatar and Pakistan.\n\n\"We place a high priority on Marks Frerichs' safety and will not stop working until he is safely returned to his family,\" the spokesperson said.\n\nSpokespeople at the Taliban's representative office in Qatar did not respond to BBC requests for comment.\n\nMrs Cakora said that while the family understands that an exchange of Noorzai for Mr Frerichs is a \"hard trade\" and that it would mean making concessions to kidnappers, they believe it is the only viable option.\n\nWhen asked what she would tell the White House about her case, Mrs Cakora directed a plea at President Biden.\n\n\"Please treat my brother like he was your son and act to bring him home quickly,\" she said.\n\nShe also had a message for Taliban political leader Abdul Ghani Baradar.\n\n\"We know that this war is ending, and you want your prisoners back as much as we want my brother,\" she said. \"Please treat him well and work with US officials to arrange a prisoner swap that gets you Bashir Noorzai and returns Mark home safely to us. Let that be the one thing that both sides can see as a win.\"\n\nBesides Mr Frerichs, only one other American suspected to have been abducted in Afghanistan, author Paul Overby Jr, remains unaccounted for. Mr Overby was last heard from in May 2014, when he vanished in Khost while traveling to interview Sirajuddin Haqqani. The Taliban have denied any involvement.\n\nWith the situation in Afghanistan growing more dangerous by the day, Mrs Cakora expressed hope that her brother's release may provide a small positive outcome.\n\n\"President Biden has the power to make it happen,\" she said. \"The story on our exit from Afghanistan is horrible. Can't we get one glimmer of good news by having my brother come home?\"", "A US flag is seen posted in the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York, two days after the attack there Image caption: A US flag is seen posted in the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York, two days after the attack there\n\nThe BBC is covering the 20th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US, which led to the 20-year conflict in Afghanistan.\n\nThis is the story of Chris Cruz, who explains in an interview to BBC's OS programme why he decided to join the US army.\n\n\"My mother was heading to work on a normal 11 September day. As soon as she exited the subway, she was told to start running as the buildings were coming down. She literally saw them coming down and described people jumping out of the windows,\" says Chris.\n\n\"When she finally made it home, I - as an 11-year-old boy at the time - had to tell her that she had burn marks and blood spots on the back of her legs. She was in a state of shock.\n\n\"As I grew up, I realised... I had the ability to be part of an organisation that could defend and prevent these atrocities for all Americans.\n\n\"9/11 played a role, but not in a way of revenge. I didn't want to join out of bloodlust. I served two tours in Afghanistan. Both of those times I volunteered to go.\n\n\"I don't think our mission would have succeeded without our Afghan partners. I agree we couldn't be there forever, but we made a promise to keep our partners safe and that we wouldn't turn our backs on them, and that's exactly what we've done.\"\n\nChris adds: \"I do think the way we pulled out, the way we left it, was completely wrong. There needed to be a better exit strategy.\"", "British ambassador to Afghanistan Laurie Bristow (left) speaking to a member of the UK armed forces at Kabul airport\n\nEfforts to evacuate Britons and eligible Afghans from Kabul are gathering pace, the British ambassador says, with nearly 6,000 flown out on UK flights since 13 August.\n\nSir Laurie Bristow, who remains in the Afghan capital, said 1,000 people had departed in a 14-hour period alone.\n\nIt comes after the government said seven Afghan civilians died in chaotic crowds outside the airport on Saturday.\n\nThe US is under pressure to extend evacuations beyond the end of August.\n\nThe Ministry of Defence said the total figure stands at 5,725 people - 3,100 of whom are Afghan nationals and their families.\n\nSir Laurie, speaking from the evacuation handling centre in Kabul, praised the efforts of all those helping - including soldiers, diplomats and Border Force staff - but added \"there is still a huge amount of work to do\". He said he was \"so proud of what our people are doing\".\n\nEarlier, armed forces minister James Heappey said the Taliban were now marshalling queues at the airport, speeding up the process.\n\n\"Today the queue is flowing better,\" Mr Heappey said on Sunday, adding that the Taliban were overseeing separate UK and US evacuation queues, which was \"making a big difference\".\n\nHe urged more people to come forward if they had been told to do so.\n\nThis 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 Laurie Bristow 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.\n\nUntil now a lot of people had been put off going to Baron Hotel in Kabul, where many British nationals have been told to travel for processing, because of reports of violence and chaotic scenes, he said.\n\nLeaders of the G7, including US President Biden, are meeting virtually this week to discuss the situation.\n\nUK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was \"vital that the international community works together to ensure safe evacuations, prevent a humanitarian crisis and support the Afghan people to secure the gains of the last 20 years\".\n\nThe UK, which holds the leadership of the group at the moment, had called for Tuesday's meeting.\n\nMr Johnson spoke to ruling emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani on Sunday, Downing Street said. The pair agreed it was vital that Afghan people continue to be supported, and that the international community fully funds the aid response, it said.\n\nMeanwhile, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has urged Mr Johnson for more details on what he has done to extend the evacuation period. In a letter to the prime minister, he said there were \"too many unanswered questions\" about the mission, adding: \"Proper planning for the coming days will ensure that no-one to whom we owe so much will be left behind.\"\n\nThe US has a planned deadline of 31 August for withdrawal from Afghanistan - but President Biden has said troops may stay past this date to help with evacuations.\n\nArmed forces minister Mr Heappey reiterated previous comments from ministers that the UK could not say with confidence it would get all British nationals out, but he said more capacity was becoming available with each day and other nations were joining the UK effort.\n\nWriting in the Mail on Sunday, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the US would have his complete support if it chose to push back the deadline for leaving but there was \"no time to lose\" to get people out of the country.\n\nMr Heappey said if the US did stay longer that would give the UK the opportunity to continue flying people out.\n\nBut he also gave some reassurance that even if the deadline was not extended, people would still be able to access the UK resettlement programme through other routes, such as handling centres in refugee camps or embassies.\n\nGeneral Lord Richards, who was Chief of the Defence Staff and commanded international forces in Afghanistan in 2006, told the BBC there was \"no doubt\" lives would be saved if troops could stay beyond 31 August.\n\nA UN multilateral humanitarian intervention operation needed to be implemented quickly, he told Radio 4's Broadcasting House.\n\nFormer UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who sent British troops into Afghanistan 20 years ago, said the UK had a \"moral obligation\" to stay in the country until \"all those who need to be are evacuated\".\n\nThe exit of allied troops would have every Jihadist group around the world cheering, he wrote on his website, and called the US withdrawal \"tragic, dangerous, and unnecessary\".\n\nCalls are being made for troops to stay in Afghanistan beyond August to help with the evacuation\n\nMr Heappey was asked for his reaction to reports that the prime minister gave Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab permission to stay on his summer holiday as Afghanistan collapsed into chaos.\n\nHe responded saying everyone who should have been at the emergency Cobra meetings was there and it was \"simply not the case there was any delay in enacting this longstanding plan because of where in the world people were at the time\".\n\nMr Heappey was also asked about the defence secretary's suggestion in his article that the UK could still retain a presence in Afghanistan after the military had gone.\n\n\"It's something we would hope for because that takes away from the urgency of this week but the Taliban have a vote in that,\" he said.\n\n\"That might be a presence that emerges in six months, a year, two years' time,\" he said, adding that it would depend on how the international community wanted to recognise the Taliban and whether the Taliban were willing to have an international presence in the country.\n\n\"I certainly don't think we should rush to recognise the Taliban,\" he said.", "Tara was less than five weeks old and sick with a potentially deadly virus when she was smuggled into Dover\n\nWelfare standards for dogs imported to the UK are to be tightened amid a rise in the \"grim trade\" of puppy smuggling, the government has said.\n\nPlans include raising the minimum age for imported puppies from 15 weeks to 6 months and banning the importing of dogs with cropped ears or docked tails.\n\nBringing heavily pregnant dogs into the UK would also be banned.\n\nThe number of puppies seized at the border jumped from 324 in 2019 to 843 last year.\n\nThey were just a fraction of the 66,000 dogs imported into the UK in 2020 but the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said poor treatment and smuggling was on the increase.\n\nIn one case, four beagle puppies were found - hungry, dehydrated and just eight weeks old - in the back of an abandoned vehicle in London.\n\nThey were believed to have been illegally imported from the Republic of Ireland.\n\nSix puppies, too young to be imported, were seized at the port of Dover after being smuggled from Romania. Covered in sticky oil and suffering from diarrhoea, they had been travelling in a van for 24 hours.\n\nBy raising the minimum age for importing puppies, the government hopes to prevent them from being separated from their mothers too early, which can increase their risk of illness and death.\n\nThe rise in puppy smuggling comes amid a surge in demand for puppies during the last 18 months of coronavirus lockdowns, with prices in some areas more than doubling to an average of almost £1,900 each.\n\nChewie, a one-year-old Yorkshire terrier cross, was one of 11 puppies rescued by police from the back of a van in Nottinghamshire in March.\n\nThe puppies are thought to have been imported from Ireland to be sold in the UK and were found in a carrier bag and a guinea pig cage.\n\nSadly five or six of the puppies died from illness, but Chewie escaped without any long-term issues, says owner Elizabeth Morgan, who rehomed him from the RSPCA.\n\n\"He's doing really well...[but] he doesn't like carrier bags or cardboard boxes,\" Elizabeth told BBC Breakfast.\n\nThis puppy in the care of the Dogs Trust was found covered in oil\n\nAnimal Welfare Minister Lord Goldsmith said: \"Puppy smuggling is a grim trade, and we are determined to clamp down on it.\n\n\"Raising the minimum import age for puppies will help protect thousands of animals that are brought into the country each year and stop criminals looking to profit from the rise in demand for pets.\"\n\nAnimal welfare charities say cropped ears - when dogs have their outer ears surgically altered or removed to make them look more aggressive - have also been on the rise, despite being banned in the UK since 2006.\n\nThere has been a huge increase in commercial imports of puppies to the UK, according to the RSPCA\n\nThe RSPCA has said reports of ear cropping have risen more than sevenfold over the past five years.\n\nMost are thought to have undergone the painful procedure abroad and under the proposed new rules - which the government said would be put out for consultation - dogs with cropped ears would be prevented from entering the country, Defra said.\n\nOwen Sharp, chief executive of Dogs Trust, which has campaigned for a crackdown on puppy smuggling, said the charity had cared for more than 2,000 puppies seized at UK borders since 2015.\n\n\"We have seen puppies as young as four weeks old being smuggled into the country and dogs with open wounds from ear cropping as well as heavily pregnant dogs close to giving birth,\" he said.\n\nSpringer spaniel Befa was transported in a cat carrier crammed with puppies for thousands of miles from Slovakia\n\nBut he said he hoped the new rules would include tougher penalties for illegal imports of dogs.\n\nOnly a handful of cases had ever been prosecuted under existing laws and the penalties were \"no deterrent\", Mr Sharp said.\n\nVet, broadcaster and animal welfare campaigner Dr Marc Abraham said legal and illegal importation of young puppies had encouraged dog exploitation and poor welfare practices for years.\n\nHe said the new proposals represented \"significant progress in the fight against these cruel practices\".", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nBrentford celebrated their return to the top tier after a 74-year absence with a memorable, magnificent victory over woeful Arsenal as they opened their Premier League campaign in style.\n\nThomas Frank's side were vibrant, skilful and energetic on a night of high emotion at the Brentford Community Stadium, making the perfect start to the season, but inflicting serious pain on the Gunners in a sobering 90 minutes for the visitors.\n\nBrentford took to life in the big time with ease and fully deserved the lead given to them after 22 minutes when Sergi Canos drove low past keeper Bernd Leno at the near post, although Arsenal complained bitterly that the ball had gone out of play in the build-up.\n\nOnly Emile Smith Rowe truly rose above the mediocrity for Arsenal, forcing a save out of Brentford keeper David Raya - who also brilliantly denied Nicolas Pepe late on - before the home fans exploded in noise and elation when they scored a second with 17 minutes left.\n\nArsenal, without strike pair Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang through illness, paid the price for a hopeless attempt to defend substitute Mads Bech Sorensen's routine long throw. New £50m defender Ben White was particularly culpable as Christian Norgaard arrived to head home.\n\nBrentford's supporters, understandably, celebrated wildly at the final whistle, but this was a result and performance that instantly turns the spotlight on Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta as he desperately needs an improvement on last season.\n\nBrentford could not have made a better start to life in the Premier League, showing the pedigree that has made them such an entertaining side on their journey to this stage.\n\nOn a thunderous night at the Brentford Community Stadium, the arena was alive with noise and excitement well before kick-off - and what happened when the action started only raised those levels.\n\nTough days will inevitably lie ahead for the top-flight newcomers, but this was a night when the Bees showed what they were all about under charismatic manager Frank.\n\nOnce they realised Arsenal had little offer after the early exchanges, Brentford took charge and Bryan Mbeumo had already struck the post before Canos opened the scoring.\n\nThey grew in confidence, winning the physical challenges, attacking swiftly and, on the rare occasions he was called upon, keeper Raya looked a class act.\n\nFrank and his players rightly savoured the moment at the final whistle - in front of supporters who did themselves huge credit with the standing ovation given to Arsenal substitute Bukayo Saka, who was racially abused after missing a penalty in England's Euro 2020 final loss to Italy.\n\nThis was quite simply how Brentford would have scripted it. No-one can begrudge them their victory - and the manner in which they revelled in it.\n\nAbject Arsenal get what they deserved\n\nArsenal were handed a difficult opening assignment as there is always an element of jeopardy attached to a visit to a newly-promoted side.\n\nThis, however, was light years from what will be required this season and manager Arteta has work to do to knock the Gunners into shape on this evidence.\n\nYes, he was missing strikers Lacazette and Aubameyang, while Saka only started on the bench, but the lack of resolve, the lack of a coherent plan and lack of threat when they needed to fight their way back into contention was alarming.\n\nOnly Smith Rowe looked capable of providing a spark while it was a harrowing start to life at Arsenal for expensive summer acquisition White. He was tormented throughout and part of a desperate attempt to defend the throw-in that led to Brentford's second goal.\n\nArsenal are familiar with the criticisms that will be aimed at them, namely a failure to match the fight and physical assets of opponents, but here they can have no answer to the charges. They were weak in all areas, especially in defence, with Pablo Mari and Calum Chambers also on the rack throughout.\n\nKeeper Leno was at fault for the first goal, put his defence under pressure playing out from the back and almost gifted Brentford a third, providing evidence why Arteta is in the market for a new number one.\n\nThis was a thoroughly wretched night in every respect for Arteta and his players. They will hope it is a one-off, but the club's detractors will say they have seen too many nightmares like this.\n• None Attempt missed. Emile Smith Rowe (Arsenal) right footed shot from the right side of the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Reiss Nelson.\n• None Attempt blocked. Reiss Nelson (Arsenal) left footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Kieran Tierney with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Albert Sambi Lokonga (Arsenal) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Kieran Tierney.\n• None Nuno Tavares (Arsenal) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. Pablo Marí (Arsenal) header from the right side of the six yard box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Emile Smith Rowe with a cross following a corner.\n• None Attempt saved. Nicolas Pépé (Arsenal) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Kieran Tierney.\n• None Attempt missed. Granit Xhaka (Arsenal) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Albert Sambi Lokonga.\n• None Attempt missed. Nuno Tavares (Arsenal) left footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by Albert Sambi Lokonga. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nMohamed Salah scored one and provided two assists as Liverpool got their Premier League title bid off to a winning start with a comfortable victory at newly promoted Norwich City.\n\nSalah got his side's third to become the first player to score on the opening weekend in five consecutive Premier League campaigns and cap a fine display after earlier setting up Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino.\n\nThe Reds were boosted before kick off by the return of talismanic defender Virgil van Dijk after 10 months out through injury and their day got even better when they took the lead midway through the first half.\n\nTrent Alexander-Arnold found Salah inside the box and the Egypt forward's touch fell into the path of Jota for the Portugal forward to finish clinically.\n• None Van Dijk relief at return after \"mentally tough\" 10 months out\n\nIt was a little harsh on Norwich, who had made a spirited start to the game as they were roared on by a buoyant home crowd making the most of their return to Carrow Road and the top flight.\n\nTeemu Pukki, who scored 11 goals in the Premier League two seasons ago, drew an early save out of Alisson after getting in behind the visitors' defence.\n\nBut once Liverpool went in front they rarely looked in danger of letting their lead slip as Norwich struggled to rediscover their early rhythm.\n\nMax Aarons cleared a goal-bound effort from Sadio Mane six minutes after the break but a second goal duly arrived shortly after the hour mark when substitute Firmino struck.\n\nThe Brazil forward had only been on the pitch for four minutes when he tapped in from close range after unselfish work from Salah, who opted to pass to his team-mate when he had the chance to shoot from a tighter angle.\n\nSalah then wrapped up the perfect opening day for the Reds when he collected the ball after a corner had only been half cleared and curled a fine strike into the back of the net.\n• None Reaction to Liverpool's win at Norwich in the Premier League\n\nLiverpool finished third in the Premier League last season, 17 points behind champions Manchester City after their campaign was derailed by a shocking slump as they struggled to cope with their defensive injuries.\n\nBut the signs are good that they will be well stocked in that area this campaign. Van Dijk made his first league appearance since October last year and he was joined in the centre of defence by Joel Matip, who is back after seven months out.\n\nJoe Gomez, who was also missing for most of the second part of last season, and new signing Ibrahima Konate were on the bench at Norwich as suddenly Liverpool appear well stocked in an area that looked threadbare in the last campaign.\n\nThere were elements of rustiness to the play from Van Dijk and Matip, particularly early on as Norwich got in behind the visitors' defence on a couple of occasions.\n\nBut they grew into the game and by the second half were repelling the Canaries' attacks comfortably - although they did require a brilliant close-range stop from Alisson at the end to secure a clean sheet.\n\nBigger tests will come for the Reds this season but with the defence now having depth to it and three of their four attacking players scoring against Norwich, they look in good shape to make a more extended run at the title this term.\n\nNorwich are back in the Premier League after one season in the Championship, which they comfortably won to return to the top flight.\n\nTheir last stint at this level saw them finish bottom of the table and be relegated with just 21 points, their season characterised by spells of good play in the majority of their games only to fail to capitalise on those.\n\nMaking the most of their return to Carrow Road and the Premier League, Norwich fans were in buoyant mood before kick off and those good vibes continued as the home side made a bright start.\n\nThey were the better side for the opening 25 minutes, attacking with pace and a directness that unsettled the returning Liverpool defence. But it soon became an all-too-familiar story as, despite their good play, they were unable to take advantage before their opponents went ahead.\n\nFrom then on they were second best, improving slightly towards the end as Alisson denied Ben Gibson a consolation.\n\nAn opening-day defeat against Liverpool is not going to be a result that defines their season and historically they have struggled against the Reds, who have now won 13 of their last 15 encounters.\n\nBut with reigning champions Manchester City up next followed by games against Leicester City and Arsenal it is a reminder of just how tough life in the Premier League is.\n• None Attempt missed. Lukas Rupp (Norwich City) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Kieran Dowell.\n• None Attempt missed. Joshua Sargent (Norwich City) right footed shot from the right side of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Max Aarons.\n• None Attempt missed. Max Aarons (Norwich City) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Kieran Dowell.\n• None Attempt saved. Adam Idah (Norwich City) right footed shot from very close range is saved in the top left corner. Assisted by Grant Hanley.\n• None Attempt blocked. Grant Hanley (Norwich City) left footed shot from very close range is blocked.\n• None Attempt saved. Ben Gibson (Norwich City) left footed shot from very close range is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Pierre Lees-Melou with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) left footed shot from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Virgil van Dijk following a corner. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "If you like neat lines, tidiness and admire symmetry, what's not to like about the decision of Joe Biden to pull American combat troops out of Afghanistan by 11 September 2021 - exactly 20 years on from 9/11?\n\nIn modern day America it often feels that all roads lead back to 9/11; the single most defining - and scarring - event since Pearl Harbor: the surprise attack by the Japanese on America's Pacific fleet, which would ultimately bring America into World War Two.\n\nAnd so it was that 9/11 led to this country's longest military encounter. The attack on the Twin Towers, the plane that flew into the Pentagon, and the one that crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, were initially the spur for a surge of US nationalism. Young people - in fact people of all ages - were going along to armed forces recruitment offices wanting to sign up. America had come under attack; these patriots wanted to fight to defend the country the \"land of the free\", and seek revenge on those who would do the US harm.\n\nAnd don't mistake this for some kind of kneejerk jingoism. It wasn't that. I knew many people - not just Americans - who were of a liberal bent and had been no great fans of all the doings of the US of A but who have a visceral sense this was a moment where you had to pick your team.\n\nWere you on the side of the rule of law, free and fair elections, due process, sexual equality, universal education? Or were you on the side of those who would fly planes into buildings, or would stone people to death, or throw homosexuals off of buildings, or deny girls schooling? If that seems a massive over-simplification, maybe it is - but in the devastating aftermath of 9/11, that is how it seemed to many.\n\nBiden makes a surprise visit to Afghanistan as vice-president in 2011\n\nBut by 2016 it was one of the factors that led to Donald Trump's election: the weariness of the \"endless wars\" as candidate Trump would refer to the quagmires of Afghanistan and Iraq; the wariness of America being able to act as the world's policeman.\n\nAmericans understandably wanted to pull up the drawbridge, bring the troops home, leave it to the people in those countries to sort out their own problems, and finally give up on the idea that a US model of liberal democracy was an exportable commodity that could be imposed. The liberal interventionist crusade was over.\n\nTrump, if he had won last November, would have pulled out US troops, probably quicker. Although Joe Biden inherited Trump's promise to withdraw, in policy terms the easiest thing would have been to continue to sign the cheques to pay for American servicemen and women to stay in Afghanistan for another year. And then another. And another after that.\n\nThe political pressure was by no means overwhelming. If anything, the reverse. The defence top brass, the foreign policy establishment, America's allies abroad thought anything other than the status quo would be reckless. But one question was gnawing at the new president, and it was the one posed by Hillel the Elder back in biblical times: \"If not now, then when?\"\n\nBiden - who advised President Barack Obama not to send more troops in 2009 but lost the argument - went with now, in what could be the most consequential single decision of his presidency.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Taliban leaders speak to BBC News about conquer and compromise\n\nWhen 9/11 happened I was the BBC's Paris correspondent, reporting on Eurotunnel's attempt to force the closure of a Red Cross refugee centre called Sangatte - where many of the world's storm-tossed refugees and migrants congregated before making the final leg of the journey to the UK.\n\nI was driving to Calais when I got a call from a colleague telling me to stop at the nearest service station to watch TV, and see what was unfolding.\n\nWe didn't know what would happen next - or where we would end up. One year into the optimism of a new millennium, there was a narrative and it wasn't a happy one - the war on terror, a clash of civilisations, call it what you will. At the time the two stories could not have been more different, but a lot of the bedraggled people we met on the roads around Calais were from Afghanistan fleeing Taliban rule.\n\nIt's worth remembering why the US, UK and others went into Afghanistan. The Taliban had - in effect - become a finishing school for Islamist terrorists wanting to wage jihad against the west. Al-Qaeda wannabes were going into the country to train for holy war. The 9/11 terrorists had honed their skills and hatched their plot there. Removing the Taliban and tackling al-Qaeda became critical for global security.\n\nWithin a few weeks of 9/11, I was in northern Afghanistan, travelling via Delhi and then Dushanbe in Tajikistan to get there. We were moving with the US and UK-backed Northern Alliance troops as they pushed the Taliban out.\n\nOusting the Taliban was considered a global priority 20 years ago, writes the author (right)\n\nOur first day was spent travelling from Khoja Bahauddin, then the Northern Alliance HQ along a road where the Taliban had killed a number of journalists in an ambush two days earlier. After one night we ended up in a town called Taleqan. It had fallen the night before we arrived. One of the iconic shots was of a girls-school classroom that had become a weapons dump for Taliban rockets that in their hasty retreat they had left behind.\n\nThe stubborn last stronghold was Kunduz - a vital communication corridor sitting between Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif and then further north to the border with Uzbekistan.\n\nNow both Taleqan and Kunduz have come back under Taliban control, with a third of the country's regional capitals now under their control.\n\nAnd that raises a super-uncomfortable question for Joe Biden and his \"if not now, then when\" policy.\n\nTwenty years on and so many lives lost, and so many billions of dollars spent, what was it for? What's been achieved? What do you say to the families of all those servicemen killed by the Taliban now that the US is giving up? What's to stop terror groups from re-establishing their jihad training camps? At the UN Security Council hearing last Friday it was reported that up to 20 different terror groups, involving thousands of foreign fighters were already fighting with Taliban forces.\n\nThe regions where Jon travelled are now back under Taliban control\n\nI'm sure as I am writing this more families will be packing up their possessions fearful of what Taliban control will mean, perhaps heading to Calais and then the UK. Will the girls' schools return to become weapons storage facilities again?\n\nThe scars of 9/11 are clear everywhere - thousands of servicemen have come back with prosthetic limbs and disturbed minds. Suicide rates have been rising. Families have lost loved ones. On America's streets are men with red plastic beer cups begging for loose change, many of them with signs saying they are veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.\n\nUS-led forces toppled the Taliban: In 2001 US-led forces overthrew Afghanistan's Taliban rulers after the 9/11 attacks masterminded by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was based there.\n\nTwenty years of occupation and military operations followed: The US and allies oversaw elections and built up Afghan security forces, but the Taliban continued to launch attacks.\n\nEventually the US made a deal with the Taliban: They would pull out if the militants agreed not to host terrorist groups. But talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government failed. US-led forces withdrew this year and the Taliban have now retaken most of the country.\n\nThe desire to stay at home and shut yourself away from a troubling world is completely understandable. There is no surprise that \"America First\" as a slogan had such resonance. George W Bush was not advocating that back in 2001 - but there were no US troops in Afghanistan or Iraq then. And that didn't keep America safe when early that morning, across those gin-clear blue skies passenger aeroplanes were hijacked and became al-Qaeda-guided missiles, flying into their targets killing thousands of people doing nothing more provocative than going about their daily lives.\n\nThere's also a difference between enforcing your will as the world's policeman, and being a peacekeeper. Thousands of American troops are still stationed in South Korea - even though the Korean war was 70 years ago. The calculation of successive US presidents has been that a tense peace is better than a hot war or a destabilised region.\n\nJoe Biden was hoping his decision would result in headlines like \"Afghan War Ends\" or \"America's longest war is over\". But 20 years on, and the Taliban now re-establishing control with all that could flow from that, might historians in future judge that the 20th anniversary marked the start of the second Afghan war?", "Poland has many memorials to Polish Jews killed by the Nazis during World War Two\n\nPoland's president Andrzej Duda has approved a law that will make it harder for Jewish people to recover property lost during and after World War Two.\n\nThe move has triggered a diplomatic crisis, with Israel recalling its ambassador to Poland and branding the law \"anti-Semitic\".\n\nThe legislation relates to claims on property stolen by Nazi Germany, then seized by Poland's communist regime.\n\nThe law sets a 30-year limit on challenges to such confiscations.\n\nAs most happened soon after the war, many outstanding claims will now be blocked.\n\nThe Polish government says the change will end a period of legal chaos, but Israel condemned it forcibly.\n\n\"Poland today approved - not for the first time - an immoral, anti-Semitic law,\" Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said in a statement.\n\nMr Lapid also said he was recommending Poland's ambassador to Israel, Marek Magierowski, remain on his summer holiday in Poland.\n\n\"He should use the time available to him to explain to the Poles what the Holocaust means to the citizens of Israel and how much we will not tolerate contempt for the memory of the victims and the memory of the Holocaust,\" he tweeted.\n\nOn Monday Poland's foreign ministry said Mr Magierowski had been recalled until further notice, citing Israel's \"recent unjustified actions\".\n\nEarlier Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he would arrange for the ambassador's children to be brought home.\n\nIn a statement, the prime minister rejected Israel's accusations of anti-Semitism and said its rhetoric would \"increase hatred towards Poland\".\n\nMr Duda said signing the bill into law ends an era of legal chaos in the process of handing back confiscated properties.\n\nIn recent decades property restitution has become deeply mired in corruption, with title claims being bought and sold, and tenants suddenly finding themselves thrown out of their apartments from one day to the next. Jewish claims account for just a minority of total claims, most of which have been made by Poles.\n\nAs a result, the law received the backing of Poland's opposition as well as the government.\n\nIsraeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett branded the law \"shameful\". He said it showed \"disgraceful contempt for the Holocaust's memory\".\n\nAbout six million Jews died in the Holocaust, half of them Polish. About 90% of Poland's pre-war Jewish community were killed.\n\nIsrael's opposition to the legislation was supported by the US, and Mr Lapid said further courses of action would be discussed with Washington.\n\nThe Polish government has previously said the new law has nothing to do with Israeli and US fears.\n\nWhen World War Two ended, Poland's communist authorities nationalised many properties that had been left empty because their owners had fled or been killed.\n\nThe new law covers both Jewish and non-Jewish claimants, but critics say Jewish owners were often late in lodging claims after the war and will be disproportionately affected.", "Recruit Ethan Jones's family said joining the marines fulfilled his dream\n\nThe Royal Marines have been ordered by a military safety watchdog to check the depth of water before disembarkation training after the death of a recruit.\n\nEthan Jones, 20, drowned after disembarking from a landing craft into deep water at Tregantle beach, Cornwall on 21 January 2020 said a report.\n\nRecruit Jones, of Radstock, Somerset, was one of the last eight recruits who were \"submerged\" during the exercise.\n\nHe was found \"face down in the water\" and was pronounced dead in hospital.\n\nThe depth of water at Tregantle increased during the disembarkation said the report\n\nThe Defence Safety Authority report said there had been no survey of the beach since 2009 and \"therefore no up-to-date beach information was available... in order to aid the beaching on the evening of the accident\".\n\nThe report recommended that a beach survey \"be conducted at a suitable interval prior to beach landings during amphibious training and exercises in order to enable accurate risk assessment of the beach conditions\".\n\nRecruit Jones's \"tragic death\" came as 26 personnel were due to leave the landing craft as part of the final exercise during recruit training, said the report.\n\n\"The depth of the water for the first individual to disembark was approximately 0.77m,\" said the report into the single-file disembarkation.\n\n\"The depth of water increased during the disembarkation and the last eight recruits (including Recruit Jones) of the 26 individuals to leave the craft were initially submerged.\"\n\nTwo recruits on the starboard side were recovered after a crewman jumped into the water to rescue them.\n\nRecruit Jones's rucksack was spotted \"floating in the water\" off the starboard bow.\n\nA crewman jumped in, swam back to the landing craft with Recruit Jones, and tried to resuscitate him.\n\nRecruit Jones's family said after the incident that he had been \"fulfilling his dream and doing something he loved\".\n\nA Royal Navy spokesperson said its thoughts and sympathies \"remain with the family of Marine Recruit Ethan Jones, who continues to be supported by the Royal Navy\".\n\nThe spokesperson said: \"The safety of our personnel is of the upmost importance and we will now carefully consider the findings of the report, having already implemented a number of the recommendations from the Service Inquiry.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Almost 2,000 people have backed a petition to name Cardiff's new bus station road: \"Cheers Drive\"\n\nCalls to name a road leading to Cardiff's new bus station \"Cheers Drive\" have been backed by the leader of the city council.\n\nThe phrase is synonymous with the city and surrounding areas, as it's used to say thanks at the end of a journey.\n\nCardiff leader Huw Thomas said it was a \"great idea - let's do it!\".\n\nThe name was conjured up by city brand campaigners I Loves the 'Diff, who said on Twitter that the city would have \"missed a trick\" without the name.\n\nAnother councillor, Jayne Cowan, had started a petition in support of the name.\n\nThis 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 Huw Thomas 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.\n\nBy Saturday, it had already climbed to well over 1,500 signatures - with no sign of slowing.\n\nMs Cowan said: \"If the council leader said 'Yes' then it is going to happen.\"\n\nShe intends to present a formal plan for the name to city hall in September.\n\n\"I remember my grandfather and father always said it on the bus,\" she said.\n\n\"It's one of those expressions like 'Have a great day'.\n\n\"It's just associated with the Welsh and with Cardiff.\n\n\"People like American tourists would go and have their photos taken by the sign.\"\n\nCouncil leader Huw Thomas has given the idea the thumbs up\n\nMs Cowan hoped the idea would also be taken as a \"thank you\" to bus drivers for their work during the pandemic.\n\n\"We thank the NHS and care workers for getting us through the pandemic, but we often forget the shop workers and bus drivers who took people to work,\" she said.\n\n\"They do not get that recognition\".\n\nFellow councillor Jayne Cowan started a petition in favour of the naming\n\nBBC presenter Alex Jones previously wore a \"Cheers Drive\" T-shirt, while giving a bus tour of Cardiff for The One Show.\n\nIt would not be the first time a tongue-in-cheek street name has made it on to maps.\n\nIn Sheffield, the home of South Yorkshire Police is on Letsby Avenue - while in Northern Ireland, the computer data and memory firm Seagate Technology has its HQ on Disc Drive.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson says Britain's involvement in Afghanistan was \"right, it was worth it\"\n\nBoris Johnson has said the UK can be \"extremely proud\" of its role in Afghanistan, despite the situation in the country having \"deteriorated\".\n\nThe UK will evacuate the \"vast bulk\" of its embassy staff in the coming days as the Taliban continues to advance.\n\nThe prime minister said there was \"no military solution\" after an emergency Cobra meeting on Friday afternoon.\n\nOn Thursday, the UK said it would send 600 troops to help evacuate British nationals and former Afghan staff.\n\nThousands of civilians have fled the Taliban onslaught, heading for the capital of Kabul.\n\nThe World Food Programme has warned that food shortages are \"dire\", while the UN has urged Afghanistan's neighbours to keep their borders open.\n\nThe militants now control about a third of Afghanistan's provincial capitals, including Herat, Ghazni and Lashkar Gar.\n\nMr Johnson insisted there was no military solution following the gains made by the Taliban in recent days and said that a team of Home Office officials would be sent to step up efforts to relocate Afghans who worked for British forces in the country.\n\n\"It is very difficult obviously, but I think the UK can be extremely proud of what has been done in Afghanistan over the last 20 years,\" he said.\n\nThe prime minister said that thanks to the efforts of the UK armed services there had been no al-Qaeda attacks on the West for \"a very long time\".\n\nHe also added that three million girls and young women in Afghanistan had been educated who otherwise would not have been, during the last 20 years.\n\n\"I think we've got to be realistic about the abilities of the UK or any power to impose a military solution, a combat solution in Afghanistan,\" Mr Johnson said.\n\n\"What we certainly can do is work with all our partners in the region and around the world who share an interest with us in preventing Afghanistan from once again becoming a breeding ground for terror.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lisa Nandy says Afghanistan was a “humanitarian crisis unfolding in front of our eyes”\n\nEarlier, Lisa Nandy, Labour's shadow foreign secretary, told BBC Radio 4's World At One programme there was \"far more\" the UK could do to support the people of Afghanistan and accused the government of \"hiding\".\n\nShe warned the government that cross-party MPs could push to recall Parliament to hold the government to account if it did not show a clear strategy.\n\nMs Nandy said that people in the country felt \"abandoned\" and were looking to the US and UK for \"a level of leadership\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Secunder Kermani reports on life in a town recently taken by the Taliban\n\nHer concerns were echoed by former Conservative Defence Minister Johnny Mercer, who served in Afghanistan.\n\nHe described the situation in the country as a \"world tragedy\" which would have repercussions \"for years to come\".\n\nLib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey has also backed the idea of recalling Parliament \"given the tragedy unfolding before our eyes\" and called on the UN to deploy peacekeepers.\n\nEarlier, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace acknowledged that the country could be \"heading towards civil war\".\n\nHe blamed former US President Donald Trump's \"rotten deal\" with the Taliban in 2020 for the withdrawal.\n\nThe UK government has launched \"Operation Pitting\", to help evacuate British nationals, former UK staff and others who are eligible to relocate to the UK.\n\nMr Wallace said around 600 troops were being sent to Afghanistan to ensure the safe return of about 500 Foreign Office and other UK government officials, along with around 3,000 British citizens working in other roles, such as security guards for aid agencies.\n\nAbout 2,000 Afghan interpreters and \"other people we have an obligation to\" would also be transported to the UK, he said, joining some 3,000 who had already been taken out of the country.\n\nRAF aircraft could be used if needed and the Home Office would also be deploying a small team of officials to assist with processing new visas, the Ministry of Defence said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace: \"I think we are heading towards a civil war\"\n\nThe US said it would have the bulk of the 3,000 troops it is sending to assist with evacuation in place by the end of the weekend. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby added that the US military was \"certainly concerned about the speed with which the Taliban is moving\".\n\nNato said it had discussed the situation on Friday and would aim to support the Afghan government and security forces \"as much as possible\".\n\nSecretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the Taliban would not be recognised by the international community if it took the country by force, adding that there was deep concern about reports of serious human rights abuses.\n\nPeople fleeing the Taliban are flooding into the capital of Kabul\n\nWendy Rayner, whose husband Peter died in action in Helmand province in 2010, said the withdrawal undermined the sacrifice of soldiers who had lost their lives.\n\n\"My husband died to give them a better life, and by them not having a better life, it's taken away his fight,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"All these young people in Afghanistan that are having their families slaughtered because nobody cares, because we've just left them in the lurch - it's just going to create another terror threat. They're going to hate us and I don't blame them.\"\n\nMr Johnson said he did not think the sacrifices made by British forces were \"in vain\".\n\n\"I believe it was right, it was worth it and what we must do now is not turn our backs on Afghanistan,\" he said.", "Nearly two million people have been urged to evacuate their homes amid heavy rainfall in parts of Japan.\n\nHighest-level rain warnings have been issued in a number of prefectures, including Fukuoka and Hiroshima.\n\nMore than 150 troops, police and firefighters have been sent to help with rescue operations in the area.", "French and Belgian helicopters joined the search as a boat sank\n\nNearly 600 migrants crossed the Channel on the same day a man died making the journey, the government has confirmed.\n\nThe Home Office said UK authorities dealt with 592 people on Thursday - the highest figure for a single day.\n\nFrench authorities reported more than 160 rescues on Thursday after several boats got into difficulty.\n\nProsecutors in France have begun a manslaughter investigation into the death of the Eritrean man after he was winched from the sea.\n\nNikolai Posner from migrant charity Utopia 56 spoke to survivors in Dunkirk. He said the 27-year-old jumped in to lighten the load of the sinking vessel he was on, as his 22-year-old girlfriend watched.\n\nAbout 40 people were on board the boat when it began to go down, prompting a huge emergency response in one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.\n\nFrench authorities believe the man, who was taken to hospital in Calais, suffered cardio-respiratory arrest.\n\nThe Home Office has confirmed 592 people were rescued or intercepted during 16 incidents dealt with by the UK on Thursday, and said the French intercepted 18 crossings, preventing 420 people from setting out on the journey.\n\nAccording to government figures, asylum applications fell sharply as transport routes were shut down during the pandemic, with 26,903 asylum applications in the year up to March 2021, a fall of 24% on the previous year.\n\nWith travel by planes, trains and ferries restricted, arrivals by boat increased from about 4% of applications to a peak of 44% last calendar year.\n\nClandestine Channel Threat Commander Dan O'Mahoney said: \"We've seen a surge in illegal migration across Europe with people-smugglers organising waves of departures from French beaches.\n\n\"Last Thursday's death is a tragic reminder of the importance of stopping migrants from leaving the safety of France on these dangerous crossings.\n\n\"The government's New Plan for Immigration is the only long-term solution to fix the broken system, tackle the criminal gangs and prevent more tragedies.\"\n\nBut Lisa Doyle, director of advocacy and engagement at the Refugee Council, said: \"The government must change its approach. Instead of seeking to punish or push away people seeking safety because of the type of journey they have made to the UK, they must create and commit to safe routes.\"\n\nShe said: \"While there is war, persecution and violence, people will be forced to take dangerous journeys to seek safety.\n\n\"We are talking about ordinary men, women and children who are forced to flee their home through no fault of their own.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The police officer, aged 39, and a three-year-old child were found at an address in Cairndhu Drive, Kidderminster\n\nA serving police officer and a three-year-old child have been found dead, police said.\n\nOfficers were called to an address in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, where the man, a 39-year-old West Mercia Police officer, and child were found.\n\nA Hazardous Area Response Team has been sent to the scene, West Midlands Ambulance Service said.\n\nAn investigation has been launched into the deaths which, police said, are currently being treated as unexplained.\n\nWest Mercia's Assistant Chief Constable Rachel Jones, said: \"It is with great sadness that I share the news that a serving police officer and a three-year-old child have passed away.\n\n\"While the circumstances of the deaths are not fully known, this is clearly a tragic incident and our deepest condolences are with family and colleagues.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBBC reporter James Pearson at Cairndhu Drive where the officer and child were found, said on Friday evening two officers remained on guard with suited forensics officers bringing material out of the semi-detached house.\n\nNeighbours spoke of their \"shock\" at the deaths, with one, who asked not to be named, saying: \"I didn't really know the occupants, they kept themselves to themselves.\n\n\"They've lived there less than a year, it's a family. The news is just awful.\"\n\nThe ambulance service was called to reports of a medical emergency at the property at 09:21 BST, where the two bodies were discovered.\n\n\"Sadly, it quickly became apparent that neither patient could be saved and they were confirmed dead at the scene,\" a service spokesman said, adding they also sent two ambulances and a paramedic officer to the scene.\n\nThe deaths are currently being treated as unexplained\n\nSarah Cooper, chair of West Mercia Police Federation, said it was \"deeply shocked and saddened\" by the news.\n\n\"The ripples from this incident will be far-reaching and I know that officers and staff across West Mercia Police will be impacted hugely by this tragedy,\" she said.\n\nWest Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion added he was \"incredibly sad to hear this terrible news,\n\n\"My thoughts are with the family affected and West Mercia police officers and staff who are having to come to terms with this awful news,\" he said.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by the conflict\n\nThe first US troops are arriving in Afghanistan to help diplomatic staff and others leave, as many countries scramble to evacuate workers and citizens amid a rapid Taliban advance.\n\nOn Friday, militants captured Pul-e-Alam, capital of Loghar province, just 80km (50 miles) from the capital Kabul.\n\nThe UN chief said the situation was spinning out of control with devastating consequences for civilians.\n\nMore than 250,000 people have been forced to leave their homes so far.\n\nThe Taliban advance comes as US and other foreign troops withdraw after 20 years of military operations. The fighting has raised fears that gains in human rights made since the militants were ousted from power in 2001 could be swiftly reversed.\n\nLife under the Taliban in the 1990s saw women forced to wear the all-covering burka, education restricted for girls over 10, and brutal punishments including public executions.\n\nAlso on Friday, the Taliban seized the country's second-largest city Kandahar and the nearby city of Lashkar Gah, as well as Herat in the west. They now control about a third of Afghanistan's provincial capitals.\n\nPentagon spokesman John Kirby called the recent advances \"deeply concerning\", but downplayed any suggestion that Kabul was under imminent threat from the group.\n\nMost of the 3,000 troops being sent to help evacuate US diplomatic staff will arrive by the end of the weekend. The US intends to airlift thousands of people a day out of Kabul.\n\nThe latest US intelligence assessment suggests the militants could try to advance on the national capital within 30 days.\n\nThe US embassy there informed staff that an incinerator and other tools were available to destroy sensitive material, including documents and equipment such as flags that could be used in propaganda.\n\nThe UK, which is sending 600 troops to aid the evacuation of British nationals and former Afghan staff, said staffing at its embassy would be reduced to an absolute minimum - as did Germany.\n\nDenmark and Norway are closing their embassies altogether.\n\nUN Secretary General António Guterres called on the Taliban to end the fighting and urged the international community to make clear that power seized through military force is unacceptable.\n\n\"Every day the conflict is taking an even bigger toll on women and children. Continued urban conflict will mean continued carnage with civilians paying the highest price,\" he said.\n\nFood and medical supplies are dwindling and critical infrastructure including schools and clinics has been destroyed, he said. The UN has appealed to neighbouring countries to keep their borders open, to allow people to reach safety.\n\nMore than 1,000 civilians were killed in Afghanistan in the past month alone, according to the UN.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Secunder Kermani reports on life in a town recently taken by the Taliban\n\nMakeshift camps have been established on scrubland on the outskirts of the capital, while many of those seeking safety in Kabul have been sleeping on the streets.\n\nAbout 72,000 children are among those fleeing to the capital in recent days, according to Save the Children.\n\nZuhal, a 20-year-old student who has been helping those displaced, told the BBC: \"Ceasefire, just like an immediate ceasefire, just stop the fighting because we cannot get up another day and see a child filled with blood, a mother crying for her son - we cannot see that anymore.\"\n\nIn a separate development, Canada said it planned to resettle more than 20,000 vulnerable Afghans including women leaders, human rights workers and reporters.\n\nAre you in Afghanistan? How have you been affected? haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "Part of the bereavement garden has been dedicated to Logan\n\nA remembrance service has been held for a five-year-old boy found dead in a river in Bridgend county.\n\nLogan Mwangi, also known as Logan Williamson, was found in the River Ogmore in Aberkenfig, on 31 July.\n\nHis step-father has been charged with his murder, while he and Logan's mother have been charged with perverting the course of justice.\n\nOn Saturday about 40 people living in the community gathered to remember Logan.\n\nCandles were lit and lilies planted during the service at the bereavement garden in Tondu, part of which has been dedicated to Logan.\n\nThe Reverend Suzanne Brumwell said she hoped the event would help a community struggling with a child's death\n\nThe Reverend Suzanne Brumwell led prayers for Logan, while a memorial book was signed, with children and adults sharing their memories of the five-year-old.\n\nShe told BBC Wales the memorial was about getting the community together, \"to hold Logan in our thoughts\" and to \"have the space for the grief that everyone is feeling\".\n\n\"Parishioners who don't know Logan told me they can't think of what happened without feeling quite teary, it has just ripped through the community.\"\n\nShe said she hoped that by sharing their memories and grief it would help those who were struggling to come to terms with his death.\n\n\"It helps to have someone walk alongside you, whoever they are,\" she said.\n\nBeverley Green said she was trying to offer the community support to help them after Logan's death\n\nBeverley Green, founder of Bridgend Bereavement Support, said Logan's death had had a deep impact on the community and she hoped the memorial would help those who loved him.\n\n\"They've been saying how much of a lovely little boy he was, how much he always used to smile,\" she said.\n\nFlowers were planted in a part of the memorial garden which has been dedicated to Logan\n\nLogan's body was found at about 05:45 BST on Saturday, 31 July, after reports of concerns for a missing five-year-old.\n\nHe was taken to Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend, where it was confirmed he had died.\n\nLogan's step-father John Cole, 39, has been charged with his murder.\n\nBoth Mr Cole and the boy's mother, Angharad Williamson, 30, both from Sarn, have been charged with perverting the course of justice.\n\nA 13-year-old boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, has also been charged with perverting the course of justice.\n\nLogan Williamson was found dead in the River Ogmore\n• None Mum and step-dad in court over death of boy, five", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA huge search-and-rescue operation is under way in northern Turkey after flash floods along the Black Sea coast killed at least 70 people.\n\nKastamonu province is the worst-hit area. Apartment buildings in the town of Bozkurt were destroyed when the Ezine river burst its banks.\n\nThis month Turkey has also had to battle huge wildfires in the south.\n\nEight people died when a fire-fighting plane crashed in Adana on Saturday, just before it was due to land.\n\nFive Russian servicemen and three Turkish citizens were on board the aircraft, Interfax agency reported.\n\nThose fires - which are now under control - forced thousands of locals and tourists to flee Marmaris and surrounding areas. Eight people died and more than 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) of vegetation was devastated.\n\nThe floods, triggered by torrential rain, caused some buildings to collapse, smashed bridges, clogged streets with wrecked cars and cut power supplies.\n\nOn Sunday Turkish authorities said 70 people had been killed in three provinces along the Black Sea, including 60 in Kastamonu. Dozens of people are still missing.\n\nPresident Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Kastamonu on Friday and attended a funeral for some of the flooding victims.\n\n\"We can't bring back the citizens we lost, but our state has the means and power to compensate those who lost loved ones,\" Mr Erdogan said after leading prayers.\n\nPresident Erdogan (right) inspected the flood damage in Kastamonu\n\nMr Erdogan's government has faced criticism for its handling of Turkey's recent natural disasters.\n\nIn the flooded areas, helicopters plucked some people from rooftops while others were rescued by boat.\n\nMore than 1,700 people have been evacuated, and as many as 330 villages are without electricity.\n\nTurkey's latest disaster came in the week that a major UN report warned of more extreme weather events because of human-induced global warming. Flash floods and severe heatwaves are afflicting much of Europe this summer.\n\nMountainous areas along Turkey's Black Sea coast are prone to flooding in the summer.\n\nBut Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on a visit to the area on Thursday \"this is the worst flood disaster I have seen\".\n\nIn neighbouring Greece, the authorities say widespread wildfires are more controllable now since much-needed rainfall came.", "Maxine Davison was shot and killed by her son, Jake, in her home\n\nThe mother of the Plymouth gunman, Maxine Davison, and three-year-old Sophie Martyn have been named among the five victims of his shooting spree.\n\nMs Davison, 51, was shot and killed by her 22-year-old son Jake Davison at her home on Biddick Drive, Plymouth, on Thursday evening.\n\nDavison went on to kill three-year-old Sophie, her father Lee Martyn, 43, Stephen Washington and Kate Shepherd.\n\nHis attack lasted about six minutes before he turned the gun on himself.\n\nIn online videos Davison spoke of being \"beaten down\" and \"defeated by life\".\n\nAll of those who died lived in the Keyham area of Plymouth, Devon and Cornwall Police said.\n\nSophie Martyn, three, and her father Lee were among Davison's victims\n\nA large crowd has gathered for a vigil following the fatal shootings.\n\nPeople laid flowers and held candles in North Down Crescent Park in Keyham to remember those killed by Davison.\n\nDozens of tributes have already been placed on the grass, with more people continuing to arrive.\n\nCrowds arrived for a vigil in North Down Crescent Park as night fell\n\nResidents gathered in North Down Crescent Park to remember those killed in the shooting\n\nOfficers are continuing to investigate 13 scenes within a cordon that is expected to remain in place throughout much of the weekend.\n\nHaving killed his mother, Davison left the property and immediately shot and killed Mr Martyn and his daughter on the street.\n\nStephen Washington, 59, was also killed, along with Kate Shepherd, 66, who was injured at the scene and died later at Derriford Hospital.\n\nChief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police, Shaun Sawyer, said Davison was a licensed firearms holder and witnesses described the weapon he used as a \"pump action shotgun\".\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said the issue of how Davison came to legally own a gun should be \"properly investigated\" as he described the shooting as an \"absolutely appalling\" incident.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson: My thoughts are very much with the families of those who have lost their lives\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it had received preliminary information that Davison's firearm and licence were returned to him in early July this year.\n\nThe certificate and shotgun had been removed from him by police in December 2020 following an allegation of assault in September 2020, the watchdog said.\n\nThe IOPC has said it will investigate Devon and Cornwall Police's decision-making in relation to Davison's possession of a shotgun and shotgun certificate.\n\nRegional IOPC Director David Ford said: \"The investigation will also consider whether the force had any information concerning Mr Davison's mental health and if so, if this information was appropriately considered.\"\n\nJake Davison, 22, killed five people before turning the gun on himself\n\nPolice said the incident, the worst mass shooting in Britain since 2010, was not terror-related. However, Davison made references to \"incels\" in some online social media videos.\n\nIncels are members of misogynistic online groups of \"involuntary celibate\" men, who blame women for their sexual failings and who have been linked to a number of violent acts around the world.\n\nDavison had posted hate-filled online rants about single mothers and about his own mother in particular, calling her \"vile, dysfunctional and chaotic\".\n\nLocal resident Bert Pinkerton told the BBC he walked past the gunman on the street.\n\n\"I looked down, walked around the corner, the bloke was walking towards me with a black rifle. I could smell the gunfire.\"\n\nHe said Davison had a \"vacant stare\" and he felt lucky to be alive. \"It could have been me,\" he said.\n\nNeighbours Paris and Billy told the BBC they were \"heartbroken\" to find out the youngest victim of the gunman was aged three.\n\nParis said: \"I feel devastated for the family it makes everything worse being a child.\n\nShe added: \"Nothing's ever going to be the same especially when it's over the road.\"\n\nBilly said: \"It's going to be different here forever now I think.\"\n\nAnother local woman said she hid under a pool table to avoid the \"sheer violence\" after hearing gunshots.\n\nPeggy Holliday took cover in a nearby pub and \"literally clung underneath one of the pool tables for dear life\", she told ITV News West Country.\n\n\"It felt like I was being hunted,\" she said.\n\nDozens of flowers, cards and soft toys have been left in tribute to the victims near the scene.\n\nOne note read: \"Rest in peace. Thoughts and prayers with you all. A tragic loss. Such beautiful souls. Love to all.\"\n\nPeople have been laying flowers and cards at different locations around the police cordon\n\nFlags in Plymouth are being flown at half-mast following the atrocity, while Smeaton's Tower will be lit up as a mark of respect to the victims on Friday night.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Esther Dingley sent this selfie at the top of a mountain on 22 November\n\nThe death of a British hiker in the Pyrenees was an accident, French police have said.\n\nEsther Dingley's remains were found by her partner Daniel Colegate on Monday more than eight months after she disappeared during a solo trek.\n\nA source told the BBC she suffered injuries associated with a fall and though the cause was unclear, her shoes \"were not adequate for icy conditions\".\n\nThe judge in charge of the inquiry said her body may be repatriated next week.\n\nDaniel Colegate walked hundreds of miles in the search for his missing partner Esther Dingley\n\nThe BBC's Chris Bockman in Toulouse said an autopsy and an examination of her rucksack had been carried out by forensic teams.\n\nHe said it was \"unclear\" how the accident had happened but police believe the hiking shoes she was wearing several thousand metres up a mountain \"did not have the grip necessary for the icy conditions at the time and she probably slipped and fell\".\n\nHe also said French officers had confirmed Mr Colegate, who was 100 miles away in France when Ms Dingley, 37, disappeared, was not a suspect.\n\nLBT Global, a charity which is supporting Ms Dingley's family, had said her death was probably an accident \"given the location and other early indications\".\n\nMs Dingley, who was an experienced hiker, was trekking alone when she last communicated with her partner from the top of Pic de Sauvegarde at about 16:00 on 22 November.\n\nMr Colegate raised the alarm several days later when she failed to report in at an agreed time.\n\nThe couple from Durham were on an open-ended campervan tour of Europe and Ms Dingley was on the final walk of a month-long solo expedition when she died.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Sam Rospigliosi says she feels desperate to get a jab for her daughter Veronica\n\nSome parents in England say they are still struggling to get a Covid vaccine for their clinically extremely vulnerable children, nearly four weeks after they were added to the rollout.\n\nAt-risk 12 to 15-year-olds and those living with someone with a weak immune system became eligible on 19 July.\n\nNHS England say vaccinations will start from 23 August at the latest.\n\nBut families and GPs have told the BBC they are frustrated by a lack of information.\n\nParents say they are still waiting to hear how and when they will be contacted and worry their children could return to school with minimal protection after one jab.\n\nSam Rospigliosi's 15-year-old daughter Veronica has severe neurodisabilities and she is desperate to get her vaccinated - but after spending the last two weeks contacting her south-west London GP, local NHS and MP, she is no further forward.\n\n\"It is overwhelming and incredibly upsetting to be in this position - we really do feel very desperate,\" she said.\n\n\"Time is being squandered. The urgency of the vaccine rollout for our clinically vulnerable kids appears to have been forgotten, and once again, we have had to push hard for something which has been rightfully ours all along.\"\n\nAli Mercer from Abingdon in Oxfordshire has a 14-year-old autistic son who is on the learning disabled register, and a 17-year-old daughter.\n\nHer daughter, who turns 18 next month, received a jab on Wednesday last week - but her son Tom is still waiting.\n\n\"I'm really concerned and upset that Tom hasn't been called in for his jab yet,\" she said.\n\nAli Mercer is concerned her son Tom has not been contacted yet for a Covid vaccine\n\n\"It horrifies me to think of him getting ill with Covid and becoming really sick and struggling to express how he's feeling and to understand what's happening.\n\n\"And then there's the risk of long Covid. So I feel the stakes are really high and it's urgent that he and other children like him should be protected as soon as possible.\"\n\nThe government was advised by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) in July that Covid vaccines should be offered to 12 to 15-year-olds who had:\n\nBut several weeks on, GPs also say they are still waiting for \"search guidelines\" to help them identify, from patient health records, which children are eligible for a vaccine - and that is making an already complicated process more time-consuming.\n\n\"I can understand that this will be very stressful for the children and their parents who would want to ensure they receive at least one dose of vaccine before the new school year starts,\" said Prof Azeem Majeed, head of the department of primary care and public health at Imperial College London.\n\n\"This issue is outside the control of GPs and paediatricians, and we are awaiting further guidance from NHS England about how the programme will be implemented,\" he said.\n\nDr Gary Howsam, vice chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said they had been assured the guidance would be available soon and parents of eligible children would be invited in due course.\n\nBut NHS England says it sent out a letter within days of the advice, issuing guidance to GPs on how to proceed.\n\n\"GP-led vaccination centres are already contacting children and their parents, with thousands vaccinated in a matter of days following the necessary safety checks and training,\" an NHS spokesman said.\n\n\"Local services are on track to offer a vaccine to eligible 12 to 15-year-olds by the start of the school year, as originally planned.\"\n\nThis includes sending invites to 37,000 vulnerable children in England and 114,000 children who live with someone with a weak immune system.\n\nIn the meantime, GP leaders are urging parents not to contact their GP practice directly about the issue.\n\nLast week the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health described the vaccine rollout to under-18s as \"shambolic\", saying doctors had been \"left in the dark\" about plans for the programme which left them unable to answer questions from worried parents.\n\nThe college says it is hopeful things are starting to move in the right direction.\n\nIn Wales, letters are being sent to eligible 12 to 15-year-olds inviting them to be vaccinated.\n\nIn Northern Ireland, paediatricians from each trust were asked to identify eligible children and invite them to attend dedicated vaccination centres.\n\nAnd in Scotland, the NHS said as of 12 August, 23% of eligible 12 to 15-year-olds and 34% of those aged 16 and 17 had received a first dose of the vaccine.", "All 16 and 17-year-olds in England are to be offered their first coronavirus vaccine dose or the chance to book one by 23 August, the government has said.\n\nThe health secretary said offering vaccines by this date would allow teenagers to get some protection before starting school or college next month.\n\nA walk-in site finder is being launched online by NHS England to help people locate their nearest vaccine centre.\n\nYoung people in this age group were first offered a jab earlier this month.\n\nBut unlike older age groups, no second dose is being scheduled.\n\nThey will be invited, by text or letter, to get vaccinated either by making an appointment through GPs or by going to a walk-in centre, the Department of Health said.\n\nInvites are also being sent out in Wales, while in Northern Ireland, walk-in centres are now open to older teenagers, and in Scotland they can register their interest online.\n\nTens of thousands of people aged 16 and 17 have already had a first vaccine. Having it done by 23 August will mean there is two weeks for them to build immunity before the new term gets under way.\n\nThose aged 12 to 15 who are clinically vulnerable or live with others at increased risk of getting seriously ill with coronavirus are also being invited for their vaccine by that date. However, some parents have told the BBC of their struggles in securing vaccines for children in this group.\n\nTeenagers who are within three months of turning 18 can book an appointment online through the National Booking Service or calling 119.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid urged people not to delay, adding: \"Get your jabs as soon as you can so we can continue to safely live with this virus and enjoy our freedoms by giving yourself, your family and your community the protection they need.\"\n\nExperts have warned that high levels of coronavirus infection and rising case rates mean the UK is \"running hot\" when it comes to managing the spread of the disease.\n\nDr Simon Clarke, associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said on Friday that while vaccines are reducing the number of hospital admissions and deaths, high case numbers \"still place an unnecessary burden on the NHS\".\n\nThe rate of new cases of the virus is currently rising in all four nations, suggesting the sharp fall in Covid-19 cases that had been under way since mid-July has now come to an end.\n\nThe National Education Union said the vaccinations of 16 and 17-year-olds would help minimise disruption to education in the next academic year, but said additional safety measures needed to continue in schools.\n\nThe union's joint general secretary, Kevin Courtney, said: \"With the autumn and winter terms coming up, the issue of crowded schools with no social distancing and inadequate ventilation remains a problem.\"\n\nThe government says vaccines have saved about 84,600 lives as well as preventing 23.4 million infections and 66,900 hospital admissions by 6 August.\n\nSunday's data showed that 47,302,445 first doses had now been given in the UK - covering about 89% of the adult population - and 40,577,198 second doses, about 77% of adults.\n\nThere were 26,750 new cases announced and 61 deaths, where the person had tested positive within the previous 28 days.\n\nDr Nikki Kanani, NHS medical director of primary care and deputy lead for the vaccination programme in England, said more than a quarter of a million under-18s had had a first jab so far.\n\n\"Now as teenagers prepare to head back to school or college or into their first full-time jobs, once again NHS staff are doing everything they can to offer young people the lifesaving vaccine as quickly as possible to protect themselves and others,\" she said.\n\nThe latest data showed that 70% of people aged 18 to 29 in England had received a first dose of vaccine up to 11 August.\n\nThose aged 16 and above do not need parental consent to get a vaccine as they are considered capable of making their own medical treatment decisions.", "Gillian Sturgeon is the sister of Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon\n\nThe sister of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been arrested and charged over an alleged domestic incident.\n\nGillian Sturgeon, 46, was arrested on Wednesday over an incident at a house in Kilwinning, North Ayrshire, on 7 August.\n\nShe was released on an undertaking to appear at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court at a later date yet to be confirmed.\n\nA 50-year-old man, Steven Waite, was also arrested and charged over the incident.\n\nHe too was released on an undertaking to appear at the same court at a later date.\n\nA statement released by Police Scotland said: \"A 50-year-old man was arrested and charged in connection with an incident that took place within a house in Kilwinning on Saturday August 7.\n\n\"He was released on an undertaking to appear at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court at a later date.\n\n\"A full report will be sent to the procurator fiscal.\"\n\nThe statement added: \"On Wednesday August 11, a 46-year-old woman was arrested and charged following a report made on Tuesday August 10 regarding an incident that took place within a house in Kilwinning on Saturday August 7.\n\n\"She has been released on an undertaking to appear at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court at a later date.\n\n\"A full report will be sent to the procurator fiscal.\"", "The cost of NHS coronavirus tests for international arrivals to the UK have been reduced, the government has said.\n\nTest and Trace tests have been cut from £88 to £68 for people arriving from green-listed countries and for those coming from amber-listed countries who are fully vaccinated.\n\nMeanwhile, the price of two tests for amber arrivals who have not had both jabs has been cut from £170 to £136.\n\nThe prices of all providers of day two and eight tests are to be reviewed.\n\nIt comes after Health Secretary Sajid Javid asked the competition watchdog to investigate \"excessive\" pricing and \"exploitative practices\" among PCR Covid test firms.\n\nHe said misleading pricing will be clamped down on and providers failing to meet necessary standards will be removed from the government's approved list.\n\nNHS Test and Trace advertises its tests alongside private companies' packages and they are available to purchase to fulfil the government's testing requirements for international travel.\n\nThis is the second time the price of NHS tests has been reduced; previously the cost of a day two and eight package was £210.\n\nIt is understood that if the review finds private companies are offering terms that are unfair and therefore unenforceable, enforcement action could be taken by the Competition and Markets Authority or Trading Standards.\n\nIf businesses are found to have breached consumer law, they could be subject to a court order to stop operating and told to compensate consumers.\n\n\"I am determined to protect consumers and hardworking families from exploitative practices and ensure high quality tests are available at a reasonable price,\" said Mr Javid.\n\n\"Too many providers are acting like cowboys and that needs to stop. The public should be allowed to enjoy their summer holidays without having to face excessive costs or anxiety.\n\n\"Any provider found to be misleading the public will be kicked off.\"\n\nHolidaymakers have complained of high prices and poor service from many of the 400-plus firms offering PCR tests and there have been reports that some have not got full accreditation.\n\nAccording to reports, PCR test prices can range from as little as £20 to more than £500. There have also been complaints from consumers that they have not received test results or have been sent damaged PCR kits.\n\nThe government said providers must use laboratories that are either accredited or undergoing accreditation by the independent United Kingdom Accreditation Service, and that businesses that fail to meet standards will be removed from its list of approved providers.\n\nThe CMA has previously said formal investigations can take a long time, but in this instance it will provide advice to Mr Javid with a view to taking swift action.", "Police could not find any suspects after the intruder alarm went off at the Santander bank, but a thermal imaging drone found three people on the roof\n\nThree suspected burglars who tried to hide from police on the roof of a bank were foiled by a thermal imaging drone.\n\nNottinghamshire Police attended the Santander bank in Stockwell Gate, Mansfield, at 01:10 BST after the intruder alarm was activated.\n\nOfficers could not find any suspects until the force's drone spotted three people on the roof.\n\nTwo men, aged 25 and 40, and a 31-year-old woman, were arrested on suspicion of burglary and remain in custody.\n\nPolice said Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service was also in attendance to help officers search the roof.\n\nFire crews helped police search the roof of the bank in Mansfield\n\nIt is unclear whether anything was taken from the bank.\n\nDet Sgt Lauren Morgan said: \"This is a great example of how multiple departments from the force can work together to achieve good results and I would like to thank everyone who was involved in the arrests.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Scott Staniland and his brother Brett are from Derbyshire\n\nThe identical twin brother of Love Island contestant Brett Staniland has spoken out against online trolling after receiving \"relentless\" comments.\n\nScott Staniland, who is managing his brother's social media accounts, says comments about physical appearance are particularly upsetting.\n\nHe said his brother's looks have even been compared to \"really bad people\" who have committed serious crimes.\n\nScott, from Derbyshire, has now asked a friend to help manage the accounts.\n\n\"I'm his identical twin so anything I see about appearance, or what he's like, I take it so personally,\" he said.\n\n\"It's relentless as well, and it's a really weird space online, this lack of consequence for saying something out in the open online when you're at home with your piece of plastic in your hand.\"\n\nBrett entered the Love Island villa during Tuesday night's episode of the ITV2 dating show.\n\nThe 27-year-old is a PhD student and model from Draycott in Derbyshire.\n\n\"Honestly after a day, I've not told many people this, I handed the login over to a friend who's used to managing online communities,\" said Scott, who models with his brother.\n\n\"So I was really grateful for that, because I was up until four o'clock on the first night reading every quoted tweet, every reply, every comment, DM, all of that stuff.\n\n\"They are talking about really bad people, and people that have committed serious crimes that he looks like apparently.\n\n\"There's just no boundaries. I had people sending voice notes and trying to call me on Instagram and FaceTime me.\"\n\nHowever, he said many of the messages had also been positive.\n\n\"There's been some really nice messages from people that have also been on the show,\" he said.\n\n\"I don't mind a bit of banter... have a laugh but know when to stop, know where the line is.\"\n\nBrett and Scott are mirror twins, so Brett is left-handed and right-footed, while Scott is left-footed and right-handed\n\nThe mental health of Love Island contestants has come under increased scrutiny in recent years, following the suicides of former contestants Sophie Gradon and Mike Thalassitis.\n\nHowever, ITV has announced that contestants are to be taught how to handle the \"potential negativity\" of social media as part of the show's duty of care protocols.\n\nScott said the show appeared to have gone \"above and beyond\" regarding his brother's mental health.\n\n\"Brett had a lot of phone calls with psychiatrists, psychologists, and they called some of our family just to check in and have a chat about what his life has been like and any stresses and stuff like that,\" he said.\n\n\"But he's got a good, solid group of friends that he can definitely lean on for support, and obviously I'm here to take some of that burden too.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.", "The artist (pictured in 2004) previously survived cancer in the 1990s\n\nHer death was confirmed by management and her record label on Friday, without a cause of death being given.\n\nThe genre-straddling artist's best known songs include Love at the Five and Dime and the Outbound Plane, which others saw mainstream success with.\n\nShe is considered influential and recorded duets with artists like Willie Nelson across her long career.\n\nBorn in Seguin, Texas in 1953, Griffith began performing and releasing folk music while working as a nursery teacher in Austin in the 1970s.\n\nShe moved to Nashville in 1985, where she landed her first major record deal.\n\nGriffith found country success with her recording of Julie Gold's From a Distance, years before Bette Midler's version became a major hit.\n\nHer style of music, which Griffith herself described as \"folkabilly\", was considered unique and blended musical genres.\n\nShe won a Grammy award in 1994 for her album Other Voices, Other Rooms which was made up of cover songs and musical collaborations.\n\nShe previously survived two bouts of cancer in the 1990s and continued to tour and produce music - with her final album released in 2012.\n\n\"It was Nanci's wish that no further formal statement or press release happen for a week following her passing,\" Gold Mountain Entertainment said in a statement.\n\nArtists from the music world paid tribute after news of her death broke on Friday.\n\nCountry artist Suzy Bogguss shared a photograph of Griffith on Instagram and said her \"heart was aching\" with the loss.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by suzybogguss This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram 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.\n\nKyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, described Griffith as \"a master songwriter who took every opportunity to champion kindred spirits\".", "Motorists faced long delays on the M6 in Cheshire\n\nA man has suffered life-threatening injuries in a crash involving four vehicles on the M6 in Cheshire.\n\nEmergency services were called to the crash involving a van, two HGVs and a Mercedes at 04:15 BST on Friday.\n\nThe southbound motorway has reopened after it was closed between junction 19 at Knutsford and junction 20 at Lymm.\n\nThe Mercedes driver, a 56-year-old man from from Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, was taken to hospital.\n\nA 58-year-old man from Bolton, who was driving the Ford Transit van, and a 52-year-old woman from Redditch, who was driving one of the HGVs, both sustained minor injuries in the crash.\n\nOfficers are appealing for anyone who witnessed the crash or has dashcam footage to get in contact.\n\nPolice have also issued 76 notices of intended prosecution to drivers on the northbound carriageway who were recorded videoing or photographing the scene while driving past.\n\nOn Thursday, the northbound carriageway near Preston, Lancashire was closed for several hours due to a fatal crash.\n\nThe driver and front seat passenger of a vehicle were pronounced dead at the scene.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Nicki Minaj and Kenneth Petty are being sued for alleged harassment\n\nRapper Nicki Minaj and her husband, Kenneth Petty, are being sued by a woman he was convicted of attempting to rape in 1994.\n\nThe woman, now 43, has filed a lawsuit alleging that the couple harassed her to try to make her take back her claims, US media report.\n\nPetty served four-and-a-half years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted rape of the then teenager.\n\nLast year he was arrested for failure to register as a sex offender.\n\nIn the lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, the woman alleges that Ms Minaj offered her $500,000 (£360,000) via an intermediary in return for recanting her accusations against Petty.\n\nThe lawsuit claims that, shortly after Petty's arrest in 2020, the intermediary gave the rapper the woman's number. Ms Minaj is alleged to have called her and offered to fly her and her family to Los Angeles if she could \"help\" her.\n\nThe offer was declined, the lawsuit says.\n\nThe woman also claims that she turned down Ms Minaj's offer to have her publicist draft a statement recanting the allegation.\n\nAccording to the lawsuit, the woman is said to have told Ms Minaj: \"I need you to know woman to woman, that this happened.\"\n\nThe woman further claims that within days of rejecting the offers, she and her family \"suffered an onslaught of harassing calls and unsolicited visits\".\n\nThe woman said she had not been able to work since May 2020 \"due to severe depression, paranoia, constant moving, harassment and threats\" from the celebrity couple and their associates.\n\nThe lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, says she is living in hiding as she fears retaliation.\n\nThe musician's legal team has not yet responded to the accusations, according to US media.\n\nMs Minaj and Petty began dating in 2018 and announced a year later that they were married. The couple have an 11-month-old son.", "Jarvis Cocker on stage at the Clickimin Centre in Lerwick\n\nTwenty-five years ago, Pulp were at the peak of their fame and success. They had scored major chart success with some of the defining songs of the Britpop era, and had just played to 70,000 at T in the Park.\n\nSo why, only a few weeks later, were they performing in front of 1,400 young fans in Shetland?\n\nThe show at the Clickimin Centre in Lerwick on 13 August 1996 was a formative experience for many of those in the audience.\n\nAlan Donald was 12 years old and had only recently moved to Shetland from West Lothian.\n\n\"I got my ticket handed to me on the day of the gig,\" he recalls.\n\n\"That sort of gig, on the [Scottish] mainland, there's not a chance I was going to that on my own.\n\nDemand was high for tickets to the show\n\n\"It was my very first concert - I think it was a high bar for just having moved to Shetland.\n\n\"I was thinking Oasis and Blur are surely just weeks behind them.\"\n\nThat wouldn't prove to be the case, and many believe the show remains the biggest concert Shetland has ever seen.\n\nDemand was understandably high. Entry was priced at £15, although some tickets changed hands for up to £100.\n\n\"There was a bunch of us went and nearly missed the first song.\"\n\nDavie Gardner was one of those involved in organising the concert at the Shetland end.\n\n\"You could tell at the soundcheck that the band were really up for it,\" he said.\n\n\"The response from the audience was absolutely amazing - that's probably the best reaction I ever saw to any band in Shetland.\"\n\nThe show came at the end of a long global tour for Pulp, who had found mainstream success with singles like Common People and the Different Class album after more than a decade of relative obscurity.\n\nBut why did they end up playing in Shetland?\n\nKeyboard player Candida Doyle said it was due to a family connection.\n\n\"I used to live with my cousin Louise Davis in Sheffield,\" she said.\n\nLouise was originally from Shetland, and had moved back home - but not before having a brainwave.\n\n\"It might have been a joke, but she suggested to Jarvis (Cocker) we play Shetland.\n\n\"It seemed like a crazy idea, but he took it on board.\"\n\nIt was a complex gig to set up, and the guest list ended up being \"astronomical\".\n\nBut Davie said the band's rider for the show was unusual in its lack of demands.\n\n\"We had to get a couple of Airfix models,\" he said.\n\n\"I got a call the next day from the hotel to say the band had left behind a Lancaster bomber.\"\n\nThe Shetland show took place at a turning point for the band. The set list featured the first performance of Help the Aged, a track from their next album, This Is Hardcore, which saw Pulp moving in a darker direction.\n\nPulp had played more than 100 shows on the Different Class tour. Candida described it as a \"really gruelling\" experience, and said the stress got too much towards the end.\n\n\"Steve (Mackey), our bass player, said 'one of us is going to lose it on this tour' and it just triggered this huge panic attack.\n\n\"I suddenly felt really hot. And I just thought that I needed to get off the bus.\"\n\nShe said touring had \"passed the point of being enjoyable\".\n\n\"By the time we played Shetland, I'd absolutely had it,\" she added.\n\nBut despite feeling jaded about their punishing schedule, the experience in Shetland left an impression on Candida.\n\n\"One of my memories is that it was a crazy night, absolutely electric.\n\n\"As much as I'm saying that by the time we played Shetland I'd had enough, I still feel so blessed to have been in a position like this. I feel so grateful.\"\n\nShe also takes comfort in the significance of the show for the young crowd.\n\n\"I love that. You know, I really would like to have attended it.\n\n\"I love small gigs anyway, but it was just amazing.\"\n\nCandida Doyle and Jarvis Cocker on stage in Lerwick\n\nHazel Robertson had seen Pulp twice before they came to Shetland, once at T in the Park and once headlining Glastonbury in 1995.\n\nBut she said: \"Seeing them on your home soil was absolutely amazing.\"\n\nReferencing one of the band's lyrics, she added: \"As Jarvis said, I lost my friends and danced alone.\n\n\"They stand up as well as anyone else. I don't think their music gets old.\"\n\nFor Davie, the show stands out as a unique night in local music history.\n\n\"I don't think anything here really ever equalled that. We never quite had a band at the peak of their powers again in Shetland.\"", "Candice Roberts and her partner James Markham, who was stabbed to death on Monday\n\nThe partner of a man who was stabbed to death outside his home in north-east London has said her \"heart will never be the same\".\n\nJames Markham, 45, was killed on Monday night after confronting a group of youths who were shouting outside his home on Churchill Terrace, Chingford.\n\nA 14-year-old boy has been charged with his murder.\n\nCandice Roberts, who said she was \"devoted\" to Mr Markham for 25 years, described him as \"her world\".\n\nThe father of three had previously been described by friends as a \"man with a good heart and a good soul\".\n\nIn a statement, Ms Roberts said: \"We are so thankful to the ambulance service, the air ambulance and the police in all their efforts to save our beautiful Jamie.\n\n\"Our hearts will never be the same, he was my world. I am so overwhelmed from the love from our community and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.\"\n\nThe accused teenager appeared at Stratford Youth Court on Friday, also charged with possessing a knife in public.\n\nHe remains in youth detention and is set to appear at the Old Bailey on 17 August.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Rugby player-turned-pundit Ugo Monye has become the 15th and final celebrity to be confirmed for the 2021 series of Strictly Come Dancing.\n\nMonye will join Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty, BBC Breakfast's Dan Walker, actress Nina Wadia and 11 other stars when the BBC show returns next month.\n\nThe former England player, soon to be seen as a team captain on A Question of Sport, said it was \"a dream come true\".\n\n\"I love an outfit at the best of times, so bring on the sequins!\" he went on.\n\nThe announcement came hours after the participation of Olympic gold medallist Peaty was revealed, along with that of comedian and Loose Women panellist Judi Love.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Adam Peaty: I'm going to be very uncomfortable on Strictly\n\nThe trio were the final celebrities to be named for the 19th series of Strictly, which will be the normal length after being slightly shorter in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.\n\nBruno Tonioli will be absent from the judges' desk, replaced by long-serving professional dancer Anton Du Beke. Four new professionals have also been revealed.\n\nHere are 2021's celebrity contestants in full:\n\nThe former Harlequins winger won 14 international caps for England and also played two Tests for the British & Irish Lions.\n\nAfter retiring in 2015, he moved into the media and his Strictly signing comes weeks after he was named among a new line-up on the BBC's long-running A Question of Sport.\n\n\"Strictly is the biggest entertainment show on TV and I can't wait to show everyone I've got more than just dad dancing moves,\" he said in a statement.\n\n\"My two beautiful daughters never had a chance to see me on the rugby pitch, so to know they can watch me waltzing and twirling every week is really special to me.\"\n\nSwimmer Peaty will be hoping to follow the two gold medals he won at the recent Tokyo Olympics with Strictly's coveted glitterball trophy.\n\nThe 26-year-old won the 100m breaststroke in Tokyo, becoming the first British swimmer to defend an Olympic title. He also scooped gold in the mixed 4x100m medley relay and silver in the 4x100m medley relay.\n\n\"I'm not the most fluid on land,\" he told BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat. \"But, saying that, I am an athlete. I am used to working hard.\"\n\nIn a separate statement, Peaty said he was \"really looking forward to doing something totally different and challenging myself away from the pool\".\n\nJudi Love is a TV presenter, stand-up comedian, online comedy star and OK! magazine columnist.\n\nShe said she had watched Strictly for years and \"admired the phenomenal abilities of these dancers and celebrities that have taken part and dedicated themselves to learning a new craft\".\n\nShe added: \"I'm truly looking forward to pushing myself in something that I could have only dreamed of doing and now it's actually coming true!! I can't lie I'm soooo nervous but excited at the same time.\"\n\nThe EastEnders actress, who has played Frankie Lewis in the BBC soap since 2020, is set to become Strictly's first deaf dancer.\n\n\"To be the first deaf contestant on Strictly Come Dancing is so exciting and a little bit scary,\" she said in a statement. \"I hope I will do the deaf community proud and break down more barriers.\n\n\"But I am also very excited to learn an incredible new skill, and even better I get to learn whilst wearing beautiful dresses made especially for me!\"\n\nAyling-Ellis, who communicates using British Sign Language, made history by becoming the first deaf actor to play a deaf character in EastEnders' fictional Walford suburb.\n\nFormer EastEnders and Goodness Gracious Me actress Wadia admitted she was \"so scared\" when her name was added to the line-up.\n\n\"I like dancing like no-one's watching,\" she told ITV's Lorraine after she was revealed. \"So we just need to blindfold the judges and I'm going to win,\" she joked.\n\nWadia played Zainab Masood (later Khan) in EastEnders between 2007 and 2013 and is also known for her role in BBC comedy Still Open All Hours.\n\n\"A lot has happened in the last couple of years, and I just want to grab life by the balls and enjoy it,\" she said.\n\nThe 19-year-old has more than 9.5 million followers on TikTok and is known for presenting CBBC's Matilda and the Ramsay Bunch, which features her family - including her father, chef Gordon.\n\nShe said she \"can't wait to get my dancing shoes on and show my dad how it's done\".\n\nHe wished her well in a video when she was announced as a contestant on ITV's This Morning, signing off with the warning: \"Don't date those dancers.\"\n\nAsked if she thought she had an advantage by posting dance videos on social media, Ramsay replied: \"Yeah, I guess that's true. You've got to learn them and you've got to remember them for the video, but luckily that's not live and you can do as many takes as you need.\"\n\nThe actor rose to fame by playing John Willoughby in the 1995 film Sense and Sensibility, on which he met his future wife Dame Emma Thompson.\n\nWise also appeared in Cranford, played Lord Mountbatten in The Crown, and created the 2019 film Last Christmas with Dame Emma, whom he married in 2003.\n\nHe dedicated his Strictly appearance to his late sister Clare, with whom he wrote the book Not That Kind of Love.\n\n\"My beautiful sister was a huge disco queen,\" he said. \"She left our world almost exactly five years ago in a glitter ball coffin. This is for her.\"\n\nDan Walker has been a regular presenter of BBC Breakfast since 2016, when he replaced Bill Turnbull.\n\nHe said on Tuesday he was \"excited, a little bit worried, mostly terrified\" about joining Strictly.\n\nKeen sports fan Walker presented BBC Olympic Breakfast throughout this year's games. He also hosted Football Focus for 12 years and has covered many major events, including Wimbledon, the Grand National and Royal Ascot.\n\nOther presenting roles have included The One Show and Songs of Praise.\n\nHe added: \"My kids have only ever asked me to go on two shows… Saturday Mash Up and Strictly. I did Saturday Mash Up this summer so… it's time to embrace the sequins.\"\n\nKatie McGlynn meanwhile said she was getting ready \"to shake my shimmy\".\n\n\"I'm really not a dancer, but I'm so excited to learn a new skill on this crazy journey and cannot wait to slip into some sequins along the way,\" she said.\n\nThe actress, who plays newcomer Becky Quentin in Hollyoaks, formerly starred as Sinead Tinker in Coronation Street. The role earned her a Bafta nomination and a National Television Award in 2020. She also featured in the BBC One drama series Waterloo Road and The Syndicate.\n\n\"A lot of my roles have involved quite serious and challenging storylines, so I'm fully ready to let my hair down and do something different, even if it is completely outside of my comfort zone,\" she added.\n\nSara Davies, 37, became the youngest ever dragon on the BBC show's panel of entrepreneurs when she joined in 2019.\n\nKnown as the Den's \"Crafting Queen\", Davies started her business Crafter's Companion when she was still a student. It now employs nearly 250 people.\n\nThe County Durham-born entrepreneur said her \"mam and dad are going to be so excited\" about her joining Strictly.\n\n\"I'm really nervous because so far the producers keep asking me if I can dance. Truth be told - I haven't got a clue! I've not danced since I did ballet lessons when I was little.\"\n\nShe added: \"The business world has taught me that tenacity, drive and determination deliver results, I hope that I can bring that to the dance floor. And I'm excited to see the impact of all those hours of training on my mum tum!\"\n\nThe singer and guitarist, who scored seven UK number one singles with McFly between 2004 and 2007, is taking to the dance floor exactly a decade after his bandmate Harry Judd lifted the coveted glitterball trophy.\n\nFletcher has also carved out a successful sideline as a children's author, and his family could do a unique reality TV double after wife Giovanna won I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! last year.\n\nHe said he was \"incredibly excited\" but also \"totally terrified\" to do Strictly. \"My kids were excited too until I started showing them my best dad-dancing in the kitchen,\" he said. \"I'm not sure how far they'll get me in the competition but I can't wait to add some new moves to my embarrassing dad-dancing repertoire.\"\n\nThe Blackburn-born presenter rose to fame hosting Big Brother's Bit on the Side in 2013, and has since appeared on shows like The Voice UK and Trending Live!.\n\nIn September, she will co-present a one-off revival of Channel 4's The Big Breakfast alongside comedian Mo Gilligan.\n\nShe said she was \"beyond chuffed\" to be on Strictly. \"I absolutely love the show and am fully committed to making the most of every second of the Strictly experience,\" she said. \"Bring it on!\"\n\nThe comic actor is best-known for his double act with David Mitchell in TV shows like Peep Show, That Mitchell and Webb Look and Back. Like Fletcher, he has also become an author.\n\nAnd Webb has form on the dance floor - he won Let's Dance For Comic Relief in 2009.\n\n\"It's a big, generous, joyful show and I can't wait to get packed into a spandex onesie and fired from a glitter cannon directly at Claudia Winkleman,\" he said.\n\nActor and children's TV presenter Stephenson is best known as the face of children's television channel CBBC, which he hosts live from the channel's Salford HQ.\n\nHe has presented such CBBC shows as Blue Peter and Saturday Mash-Up! and is an ambassador for children's mental health charity Place2Be.\n\n\"I cannot wait to experience it all: the costumes, the orchestra, even Craig's glare,\" he said of his participation in Strictly. \"I am ready!\"\n\nThe actor and children's TV presenter added he was already \"impatient to take part\" after being unveiled on Friday morning's Newsround news bulletin.\n\n\"I have dreamt about being on this show, and I know for a fact it is going to exceed every expectation,\" he said.\n\nWhaite is a chef, TV presenter and cookery author. He won the third series of The Great British Bake Off in 2012 at the age of 23.\n\nSince then he has presented TV shows and has a cooking segment on Steph's Packed Lunch on Channel 4.\n\nHe has also published five cookery books and runs his own cookery school, John Whaite's Kitchen.\n\n\"I'm so grateful, excited, and nervous to be joining the Strictly 2021 family,\" he said. \"I've been wearing sequins and jazzy attire since I was three years old and can't wait to hurl myself, full throttle, around the most glamorous dance floor on Earth.\"\n\nWhaite will be part of the show's first all-male partnership. He will follow in the footsteps of boxer Nicola Adams, who was the first celebrity to have a same-sex partner last year.\n\nThe 2012 Bake Off winner described his partnership as \"a great step forward in representation and inclusion\".\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion, email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Turkey is one of several Mediterranean countries to be affected by wildfires during high temperatures\n\nJuly was the world's hottest month ever recorded, a US federal scientific and regulatory agency has reported.\n\nThe data shows that the combined land and ocean-surface temperature was 0.93C (1.68F) above the 20th Century average of 15.8C (60.4F).\n\nIt is the highest temperature since record-keeping began 142 years ago. The previous record, set in July 2016, was equalled in 2019 and 2020.\n\nExperts believe this is due to the long-term impact of climate change.\n\nIn a statement, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said that July's \"unenviable distinction\" was a cause for concern.\n\n\"In this case, first place is the worst place to be,\" NOAA administrator Rick Spinrad said in a statement.\n\n\"This new record adds to the disturbing and disruptive path that climate change has set for the globe.\"\n\nThe combined land and ocean-surface temperature was 0.01C higher than the 2016 record.\n\nIn the Northern Hemisphere, land-surface temperature reached an \"unprecedented\" 1.54C higher than average, surpassing a previous record set in 2012.\n\nThe data also showed that July was Asia's hottest month on record, as well as Europe's second hottest after July 2018.\n\nThe NOAA statement also included a map of significant climate \"anomalies\" in July, which noted that global tropical cyclone activity this year has been unusually high for the number of named storms.\n\nEarlier this week, a report from the United Nations said that climate change is having an \"unprecedented\" impact on earth, with some changes likely to be \"irreversible for centuries to millennia.\"\n\nUN Secretary General António Guterres said that the findings were \"a code red for humanity.\"\n\n\"If we combine forces now, we can avert climate catastrophe. But as today's report makes clear, there is no time for delay and no room for excuses,\" he said.\n\nThe authors of the report say that since 1970, global surface temperatures have risen faster than in any other 50-year period over the past 2,000 years.\n\nThis 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. Buildings in Les Cayes were destroyed by the 7.2-magnitude earthquake\n\nA powerful earthquake has struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti, killing at least 304 people and injuring more than 1,800.\n\nThe 7.2-magnitude quake hit the west of the country on Saturday morning, toppling and damaging buildings including churches and hotels.\n\nThe prime minister said there was \"extensive damage\" and declared a month-long state of emergency.\n\nHaiti is still recovering from a devastating 2010 earthquake.\n\nThe epicentre of Saturday's quake was about 12km (7.5 miles) from the town of Saint-Louis du Sud, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.\n\nAt least 304 people have died and many more are injured\n\nThe tremor was felt in the densely-populated capital of Port-au-Prince, some 125km away, and in neighbouring countries.\n\n\"Lots of homes are destroyed, people are dead and some are at the hospital,\" Christella Saint Hilaire, who lives near the epicentre, told AFP news agency.\n\nPrime Minister Ariel Henry said he had mobilised a team to work on the relief effort.\n\n\"The most important thing is to recover as many survivors as possible under the rubble,\" he said. \"We have learned that the local hospitals, in particular that of Les Cayes, are overwhelmed with wounded, fractured people.\"\n\nMr Henry later revealed he had flown in a plane over the city of Cayes.\n\nThis 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 Dr Ariel Henry 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.\n\nUS President Joe Biden has authorised an \"immediate US response\" to help Haiti and said USAID would work to support efforts to \"assess the damage and assist efforts to recover those who were injured and those who must now rebuild\".\n\n\"In what is already a challenging time for the people of Haiti, I am saddened by the devastating earthquake,\" he said.\n\nThe USGS earlier warned that the earthquake could result in thousands of fatalities and injuries. It also said several aftershocks had been felt in the region, including one measuring 5.8 magnitude.\n\nBuildings were damaged and reduced to rubble in the town of Les Cayes\n\nFrantz Duval, editor-in-chief of Haiti's Le Nouvelliste newspaper, tweeted that two hotels were among the buildings destroyed in the town of Les Cayes. He said the local hospital was overwhelmed.\n\n\"Slowly, strongly and for very long seconds the earth shook in Haiti on 14 August, 2021 around 8:30 am,\" he wrote.\n\nReporters at Le Nouvelliste later said the majority of churches and hotels on the south coast had collapsed or suffered major damage.\n\nArchdeacon Abiade Lozama, head of an Episcopal church in Les Cayes, told the New York Times: \"The streets are filled with screaming. People are searching, for loved ones or resources, medical help, water.\"\n\nThe president has mobilised a team to work on relief efforts\n\nPhotos shared on social media showed damaged buildings and piles of rubble after the quake.\n\nLeila Bourahla, Haiti director of Save the Children, told the New York Times it would take days to assess the damage but \"it is clear that this is a massive humanitarian emergency\".\n\nThis 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 2 by JCOM Haïti 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.\n\nNaomi Verneus, a 34-year-old resident of the capital Port-au-Prince, told the Associated Press news agency she was woken up by the earthquake and that her bed was shaking.\n\n\"I woke up and didn't have time to put my shoes on. We lived [through] the 2010 earthquake and all I could do was run. I later remembered my two kids and my mother were still inside. My neighbour went in and told them to get out. We ran to the street,\" she said.\n\nThe 2010 earthquake in Haiti killed more than 200,000 people and caused extensive damage to infrastructure and the economy.\n\nSaturday's earthquake comes amid a political crisis in the country, following the assassination of its president last month.\n\nTennis star Naomi Osaka, who is of Japanese and Haitian descent, tweeted her solidarity with Haiti.\n\nReferring to next week's Western & Southern Open, the four-time Grand Slam winner wrote: \"I'm about to play a tournament this week and I'll give all the prize money to relief efforts for Haiti. I know our ancestors' blood is strong we'll keep rising.\"\n• None 59%percentage who live below the poverty line\n• None 2004-2017years in which a UN peacekeeping force was present\n• None 200,000number of people killed in the 2010 earthquake\n\nAre you in the area? If it is safe to do so please share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "Six people have been arrested after fights broke out ahead of Manchester United's game with Leeds United.\n\nSocial media footage showed chairs and a bin thrown during a scuffle in Manchester city centre, before the Old Trafford match at 12:30 BST.\n\nGreater Manchester Police (GMP) said five people were held on suspicion of public order offences and one on suspicion of drug offences.\n\nThey added that they were working with both clubs to identify offenders.\n\nGMP said the six arrests were made over the course of the day and that those detained were in custody for questioning.\n\nIt came as full-capacity crowds returned to Premier League games following lockdown in March 2020.\n\nManchester United thrashed Leeds United 5-1 in their opening match of the season.\n\nBefore the match, social media footage showed scores of men running down Deansgate with some throwing objects and punches, while police tried to maintain control.\n\nCh Supt Stuart Ellison, from GMP, said that \"despite isolated incidents of disorder in the city centre prior to kick-off, today's events at Old Trafford largely passed without police incident\".\n\nHe thanked members of the public, adding that \"today was an important day for a lot of people with the return of capacity crowds at venues that have remained absent for such a long time\".\n\nBefore kick-off, BBC Sport correspondent Simon Stone said there had been a \"welcome buzz around Old Trafford\".\n\nHe added that \"some pretty terrible images on social media suggests there has been some trouble in the city centre but far more fans are in this stadium now, waiting for the action to begin\".\n\nThe recent easing of restrictions means there was no requirement for social distancing in the stands\n\nA minute's silence was held before the game for people who had died with coronavirus, followed by players from both clubs taking the knee as part of their anti-racism campaign.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Restrictions will get tighter in the state as cases increase\n\nThe leader of New South Wales has warned this is \"the worst situation Australia's been in\" since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nState Premier Gladys Berejiklian said rules would be tightened in Sydney, the state capital, which is in lockdown.\n\nCovid fines will also go up to AU$5,000 (US$3,685; £2,656) from AU$1,000.\n\n\"This is literally a war, and we've known we've been in a war for some time, but never to this extent,\" Ms Berejiklian told reporters.\n\nShe added that September and October would be \"very difficult\".\n\nCase numbers and deaths in the Australian state remain relatively low compared to some of the world's worst outbreaks, including in the US and UK.\n\nHowever, locally transmitted infections hit 466 on Saturday - a significant increase from the previous daily high of 390 set a day earlier.\n\nFour deaths were reported on Saturday, bringing the state's total number of deaths in this outbreak to 42.\n\nSydney has been in lockdown for nine weeks. Officials had hoped to lift the city's restrictions on 28 August, but that is now looking increasingly unlikely.\n\nFrom Monday, people will be restricted to staying within 5km of their home for shopping, exercise or outdoor recreation, with exemptions in place for social bubbles.\n\nAnd from 21 August, anyone wishing to travel from Greater Sydney to regional New South Wales will need a permit. Anyone found travelling without a permit will be fined AU$3,000.\n\nHundreds more defence personnel will also enforce lockdown measures in the city, after Australian Defence Force soldiers were first deployed last month.\n\nNSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said some people had been using excuses related to exercise, social bubbles and regional travel.\n\n\"These are some of the strongest powers we've ever had in the history of the NSW Police Force,\" he told reporters. \"It's all about getting ahead of Delta [variant of Covid-19], not chasing it.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. From June: How does Sydney feel about the Covid lockdown?", "Angus Hosking said Josephine Bridges was \"massively grateful\" to get her leg back\n\nA prosthetic leg has been retrieved from a lake after an appeal to divers for help.\n\nJosephine Bridges, from Birmingham, lost it in Windermere in Cumbria's Lake District while swimming.\n\nA post on social media by her sister was forwarded to Angus Hosking, founder of Lake District Diving, who is regularly called by people who have lost things in the water.\n\n\"She was pretty stunned for me to have found it,\" he said.\n\nMs Bridges lost her waterproof prosthetic at some point after jumping off the jetty at Millerground near Rayrigg Meadow and swimming back to dry land.\n\n\"When she got to the shore she obviously tried to stand up and couldn't, looked down, and realised her prosthetic wasn't attached to her any more,\" Mr Hosking said.\n\nThe leg was retrieved from the depths of Windermere\n\nHe eventually found it on the bottom of the lake about 5m (16ft) from the jetty.\n\nMr Hosking founded the diving group in part to clean litter from the lake.\n\nHe has recovered numerous pieces of jewellery, phones, wallets and keys but never a leg, he said.\n\n\"I love finding them for people because I really feel like I'm helping people,\" he said.\n\nMs Bridges, 31, decided to have her leg amputated in 2018 after surviving bone cancer but being left susceptible to infections and pain.\n\nShe founded the charity Positive Bones, which provides funding to people needing specialist equipment or services.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "How close are the Taliban to Kabul?\n\nThousands of civilians fled to the relative safety of Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, as the Taliban took control of city after city.Now the militants are closing in there, too, and there have been reports of US airstrikes on Taliban positions at the gates of Kabul province. The latest US intelligence assessment suggests they could try to advance on the city within 30 days. Their string of captures across the country over the past week have been lightening fast. Yesterday the Taliban captured Pul-e-Alam, capital of Loghar province, 80km (50 miles) from Kabul. Even closer - violent clashes have broken out in Maidan Shar, a provincial capital just 40km (25 miles) from Kabul. The Taliban now control about half of Afghanistan's regional capitals after seizing some of its most important centres, including the country's second-largest city Kandahar. The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says the situation in Afghanistan is spinning out of control and civilians would pay the highest price if the conflict continued. Taliban frontline commanders and foot soldiers told the BBC they were determined to re-impose their version of Sharia law, which would include stoning for adultery, amputation of limbs for theft and preventing girls from going to school beyond the age of 12.\n• The people fleeing the north for safety in Kabul", "The BBC's Moscow correspondent Sarah Rainsford is being forced to leave Russia at the end of August when her visa expires. Russian state media say the move is in retaliation for the refusal of the UK to grant visas to Russian journalists. Sarah spoke to the BBC Today programme about her sorrow at leaving a country she loves.\n\n\"I am being expelled - it's not a failure to renew my visa, although technically that's what it is. I'm being expelled and I've been told that I can't come back, ever.\n\n\"To be honest, it's devastating personally but it's also shocking. Russia has never been a posting for me: it's not just any old place. It is a country that I've devoted a huge amount of my life to trying to understand…\n\n\"I calculated just now that it's almost a third of my life I've lived in Russia, so one way or another: learning the language, studying the culture, the history, living here, trying to understand the people, and of course as a journalist, over many years for the BBC, on and off, working in Russia.\n\n\"I've really loved trying to tell the story of Russia to the world but it is increasingly a difficult story to tell. I have to say, though, I wasn't expecting this to happen. There were clear signs for Russian media: there have been really serious problems recently, for Russian independent journalists, but until now, for the foreign press, we'd somehow been shielded from all of that.\n\n\"But this, I think, is a clear sign that things have changed. It's another really bad sign about the state of affairs in Russia and another downward turn in the relationship between Russia and the world - a sign that Russia is increasingly closing in on itself.\n\n\"We were told officially about one case [where a journalist's visa had been refused or delayed by the UK]. It's a case that was two years ago.\n\n\"There are also separate reasons that I've been given, including sanctions by the British government against Russian citizens - for human rights violations in Chechnya, and also a list of people sanctioned for corruption. But it is clearly in the context of a massive deterioration in relations between Russia and the UK and, more broadly, Russia and the West.\n\n\"I said, when this bombshell was dropped, to the people who were delivering this information: 'I'm not your enemy'. I've tried my hardest to understand this country and to tell the story of this country and it is something that's very close to my heart.\n\n'You're removing from Russia somebody who understands Russia, who speaks directly to people in Russia and tries to explain Russia to the world, and that's becoming increasingly difficult'.\"\n\n\"The reality is that they don't want people like that here. It's much easier to have fewer people here who understand and who can talk directly to people and hear their stories. It's much easier, perhaps, to have people who don't speak the language, don't know the country so deeply. I really think it is indicative of an increasingly difficult and repressive environment.\n\n\"In many ways, Russia is a stronger and better place for many people than it was. In the early 1990s, people were queuing on the streets to sell their belongings to have enough money to buy food. There was no food in the shops. They were terrible, turbulent times, the 90s, and it's something that's always referred to here as a time that nobody wants to go back to.\n\n\"But at the same time, the 90s were a time of new and exciting freedoms for Russia, and I suppose my career here as a journalist has charted the path through which those freedoms have been reduced and reduced and reduced.\n\n\"I spent an awful lot of my time as a reporter here in court, as various people were prosecuted essentially for their political views - for many other ostensible reasons but ultimately for being too critical and now they're coming for the press.\n\n\"I don't mean myself: I'm talking really about the Russian journalists, the few who are left that have been trying to report independently, freely, in extremely difficult circumstances, about Russia to their own people and those people having a much tougher time with every day and every week.\n\n\"We wake up every day now and we hear news about someone else who's had a police search of their flat, someone else who's in court, someone else who's left the country. The number of people leaving the country now is extraordinary: I've never seen anything like that, and that's sad.\n\n\"So yes, I'll be leaving the country and I'm extremely sad that I won't be able to come back here - I hope one day I can - but it makes me sadder that Russians feel that they don't have a future here, many of them. And that's not the country I came to, 30 years ago, and it's certainly not the one I started reporting on 20 years ago.", "There have been 31 Covid-19 related deaths registered in Northern Ireland in the week to last Friday (6 August), according to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra).\n\nThat is 13 more than the previous week. The agency's total now stands at 3,046.\n\nThe Department of Health's total for the same date, based on a positive test result being recorded, was 2,217.\n\nNisra figures are higher because it records mentions of the virus on death certificates.\n\nThis means where the recorded death may or may not have been confirmed by way of a test.\n\nOn the agency's measure, around two-thirds of Covid-19 related deaths have occurred in hospital (2,031), including the deaths of 239 care home residents.\n\nAnother 784 people have died in care homes throughout the pandemic.\n\nNisra says around two-thirds of Covid-19 related deaths have occurred in hospital\n\nThe total of 1,023 means care home residents account for just over a third (33.5%) of all Covid-19 related deaths.\n\nCovid-19 related deaths were also recorded in hospices (0.5%) and other residential locations (7.4%).\n\nPeople aged 75 and over account for more than three-quarters of all Covid-19 related registered deaths (75.9%) between 19 March 2020 and 6 August 2021.\n\nArmagh City Banbridge and Craigavon (12.1%) and Mid-Ulster (8.2%) local government districts have now recorded higher proportions of all Covid-19 related deaths.\n\nThat is compared with their share of all deaths in Northern Ireland (10.3% and 6.5% respectively).\n\nThe provisional number of deaths from all causes registered in the week ending 6August was 342.\n\nThat is 49 more than the previous week, and 69 more than the 5-year average for the time of year of 273.\n• None What are Northern Ireland's Covid-19 rules now?", "The BBC has condemned Russia's decision to not renew the visa of one of its correspondents in the country, calling it a \"direct assault on media freedom\".\n\nThe corporation urged Russian officials to reconsider the \"expulsion\" of Sarah Rainsford, currently based in Moscow.\n\nRussian state media said Rainsford would have to leave at the end of the month, when her accreditation expires.\n\nThe report said the move was in retaliation for the UK's refusal to grant visas to Russian journalists.\n\nMaria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, said in a post on Telegram that the government had warned repeatedly that it would respond to what she called visa-related persecution of Russian journalists in the UK.\n\nState-run Rossiya-24 television said late on Thursday that journalists for other state-backed organisations, such as the broadcaster RT and online outlet Sputnik, had not been accredited by the UK government to cover international events.\n\n\"Sarah Rainsford is going home. According to our experts, this correspondent of Moscow's BBC bureau will not have her visa extended because Britain, in the media sphere, has crossed all our red lines,\" the report said.\n\n\"The expulsion of Sarah Rainsford is our symmetrical response,\" it said.\n\nIn a statement, BBC Director-General Tim Davie said: \"The expulsion of Sarah Rainsford is a direct assault on media freedom which we condemn unreservedly.\n\n\"Sarah is an exceptional and fearless journalist. She is a fluent Russian speaker who provides independent and in-depth reporting of Russia and the former Soviet Union. Her journalism informs the BBC's audiences of hundreds of millions of people around the world.\n\n\"We urge the Russian authorities to reconsider their decision. In the meantime, we will continue to report events in the region independently and impartially.\"\n\nThe UK Foreign Office described the move as \"another unjustified step by the Russian authorities\".\n\nRainsford is an experienced foreign correspondent who has previously been based in Havana, Istanbul and Madrid.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"You can choke on your sanctions\": President Lukashenko responds to Sarah Rainsford's challenge\n\nMost recently, she has won respect for her reporting in Belarus where earlier this week she challenged long-time President Alexander Lukashenko over human rights abuses.\n\nWhen he was asked about the latest British sanctions targeting the country, the president said: \"You can go choke on your sanctions... You are American lapdogs!\"\n\nThe expulsion is the first of a British journalist from Russia in a decade, a tit-for-tat move as relations between the two countries worsen.\n\nIn 2019, UK media regulator Ofcom fined RT for breaking impartiality rules over its coverage of the poisoning in Salisbury of the former Russian intelligence officer, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia.", "Army cadet Arthur Mortimer said he had been inspired by Capt Sir Tom Moore's exploits during the pandemic\n\nA boy has set off on a 150-mile walk to visit his grandparents whom he has not seen since before the first lockdown.\n\nArthur Mortimer, 15, from Rugby in Warwickshire, said he had been inspired by the fundraising efforts of Capt Sir Tom Moore and was taking on the challenge to benefit Help for Heroes.\n\nSupported by his father Kevin, the Army cadet hopes to arrive at Llanhilleth in Wales on 21 August.\n\nHe said he expected an emotional reunion.\n\n\"I've missed them very much,\" he said. \"I've especially missed my nan's baking - her cakes are the best.\"\n\nHe said he had kept in touch by video calls during the pandemic, but it was \"not the same\".\n\nArthur said he hoped the walk with dad Kevin would also be good \"father and son bonding time\"\n\nArthur said differences in Covid rules between England and Wales for much of the last year had made it difficult to plan visits across the border until restrictions were eased.\n\nBut the walk may not be without difficulties as the teenager has only just stopped using crutches after falling off his skateboard shortly before the summer holidays, damaging his ankle ligaments.\n\nHe said he had also faced a further set-back by contracting hypothermia during a camp.\n\n\"I'm feeling a lot better now, so hopefully I'll be able to complete the distance.\"\n\nSupported by his father, Arthur says he hopes to arrive at Llanhilleth in Wales on 21 August\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "Last updated on .From the section Athletics\n\nOlympic silver medallist CJ Ujah has denied wrongdoing and said he is \"shocked and devastated\" after a positive drugs test.\n\nUjah, 27, ran the first leg as Great Britain's 4x100m men's relay team narrowly missed out on gold in Tokyo.\n\nHe has been provisionally suspended after a test showed the \"presence/use\" of two prohibited substances.\n\n\"To be absolutely clear, I am not a cheat,\" said Ujah in a statement to the PA news agency on Saturday.\n\n\"I have never and would never knowingly take a banned substance.\"\n\nUjah was informed on Thursday of an \"adverse analytical finding\" - the presence/use of prohibited substances ostarine and S-23, which are selective androgen receptor modulators and help with building muscle.\n\nIf the case against him is proved, the British relay quartet - also including Zharnel Hughes, Richard Kilty and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake - are likely to be stripped of their silver medals.\n\nIn his statement, Ujah said: \"It's taken me a few days to process the information I received on Thursday, shortly before it was made public.\n\n\"I am completely shocked and devastated by this news.\n\n\"I love my sport and I know my responsibilities both as an athlete and as a team-mate.\n\n\"I am respecting the formal processes and will not be making any further comment until it is appropriate to do so.\"\n\nThe British sprinters lost out by just one hundredth of a second as they were beaten by the Italian team.\n\nUjah can request analysis of his B sample. Should that confirm the adverse analytical finding, the case will be referred to the Anti-Doping Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport.\n• None The perfect playlist from the party island to soundtrack your weekend\n• None The moment history was made at the Boston Marathon", "Carrie Johnson has said she is \"feeling great\" after having her second Covid jab, as she encouraged other pregnant women to get the vaccine.\n\nThe prime minister's wife said she understood people's anxieties but that the evidence was \"reassuring\".\n\nMrs Johnson said there was no increased risk of miscarriage - adding she had been \"definitely concerned\" about that.\n\nAnnouncing her pregnancy last month, she also revealed she had a miscarriage earlier this year.\n\nHer post on Instagram about getting the jab comes after England's chief midwife urged pregnant women to be vaccinated as soon as possible.\n\nWhen the UK's vaccination programme started, the original advice for pregnant women was to avoid the jab for the time being - because doctors are extremely cautious about what they recommend during pregnancy.\n\nBut when safety data became available, the advice changed to encourage pregnant women to have the vaccine, especially because contracting Covid can be dangerous for expectant mothers.\n\nThe 33-year-old, who married Boris Johnson in May and is mother to one-year-old Wilfred, wrote: \"Just had my second jab and feeling great!\n\n\"I know there are lots of pregnant women who are anxious about getting their Covid vaccine but the evidence is incredibly reassuring.\"\n\nBoris Johnson and Carrie in the garden of 10 Downing Street after their wedding earlier this year\n\nShe added: \"Most importantly, the data shows there is no increased risk of miscarriage, something I was definitely concerned about.\"\n\nMrs Johnson had a miscarriage in early 2021, which she said left her \"heartbroken\". She said she felt \"blessed to be pregnant again\" but \"felt like a bag of nerves\".\n\nIn Saturday's Instagram post, accompanied by a selfie in which she is wearing a sticker showing she has had her vaccine, Mrs Johnson said nearly 200,000 pregnant women in the UK and US had now had a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine \"without safety concerns\".\n\n\"The Royal College of Midwives has said that expectant mothers are at greater risk of serious illness if they get Covid so being vaccinated really is the best way to keep you and your baby safe,\" she wrote.\n\nCarrie, seen here with First Lady Jill Biden at the G7 summit in Cornwall, gave birth to son Wilfred in April 2020\n\nSince mid-April 2021, mothers-to-be have been offered the Pfizer or Moderna coronavirus jab, with the second dose recommended eight weeks after the first.\n\nBut figures out last month, from estimates based on GP records and Public Health England data, suggested hundreds of thousands had not had the jab.\n\nData looking at pregnant women admitted to English hospitals up to July showed that, in the previous three months, 171 pregnant women had been admitted to hospital with Covid symptoms - 98% were unvaccinated, and three of them had received a single dose of the vaccine.\n\nIf you or someone you know has been affected by miscarriage or other pregnancy-related issues, support can be found through BBC Action Line.", "William Leiper's body was discovered in Househill Park in Pollok on Wednesday 4 August\n\nA man has been charged over the death of a man, whose charred remains were found at the site of a park fire in Glasgow.\n\nThe severely-burned body of 31-year-old William Leiper from Glasgow was found in Househill Park in Pollok on 4 August.\n\nPolice Scotland said a 40-year-old man was arrested over the death on Friday and charged on Saturday.\n\nHe is due to appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Monday.\n\nA police spokesman said inquiries were continuing to establish the full circumstances of Mr Leiper's death.\n\nThey have appealed for dog walkers, joggers, cyclists or anyone in the area who may have information about the case to come forward.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Banksy has confirmed pieces of street art in Norfolk and Suffolk - including this one in Great Yarmouth - are genuine\n\nBanksy has confirmed 10 pieces of street art that have appeared along the east coast of England are by him.\n\nPeople have flocked to see the pieces that began appearing a week ago in Great Yarmouth, Gorleston and Cromer, Norfolk; and Lowestoft and Oulton Broad in Suffolk.\n\nWhile many believed they were by Banksy, the famously secretive artist remained silent.\n\nHowever, he has now claimed responsibility via his Instagram page.\n\nIs this Banksy? An Instagram video shows a hooded figure spraying the rat mural on the sea wall in Lowestoft\n\nThe first of the murals - a couple appearing to dance atop a bus shelter, accompanied by a man playing an accordion - came to light in Admiralty Road, Great Yarmouth, quickly followed by an arcade-style toy-grabbing crane in Gorleston, and a child holding a crowbar in Lowestoft.\n\nOther suspected Banksy works showed three children in a boat in Oulton Broad, a giant gull scavenging \"chips\" from a skip and a cocktail-sipping rat reclining in a deckchair, both in Lowestoft, and a group of hermit crabs in Cromer.\n\nArguably the most unusual piece was discovered on Sunday morning at Merrivale Model Village in Great Yarmouth. A new model of a miniature stable appeared, featuring a stencilled rat character and the slogan \"Go big or go home\" and apparently signed by the artist.\n\nA miniature thatched stable signed by the secretive graffiti artist appeared at Merrivale Model Village\n\nA child is depicted building a sandcastle with a crowbar on London Road North, Lowestoft\n\nBanksy confirmed he was the creator of the murals by sharing a video on his Instagram page of him travelling to each site in a campervan, titled \"A Great British Spraycation\".\n\nWalking along a beach with a cool box containing spray paint, the artist is first seen completing the mural of the cocktail-sipping rodent before venturing to the other locations.\n\nRodents are often featured in Banksy's work\n\nThe video also features reactions from passers-by, with one woman describing the mural of a girl building a sandcastle with a crowbar next to a broken paving slab as \"mindless vandalism\".\n\nWhile some were not impressed by the new installations, one Instagram user commented on the video saying: \"Thanks for your art in my hometown (Lowestoft), I went and enjoyed them all yesterday.\"\n\nThe statue of Frederick Savage was given some new accessories in the form of a fake ice cream and tongue\n\nThe pieces had been the talk of the town since appearing last Friday, but some of the artist's works had gone largely unnoticed until the video and a list on Banksy's website was released.\n\nA fake ice cream cone and tongue were added to the statue of Frederick Savage, the mayor of King's Lynn between 1889 and 1890, which stands on Guanock Place.\n\nA mural of two children being flung into the air in an inflatable boat as an adult pumps it up while drinking was also part of Banksy's \"spraycation\". It was painted at Gorleston's model boat pond.\n\nBanksy listed this mural on his website as part of his \"Great British Spraycation\"\n\nIn the final shot of a video on Bansky's Instagram page, a motorhome can be seen driving away from Merrivale Model Village\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Feargal Logan says deferring the All-Ireland Football semi-final against Kerry for a further week could enable Tyrone to fulfil the fixture.\n\nEarlier, Tyrone GAA said they would be unable to field in next Saturday's fixture because of their Covid cases.\n\nTeam joint-manager Logan told BBC Sport NI that there had been over 20 cases with the squad and wider staff.\n\n\"We hope Croke Park might see fit in all the fairness of the situation,\" said the Tyrone joint-manager.\n\nLogan, who himself missed the Ulster Final win over Monaghan two weeks ago because of a Covid issue, revealed that one Tyrone player has been hospitalised in recent week following the outbreak in the squad although the squad member is now recovering.\n\n\"Certainly the weekend after next which was our initial request is a weekend which we anticipate that we could field,\" added Logan.\n\n\"Every day is another day on the road to return to play for elite athletes.\"\n\nOn Monday, the GAA announced that it had decided to defer the game from its original date of this Sunday until 21 August but Tyrone revealed later that day that they had asked for a two-week deferment.\n• None 'Common sense must prevail' - Canavan calls for extra week for Covid-hit Tyrone\n• None Just over 50% of Tyrone panel training - Dooher\n\n\"In an ideal world, we would love to have a period of a month to get everybody right but we're trying to balance that with Kerry with the GAA at large and with everything that's going on and the season must go on and continue,\" added Logan.\n\n\"We're not walking away from anything. We would love to play Kerry in a meaningful All-Ireland semi-final at some stage here but we're just stuck with the numbers and the return to play and the safe returns to play protocols that prevail.\"\n\nLogan revealed that Tyrone made Saturday's announcement that they would be unable to field next weekend after consulting with a Dublin-based microbiologist.\n\n\"Ultimately he studied our data and prepared a report for us yesterday. We have now received a report which confirmed our worst fears and we now have to deal with that.\n\n\"We have 17, 18…beyond 20 [cases] with the whole group which is significantly challenging, significantly difficult. It's just invaded our situation.\n\n\"Every player on our panel, his welfare is paramount to us.\"\n\nAs it stands, Kerry will receive a bye to the final against either Dublin or Mayo.\n\nThe county said it took its decision on Saturday \"with the greatest reluctance, and with deep regret\".\n\nThe Red Hands' move throws the 2021 series into disarray and leaves the GAA with an unprecedented dilemma over its premier gaelic football competition.\n\nAssociation chiefs now face a major decision over whether to offer the Ulster champions a further postponement.\n\nTyrone chairman Michael Kerr said concerns over player welfare are at the forefront of their handling of the situation, which left them with no option but to withdraw from the tie.\n\n\"This morning, the Tyrone GAA Management Committee has decided that it is not in a position to field its senior football team in the rescheduled All-Ireland football championship semi-final in Croke Park, on next Saturday,\" the county added in a statement on Saturday.\n\n\"Having received expert medical opinion on the existing, and future health and welfare of the players who contracted the Covid-19 virus during the period of this last two weeks, and following consultation with the team's management, this decision has been made with the greatest reluctance, and with deep regret.\n\n\"It is acknowledged that the decision taken will cause major disappointment and significant inconvenience for the Association, in general, the GAA fraternity of Kerry, and especially for Tyrone's patrons and supporters, but the welfare and safety of players has been the over-riding factor in all considerations of this difficult situation.\"\n\nIt is understood that some Tyrone players would still be unable to feature in the tie, even if it was put back for a further week, but that a large percentage of the squad would definitely be unavailable to play next weekend.\n\nTyrone have already been in such a position, and were without a number of players for the Ulster final two weeks ago because of Covid issues.\n\nBut they decided to go ahead with the Croke Park decider against Monaghan as they were still able to field an almost full-strength team.\n\n'I don't see this as brinkmanship' - McGinley\n\nFormer Tyrone All-Ireland winner Enda McGinley said he did not interpret his county's statement as a tactical act of brinkmanship to attempt to force Croke Park to agree to a further week's delay.\n\n\"I was looking for evidence of that, some type of indication that if they had added time that the situation could be different, but they didn't indicate any of that which I think if they were playing brinkmanship that would have been there,\" the current Antrim manager told BBC Sport Northern Ireland.\n\n\"None of us on the outside really truly know but it looked like from the statement for me that the advice that they got must have been 'no matter with the addition of a week, there's no guarantee these lads will be playable. There's no guarantee that other lads won't be down'.\n\n\"Certainly working in a hospital up here myself, the numbers are high. The numbers in the community are high so there's no guarantee that people who don't have Covid this week won't have Covid next week.\"\n\nMcGinley added that the Tyrone county board and management \"deserve lot of credit for standing up very, very strongly for their players and protecting them possibly from themselves\".\n\n\"Knowing several of the characters within that squad, if they were the boys affected they would, whatever it takes, would try to put themselves on that pitch but that's not the right thing for them.\n\n\"That must have been part of the thought process which shows a high degree of integrity.\"", "AI can identify patterns in brain scans even the most expert neurologists cannot see.\n\nScientists are testing an artificial-intelligence system thought to be capable of diagnosing dementia after a single brain scan.\n\nIt may also be able to predict whether the condition will remain stable for many years, slowly deteriorate or need immediate treatment.\n\nCurrently, it can take several scans and tests to diagnose dementia.\n\nThe researchers involved say earlier diagnoses with their system could greatly improve patient outcomes.\n\n\"If we intervene early, the treatments can kick in early and slow down the progression of the disease and at the same time avoid more damage,\" Prof Zoe Kourtzi, of Cambridge University and a fellow of national centre for AI and data science The Alan Turing Institute, said.\n\n\"And it's likely that symptoms occur much later in life or may never occur.\"\n\nProf Kourtzi's system compares brain scans of those worried they might have dementia with those of thousands of dementia patients and their relevant medical records.\n\nThe algorithm can identify patterns in the scans even expert neurologists cannot see and match them to patient outcomes in its database.\n\nIn pre-clinical tests, it has been able to diagnose dementia, years before symptoms develop, even when there is no obvious signs of damage on the brain scan.\n\nThe trial, at Addenbrooke's Hospital and other memory clinics around the country, will test whether it works in a clinical setting, alongside conventional ways of diagnosing dementia.\n\nIn the first year, about 500 patients are expected to participate.\n\nTheir results will go to their doctors, who can, if necessary, advise on the course of treatment.\n\nDenis and Penelope Clark want to know how his condition will progress, so they can plan for their future\n\nConsultant neurologist Dr Tim Rittman, who is leading the study, with neuroscientists at Cambridge University, called the artificial-intelligence system a \"fantastic development\".\n\n\"These set of diseases are really devastating for people,\" he said.\n\n\"So when I am delivering this information to a patient, anything I can do to be more confident about the diagnosis, to give them more information about the likely progression of the disease to help them plan their lives is a great thing to be able to do.\"\n\nAmong the first to participate in the trial, Denis Clark, 75, retired from his job as an executive for a meat company five years ago.\n\nLast year, his wife, Penelope, noticed he was sometimes struggling with his memory.\n\nAnd they are now concerned he is developing dementia.\n\nDenis tries to describe his symptoms but Penelope interjects to say he finds it hard to explain what is happening.\n\nThe couple are worried about having to sell their home to fund Denis's care.\n\nSo Penelope is relieved they should not have to wait long for a diagnosis and an indication of how any dementia is likely to progress.\n\nNormally, Denis might need several brain scans to see whether he has dementia\n\n\"We could then plan financially,\" she said.\n\n\"We would know whether as a couple we could have a few holidays before things get so bad that I can't take Denis on holiday.\"\n\nAnother of Dr Rittman's patients, Mark Thompson, 57, who began having memory lapses 10 months ago, before the trial of the artificial-intelligence system began, said it would have made a big difference to him had it been available.\n\n\"I had test after test after test and at least four scans before I was diagnosed,\" he said.\n\n\"The medical team was marvellous and did everything they could to get to the bottom of what was wrong with me.\n\n\"But the uncertainty was causing me more... mental problems than any caused by the condition.\n\n\"Was it a tumour? Would they need to operate? It caused me so much stress not knowing what was wrong with me.\"\n\nThe 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. Standing under red skies, one tourist on Evia described the scenes as like an \"apocalyptic movie\"\n\nGreece's prime minister has apologised for failures in tackling the wildfires tearing across the country.\n\nHundreds of firefighters have been battling huge blazes that have forced thousands of people to flee their homes and destroyed dozens of properties.\n\n\"We may have done what was humanly possible, but in many cases it was not enough,\" Kyriakos Mitsotakis said.\n\nThick smoke is still pouring off the island of Evia, north-east of Athens, which has been ablaze for a week.\n\nDozens of homes and acres of forest have already been scorched to the ground in Evia, on the outskirts of the capital, and in other parts of Greece.\n\nHundreds of residents have been ordered to leave the island to escape the fires, though some were determined to stay to defend their properties.\n\n\"I completely understand the pain of our fellow citizens who saw their homes or property burning,\" Prime Minister Mitsotakis said in a TV address.\n\nBut he said the country was \"facing a natural disaster of unprecedented dimensions\".\n\nPublic anger has been growing at delays and breakdowns in the government's response, including an apparent lack of water-dropping planes.\n\nMr Mitsotakis said \"any failures will be identified\", but insisted firefighters were in a battle with \"supernatural powers that often exceed their strength\".\n\nHe blamed the fires on the \"climate crisis\" that causes \"fires that last for weeks\". Hours earlier, the UN released a major report saying human activity was making extreme weather events more common.\n\nFuelled by strong winds and Greece's worst heatwave in decades, over 580 fires have broken out across the country since late July.\n\nThe biggest is on Evia, where 650 firefighters are still struggling to control the blaze.\n\n\"The fire was our destiny, no one could have put it out,\" Vangelis Katsaros, who lost his entire farm to the blaze, told the BBC.\n\nEvia farmer Vangelis Katsaros lost his entire farmland to the fire\n\nFires that had been raging close to Athens, however, are said to have died down as temperatures cooled.\n\nThree people have been killed by the blazes, including a volunteer firefighter hit by a falling pylon, and an industrialist who was found unconscious at a factory near Athens last week. A third man was killed on Monday when his bulldozer fell into a cliff during a fire.\n\nSeveral others have been taken to hospital after suffering from smoke inhalation and burns.\n\nOver 1,000 firefighters, planes and extra equipment have been flown in by other countries, including EU states, Russia, the UK and US.\n\nThe EU said it was mobilising \"one of Europe's biggest ever common firefighting operations\" to help Greece and other countries fight wildfires.\n\nHundreds of firefighters are struggling to control the blaze on Evia\n\nMr Mitsotakis has pledged hundreds of millions of euros to support those whose livelihoods have been destroyed by the fires.\n\nBut the president of Evia's village of Monokaria, Klelia Dimitraki, said she was concerned the area would never recover.\n\n\"Ιt is a holocaust. All the villages, the whole area is finished, finished,\" she said.\n\n\"All we are saying today, is that we are fortunate to be alive.\"\n\nAre you in Greece? How have you been affected by the wildfires? haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "Max Woosey said he had been \"slightly distracted\" while building the shelter but it would be ready in time\n\nAn 11-year-old boy from Devon is preparing to spend his 500th night camping outside.\n\nMax Woosey was inspired to start sleeping in a tent after his neighbour, who later died of cancer, gave him a tent to \"have an adventure in\".\n\nAfter initially setting himself a goal of £100, Max has raised more than £640,000 for the North Devon Hospice.\n\nMax said: \"At the beginning I never ever thought that it would last this long but I absolutely love it.\"\n\nOn Tuesday night, Max, from Braunton in Devon, will be wild camping in a shelter built in the woods with his parents and best friend.\n\nMax said he had \"no intention\" of sleeping inside just yet\n\n\"I'm looking forward to being properly in the wilderness and building a shelter from scratch, that will be cool,\" said Max.\n\n\"I really enjoy camping and I don't have any intention of stopping just now.\n\n\"It's great fun and I'm not going to come inside in the middle of the summer because I love being outdoors and being closer to nature.\"\n\nMax added that he had been \"slightly distracted\" during the shelter's construction, \"playing around a bit\", but it would be ready in time.\n\nTalking about the money he had raised so far, he said it was \"unbelievable to raise that amount\".\n\nHe said: \"It's 100% worth it, all the hard moments that I've gone through.\"\n\nMax pitched his tent in the Number 10 garden and met Boris Johnson in July\n\nMax's mum, Rachael Woosey, said: \"I've said to him on numerous occasions that he doesn't have to stay outside anymore, and that he has already achieved something special, but he always says 'no'.\"\n\nMax began his camping adventure on 28 March 2020 after hearing hospice fundraising events were getting cancelled due to Covid-19.\n\nHis neighbours, Rick and Sue, who inspired the challenge, were cared for by North Devon Hospice in their final days.\n\nThe charity has estimated that the money raised by Max amounts to more than half of what has been lost in donations due to the pandemic.\n\nOn his one-year anniversary, about 1,000 children joined Max in a \"big camp-out\" from as far away as North America and Singapore.\n\nPlayers at Exeter Chiefs previously met Max to congratulate him on his fundraising efforts\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mr Lebus the chief of Ofqual, the exams regulator in England\n\nStudents getting results this week can feel satisfied that their grades are fair, the head of the exams watchdog has said.\n\nSimon Lebus from Ofqual - which oversees exams in England - strongly defended the system for deciding A-level and GCSE results this year.\n\nHe said teacher assessments give a \"much more accurate reflection\" of what students can achieve.\n\nBut he said while pupils can appeal a teacher's judgement, the bar is high.\n\nStudents will get their A-level and confirmation of their Scottish Higher and Nationals results on Tuesday, and GCSE results on Thursday. Grades have been decided by teachers' estimates, by looking at various pieces of work and mock exams over the past year.\n\nIt is different to last year's controversial system, which caused chaos by using an algorithm and was eventually scrapped.\n\nMr Lebus, whose job it is ensure there is not a repeat of last year's fiasco, told the BBC that this system gives a better overall view of students' ability.\n\n\"Exams are a bit like a snapshot, a photograph - you capture an instant,\" he said.\n\n\"Whereas teacher assessment allows teachers to observe student performance over a much longer period, taking into account lots of different pieces of work and arriving at a holistic judgement.\"\n\nHe said Ofqual wanted a system where every student has a fair chance to show what they can do, and \"I'm very confident that when they get their grades on Tuesday and Thursday this week they'll be able to feel satisfied that that's happened.\"\n\nHe reassured students that there have been three stages of checks, including Ofqual checking the policies that schools have for awarding grades and exam boards looking over the grades.\n\nEach teacher's grades have also been checked by another teacher as well as the school principal, Mr Lebus added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Education correspondent Branwen Jefferys explains how A-Level and GCSE results are calculated this year\n\nStudents who are unhappy with their grades are able to appeal on two grounds - either because of administrative problems for example work being lost, or disputing a teacher's judgement.\n\nBut Mr Lebus said the bar for proving a teacher gave an unfair grade is \"substantial\". \"They'll have to have very solid grounds for thinking something's gone wrong,\" he said.\n\nThere will also be the opportunity to take exams in the autumn.\n\nThe Ofqual chief added that he understood young people were anxious, but \"they should feel proud of the fact that they reflect the reality of what they've achieved in remarkably difficult circumstances\".\n\nA-level students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will get their results on 10 August, while those in Scotland will receive their Scottish Higher and Nationals results.\n\nGCSE results will be give to students in England, Wales and NI on 12 August. Results day for the equivalent exams in Scotland is 10 August - although students were told their provisional results in June.\n\nBTec students will also get their results on 10 and 12 August.\n\nWhat questions do you have about this year's results?\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf 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 send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sajid Javid expects booster vaccines to start being rolled out from 'early September'\n\nMore than 75% of UK adults have now received two Covid jabs, the government has said.\n\nA total of 39,688,566 people have now received both doses, while another 7 million have only had a single dose, according to the latest figures.\n\nBoris Johnson described the milestone in the vaccine rollout as a \"huge national achievement\".\n\nBut Oxford Vaccine Group director Prof Sir Andrew Pollard has warned that herd immunity is \"not a possibility\".\n\nMargaret Keenan became the first person to be vaccinated as part of the UK rollout on 8 December.\n\nSince then more there have been more than 86.7 million vaccinations delivered, with people receiving their jabs everywhere from sports stadiums to circuses.\n\nAt the peak of the rollout more than 752,000 jabs were given in a day on 20 March, although the rate has since slowed.\n\nThe UK reached the milestone of getting 50% of adults double jabbed on 3 June and 25% of adults had received both doses by 27 April.\n\nA further 32,250 first doses and 137,028 second doses were given across the UK on Monday.\n\nThe latest data also shows there were 23,510 new cases of Covid as well as a further 146 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test.\n\nThe prime minister hailed the \"incredible vaccine rollout\" and said it had provided vital protection against the virus for three-quarters of adults.\n\n\"It's so important that those who haven't been vaccinated come forward as soon as possible to book their jab - to protect themselves, protect their loved ones and allow us all to enjoy our freedoms safely,\" he said.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid said the vaccines were \"allowing us to reconnect with the things we love\", while vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said it had been \"phenomenal to see first-hand the enthusiasm of the British public for the vaccines\".\n\nBut Sir Andrew told MPs the idea of herd immunity was \"mythical\" with the Delta variant, now dominant in the UK, still infecting people who had been vaccinated.\n\nHe said while vaccines might \"slow the process\" of transmission down, they currently cannot stop the spread completely.\n\nEarlier Mr Javid said that plans are in place to give the most vulnerable groups a third or booster Covid jab in September.\n\nThis has been criticised, with Sir Andrew telling the All Party Parliamentary Group on coronavirus that any spare jabs should \"go where they can have the greatest impact\" to protect unvaccinated people abroad.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Margaret Keenan was given the vaccine by May Parsons, at University Hospital in Coventry\n\nThe latest data from Public Health England and Cambridge University suggests that around 60,000 UK deaths and 22 million infections had been prevented by vaccines so far, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.\n\nThe government said two doses of either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines provided over 90% protection against hospitalisation from the Delta variant, which is now dominant in the UK.\n\nAll adults in the UK will have been offered the chance to have both doses by mid-September, the DHSC said.\n\nMinisters will be watching the second dose figure to see how close it edges to 100% in the weeks ahead.\n\nThe government has already announced that by the end of September, people in England will require full vaccination status to go to nightclubs and some other events with large crowds.\n\nAnd from next Monday double vaccinated people will no longer be required to self-isolate if they are identified as a close contact of a positive Covid case.\n\nThe UK vaccine rollout began with people aged 80 and over as well as some health and care staff before moving to those at higher risk of illness from Covid and down through age groups.\n\nNHS England said nearly 16,000 16 and 17-year-olds had already received their vaccine over the weekend.\n\nSome children aged 12 and over who are at a higher risk of serious illness from Covid, or live with immunosuppressed adults, will be contacted about vaccines in coming weeks.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ebenezer and Emmanuel Boakye say they were confident about getting six A*s\n\nTwin brothers from east London have gained places at Oxford and Cambridge universities after achieving top A-level grades.\n\nEmmanuel and Ebenezer Boakye managed a combined six A*s and one A at Hackney's Mossbourne Community Academy.\n\nEmmanuel will now study English literature at Oxford University, while Ebenezer will read Spanish and Russian at Cambridge.\n\nEmmanuel told the BBC he was \"not really processing\" the results yet.\n\nTop grades for A-level results for England, Wales and Northern Ireland have reached a record high - with 44.8% getting A* or A grades.\n\nEmmanuel and Ebenezer Boakye achieved a combined six A*s and one A\n\nThe 18-year-old brothers said growing up in a single-parent household in Hackney had made them determined to make something of their lives and \"make their mum proud\".\n\nEmmanuel said: \"It's not really sunk in yet.\n\n\"We've always had people in our corner, our mum and the school, supporting and pushing us to do it.\"\n\nEmmanuel said he had planned on going to Cambridge with his brother, until he attended an event by the Oxford University African Caribbean Society.\n\nDespite going to different universities the pair say there will be no sibling rivalry.\n\n\"We're still going to support each other at our different universities,\" Ebenezer said.\n\nThe brothers plan to celebrate their achievement by \"going to Nando's or something\", Ebenezer added.\n\nVictoria Genfi said she sent her sons to Mossbourne Community Academy due to its \"discipline\"\n\nThe pair's mum Victoria Genfi, 58, said: \"I can't put into words how proud I am or how wonderful they are.\"\n\nMs Genfi, who raised the twins and an older sister alone, said their childhood had been \"difficult\".\n\n\"We've come a long way,\" she said.\n\n\"I believe that no matter what background you come from if you push your children and support them through everything, they can achieve anything.\"\n\nMs Genfi, who works at JD Wetherspoon, said she planned to deliver home-cooked meals to her sons once a month, alternating between the universities.\n\nIn what is the second year of replacement results after exams were cancelled due to the Covid pandemic, there has been a significant improvement on 2020's results when 36.5% of students achieved top grades.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Storm Huntley says her partner has now got rid of her bike\n\nTV presenter Storm Huntley has urged cyclists to wear helmets after she was knocked down by a car on Monday.\n\nThe co-host of Channel 5's Jeremy Vine show tweeted an image of her damaged helmet saying she was thankful it wasn't her skull that was cracked.\n\nHuntley was hit by a car that crossed her path to make a left turn while she was cycling home from work in London.\n\n\"I am standing here today thanking my lucky stars that I decided to put my helmet on,\" she said.\n\nSpeaking on Tuesday morning's episode of Jeremy Vine, Huntley said: \"I am knocked off my bike and I bang my head so hard on the pavement that I crack my helmet.\n\n\"If I wasn't wearing that, that crack wouldn't be on my helmet, it would be on my skull, so I would not be here this morning.\"\n\nThis 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 Storm Huntley 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.\n\nShe added: \"The driver was shaken, there was no aggression, there was nobody being competitive on the road, it was an accident.\n\n\"Accidents happen, please put your helmets on, and even if you think you're a good driver, double check.\"\n\nHuntley said her partner had got rid of her bike after the incident, telling her: \"No more cycling for you.\"\n\n\"If the shoe was on the other foot and he was cycling and he had an accident the way I've had and came back with a bike in a state, and a helmet, I would not want him back on that bike,\" she said\n\nVine, a keen cyclist himself, called the motorist \"a shocking driver\", adding: \"He shouldn't be on the road.\"\n\nJeremy Vine has been involved in a number of road incidents whilst cycling in London\n\nBut he said he would \"absolutely\" still encourage people to cycle after Huntley's accident, saying: \"If you don't cycle, you end up a couch potato.\"\n\nVine has been vocal over the years about the potential perils of riding a bike on the road, especially in London.\n\nEarlier this year, he had a narrow escape when a bus swerved past him on Oxford Street, which he captured on camera.\n\nHe later posted it online, saying, \"This morning's bus driver is probably the most dangerous I have ever encountered. Is this one for TFL? [Transport For London]?\n\nLast year, he also posted footage of a couple of near misses which happened within moments of each other while he was riding home. In 2019, he was hit by a car but escaped unhurt.\n\nAnd in 2017, a driver filmed screaming obscenities at him in a road rage incident as he cycled through London was jailed for threatening behaviour.\n\nJeremy Vine with co-presenter Storm Huntley on the set of his Channel 5 show\n\nVine said accidents such as Huntley's make cyclists behave the way they do, adding: \"When people say all cyclists are so arrogant and so angry, that's why, because they have got battlefield vision.\"\n\nA Transport for London report published last autumn showed 125 people were killed and 3,780 people were seriously injured on London's roads in 2019.\n\nCycling deaths dropped to five people, a 70% decline from the 2005-09 baseline of 17. But cyclist casualties rose by 36% from the long-term average for 2005-09 to 4,634 from 3,410.\n\nHuntley concluded: \"I love cycling it's great to be out in the fresh air, you're not polluting anything, you're not getting involved in the congestion of all the cars.\n\n\"I loved cycling home but I don't want to have that battlefield mentality, it puts me off doing it. Nobody wants to be that angry all of that time and that worried all of the time.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.\n• None Jeremy Vine: The challenges of two shows a day", "Covid rules for travelling to the UK will be relaxed for thousands of delegates attending the UN COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November.\n\nUp to 25,000 government representatives, media and campaigners from around the world are expected.\n\nThey will not be required to be fully vaccinated but officials said it would be strongly encouraged.\n\nVaccines have been offered to registered delegates unable to get a jab by other means.\n\nUnder the regulations specifically for COP26, delegates from red list countries will only have to quarantine in hotels for five days if they have been fully vaccinated.\n\nThose who have not received their jabs will have to isolate for 10 days.\n\nThere will be no requirement for COP26 attendees coming from amber or green list countries to isolate on arrival to the UK whether vaccinated or not, officials said.\n\nMost people are expected to travel to the conference via London.\n\nUnder current rules, people cannot travel to England from red list countries unless they are British or Irish citizens or have the right to live in the UK, with the same rules applying to Scotland with some other limited exceptions.\n\nThose who do arrive from red list countries have to quarantine for 10 days in quarantine hotels, even if they are double jabbed.\n\nThere are also requirements to self isolate for 10 days for those coming from amber countries who are not fully vaccinated via approved programmes in the UK, US or Europe.\n\nThe red list can change but it currently includes dozens of countries, all of whom are expected to send delegates to COP26, and some of which are among the most vulnerable to climate change.\n\nA UK government spokesperson said COP26 was a necessary event, as the science was clear for the need to take immediate and far-reaching action to have any chance of avoiding the devastating impacts of rising temperatures.\n\nThey added: \"We know that achieving the ambitious global action needed to tackle climate change requires everyone sitting around the same table. To achieve this, we have been working tirelessly to make arrangements for an in-person event.\n\n\"Hosting it safely is of the utmost importance to the UK. Like many recent international events, COP26 will have to adapt in line with Covid.\"\n\nCOP26 will be held at the Scottish Events Campus in Glasgow\n\nThe spokesperson said details of how the summit would run were progressing after close collaboration with all partners, including public health officials in Scotland and England, the Scottish government, Glasgow City Council and the UN's climate body, the UNFCCC.\n\n\"We believe these arrangements strike a balance between allowing critical climate talks at this exceptional event to continue with representation from around the globe, while continuing to have measures in place to protect public health,\" they said.\n\nDelegates will also be subject to a strict testing regime and they will have to sign a charter agreeing to abide by the protocols for the summit.\n\nThe UK is recognising all Covid-19 vaccinations as valid for the event, but officials also said they would not prevent people attending who had not been vaccinated.\n\nThe issue of who pays for the regime, including testing and quarantine hotels, has yet to be finalised. Isolation protocols during the event for those who test positive for the virus are also being finalised.\n\nThe rules have been signed off by the UK and Scottish governments, but Covid-19 protection measures for the summit could still change, officials said.\n\nA Scottish Government spokesperson said: \"COP26 represents the world's best chance - and possibly one of our last chances - to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.\n\n\"The circumstances make this a unique event and exceptional arrangements will be needed to ensure it can be delivered safely and successfully.\n\n\"Following close discussions with the UK government and other delivery partners, we are pleased to have agreed measures that will support the full and active participation of international delegates and protect public health.\"\n• None What was agreed at COP26?", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ann Jones' daughter said \"there should have been more done\" to help her mother\n\nSignificant failings by hospital staff led to avoidable suffering for a cancer patient before her death, a report has concluded.\n\nAnn Jones, 69, of Rhyl, died in August 2019, with bowel cancer.\n\nHowever the Public Services Ombudsman found complications after surgery were not properly identified and weight loss blamed on psychological factors, rather than the pain of a bowel obstruction.\n\nThe report, which refers to Mrs Jones anonymously as Mrs M, said it was impossible to know if she could have been saved had she been correctly diagnosed.\n\nHowever it added: \"The uncertainty surrounding whether an opportunity to surgically intervene was lost… [and was] an injustice to Mrs M and her family.\"\n\nIt added: \"These failings impacted upon [her] human rights in terms of her dignity but also her quality of life. There was also an impact on the patient's family's rights in terms of witnessing her debilitating decline.\"\n\nThe report has brought only some consolation for Mrs Jones' family.\n\n\"The most relevant part is that she shouldn't have suffered,\" said her daughter Charlotte Finlay.\n\n\"I don't think anything stays with us more than that. She should not have suffered for eight to nine months with that pain. There should've been more done.\"\n\nMrs Jones underwent colon surgery in February 2019 at Glan Clwyd Hospital in Bodelwyddan, Denbighshire.\n\nShe returned home but was readmitted in May before being transferred to Llandudno Community Hospital.\n\nShe went home again in July, only to return Glan Clwyd Hospital on 3 August.\n\nBy then she was deemed too unwell to survive surgery and died on 24 August of acute peritonitis - inflammation caused by an infection.\n\nMrs Jones' daughter said her mother suffered months of pain needlessly\n\n\"She had scans as early as March and the results show that she had a blockage of her bowel when she could've been strong enough to be given the chance for an operation back then,\" said Mrs Finlay.\n\n\"As a family that'll never leave us, that question of 'would she be here if she would've been operated on in March?'\"\n\nOmbudsman Nick Bennett later added: \"This tragic case involved an alarming, systemic misdiagnosis. Numerous significant failings and deficiencies took place before, during and after Mrs M's discharge from hospital.\"\n\nDenbighshire council was also criticised for the inadequate home care support offered to Mrs Jones when she was discharged from hospital.\n\nA further complaint that both the health board and council failed to issue a co-ordinated response to the family after Mrs Jones died was also upheld.\n\nThe council issued their response six months after the health board.\n\nThe report recommended both organisations give fulsome apologies to Mrs Jones' family, that the health board paid £5,000 for the distress caused, and staff were given feedback and training to learn lessons from what happened.\n\nGill Harris, deputy chief executive at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, said: \"We sincerely apologise for the failures in care and for the way the subsequent complaint was handled.\n\n\"We accept the findings and recommendations in full and we are currently working with the relevant clinical teams to implement the necessary improvements.\"\n\nDenbighshire council said it was \"sincerely sorry\" for the distress caused to the family and had issued a written apology to her husband.\n\nA council official added: \"The council fully accepts the findings and recommendations made in this report and we are making sure these are implemented with the relevant staff and departments involved.\"", "Pupils across Scotland have had confirmation of their grades for their National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher qualifications.\n\nThe official texts from the SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority) gave pupils the results but they won't be a surprise.\n\nExams were cancelled again this year so their results are based on school assessments and teacher judgements, while the SQA sampled work from different schools for \"quality assurance\".\n\nThis all happened before the end of June so the results won't be new to the young people.\n\nSo what do the statistics tell us?\n\nIn \"normal\" years, the pass rate for Higher exams has been sitting between 75% and 78%. In 2020, the first year when there were no exams due to Covid, it was 89%.\n\nThis year the rate is 87.3%, down slightly on 2020 but still much higher than usual.\n\nThere were also a record number of A grades this year.\n\nA total of 47.6% of Higher candidates achieved an A grade, compared to 40% in 2020 and 28.3% in 2019, when traditional exams were used.\n\nFor National 5 the percentage of As went up to 46.7% from 42.3% in 2020.\n\n2020 was a statistical outlier because all results were teacher estimates.\n\nThis year, teachers have been involved in coming up with grades but they had to show solid evidence in the form of assessment material, so it's not quite exams, not quite teacher judgement.\n\nBoth the SQA and Scottish government warned against comparing last year's statistics with previous years. 2020 was, as I have already said, an outlier.\n\n2021 is also something of an outlier too.\n\nThe SQA said that in the latest results the poverty-related attainment gap was narrower than in 2019, although slightly wider than in 2020.\n\nBefore the two pandemic years, the gap between the achievements of pupils in the poorest areas and the richest was much larger than it has been for 2020 and 2021.\n\nIn 2019 the pass rate at National 5 for the poorest students (the bottom fifth on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation) was 68.8%. Whereas for those in the wealthiest areas it was 85.9%, a gap of 17 percentage points.\n\nIn 2020 pupils were eventually given their teacher estimates as grades and not those moderated to take into account a schools' past performance - the infamous \"algorithm\", which was scrapped after it was claimed it disadvantaged pupils at schools that had performed poorly in the past.\n\nThis closed the attainment gap to 7.9 percentage points.\n\nThis year the gap widened to 8.9 percentage points but it is still well below the 2019 figure.\n\nHowever, while the gap in passes has closed on the pre-pandemic figures. The gap between the number of the most deprived pupils and the least deprived getting an A grade at Higher has remained actually increased.\n\nDespite the number of A passes almost doubling for pupils in the most deprived areas it remains 22% lower than the rate for least deprived.\n\nSo while it is likely that those from the least deprived backgrounds have had the most support during online learning, there has been a continued uplift in results in deprived areas too.\n\nWithout traditional exams and with teachers able to, in theory, use their judgement, those in the most deprived group could potentially have more of an advantage than they normally do.\n\nWe seem to have ended up in a scenario where, on the whole, everyone does better, which is good for the individual, but hasn't closed the attainment gap any further.\n\nThis year, for the first time, pupils can appeal directly to the SQA if they are unhappy with their grade, instead of involving their school. They can appeal for three reasons: against an academic judgement; because of an administrative error; or on the grounds of discrimination.\n\nPupils have had the ability to lodge their interest in an appeal since they were told their results on a provisional basis and the deadline for this is Thursday.\n\nThe number who are planning an appeal is not part of today's statistics.\n\nNumbers are not expected to be particularly high, although there could be a conversation around the choice to not include a right of appeal for exceptional circumstances and the decision to allow marks to be downgraded as well as upgraded, and whether this has put young people off.\n\nBoth of these decisions were criticised by the Children and Young People's Commissioner and the Scottish Youth Parliament.\n\nEach year, the Scottish government pays Scottish universities for Scottish students to go there. Usually it puts a cap on the number of places. Last year and this year, the government has increased the cap by about 2,500 places to more than 38,000 places.\n\nIt means that even with more pupils than usual meeting the entry requirements for the courses of their choice, they should still get a place on that course.\n\nThey may have already been in touch with the university to let them know they have what they need. But institutions could not make anything official until today, when the results are there in black and white.\n\nThose stats show a record number of Scottish-domiciled students being offered a place at Scottish universities.\n\nAt the same time there has been a sharp drop in EU students coming study in Scotland as a consequence of Brexit\n\nThe Scottish government has committed to extra funding for this year but we are still waiting for confirmation of whether they will do the same for next year's entrants, many of whom will have been sitting Highers this year.\n\nAnd because of the large numbers of children taking qualifications this year, the number of Higher passes is at a record level.", "JetBlue has said the Covid pandemic will not stop the airline from launching its long-awaited New York to London service on Wednesday.\n\nChief executive Robin Hayes told the BBC there was \"strong demand\" for the route in the US where, he said, JetBlue had returned to 2019 levels.\n\nThe move comes as the global travel industry continues to recover.\n\nIn its latest results statement, Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), whose other brands include the Crowne Plaza chain, said it had opened 132 hotels during the January-to-June period and acquired another 203, both sizeable increases on last year.\n\n\"Trading improved significantly during the first half of 2021, with travel demand returning strongly as vaccines roll out, restrictions ease and economic activity rebuilds,\" said IHG chief executive Keith Barr.\n\n\"It has been great to see our teams welcome more and more guests back into our hotels, with domestic leisure bookings leading the way, particularly in the US and China.\"\n\nMeasured on revenue per available room, nearly half of the group's hotels worldwide were above 2019 levels in July, it said.\n\nJetBlue's first transatlantic flight will leave New York's JFK airport on Wednesday evening and will land at London's Heathrow. Flights to London Gatwick will begin on 29 September.\n\nHowever, travelling on the route does not come cheap, at least to start with. JetBlue's website no longer has seats available for that inaugural flight, but prices for the next few days start at $941 (£679) one-way.\n\nThat is still slightly cheaper than British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, which are both quoting a price of $980 for the same time period.\n\nThanks to the likes of those established competitors, there are already as many as 28 flights a day available between London and New York.\n\nAnd other carriers have come a cropper on the same route, including Norwegian Air, which filed for bankruptcy in November 2020 after failing to make its low-cost strategy pay.\n\nHowever, JetBlue will be cutting costs by using smaller aircraft, relying on the single-aisle Airbus A321LR, rather than the Boeing 787 Dreamliners that were favoured by Norwegian.\n\nAnd for those who can book further in advance, it is pledging to offer return fares of less than $600.\n\nThe airline's Mr Hayes said it had wanted to offer a New York-to-London service for a long time and flights were now \"ready to go\".\n\nHe said JetBlue wanted to have \"a disruptive and permanent effect\" on the market.\n\nUS-based travellers are now welcome to fly to the UK without having to quarantine on arrival if they have been fully vaccinated, but there is still a travel ban on people from the UK flying to the US.\n\nThe White House said at the end of last month that it did not intend to lift Covid-19 travel restrictions for non-Americans.\n\nAsked about this, Mr Hayes said JetBlue had made its views clear about the restrictions and that the current approach was \"not risk-based\".", "Second-hand car sales in the UK have more than doubled in the last few months after a shortage of new models.\n\nYear on year, the used car market grew 108.6% in the second quarter, with more than 2.2 million vehicles changing hands, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said.\n\nThe number of sales was up 6.6% on pre-pandemic levels in 2019.\n\nPetrol cars made up most of the sales, but demand for electric cars is growing fast.\n\nIncreased demand led to a rise in sales of older used cars, with only 12.7% of all vehicles sold being made within the last three years, the lowest on record.\n\nThe SMMT said the increase in sales tracked the country's easing of Covid restrictions, with demand rising as businesses reopened.\n\nFord Fiestas, Vauxhall Corsas, Ford Focuses and Volkswagen Golfs were the most popular models, with black, silver, blue and grey being the most common colour choices.\n\nMarshall Motors, which is one of UK's top ten car dealerships, said on Tuesday that it had recorded revenue and underlying profit in the first half of the year.\n\nChief executive Daksh Gupta said the company had \"seen exceptional market tailwinds in the used car market\" as a shortage of computer chips reduced the numbers of new cars on the market.\n\n\"Ultimately what that has done is push used car prices up significantly,\" he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.\n\nHe added that it is \"difficult to call\" how long there would be such a high demand for used cars \"because the whole situation links to new car supply\".\n\n\"The position is unclear and many manufacturers are having to deal with very complex production challenges,\" he said. \"We expect this disruption to go well into 2022.\"\n\nSMMT boss Mike Hawes said many consumers had turned to the second hand market due to the shortage of new cars at a time of \"increased need for personal mobility with people remaining wary of public transport as they return to work\".\n\nThe shortage has been linked to a lack of parts. When lockdowns forced production lines to halt, microchip manufacturers diverted the chips that would normally go into new cars to the consumer electronics market, and supply is yet to fully recover.\n\nIt has driven up the price of second hand cars, said the SMMT. One dealership, Nuneaton Cars, said buyers were attempting to gazump each other to get hold of used cars already marked as sold.\n\nSales of second- hand battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles more than tripled in the second quarter.\n\nHowever, electric vehicles made up just 1.3% of second-hand car sales in the second quarter of 2021.\n\nThe SMMT said the used electric car market \"is not yet seeing the acceleration of uptake as has been seen in the new car market\".\n\n\"The scale of the challenge to transition the entire used car [fleet] away from traditional fuels remains significant,\" the industry body said.\n\nThis comes amid a major UN scientific report that said human activity is changing the climate in unprecedented and sometimes irreversible ways.\n\nDespite this, Mr Hawes said the rebound in sales was \"welcome news\" due to a buoyant used car market being \"necessary to maintain strong residual values which, in turn, supports new car transactions\".\n\n\"We now need to see a similar rebound in new car sales to accelerate the fleet renewal necessary to deliver immediate and continuous improvements in air quality and carbon emissions,\" he said.\n\nNew car registrations fell by almost a third last month, marking the worst July sales since 1998.\n\nJust 123,296 new cars were registered in the UK, a 29.5% decline on July 2020.", "An image posted on Instagram appeared to show Princess Latifa, left, in Iceland with her cousin (centre) and Sioned Taylor\n\nThe campaign to free Princess Latifa, the daughter of the ruler of Dubai, has been disbanded after she was pictured in Iceland.\n\nThe image was posted on Instagram on Monday by a British woman who has previously appeared in photos with her.\n\nBut it is unclear to what extent Latifa, who has not spoken publicly, is operating under her own free will.\n\nThe BBC broadcast footage earlier this year in which the princess said she was being held captive by her father.\n\nIt prompted an international outcry, with the UN calling for proof that the 35-year-old was still alive.\n\nSeveral images of Latifa have since emerged. They were posted by Sioned Taylor, who was also in one such image in June that appeared to show the pair together at Madrid airport.\n\nOthers showed Latifa at a shopping mall and a restaurant in Dubai.\n\nThe Free Latifa campaign issued a statement on Monday confirming that the princess had met her cousin, Marcus Essabri - the third person in the photo - in Iceland.\n\n\"Following the meeting... it has been decided that the most appropriate step at this time is to close the Free Latifa campaign,\" it said.\n\n\"The primary purpose of [the] campaign was to see Latifa free leading the life she chooses for herself,\" the statement added. \"We have clearly gone a long way towards achieving that goal.\"\n\nMr Essabri, whose aunt is Latifa's mother, said: \"[We] had an emotional reunion... It was reassuring to see her so happy, well and focused on her plans.\"\n\nDavid Haigh, co-founder of the Free Latifa campaign, told the BBC that the princess's current situation was \"the best position she has been in in terms of freedom [...] for two decades\".\n\nBut he added: \"It's quite right and understandable that everyone needs to look at everything that's happening now with extreme caution and monitor the situation closely.\"\n\nThis Instagram image posted in June appeared to show Princess Latifa, right, in Madrid\n\nDubai's royal family has not commented on the latest photograph.\n\nLatifa, one of the 25 children of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, attempted to escape from Dubai in February 2018.\n\nIn a video recorded shortly before she left, she said her life was heavily constricted. \"I haven't left the country since 2000. I've been asking a lot to just go travelling, to study, to do anything normal. They don't let me,\" she said.\n\nBut the escape went wrong: eight days into a journey across the Indian Ocean, the boat was caught by commandos who forcibly removed Latifa and returned her to Dubai.\n\nHer father later said he considered this a \"rescue mission\".\n\nIn February, BBC Panorama broadcast videos secretly recorded by Princess Latifa and passed to friends abroad, in which she describes her capture and imprisonment after her return to Dubai.\n\nShe said she was being held alone without access to medical or legal help in a villa with windows and doors barred shut, and guarded by police.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe family of the first Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldier murdered in the Troubles have said they feel betrayed by the government's legacy proposals.\n\nWinston Donnell was manning a checkpoint at Clady outside Strabane when he was shot dead on 9 August 1971.\n\nIRA gunmen opened fire on the 22-year-old from a passing car.\n\nHis family now fear his killers will be granted an amnesty under government proposals that would see an end to Troubles-related prosecutions.\n\nThe proposals would apply to former members of the security forces and to former paramilitaries, as well as marking an end to future inquests and civil actions.\n\nMr Donnell, from Urney, County Tyrone, was killed as he took part in an operation launched after the introduction of internment - imprisonment without trial for those suspected of being involved in violence during the Troubles.\n\nOn the 50th anniversary of his killing his family have now spoken for the first time about what happened.\n\nWinston Donnell was manning a checkpoint at Clady outside Strabane when he was shot dead\n\nAudrey Robinson said her younger brother's actions that night saved his colleagues.\n\n\"The car reversed into the patrol with the back window out and Winston knew what was happening and jumped into the middle of the road and they just fired into him,\" she said.\n\n\"With his actions that night he saved the rest of the patrol.\"\n\nNo-one was convicted of the killing and the Donnell family say they feel let down by the government.\n\n\"We always had a very slim hope of getting justice but what the government is doing now with this amnesty has let us and other families down - our government has let us down badly,\" said Mrs Robinson.\n\n\"It is clear it is all signed and sealed because the government has announced it.\"\n\nThe family has appealed to Prime Minister Boris Johnson to pull back and to allow relatives to pursue justice for their loved ones.\n\nTony Brown has questioned the government's commitment to releasing information about Troubles killings\n\nThe family of Londonderry teenager Paul Whitters, who was killed after being hit with a plastic bullet fired by a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officer in 1981 has accused the government of \"insulting\" victims' families.\n\nFifteen-year-old Paul was fatally injured after a day of rioting in the city during the hunger strikes.\n\nHis uncle Tony Brown has questioned the government's commitment to releasing information about Troubles' killings after the family was denied access to files for reasons of of national security.\n\n\"We have been told that files relating to Paul's death will remain closed until 2059,\" he said.\n\n\"The government say they want to draw a line under the past but yet our family have to wait until 2059 - when I won't be around to get the files opened.\n\n\"What is the point in drawing a line if the government are determined to keep some matters secret?\"\n\nHe also challenged Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis, who announced the legacy plans in a statement to the House of Commons.\n\n\"Don't insult the families, don't insult our intelligence and don't talk about transparency when you are using that to hide a lack of integrity,\" said Mr Brown.", "Thousands of protesters demonstrated against proposed changes to Poland's media\n\nPoland's coalition government has been thrown into disarray, after the prime minister sacked his deputy on Tuesday.\n\nParliament is expected to vote on a draft media law that critics say is an attempt to silence a TV channel critical of the government.\n\nFormer Deputy PM Jaroslaw Gowin - who opposes the law change - leads a junior partner in the United Right coalition that has ruled since 2015.\n\nThousands of people have been protesting against the draft law.\n\nThe government said Mr Gowin had \"undermined confidence\" in its actions.\n\nHis party, Agreement, had been increasingly at odds with its senior coalition partner, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki's Law and Justice (PiS) party, and has now voted to quit the coalition.\n\nThe loss of Agreement's 13 MPs means the coalition will no longer command a majority in the lower house of parliament.\n\nMr Gowin had criticised the coalition's flagship economic programme, claiming it would lead to tax increases for ordinary Poles.\n\nAnd he opposes the new broadcasting bill, which he says \"clearly violates the principle of media freedom\".\n\nLawmakers are expected to vote on Wednesday evening on an amendment that would strengthen a ban on non-European firms controlling Polish broadcasters. The much-anticipated vote was due in the afternoon but briefly postponed as opposition MPs tried to adjourn the session.\n\nThe government says the law is needed to stop hostile foreign powers taking control of its broadcasters.\n\nBut opponents say it is an attempt to push US company Discovery to sell the country's biggest TV network, TVN, which is critical of the government. US officials have criticised the bill.\n\nIf approved, the law threatens to sour relations with the US, a key ally, and deepen concern in the European Union over media freedom in Poland.\n\nThousands of demonstrators took to the streets across Poland on Tuesday to express their anger at the proposals.\n\nA crowd gathered outside the parliament in Warsaw, and rallies were held in Krakow, Wroclaw, Poznan, Lublin and Szczecin.\n\nA government spokesman said he thought the bill would still pass, despite Agreement's exit from the governing coalition.\n\n\"There will be people in the United Right and in the rest of the Polish parliament who will support the beneficial reforms that we have proposed,\" he said.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nLionel Messi has signed a two-year contract with Paris St-Germain after leaving Barcelona.\n\nThe 34-year-old's deal also has the option of a third year.\n\nMessi left Barca - the only club he has played for - as they were unable to afford a new deal under La Liga's financial fair play rules.\n\n\"I am impatient to start a new chapter of my career in Paris. The club and its vision are in perfect harmony with my ambitions,\" said the Argentina star.\n\n\"I know how talented the players and staff are here. I am determined to build, alongside them, something great for the club and for the fans. I can't wait to set foot on the Parc des Princes pitch.\"\n\nPSG president Nasser al-Khelaifi said: \"I am delighted that Lionel Messi has chosen to join Paris St-Germain and we are proud to welcome him to Paris, with his family.\n\n\"He did not hide his desire to continue to evolve at the highest level and to win trophies. The ambition of the club is of course identical.\n\n\"The addition of Leo to our world-class team confirms the relevance and success of our recruitment. Together with our great coach and his staff, I look forward to seeing our team make history for all of our supporters around the world.\"\n\nConsidered one of the greatest players of all time, Messi scored a record 672 goals in 778 games for Barca, the club he joined as a 13-year-old.\n\nThe striker has won the Ballon d'Or a record six times and lifted 35 trophies with the Catalan club.\n\nHe becomes PSG's fourth free-transfer signing this summer after the arrivals of Netherlands midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum, Spain defender Sergio Ramos and Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.\n\nMessi, who will wear the number 30 shirt, will play in a front three alongside the two most expensive players of all time - Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.\n\nA PSG news conference will take place in the auditorium of the Parc des Princes on Wednesday at 10:00 BST.\n\nMessi could make his PSG debut at home to Strasbourg on Saturday.\n\nKeeping Messi at the Nou Camp had been president Joan Laporta's top priority this summer, but attempts to agree a new contract were severely complicated by the club's financial problems.\n\nHe officially became a free agent when his previous deal expired on 1 July, but it was still widely anticipated he would stay.\n\nHowever, Barcelona confirmed last week that Messi would be leaving the club because of \"financial and structural obstacles\".\n\nOn Sunday he broke down in tears at a news conference in which he admitted he did not want to leave Barcelona, but had no choice.\n\nMessi had agreed a new deal - on 50% of his old wages - to stay at Barcelona but the club could not afford to implement it because they were so far above the wage limit allowed by La Liga.\n\n\"He used to earn 140m euros gross a year at Barca, that's around £125m,\" BBC Sport columnist Guillem Balague told BBC Radio 5 Live. \"Take off about 40-50% for tax.\n\n\"He agreed to stay at Barcelona by reducing his wages by 50%, not more than that because that's illegal [under Spanish law]. Basically the league wouldn't believe he was reducing his wages to zero, which is what Barcelona may have tried to do as they are 1bn euros in debt. Basically they cannot afford him.\"\n\nThe news sparked a scramble for his services, with Manchester City and Chelsea among those to be linked, but it is PSG who have won the race to secure the Argentine superstar's signature, seen as one of the most noteworthy captures in football's history.\n\nHe will now form a formidable-looking strike force alongside his former Barca team-mate Neymar, France World Cup winner Mbappe and another Argentine, Mauro Icardi.\n\nMessi also joins international team-mates Angel di Maria and Leandro Paredes in the French capital, just three weeks after the trio helped Argentina win the Copa America for the first time in 28 years.\n• None Where will Messi, Neymar, Mbappe rank in the great forward lines?\n\nIs Messi the key to the Champions League?\n\nPSG are yet to win the Champions League in a decade of Qatari ownership and subsequent heavy investment, with the 2020 final defeat against Bayern Munich the closest they have come.\n\nMauricio Pochettino's side also finished second to Lille in Ligue 1 last season.\n\n\"Clearly what PSG's ownership want is a team that is in the Champions League final every year,\" said Balague.\n\n\"With Messi you have an advantage. Mauricio Pochettino being in charge and his contract being renewed as well means they have an idea how to do that, and Messi will complement that.\n\n\"They will win the league, that's almost a given now, even though they lost last season. It will be a less competitive league which means he will be fresh of course, or should be, for the Champions League campaign.\"\n\n25 August 2020 - Messi sends a fax to the club saying he wishes to exercise a clause in his contract, allowing him to leave for free with immediate effect.\n\n4 September 2020 - Messi says he is staying at Barcelona because it is \"impossible\" for any team to pay his 700m euro (£624m) release clause, which the club insist would have to be met.\n\n27 October 2020 - Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu, who had fallen out with Messi over his failed transfer request, resigns.\n\n28 December 2020 - Messi says he hopes to one day play in the United States, but is unsure of his future when his contract runs out.\n\n31 January 2021 - Barcelona say they will take \"appropriate legal action\" against Spanish newspaper El Mundo after it published details of Messi's contract, worth £492m over four years.\n\n16 May 2021 - Manager Ronald Koeman says he hopes Messi has not played his final home game for the club after a 2-1 defeat by Celta Vigo ended their title hopes and meant they finished outside the top two for the first time since 2007-08.\n\n22 May 2021 - Paris St-Germain are believed to be \"looking closely\" at Messi's contract situation.\n\n28 May 2021 - Barcelona president Joan Laporta says a new contract for Lionel Messi is \"not done yet\" but that \"things are going well\".\n\n1 July 2021 - Messi's Barcelona contract expires and he becomes a free agent.\n\n15 July 2021 - Messi agrees to stay with Barca on a deal until 2026 that includes reducing his wages.\n\n5 August 2021 - Barcelona announce Lionel Messi will leave the club \"because of financial and structural obstacles\".\n\n8 August 2021 - A tearful Messi confirms his departure from Barca and says a move to Paris St-Germain is \"a possibility\".\n\n10 August 2021 - BBC Sport's Guillem Balague reveals Messi has signed for PSG - a deal confirmed by the club that night.\n• None Is foreign exchange trading as easy as social media claims it to be?\n• None In an exclusive interview the music sensation opens up about the pressure of superfame", "David Cameron made about $10m (£7m) from Greensill Capital before the finance company collapsed, documents obtained by BBC Panorama suggest.\n\nThe documents indicate the former prime minister received $4.5m after cashing in Greensill shares in 2019.\n\nGreensill, which made its money by lending to businesses, went into administration in March, leaving investors facing billions in losses.\n\nMr Cameron's spokesman said his remuneration was a private matter.\n\nGreensill collapsed after its insurer refused to renew cover for the loans it was making.\n\nBefore its collapse, Mr Cameron unsuccessfully tried to persuade ministers to invest taxpayers' money in Greensill loans.\n\nHe has since been cleared of breaking any lobbying rules, but MPs said the former prime minister showed a \"significant lack of judgement\".\n\nThe details about Mr Cameron's shares were revealed in a letter from Greensill Capital to the former prime minister.\n\nAccording to the letter, Mr Cameron was going to be paid $4,569,851.60 (about £3.3m) after tax for a tranche of his Greensill shares.\n\nPanorama has not seen Mr Cameron's signed acceptance of the offer, but the letter records that he had already agreed to the deal.\n\nAs well as the shares, Mr Cameron received a salary of $1m (£720,000) a year as a part-time adviser.\n\nThe programme also understands that the former prime minister was paid a bonus of $700,000 (£504,000) in 2019 on top of his salary.\n\nIn total, it looks like he made around $10m before tax for two-and-a-half years' part-time work.\n\nMr Cameron's spokesman said: \"He acted in good faith at all times and there was no wrongdoing in any of the actions he took.\"\n\nPanorama: David Cameron and the Missing Billions is on BBC One at 19:35 BST on Monday or later on iPlayer\n\nPanorama has discovered how the company Mr Cameron promoted has left investors and UK taxpayers facing huge losses.\n\nGreensill Capital lent around $5bn (£3.6bn) to GFG Alliance - a group of companies controlled by the steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta.\n\nGFG employs 35,000 people around the world, including more than 4,000 at steel mills in the UK.\n\nInternal documents reveal that Greensill Capital knew GFG was in financial trouble by the start of 2020 because it was unable to make payments on Greensill loans.\n\nBut Greensill used its own cash to cover repayments GFG could not afford - leaving investors unaware of the problems.\n\nAn email sent by a Greensill finance officer to a senior manager in April 2020 said that the unusual payments had been going on for four months.\n\nIt said: \"We are constantly plugging holes that GFG cannot afford to repay... It is not even robbing Peter to pay Paul, it is just recirculation of Greensill funds.\"\n\nA second email sent at the start of May suggests an insolvency practitioner should be sent in to review Mr Gupta's businesses. It said: \"It may well be that administration is required.\"\n\nInstead of raising the alarm about GFG's inability to make loan payments, Greensill Capital looked for a new investor.\n\nIt turned to the UK government - and David Cameron was sent in to try to make it happen.\n\nMr Cameron sent 56 messages lobbying ministers and senior civil servants. He wanted the Bank of England to invest more than £10bn of taxpayers' money in Greensill's loans.\n\nThe Bank of England turned Greensill down, but in June 2020 Greensill was approved as a lender under a government scheme designed to get emergency cash to companies affected by the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThe Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan (CLBIL) scheme run by the government-owned British Business Bank allowed Greensill to make loans backed by an 80% taxpayer guarantee.\n\nGreensill was only supposed to lend a maximum of £50m to a single borrower or group of companies under the CLBIL scheme.\n\nBut Greensill Capital lent Mr Gupta's GFG Alliance £350m by making seven taxpayer-backed loans of £50m to seven of his companies.\n\nGreensill also made an eighth loan of £50m to another company closely associated with Mr Gupta.\n\nThe companies have all failed to make repayments on the taxpayer-backed loans.\n\nThe government guarantee has been suspended while the loans are investigated - but that is being challenged and the taxpayer could still lose £320m.\n\nMr Gupta's company, GFG Alliance, and its financing arrangements with Greensill Capital, are now being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office.\n\nGFG Alliance said it takes the investigation seriously and that all allegations of improper conduct are denied in the strongest terms.\n\nThe company said it has been working tirelessly to stabilise the businesses affected by the collapse of Greensill and deliver refinancing.\n\nGFG said: \"We remain fully committed to UK industry and to a solution that will enable GFG to repay creditors and create a sustainable future for its UK businesses.\"\n\nLex Greensill, the founder of Greensill Capital, said the government guarantee on the loans should not be withdrawn.\n\n\"Our access to any government-backed schemes with respect to funding our clients has always drawn upon robust advice from leading law firms to ensure Greensill complied with relevant rules,\" he said.\n\nHe also said he was not aware his staff had recommended sending in an insolvency practitioner to GFG.\n\nMr Cameron's spokesman said he was not involved in lending decisions and had no knowledge of GFG's financial situation.\n\n\"He was a part-time adviser to the company - one of several - and had no Executive or Board responsibilities whatsoever,\" he said.\n\n\"He made the representations he did to the UK government not just because he thought it would benefit the company, but because he sincerely believed there would be a material benefit for UK businesses at a challenging time.\"\n\nPanorama has also discovered how investors were misled about Greensill Capital's investments.\n\nGreensill made money through supply chain finance - which involves making loans to companies that are waiting for invoices to be paid by their customers.\n\nWhen the invoices were paid, the cash would be there to pay investors back, with interest.\n\nTo fund the loans, it teamed up with Swiss bank Credit Suisse, which raised $10bn from investors.\n\nIt was the Swiss bank's job to market and sell the Greensill investments, and to inform investors about potential risks.\n\nInvestors thought their cash was safe, because it was supposed to be secured against the unpaid invoices.\n\nBut this year it was revealed that some of the invoices simply did not exist.\n\nUS court papers show how between 2018 and 2021, Greensill lent $850m of investors' cash to a US coal company called Bluestone Resources.\n\nOnly $70m of that money was secured against real invoices for coal that Bluestone had actually sold.\n\nInvestors did not know it, but the remaining $780m was only backed by predicted coal sales that may or may not happen in the future.\n\nLex Greensill told Panorama that this type of financing was commonplace in the financial services industry.\n\nHe said the predicted Bluestone business was all \"based upon future trade that is likely to occur with current customers\".\n\nPanorama discovered that was not true.\n\nThe programme obtained the names of the companies that Lex Greensill said were current customers of Bluestone.\n\nSix of the companies said they were not Bluestone customers and they weren't planning to buy its coal in the future.\n\nLex Greensill later told Panorama the coal buyers did not have to be current customers. Bluestone only had to state it expected to make the sales at some future point and Greensill was not obliged to make checks, he said.\n\nMr Greensill denied misleading investors. He said his company made all the appropriate disclosures to Credit Suisse and the Swiss Bank was \"solely responsible for making any disclosures to their investors\".\n\nHe said the loans were always secured against assets and personal guarantees, and were backed up by insurance that would pay 100% of any shortfall.\n\nCredit Suisse says its focus is on returning cash to investors and that 59% has been returned so far.\n\nPanorama: David Cameron and the Missing Billions is on BBC One at 19:35 BST on Monday or later on iPlayer", "Social media abuse: Twitter says UK 'by far' main origin of comments after Euro 2020 final Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nBukayo Saka, Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford were all racially abused on social media after England's Euro 2020 final loss to Italy The UK was \"by far\" the main origin of the \"abhorrent racist abuse\" on Twitter after England lost the Euro 2020 final, the social media platform has said. Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho were abused after missing in the penalty shootout loss to Italy. Twitter removed 1,622 tweets in the next 24 hours but identify verification \"would have been unlikely to prevent the abuse\", it said. \"Of the permanently suspended accounts, 99% of their owners were identifiable.\" Police arrested 11 people for sending racist social media messages after the final, with almost four times more of the criminal comments being posted by people overseas than in the UK. However, Twitter said: \"While many have quite rightly highlighted the global nature of the conversation, it is also important to acknowledge the UK was - by far - the largest country of origin for the abusive tweets we removed.\" Automated tools helped the platform immediately identify and remove the tweets. \"Since our update in February, we've improved our proactive tools to identify racist abuse and removed just under 13,000 Tweets - of which 95% were identified proactively,\" Twitter added. \"Soon, we will be testing a new product feature that temporarily autoblocks accounts using harmful language. \"We're determined to do all we can, along with our partners, to stop these abhorrent views and behaviours being seen on and off the platform.\" There have been numerous calls from within football for social media companies to take more action against discrimination on their platforms. Earlier this year clubs, players, athletes and a number of sporting bodies took part in a four-day boycott of social media in an attempt to tackle abuse and discrimination. And last week the Professional Footballers' Association called on Twitter to stop taking the \"easy\" option to tackle abuse aimed at players online. New research showed a 48% rise in racist abuse sent to players on the social media platform during the second half of last season, and that the majority of accounts that sent the abuse were still on Twitter as recently as last month. After Rashford, Saka and Sancho were targeted, there was condemnation from, among others, the Duke of Cambridge, the Football Association and Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Fans found guilty of abuse could face lifetime bans from all Premier League stadiums under new anti-discrimination measures to be implemented from the start of the 2021-22 season. All 20 clubs have signed up to the measures and together they will enforce league-wide punishments for anyone found to have behaved in a discriminatory or abusive way towards players, staff, officials, stewards or fans attending a Premier League match - both in person and online. \"The commitment from all clubs to enforce league-wide bans demonstrates there is no place for discrimination of any kind in football and we will continue to work together to fight all forms of prejudice,\" said Premier League chief executive Richard Masters. \"Football is a diverse sport, which brings together communities from all backgrounds. We call on fans to come together with us and our clubs to help tackle discrimination by challenging and reporting abuse wherever they see it.\"\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "London's Tower Bridge has reopened to traffic after becoming stuck for almost 12 hours.\n\nThe famous crossing was scheduled to lift on Monday to allow a large wooden tall ship through, but it appeared to become jammed in place.\n\nCity of London Police said the 127-year-old landmark was closed \"due to technical failure\".\n\nThe bridge reopened to traffic at 01:45 BST on Tuesday.\n\nDrivers - and pedestrians - had previously been warned to avoid the area.\n\nCity of London Police said the bridge had suffered a technical failure\n\nThe crossing connects the Square Mile financial district to Southwark.\n\nApproach roads to the bridge were shut while repairs were carried out.\n\nThe two sides of the crossing became stuck at about 14:30 BST on Monday.\n\nTransport for London (TfL) reported that traffic had been slow moving on both sides of the river during the afternoon.\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis 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 2 by BBC Radio London Travel 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.\n\nThe bridge, which took eight years to build and opened in 1894, normally opens about 800 times every year.\n\nIt was previously jammed in August last year when a mechanical fault meant it remained lifted for more than an hour.\n\nFire crews were called to the scene\n\nA spokesperson for the City of London Corporation, which manages the bridge, said investigations into the failure were taking place but the source of the fault was currently unknown.\n\nThe 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. Footage shows the aftermath of the bus crash\n\nA woman has died and two people were injured in a crash between two buses outside London Victoria rail station.\n\nA pedestrian in her 30s was pronounced dead at the scene after emergency services were called at 08:25 BST, the Metropolitan Police said.\n\nTwo other people were treated for minor injuries at a bus stand outside the central London station.\n\nTransport for London commissioner Andy Byford said he was \"extremely saddened that a woman had tragically died\".\n\nThe woman's next of kin have been informed and no arrests have been made.\n\nBoth of the buses were on the same 507 route\n\nThe crash took place during the morning rush hour\n\nJacob Davidson is a Big Issue seller who was in \"shock\" after witnessing the crash between two 507 single-deckers.\n\nHe said: \"I heard a massive bang. At first I just thought it was a bus that had crashed into another bus.\n\n\"It was only when two cab drivers jumped out and jumped over the railings and started looking underneath the bus, they started shouting 'can we get some help, can we get paramedics?'\n\nJacob Davidson said there was nothing he could have done\n\n\"Then I realised someone had been hit by a bus and was trapped underneath. There was a female on the side, on the path, somehow had been involved as well that was being attended to by other civilians.\"\n\nThe bus terminal remains closed following the crash.\n\nThe two single-decker buses involved were visible, one with its windscreen smashed and the other with a crumpled rear bumper.\n\nLight blue screens and blue tarpaulins, erected by police, remain in place covering most of the scene.\n\nA private ambulance arrived just after 12:30 and was seen reversing behind the screens.\n\nMr Byford said: \"Our thoughts are with her [the victim's] family and friends. We are thinking of everyone affected by this incident and will support everyone however we can.\n\n\"We are working urgently with the operator of the two buses, Go Ahead London, and the police to investigate what happened.\"\n\nThe 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. Torrential downpours and thunderstorms cause flooding across Scotland\n\nHeavy showers and thunderstorms are causing severe flooding and travel disruption across Scotland.\n\nA Met Office yellow weather warning covering Central, Tayside and Fife, Grampian, South West Scotland, Lothian, Borders and Strathclyde runs to 23:00.\n\nRail services have been affected by the torrential downpours and road users are being urged to exercise care.\n\nFootage on social media captured the impact of the extreme weather in Glasgow and Edinburgh.\n\nThe Scottish Environment Protection Agency currently has nine flood alerts in place.\n\nShoppers were caught in the downpour on Glasgow's Sauchiehall Street\n\nMet Office spokesman Oli Claydon described the thunderstorms as \"quite variable\" and added: \"Not everywhere within those warning areas will see those heavy thundery downpours.\n\n\"Where the thunderstorms do fall, the rain could be quite intense and quite heavy.\"\n\nShoppers in Glasgow city centre were among those caught up in the extreme weather, which caused extensive flooding in a TK Maxx store after a ceiling collapsed.\n\nSkateboarding was one mode of transport not held up by the torrential rain in Glasgow\n\nMeanwhile, in Edinburgh, footage shared on social media captured flooding at Cameron Toll and on Meadow Place Road, Corstorphine.\n\nScotRail said the heavy rain had flooded the railway at Dalmuir in West Dunbartonshire for the second time in three days, forcing the closure of the line via Yoker.\n\nAs a result, services from Motherwell, Whifflet, Larkhall and Cumbernauld will be affected while trains from Helensburgh to Edinburgh will be diverted via Singer.\n\nThe rail line at Dalmuir, West Dunbartonshire, was submerged under water\n\nSeparately, flooding between Hillfoot and Bearsden meant services were unable to operate to and from Milngavie.\n\nEarlier on Monday, train speed restrictions were in place in Edinburgh, between Aberdeen and Inverness and between Dunkeld/Birnam and Blair Atholl.\n\nThe Met Office said parts of Scotland could see 15-30mm of rainfall in a short space of time, or as much as 50-70mm over several hours.\n\nIt follows a weekend of downpours in which the worst washouts were in southern Scotland and northern England.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Countries like the Maldives are among the most vulnerable to climate change\n\nNations vulnerable to climate change have warned they are on the \"edge of extinction\" if action is not taken.\n\nThe warning by a group of developing countries comes after a landmark UN report argued that global warming could make parts of the world uninhabitable.\n\nWorld leaders including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson have called the report a \"wake-up call to the world\".\n\nBut some of the strongest reaction to its findings has come from countries that are set to be the worst hit.\n\n\"We are paying with our lives for the carbon someone else emitted,\" said Mohamed Nasheed, a former Maldives president who represents almost 50 countries that are vulnerable to the effects of climate change.\n\nThe Maldives is the world's lowest-lying country and Mr Nasheed said the projections by UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) would be \"devastating\" for the nation, putting it on the \"edge of extinction\".\n\nAccording to the latest IPCC report, heatwaves, heavy rainfall and droughts will become more common and extreme. The UN's chief has labelled it a \"code red for humanity\".\n\nThe report says there is \"unequivocal\" evidence that humans are to blame for increasing temperatures. Within the next two decades, temperatures are likely to rise 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, it adds.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. In Kenya, rising water levels in lakes along the Great Rift Valley have forced thousands of people from their homes.\n\nThat could lead to sea levels rising by half a metre, but a rise of 2m by the end of the century cannot be ruled out.\n\nThat could have a devastating impact on low-lying coastal countries, said Diann Black-Layne, ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda, and lead climate negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States.\n\n\"That is our very future, right there,\" Ms Black-Layne said.\n\nThe report comes less than three months before a key climate summit in Glasgow known as COP26.\n\nBoris Johnson, who is hosting the conference, said the report showed help was needed for countries bearing the brunt of climate change.\n\n\"Today's report makes for sobering reading, and it is clear that the next decade is going to be pivotal to securing the future of our planet,\" he said.\n\n\"We know what must be done to limit global warming - consign coal to history and shift to clean energy sources, protect nature and provide climate finance for countries on the frontline.\"\n\nUnder the 2015 Paris Agreement, more than 190 governments agreed the world should limit global warming to 2C or ideally 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.\n\nBut the new report says that under all scenarios, both targets will be broken this century unless huge cuts in carbon take place.\n\nUS Climate Envoy John Kerry said that to reach the targets, countries urgently needed to change their economies.\n\n\"This is the critical decade for action, and COP26 in Glasgow must be a turning point in this crisis,\" Mr Kerry said.\n\nClimate activist Greta Thunberg, who confirmed on Monday that she will attend the COP26 talks, said the report \"confirms what we already know... that we are in an emergency\".\n\n\"We can still avoid the worst consequences, but not if we continue like today, and not without treating the crisis like a crisis,\" she said on Twitter.", "Tony Luu and his two friends wanted to check his apartment complex's basement during a heavy storm on Sunday.\n\nWater gushed into their lift as they went to the lower levels, and filled up to their necks.\n\nWith his friends' help, they pried the door open to make an escape.", "Parents will now be able to have images of their children removed from Google search results, the company has said.\n\nIt came as Google announced a range of changes to child-safety measures across several of its products.\n\nIt will also remove \"overly commercial content\" from the children's version of YouTube and change what kind of adverts can be targeted at under-18s.\n\nSeveral major technology companies have introduced such measures under scrutiny from governments and safety advocates.\n\nAnd in recent months, China has cracked down on teenage gaming habits and sued technology company Tencent over one of its messaging apps' Youth Mode.\n\nGoogle has itself come under fire for its YouTube Kids product, with US politicians calling it a \"wasteland of vapid, consumerist content\".\n\nAnd in a separate post to the YouTube blog, the company said it would now be changing its approach on \"commercial content for kids\".\n\n\"We've never allowed paid product placements in YouTube Kids,\" it said.\n\n\"In the coming weeks, we'll also begin to remove overly commercial content from YouTube Kids, such as a video that only focuses on product packaging or directly encourages children to spend money.\"\n\nYouTube will also turn off \"autoplay\" as the default setting, for children, in both the Kids and mainstream apps, to prevent unsuitable videos playing automatically.\n\nAllowing users to remove image-search results of children would afford \"more control over their digital footprint\", Google said.\n\n\"Of course, removing an image from search doesn't remove it from the web but we believe this change will help give young people more control of their images online,\" it said.\n\nThe other changes include:\n\n\"Some countries are implementing regulations in this area - and as we comply with these regulations, we're looking at ways to develop consistent product experiences and user controls for kids and teens,\" it said.\n\nMany young people may lie about their true age to circumvent these kinds of controls, however.\n\nAnd age-verification measures are not widely used beyond the online sale of products such as nicotine and alcohol.\n\nBut planned legislation - such as the UK's Online Safety Bill - may place the onus on the technology giants to ensure potentially harmful content cannot be accessed by minors.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lauren Price received a hero's welcome when she arrived back home\n\nHundreds of people have lined the streets as Olympic gold medallist Lauren Price returned to her hometown.\n\nThe middleweight boxing champion was given a hero's welcome on her return to Ystrad Mynach, Caerphilly county, where she was raised by grandparents Linda and Derek.\n\nPrice said the public support had been \"insane\" after her success in the Tokyo games.\n\n\"I honestly didn't imagine coming home to this,\" she said.\n\nLauren was raised by her grandparents Linda and Derek\n\nPrice, who won four kickboxing world titles as a teenager and played football for Wales before taking up boxing, added: \"Even though I'm [with team] GB, I'm always representing Wales and the support has just been unreal.\n\n\"Thank you so much for coming out to see me and supporting me - it means the world.\"\n\nPrice also paid tribute to the role her grandparents played in her life after an emotional reunion with her grandmother.\n\nThere were plenty of youngsters waiting to get a photo with the Olympic gold medallist\n\nLauren played tribute to her grandmother and late grandfather for their role in her life\n\n\"She was ringing me on the way home and she got me filling up then,\" Price said.\n\n\"I've been away from her for six weeks so to come back home to her has been amazing.\n\n\"If it wasn't for her I wouldn't have achieved my dream.\n\n\"Her and my grandad have supported me since I was three days old and I can't thank them enough.\"\n\nLauren Price and her grandmother (centre) hugged after a long six weeks apart\n\nIt wasn't your usual lunchtime in Ystrad Mynach and the Olympic champion was clearly overwhelmed.\n\nIt wasn't a planned homecoming event and spread by word of mouth on social media.\n\nBy the time Lauren got home, hundreds were out lining the streets, cheering on the local girl who achieved her dream.\n\nThere were flags, balloons and children cheering. Everyone wanted a picture with their hero and she stayed to speak to anyone who was waiting.\n\nThe real emotion came when Lauren saw her nan, Linda, for the first time in weeks. The family ran to the car and hugged.\n\nIt was an incredible end to a crazy few weeks for Lauren Price.", "The lorry fire closed a stretch of the M6 in the West Midlands\n\nA stretch of the M6 southbound was shut overnight after a severe lorry fire involving office equipment and \"hazardous\" chemicals.\n\nThe fire broke out at 23:15 BST and closed the carriageway between junction 6 and junction 5 near Birmingham.\n\nSpecialist teams were sent to the scene to deal with the trailer that had also been carrying bleach and other kitchen chemicals.\n\nThree lanes have reopened but one will remain closed for the rest of the day.\n\nHighways England said work would be carried out in the evening to resurface the lane that suffered the damage.\n\nTwo lanes reopened earlier but traffic monitoring service Inrix reported five miles of queuing traffic at one stage. Drivers were advised to consider other routes.\n\nThis 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 Highways England 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.\n\nAt its height, more than 30 firefighters were sent to tackle the blaze, and teams remain at the site damping down, said West Midlands Fire Service.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The percentage of pupils achieving A grades hit a record high this year as the pass rate for Scottish school qualifications dropped slightly.\n\nFormal exams were cancelled for the second year running due to Covid-19, with grades based on teacher judgement.\n\nThe percentage of pupils achieving A to C grades in their Highers fell from 89.3% in 2020 to 87.3% in 2021.\n\nBut that total is still significantly above the 75% pass rate from 2019, and a record high number of awards overall.\n\nEducation Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said pupils had delivered \"a strong set of results, achieved under extraordinary circumstances\".\n\nA total of 90.2% of Advanced Higher candidates achieved a pass, down from 93.1% in 2020, while National 5 scores dropped from 89% to 85.8%.\n\nHowever, the percentage of students who got an A grade in Higher and Advanced Higher courses leapt by around 20 percentage points from pre-pandemic levels.\n\nA total of 47.6% of Higher candidates achieved an A grade, compared to 40% in 2020 and 28.3% in 2019, when traditional exams were used.\n\nIn Advanced Higher courses, 51% of pupils got an A, up from 46.3% in 2020 and 31.8% in 2019. In National 5s, the figure rose from 42.3% in 2020 to 46.7% this year, up from 35.1% in 2019.\n\nMeanwhile, the attainment gap between pupils from more deprived and more affluent backgrounds widened compared to 2020 - but was still narrower than it was pre-pandemic.\n\nFor National 5 qualifications, 90.2% of pupils from the least deprived backgrounds achieved a passing grade, compared to 81.3% from the most deprived backgrounds - a gap of nine percentage points.\n\nThis was an increase from the gap of 7.9 percentage points in 2020 - but still significantly down from the 17.1 percentage point gap in 2019.\n\nThere was a similar trend for Higher qualifications - where the gap increased from 6.5 percentage points to 7.9, compared to 16.9 pre-pandemic - and Advanced Highers, where the gap went from 3.0 percentage points to 5.5.\n\nSenior pupils sat a series of assessments in May following disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nTeachers then decided their grades and informed students before the end of term, and these grades were made official on Tuesday.\n\nKatie Wilson, a 5th year pupil at Lochgelly High School in Fife, said this meant that results day had been less stressful than last year.\n\nShe had to isolate during the academic year, and said: \"Our teachers were really supportive, they understood what we were going through, that we may have needed extra support when we came back - so it worked well I think.\"\n\nThe results reflect the highest number of Higher passes since at least 1999, and a record high percentage of entries at National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher courses resulting in an A grade.\n\nMs Somerville said \"significant challenges\" had been thrown at young people in \"one of the toughest academic years we've ever known\".\n\nShe added: \"Learners can be confident that their awards are fair, consistent and credible. Indeed, industry representatives have made it clear how much they value this year's qualifications.\n\n\"As in any year, the results highlight some areas for us to focus attention on. Closing the poverty-related attainment gap and ensuring every young person has the chance to fulfil their potential remains central to our work.\"\n\nMinisters also said a record high number of Scottish-domiciled students had been offered a place at Scottish universities as of results day, rising 10% to 31,070.\n\nFormal exams were cancelled for the second year in a row\n\nThere were more than 200,000 entries for Higher and Advanced Higher courses this year, and almost 300,000 for National 5 courses.\n\nMinisters said final grades would be based on \"teacher judgement supported by assessment\", but the process was criticised by some parents and pupils - who described the assessments as \"exams by another name\".\n\nThe Scottish government had faced anger from pupils, parents and teachers over the previous results system, introduced after lockdown in 2020.\n\nGrades were initially drawn up using teacher estimates for each pupil which were then moderated using results from previous years.\n\nHowever, this sparked an outcry after 125,000 results were downgraded, with claims the moderation system unfairly penalised children at schools which had historically not performed as well.\n\nIn a 'normal' exam year, if too many people are doing too well then boundaries can be changed to make it harder to get a certain grade.\n\nWith assessments marked by schools this year and no central system, more young people than normal are celebrating hitting the top spot.\n\nBut does it mean an A this year is less valuable?\n\nThe SQA, the government, universities and employers are all keen to stress that's not the case.\n\nWhich begs another question. Would these A grade students - who deserve what they have got - have lost out under our usual exam system?\n\nWe still don't know how grades will be decided next year. This conversation could have a bearing on that.\n\nThe government subsequently agreed to accept the original teacher estimates of grades - and pledged that 2021's awards would not be \"given or taken away on the basis of a statistical model or on the basis of a school's past performance\".\n\nThe government has already announced wide-ranging changes to the education system, with the SQA to be replaced with a new agency overseeing the curriculum.\n\nThe Scottish Conservatives said the exams system was a \"disgrace\", and that pupils had been \"judged more harshly\" than the previous year's cohort.\n\nEducation spokesman Oliver Mundell said: \"Compared to last year, grades are down across the board. The attainment gap is up.\n\n\"That should set alarm bells ringing that this year's system is just as flawed and unfair as the shambles pupils suffered last year.\"\n\nScottish Labour's education spokesman Michael Marra said pupils and teachers had \"performed nothing short of miracles this year\" - but that there had been a \"total lack of leadership\".\n\nHe added: \"This system has widened the educational attainment gap in Scotland, meaning that poorest pupils have been impacted the worst by the SQA and Scottish government mismanagement.\n\n\"The result is that there are many young people, particularly in our poorest communities, who have not achieved the grades they had hoped for, or deserved.\"\n\nThe Scottish Greens said the decision to cancel exams in 2021 was taken \"far too late\", and there had been a \"near-total failure to plan for the effects of Covid disruption\".\n\nAnd the Scottish Lib Dems said the results \"make a mockery of SNP promises to close the attainment gap\" after pupils were \"forced into exams in all but name\".\n\nScottish business leaders have assured school leavers that their qualifications will be valued as much as in any other year.\n\nMore than 100 employers and business groups, including the Scottish Retail Consortium, Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Tourism Alliance, have backed a new Young Person's Guarantee.\n\nIt aims to provide everyone aged between 16 and 24 with the opportunity of a job, apprenticeship, further or higher education, training programme or volunteering.", "Tributes to the little girl are left outside the house in Dungannon\n\nDetectives investigating the death of two-year-old girl Ali Maguire in County Tyrone have arrested a woman.\n\nThe 24-year-old is being held on suspicion of perverting the course of justice, causing or permitting the death of a child and child cruelty.\n\nThe girl died in hospital after the ambulance service was called to a house in Park Avenue, Dungannon, on Friday.\n\nEarlier, police were given extra time to question a 32-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder.\n\nThe girl died in hospital after the ambulance service was called to a house in Park Avenue on Friday afternoon\n\nAn additional 36 hours was given to detectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland's (PSNI) major investigation team.\n\nIt was reported the girl had suffered a serious head injury.\n\nA post-mortem examination is to be carried out to establish the cause of her death.\n\nThe MP for the area, Sinn Féin's Michelle Gildernew, said on Saturday that the community was in \"shock at the news\".", "Flutter's Paddy Power betting shops were closed during the Covid lockdowns\n\nPaddy Power-owner Flutter has said its UK betting shop revenue has jumped higher than pre-Covid levels.\n\nBetting shops were closed during lockdowns but since reopening in June, Flutter said UK retail revenue rose 7% ahead of sales before the pandemic.\n\nLike its rivals, Flutter has seen strong growth in online gambling as shops closed and people were forced to work from home.\n\nBut one gambling helpline said calls had risen by 9% in the year to March.\n\nAnd punters came back to betting shops after they re-opened as Covid restrictions eased in the second quarter, with UK retail revenue 7% higher than pre-Covid levels, it said.\n\nThe number of people using Flutter's online gambling in the UK leapt even more, increasing nearly 60%.\n\nA UK gambling helpline said calls had increased by 9% in the year to the end of March.\n\nFlutter said global revenue rose 28% to £3bn as its average number of gamblers rose 40% to more than 7.5 million.\n\nChief executive Peter Jackson said: \"The first half of 2021 exceeded our expectations as we made substantial progress against our operational and strategic objectives while maintaining excellent momentum in growing our player base.\"\n\nMany countries around the world closed down betting shops during coronavirus lockdowns, and gamblers shifted their focus online.\n\nFlutter attracted new customers during lockdowns, and kept hold of many of them in the first half, said Alistair Johnson, analyst at Redburn.\n\nStudies have suggested that online gambling soared during coronavirus lockdowns, with vulnerable groups particularly at risk.\n\nIn the UK, Flutter, which owns brands such as Betfair and Sky Betting and Gaming, said it had 59% more online customers than in the same period in 2019 before the coronavirus crisis.\n\nOverall, its UK and Ireland average monthly numbers grew 44% to 3.3 million customers. This outpaced revenue growth of 30% - so on average, revenue per active customer was lower, it said.\n\nFlutter has been pouring money into its US business, spending more than $1bn to date on marketing its flagship FanDuel sports betting brand.\n\nUS revenues were more than $900m in the first half, putting distance between it and its main rivals, it said.\n\nThe gambling giant competed its acquisition of Canadian gambling business the Stars Group on 5 May 2020.\n\nFreetrade analyst Gemma Boothroyd said the pandemic \"lent a helping hand to online betting, speeding up its transition to digital\".\n\nShe said US revenue growth, which soared by 159% to £652m, was \"driven by six additional states legalising sports betting\".\n\n\"As vaccination ramps up and Flutter's main markets return to business-as-usual, it may be ill-prepared for lockdowns easing,\" Ms Boothroyd added.\n\nLast year a House of Lords report found that there were a third of a million problem gamblers in the UK, with young people being most at risk.\n\nThe amount of harm was wider, though. For each problem gambler, six were harmed by their activities. So two million people were harmed by \"the breakup of families, crime, loss of employment, loss of homes and, ultimately, loss of life\", the report said.\n\nIt found that 60% of gambling companies' profits come from the 5% of customers who are already problem gamblers, or who are at risk of becoming so.\n\nA study in May this year suggested that online gambling soared in 2020 in the UK, with regular gamblers more than six times more likely to gamble online.\n\nThe University of Bristol study suggested that \"although many forms of gambling were restricted, a minority of regular gamblers significantly increased their gambling and betting online\" with vulnerable groups \"worse affected\".\n\nThere was also a strong link between binge drinking and regular gambling, researchers said.\n\nGamCare, which operates the National Gambling Helpline, said it had received 41,000 calls for help in the year to the end of March, a 9% increase on the previous year.\n\nIt said there was a big increase in gambling due to boredom, but also more gamblers were using it as a coping strategy during the pandemic.\n\nTwo thirds of the gamblers calling the helpline had debt issues, and three quarters had financial difficulties due to gambling.\n\nThe most problematic online products were slots, betting, and casino games.\n\nOffline, betting in shops and gaming machines were problematic, gamblers said.\n\nFlutter said that it was developing steps \"focused on protecting those that are vulnerable without unnecessarily impinging on the freedoms of the majority of customers\".", "Former Prime Minister David Cameron personally promoted Greensill Capital to investors before the controversial company collapsed.\n\nBBC Panorama discovered Mr Cameron appeared with the company's founder, Lex Greensill, at an event hosted by the Swiss bank Credit Suisse in 2019.\n\nThe collapse of Greensill in March has left the bank's clients facing billions of dollars in losses.\n\nMr Cameron says there was no wrongdoing in any of the actions he took.\n\nEducation secretary Gavin Williamson told BBC Radio Four's Today programme on Tuesday that Mr Cameron had been \"absolutely cleared\" of any wrongdoing by two independent investigations.\n\nHe added he had made himself \"available to parliamentary scrutiny\", which was \"the right thing to do\".\n\nMr Cameron worked for the company as a part-time adviser for two-and-a-half years after stepping down as prime minister.\n\nPanorama has also discovered documents indicating his role earned him about $10m before tax.\n\nMr Cameron's spokesman has said his remuneration was a private matter.\n\nThe June event Mr Cameron attended was called \"The Future of Supply Chain Finance\", and the audience were wealthy Credit Suisse clients.\n\nCredit Suisse was marketing and selling Greensill investments at the time, and the bank told investors they were low risk.\n\nInvestors thought their money was being loaned to companies that were awaiting payment for goods and services they had sold.\n\nThe loans were supposed to be backed up by unpaid invoices, but earlier this year it was revealed that some of the invoices simply did not exist.\n\nUS court papers show how between 2018 and 2021, Greensill lent $850m of investors' cash to a US coal company called Bluestone Resources.\n\nOnly $70m of that money was secured against real invoices for coal that Bluestone had actually sold.\n\nInvestors did not know it, but the remaining $780m was only backed by predicted coal sales that may or may not happen in the future.\n\nLex Greensill told Panorama that this type of financing was commonplace in the financial services industry.\n\nHe said the predicted Bluestone business was all \"based upon future trade that is likely to occur with current customers\".\n\nPanorama discovered that was not true.\n\nThe programme obtained the names of the companies that Lex Greensill said were current customers of Bluestone.\n\nSix of the companies said they were not Bluestone customers and they weren't planning to buy its coal in the future.\n\nLex Greensill later told Panorama the coal buyers did not have to be current customers. Bluestone only had to state it expected to make the sales at some future point and Greensill was not obliged to make checks, he said.\n\nMr Greensill denied misleading investors. He said his company made all the appropriate disclosures to Credit Suisse and the Swiss Bank was \"solely responsible for making any disclosures to their investors\".\n\nHe said the loans were always secured against assets and personal guarantees, and were backed up by insurance that would pay 100% of any shortfall.\n\nCredit Suisse says its focus is on returning cash to investors and that 59% has been returned so far.\n\nMr Cameron's spokesman told Panorama he was neither a director of Greensill, nor involved in any lending decisions, and that he had no special insight into what ultimately happened.\n\nThe spokesman said: \"It is also preposterous to suggest that he would work for any company if he was aware that it was behaving improperly, or was in any way seeking to mislead investors.\"\n\nWatch Panorama: David Cameron and the Missing Billions on BBC iPlayer", "Esther Dingley sent this selfie at the top of a mountain on 22 November\n\nThe boyfriend of a British woman who went missing while hiking in the Pyrenees has found her body and belongings.\n\nEsther Dingley, from Durham, vanished on a solo trek in November sparking major searches by French and Spanish police and her partner Daniel Colegate.\n\nA fragment of bone found in July was confirmed to be the 37-year-old's.\n\nLBT Global, which is supporting the family, said an accident \"is the most likely hypothesis\".\n\nA spokesman for the overseas crisis support charity said Mr Colegate found his girlfriend's remains on Monday afternoon, close to where the bone fragment was discovered.\n\nChris Bockman, a British journalist working in Toulouse, said French police searches had been hampered by a number of search and rescue operations and thunderstorms.\n\nHe said according to the French judge leading the investigation, officers are beginning to collect forensic information at the \"difficult to reach site\" which will be DNA analysed, while a helicopter will be used \"if necessary\" to recover Ms Dingley's body.\n\nDaniel Colegate and Esther Dingley were on an open-ended campervan tour of Europe\n\nSince Ms Dingley vanished, her partner had walked hundreds of miles in the mountains on the French and Spanish border looking for signs of her.\n\n\"At this stage an accident is the most likely hypothesis, given the location and other early indications,\" LBT Global said.\n\n\"A full investigation is under way to confirm the details surrounding this tragedy.\n\n\"The family remain incredibly grateful for the efforts of the police units involved and their commitment to understanding the exact circumstances of Esther's death.\"\n\nMs Dingley, who was an experienced hiker, was trekking alone when she last communicated with her partner from the top of Pic De Sauvegarde at about 16:00 on 22 November.\n\nMr Colegate, who was staying 100 miles away in a French farmhouse, raised the alarm several days later when she failed to report in at an agreed time.\n\nThe couple were on an open-ended campervan tour of Europe and Ms Dingley was on the final walk of a month-long solo expedition when she vanished.\n\nEsther Dingley was an experienced walker, her family said\n\nPolice on both sides of the border used helicopters and specialist teams to search for her in the days between her disappearance and the arrival of the heavy winter snow.\n\nThe failure to find any sign of her left Mr Colegate \"baffled\" and led to fears she may have been kidnapped.\n\nMr Colegate began his own searches when the winter weather eased in April followed a few weeks later by the police.\n\nDan and Esther had been together since meeting at university in 2003\n\nThe couple met in 2003 when they were both students at Oxford University and later moved to Durham.\n\nIn 2014, after Mr Colegate nearly died following an operation, they decided to swap their lives running their own businesses and embark on a campervan tour of Europe involving lots of hiking and cycling.\n\nDuring their travels, they adopted a pregnant dog in Spain who gave birth to five puppies who joined them on their adventure.\n\nMr Colegate has written books about their travels while Ms Dingley ran a blog detailing their exploits.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The public should be consulted on whether crime victims should be barred from getting compensation if they have an unspent conviction, judges say.\n\nThe High Court ruling against the justice secretary follows a legal challenge by a woman who was sexually abused aged eight but denied damages.\n\nKim Mitchell, who committed a minor public order offence 30 years later, waived her anonymity and said the rule was unfair and needed to be changed.\n\nMinisters are considering the ruling.\n\nMs Mitchell was sexually assaulted by a teacher when she was eight. Her abuser was convicted 27 years later.\n\nBy the time she applied to the Criminal Injuries and Compensation Authority Ms Mitchell was told she was no longer eligible because of her own conviction.\n\nThe rule, which bars crime victims from compensation if they have an unspent conviction, was introduced in 2012.\n\nSome victims' organisations argue it disproportionately affects victims of child sex abuse.\n\nIn 2018, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA) recommended the rule be revised.\n\nThe government said it would consult on the IICSA recommendations but then said an internal review had been conducted and the rule would not be changed.\n\nMs Mitchell challenged the justice secretary's decision and High Court judge Mrs Justice Lang on Monday ordered Robert Buckland to conduct a public consultation.\n\nThe Criminal Injuries and Compensation Authority oversees compensation awards in England, Wales and Scotland.\n\nMs Mitchell said: \"It shouldn't take a court case to make the government do what it has promised.\n\n\"But I'm pleased this decision means victims of child abuse like me can now tell policy makers directly how the rule affects us.\n\n\"The rule is unfair and must be changed. I hope this win allows others to feel empowered to speak out.\"\n\nA government spokesperson said: \"We have noted this judgment and will consider our next steps.\"", "Det Supt Tom Chisholm said the priority was to identify the woman which they are doing through forensic testing\n\nA woman whose body was found in a lay-by, prompting a murder inquiry, had been set alight, police have said.\n\nStaffordshire Police said the body was found just before 03:00 BST on Monday, on Bridgnorth Road in Perton.\n\nThe force said they are still trying to identify the woman through forensic testing, but said she was aged somewhere between her mid-teens to late 20s and of slim build.\n\nOfficers appealed for anyone who may have information to come forward.\n\nDet Supt Tom Chisholm said the force was conducting multiple inquiries after the body was found with \"significant burn marks\".\n\nThe woman's body was discovered on Bridgnorth Road in Perton at about 03:00 BST on Monday\n\nHe said the body had been burned at the scene, possibly with the use of a form of accelerant, and it is believed she had been driven to the site.\n\nDet Supt Chisholm appealed for any witnesses who were in the area at the time, or who had dashcam or CCTV footage to come forward.\n\nHe also asked anyone who was aware of any missing girls or women to speak to officers.\n\n\"We really need to find out who this young woman was, so that we can hopefully identify how she got there and what happened to her,\" he added.\n\n\"This was a shocking and dreadful incident and we are determined, with your help and support, to bring those responsible to justice.\"\n\nThe force said Bridgnorth Road remained closed in both directions from Tinacre Hill to the junction with Jenny Walkers Lane while forensic teams continued their investigations.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Western governments will face difficult questions about whether to support Afghanistan if the Taliban seize control in a way that is illegitimate, the UK Chief of the Defence Staff Gen Sir Nick Carter has said.\n\nBut he told BBC World News that if the Taliban did take control of the country he did not believe they would want to be \"a pariah state\".\n\nHe said: \"I think they don't want to become North Korea. I think they know they have got Afghan people now who have seen over the last 20 years what it might be like to have a flourishing media, a civil society, education, women at work, women in government. I think they have seen all of that.\n\n\"Now I hope in trying to govern all Afghans they will take account of those Afghans who form that civil society.\"\n\nRead more: Why is there a war in Afghanistan?", "A former prison officer has been jailed for forming a relationship with an inmate and helping him escape.\n\nErica Whittingham, 33, became \"smitten\" with violent robber Michael Seddon after her marriage broke down.\n\nDerby Crown Court heard she believed Seddon loved her, but he then got into a relationship with another woman while on the run from HMP Sudbury.\n\nWhittingham, from Bramshall, Uttoxeter, was given a three-year prison sentence after admitting two offences.\n\nThe first was harbouring an escaped prisoner, between 30 September 2019 and 18 March 2020.\n\nThe other was misconduct in a public office, between 8 January 2017 and 3 October 2019, which related to the relationship she formed with Seddon.\n\nMark Sharman, Whittingham's defence barrister, said she had been diagnosed with depression as a result of what happened.\n\n\"She was smitten with this man,\" he said.\n\n\"It is right that history is littered with the often foolish and extreme things people have done in the name of love.\"\n\nSeddon escaped from HMP Sudbury, an open prison in Derbyshire\n\nThe judge, Recorder Balraj Bhatia QC, said it was a \"difficult and sad case\".\n\n\"I accept that you may have been going through difficult times, that your marriage of 11 years standing had dissolved, and you may have been emotionally vulnerable, but you knew what you were doing was wrong,\" he said.\n\n\"The evidence makes it plain that you were responsible for escorting him away from those premises in due course, in the knowledge that he was an escaped prisoner.\"\n\nThe court heard the pair met through work, when she was a custody officer at HMP Dovegate, a category B prison near Uttoxeter in Staffordshire.\n\nHe was serving a sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) for robbery. These sentences were abolished in 2012, but were previously given to prisoners regarded as too dangerous to be released when their original sentences expired.\n\nSeddon was jailed in 2011 for tying up and attacking a 78-year-old man at his farmhouse in Bloxworth, Dorset.\n\nHis relationship with Whittingham continued after he was transferred to HMP Sudbury, which is an open prison in Derbyshire.\n\nHe escaped from the prison on 1 October 2019. Police said he climbed over a fence as staff gave chase, then fled in a waiting car driven by Whittingham.\n\nShe drove him to Stoke-on-Trent the following morning where he then caught a train to Liverpool.\n\nDaren Samat, prosecuting, said the pair remained in contact and met up \"on no fewer than eight occasions\" at various locations around the country, with Whittingham paying for accommodation and also hotel stays.\n\nHowever, he said there was a break between 22 January 2020 and 26 March 2020, when Seddon formed a relationship with a woman in the Bournemouth area.\n\nSeddon was eventually arrested on 27 March 2020 and taken to HMP Winchester. His phone calls at the prison were monitored, and these revealed his relationship with Whittingham.\n\nMr Sharman said his client had initially resisted Seddon's advances.\n\n\"Mr Seddon had put some pressure on her for want of a better word, once he noticed she was no longer wearing her wedding ring,\" he said.\n\n\"She sadly, eventually, succumbed to the attentions of Mr Seddon and the advances he was making.\n\n\"She is brutally honest in the pre-sentence report when she recalls that she had found someone to love her, someone she could talk to. Whether that was reciprocated or not, that was how she genuinely feels he felt towards her.\"\n\nSeddon was previously jailed for an extra six months after admitting escaping lawful custody.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Human activity is changing the climate in unprecedented and sometimes irreversible ways, a major UN scientific report has said.\n\nThe landmark study warns of increasingly extreme heatwaves, droughts and flooding, and a key temperature limit being broken in just over a decade.\n\nThe report \"is a code red for humanity\", says the UN chief.\n\nBut scientists say a catastrophe can be avoided if the world acts fast.\n\nThere is hope that deep cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases could stabilise rising temperatures.\n\nEchoing the scientists' findings, UN Secretary General António Guterres said: \"If we combine forces now, we can avert climate catastrophe. But, as today's report makes clear, there is no time for delay and no room for excuses. I count on government leaders and all stakeholders to ensure COP26 is a success.\"\n\nThe sober assessment of our planet's future has been delivered by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group of scientists whose findings are endorsed by the world's governments.\n\nTheir report is the first major review of the science of climate change since 2013. Its release comes less than three months before a key climate summit in Glasgow known as COP26.\n\nIn strong, confident tones, the IPCC's document says \"it is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, oceans and land\".\n\nAccording to Prof Ed Hawkins, from the University of Reading, UK, and one of the report's authors, the scientists cannot be any clearer on this point.\n\n\"It is a statement of fact, we cannot be any more certain; it is unequivocal and indisputable that humans are warming the planet.\"\n\nPetteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, said: \"By using sports terms, one could say the atmosphere has been exposed to doping, which means we have begun observing extremes more often than before.\"\n\nThe authors say that since 1970, global surface temperatures have risen faster than in any other 50-year period over the past 2,000 years.\n\nThis warming is \"already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe\".\n\nWhether it's heatwaves like the ones recently experienced in Greece and western North America, or floods like those in Germany and China, \"their attribution to human influence has strengthened\" over the past decade.\n\nThe new report also makes clear that the warming we've experienced to date has made changes to many of our planetary support systems that are irreversible on timescales of centuries to millennia.\n\nThe oceans will continue to warm and become more acidic. Mountain and polar glaciers will continue melting for decades or centuries.\n\n\"The consequences will continue to get worse for every bit of warming,\" said Prof Hawkins.\n\n\"And for many of these consequences, there's no going back.\"\n\nDrought in California has seen water levels in Lake Oroville drop to record lows\n\nWhen it comes to sea level rise, the scientists have modelled a likely range for different levels of emissions.\n\nHowever, a rise of around 2m by the end of this century cannot be ruled out - and neither can a 5m rise by 2150.\n\nSuch outcomes, while unlikely, would threaten many millions more people in coastal areas with flooding by 2100.\n\nOne key aspect of the report is the expected rate of temperature rise and what it means for the safety of humanity.\n\nProtesters urge action by politicians as the clock counts down to November's COP26 climate summit in Glasgow\n\nAlmost every nation on Earth signed up to the goals of the Paris climate agreement in 2015.\n\nThis pact aims to keep the rise in global temperatures well below 2C this century and to pursue efforts to keep it under 1.5C.\n\nThis new report says that under all the emissions scenarios considered by the scientists, both targets will be broken this century unless huge cuts in carbon take place.\n\nCan temperature rise be kept below 1.5°C?\n• None 500bn tonnesmore would leave only a 50-50 chance of staying under 1.5°C\n\nThe authors believe that 1.5C will be reached by 2040 in all scenarios. If emissions aren't slashed in the next few years, this will happen even earlier.\n\nThis was predicted in the IPCC's special report on 1.5C in 2018 and this new study now confirms it.\n\n\"We will hit one-and-a-half degrees in individual years much earlier. We already hit it in two months during the El Niño in 2016,\" said Prof Malte Meinshausen, an IPCC author from the University of Melbourne in Australia.\n\n\"The new report's best estimate is the middle of 2034, but the uncertainty is huge and ranges between now and never.\"\n\nThe consequences of going past 1.5C over a period of years would be unwelcome in a world that has already experienced a rapid uptick in extreme events with a temperature rise since pre-industrial times of 1.1C.\n\n\"We will see even more intense and more frequent heatwaves,\" said Dr Friederike Otto, from the University of Oxford, UK, and one of the IPCC report's authors.\n\n\"And we will also see an increase in heavy rainfall events on a global scale, and also increases in some types of droughts in some regions of the world.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sea levels will continue to rise for centuries, warns climate scientist Prof Ed Hawkins.\n\nProf Carolina Vera, vice-chair of the working group that produced the document, said: \"The report clearly shows that we are already living the consequences of climate change everywhere. But we will experience further and concurrent changes that increase with every additional beat of warming.\"\n\nWhile this report is more clear and confident about the downsides to warming, the scientists are more hopeful that if we can cut global emissions in half by 2030 and reach net zero by the middle of this century, we can halt and possibly reverse the rise in temperatures.\n\nReaching net zero involves reducing greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible using clean technology, then burying any remaining releases using carbon capture and storage, or absorbing them by planting trees.\n\n\"The thought before was that we could get increasing temperatures even after net zero,\" said another co-author, Prof Piers Forster from the University of Leeds, UK.\n\n\"But we now expect nature to be kind to us and if we are able to achieve net zero, we hopefully won't get any further temperature increase; and if we are able to achieve net zero greenhouse gases, we should eventually be able to reverse some of that temperature increase and get some cooling.\"\n\nWhile the future projections of warming are clearer than ever in this report, and many impacts simply cannot be avoided, the authors caution against fatalism.\n\n\"Lowering global warming really minimises the likelihood of hitting these tipping points,\" said Dr Otto. \"We are not doomed.\"\n\nA tipping point refers to when part of the Earth's climate system undergoes an abrupt change in response to continued warming.\n\nFor political leaders, the report is another in a long line of wake-up calls, but since it comes so close to November's COP26 global climate summit, it carries extra weight.", "The couple have demanded a full apology and compensation to be paid to a charity\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf and his wife have launched legal action against a Dundee nursery claiming it discriminated against their daughter.\n\nMr Yousaf and Nadia El-Nakla said Little Scholars in Broughty Ferry said it had no availability after applying for two-year-old Amal.\n\nThey said applications submitted by friends and family for \"white Scottish-sounding names\" were accepted.\n\nThe nursery denies the allegation and said it will \"respond in due course.\"\n\nThe couple's solicitor Aamer Anwar said it was alleged that Ms El-Nakla and her daughter were \"subjected to direct discrimination\" in breach of the Equality Act 2010.\n\nThe nursery has denied allegations of discrimination\n\nMr Anwar said an action would be raised at Dundee Sheriff Court if settlement proposals, a public apology, and compensation paid to an anti-racist charity, were not made within two weeks.\n\nMr Anwar said: \"It is alleged that when on three separate occasions, (beginning with Nadia El-Nakla) attempts were made to secure a nursery place for a child with an Asian/Muslim name, the applicant was told to complete a registration form, and then were told no spaces were available.\n\n\"Following the above refusals, attempts were made to secure a nursery place for a child with a \"white- sounding\", non-Muslim name.\n\n\"On all three separate occasions a nursery place was offered, and spaces were offered without the registration form being completed.\"\n\nLittle Scholars said previously that it had regularly welcomed children and staff from a range of backgrounds \"including two Muslim families currently\".\n\nA spokesman for the nursery said it had received correspondence from the couple's solicitor.\n\nHe added: \"Little Scholars is extremely proud of being open and inclusive to all and we are deeply saddened that anyone would think otherwise.\n\n\"Our owners are themselves of Asian heritage, and for more than a decade we have regularly welcomed both children and staff from a range of different religious, cultural, ethnic and racial backgrounds.\"", "Freddie Farrow died after being injured by a mirror in a department store\n\nThe family of a five-year-old boy who died after sustaining a serious head injury at a department store said he was \"loved and cherished\" every day.\n\nFreddie Farrow was in the Fenwick store on Colchester's High Street on 27 July when he was struck by a mirror.\n\nThe boy, who \"brought so much happiness to everyone who knew him\", died from his injuries on 2 August.\n\nA fund set up by a community support group to help the family has raised almost £5,000.\n\nAn inquest opened and adjourned by Essex Coroner's Service heard the provisional cause of Freddie's death was traumatic brain injury.\n\nThe coroner's court was told that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) was investigating.\n\nFreddie was fatally injured at the Fenwick department store on Colchester's High Street\n\nIn a family tribute released through Essex Police, Freddie's mother, Natasha Ingham, said: \"He will never leave us.\n\n\"He will be with us every single day throughout all our lives - until we see him again.\n\n\"As a family we are devastated by his death.\"\n\nShe described him as \"a lovely\" boy, who would pick her flowers every day.\n\nHe would \"give them to me and tell me he loved me, and I would tell him I loved him back,\" she said.\n\nFreddie's father, Andrew Farrow, said they had all been \"grateful for the time we had with Freddie\" and said how much his son was \"loved and cherished\".\n\nColchester Borough Council has been leading an investigation into the incident\n\nFreddie had a brother and sister and the three were \"inseparable\", their father said.\n\n\"Freddie was an expert Lego builder, confident swimmer, enjoyed crabbing and park running,\" Mr Farrow said.\n\n\"He had such a contagious laugh and always pulled funny faces.\"\n\nHe added: \"I will miss you Fredboy, so, so much... and until we meet again, I love you.\"\n\nFreddie had finished year one at Gosbecks Primary School, in Colchester, and head teacher Polly Bradford said he was \"a little star\".\n\n\"Words cannot describe the utter loss felt by those who cherished Freddie,\" she said.\n\nAlmost £5,000 has been pledged to a fundraiser set up by the Colchester Community Group to support the family.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Former Business Secretary Alok Sharma is now leading COP26, the climate summit in Glasgow in November\n\nThe world is \"dangerously close\" to running out of time to stop a climate change catastrophe, the UK government's climate chief Alok Sharma has said.\n\nMr Sharma - who is leading COP26, the climate summit hosted by the UK this year - said the effects were already clear with floods, fires and heatwaves.\n\n\"We can't afford to wait two years, five years, 10 years - this is the moment,\" he told the Observer.\n\nBut he did not condemn the government for allowing more fossil fuel projects.\n\nAnd he defended his decision to travel to more than 30 countries in seven months.\n\nMr Sharma's interview with the Observer comes ahead of a major report being released on Monday from the United Nations' climate change researchers.\n\nThe report is set to be the strongest statement yet from the UN group on the science of climate change - and will likely give details about how the world's oceans, ice caps and land will change in the next decades.\n\nThe summary has been approved in a process involving scientists and representatives of 195 governments, which - having signed off on the findings - will be under pressure to take more action at COP26 in November.\n\nDoug Parr, chief scientist with Greenpeace UK, said \"world leaders have done a terrible job of listening\" to warnings about climate change.\n\n\"This year, this has to change. We don't need more pledges, commitments and targets - we need real action right here right now.\"\n\nWildfires are currently raging in Greece, forcing thousands to evacuate their homes - and fires have also been burning in Turkey and California in the US. This summer, western Europe also saw its worst flooding in decades, which killed dozens of people.\n\nMr Sharma said if urgent action was not taken, the consequences would be \"catastrophic\".\n\n\"I don't think there's any other word for it,\" he said. \"You're seeing on a daily basis what is happening across the world. Last year was the hottest on record, the last decade the hottest decade on record.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHe added: \"We're seeing the impacts across the world - in the UK or the terrible flooding we've seen across Europe and China, or forest fires, the record temperatures that we've seen in North America. Every day you will see a new high being recorded in one way or another across the world.\"\n\nMr Sharma said the report released on Monday is \"going to be the starkest warning yet that human behaviour is alarmingly accelerating global warming\".\n\n\"I don't think we're out of time but I think we're getting dangerously close to when we might be out of time. We will see [from the IPCC] a very, very clear warning that unless we act now, we will unfortunately be out of time.\"\n\n\"Africa has been waiting for the rest of the world to catch up and act on climate change for years,\" Fredrick Njehu, Christian Aid's senior climate change and energy adviser for Africa, highlighting the \"changing rainfall patterns or overbearing heat\" endured by the continent in recent years.\n\nHe added: \"The important thing now is that rich world governments make up for lost time and act quickly to reduce emissions and deliver promised financial support for the vulnerable.\"\n\nGlasgow is set to host the COP26 summit in November - which is the UN climate change conference.\n\nThe summit is seen as vital if climate change is to be brought under control, and leaders from 196 countries will meet to try and agree action.\n\nBut campaigners have accused the UK of hypocrisy, as there are plans to tap a new oil field off Shetland. The government has also said more oil and gas wells can be drilled in the North Sea, and there are plans for a new coal mine in Cumbria.\n\nEarlier this year, the global energy watchdog the International Energy Agency said there cannot be any new investment in oil, gas or coal projects if we want to limit global warming to 1.5C. Experts say the impacts of climate change are far more severe when the increase is greater than 1.5C.\n\nMr Sharma refused to criticise the government's plan for the projects, saying: \"Future [fossil fuel] licences are going to have to adhere to the fact we have committed to go to net zero by 2050 in legislation.\n\n\"There will be a climate check on any licences.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Climate change: How 1.5C could change the world\n\nMr Sharma's interview comes after he was criticised for flying abroad for meetings - and visiting more than 30 countries in seven months.\n\nHowever, since then some environmental campaigners including Greenpeace have defended him, saying face-to-face meetings are important to persuade other nations to tackle climate change.\n\nMr Sharma told the Observer that in-person meetings were \"incredibly vital and actually impactful\".\n\n\"It makes a vital difference, to build those personal relationships which are going to be incredibly important as we look to build consensus,\" he said.\n\nIt also emerged in the Sunday Mirror that Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab did not self-isolate after returning from France, which was on the amber plus list meaning all arrivals must quarantine.\n\nA government spokesman said it was Mr Raab's job to represent the UK abroad and he followed Covid guidelines on return.\n\nThere is an exemption for ministers to avoid quarantine when returning from abroad.", "There are a number of injuries following the crash\n\nTwo people have been taken to hospital after an open-top bus crashed into a tree in Mumbles, Swansea.\n\nThe crash happened at Mumbles Road, near Knab Rock, at about 14:30 BST on Tuesday and the road was shut, with people advised to avoid the area.\n\nOne person was taken by air to University Hospital Wales, Cardiff, and the other by road to Morriston Hospital in Swansea.\n\nSeveral other passengers were assessed and discharged at the scene.\n\nNone are life-threatening or life-changing, South Wales Police said.\n\nPhotographs from the scene show the damage to the bus\n\nEyewitness Shanai Neale said: \"I was just coming down Mumbles Road going down the beach and everyone just slammed [their brakes] on.\n\n\"I was about three cars behind and I just saw the bus had gone into the tree.\n\n\"There were a few people on the top deck. The police told us to turn around then so we had to turn around.\n\n\"Everyone was panicking. I think there were kids on the top deck and obviously parents, so they were all shaken up. I would be too, to be honest.\"\n\nShanai Neale says people were panicking after the crash\n\nBob Morgan from West Cross, Swansea, was visiting Mumbles with his granddaughter when the crash happened, and said the injuries appeared minor.\n\n\"There were around 20 people on the bus,\" he said.\n\n\"They seemed to be walking wounded. I saw some young lads being treated for chest injuries and minor head injuries. Others were in shock.\n\n\"I saw an elderly lady who was sat down in shock.\"\n\nThe bus involved is one of First Cymru's \"Cymru Coasters\"\n\nThe bus involved is one of First Cymru's \"Cymru Coasters\", operating between Swansea Bus Station and Bracelet Bay, near Mumbles Pier.\n\nA First Cymru spokesman said: \"We can confirm one of our vehicles operating the Swansea to Mumbles service was involved in a collision earlier this afternoon.\n\n\"Following the incident the operator immediately implemented its emergency procedures and sent representatives to the scene to provide support to those involved and the emergency services.\n\n\"We will work closely with the emergency services as part of our investigation.\"\n\nMumbles Road is shut in both directions with emergency services at the scene\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "All over-50s in the UK could be eligible for a third or booster dose of a Covid vaccine\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid says he has already put plans in place to give the most vulnerable groups a third or booster Covid jab early next month.\n\nBut the head of the Oxford Vaccine Group said doses needed to \"go where they can have the greatest impact\" - to protect unvaccinated people abroad.\n\nThe UK itself currently had no reason to panic, Prof Sir Andrew Pollard said.\n\nMr Javid said he would wait for final advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).\n\n\"My plan is to offer the flu vaccine, especially to over-50s, at the same time,\" he said.\n\nA bigger flu season than normal is expected, with scientists warning respiratory viruses will make a comeback this year after disappearing last year during lockdown.\n\nNHS bosses had previously said they needed lots of warning of a Covid booster programme in order to plan the logistics of vaccinating millions of people against both viruses.\n\nHowever, Prof Pollard, who led the team that created the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, said decisions on whether to give boosters \"should be scientifically driven\".\n\n\"The time we would need to boost is if we see evidence that there was an increase in hospitalisation - or the next stage after that, which would be people dying - amongst those who are vaccinated,\" he said.\n\n\"And that is not something we are seeing at the moment.\"\n\nProf Pollard told the all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus that people's immune systems would remember \"decades from now\" they had received two doses of vaccine - and that would help protect them against Covid-19.\n\n\"We are not seeing a problem with breakthrough severe disease and we have this understanding of the biology which puts us in a good place to know that even if we start to see some waning of protection, that would not be a complete switch-off of protection,\" he said.\n\nProf Pollard also warned that herd immunity was \"not a possibility\" because the delta variant would continue to infect people who had been vaccinated.\n\nEven if all children were vaccinated, that wouldn't stop transmission of the virus, he said.\n\nOver time, there needed to be a move away from community testing of mild infections - which will boost people's immunity - to clinically-driven testing of people who become unwell, he added.\n\nThe focus should be on improving treatment for people who become seriously ill from Covid in hospital, Prof Pollard said.", "People have been sleeping in makeshift camps in Kabul after fleeing their homes\n\nUS President Joe Biden has said he does not regret his move to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, as Taliban militants continue to make rapid advances.\n\nMr Biden urged Afghanistan's leaders to unite and \"fight for their nation\".\n\nA US-led military campaign began in 2001 following the 9/11 attacks on American soil - but now most of the foreign troops have pulled out.\n\nThe Taliban group has now seized nine of the country's 34 provincial capitals, and are threatening more.\n\nSpeaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Mr Biden said the US was keeping the commitments it had made to Afghanistan, such as providing close air support, paying military salaries and supplying Afghan forces with food and equipment.\n\nBut he said: \"They've got to fight for themselves.\"\n\nThe Washington Post cited unnamed officials as saying the capital Kabul could fall to the Taliban within 90 days, based on US military assessments.\n\nMore than 1,000 civilians have been killed amid fierce fighting between the Taliban and government forces in the past month, according to the UN. Its children's agency Unicef warned this week that atrocities being committed against children were growing \"higher by the day\".\n\nIn their latest major advances, Taliban militants seized three more provincial capitals in 24 hours - Faizabad, Farah and Pul-e-Khumri.\n\nOfficials said that on Tuesday the insurgents had raised their flag in the main square and on the governor's office in Pul-e-Khumri, the capital of Baghlan province, which is located about 200km (125 miles) from Kabul.\n\nA local journalist and provincial council member told the BBC that the western city of Farah had fallen.\n\nAnd on Wednesday, the Taliban claimed to have taken Faizabad in the north-west of the country.\n\nOther gains by the militant group this week include the key northern city of Kunduz. It is considered a gateway to mineral-rich provinces and is in a strategically important location close to the border with Tajikistan, which is used for the smuggling of opium and heroin.\n\nHeavy fighting is continuing in other parts of the country, and US and Afghan planes have been carrying out airstrikes.\n\nOn Wednesday Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani flew to Mazar-i-Sharif in an apparent drive to rally the defenders in the key northern city which is now threatened by the militants.\n\nThousands of people have been fleeing their homes in recent days.\n\n\"We saw bodies lying near the prison... there were dogs next to them,\" one woman who left Kunduz as the Taliban took control told AFP news agency.\n\nResidents still in the city said shops had begun to reopen as Taliban militants focused their attention on government forces who had retreated to the airport.\n\n\"People are opening their shops and businesses, but you can still see fear in their eyes,\" one said.\n\nThe Taliban have rejected international calls for a ceasefire.\n\nUK Chief of the Defence Staff Gen Sir Nick Carter told the BBC that if the Afghan state fractured, the \"ideal conditions\" could emerge for international terrorism and violent extremism.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "A photo of Ali Jayden Doyle was left among floral tributes to her\n\nTwo people have appeared in court charged over the death of a two-year-old girl in Dungannon, County Tyrone.\n\nAli Jayden Doyle died in hospital on Friday after sustaining head injuries.\n\nDarren John Armstrong, 32, of Ashbeg Grove in Dungannon, was charged with murder and perverting the course of justice.\n\nThe girl's mother, Jade Dempsey, 24, of Sycamore Drive, Dungannon, was charged with perverting the course of justice and causing the death of a child.\n\nA detective sergeant told Omagh Magistrates' Court he could connect the accused to the charges.\n\nThe court heard that paramedics found Ali unconscious at a house at Park Avenue in Dungannon.\n\nShe was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast where Mr Armstrong and Ms Dempsey gave their account of what happened.\n\nThe court was told Mr Armstrong told doctors that Ali's younger brother, a one-year-old, had hit her on the head with a toy and that she had fallen against a fireplace and hit her head.\n\nThe court heard doctors then phoned social services and informed the police.\n\nPolice cordoned off a house in Dungannon after the incident on Friday\n\nThe court also heard Ali's injuries were \"catastrophic\" and, according to the pathologist, could not have been accidental.\n\nThe police told the court the pathologist said she had \"never seen this level of injury on a child in an accidental fall\".\n\nThe court was told the child had \"no evidence of previous trauma\".\n\nThe judge told the court Ms Dempsey, who is originally from the Republic of Ireland, was a flight risk.\n\nShe also told the court that Mr Armstrong had a \"litany of breach of court orders\" and that she \"entertained no confidence that he would adhere to the conditions of bail\".\n\nThey will appear in court again on 1 September.", "At least 25 Algerian soldiers and 17 civilians have been killed in wildfires to the east of the capital Algiers, the country's prime minister has said.\n\nSeveral more soldiers were injured fighting the fires, in the forested Kabylie region.\n\nTemperatures of up to 46C were forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday.\n\nFires have caused devastation in several Mediterranean countries in recent days, including Turkey, Greece, Lebanon and Cyprus.\n\nClimate change increases the risk of the hot, dry weather that is likely to fuel wildfires.\n\nThe world has already warmed by about 1.2C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.\n\nMore than 100 fires have been reported across 17 Algerian provinces, the country's official news agency APS said on Tuesday evening.\n\nPresident Abdelmadjid Tebboune paid tribute to the soldiers who were killed, tweeting that they had succeeded in rescuing more than 100 people from the mountains of Bejaia and Tizi Ouzou.\n\nInterior Minister Kamel Beldjoud said that about 50 of the blazes were \"of criminal origin\".\n\nEarlier this week, a major UN scientific report found that human activity was changing the climate in unprecedented and sometimes irreversible ways.\n\nThe landmark study warned of increasingly extreme heatwaves, droughts and flooding, and a key temperature limit being broken in just over a decade, but scientists say a catastrophe can be avoided if the world acts fast.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nNew York Governor Andrew Cuomo has resigned after an inquiry found that he sexually harassed multiple women, prompting efforts to remove him.\n\n\"The best way I can help now is if I step aside,\" he said, while continuing to deny the claims. The resignation will take effect in 14 days.\n\nLt Governor Kathy Hochul will become the first woman to lead New York state.\n\nMr Cuomo had been facing pressure to resign from fellow Democrats, including President Joe Biden.\n\nJust a year ago he was basking in adulation as millions of Americans tuned in daily to his no-nonsense televised briefings on the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nMr Cuomo is the third New York governor in a row to leave office under a cloud of scandal.\n\nThe independent investigation by the New York Attorney General's office found that Mr Cuomo, 63, sexually harassed 11 women, including state employees.\n\nWomen alleged that he made sexual comments, inappropriately touched or groped them, and kissed them without consent.\n\nThe report led many prominent Democrats to turn against Mr Cuomo, including Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Senate leader Chuck Schumer and New York's two US senators.\n\nHis fellow New York Democrats had begun plans to impeach him. He is still facing criminal investigations relating to the harassment claims.\n\nAs he announced his resignation on Tuesday, Mr Cuomo continued to deny allegations of sexual harassment but said he wanted to \"deeply, deeply\" apologise to any women who may have been offended by his actions.\n\n\"In my mind I've never crossed the line with anyone. but I didn't realise the extent to which the line has been redrawn,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Brittany Commisso tells CBS This Morning: \"He groped me, he touched me\"\n\nHe added that his instinct was \"to fight through this controversy, because I believe it is politically motivated\".\n\nBut he said he was resigning because the \"current trajectory\" of the scandal would generate months of distractions and \"cost taxpayers millions of dollars\".\n\nMr Cuomo said the allegations had harmed his relationship with his daughters.\n\n\"I have sat on the couch with them, hearing the ugly accusations for weeks. I have seen the look in their eyes, and the expression on their faces. It hurt,\" he said.\n\nHe said he told them he \"never did and would never intentionally disrespect a woman\".\n\nWhat do the women allege?\n• None Eight womensay he made offensive, condescending or sexual comments\n• None Seven womensay he inappropriately touched or groped them at least once\n• None Four womenallege he kissed them without consent\n\nFollowing Mr Cuomo's announcement, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a long-time critic of the governor, said \"it was past time\" for him to resign.\n\n\"I respect the governor's decision,\" Mr Biden told reporters at the White House. \"I respect the decision he made.\"\n\nWhite House Press Secretary Jen Psaki earlier said the president had not spoken to his old friend since the report was published and did not have advance notice of his resignation.\n\nMr Cuomo's brother, CNN primetime anchor Chris Cuomo, has also faced calls to resign after it emerged he had been advising the governor ahead of his Tuesday announcement.\n\nThe younger Cuomo in May had apologised to viewers for strategizing with his brother about how to handle the initial misconduct claims. He recused himself from covering the matter on air, and has not commented on the official report. He has since gone on holiday.\n\nA separate federal inquiry is also looking into whether the governor's office deliberately undercounted the number of Covid deaths in New York care homes.\n\nThis is a stunning reversal of fortunes for a former heavyweight of the Democratic Party - who was hailed as a national hero during the Covid pandemic just last year. His image now is closer to that of a villain.\n\nBefore the report came out - and initially after its release - Andrew Cuomo tried to survive the scandal. He knew the #MeToo movement had changed the conversation around sexual assault, after all he had passed legislation with new protections for victims. So in public statements he tried, in a sense, to have it both ways.\n\nHe said women should be heard, but then tried to discredit his accusers. He said what the women had described as sexual advances were in his view harmless gestures that arose from his upbringing and culture's physical warmth.\n\nThe pressure did not let up and it became increasingly clear that Andrew Cuomo was backed into a corner. Still, when the resignation announcement did come from this defiant politician, it was major surprise that rocked New York and the country.\n\nKathy Hochul will become the first female governor of the fourth most populous US state.\n\nThe 62-year-old is a centrist Democrat from the Buffalo area of New York state. She joined the governor's team in 2014, and has held the largely ceremonial role of lieutenant governor.\n\nShe was not part of Mr Cuomo's inner circle, but he described her on Tuesday as \"smart and competent\".\n\nMs Hochul had joined the chorus of politicians denouncing the New York governor last week, and said his resignation on Tuesday was the \"right thing to do\".\n\n\"As someone who has served at all levels of government and is next in the line of succession, I am prepared to lead as New York State's 57th Governor,\" she said in a statement.\n\nIt's unclear whether she will seek a full term in the 2022 election.", "AMC has 620 cinemas in the US, and 358 in Europe\n\nAMC, the US cinema chain that owns Odeon, says it will allow customers to pay for movie tickets and concessions in Bitcoin by the end of the year.\n\nBoss Adam Aron said it has been exploring the technology and \"how else AMC can participate in this new burgeoning cryptocurrency universe\".\n\nThe firm, which is the largest US cinema chain, has not said whether it will apply to its cinemas in Europe.\n\nBitcoin has seen wild price swings in recent weeks.\n\nThe highly-speculative cryptocurrency was trading at about $45,000 (£32,500) on Tuesday, after falling below $30,000 last month.\n\nHowever, an increasing number of businesses have begun to accept it as payment as it goes mainstream, including US mobile operator AT&T, Microsoft and Wikipedia.\n\n\"I've had to learn more in the past six months about blockchain and cryptocurrency than I learned about it in the entire decade before that,\" Mr Aron, 66, told journalists on a conference call.\n\n\"This increased knowledge has given me the confidence to tell you all today that AMC is hereby formally announcing... that by year's end we will have the information technology systems in place to accept Bitcoin.\"\n\nCommentators suggest AMC is trying to appeal to young amateur traders that have piled into its own shares over the last six months, turning it into a so-called \"meme stock\".\n\nBanding together on the social media site Reddit, these investors have driven up the price of AMC stock by some 1,500% this year - although it has little bearing on the struggling chain's actual financial performance.\n\nFollowing the Bitcoin announcement AMC shares jumped almost 6% on Tuesday before falling back.\n\nAMC was also the top trending stock on social media site Stocktwits, according to Reuters.\n\nHowever the firm's results for the six months to 30 June, released on Monday, told a different story.\n\nRevenue dived almost 40% to £593m, as cinemas in many places remained shut due to the pandemic, or customers stayed away due to Covid. Demand is also yet to recover despite restrictions having eased in the US and elsewhere.\n\nThe firm said its ticket revenue in the third quarter was only on track to reach 45% of 2019 levels.\n\nHowever, AMC has struck a deal with movie studio Warner Bros to allow a 45-day theatrical window for movies before their streaming release from 2022.\n\nIt hopes this will drive up ticket sales - which had been falling before the pandemic - for scheduled releases including \"The Batman\" and \"Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom\".\n\nA number of Hollywood studios opted to bypass cinemas during the pandemic and release their films online instead. Now most cinemas have reopened, giants like Disney and Warner Bros have chosen to maintain a dual release strategy for their major films, angering actors and cinema chains alike.", "One of the writers of the sci-fi film I Am Legend has clarified its fictional nature amid rumours Covid-19 vaccines would turn people into zombies.\n\nThe 2007 film, starring Will Smith, is about a failed attempt to genetically re-engineer measles to cure cancer, killing 99% of the world's population.\n\nThose who survive the infection turn into mutant vampiric creatures.\n\nClaims that something similar would happen to people receiving Covid jabs have been circulating on social media.\n\nLast week, the New York Times reported that the owner of an eyewear store in the Bronx, New York, was struggling to persuade some of its staff to get a Covid vaccine, with one citing the plot of I Am Legend as a concern.\n\n\"One employee said she was concerned because she thought a vaccine had caused the characters in the film I Am Legend to turn into zombies,\" the report said.\n\nResponding to the article, Akiva Goldsman, 59, who co-wrote the screenplay based on a 1954 novel of the same name, tweeted: \"Oh. My. God. It's a movie. I made that up. It's. Not. Real.\"\n\nThis 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 Akiva Goldsman 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.\n\nBaseless posts and memes which cite the film as a reason not to get vaccinated against Covid have appeared on social media platforms for months, with some being labelled by Facebook as containing misinformation.\n\nOne meme claims in the film vaccinations cause humans to turn into zombies, both misrepresenting the plot and the fictional nature of the film.\n\nThis 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 2 by Vera Bergengruen 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.\n\nAnother meme claims the film was set in 2021, which would correspond to the pandemic and the global vaccination rollout - despite the fact the plot was actually set in 2012.\n\nI Am Legend is not the only film used by activists to spread misinformation about Covid and vaccines. Other films such as Children of Men and The Matrix have appeared in similar memes and posts.", "Link FM's licensee, the Pakistan Muslim Centre, has \"apologised wholeheartedly\" for broadcasting the chant\n\nA community radio station faces sanctions after broadcasting an Islamic chant said to contain \"Jihadi lyrics\" and \"promoting terrorism\".\n\nSheffield-based Link FM was found to have committed two serious breaches of Ofcom's broadcasting code by playing the \"Nasheed\" chant twice in 2020.\n\nThe chant contained material likely to \"encourage or incite the commission of crime or lead to disorder\", Ofcom said.\n\nLicensee the Pakistan Muslim Centre said it \"apologised wholeheartedly\".\n\nIn a report, Ofcom, the broadcasting watchdog, said Link FM had broadcast a chant called \"Jundallah\" or \"Soldiers of Allah\".\n\nIt said: \"Although this Nasheed didn't contain any direct call to violent action, we consider cumulative effect of lyrics and imagery was to condone, promote and actively encourage others to participate in violent acts as a form of devout religious expression and therefore amounted to an indirect call to action.\"\n\nIt added that the lyrics \"sought to condone, promote and encourage violent Jihad as a legitimate expression of Islamic faith and glorify an ideology associated with Jihad, including martyrdom\" and that such Nasheed chants \"are used by terrorist groups to attract potential recruits\".\n\nThe Ofcom report said the Pakistan Muslim Centre had apologised for what it described as an \"error\" and an \"unfortunate incident\".\n\nIt said the presenter who broadcast the chant did not speak Arabic and the piece had not been vetted.\n\nIn a letter to Ofcom, the presenter apologised and said she felt \"quite embarrassed\" and had \"no intentions of inciting hatred or negativity of any shape or form\".\n\nConcluding that Link FM was in breach of the broadcasting code, Ofcom said it was \"minded to consider these breaches for the imposition of a statutory sanction\".\n\nLink FM is the second Sheffield-based community radio station to be found in breach of Ofcom's code in recent years.\n\nIn 2017, Imam FM was taken off air after it broadcast 25 hours of lectures by Anwar Al-Awlaki, a US-born radical Muslin cleric, killed in a US drone strike in Yemen in 2011.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nLionel Messi has agreed a two-year deal to join Paris St-Germain following his shock exit from Barcelona, says BBC Sport columnist Guillem Balague.\n\nThe deal, which has the option of a third year, is subject to a medical.\n\nThe Argentina captain, 34, left Barca - the only club he has played for - as they could not afford a new deal under La Liga's financial fair play rules.\n\nA PSG news conference will take place in the auditorium of the Parc des Princes on Wednesday at 10:00 BST.\n\nMauricio Pochettino's PSG finished second to Lille in Ligue 1 last season.\n• None 'Messi feels betrayed by Barcelona' - the inside track on his Nou Camp exit\n\n\"It's all been confirmed. Lionel Messi is going to be a PSG player,\" Balague said on BBC Radio 5 Live. \"That's it, it's done. It's happened in the last few minutes.\n\n\"At the moment there are as much police as there are fans [at the stadium]. That's going to change soon. There's eight cameras here, again that's going to change. It seems like it is a two-year deal, plus one.\n\n\"His idea was to do it at Barcelona but it's going to be PSG. Then if he feels OK he will stay one more year maybe. But in any case his aim is to be at PSG and then to do well in the Qatar World Cup.\"\n\nMessi and his family were pictured at Barcelona's El Prat airport on Tuesday afternoon after news of the deal emerged.\n\nWhen asked by reporters whether his son would be joining PSG, Jorge Messi answered \"yes\".\n\nConsidered one of the greatest players of all time, Messi scored a record 672 goals in 778 games for Barca, the club he joined as a 13-year-old.\n\nHe won the Ballon d'Or a record six times and lifted 35 trophies with the Catalan club.\n\nThe signing of Messi - who would be reunited with former Barca team-mate Neymar at the Parc des Princes - is one of the most noteworthy captures in football's history.\n\nHe will play in a front three alongside the two most expensive players of all time - Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.\n• None Where will Messi, Neymar, Mbappe rank in the great forward lines?\n\nUnless there are any late hitches, he will become PSG's fourth free-transfer signing this summer after the arrivals of Netherlands midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum, Spain defender Sergio Ramos and Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.\n\nPSG are yet to win the Champions League in a decade of Qatari ownership and subsequent heavy investment, with the 2020 final defeat against Bayern Munich the closest they have come.\n\nBalague said: \"Clearly what PSG's ownership want is a team that is in the Champions League final every year.\n\n\"With Messi you have an advantage. Pochettino being in charge and his contract being renewed as well means they have an idea how to do that and Messi will complement that.\n\n\"They will win the league, that's almost a given now, even though they lost last season. It will be a less competitive league which means he will be fresh of course, or should be, for the Champions League campaign.\"\n\nMessi had agreed a new deal - on 50% of his old wages - to stay at Barcelona but the club could not afford to implement it because they were so far above the wage limit allowed by La Liga.\n\n\"He used to earn 140m euros gross a year at Barca, that's around £125m,\" said Balague. \"Take off about 40-50% for tax.\n\n\"He agreed to stay at Barcelona by reducing his wages by 50%, not more than that because that's illegal [under Spanish law]. Basically the league wouldn't believe he was reducing his wages to zero, which is what Barcelona may have tried to do as they are 1bn euros in debt. Basically they cannot afford him.\"\n\nIf the deal goes through quickly, he could make his PSG debut at home to Strasbourg on Saturday.\n• None Is foreign exchange trading as easy as social media claims it to be?\n• None In an exclusive interview the music sensation opens up about the pressure of superfame", "Labour's shadow education secretary Kate Green has been speaking to the BBC after top grades for A-level results for England, Wales and Northern Ireland hit a record high.\n\nShe says we should \"recognise and congratulate\" students on their results after a year of disruption to their education and paid tribute to teachers and staff in universities and colleges for working to ensure young people got fair grades.\n\nHowever, Green says she is \"concerned\" about the \"inequities\" between regions and the different education sectors in the results.\n\nFor example, in London, 47.9% were A* and A grades, while in the north-east of England, it was 39.2%.\n\nShe adds: \"I think there are real inequities to be concerned about in these results and that was to a degree inevitable because the government left it to schools to decide how they would carry out assessments and we know that means students haven't been assessed identically in every school, in every part of the country.\"\n\nGreen adds there are \"real lessons\" to be learned about what extra help and protections are needed \"to compensate for some of these inequities that we've got in the results\".\n\nGreen insists the \"focus\" should now be on next steps if students haven't got the grades they feel they should have, with an appeals process that works \"swiftly and smoothly\" to help them - especially those whose university places depend on it, while also protecting those from less privileged backgrounds.\n\nAs the government hopes for a return to exams next year, Green urges ministers to give schools the plans for this now so they can prepare students properly for what the assessment process is going to be like.", "Euro Auctions was established in County Tyrone in 1998\n\nThe founder of a County Tyrone business that has been sold for £775m has said \"it is a fantastic deal for the company\".\n\nEuro Auctions in Dromore buys and sells industrial plant, construction equipment and agricultural machinery all over the world.\n\nThe firm was set up in Dromore in 1998 by Derek Keys and his brothers.\n\nIt has grown to have more than 200 staff across 14 countries.\n\nIt was bought by the Canadian company Ritchie Bros.\n\nLast year, Euro Auctions conducted 60 auctions, selling close to 90,000 items for more than £484m.\n\nBrothers Derek and Jonnie Keys said they were delighted for the company\n\nDerek Keys, Euro Auctions' founder, said it was \"a great day for myself, from humble beginnings with my father starting out in business\".\n\n\"I never thought the business would grow to this size and with the help of all the staff here in Dromore it's been great.\n\n\"I'm delighted for the company, it's been a good journey and I've enjoyed every day and I look forward to working with Ritchie Bros team.\"\n\nJonnie Keys, operations manager at Euro Auctions, said he is delighted for his family and the firm's 200 staff.\n\n\"The company is very family orientated and Ritchie Bros originated in the same background - three brothers started the business and they've taken it to a $5.4bn turnover, the largest industrial construction auctioneer in the world,\" he said.\n\n\"There's lots of services that the Ritchie Bros have that we are not able to offer our customers so, going forward, we'll be able to lock these services and bring them to our own customers throughout the world and help the business to grow further.\"\n\nHe said that moving the business to capture an online market helped the company to grow as well.\n\nFounder of Euro Auctions Derek Keys said he never thought the business would grow to this size\n\n\"We were one of the first in local auction and business to adopt the whole internet process which stood us in good steed.\n\n\"More recently we were able to switch our model at the start of Covid last year and we went straight to online which was a bit of a test in a zone.\n\n\"We have auctioneers based in the US and we did the internet bidding here in Dromore so I suppose the company is a technology company as well as an auction company, and that has allowed use to grow and expand very quickly.\n\nRitchie Bros' chief executive Ann Fandozzi said: \"When companies come together it's as much about culture and people and protecting a legacy that has been built by these brothers for 23 years.\"\n\nThe deal is expected to close late 2021 or early 2022.", "Baroness Harding recently applied for the role of chief executive of NHS England\n\nBaroness Dido Harding, who ran the government's Covid-19 test-and-trace programme in England, will step down from her NHS role in October.\n\nThe Conservative peer recently applied to be the new boss of NHS England, but the job went to Amanda Pritchard.\n\nThe testing and contact tracing scheme has been criticised repeatedly during the pandemic.\n\nBut the government has always defended the system, saying it helped curb the spread of the virus.\n\nBaroness Harding became chair of NHS Improvement in October 2017, before being chosen to head up Test and Trace - a role she stepped back from in April.\n\nAt the time, Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised a \"world-beating\" system, but a BBC investigation found it was failing in areas which had some of the worst infection rates, and was beset with IT problems.\n\nA report from the Commons Public Accounts Committee in March said there was \"no clear evidence\" the £22bn venture contributed to a reduction in coronavirus infection levels.\n\nAnd in June, the National Audit Office found there were still significant weaknesses in the performance of Test and Trace, particularly around slow turnaround times for test results.\n\nBefore being employed by the NHS, Baroness Harding was chief executive of TalkTalk and had held senior roles for Sainsbury's and Tesco.", "There were reports of a crowd struggling amid rising water levels at the Falls of Falloch\n\nEleven people have been rescued from the water at a beauty spot near Loch Lomond during a major operation.\n\nThe Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said crews were called to the Falls of Falloch, near Crianlarich, at about 17:30.\n\nThe group had waded out to a rock and then become stranded when the water level rose quickly.\n\nSpecialist water rescue crews were sent from Tyndrum and Killin, as well as members of Killin Mountain Rescue Team.\n\nThe rescue team said the group had been caught by rapidly rising water levels following heavy rain showers higher up the mountain.\n\n\"The fire service asked us to assist them with people in difficulty at Falls of Falloch,\" a spokesman added.\n\n\"Members of the team helped bring the group back to safety\".\n\nA Scottish Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said: \"Operations control mobilised a number of resources to the scene, where firefighters assisted 11 people across a gorge to safety.\"\n\nThere were no reports of any injuries and emergency crews have been stood down.", "The transmitter mast can be seen for miles around\n\nA TV transmitter fire that disrupted broadcasts for more than a million people has been put out but there are concerns about the mast's stability.\n\nThe blaze at the 315 metres (1,032ft) tall Bilsdale mast on the North York Moors affected Freeview and FM radio.\n\nNorth Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said the mast fire had led to \"concerns about its structural integrity\".\n\nWalker Ron Needham, 71, said he had seen \"a huge black cloud of smoke come from the buildings at the bottom\".\n\nHe had been hiking on the moor with his wife Sue, 69, when they stopped for lunch at the base of the mast.\n\nThey noticed \"nothing untoward at that stage\" but, after carrying on their walk for about a mile and a half, turned to look at the mast and noticed \"smoke coming out of the top, a bit like a chimney\", Mr Needham said.\n\nA 300 metre (984ft) exclusion zone is in place around the tower.\n\nEight pumps and crews from across the region were sent to tackle the blaze at 13:19 BST after a call from an engineer working at the transmitter north of Helmsley.\n\nIn a statement North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said firefighters had \"worked to control the fire in difficult circumstances and extinguished a fire in a single-storey stone building and transmitter mast\".\n\nIt added: \"Only one building in a complex of four was affected and there are concerns about the structural integrity of the mast.\n\n\"A 300 metre exclusion zone has been put in place around the mast.\"\n\nThe fire service said it would be working on Wednesday with Arqiva, the site operators, \"to bring the incident to a safe conclusion\".\n\nThe tower was built in 1969 and provides coverage for homes across northern England, from Tadcaster round to Leyburn, then up to Seaham and most of the way down the coast to Filey.\n\nBBC TV for Teesside, North Yorkshire and County Durham is available on iPlayer. Radio stations are available on BBC Sounds.\n\nSmoke was seen coming from the tower\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A lengthy legal battle over the extradition of Huawei's chief financial officer reaches a crucial stage in Canada on Wednesday.\n\nMeng Wanzhou, who is also the daughter of the founder of the Chinese telecoms company, was arrested at Vancouver airport in December 2018.\n\nShe will appear in court as a judge begins hearing the final arguments over whether to send her to the US.\n\nHer case was also raised in high-level discussions between senior US and Chinese diplomats in recent weeks.\n\nThe court hearings, which are expected to last up to three weeks, mark the culmination of two-and-a-half years of legal battles.\n\nThe US alleges Ms Meng misled the bank HSBC over the true nature of Huawei's relationship with a company called Skycom and this, in turn, put the bank at risk of violating sanctions against Iran.\n\nUntil now, lawyers have been arguing over what evidence can be presented in this extradition hearing and what arguments can be introduced to challenge the US request.\n\nMs Meng's lawyers have been challenging the extradition on a number of grounds.\n\nOne is that the US misled the Canadian court over the evidence.\n\nHuawei lawyers have fought to include material that they say shows Ms Meng did not mislead HSBC about the business relationship with Skycom, including the full details a Powerpoint presentation used during a 2013 meeting as well as internal Huawei emails.\n\nHer lawyers also sued HSBC first in London and then in Hong Kong to gain access to its internal material to support their position. However, the Canadian judge declined to allow this to be used.\n\nMs Meng's lawyers argue the case is fundamentally a political prosecution with the Huawei executive a pawn in the battle between the US and China. They argue that it was further politicised by former President Donald Trump who at one point seemed to offer her release in return for a better trade deal with China.\n\nThey are claiming her rights were violated when she was questioned at Vancouver airport without a lawyer and will say the case, about conversations in Hong Kong, does not relate to activity over which the US has jurisdiction. Finally, they will argue that even if the evidence was true, it would not justify a charge of fraud against her.\n\nA judgement is expected later in the year. If Ms Meng loses, the extradition request goes to Canadian government ministers for their decision. Her lawyers can then launch an appeal. This means the case could potentially drag on for another five years or more.\n\nBut in parallel with the legal process, diplomatic contacts and back-channel discussions are understood to be ongoing over the case, involving US and Chinese officials as well as Huawei, a sign of how much is at stake with this case.\n\nThe arrest of such a senior business executive from a prominent company led to anger in China and become one of a number of stumbling blocks in relations with the US.\n\nThe Trump administration took a hard line on Huawei, imposing sanctions on the company, but so far the Biden approach has yet to shift significantly. The arrest also led to a serious diplomatic crisis with Canada amid allegations that two Canadians have been arrested in China on national security charges as a bargaining chip over Ms Meng's detention.\n\nThe issue was discussed in July when US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman met Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Xie Feng.\n\nHalting the extradition, along with the lifting of sanctions and visa restrictions against Chinese officials was raised by the Chinese side with US officials raising the two Canadians held in China.\n\nDespite both sides making demands, the meeting was said to be an improvement on a difficult first meeting between the Biden team and Chinese officials in Alaska a few months earlier.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ren Zhengfei described the arrest of his daughter Meng Wanzhou as politically motivated\n\nExecutives from Huawei have also been in touch with the US government to try to secure Ms Meng's release.\n\nDropping the extradition request may require some kind of admission of wrongdoing from Ms Meng and some kind of tacit agreement over the fate of the Canadians, both of which may not be straightforward.\n\nBut a deal may also be a signal that both Washington and Beijing are looking for ways to improve their fractious relationship and lower the temperature.", "Bukayo Saka was one of the black players who received abuse after missing a penalty in the Euro 2020 final\n\nPolice have arrested 11 people as they continue a hate crimes investigation into social media messages sent after the Euro 2020 final.\n\nThe UK Football Policing Unit received 600 reports of racist comments sent to England's black players after the defeat and judged 207 to be criminal.\n\nOf these, 123 were posted by people overseas, while 34 came from the UK.\n\nPolice said people who think they can hide behind social media accounts \"need to think again\".\n\nA wave of racist social media abuse was aimed at Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka after they missed penalties in the shoot-out at the Euro 2020 final last month.\n\nIt led to condemnations by the Football Association, England manager Gareth Southgate and the prime minister.\n\nChief Constable Mark Roberts, National Police Chiefs' Council Football Policing lead, said the investigation was proceeding \"at pace\" and said a \"vast amount of work\" went into identifying the 11 people arrested so far.\n\nThe majority of the arrests were on suspicion of malicious communications or breaching section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 - which includes sending messages which are \"grossly offensive\", convey a threat or are \"menacing\".\n\nMalicious communications offences carry a maximum penalty of two years in prison, while a breach of section 127 can lead to a sentence of six months in jail.\n\nThree people were arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred, which can mean a sentence of up to seven years in prison in the most severe cases.\n\nDetails of the 123 foreign accounts are due to be passed on to their respective countries for local authorities to take action.\n\nPolice are awaiting information from social media companies about the owners of the remaining 50 accounts.\n\n\"There are people out there who believe they can hide behind a social media profile and get away with posting such abhorrent comments,\" Mr Roberts said.\n\n\"They need to think again - we have investigators proactively seeking out abusive comments in connection to the match and, if they meet a criminal threshold, those posting them will be arrested.\"\n\nHe said the complexities of investigating social media abuse \"cannot be underestimated\" and thanked Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for responding quickly to police inquiries.\n\nThousands of fans sent supportive messages, which Arsenal posted on a wall as Bukayo Saka returned to training\n\nMeanwhile Bukayo Saka, the 19-year-old Arsenal forward who took England's final penalty, said he was \"speechless\" after his club presented him with a wall of supportive messages.\n\n\"How do I even say thank you for all of this?\" he asked.\n\nIn one, a young fan invited Saka to play football with him in the park and promised to \"let him win\".\n\nThose arrested include three people from London, two from Christchurch, Dorset, one from Runcorn, Cheshire, one from Sale, Greater Manchester, one from Folkestone, Kent, one from Reading, one from Shrewsbury and one from Worcester.", "The MV Asphalt Princess was reportedly boarded by up to nine armed men\n\nMen who boarded and seized a ship in the Gulf of Oman have left the vessel and all those remaining on board are safe, officials say.\n\nA UK maritime security agency said the potential hijacking of the Panama-flagged MV Asphalt Princess had ended but gave no further details.\n\nThe bitumen tanker was seized on Tuesday heading into the congested approach to the Strait of Hormuz.\n\nIt is not clear who seized the ship, but analysts suspected Iranian forces.\n\nIran's Revolutionary Guards dismissed reports of possible involvement as a pretext for \"hostile action\" against Tehran.\n\nThe men who boarded the MV Asphalt Princess were reportedly armed and are said to have ordered it to sail to Iran.\n\nThe United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) had initially warned ships of an incident before declaring a \"potential hijack\" hours later.\n\nOn Wednesday, the UKMTO tweeted that those who boarded the vessel had left, adding: \"Vessel is safe. Incident complete.\"\n\nThe incident occurred less than a week after an oil tanker operated by an Israeli-owned company was attacked by a drone off Oman, killing two security guards - one British and the other Romanian.\n\nThe US, UK and Israel blamed Iran for the attack - a claim it strongly denies.\n\nBBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner says the MV Asphalt Princess is owned by a Dubai-based company that had one of its ships hijacked two years ago by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.\n\nHe says that, according to reports, up to nine armed men boarded the vessel as it neared the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world's maritime oil supplies passes.\n\nThe UKMTO had earlier advised shipping services near Fujairah in the Gulf of Oman to exercise extreme caution.\n\nEarlier in the day, four oil tankers reported that they were \"not under command\", which usually means that a vessel has lost power and cannot steer. One of the ships later began moving, the Associated Press news agency reports.\n\nIran's foreign ministry said reports involving several ships on Tuesday were \"suspicious\" and warned against any effort to \"create a false atmosphere\" against Tehran.", "Phil Hammond was three days into a 1,200 mile charity run when he was robbed\n\nA man running 1,200 miles (1,931km) to raise money for a veterans charity has been mugged at knifepoint.\n\nPhil Hammond, from Leeds, was stopped by a man in Barton-under-Needwood, near Burton upon Trent, on Monday evening, Staffordshire Police said.\n\nHe was on a footpath by a canal when he was threatened with the knife and handed over £40 before the robber fled.\n\nMr Hammond said he had not been put off by the crime and would continue his charity run.\n\n\"This is about helping others. If you can go through life and help others, more power to you,\" the 60-year-old added.\n\nWhile he admitted he had been shaken by the robbery, he said he was more annoyed at having several blisters on his feet.\n\nThe 60-year-old said he was shaken by the robbery but would continue as he wanted to help the veteran charity\n\nMr Hammond, who works as an NHS porter, was three days into his run when the robbery happened, having started in Leeds on 31 July.\n\nHe is due to end his run back in the city on 5 September having gone via Land's End and Carlisle.\n\nHis efforts are in aid of The Veterans Charity, based in Barnstaple, Devon, and aim to raise £2,400 towards helping veterans get essential items.\n\nThe charity's chief executive officer, Danny Greeno, said they were shocked by the robbery and \"very thankful that [Phil] was unharmed\".\n\nHe added they had taken more measures into giving Mr Hammond support including talking to him several times each day and making sure he stayed overnight with friends and people he knows.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Amman was jailed for 40 months in 2018 for preparing and engaging in acts of terrorism\n\nA terrorist told a mentor he had mended his ways, days before carrying out a knife attack which ended in police shooting him dead, an inquest heard.\n\nSudesh Amman claimed he \"now realised\" that those who committed terrorist acts were \"pushing people away\" from Islam.\n\nThree days later, on 2 February 2020, the 20-year-old was killed by police after he launched a knife attack in Streatham, south London.\n\nAmman injured a man and woman in the attack on Streatham High Road.\n\nTwo mentors described being \"shocked\" and \"gobsmacked\" by his actions.\n\nThe inquest was previously told there had been concerns about his release from HMP Belmarsh on 23 January 2020, part-way through his 40-month sentence for preparing and engaging in acts of terrorism.\n\nThe inquest at the Royal Courts of Justice heard that Amman had been provided with support from a practical and a theological mentor, both of whom had seen him following his release from prison.\n\nA report prepared by one of them following his final meeting was read to jurors, which explained that: \"He [Amman] said he now realised that people who hurt other people through things like acts of terror were pushing people away from the faith and causing hatred.\"\n\nThe 20-year-old was captured on CCTV during the attack\n\nGiving evidence, the report's author, known as Witness M, said that day Amman had been \"the most relaxed that I'd seen him\" in each of their four face-to-face chats, both inside prison and out.\n\nWitness M said: \"He was happy to talk, he had no moments where he held back from saying anything and he seemed happy and relieved at being released.\n\n\"I took him at his word. He seemed sincere the way he was saying it.\"\n\nHe added he did not feel the need to report anything of concern about Amman, and that he had been shocked when reports of the attack emerged.\n\nA second mentor, known as Witness T, said his duty had been to discuss religious matters with Amman during their only meeting, on 29 January 2020.\n\nUpon learning of the attack, he said: \"I was gobsmacked... I was surprised.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Drama in the men's team pursuit qualifying as Denmark's rider collides with GB's Charlie Tanfield.\n\nWatch live coverage of Tokyo 2020 on BBC One, BBC Two, the BBC Sport website, app and BBC iPlayer\n\nCOVERAGE DETAILS: Tokyo Olympics: Day-by-day guide to the key events, big stars and British medal hopes", "The child is thought to have died after an incident at this farm in Carmarthenshire\n\nA three-year-old boy has died after an incident at a farm in Carmarthenshire.\n\nEmergency services were called to the property near Efailwen at about 19:00 BST on Tuesday after reports a child had been hit by a farm vehicle.\n\nDyfed-Powys Police confirmed the boy had died at the scene.\n\nThe force said nobody else had been injured in the incident and an investigation had been launched into how it happened.\n\nPeople living in the farming community told BBC Wales they were shocked and saddened by the incident.\n\nHuw George said the community would try to help the family in any way they could\n\nLocal minister and county councillor Huw George said the community had woken up under \"yet another cloud\".\n\nHowever he said people living in the area would do everything they could to support the family.\n\n\"One strong point of this community is that it's strong, it's close,\" he said.\n\n\"People will be there and sense when help is needed and if people ask for help, they will get it, because how do you begin to explain and begin to say something which means anything at a time like this.\"\n\nCarwyn James said people were struggling to come to terms with the sad news\n\nFarmer and shop owner Carwyn James said everyone in the close-knit community was deeply affected by the news.\n\n\"People will fail to imagine the pain this poor family are going through at the moment,\" he said.\n\n\"It's an amazing place to raise children on a farm, but with it there are dangers. It's just so terribly sad.\"\n\nIn a statement, Dyfed-Powys Police said the three-year-old had died after being involved in a \"collision with a vehicle\" at the private address.\n\nThe child's family are being supported by specialist officers and the Health and Safety Executive and the Coroner have been informed, they added.\n\nThe Welsh Ambulance Service confirmed it had sent an ambulance and two rapid response vehicles to the incident, in the Efailwen area on Tuesday evening.", "Headache was one of the most common symptoms\n\nChildren who become ill with coronavirus rarely experience long-term symptoms, with most recovering in less than a week, research suggests.\n\nKing's College London scientists say that while a small group may experience prolonged illness, they were \"reassured\" that number was low.\n\nHeadaches and tiredness were the most common symptoms seen.\n\nA Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health expert said the data reflected what doctors saw in clinics.\n\nCompared to adults, children are far less at risk of coronavirus.\n\nMany who are infected do not develop symptoms and those that do, tend to have a mild illness.\n\nThis peer-reviewed study, published in the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health journal, wanted to understand how Covid affected children and how it compared to other respiratory diseases.\n\nIt used data provided by parents or carers to the UK Zoe Covid Study app.\n\nThe study looked at 1,734 children, aged between five and 17, who were reported to have developed symptoms and tested positive for Covid between September 2020 and February 2021.\n\nThe researchers say it's very difficult to know how many children were infected during this time period as the four UK nations record data differently, but they estimate more than 400,000 children and young people tested positive.\n\nFewer than one in 20 (4%) were found to have experienced symptoms for four weeks or more, with one in 50 (2%) having symptoms for more than eight weeks.\n\nThe most common symptoms reported were headaches and tiredness. Others included a sore throat and loss of smell.\n\nOn average, older children were typically ill for slightly longer than primary school children, with those aged between 12 and 17 taking a week to recover while for younger children the illness lasted five days.\n\nIt's the scientists hope that these findings will reassure families, while also validating those who have experienced prolonged illness.\n\nThe team also looked at an equal number of children who had symptoms but tested negative for Covid.\n\nOnly a few children - 15 out of 1,734 - had symptoms for at least 28 days, fewer than one in 100.\n\nEmma Duncan, professor of clinical endocrinology at King's College London who worked on the research, said the \"takeaway message\" was: \"Can children have prolonged illness after Covid-19? Yes they can, but it's not common and most of these children get better with time.\n\n\"Children can also have prolonged symptoms from other illnesses as well. We need to be looking after all children who have protracted illnesses, irrespective of whether that illness is Covid-19 or anything else.\"\n\nDr Michael Absoud, a consultant in paediatric neurodisability at Evelina London Children's Hospital and a senior author of the study, says it's important to listen to families who say their children have symptoms.\n\n\"If you are concerned about your child, the first thing you need to do is go to your GP and describe your particular symptoms,\" he explains.\n\n\"They can provide information or refer you to a paediatrician. It's important to remember there may be something else going on.\n\n\"If they think it is related to Covid, there are NHS clinics dedicated to providing advice on how to approach this. Hopefully they will be properly funded to support this small proportion of children.\"\n\nDr Liz Whittaker, infectious disease lead at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health who was not involved in the research, said: \"This study is reassuring for the majority of children and young people who develop Sars-CoV-2 infection, and reflects what paediatricians are seeing in clinical practice.\"", "Some 2,000 containers are being unloaded from the Ever Given at Felixstowe\n\nThe huge container ship that blocked the Suez Canal is being unloaded after it arrived in the UK.\n\nThe Ever Given docked at Felixstowe, Suffolk, at 16:30 BST on Tuesday, its first UK visit since causing disruption to global shipping.\n\nThe Port of Felixstowe said 2,000 containers were being unloaded by crane and the process would take about 24 hours.\n\nIt said the 400m-long (1,300ft) vessel was due to leave at 02:00 on Thursday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe ship, operated by Taiwanese firm Evergreen Marine, was originally due to arrive at Felixstowe in early April.\n\nIt blocked the major shipping lane in Egypt for almost a week in March.\n\nHundreds of ships were delayed as they waited for the canal to be unblocked and some vessels were forced to take the much longer route around the southern tip of Africa.\n\nWhen the ship, which carries cargo between Asia and Europe, was finally freed it was held up again until an agreement between Japanese owner, Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd, and canal authorities was reached over compensation.\n\nKeen shipping enthusiasts and families watched from Landguard Point as the ship arrived at Felixstowe on Tuesday\n\nDozens of ship-spotters lined the beach to watch it arrive at Felixstowe.\n\nGoods in the Ever Given's 18,000 total containers have an estimated value of $775m, but many of them will hold fruit and vegetables which will have to be destroyed, having passed their use-by date.\n\nThe bulk of the containers were offloaded at Rotterdam prior to its journey to Felixstowe.\n\nJake Slinn, owner of JS Global Cargo & Freight Disposal in Ipswich, said his business was expecting 20 to 30 containers from the ship.\n\nIn the coming weeks his business will be hired either to destroy unwanted cargo - such as out-of-date food items - or manage abandoned cargo.\n\n\"At the moment we've not taken any items from the ship,\" he said.\n\nThe T. rex will be one of 12 dinosaurs at the park and will be situated near the 17th and 18th holes\n\nMeanwhile, Kingsway Golf Centre in Melbourn, Cambridgeshire, is looking forward to finally adding two new dinosaur models to its Jurassic Links crazy golf course.\n\nIt said it had already cleared space around the 17th and 18th holes for the giant Tyrannosaurus rex model, nicknamed Dino, before it became stuck on the Ever Given.\n\nThe course is also waiting for the arrival of Dino's 4m (13ft) wide pterodactyl friend.\n\n\"The forced isolation for these two spectacular dinosaurs is over,\" said marketing manager Fred Dell.\n\nHe said they expected the two models, plus other \"dino bits and bobs\" to arrive on Monday.\n\nThe Ever Given's next destination after Felixstowe is Hamburg, Germany.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Independence campaigners are hoping for a second referendum after their defeat in 2014\n\nAs Prime Minister Boris Johnson begins a visit to Scotland, what are the chances of the SNP securing another independence referendum?\n\nMay's Scottish election was a big moment for the UK.\n\nParties demanding another referendum on independence had won a majority.\n\nThe SNP believed they had a cast-iron mandate for another vote. But they want the UK government to agree - and there's no sign of that happening.\n\nIt sets up a constitutional clash which we will be talking about for some time.\n\nBut don't expect the crescendo any time soon.\n\nBoris Johnson's trip to Scotland is his first in seven months.\n\nThe prime minister's perceived unpopularity north of the border meant many Scottish Tories thought it best to keep him out of May's election campaign.\n\nBut UK ministers believe they need to talk more about what they see as the benefits of the union.\n\nBoris Johnson met Nicola Sturgeon during a 2019 visit to Scotland - but won't be meeting her this time\n\nLast week, we had Chancellor Rishi Sunak talking about the success of furlough.\n\nThe PM has talked on a number of occasions about why he thinks the union made the coronavirus vaccine rollout easier and faster.\n\nYou can expect to hear more of the same in the next couple of days.\n\nWhen it comes to independence, there is almost no prospect of Mr Johnson's government budging - and agreeing to another referendum.\n\nSenior figures in Downing Street have made it clear the PM is not going to change his mind.\n\nBut can that position hold forever?\n\nCabinet Office Minister Michael Gove seemed to hint that it couldn't in an interview last week.\n\nHe told the Sunday Mail that if another referendum was the \"settled will\" of the Scottish people, another vote would be held.\n\nBut how do you define settled will?\n\nThe question is probably part of the answer. It allows the UK government to keep saying no without a tangible point at which they'll say yes.\n\nThe SNP are in no rush either.\n\nThe party is trying to figure out the answers to some pretty big questions on its post-Brexit plan for an independent Scotland.\n\nHow would you prevent a hard border with England?\n\nHow quickly would you move to a new Scottish currency?\n\nHow quickly would Scotland be able to join the EU?\n\nBehind the scenes, there is work going on to look at these central questions. But the answers aren't simple.\n\nThen there's the question of priorities.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon has made Covid hers to tackle in the first three months of the new Holyrood term - and her party has promised there won't be another referendum until the crisis has passed. Again, without a definition of when we might judge what passed means.\n\nSo while the rhetoric on the constitution continues, decisive moments are a while away. Senior figures in the SNP are reluctant to offer any sort of date for when another referendum might be held.\n\nThere could, however, be some small steps in the next few weeks.\n\nIn September, the SNP will hold a conference where independence will be one of the main three themes.\n\nThere, you can expect Ms Sturgeon to come under pressure to move the independence campaign on.\n\nA leaked provisional agenda for the event includes a motion which would demand Ms Sturgeon's government holds a referendum \"as soon as it is safe\".\n\nLike last year's event, September's SNP conference is due to be held online\n\nThe final agenda for the conference hasn't been finalised, but there are also calls for the party to set up a \"Borders commission\" to do detailed work on the border question.\n\nA number of SNP branches want the party to commit to removing nuclear weapons from Scotland within three years of independence - a significant commitment.\n\nThere is going to be a lot more debate about the independence timetable next month.\n\nIt's also possible the SNP will team up with the Scottish Greens in a formal arrangement at Holyrood.\n\nThis wouldn't be a coalition - but something short of that, focussed on key issues where they agree.\n\nA commitment to another referendum would be one of them. Inevitable for the two pro-independence parties - but a symbolic show of strength.\n\nBut on the key question of whether another independence referendum is going to happen, a concrete answer is a while off.", "UK experts are set to recommend all 16 and 17-year-olds should be offered a Covid vaccine, the BBC has been told.\n\nThe Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation stopped short of making the move last month, saying it was still assessing the benefits and risks.\n\nAbout 1.4 million teenagers will be included in the new rollout but it is not known when the jabs will start.\n\nThey are only offered now to those over-12s who have underlying conditions or live with others at high risk.\n\nBut some countries, including the US, Canada and France, are routinely vaccinating people aged 12 years old and over.\n\nWhitehall sources say ministers in England are expected to accept the advice of the JCVI, following an announcement on Wednesday.\n\nIt comes after Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Tuesday she was \"hoping\" to receive updated advice from the JCVI on the vaccination of 16 and 17-year-olds.\n\nMs Sturgeon said the UK's four chief medical officers had written to the JCVI, asking them to look again at vaccination advice for young people.\n\nUniversities Minister Michelle Donelan said an announcement was \"imminent and... people will get clarity soon\".\n\nMeanwhile, new research suggested children who became ill with coronavirus mostly recovered within less than a week.\n\nAcross England, 223,755 under-18s have received a first vaccine dose, according to NHS data to 25 July.\n\nIt was previously announced that under-18s would be eligible if they had certain health conditions, lived with someone with a low immune system, or were approaching their 18th birthday.\n\nBut there was criticism after it emerged GPs were advised to hold off inviting clinically vulnerable 12 to 15-year-olds to take a vaccine due to uncertainty over insurance.\n\nWhat are your questions about the vaccine for teenagers?\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Professor Jonathan Van-Tam answers a range of questions about Covid from young audience members\n\nDecisions on vaccinations are based on recommendations from the independent JCVI. Ministers in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland each then approve the plans.\n\nThe only Covid jab currently authorised in the UK for under-18s is the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.\n\nLast month, the JCVI extended its recommendation on Covid jabs to children aged over 12 who are at higher risk of being ill and to those on the verge of turning 18.\n\nHowever, it said it would not extend the rollout as it examined reports of rare adverse events such as inflammation of heart muscles among young adults.\n\nSpeaking ahead of the July decision, England's chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty said the JCVI was confident vaccines would protect children to a high degree.\n\nHe added more research was taking place as children did not tend to suffer severely from Covid, and the experts wanted to ensure the benefits of the jab outweighed any potential risks.\n\nThe decision to vaccinate children has always been more delicately balanced than for adults.\n\nChildren have less to gain from a Covid jab, not because it is less effective, but because they rarely become severely ill.\n\nAnd while the risks of side effects such as inflamed heart tissue (which is often treated with rest and ibuprofen) are incredibly rare, they do exist.\n\nVery high levels of vaccination in the most vulnerable also weakened arguments of immunising the young so they can't spread it to the old.\n\nOn top of that, the JCVI did not want to accidentally damage confidence in the usual childhood vaccines (from measles to meningitis to HPV) if a decision was seen as rushed or putting children at unnecessary risk.\n\nIt has been a decision that has been made slowly (too slowly for some) but now, after other countries have vaccinated hundreds of thousands of children, the evidence is there to press ahead.\n\nProf Paul Elliott, chair of epidemiology and public health at Imperial College London, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme vaccinating younger age groups could help drive down infections.\n\nWith the highest rates of infection seen in young people under 24, he said \"anything we can do to reduce transmission in that group would be helpful\".\n\nBut school leaders' union NAHT said the policy of vaccinating children should be led by clinicians and that schools should not play a part in promoting or enforcing vaccinations.\n\nOne local director of public health, Dr Anjan Ghosh, told BBC Radio 4's World at One it was likely parents and guardians would be asked for consent before some under-18s received a vaccine dose.\n\n\"Whether it is done in a school, or any other setting, the consent is about allowing the child to be vaccinated - so it doesn't depend on the setting where vaccines are happening from,\" he said.\n\nPrevious guidance said the over-16s would give their own consent for jabs, while for those under-16 parents or guardians would be involved in giving consent as well.\n\nShadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said ministers should \"ensure plans are in place to roll out this vital next stage of vaccination while ensuring parents have all the facts and information they need\".\n\nA Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said it kept the vaccination of children and young people \"under review and will be guided by the advice of the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation\".\n\nAll over-18s have now been offered a vaccination against coronavirus. The latest government data shows 88.7% of adults in the UK have now had one dose of vaccine, while 73% have had two jabs.\n\nAnd a further 21,691 cases of people testing positive for coronavirus were recorded in the UK on Tuesday. It was the fifth day in a row that infections have fallen, and the lowest daily total since late June.", "Lee Collins' partner told the inquest he had drunk alcohol \"every single day\" for the past 10 years\n\nA footballer took his own life and had cocaine in his system when he was found dead in a hotel room, an inquest heard.\n\nYeovil Town captain Lee Collins, 32, was discovered by the club's assistant manager Terry Skiverton on 31 March after he did not arrive for training.\n\nHe had been \"struggling with injuries and personal problems\", including the break-up of a relationship, Taunton Coroners' Court was told.\n\nMr Collins began his career at Wolverhampton Wanderers and spent time at Port Vale, Barnsley, Northampton Town, Mansfield Town and Forest Green Rovers, before joining Yeovil Town in 2019.\n\nHe had battled long-term alcohol problems as well as a gambling habit and the recreational use of cocaine before his death, Mr Williams told the hearing.\n\nTributes were left outside Yeovil Town's Huish Park ground after Mr Collins' death was announced\n\nToxicology tests revealed alcohol and cocaine in Mr Collins' system when he was found at the Lanes Hotel, West Coker, Somerset.\n\nIn a statement to the inquest, his partner Rachel Gibbon said Mr Collins, from Newport, South Wales, was a \"gentle giant, the kindest most generous man you could have met\", but there were two sides to his \"very complex character\".\n\n\"I begged him to get help but he would get aggressive, verbally aggressive,\" Ms Gibbon's statement said. \"I could not have physically dragged him to the doctors. He did not want help.\"\n\nMs Gibbon said her partner was \"the joker, the class clown\" but he was also \"insecure and anxious\" with an addictive personality.\n\nMr Collins would drink six bottles of cider and two bottles of wine a day, and had begun drinking spirits too, her statement continued.\n\n\"For the last 10 years he would drink every single day, strong cider.\n\n\"Lee was your captain, your leader. For us he was our safe place, our best friend,\" Ms Gibbon added.\n\nLee Collins began his career at Wolverhampton Wanderers and spent time at Port Vale, Barnsley, Northampton Town, Mansfield Town and Forest Green Rovers\n\nHis friend Paul Broadhead said Mr Collins had suffered with his mental health in the past few years despite being the \"joker and life and soul of the party\".\n\nHe said Mr Collins worried about paying bills and what he would do when his football career ended.\n\nYeovil Town assistant manager Mr Skiverton said Mr Collins had been happy during a training session the day before his death but had been struggling with injuries and personal problems.\n\nManager of the National League club, Darren Sarll, said Mr Collins had recently separated with Ms Gibbon and was \"an inconsistent character\" who had not turned up for training in the past.\n\nMr Collins played his last game for the club on 6 February against Stockport.\n\nIf you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this story, there are details of organisations that offer advice and support at BBC Action Line.\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Customers of doorstep lender Provident Financial can claim compensation for mis-sold loans after the High Court backed a partial repayment scheme.\n\nThe company has set aside £50m to meet claims from borrowers who were sold unaffordable loans.\n\nCustomers will still not get all their money back.\n\nHowever, the Court agreed to the scheme after the firm warned full payments would force it to go bust leaving many victims with nothing.\n\n\"We believed from the outset that the scheme was fair and that it offered the best outcomes for customers,\" said Malcolm Le May, chief executive officer of Provident.\n\nHe said the Court approval was \"a positive outcome for customers with valid claims under the scheme, as it provides access to a redress payment which would not have been possible had the scheme not been approved.\"\n\nThe scheme will go live later in August with a deadline of the end of February 2022, giving borrowers just six months to claim their cash.\n\n\"Customers won't get a full refund but it is worth claiming compensation if you were sold an unaffordable loan as you may still get hundreds of pounds,\" said debt adviser Sara Williams, who runs the Debt Camel blog.\n\nProvident had been lending and collecting repayments on the doorstep since the 1880s but withdrew from the business earlier this year blaming \"changing industry and regulatory dynamics\" as well as \"shifting customer preferences\".\n\nIts lending was legal and approved by the City regulator, but proved controversial, with some campaigners calling them \"legal loan sharks\".\n\nOne 52-year-old, who borrowed with Provident for 30 years, said he had taken loans totalling £60,000 but it was a \"vicious circle\".\n\n\"It was for basic spending, and Christmas, but was too convenient,\" he said.\n\nLast year, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said prolonged relending could be harmful to borrowers and the company faced a flood of complaints that affordability checks were not carried out when doorstep loans and payday loans were granted.\n\nIt said the second half of last year had seen a 200% rise in complaints compared with the first half.\n\nThat led to the High Court approved scheme because Provident said it could not afford to carry on paying full refunds to customers who were winning affordability complaints.\n\nThe Financial Ombudsman had been upholding about 75% of complaints.\n\nThe FCA said it did not approve of the scheme but as Provident has stopped providing doorstep loans, it did not object to it in court.\n\nThe scheme covers customers who had unaffordable loans between 6 April 2007 and 17 December 2020 from one of Provident's personal credit brands.\n\nThey are doorstep lender Provident, Satsuma payday loans, Greenwood - a doorstep lender defunct since 2014 - and Glo, a guarantor loan brand.\n\nSome 4.2 million people borrowed from the different brands during the period but not all are expected to have a valid claim, with the court estimating that up to 30% of them could apply for redress.\n\n\"A loan is only affordable if you could repay it on time and still be able to pay your other debts, bills and living expenses,\" said Sara Williams.\n\n\"You may have paid the loan on time, but it may still have been unaffordable. If paying Provident left you so short of money you had to borrow more or you got behind with bills then it was unaffordable.\"\n\nTo make a claim you need to set up an account in the scheme portal.\n\nThere's a useful Debt Camel guide and more background here.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nThirteen-year-old Sky Brown earned a momentous skateboarding bronze to become Great Britain's youngest Olympic medallist as victories in sailing and showjumping on Wednesday took Team GB's gold medal tally to 15.\n\nHannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre clinched gold in the 470 class, making Mills the most successful female Olympic sailor of all time after her gold in Rio five years ago and silver at London 2012.\n\nBen Maher then won gold in the individual showjumping event on board Explosion W after a dramatic six-horse jump-off.\n\nBoxer Ben Whittaker secured a men's light-heavyweight silver medal after Frazer Clarke took bronze in the men's super-heavyweight division.\n\nWith six medals guaranteed in Tokyo this is Britain's most successful Olympics in the boxing ring since 1920, when just 12 nations took part.\n\nMeanwhile, Canada's Andre de Grasse won his first gold and fifth Olympic medal overall as he overhauled world champion Noah Lyles in the men's 200m final.\n\nThe first of GB's five medals on day 12 came from Brown, born a month before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. She fell on her first two runs in the women's park skateboarding final before posting a score of 56.47 to make the podium.\n\nThe teenager replaces Sarah Hardcastle as Britain's youngest summer Games medal winner - the swimmer was 15 years and 113 days when she won silver and bronze in Los Angeles at the 1984 Olympics.\n\nAt 13 years and 28 days, Brown also breaks Margery Hinton's 93-year-old record as the country's youngest competitor and claims Team GB's first skateboarding medal.\n\nBut there was a heartbreaking end to world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson's heptathlon medal hopes.\n\nThe 28-year-old, who was battling to overcome a left Achilles problem before the Games, sat fifth after three events but pulled up with a right calf injury in the 200m and was disqualified from the race for leaving her lane.\n\nMeanwhile, Jason Kenny started the defence of his Olympic sprint title with three victories in the opening rounds, as team-mate Jack Carlin also progressed and Katy Marchant reached the women's keirin quarter-finals.\n• None Carlin GB's best chance of sprint medal, says Kenny\n\nHow are GB doing?\n\nSimon Gleave, head of sports analysis, Nielsen Gracenote said: \"Great Britain have closed the gap with the Rio and London Olympics and now have 48 medals after 12 days of competition compared to 49 in 2016 and 48 in 2012.\n\n\"However, at both of those Olympics, sailing, taekwondo and triathlon were still going on in the last four days of the Games so expect 2021 to fall behind again on total medals won.\"\n• None How are GB athletes performing in Tokyo?\n\nBrown beat the previous record of Team GB's youngest Olympic medal winner by more than two years while also becoming the youngest competitor at a summer Games for her country.\n\nHinton was 13 years and 44 days when she swam at the Amsterdam Games in 1928, and that landmark stood for almost a century.\n\nUntil Wednesday, that is, when Brown - 16 days younger - began her women's park skateboarding campaign at Ariake Urban Sports Park.\n\nHad the Games not been postponed by a year, Brown would have lowered that summer record further, though figure skater Cecilia Colledge retains the overall accolade for Britain - she entered the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid aged 11.\n\nBrown qualified for the final but fell during her opening two runs to set up a tense final attempt.\n\nBut the Japan-born teenager - who had a heavy fall in training last year that saw her fracture her skull, break her left arm and wrist, and suffer lacerations to her heart and lungs - delivered a score of 56.47 to climb into the bronze-medal position.\n\n\"This is incredible. It feels unreal. I'm so happy to be here. I'm blessed,\" said Brown, who added she would now \"hang out with friends and party\".\n\n\"I was definitely bumped, I fell twice, that made the last run feel even better. All the girls are ripping it, it was insane, it was a super-sick final.\"\n\nJapan's Sakura Yosozumi, 19, won gold with a best score of 60.09, while 12-year-old compatriot Kokona Hiraki claimed silver with 59.04.\n\nBritain's stellar Olympics continued on the water, with Mills and McIntyre's success taking the nation's sailing medal tally to five, of which three of those are gold.\n\nThe GB pair finished fifth in the 470 medal race, but their earlier performances meant it was enough to hold off silver medallists Poland and France in bronze.\n\nTheir celebrations were put on ice briefly after a protest was lodged by bronze-medallists France.\n\nBut 33-year-old Mills, one of Team GB's flag bearers at the opening ceremony, did not have to wait long to have her third Olympic medal confirmed.\n\n\"It's absolutely mad,\" said Mills. \"Growing up, like a lot of Olympians, I dreamed of being here one day and standing on top of the podium.\n\n\"To do it twice with Saskia [Clark] and with Eilidh this time, I've had two incredible crews to sail with and I feel incredibly lucky.\"\n\nMcIntyre follows in the footsteps of her father, Mike, who won gold in the star class at Seoul in 1988.\n\nEarlier, Britain's Chris Grube and Luke Patience finished fifth overall in the men's 470.\n\nMaher's showjumping gold gives the British equestrian team a fifth Olympic medal in Tokyo, equalling their record haul achieved in London.\n\nIt follows gold for the eventing team and Tom McEwen's individual eventing silver, plus team dressage bronze and Charlotte Dujardin's individual dressage bronze.\n\nMaher, 38, was thrust into a six-horse jump-off and completed his run in 37.85 to pip Sweden's Peder Fredricson by 17-hundredths of a second, with the Netherlands' Maikel van der Vleuten taking bronze.\n\nIt is a second Olympic medal for Maher after winning gold in the team jumping event at London 2012.\n\n\"I'm getting married in a couple of weeks and that makes this all the more special - but my fiancee knows she has to share me with Explosion,\" he said.\n\nWhittaker said his ambitions before Tokyo 2020 were to claim Olympic success and become the mayor of Wolverhampton.\n\nThe 24-year-old returns home draped in Olympic silverware after being edged out of gold by Cuba's Arlen Lopez.\n\nWhittaker lost the light-heavyweight final on a split decision as Lopez added the title to the middleweight gold he won at Rio 2016.\n\n\"You don't win silver, you lose gold,\" said an emotional Whittaker.\n\n\"I'm very disappointed with myself, I didn't perform well. Of course, he's a class operator - two-time Olympic gold medallist now but I'm very disappointed. I feel like a failure.\n\n\"Wolverhampton's mayor, bless him, did a little video for me wishing me luck, he said that if I get the gold, I get the chain - I didn't get the gold so he can keep it for a bit.\"\n\nWhittaker's silver came shortly after Clarke took a super-heavyweight bronze.\n\nThe 29-year-old was stopped in his semi-final against Uzbekistan's Bakhodir Jaloolov after a cut he suffered in the previous round reopened above his eye.\n\nBritain have already guaranteed two further medals, with Galal Yafai in the flyweight semi-finals on Thursday before Lauren Price's middleweight semi-final bout on Friday.\n\nWhat else happened on day 12?\n\nThe GB women's hockey team saw their title defence come to an end as they lost 5-1 in their semi-final against the Netherlands at Oi Hockey Stadium.\n\nThey face India in the bronze-medal match on Friday.\n\nBritain's Shauna Coxsey missed out on a place in the final as sport climbing made its Olympic debut.\n\nOn the track, Laura Muir reached the 1500m final with a run of four minutes 0.73 seconds and Andrew Pozzi progressed to Thursday's men's 110m hurdles final.\n\nLizzie Bird finished ninth in the women's 3000m steeplechase in a British record 9:19.68, while Jodie Williams earned a place in the women's 400m final and Nick Miller finished sixth in the men's hammer.\n\nAlice Dearing, 24, made history as the first black swimmer to represent Britain at an Olympics, finishing 19th in the women's 10km marathon event.\n\nAndrea Spendolini-Sirieix and Lois Toulson reached the women's 10m platform semi-finals, qualifying in seventh and 10th, respectively.\n\nAmerican Sydney McLaughlin reeled in rival Dalilah Muhammad to win gold in a very fast women's 400m hurdles - and broke her own world record in the process.\n• None 'In my eyes, anyone can be an influencer':", "Agricultural pesticides sold to farmers ready-mixed into \"cocktails\" can kill twice as many bees, according to an analysis of 90 studies.\n\nEach measured the impact of environmental stresses such as pesticides and poor nutrition.\n\nResearchers used that data to quantify how combinations of those stresses affected the pollinating insects.\n\nAnd they say commercial formulas, which contain multiple chemicals, should now require their own licences.\n\nThe UK has lost 97% of its wildflower meadows - an important food source for bees - since the 1930s\n\n\"Exposure to multiple pesticides is the norm, not the exception,\" Dr Harry Siviter, from the University of Texas at Austin, who led the study, told the BBC Radio 4's Inside Science programme.\n\nOne 2016 study showed bee colonies containing larger numbers of pesticides were much more likely to die.\n\n\"If you have a honeybee colony exposed to one pesticide that kills 10% of the bees and another pesticide that kills another 10%, you would expect, if those effects were additive, for 20% of the bees to be killed,\" Dr Siviter said.\n\n\"And that's exactly what we found when we looked at the interactions,\" he said.\n\n\"So we really should consider the interaction between those chemicals\" when licensing commercial formulas for use, Dr Siviter said.\n\n\"We don't continue to monitor pesticides once they're licensed for use, so we're proposing post-licensing observations.\n\n\"If those pesticides [used in combination] harm bees, that harm is recorded.\"\n\nAnother study published this week, however, suggests bees around the world are developing the ability to \"clear out\" a particularly damaging parasite - varroa, a mite that lives and feeds on honeybees and larvae.\n\nBees already have complex organised hygienic behaviours, such as removing infected broods of larvae from the hive.\n\nAnd now, data published in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B, from 40 years of research into colonies that survive infestations, without any chemical treatment, reveals they are evolving to \"repurpose\" that behaviour against varroa.\n\n\"We're seeing this resistance increasing around the world,\" Isobel Grindrod, from the University of Salford, said.\n\n\"And we're also seeing an increase recently in bee-keepers not having to treat [the mites] with chemical treatments.\"\n\n\"Pressure\" from the mites was driving healthy bees to adapt, she said.\n\n\"Their adaptability is really important, and that's why we need to maintain healthy bee colonies - to keep that adaptability - because there will be other, new diseases and pressures in the future.\"\n\nHear more about bees' battles with parasites and pesticides on BBC Inside Science on Radio 4 and BBC Sounds", "The World War Two-era Panther tank was removed from a residential property in northern Germany in 2015\n\nA pensioner in Germany has been convicted of illegal weapons possession after he was found to own an extensive personal arsenal including a tank.\n\nThe defendant, 84, has been handed a suspended prison sentence of 14 months and has been ordered to pay a fine of €250,000 (£213,469).\n\nOfficials found the tank and other World War Two-era military equipment at the defendant's house in the northern town of Heikendorf in 2015.\n\nThe army had to help remove the items.\n\nOn Monday, the court ordered that the defendant, who cannot be named under German privacy laws, must sell or donate the tank and an anti-aircraft cannon to a museum or collector within the next two years.\n\nAccording to the defendant's lawyer, a US museum is interested in purchasing the Panther tank. Many US historians argue it was the most efficient such vehicle deployed by Germany during World War Two.\n\nThe lawyer also said that a number of German collectors had approached the defendant over other items, which included assault rifles and pistols, local media report.\n\nLocal authorities raided the property in 2015 after receiving a tip-off about the building's contents by colleagues in Berlin, who had earlier searched the home for stolen Nazi art.\n\nIt took about 20 soldiers almost nine hours to extract the Panther tank - which was without its tracks - from the property.\n\nLocal media reported that the man had been seen one winter using the tank as a snow plough.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nAmerican Simone Biles says she will \"forever cherish\" her \"unique Olympic experience\" after taking her overall Games medal haul to seven in Japan.\n\nThe four-time Olympic champion won bronze in the beam on Tuesday to add to the silver she won in the team event.\n\nBiles had pulled out of the all-around, vault, floor and uneven bars finals in order to protect her mental health.\n\nHowever, she returned for the beam on the final day of artistic gymnastics action, scoring 14.000 to finish third.\n\n\"[It's] not at all how I imagined or dreamed my second Olympics would go, but blessed to represent the USA,\" she wrote on Instagram.\n\n\"Thanks everyone for the endless love and support. I'm truly grateful. Leaving Tokyo with two more Olympic medals to add to my collection isn't too shabby!\"\n• None 'In my eyes, anyone can be an influencer':", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nThe USA's Sydney McLaughlin smashed her own world record with a sensational run as she took Olympic gold in the women's 400m hurdles at the Tokyo Games.\n\nMcLaughlin, 21, powered down the home straight to finish in 51.46 seconds as she shaved almost half a second off the old mark to reel in compatriot and rival Dalilah Muhammad.\n\nThe Netherlands' Femke Bol took bronze behind the reigning world champion.\n\nIn a race featuring five personal bests, McLaughlin's blistering time lowered the mark she set at the US trials in June, when she clocked 51.90.\n\n\"I can't really get it straight in my head yet. I'm sure I'll process it and celebrate later,\" McLaughlin said.\n\nAfter a near 16-year period of the record remaining intact, Muhammad and McLaughlin have now exchanged the world best on four occasions in two years.\n\nMcLaughlin superbly judged her effort in chasing down Rio 2016 champion Muhammad, who set the early pace and still held a slim advantage over the final hurdle.\n\n\"The race doesn't really start until hurdle seven. I just wanted to go out there and give it everything I had,\" added McLaughlin.\n\n\"I am grateful to be out here celebrating that extraordinary race and representing my country. I saw Dalilah ahead of me with one to go. I just thought, 'run your race'.\n\nThe new women's best follows Norway's Karsten Warholm obliterating his own world record in the men's 400m hurdles on Tuesday.\n• None 'In my eyes, anyone can be an influencer':", "Aya Hachem was walking to the supermarket to buy food for her family when she was shot\n\nSeven men have been found guilty of murdering a student who was shot dead in a feud between two tyre firm owners.\n\nAya Hachem, 19, was mistakenly killed in the botched drive-by shooting in Blackburn on 17 May last year.\n\nTyre firm boss Feroz Suleman, 40, had arranged the execution of a rival businessman but the gunman he hired shot dead Ms Hachem instead.\n\nSeven of the eight people who were on trial at Preston Crown Court were convicted of Ms Hachem's murder.\n\nSuleman along with accomplices Kashif Manzoor, 26, Ayaz Hussain, 35, Abubakr Satia, 32, all of Blackburn; Zamir Raja, 33, of Stretford; Anthony Ennis, 31, of Partington, and Uthman Satia, 29, of Great Harwood, will be sentenced on Thursday.\n\nThe eighth defendant, Judy Chapman, 26, of Great Harwood, was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter and will be sentenced on 1 October.\n\nMs Hachem was shot as she was walking to the supermarket to buy food for her family to eat when they broke their Ramadan fast.\n\nThe Salford University student was said to be \"in the wrong place at the wrong time\" as the long-running feud between the neighbouring companies culminated in the shooting.\n\nFollowing the verdicts, Ms Hachem's family said she would \"remain in our hearts forever\".\n\n\"We are so proud of you and we miss you so much, our lives are difficult without you,\" they added.\n\n\"You loved life and despite all the struggles and barriers that we faced in this country, it did not stop you contributing to your community and charities including the Children's Society and fundraising at Salford University where you were studying to become a barrister.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Samar Salame said she was \"so proud\" of her daughter and she would \"remain in our hearts forever\"\n\nThe court heard how a Toyota Avensis driven by Ennis with hitman Raja on board drove past Quickshine Tyres on three occasions shortly before the fatal fourth journey.\n\nFootage from CCTV cameras captured Suleman stood outside his premises next door at RI Tyres with a \"ringside seat\" to the shooting he had arranged of rival Pachah Khan, the proprietor of Quickshine Tyres.\n\nThe first shot hit the front window of Quickshine and the second was let off as Lebanese-born Ms Hachem walked by, hitting her rather than the intended target.\n\nThe jury was told a feud had started in early 2019 when Quickshine, which previously only washed cars, began selling tyres next door to RI Tyres.\n\nMatters deteriorated on 3 December that year when someone set fire to RI Tyres in the early hours of the morning.\n\nOn 1 May last year, Suleman called police and reported that Mr Khan had prevented workmen from entering Quickshine's yard to finish putting up a new sign for RI Tyres, the court was told.\n\nCCTV footage showed a gun being pointed out of the back window of the Toyota Avensis\n\nJurors took less than four hours to find the seven men guilty of murder and the attempted murder of Mr Khan.\n\nAlan Richardson, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: \"Each of these callous conspirators is in their way responsible for the senseless killing of Aya Hachem - an innocent young woman full of promise who lost her life as a result of a petty business rivalry.\n\n\"The ruthlessness of everyone involved is staggering, with the group going to extreme lengths to plan an assassination in broad daylight, risking the lives of members of the public going about their daily business.\"\n\nIn 2001, Suleman was convicted of causing the death of a 67-year-old man by dangerous driving.\n\nHe ran away from the scene of the incident in Blackburn and claimed his vehicle had been stolen before he finally pleaded guilty to the offence on the day of his trial and was jailed for three and a half years.\n\nFollow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Research into people's experiences of so-called conversion therapy in the UK has been buried, campaigners say.\n\nA report - commissioned over two years ago - hit minsters' desks last December, the BBC has discovered, but has yet to appear.\n\nBoris Johnson has promised to ban what he called the \"abhorrent\" practice of conversion therapy.\n\nThe government says the study will be published shortly when a consultation is launched.\n\nConversion therapy is defined as an attempt to change someone's sexual orientation or gender identity, according to a document signed by a number of health groups.\n\nThe prime minister said in July 2020 he would put a stop to the practice.\n\nIn the same interview, he said a study was examining \"how prevalent\" it was, adding: \"We will then bring forward plans to ban it\".\n\nResearch funded by the Government Equalities Office was commissioned when Theresa May was in Downing Street.\n\nIt was led by Adam Jowett, of Coventry University's Psychological, Social and Behavioural Sciences department.\n\nIn April 2019, the project called for people to share their first-hand experiences of conversion therapy, \"whether it happened in a medical, commercial or faith-based context\".\n\nBut the findings have never been published despite a Freedom of Information request by the BBC showing that a final draft was received on 15 December 2020.\n\nDr Jowett, who also chairs the British Psychological Society's sexualities section, called in May this year for a conversion therapy ban to be implemented \"as soon as possible\".\n\nCoventry University has been approached for comment.\n\nMatt Hyndman, co-founder of the Ban Conversion Therapy campaign group, said the report should have been published back in January.\n\n\"It sounds like it's just been buried in a drawer somewhere and it's not that urgent.\"\n\nCampaigners have previously claimed the government has \"dragged its feet\" on the issue.\n\nMr Hyndman said: \"If they've commissioned a study which says conversion therapy is happening and it's quite severe and they've been delaying to ban it, it's not a good look.\"\n\nHe added he didn't think more information was needed to move ahead with a ban.\n\n\"We have so many stories of people and organisations that can attest to the harm it causes.\"\n\nIt was confirmed in May's Queen's Speech that conversion therapy would be banned in England and Wales.\n\nBut the government said a public consultation would take place first, in September, to ask how the legislation can best stop the practice while protecting the medical profession, defending freedom of speech and upholding religious freedom.\n\nA government spokesperson said: \"Our approach is based on a range of evidence, which we will publish alongside the consultation, including the Coventry University report.\"\n\nSome groups had welcomed the consultation, including the Evangelical Alliance which represents 3,500 churches.\n\nIts UK director, Peter Lynas, said at the time that they wanted to avoid a situation where \"a person can be accused of conversion therapy for praying with someone who freely chooses and asks for prayer\".\n\nThe Royal College of Psychiatrists has said it would be taking part to highlight why conversion therapy is \"harmful\" but also \"to ensure clinicians can still help people fully explore their gender identity where appropriate.\"\n\nThe UK government indicated that the consultation will be short, with legislation to follow \"as soon as possible\".\n\nWhilst the legislation would apply to Wales the Welsh Government said it would \"if necessary\" seek additional powers in order to ban \"all aspects\" of the practice.\n\nThe Scottish government says conversion therapy is an \"abhorrent practice\" and that it's waiting on details of the UK government's proposals.\n\nNorthern Ireland's Department for Communities said that the \"inhumane\" practice should be ended and that the minister \"wishes to explore all legislative options\".", "A vaccination campaign for minors aged 12 to 17 is being expanded across schools\n\nChinese authorities are targeting students as part of their latest vaccination campaign, as China sees its biggest virus surge in months.\n\nThe government reported 71 new domestic cases on Wednesday - the highest daily count since January.\n\nA vaccination campaign for minors aged 12 to 17 is being expanded to try and combat the spread of the highly contagious delta variant.\n\nThe latest cases have now spread to at least 16 provinces and municipalities.\n\nIt is unclear how many in China are fully vaccinated, although authorities say more than 1.6 billion doses have been administered so far.\n\nChina's Ministry of Education has asked local authorities to implement a programme targeting vaccinations of school students.\n\nSeveral provinces are already giving school students the jab, but the pressure is on to achieve the government's target of having 80 to 85 percent of the entire population vaccinated by the end of the year.\n\nHowever, local media pointed to doubts over whether current prevention measures to combat the virus are still working.\n\nExperts quoted said the outbreak was under control but more efforts were needed to \"plug the loopholes\" in controlling the virus, alongside vaccinations and social distancing.\n\nThe latest outbreak started in Nanjiang in the eastern Jiangsu province before spreading to the tourist destination of Zhangjiajie in central Hunan province.\n\nFrom there, tourists carried the virus to at least a dozen cities, including large hubs like Beijing and Chongqing.\n\nThe city of Yangzhou, which is also in Jiangsu and has a population of more than 4.5 million people, has been put under restrictions after 40 cases were detected.\n\nIt's thought a 64-year-old woman, who travelled from Nanjiang to Yangzhou and visited popular parlours to play cards, is responsible for the spike in the city.\n\nShe is now being investigated by police for hiding her travel itinerary from authorities.\n\nAuthorities in Wuhan have also started testing the entire population of 11 million people after a handful of cases were detected.\n\nWuhan is home to some 11 million residents\n\nThe city was thrown into the spotlight after the coronavirus first emerged there in 2019.\n\nThe gambling hub of Macau is also testing all 600,000 residents, after the city recorded four new coronavirus cases.\n\nLocal media has reported that some of the people who have tested positive were fully vaccinated, leading to discussion online about the threat of breakthrough infections and whether a booster shot is needed.\n\nOfficials say vaccines continue to be effective against all the variants so far, and can protect people from severe symptoms and hospitalisations, according to The Global Times.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid-19 and Wuhan: Why don't we know more?", "Fully vaccinated passengers returning to England, Scotland and Northern Ireland from France will no longer need to quarantine after Sunday.\n\nUnder widespread changes to the traffic light system for travel, France is being moved from amber-plus to amber.\n\nIt was added to the list last month amid concerns about the Covid Beta variant, which scientists believe may be more resistant to vaccines.\n\nBut thousands of Britons are in Mexico, which is moving to the red list.\n\nIt is one of four countries now considered to be among the highest risk destinations.\n\nDespite prior speculation, Spain will remain on the amber list, enabling travellers who are fully vaccinated to continue to enjoy a quarantine-free return.\n\nHowever, the Department for Transport has now said that \"arrivals from Spain and all its islands are advised to use a PCR test as their pre-departure test wherever possible\" instead of the cheaper lateral flow tests.\n\nBut in a series of tweets Conservative MP Huw Merriman, chairman of the Commons Transport Select Committee, criticised \"expensive\" PCR tests for travel as an \"unnecessary rip-off\" and a \"barrier to affordable travel\".\n\nIndia, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are being moved from the red list to the amber list as part of the changes, which come into effect from 04:00 BST on 8 August.\n\nAnd Germany, Austria and Norway are among seven nations being added to the green list.\n\nThe total number of countries or territories on the green list - from which all travellers can return without having to quarantine - will rise from 29 to 36.\n\nBut other countries have their own rules about allowing visitors - so being on the UK's green list does not guarantee travellers can visit there.\n\nThere are no changes to the rules requiring travellers to take tests before and after their return.\n\nTransport Secretary Grant Shapps said: \"We are committed to opening up international travel safely, taking advantage of the gains we've made through our successful vaccination programme, helping connect families, friends and businesses around the world.\"\n\nAsked about the advice on PCR tests for arrivals from Spain, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that ministers were \"not asking people to do anything different from what's been happening in Spain\".\n\nHe insisted the government was \"not changing the rules\", as in Spain's case, \"virtually everyone is taking a PCR\" to meet the government's performance standards for the pre-departure test - adding that PCR tests helped scientists monitor variants.\n\nHe said that between 5,000 and 6,000 British holidaymakers are in Mexico currently and would be \"making arrangements to come home\". They need to return by the 04:00 BST deadline on Sunday or pay for hotel quarantine.\n\nMoving from amber to green: Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Slovakia, Latvia, Romania and Norway\n\nMoving from red to amber: India, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE\n\nMoving from amber to red: Georgia, Mexico, La Reunion and Mayotte\n\nIf you have been in a red list country in the last 10 days, you can only enter the UK if you are a UK or Irish national or UK resident, and you then have to stay at a quarantine hotel.\n\nThe government has announced the cost of staying at one of those hotels is increasing, with the price for single adult travellers rising from £1,750 to £2,285 from 12 August, with a second adult paying £1,430.\n\nThis better reflects the costs involved, the government has said. That includes transport to the hotel, security, provision of welfare services and the two PCR tests which must be taken on day two and day eight of the stay.\n\nChildren aged 5-12 will still cost £325; it is free for children aged under five.\n\nBritish Airways said its teams had been \"working through the night to arrange as many additional seats out of Mexico as possible to help get Britons home\" before the new rules kick in.\n\nIt added that British Airways and British Airways Holidays customers could re-book their flights from Mexico \"at no additional cost\" ahead of the deadline, and that British Airways Holidays would \"automatically refund any customer with a booking to Mexico in the next four weeks\".\n\nThe UK government sets the red, amber and green lists for England, while the other nations are in charge of their own lists. Scotland and Northern Ireland confirmed they will be adopting the same changes as England.\n\nBut the Welsh government criticised the \"ad-hoc nature\" of the UK government's travel decisions. It said it will consider whether to follow the latest changes, adding: \"We continue to advise against all but essential travel abroad because of the continuing risk of infection.\"\n\nIs this enough to save the summer season for the travel industry?\n\nThere are some things for the sector to be pleased about. The green list is longer, France is fully amber and there are more countries turning amber from red.\n\nBut there are stings in the tail too. Of the seven green countries, only two - Latvia and Slovenia - currently allow in non-vaccinated UK tourists without quarantine.\n\nMany major holiday destinations like Greece and Spain are still amber. And the testing regime - which many in the industry want scrapped - is still firmly in place.\n\nThe government says it is being cautious and continuing to protect the UK from dangerous variants, and that this is a good step for passengers and travel.\n\nBut after months of changes and uncertainty, there are concerns in the travel sector that this doesn't do enough to reassure the public to book.\n\nBritish couple Katherine and Henry Walker, who own a campsite in west France, said they hoped the news will bring a flurry of last-minute bookings, but added: \"I think it's too late for families to come because they would have booked elsewhere in the UK.\"\n\nThey said they were at 40% occupancy - when they would usually be at 90% - because of the lack of visitors from the UK.\n\nLabour's shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon criticised the government for its \"flip-flopping over France\" and said it needed to explain how it had reached decisions.\n\n\"Ministers need to get a grip and set out a proper strategy, provide full data, and progress work with global partners on international vaccine passports so travellers and the industry can have clarity instead of reckless U-turns and confusion,\" he said.\n\nKatherine and Henry Walker said they are at 40% occupancy when they're usually at 90%, because of the lack of Britons\n\nBritish Airways boss Sean Doyle welcomed the news but urged the government to go further, saying the UK's economic recovery \"is reliant on a thriving travel sector and right now we're lagging behind Europe, with our more stringent testing requirements and a red list significantly broader than our European peers\".\n\nJames Martin, director of policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, urged the government to \"fundamentally simplify\" the traffic light system to give businesses \"confidence and clarity\".\n\nHe also called on the government to \"step up efforts to drive down the cost of tests\" as cost remained a \"significant barrier to both business and leisure travellers\".\n\nAnd Tim Alderslade, chief executive of the industry body Airlines UK, said the announcement was \"another missed opportunity\", with UK travel opening up \"far slower\" than the rest of Europe.\n\nAre you in Mexico? Are you planning on returning before Sunday to avoid hotel quarantine?\n\nOr are you returning from Spain with a PCR test?\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.\n• None How are travel rules being relaxed?", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nOlympic gold medallist sprinter Elaine Thompson-Herah was mistakenly blocked on Instagram, its owner Facebook Inc has confirmed.\n\nThompson-Herah, the fastest woman in the world, was blocked on Tuesday for sharing videos from her 100 and 200 metre races on her Instagram account.\n\nHer access to the app was reinstated several hours later.\n\nThere are strict copyright restrictions on sharing content from the Games online.\n\nThompson-Herah said on Twitter that she was blocked from accessing her account because she posted videos that she \"did not have the right to do so\".\n\nA spokesperson for Facebook told Reuters news agency that while the content had been removed, the suspension had been wrongly applied.\n\nInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) guidelines mandate that athletes must not post Olympic Games content containing audio and video of the sporting event or medal ceremony.\n\nThis is because a set number of broadcasters hold exclusive rights to broadcast the Games. Their rights include distribution on social media.\n\nHowever athletes \"are invited to share the content\" posted by these broadcasters on their accounts, the IOC told Reuters.\n\nAny content that breaks these rules is removed immediately. It is not clear where the footage the sprinter posted came from.\n\nFor the time period that includes the 2018 Pyeongchang winter Olympics and the Tokyo Games, the IOC is set to receive more than $4bn (£2.8bn) in broadcasting rights. The majority of the money goes back into the Games and supporting sports and athletes.\n\nThompson-Herah secured an unprecedented 100m - 200m double-double. She recorded 21.53 seconds in the 200m, just 0.19 seconds off Florence Griffith-Joyner's long-standing world record.\n\nThompson-Herah is set to compete on Friday in the 4x100m relay final.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nFor skateboarder Sky Brown, life will never be the same again after she became Britain's youngest-ever Olympic medallist.\n\nThe limelight is nothing new for the 13-year-old, who has grown up with media attention and is a future superstar for the digital age in a sport which could become a mainstay of the Olympic scene.\n\nOn Wednesday, she won bronze in the women's park skateboarding at Tokyo 2020.\n\nHere are 13 things to know about the British skateboarding star.\n\nShe is Team GB's youngest-ever athlete - and youngest summer Games medallist\n\nBrown made history when she stepped out at the Ariake Urban Sports Park, as the youngest athlete to represent Team GB, breaking Margery Hinton's 93-year-old record.\n\nHinton was 13 years and 44 days when she swam at the Amsterdam Games of 1928, while Brown competed aged 13 years and 28 days.\n\nBrown then made history again as she won bronze - replacing Sarah Hardcastle as Britain's youngest summer Games medallist. The swimmer was aged 15 years and 113 days when she won silver and bronze in Los Angeles in 1984.\n\nHer mother is Japanese and her father is English\n\nBrown's dad Stu is English, but moved to the United States in his teens. He and Sky's mum Mieko met in Japan, where both Mieko and Sky were born and the family - which also includes Sky's brother Ocean - are now based.\n\nSkateboarding runs in the family; Stu first introduced his daughter to the sport while competing as an amateur, balancing his work in marketing.\n\nShe splits her time between California and Miyazaki\n\nBrown's skateboarding commitments - her first Olympic qualifier was in Long Beach when she was 10 - mean she splits her time between California and Miyazaki.\n\nHer American residence is Oceanside, about 35 miles away from San Diego, but her first language is Japanese.\n\nShe had a serious accident last year\n\nBrown is one of the beneficiaries of the Tokyo Games being postponed by a year because her place would have been in doubt had they gone ahead in 2020.\n\nIn May last year, Brown fell from a ramp in training, fracturing her skull, breaking her left arm and wrist and suffering lacerations to her heart and lungs.\n\n\"Sky had the gnarliest fall she's ever had and is lucky to be alive,\" Stu said at the time. \"Sky remains positive and strong. The whole medical team is shocked to see her positivity.\"\n\nBrown also tumbled before her Olympic qualifier, breaking her arm, but came first while wearing a protective cast.\n\nBrown first went viral aged four, when Stu posted a clip of her on Facebook, but she has never had a professional coach.\n\nShe spent hours watching and recreating clips from YouTube and has worked with the legendary Tony Hawk, but not in an official capacity.\n\nShe has 927,000 Instagram followers and 286,000 YouTube subscribers\n\nAfter her fall, she used Instagram to update her followers - a group which has since grown to almost one million.\n\nShe also shares a YouTube channel with her brother, which documents their lives and her journey towards the Olympics.\n\nOcean's Instagram account, which is managed by his mum, has 168,000 followers.\n\nShe turned professional at 10 and soon became Nike's youngest athlete\n\nBrown holds a number of sponsorship contracts, and was snapped up by Nike after turning professional in 2018.\n\nShe has since appeared in adverts with global icons Simone Biles and Serena Williams.\n\n\"I hope I can inspire other young girls by being the smallest skater at the Olympics,\" she told the Guardian earlier this year.\n\nShe does two days a week at school\n\nBecause her sporting career is so hectic and requires so much travel, Brown only attends school - in Orange County - twice a week and tops up her learning online.\n\nHer typical day also includes three hours' skating at various parks in Oceanside.\n\nShe is ranked third in the world\n\nSince winning bronze in the 2019 World Championships in Brazil, Brown has cemented her position as one of the world's best skaters, and is currently ranked in the top three.\n\nAged 11, she became the first female skater to land a frontside 540 at the X Games\n\nBefore her Olympic bronze, Brown left her mark at the X Games - an annual extreme sports event.\n\nIn 2019, she became the first female to successfully land a frontside 540 in the competition, rotating one and a half times on her board in mid-air.\n\nTaking advantage of the Californian climate, Brown loves to surf with her dad and brother, and will often be up at 5am to enjoy the waves.\n\nShe won Dancing with the Stars: Juniors in 2018\n\nBrown also loves dancing and singing, and in 2018 turned down a place at the X Games to focus on the the junior edition of Dancing with the Stars - the US version of Strictly Come Dancing.\n\nVictory with JT Church sparked interest in her story, and she was invited to appear on the Ellen DeGeneres show.\n\nWhile recovering from her accident last year, Brown released a song titled Girl, and has also brought out a book called Sky's the Limit.\n\nThe book's tagline is 'words of wisdom from a young champion'.\n• None 'In my eyes, anyone can be an influencer':", "Our viewing habits changed in lockdown with many people turning to streaming services\n\nUK adults spent nearly a third of their waking hours watching TV and online video content in 2020, according to a report from regulator Ofcom.\n\nScreen time, spurred on by pandemic lockdowns, was a daily average of five hours and 40 minutes, up 47 minutes on the previous year.\n\nFor the first time, more households had a Netflix subscription than a paid TV account such as cable or satellite.\n\nAnd nearly 80% of households now have their TVs connected to the internet.\n\nThe Media Nations Report, which Ofcom compiles annually, found that Covid-19 restrictions were the main drivers for the increase in screen time, especially for on-demand content.\n\nIt helped the UK's public service broadcasters secure some of their highest TV viewing figures for five years.\n\nNearly a third of UK adult internet users now regularly use TikTok\n\nBut the highest growth was seen in video-on-demand, with time spent on services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video almost doubling in 2020 to an estimated one hour and five minutes per person per day.\n\nSuch services were used by 60% of all UK households by the third quarter of 2020, up from 49% a year earlier.\n\nYouTube remained the most popular user-generated online video service, with people spending an estimated 41 minutes per day watching videos on its channels.\n\nBut Chinese-owned video app TikTok is also gaining in popularity and was being used by 31% of adult internet users by March 2021.\n\nYih-Choung Teh, Ofcom's group director of research, said: \"TV and online video have proved an important antidote to lockdown life, with people spending a third of their waking hours last year glued to screens for news and entertainment.\n\n\"The pandemic undoubtedly turbo-charged viewing to streaming services, with three in five UK homes now signed up.\"\n\nSome 29 of the 30 most watched titles on subscription services were on Netflix, including Bridgerton, The Dig, Behind her Eyes and Fate: The Winx Saga.\n\nAnd during the UK's winter lockdowns, people sought to cheer themselves up by spending almost an hour a day watching comedy programmes.\n\nThe average time spent watching traditional broadcast TV each day was just over three hours, but this was mostly driven by people aged 45 and over.\n\nYounger age groups spent far less time on linear TV, with those aged 16-24 only spending just over an hour watching broadcast content, slightly down from the figures in 2019.\n\nOther findings from the report include:", "Adrian Underwood died when the ship was hit on Thursday\n\nA British security guard killed in a drone attack on a ship off the coast of Oman has been named.\n\nAdrian Underwood and the merchant tanker's Romanian captain died when the MV Mercer Street was hit on Thursday.\n\nThe UK, US and Israel have blamed Iran, which denies responsibility.\n\nMr Underwood served in the British Army and was working for a Hereford-based security company, Ambrey, when he was killed.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police is investigating the incident on behalf of a coroner.\n\nMT Mercer Street is managed by the London-based company Zodiac Maritime.\n\nThe private maritime security guard's name was revealed by a newspaper in Fiji, the country of his birth, and later confirmed by sources in Britain.\n\nAmbrey said the former soldier had a distinguished record of service in the British Army.\n\nIt said his qualities were quickly recognised and he had been promoted to team leader.\n\nThe explosive-laden drone blew up close to the bridge.\n\nThe Mercer Street was attacked off the coast of Oman\n\nBritain, the US, Israel and Romania have blamed Iran, promising a co-ordinated response.\n\nSpeaking on the BBC's Today programme, Chief of Defence Staff General Sir Nick Carter said Iran had made a big mistake with the incident and that it needed to be deterred from attacking shipping.\n\nHe said: \"Convoys may not necessarily be the right method, we've used other methods, and ultimately we've got to keep reviewing this.\n\n\"But ultimately, we have got to restore deterrence because it is behaviour like that which leads to escalation, and that could very easily lead to miscalculation and would be very disastrous for all the peoples of the Gulf and the international community.\"\n\nThe UK's Maritime Trade Operations unit, which monitors security in the Gulf region, has warned ship operators to be extra vigilant in the Gulf of Oman.\n\nA second tanker was attacked on Tuesday, but the two events appeared to be unrelated, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said.\n\nUp to nine armed men are reported to have boarded a medium-sized tanker in the Gulf of Oman. But less than 24 hours later they had left the ship to go on its way.\n\nMaritime sources believe this event may have been related to criminal networks and smuggling.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "DeepSukebe's website promises a very easy way to instantly nudify clothed pictures of women\n\nMP Maria Miller wants a parliamentary debate on whether digitally generated nude images need to be banned.\n\nIt comes as another service which allows users to undress women in photos, using Artificial intelligence (AI), spreads rapidly on social media.\n\nThe website in question had more than five million visits in June alone, according to one analyst.\n\nCelebrities, including an Olympic athlete, are among those who users claim to have nudified.\n\nDeepSukebe's website promises users it can \"reveal the truth hidden under clothes\". Launched in 2020, it is unclear who is behind it. The BBC has contacted the company for comment, but received no reply.\n\nAccording to its Twitter page, it is an \"AI-leveraged nudifier\" whose mission is to \"make all men's dreams come true\".\n\nAnd in a blog post, the developers say that they are working on a more powerful version of the tool.\n\nMs Miller told the BBC it was time to consider a ban of such tools.\n\n\"Parliament needs to have the opportunity to debate whether nude and sexually explicit images generated digitally without consent should be outlawed, and I believe if this were to happen the law would change.\"\n\nShe said that it should be an offence to distribute sexual images online without consent to reflect \"the severity of the impact on people's lives\".\n\n\"If software providers develop this technology, they are complicit in a very serious crime and should be required to design their products to stop this happening.\"\n\nShe has been campaigning about so-called revenge porn - when nude or sexually explicit images are distributed without consent - for the last six years.\n\n\"At the moment, making, taking or distributing without consent intimate sexual images online or through digital technology falls mostly outside of the law.\n\n\"It should be a sexual offence to distribute sexual images online without consent, reflecting the severity of the impact on people's lives.\"\n\nShe wants the issue to be included in the forthcoming Online Safety Bill.\n\nCampaign group Cease (Centre To End All Sexual Exploitation) told the BBC it also believed nudification tools needed to be tackled in the Bill.\n\n\"The law is not adequate in this area,\" said chief executive Vanessa Morse.\n\n\"Technology which is designed to objectify and humiliate women should be shut down, and porn sites which profit from mass distribution of these images must be forced to proactively block their upload,\" she said.\n\nShe added the fact that the onus is currently on victims \"often traumatised and humiliated\" to have such images removed from the internet was simply not fair.\n\nNudifier tools, as they are known, are not new.\n\nDeepNude was launched in 2019, but the creators quickly withdrew the service and offered refunds, following a backlash.\n\nCurrently nudification tools only work for creating naked women - something one developer acknowledged was sexist\n\nThey acknowledged the probability people would misuse it was \"very high\", adding that the world was not ready for such a controversial tool.\n\nBut similar services remain on the market, many using the DeepNude source code, which was made publicly available by the original developers.\n\nWhile many often produce clumsy, sometimes laughable results, the new website uses a proprietary algorithm which one analyst described as \"putting it years ahead of the competition\".\n\nThe BBC spoke to a developer behind one of the many nudification tools available online.\n\nIvan Bravo acknowledged that such creations \"are not ethical, mainly in the way it is currently used and the way the original developers started advertising it as 'nude your friends'\".\n\n\"However, we don't live in a perfect world and people have always been looking for ways to do this, so it was only a matter of time before such a technology came into existence.\"\n\nHe added that the fact the technology was only currently able to nudify women was sexist.\n\n\"Personally I would also like to have a version for nude men and even fictional characters like anime, so that all people can enjoy or experiment with this kind of adult entertainment.\n\n\"The goal is to find what kind of uses we can give to this technology within the legal and ethical [framework].\"", "Barbie maker Mattel has created a doll of the scientist who designed the Oxford coronavirus vaccine, Prof Dame Sarah Gilbert.\n\nDame Sarah said she found the creation \"very strange\" at first - but she hoped it would inspire children.\n\n\"My wish is that my doll will show children careers they may not be aware of, like a vaccinologist,\" she said.\n\nHer Barbie is one of six to honour women working in science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem).\n\nThe others include an Australian medic who helped create a reusable gown for health workers, and a Brazilian biomedical researcher.\n\nVaccinologist Dame Sarah - who was recognised with a damehood in the Queen's Birthday Honours - began designing a coronavirus vaccine in early 2020 when Covid first emerged in China.\n\nHer vaccine - the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab - is now the most widely used around the world, with doses sent to more than 170 countries.\n\n\"I am passionate about inspiring the next generation of girls into Stem careers and hope that children who see my Barbie will realise how vital careers in science are to help the world around us,\" said Dame Sarah.\n\nIn recent years, toymaker Mattel has responded to criticism that its Barbie doll sets an unrealistic image of womanhood.\n\nIt now offers dolls themed around careers such as a firefighter, doctor and astronaut - and in a range of skin tones beyond its original white, blonde doll that first launched in 1959.\n\nSales of Barbie dolls rose to a six-year high last year, as the pandemic saw parents stock up on toys for their children.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'I was taken aback by the likeness!' - Asher-Smith meets her toy doll", "Architecture student Mersei Mongaba works on a modular house made from sustainable Finnish larch, which has doubled in cost\n\nThe price of timber has risen sharply with builders struggling to get supplies, as post-lockdown construction and DIY projects create huge demand.\n\nThe Timber Trade Federation (TTF) said suppliers were \"working around the clock\" but are \"struggling to keep up\".\n\nClimate change is also increasing the pressure on supply with more wildfires and pests that kill trees.\n\nThe UK imports around 80% of its timber and many are calling for the UK's forestry industry to be nurtured.\n\nThe government said it was \"committed to trebling tree planting rates by the end of this Parliament\" and creating many more woodlands to boost the supply and demand for UK-grown timber.\n\nSweden, which supplies almost half of the structural wood used in the UK, has recorded its lowest stock levels for 20 years.\n\nDavid Hopkins, chief executive of the TTF, said: \"The pandemic has been the biggest factor causing the problems between supply and demand… but there are other factors at play. We've got these huge forest fires raging across North America that will take lots of timber out of production.\n\n\"The fires, and now the bugs, are taking out a significant volume from the market.\"\n\nParts of the west coast of the US saw record-breaking wildfires in 2020, and there are early signs this season could be severe\n\nThese ash trees in Hereford are felled after being infected by ash dieback. Climate change makes trees more vulnerable to pests and infection\n\nGraham Taylor, managing director of Pryor and Rickett Silviculture, manages around 50,000 acres of forestry across the UK. He said there was \"no doubt\" the world's natural forests were suffering with climate change, and that yields were dropping.\n\n\"Canada is reducing its annual cut because its own natural forests are under threat from fire, pest and disease. Because it is such a big producer, when it pulls back, the rest of the world catches a cold.\"\n\nOne of those affected is Wilf Meynell, an architect and project manager at Studio Bark, which has created a sustainable, modular, all-timber system used in many self-build projects called U-Build.\n\nHe said: \"Everyone's taking a hit. Our entire business is focused around timber. The price of birch ply has doubled, and the cost of our standard work has risen by 25%.\"\n\nMr Meynell's \"giant Lego with bolts\" is made from sustainably managed Finnish spruce - so for every tree cut down, six more are planted. In contrast, concrete is carbon-intensive and hugely damaging to the environment.\n\nAs cities grow, architects and designers are recognising the need to decarbonise the built environment. The World Bank has predicted demand is going to rise for wood products by 4% a year for the next 30-40 years.\n\nIn the UK, forest covers only around 13% of the land. According to the National Farmers Union, in 2019, less than 60% of England's existing woodlands were in \"active management\".\n\nThese architects of the future believe sustainability must be at the heart of building - and wood has a key role to play\n\nMr Hopkins, from the TTF, said this had to change. \"Why is it that the UK has the lowest forest cover in Europe, when we're actually one of the biggest importers and users of timber in the world?\n\n\"Now, particularly as we're hosting the climate change talks, we need to be talking to our own politicians in this country asking what are we going to do about it.\"\n\nMr Meynell had been forced to find a local supplier for some of his timber on a site in Ross-on-Wye. He said it worked well, reducing emissions and supporting the local economy.\n\n\"It's about educating people within the construction sector that UK timber does have great qualities and is affordable and can be sourced easily… if we've got the forestry to back it up, we could start solving some of these problems.\"\n\nArchitecture student Mersei Mongaba, who has been volunteering on his site, said that it was important not to be \"greedy\" with resources.\n\n\"When we talk about this subject, we put trees in one whole category, but there are so many different types. There are some types - like spruce - where you're OK to cut a certain amount, but with others - such as oak - we have to be a lot more careful and control how we are cutting them down.\"\n\nThe monoculture commercial conifer planting of the 1980s caused severe habitat decline. However, forest manager Mr Taylor said \"the wrong trees were planted in the wrong place\".\n\nOak saplings take around a hundred years to become mature trees\n\n\"There needs to be a blend - a large amount of commercial forest because this is about wood production, but there also needs to be extensive semi-natural planting for biodiversity.\"\n\nHe said decisions needed to be made now. \"It's a long old business… it's 30-40 years for conifers. At the moment we are in the phase of producing mature oak, from trees that were planted in the Victorian period.\"\n\nThe TTF predict the disruption to supplies will continue for much of the rest of the year.", "Footballer Jamie Vardy's phone can be inspected as part of a libel battle between his wife and Coleen Rooney, a judge has ruled.\n\nRebekah Vardy is suing Rooney for libel after Rooney claimed fake stories had been leaked to newspapers by Vardy's Instagram account.\n\nThe wife of ex-England player Wayne Rooney was dubbed \"Wagatha Christie\" during the row, which began in 2019.\n\nA full trial will likely take place next year, the judge indicated.\n\nAt a hearing on Wednesday, the High Court heard both women will be using experts to analyse the Instagram data on relevant devices ahead of the trial.\n\nJudge Roger Eastman said devices that had used Rebekah Vardy's account - which could include her husband's phone or computer - should be \"up for grabs for inspection and analysis by the experts\".\n\nThe court previously heard that other people had accessed Mrs Vardy's Instagram account, including her assistant Caroline Watt and Jamie Vardy's social media manager.\n\nRebekah Vardy's legal team say they're making third-party Instagram data available for the court and denied any secrecy.\n\nColeen Rooney (right) accused Rebekah Vardy of leaking stories to the press about her private life in 2019\n\nThe judge said Instagram experts would be brought in to \"explore what has gone on\".\n\nHe added: \"In order for the expert to explore what has gone on... they need to have access to more than just the personal devices of Mrs Vardy and Mrs Rooney.\n\n\"The outreach and depth with which Instagram matters circulate, and can be circulated, is rather wider than that.\"\n\n\"In light of the fact Mrs Vardy has given access (to her Instagram) to Ms Watt and her husband, it seems to me at least they and their devices are, for the purposes of disclosure, within her possession and control.\"\n\nSocial media was set alight on 9 October 2019 when Coleen Rooney pressed send on her Instagram and Twitter posts, accusing Rebekah Vardy of leaking details about her life to the tabloids.\n\nIn an effort to work out which of her friends had been sharing stories, she'd published different fake stories on Instagram to different people, and monitored which ones ended up as newspaper stories.\n\nRebekah Vardy took to social media to deny any involvement in the leaking.\n\nAs the argument raged on, Vardy's lawyers said her husband faced abuse on the pitch which meant they couldn't let their young children attend games anymore.\n\nVardy decided to sue for defamation last year in July, with court documents written by her lawyers saying the incident had affected her mental and physical health.\n\nWhen Rooney's social media posts were released, Vardy was seven months pregnant and her lawyers claim they led to her being taken to hospital three times with anxiety attacks.\n\nThe pair originally became friends through their husbands, former Manchester United and England player Wayne Rooney and Leicester striker Jamie Vardy.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nFirst LV= Insurance Test, Trent Bridge (day one of five)\n\nEngland began their series against India in depressingly predictable fashion with another atrocious batting collapse at Trent Bridge.\n\nThe home side were bundled out for 183 on the opening day of the first Test, at one stage losing six wickets for 22 runs in 9.5 overs.\n\nThey were indebted to captain Joe Root, who stroked a classy 64 and added 72 with Jonny Bairstow.\n\nBut it was Bairstow's demise on the stroke of tea that sparked the carnage, with Sam Curran's cavalier 27 not out late on adding to the chaos.\n\nIndia's four-pronged pace attack was superb, bowling a full length to utilise the assistance on offer, particularly when the floodlights were turned on.\n\nJasprit Bumrah claimed 4-46 and Mohammed Shami 3-28 for the tourists, who could even afford to omit masterful off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.\n\nIndia moved to 21-0 by the close, with openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul largely untroubled.\n\nThe forecast is mixed for the remaining four days, but India may have already made a decisive move towards going 1-0 up in the five-Test series.\n• None Sibley and Lawrence out of their depth - Vaughan\n\nEngland beat India 4-1 here three years ago, but before this contest began there was a growing feeling that the tourists could earn their first victory in this country for 14 years.\n\nVirat Kohli's men claimed a famous series win in Australia during the winter and appear to have all the tools to be successful in the UK.\n\nEngland, on the other hand, have an inexperienced, inconsistent batting line-up and are missing the talismanic Ben Stokes, who has taken a break from the game to prioritise his mental wellbeing. Without the all-rounder, the hosts are struggling to balance their attack, and once again left out spinner Jack Leach.\n• None Does anyone think England will win the series? Pundits make their predictions\n\nIn addition, they have had almost no preparation for this game. Only Rory Burns and Dom Sibley have faced more than 100 deliveries in first-class cricket since the series defeat by New Zealand in June.\n\nZak Crawley had faced six, while Root, Bairstow, Dan Lawrence, Jos Buttler and Sam Curran had not played a single red-ball innings. In the case of Bairstow, Buttler and Curran, their last first-class cricket came on the winter tours of Sri Lanka and India.\n\nOn a pitch that gradually lost its green tinge under a sky that became increasingly leaden, England's deficiencies were laid bare in a familiar clatter of wickets.\n• 50.2 overs - Bairstow lbw Shami 29 (138-4 ) - Recalled once more, Bairstow looked in good order, only to fall to an old problem, one that nipped back to trap him in front.\n• 50.6 overs - Lawrence c Pant b Shami 0 (138-5) - In the same Shami over, but the other side of tea, Lawrence followed one down the leg side and was absolutely crestfallen as he departed.\n• 55.5 overs - Buttler c Pant b Bumrah 0 (145-6 ) - Playing red-ball cricket for the first time in six months, Buttler endured a torturous 18 deliveries before edging Bumrah behind.\n• 58.1 overs - Root lbw Shakur 64 (155-7 ) - The captain batted beautifully, but even he was guilty of a poor error, playing across the line to the first ball of a new spell.\n• 58.4 overs - Robinson c Shami b Thakur 0 (155-8) - Recalled after the controversy of historic tweets that overshadowed his debut, Ollie Robinson played an awful shovel to mid-on.\n• 59.6 overs - Broad lbw Bumrah 4 (9-160) - Sitting on the back foot, Broad was pinned by an arrowing Bumrah yorker.\n\nWhere might England be without their captain?\n\nIn the absence of Stokes, who is not only Root's vice-captain but also his great friend, the skipper is the lone class act in the batting line-up.\n\nRoot was initially skittish, taking three fours off his first six balls, but grew into an innings of class that yielded his 50th Test half-century and also took him past Alastair Cook's tally of 15,737 to become England's highest run-scorer in all international cricket.\n\nThat he fell amid the collapse tells a story - it is too much for England to keep relying on Root.\n\nThis summer and in the Ashes in Australia this winter, England will struggle if the batters fail to support the skipper.\n\nLike England, India have done little in the run-up to this series. Since losing the World Test Championship final to New Zealand in June they have played one warm-up match and trained among themselves.\n\nHowever, if their stellar batting line-up can get to grips with English conditions, their skilful bowlers have the ability to trouble the hosts, as was proved in Nottingham.\n\nWith the ball swinging throughout, India were relentless on a full length, providing a persistent examination which England ultimately failed.\n\nThere were surreal moments, too. In the same over that Crawley survived a review for caught behind off Mohammed Siraj, excitable captain Kohli opted for another, and was vindicated second time around.\n\nLater, James Anderson overturned being given lbw to Bumrah, only for a searing yorker to uproot his stumps next ball.\n\nAfter that, the uncomplicated techniques of Rohit and Rahul put England's batting into context.\n\n'England just crumpled' - what they said\n\nEngland batting coach Marcus Trescothick on BBC Test Match Special: \"There's a lot of white-ball cricket in the middle of summer - that's always a challenge. We'd like a bit more red-ball cricket.\n\n\"They (the players) felt good coming in. You walk out of the nets feeling good. Maybe the battle of a real Test match just highlighted that you need a little bit more.\"\n\nFormer England spinner Vic Marks: \"After that Root-Bairstow partnership, the rest of the England team just crumpled.\n\n\"Bumrah was exceptional but England have really squandered an opportunity today.\"\n\nIndia all-rounder Shardul Thakur: \"It was a good battle between bat and ball in the morning. In the afternoon we felt it would be a good pitch to bat on but the wicket of Jonny Bairstow opened them up.\"\n• None 'In my eyes, anyone can be an influencer':", "Watch Sky Brown become Britain's youngest Olympic medallist aged 13 as she wins bronze in the thrilling debut of the women's park skateboarding.\n\nWatch live coverage of Tokyo 2020 on BBC One, BBC Two, the BBC Sport website, app and BBC iPlayer\n\nCOVERAGE DETAILS: Tokyo Olympics: Day-by-day guide to the key events, big stars and British medal hopes", "Tributes have been paid to Amanda Selby, who died at a holiday park\n\nThe family of a 15-year-old who died at a caravan park have described her as a \"caring, thoughtful\" girl who \"liked to help others\".\n\nAmanda Selby, from Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, died at Ty Mawr Holiday Park in Towyn, Conwy county, on Saturday.\n\nHer brother Matthew Selby, 19, has been charged with her murder.\n\nIn a statement, her family said she would be \"very sadly missed\".\n\nThey said: \"Amanda was a loving daughter and grand-daughter - she was caring, thoughtful, liked to help others and very much loved.\"\n\nAmanda's school, Droylsden Academy in Manchester, said: \"Our school family is devastated by this awful news.\n\n\"Amanda was a lovely student and she will be sorely missed by students and staff.\"\n\nJiu Jitsu club Kamiza Dojo said Amanda and her mother had been a big part of the club for many years.\n\nIt said: \"Our club is saddened to hear the tragic news that one of our students, Amanda Selby, has lost her life while on holiday with her family.\n\n\"The Kamiza Dojo family is truly devastated by this awful news....\n\n\"We are truly heartbroken, Amanda will be sorely missed.\"\n\nMatthew Selby was remanded in custody after being charged with murder\n\nEarlier, Mr Selby, of Windermere Crescent, Ashton-under-Lyne, appeared at Mold Crown Court via videolink from HMP Berwyn and spoke only to confirm his identity.\n\nHe was remanded in custody and a provisional trial date was set for 28 February. It is expected to last between five and seven days.\n\nHe is also scheduled to appear in court for a plea hearing on 29 October.\n\nAmanda Selby died after an incident at Ty Mawr Holiday Park, near Abergele", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ever Given: Ship docks in Felixstowe after Suez Canal delay\n\nA huge container ship that blocked the Suez Canal has docked in the UK for the first time since causing disruption to global shipping.\n\nThe Ever Given blocked the major shipping lane in Egypt for nearly a week earlier this year.\n\nIt was held for more than three months amid a dispute over compensation.\n\nThe 400m-long (1,300ft) ship, originally due to arrive in early April, finally docked at Felixstowe in Suffolk at about 16:30 on Tuesday.\n\nThe Ever Given is carrying goods valued at $775m\n\nShip-spotters lined the beach as the Ever Given approached port.\n\nThe ship had been heading for Rotterdam when it ploughed into the sandy bank of a single-lane stretch of the canal on 23 March.\n\nThe beach at Felixstowe was lined with deckchairs and ship-spotters as the Ever Given approached\n\nThe ship has now arrived at Felixstowe - months later than expected but with its fame - or infamy - assured.\n\nAs it turned the corner for the home straight, noise levels from those waiting dropped noticeably to almost a hush, only to be broken by children shouting \"It's here!\".\n\nThe crowds remain, but have now reduced by about half. All eyes were on it as it manoeuvred into berth seven to complete its long journey.\n\nA few voices could be heard saying it was a \"little bit of an anti-climax,\" but all were pleased to have witnessed the end of the ship's epic struggle to get here.\n\nMost people said it was worth the wait.\n\nIt was stuck for nearly a week, causing one of the biggest traffic jams in shipping history.\n\nHundreds of ships were delayed as they waited for the canal to be unblocked and some vessels were forced to take the much longer route around the southern tip of Africa.\n\nWhen it was finally freed from the canal, the ship was delayed for a further three months due to a battle over compensation\n\nWhen the ship, which carries cargo between Asia and Europe, was finally freed it was held up again until an agreement between Japanese owner, Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd, and canal authorities was reached over compensation.\n\nThe backlog from the ship's delay has led to a leap in shipping rates and sent the cost of containers soaring from £2,500 last year to £15,000 now.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nDirector of Seaport Freight Services, Steve Parks, said most of what is sold online and in UK comes from China.\n\nMr Parks, who is hoping to receive three consignments from the Ever Given by Friday, said the price rises were \"bound to reflect upon prices in the shops\".\n\n\"We are already looking at moving Christmas goods and have no option but to continue shipping,\" he added.\n\nThe Ever Given, which made headlines when it blocked the Suez Canal in Egypt, has docked in Felixstowe\n\nGoods in the Ever Given's 18,000 containers have an estimated value of $775m, but many of them will hold fruit and vegetables which will have to be destroyed, having passed their use-by date.\n\nJake Slinn, owner of JS Global Cargo & Freight Disposal in Ipswich, said his business was expecting 20 to 30 containers from the ship.\n\nHe explained that most ships contained some goods that needed to be destroyed as they had gone out of date, or sold on if their original buyer no longer wanted them.\n\nFoodstuffs are destroyed via anaerobic digestion, while the company will also deal with a host of items from TVs to clothing.\n\n\"We don't know what it is going to be until we crack the doors open,\" said Mr Flynn.\n\nThe Ever Given is 400m-long (1,312ft) and weighs 200,000 tonnes\n\nWendy, who had travelled from Trimley to see the Ever Given arrive in Felixstowe, told BBC Radio Suffolk: \"I've been following it from the Suez Canal, and I said to the grandchildren 'We will bring you down to see it when it hits Felixstowe'.\"\n\nOne ship-spotter said the arrival had been \"a long time coming, but it's worth it,\" while another said: \"It's just all the publicity it has had. To see it finally here is quite amazing.\"\n\nThe Ever Given's next destination is Hamburg, Germany.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The child was fatally injured at the Fenwick (pictured on a previous occasion) department store on Colchester High Street\n\nA five-year-old boy has died after sustaining a serious head injury at a department store.\n\nHe was injured at the Fenwick store in Colchester High Street on 27 July.\n\nThe boy, who has not been named, was taken to Colchester Hospital but police on Tuesday confirmed he had died.\n\nMia Fenwick, director at Fenwick, said it was \"with great sadness that we have learned of the passing of a young boy following an incident at our Colchester store last week\".\n\nShe said: \"All our thoughts and prayers are with the child's family and friends at this very painful time.\n\n\"We continue to work closely with the local authorities to understand how this happened.\"\n\nShe added the Colchester store would remain closed on Wednesday \"as a mark of respect\".\n\nCh Insp Rob Huddleston, district commander for Colchester, Essex, said: \"This is a truly heart-breaking incident and all of our thoughts are with the boy's loved ones.\"\n\nHe said he and his teams in Colchester were \"extremely saddened\" to learn of the boy's death.\n\nThe child's family are being supported by specialist officers.\n\nNo further details have been released about the incident.\n\nA spokesman for Colchester Borough Council, which is investigating what happened, said the authority was \"deeply saddened by the news\".\n\nHe said: \"Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this tragic time.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nElaine Thompson-Herah confirmed her place among the pantheon of sprint greats as she secured an unprecedented women's 100m-200m double-double with a sensational victory over the longer distance in Tokyo.\n\nThe 29-year-old Jamaican surged home in 21.53 seconds, just 0.19 seconds off Florence Griffith-Joyner's long-standing world record, to back up her individual golds from Rio 2016.\n\nIt is the second-fastest time in history.\n\nTrailing in her draught, Namibian teenager Christine Mboma, who was barred from her favoured 400m two weeks before the Games on account of her naturally high testosterone levels, took silver in 21.81.\n\nGabrielle Thomas, the American champion, took bronze in 21.87.\n\nGriffith-Joyner's 21.34-second mark, set in the final of the 1988 Games in Seoul, has long seemed unassailable. But Thomas' 21.61 run in the US trials in June and Thompson-Herah, who became the second-fastest woman of all time over 100m on Saturday, have brought it back into view with the help of a high-tech track and carbon-stiffened spikes.\n\nIt may yet be Mboma who could finally claim the record however. Having only turned 18 in May, the Namibian had run only one 200m before this season, a pedestrian 25.05. But her awesome finishing speed swallowed up Jamaican great Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and several others over the final 50m.\n\nWork on her start and the new experience of running the bend could quickly bring her time lower quickly.\n\nThompson-Herah, Fraser-Pryce and 100m bronze medallist Shericka Jackson will attempt to make sure Jamaica go one better than their 4x100m silver from Rio in Friday's relay final.\n\nBefore Thompson-Herah's victory, British teenager Keely Hodgkinson took 800m silver, shattering Kelly Holmes' 26-year-old British record with a tactically impeccable 1:55.88 run.\n\nFellow 19-year-old Athing Mu of the United States took gold, although Jemma Reekie was edged out for bronze by fast-finishing American Raevyn Rogers.\n\nArmand Duplantis won the first of what will surely be a clutch of global titles as he left the field behind in the pole vault.\n\nThe 21-year-old Swede had to switch to chasing himself and history by the end of the competition. After becoming the only man to clear 6.02m, he raised the bar to 6.19m, narrowly failing in an attempt to improve on the world record he set in Glasgow last year.\n\nBritain's Harry Coppell finished seventh with a best of 5.80m.\n\nPozzi and King go through as Lyles relies on others\n\nEarlier in the evening in Tokyo, Britons Andrew Pozzi and David King progressed to the 110m hurdles semi-finals in times of 13.50 and 13.55 seconds respectively. Jamaica's defending champion Omar McLeod failed to make the Jamaica team for Tokyo, and world silver medallist Sergey Shubenkov and Rio silver medallist Orlando Ortega are now also out of contention after pulling out of the heats.\n\nAndrew Butchart finished seventh in his 5,000m heat but advanced to Friday's final via his 13:31.23 time. Marc Scott finishing two tenths of a second off fourth and an automatic spot in the final, but was eliminated with his 13:39.61 not matching the pace set in the other heat.\n\nScott Lincoln fell short of the shot put final with a best of 20.42m failing to make the grade.\n\nSeventeen-year-old American Erriyon Knighton, who broke Jamaican great Usain Bolt's under-18 world record in June, put in a hugely impressive performance in the first 200m semi-final with an assured 20.02-second victory.\n\nWorld champion Noah Lyles almost paid for his complacency, having to rely on a fastest loser spot after clocking 19.99 and third place as he slowed before the line. Canada's Andre de Grasse, who won 100m bronze on Sunday, was fastest into Wednesday's final with a personal best of 19.73.\n\nBritons Adam Gemili and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake failed to advance from the heats earlier in the day.\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nNorway's Karsten Warholm ran a stunning men's 400m hurdles race to obliterate his previous world record and take gold at Tokyo 2020.\n\nWarholm, 25, finished in 45.94 seconds to slash more than seven tenths off his old record, while American Rai Benjamin was hot on his heels to win silver having also beaten the previous record.\n\nWarholm had set the previous world record of 46.70 in Oslo in July.\n\nBrazil's Alison dos Santos took the bronze medal with a time of 46.72.\n\n\"You know the cliche that it hasn't sunk in yet? I don't think it has but I feel ecstatic,\" Warholm, who now holds the European, world and Olympic titles, told BBC Sport.\n• None Lego and practical jokes - inside the world of 'Viking' Warholm\n\n\"I can't believe the time, it's so fast! A lot of the time I am asked about the perfect race... I said it didn't exist, but this is the closest I've ever come.\n\n\"I told myself going into the race, remember all the work you have put in. It was the only thing missing from my [medal] collection.\n\n\"I can't describe how important this is for me. This is what I do morning until night - it's huge.\"\n• None Super shoes: Is technology helping to break records? Listen to the Sports Desk podcast\n\nIt was tipped to be one of the most exhilarating races at the Games after Benjamin had come within five hundredths of a second of taking the then-world record in winning the US trials this summer.\n\nWarholm established a strong lead when he raced out of the blocks but Benjamin threatened to claw him back before the Norwegian's final push for the line.\n\nHe roared with delight when he looked up at the screen to see his time, ripped his shirt in celebration and posed for photographs next to the new world record.\n\nTwo-time world 110m hurdles champion Colin Jackson told BBC TV: \"When you talk about world records, this is up there with Usain Bolt's time of 9.58 seconds in the 100m and up there with Flo Jo's 10.49 seconds in the 100m.\n\n\"This is one of the most outstanding world records and I'm pretty sure that world record will outlive me.\n\n\"It's just breathtaking. Wow. I am truly in shock.\"\n\nFormer 1500m Olympic silver medallist Steve Cram added: \"No wonder he rips his shirt apart - he is Superman in this event!\n\n\"I cannot believe what we have just seen. Two men running times you could only dream of.\"\n• None 'In my eyes, anyone can be an influencer':", "The drummer with US rock band The Offspring says he has been dropped from their forthcoming tour after refusing the Covid vaccine for medical reasons.\n\nPete Parada said a doctor had advised him not to have the jab because he has a rare autoimmune disorder.\n\nHe wrote on Instagram that he's \"unable to comply with what is increasingly becoming an industry mandate\".\n\nAs a result, \"it has recently been decided that I am unsafe to be around, in the studio and on tour\", he said.\n\nThe band, who are due to start a US tour on 8 August, have not responded to his comments.\n\nParada joined the group in 2007 and it is not clear whether he has now left permanently.\n\nPete Parada with The Offspring on stage at the 2014 Download Festival\n\nThe musician said he first experienced Guillain-Barré syndrome, where a person's immune system damages their nerves, in childhood and the effects had got \"progressively worse over my lifetime\".\n\nFor him, the risks of having a Covid vaccine \"far outweigh the benefits\", he said.\n\nThe drummer, who is in his late 40s, said he caught Covid over a year ago and only had mild symptoms, \"so I am confident I'd be able to handle it again\", he wrote.\n\n\"But I'm not so certain I'd survive another post-vaccination round of Guillain-Barré syndrome.\"\n\nThe condition has been listed as a very rare side-effect of the Janssen Covid-19 vaccine, while there has been a warning about a reported connection to the AstraZeneca vaccine, although that has not been confirmed.\n\nUK charity GAIN - Guillain-Barré & Associated Inflammatory Neuropathies - says \"the benefits of vaccine far outweigh any risk\" and recommends that people with a history of the syndrome get fully vaccinated.\n\nThe Offspring's hits including Self Esteem and Pretty Fly (For A White Guy), and their latest album reached number three in the UK this April.\n\nParada added that he had \"no negative feelings towards my band\". He wrote: \"They're doing what they believe is best for them, while I am doing the same.\"\n\nBut people should be free to make a choice about the vaccine \"unburdened by coercion\", he said.\n\nOn Tuesday, New York became the first major US city to require proof of vaccination for people attending concerts and other indoor venues.\n\nAlso on Tuesday, the Met Gala and Sundance Film Festival - two major entertainment industry events - both said they would require attendees to have had the Covid vaccine.\n\nThe Covid vaccine has proved particularly divisive in the world of rock music.\n\nStone Roses singer Ian Brown has been a vocal critic, promoting a number of baseless conspiracy theories but explaining that he has \"a family member whose health was destroyed by [previous] vaccinations\".\n\nGuitar legend Eric Clapton has refused to play concerts at venues requiring so-called vaccine passports for entry, saying he had experienced a \"severe\" reaction to the AstraZeneca vaccine.\n\nRichard Ashcroft, frontman for 90s rockers The Verve, pulled out of the Tramlines festival this summer after it became part of the government's pilot events programme, using the hashtags \"#naturalrebel\" and \"#theydontownme\".\n\nBut very few contemporary bands have spoken out against the vaccine, and other rock legends have encouraged their fans to have it.\n\nOn Monday, Sir Paul McCartney tweeted an old picture of himself receiving a dose alongside the words \"BE COOL. GET VAX'D\".\n\nThis 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 Paul McCartney 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.\n\nIn April, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger released lockdown track Eazy Sleazy, which poked fun at vaccine misinformation.\n\nThe Foo Fighters played to a fully-vaccinated crowd at New York's Madison Square Garden in June, while Kiss star Gene Simmons has said their concertgoers must also have had the jab, telling them: \"I don't care if you think the Earth is flat.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nAn emotional Sky Brown broke down in tears after becoming Great Britain's youngest Olympic medal winner of all time. Aged 13 years and 28 days, Brown produced a composed final run to finish third in the women's park skateboarding final and claim bronze at the Tokyo Games. \"It was a super sick final,\" she told BBC Sport. \"All the girls were ripping it, it was insane. \"This is incredible - it feels unreal! I'm so happy to be here - I'm blessed. \"I was definitely bumped. I fell twice, that made the last run feel even better.\" Brown replaces Sarah Hardcastle as Britain's youngest summer Games medallist - the swimmer was aged 15 years and 113 days when she won silver and bronze in Los Angeles at the 1984 Olympics. Japan's Sakura Yosozumi, 19, won gold with a best score of 60.09 points, while 12-year-old compatriot Kokona Hiraki claimed silver with 59.04 as the sport made its Olympic debut with athletes performing tricks in a huge concrete bowl. The eight skateboarders in the final, who had an average age of 17, showed incredible camaraderie, cheering every trick and consoling each other after each fall. Brown, who has also broken Margery Hinton's 93-year-old record to become the youngest athlete to represent Team GB at a summer Games, finished second in qualifying. She made mistakes in the first two of her three runs in the final and was fourth going into her last effort. However, she showed great maturity to nail her final run, landing a kickflip indy - the trick that caused her to fall in her first two attempts - to score 56.47. She threw her arms in the air and sunk to her knees after completing a clean run and her father Stu was overcome with emotion, but they still faced a nervous wait to find out if she'd done enough to take home a historic medal with one athlete still to go. And when Japan's world number one and pre-competition favourite Misugu Okamoto fell, confirming bronze for Brown, she couldn't hold back the tears as she hugged her rivals before being lifted in the air by her father. The finalists showed solidarity and rushed to support Japan's world number one Misugu Okamoto after she fell on her final run Even Brown's face mask could not hide her huge smile as she received her bronze medal on the podium at the Ariake Sports Park. When asked what she would be doing next, Brown replied: \"Hang out with some friends, and party!\" The result is even more impressive given Brown is \"lucky to be alive\" after suffering a serious injury in May last year that would have kept her out of the Olympics had they taken place as scheduled in 2020. She crashed between two ramps while attempting a jump in training, fracturing her skull, breaking her left arm and wrist and suffering lacerations to her heart and lungs. Brown also tumbled before her Olympic qualifier, breaking her arm, but came first while wearing a protective cast.\n• None 13 thing to know about 13-year-old Olympic skateboarding medallist Sky Brown Sky Brown celebrated her bronze medal with her father Stu Brown's dad Stu is English, but moved to the United States in his teens. He and Sky's mum Mieko met in Japan, where both Mieko and Sky were born and the family - which also includes Sky's brother Ocean - are now based. The Browns split their time between California and Miyazaki.Their American residence is Oceanside, about 35 miles away from San Diego, but Sky's first language is Japanese. Skateboarding runs in the family. Stu first introduced his daughter to the sport while competing as an amateur, balancing his work in marketing. Sky has never had a skateboarding coach and learns her tricks from YouTube. Her first Olympic qualifier was in Long Beach when she was 10. \"Look how good that was. That was amazing. Sakura Yosozumi - what a run. What a standard of skateboarding. It was nothing short of brilliant. Kokokna Hiraki is 12 years old. She can't even legally buy a lottery ticket. \"Then you've got Sky Brown coming out at 13, showing the pressure and composure of a 50-year-old. Having that mental resilience to fall not once, but twice, and then to go in on your third run and try it again. The fact she's 13 and has been able to do that is nothing short of incredible. It's unbelievable, it's so brilliant and just incredible stories across the board. \"I hate to say this but I'm going to say it anyway. Skateboarding has won. It has come to these Olympics and both the street and park disciplines have been brilliant.\"\n• None 'In my eyes, anyone can be an influencer':", "A Belarusian athlete who refused orders to fly home early from the Olympics has arrived in Poland, where she has been given a humanitarian visa.\n\nThe row started after she criticised coaches after being entered into a race at short notice after some teammates were found to be ineligible to compete.\n\nShe told the BBC her actions were not a political protest. \"I love my country and I didn't betray my country.\"\n\n\"This is about the mistakes that have been made by our officials at the Olympics,\" the sprinter told the BBC's Newshour.\n\nThe athlete made a stop-over in the Austrian capital, Vienna, before boarding the flight for the last leg of the journey.\n\nAn Austrian official said Ms Timanovskaya was tired and concerned for her future, but doing well under the circumstances.\n\nThe athlete voiced fears for her safety after she was forced to pack her belongings and driven to Tokyo's Haneda airport on Sunday.\n\nShe was given police protection before being moved to the Polish embassy in Tokyo, where she stayed until travelling to Narita airport on Wednesday.\n\nShe had been due to fly directly to Warsaw but a Polish government source told Reuters news agency that the plan was changed after details of her journey became public, prompting concerns about her privacy and safety.\n\nA number of journalists were said to have booked seats on the direct flight.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Krystina Timanovskaya: \"When it's safe, I want to return home\"\n\nBelarus says she was removed from the national team because of her emotional state. But speaking to the BBC on Tuesday, Ms Timanovskaya said she did not suffer from any mental health issues and had not had any conversations with doctors at the Olympic village.\n\nShe said she was surprised when team officials told her she was leaving the Games because she \"didn't say anything political\", adding that she would like to return to Belarus \"when I know that it's safe... maybe I'll only be able to return after five or 10 years\".\n\nThe International Olympic Committee (IOC) has launched a formal investigation into allegations that Belarus attempted to force her to return home. It has also requested a report on the incident from the Belarus National Olympic Committee.\n\nThe athlete's husband, Arseniy Zdanevich, has since fled Belarus and is currently in Ukraine. He has also been given a visa for Poland.\n\nHe told the BBC's Ukrainian service that the couple had never been involved in politics and would return to Belarus if they did not face criminal charges.\n\nA car believed to be carrying the sprinter left the Polish embassy in Tokyo on Wednesday\n\nThe incident has again put the spotlight on Belarus, which has been ruled by President Alexander Lukashenko since 1994. Last year, nationwide protests over his disputed re-election were violently repressed by the security forces.\n\nSome of those who joined the demonstrations were also national-level athletes, who were stripped of funding, cut from national teams and detained.\n\nSeparately on Tuesday, the head of an organisation helping Belarusians fleeing abroad was found dead near his home in neighbouring Ukraine. Vitaly Shishov had reportedly been followed recently.", "The Mexican government has sued some of the biggest US gun manufacturers, accusing them of fuelling bloodshed through reckless business practices.\n\nThe lawsuit alleges that the companies knew they were contributing to illegal arms trafficking, which has been linked to many deaths.\n\nOfficials say Mexico is seeking as much as $10bn (£7.2bn) in compensation, though any amount would be decided by the court.\n\nThe companies have not yet commented.\n\nThey include Smith & Wesson and Barrett Firearms, among others. The BBC has contacted both companies for comment.\n\nThe lawsuit was filed on Wednesday in the US state of Massachusetts.\n\nIt says the Mexican government took the action \"to put an end to the massive damage that the [companies] cause by actively facilitating the unlawful trafficking of their guns to drug cartels and other criminals in Mexico\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe gun manufacturers \"are conscious of the fact that their products are trafficked and used in illicit activities against the civilian population and authorities of Mexico\", the Foreign Ministry said in a document related to the lawsuit.\n\nMexico said the companies had used \"marketing strategies to promote weapons that are ever more lethal, without mechanisms of security or traceability\".\n\nMexican officials said that some of the guns made by Colt appeared to target the Mexican market in particular, such as a pistol engraved with the face and name of Mexican revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata.\n\nMexico has strict rules regulating the sale of weapons and they can only be purchased legally at one shop located on an army base in the capital.\n\nAs a result, those who want to buy weapons often get them from the US.\n\nAccording to a Mexican government statement, criminal organisations buy thousands of pistols, rifles, assault weapons and ammunition in supermarkets, on the internet and at arms fairs in the US which are then used to commit crimes in Mexico.\n\nThe US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found that 70% of firearms recovered in Mexico between 2014 and 2018 which were submitted for tracing had come from the US.\n\nIn 2019 alone, more than 17,000 murders in Mexico were linked to trafficked weapons.\n\nOne official told reporters the damage caused by trafficked guns would be equal to around 1.7% of Mexico's gross domestic product (GDP).\n\nSpeaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said: \"We are going to win the trial and we are going to drastically reduce illicit arms trafficking to Mexico.\"\n\nMexican officials stressed that the lawsuit was not aimed at the US government. Mr Ebrard said he believed that President Joe Biden's administration was willing to work with Mexico to curb arms trafficking.\n\nBut experts have cast doubt on Mexico's likelihood of success with the lawsuit.\n\nLorenzo Meyer, an emeritus professor at the College of Mexico, told AFP news agency that US law \"makes it almost impossible for gun manufacturers to be held responsible\" for the illegal trade.", "The MV Asphalt Princess was reportedly boarded by up to nine armed men\n\nA Panama-flagged ship has been hijacked by armed men in the Gulf of Oman and ordered to sail to Iran, Lloyds List Maritime Intelligence has confirmed.\n\nThe bitumen tanker MV Asphalt Princess is heading into the congested approach to the Strait of Hormuz, it said.\n\nIt is not clear who has seized the ship but analysts say Iranian forces will be suspected.\n\nIran's Revolutionary Guards dismissed the reports as a pretext for \"hostile action\" against Tehran.\n\nThe incident comes less than a week after an oil tanker operated by an Israeli-owned company was attacked by a drone off Oman, killing two security guards - one British and the other Romanian.\n\nThe US, UK and Israel blamed Iran for the attack - a claim it strongly denies.\n\nBBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner says the MV Asphalt Princess is owned by a Dubai-based company that had one of its ships hijacked two years ago by revolutionary guards.\n\nHe says that, according to reports, up to nine armed men boarded the MV Asphalt Princess as it neared the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world's maritime oil supplies passes.\n\nEarlier, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) advised shipping near Fujairah in the Gulf of Oman to exercise extreme caution.\n\nA spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office said it was urgently investigating reports of an incident on a vessel off the UAE coast.\n\nUKMTO had initially warned ships of an incident before declaring a \"potential hijack\" hours later.\n\nEarlier in the day, four oil tankers reported that they were \"not under command\", which usually means that a vessel has lost power and cannot steer. One of the ships later began moving, AP news agency reports.\n\nAn Oman Air Force marine patrol aircraft was seen flying over the sea at the same time, according to data from FlightRadar24.com.\n\nIran's foreign ministry said reports involving several ships on Tuesday were \"suspicious\" and warned against any effort to \"create a false atmosphere\" against Tehran.", "The crash happened near the Czech village of Milavce\n\nA train crash near the Czech Republic-German border has killed at least three people and injured dozens more.\n\nCzech Transport Minister Karel Havlicek said an express train from Munich heading to Prague went through a stop signal and hit a commuter train bound for the town of Domazlice.\n\nEarly indications were that the express train had failed to stop at a red light, he added.\n\nLocal media report both drivers were killed, as well as a female passenger.\n\nThe collision took place after 08:00 local time (06:00 GMT) near the village of Milavce, 140km (87 miles) south-west of the Czech capital Prague.\n\nSeveral foreigners were on the Munich train and some of them were among the injured, local media reported. The three people who died were all Czech nationals, a police spokesperson told Reuters news agency.\n\nFootage posted on social media shows crushed carriages and debris strewn across the tracks.\n\nDozens of emergency workers were assisted by helicopters. Rescue services took the most seriously injured to hospital.\n\nRescuers reported that seven people injured in the crash were in a critical condition.\n\nAn investigation has been launched into the crash\n\nThe Czech Republic's railway inspectorate has launched an investigation into the crash.\n\nCzech Prime Minister Andrej Babis tweeted his \"sincere condolences to the families of the dead\".\n\n\"Unfortunately, this summer is full of tragedies,\" he wrote.\n\nIn June, a tornado swept through several villages in the Czech Republic, killing five people and leaving more than 150 others injured.", "Petrol prices have reached an eight-year high after nine straight months of rises, according to the RAC.\n\nThe group said the average price of a litre of petrol is now 135.13p, a level not seen since September 2013, as rising oil prices push up fuel costs.\n\nDiesel now costs an average of 137.06p a litre, its highest price since 2014.\n\n\"Prices really are only going one way at the moment - and that's not the way drivers want to see them going,\" warned RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams.\n\nThe latest RAC Fuel Watch figures show that another 3.4p was added to a litre of petrol in July, the largest rise in the price of unleaded since January, while diesel climbed 2.7p a litre.\n\nThat meant last month was the most expensive July to fill up with petrol since 2013, and for diesel since 2014.\n\nA driver filling up a petrol car with a 55-litre tank now pays on average £3.08 more than at the start of June, and £11.47 more than a year ago.\n\nFor diesel drivers filling a similarly-sized tank, it now costs £2.90 more than at the start of June, and £10.46 more than it did at the end of July 2020.\n\n\"With a second summer staycation in full swing, it's proving to be a particularly costly one for many families who are using their cars to holiday here in the UK,\" said Mr Williams.\n\nIt is hard to see prices falling anytime soon, said Mr Williams. Confidence is building that there will be a global economic recovery and as trade picks up that is increasing demand for oil.\n\nBut as demand outstrips supply, wholesale fuel prices are pushed up, which has a knock-on effect for motorists.\n\n\"While we're not past the pandemic by any means, demand for oil is likely to continue to increase as economic activity picks up again, and this is likely to have the effect of pushing up wholesale fuel prices, costs which retailers are bound to pass on at the pumps,\" Mr Williams said.\n\nHe warned that unless major oil-producing nations decide a new strategy to increase output, forecourt prices could climb even higher towards the end of the summer.\n\nDespite the recent price increases, petrol prices are yet to reach the highest level we saw in the middle of 2012.\n\nIn April 2012, prices peaked at 142p a litre for unleaded and 148p for diesel, according to Brian Madderson, chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association.\n\n\"We're still some way off that level and indications are that the oil price has checked and come back a little because of concerns that China may be going into an economic slowdown.\"\n\nThat could help dampen demand and \"if that is the case, we'd expect the wholesale price to come back a little and then pump prices to follow within the month,\" Mr Madderson told the BBC.\n\nBut he tempered that optimism with a warning that the situation is \"on a knife-edge at the moment\" with \"summer often the time of the year when there is significant maintenance work in the refineries, which restricts output\".", "Boeing says it is checking the propulsion system valves on its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, after Tuesday's planned launch was postponed.\n\nThe CST-100 Starliner will launch from Florida at some point to showcase how it can ferry crews to and from the International Space Station (ISS).\n\nIt will be the second test flight, and conducted with no people aboard.\n\nThe previous demonstration in 2019 encountered software problems that very nearly caused the loss of the capsule.\n\nThe Starliner will ride to orbit on an Atlas-5 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.\n\nControllers had been targeting Tuesday for the launch but scrubbed the countdown with two-and-a-half hours left on the clock, to allow for investigation of technical issues related to the capsule's propulsion system.\n\nNow Boeing says a rescheduled launch on Wednesday will not happen either, because it needs more time to discover the reason for \"unexpected valve position indications in the propulsion system\".\n\nFortunately, the 2019 test Starliner still managed to land safely\n\nIt's just over 10 years since Boeing first presented its design for the CST-100 Starliner at the Farnborough Air Show in the UK.\n\nIt was a response to the call for commercial companies to take over the responsibility for low-Earth orbit crew transportation, post the soon-to-retire space shuttles.\n\nThe US space agency (Nasa) gave technical and financial support to both Boeing and the SpaceX company, to help them develop new capsules. The idea was that the vehicles would then be engaged on a commercial basis whenever Nasa needed astronauts sent up to the ISS.\n\nBut while SpaceX is now two crewed operational flights into this privatised era, Boeing has yet to run a single crewed mission in a Starliner. And that's because Boeing's first unpiloted \"Orbital Flight Test\" in December 2019 went seriously awry.\n\nThe problems started with a clock error on the capsule just after launch that made the vehicle think it was in a different flight phase than was really the case.\n\nThis prompted the onboard computer system to over-fire Starliner's thrusters and burn so much fuel it became impossible to reach the intended destination of a docking with the space station. Controllers on the ground could see the problem playing out but had difficulty communicating with the spacecraft.\n\nAfter the truncated mission, it also emerged that poorly designed software could have resulted in the capsule colliding with its aft service section when the two were commanded to separate just prior to re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. Fortunately, this issue was caught and prevented, and the capsule landed safely in the New Mexico desert.\n\nThe post-mission review initiated a series of re-designs and upgrades that have enabled Boeing to attempt an Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2).\n\nThe only \"individual\" aboard will be \"Rosie the Rocketeer\"\n\nChris Ferguson, a former Nasa astronaut and Boeing's director of Starliner mission operations, said the company had run full-mission duration simulations of the new software on the capsule.\n\nThe new code, he added, had implemented every correction recommended by the review.\n\n\"We fixed every one, we addressed every one. We want this next flight to be as clean as it could possibly be,\" he told reporters.\n\n\"We have thoroughly dug into, tested and verified hundreds of times the software code, to ensure that it performs exactly the way we intend on OFT-2.\"\n\nThe SpaceX Dragon capsule is already flying crews to the ISS\n\nThe re-run will follow the same profile: an uncrewed mission to the ISS. That said, an anthropomorphic test device, more commonly known as a flight dummy, dubbed \"Rosie the Rocketeer\", will once again strap in for the ride.\n\nRosie and \"her\" capsule will stay attached to the station for five days, before departing for a parachute-assisted descent and landing at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.\n\nIf Boeing can put the flaws of OFT-1 behind it, Nasa could clear Starliner to start carrying people before the end of the year.\n\nThis would finally give the agency the two new crew-transportation systems it sought when the shuttles were retired to museums exactly 10 years ago.\n\n\"This is a huge component to returning this launch capability from the United States and having redundancy between SpaceX and Boeing, so that we're not reliant on just one company to get astronauts to the International Space Station,\" said Nicole Mann, a Nasa astronaut who has been selected to fly on the first crewed Starliner mission.\n\nAnd this capability would also open up space to wider participation, she believed: \"You're going to see more folks in low-Earth orbit who are not Nasa astronauts. That's great. I think for the younger generation, they're going to see scientists, engineers and maybe journalists in space, and they're going to be able to capture the amazement of space and share the experience.\"", "Tents in London's Trafalgar Square during an Extinction Rebellion protest\n\nAn Old Bailey judge has asked prosecutors if they stand by convictions of Extinction Rebellion protesters after a second successful appeal in two days.\n\nJudge Mark Dennis QC demanded the review after a protester won his appeal against obstructing a road.\n\nCrown Prosecution Service lawyers must return to the Old Bailey on Thursday to set out their position.\n\nThe judge's call comes after a Supreme Court ruling on protest rights.\n\nRobert MacQueen, 65, from Haslemere, Surrey, was convicted of blocking the road in Whitehall in October 2019, during a London-wide Extinction Rebellion protests targeting government buildings.\n\nBut on Wednesday Judge Mark Dennis QC overturned the conviction after the Crown Prosecution Service offered no evidence to counter the appeal.\n\nThe day before, the judge quashed the conviction of Emma-Rose Goodwin, 47, from Exeter.\n\nProsecutors had offered no evidence in court after it emerged that the arresting officer - the key witness - was in Romania.\n\nA third appeal has been adjourned and seven more cases are due to go before the judge.\n\nQuashing Mr MacQueen's conviction, Judge Dennis said there seemed to be a \"fundamental problem\" with the cases.\n\nHe asked prosecutors to review all the remaining cases where a protester argued they had \"lawful excuse\" to occupy a road.\n\nHe said that prosecutors seemed to be arguing that a protester could not lawfully lie down in the road in any circumstances - and they had not \"grasped\" the importance of a recent Supreme Court ruling.\n\nIn that judgement, the UK's highest court ruled that demonstrators who had blocked a road at a military arms show should not have been convicted of obstruction because their right to temporarily and peacefully protest should have been taken into account.\n\nJudge Dennis said that given the importance of that ruling, prosecutors needed to clarify where they stood on the eight cases still to be heard this week and next.\n\nIn July, another XR defendant was the first to benefit from the Supreme Court's ruling when he was found not guilty of blocking a road during a September 2020 protest.\n\nCity of London Magistrates' Court acquitted Ben Benatt, an environmental scientist, saying that it was not proportionate to give him a criminal record given his right to peacefully demonstrate, the limited nature of the disruption he caused and his genuinely-held beliefs.\n\nThe tactics used by XR followers of unpredictable and uncoordinated road occupations have heavily influenced the government's current proposals to redraw protest laws.\n\nMinisters want to make it easier for the police to intervene and break up a static demonstration where it causes a public nuisance.", "Nicola Sturgeon said it was \"strange\" the PM would not meet her during his two-day visit to Scotland.\n\nThe first minister said \"I don't feel snubbed\" but \"most people will think it's a bit odd\" that Mr Johnson declined an invitation.\n\nInstead, he has met police officers and visited a renewable energy project.\n\nMr Johnson has suggested he have a meeting with first ministers at a later date.\n\nNicola Sturgeon had invited the PM to her official residence to discuss Covid recovery.\n\nShe said it was a \"missed opportunity\" that Mr Johnson did not meet her at Bute House, her official residence in Edinburgh.\n\nIn a letter to Ms Sturgeon seen by the BBC, Mr Johnson said he was \"keen to arrange an in-person meeting\" with her.\n\nHe said that, at a previous meeting between them, it was agreed they should set up a \"structured forum for ongoing engagement\" - and officials had made good progress on this.\n\n\"There is much for us to discuss as all parts of the UK work together on our shared priority of recovering from the pandemic,\" he said.\n\n\"The UK government is working closely with the devolved Scottish government on a variety of different issues.\"\n\nAnd he added: \"I look forward to meeting with you soon and working together in the interests of people in all parts of our country.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon tweeted on Monday that she had invited the PM to Bute House. She said the prime minister's trip would be the first chance for the pair to meet in person for a while.\n\nThe first minister said she believed people would find it \"a bit odd and a bit strange\" that Mr Johnson had chosen not to meet her.\n\nSpeaking to broadcasters, she said she did not feel \"snubbed\", but that it would have been the first opportunity to sit down and have a \"face to face chat\", describing the move as a \"missed opportunity - but that's on him\".\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who is also on a visit to Scotland, said he thought the prime minister should meet Ms Sturgeon.\n\nHe said the two should be working together on \"the two most important things facing us\" - the pandemic and the climate emergency.\n\nHe added: \"We shouldn't have an argument about when they're going to meet or where - they need to work together on this.\"\n\nThey may not be meeting in person, but that doesn't mean Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon can't engage in some political games.\n\nThe first minister threw down a gauntlet very publicly when she posted her invitation to Mr Johnson on Twitter.\n\nIt was a win-win proposition for Ms Sturgeon, presenting the prime minister with the choice of looking like a visiting dignitary from a foreign power - or a scaredy cat swerving the jeering crowds which turned out for his last visit to Bute House.\n\nUltimately Mr Johnson has refused to take the bait, preferring to suggest a summit of leaders from around the UK - presumably where he can take the role of magnanimous host.\n\nFor all the talk of grown-up dialogue there is plainly no love lost between the pair, who will no doubt trade rhetoric via the media rather than face-to-face.\n\nAnd with the constitutional question of Scottish independence still looming between them, the political power-plays are likely to continue for the foreseeable future.\n\nThe trip is Mr Johnson's first visit to Scotland since January - and his first since a pro-independence majority was returned at the Holyrood election in May.\n\nThere is no prospect of the pair seeing eye-to-eye on another referendum, but Ms Sturgeon had said she wanted to discuss how the governments could work together on \"Covid recovery\".\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said the SNP leader had put out her invitation to the prime minister via Twitter, adding: \"I'm not sure if he got it before everyone else got it on Twitter\".\n\nMr Ross said: \"His response was quite right. Nicola Sturgeon had agreed with the prime minister that governments across the UK would meet together. That is the right approach to take and that was the agreement made recently.\n\n\"There's constant dialogue between the Scottish and UK governments.\"\n\nOn the prime minister's last trip to Scotland in January, Ms Sturgeon questioned whether the trip was essential during lockdown restrictions.\n\nDowning Street said it was important for the prime minister to be \"visible and accessible\" during the pandemic.", "Rugby player-turned-pundit Ugo Monye has become the 15th and final celebrity to be confirmed for the 2021 series of Strictly Come Dancing.\n\nMonye will join Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty, BBC Breakfast's Dan Walker, actress Nina Wadia and 11 other stars when the BBC show returns next month.\n\nThe former England player, soon to be seen as a team captain on A Question of Sport, said it was \"a dream come true\".\n\n\"I love an outfit at the best of times, so bring on the sequins!\" he went on.\n\nThe announcement came hours after the participation of Olympic gold medallist Peaty was revealed, along with that of comedian and Loose Women panellist Judi Love.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Adam Peaty: I'm going to be very uncomfortable on Strictly\n\nThe trio were the final celebrities to be named for the 19th series of Strictly, which will be the normal length after being slightly shorter in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.\n\nBruno Tonioli will be absent from the judges' desk, replaced by long-serving professional dancer Anton Du Beke. Four new professionals have also been revealed.\n\nHere are 2021's celebrity contestants in full:\n\nThe former Harlequins winger won 14 international caps for England and also played two Tests for the British & Irish Lions.\n\nAfter retiring in 2015, he moved into the media and his Strictly signing comes weeks after he was named among a new line-up on the BBC's long-running A Question of Sport.\n\n\"Strictly is the biggest entertainment show on TV and I can't wait to show everyone I've got more than just dad dancing moves,\" he said in a statement.\n\n\"My two beautiful daughters never had a chance to see me on the rugby pitch, so to know they can watch me waltzing and twirling every week is really special to me.\"\n\nSwimmer Peaty will be hoping to follow the two gold medals he won at the recent Tokyo Olympics with Strictly's coveted glitterball trophy.\n\nThe 26-year-old won the 100m breaststroke in Tokyo, becoming the first British swimmer to defend an Olympic title. He also scooped gold in the mixed 4x100m medley relay and silver in the 4x100m medley relay.\n\n\"I'm not the most fluid on land,\" he told BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat. \"But, saying that, I am an athlete. I am used to working hard.\"\n\nIn a separate statement, Peaty said he was \"really looking forward to doing something totally different and challenging myself away from the pool\".\n\nJudi Love is a TV presenter, stand-up comedian, online comedy star and OK! magazine columnist.\n\nShe said she had watched Strictly for years and \"admired the phenomenal abilities of these dancers and celebrities that have taken part and dedicated themselves to learning a new craft\".\n\nShe added: \"I'm truly looking forward to pushing myself in something that I could have only dreamed of doing and now it's actually coming true!! I can't lie I'm soooo nervous but excited at the same time.\"\n\nThe EastEnders actress, who has played Frankie Lewis in the BBC soap since 2020, is set to become Strictly's first deaf dancer.\n\n\"To be the first deaf contestant on Strictly Come Dancing is so exciting and a little bit scary,\" she said in a statement. \"I hope I will do the deaf community proud and break down more barriers.\n\n\"But I am also very excited to learn an incredible new skill, and even better I get to learn whilst wearing beautiful dresses made especially for me!\"\n\nAyling-Ellis, who communicates using British Sign Language, made history by becoming the first deaf actor to play a deaf character in EastEnders' fictional Walford suburb.\n\nFormer EastEnders and Goodness Gracious Me actress Wadia admitted she was \"so scared\" when her name was added to the line-up.\n\n\"I like dancing like no-one's watching,\" she told ITV's Lorraine after she was revealed. \"So we just need to blindfold the judges and I'm going to win,\" she joked.\n\nWadia played Zainab Masood (later Khan) in EastEnders between 2007 and 2013 and is also known for her role in BBC comedy Still Open All Hours.\n\n\"A lot has happened in the last couple of years, and I just want to grab life by the balls and enjoy it,\" she said.\n\nThe 19-year-old has more than 9.5 million followers on TikTok and is known for presenting CBBC's Matilda and the Ramsay Bunch, which features her family - including her father, chef Gordon.\n\nShe said she \"can't wait to get my dancing shoes on and show my dad how it's done\".\n\nHe wished her well in a video when she was announced as a contestant on ITV's This Morning, signing off with the warning: \"Don't date those dancers.\"\n\nAsked if she thought she had an advantage by posting dance videos on social media, Ramsay replied: \"Yeah, I guess that's true. You've got to learn them and you've got to remember them for the video, but luckily that's not live and you can do as many takes as you need.\"\n\nThe actor rose to fame by playing John Willoughby in the 1995 film Sense and Sensibility, on which he met his future wife Dame Emma Thompson.\n\nWise also appeared in Cranford, played Lord Mountbatten in The Crown, and created the 2019 film Last Christmas with Dame Emma, whom he married in 2003.\n\nHe dedicated his Strictly appearance to his late sister Clare, with whom he wrote the book Not That Kind of Love.\n\n\"My beautiful sister was a huge disco queen,\" he said. \"She left our world almost exactly five years ago in a glitter ball coffin. This is for her.\"\n\nDan Walker has been a regular presenter of BBC Breakfast since 2016, when he replaced Bill Turnbull.\n\nHe said on Tuesday he was \"excited, a little bit worried, mostly terrified\" about joining Strictly.\n\nKeen sports fan Walker presented BBC Olympic Breakfast throughout this year's games. He also hosted Football Focus for 12 years and has covered many major events, including Wimbledon, the Grand National and Royal Ascot.\n\nOther presenting roles have included The One Show and Songs of Praise.\n\nHe added: \"My kids have only ever asked me to go on two shows… Saturday Mash Up and Strictly. I did Saturday Mash Up this summer so… it's time to embrace the sequins.\"\n\nKatie McGlynn meanwhile said she was getting ready \"to shake my shimmy\".\n\n\"I'm really not a dancer, but I'm so excited to learn a new skill on this crazy journey and cannot wait to slip into some sequins along the way,\" she said.\n\nThe actress, who plays newcomer Becky Quentin in Hollyoaks, formerly starred as Sinead Tinker in Coronation Street. The role earned her a Bafta nomination and a National Television Award in 2020. She also featured in the BBC One drama series Waterloo Road and The Syndicate.\n\n\"A lot of my roles have involved quite serious and challenging storylines, so I'm fully ready to let my hair down and do something different, even if it is completely outside of my comfort zone,\" she added.\n\nSara Davies, 37, became the youngest ever dragon on the BBC show's panel of entrepreneurs when she joined in 2019.\n\nKnown as the Den's \"Crafting Queen\", Davies started her business Crafter's Companion when she was still a student. It now employs nearly 250 people.\n\nThe County Durham-born entrepreneur said her \"mam and dad are going to be so excited\" about her joining Strictly.\n\n\"I'm really nervous because so far the producers keep asking me if I can dance. Truth be told - I haven't got a clue! I've not danced since I did ballet lessons when I was little.\"\n\nShe added: \"The business world has taught me that tenacity, drive and determination deliver results, I hope that I can bring that to the dance floor. And I'm excited to see the impact of all those hours of training on my mum tum!\"\n\nThe singer and guitarist, who scored seven UK number one singles with McFly between 2004 and 2007, is taking to the dance floor exactly a decade after his bandmate Harry Judd lifted the coveted glitterball trophy.\n\nFletcher has also carved out a successful sideline as a children's author, and his family could do a unique reality TV double after wife Giovanna won I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! last year.\n\nHe said he was \"incredibly excited\" but also \"totally terrified\" to do Strictly. \"My kids were excited too until I started showing them my best dad-dancing in the kitchen,\" he said. \"I'm not sure how far they'll get me in the competition but I can't wait to add some new moves to my embarrassing dad-dancing repertoire.\"\n\nThe Blackburn-born presenter rose to fame hosting Big Brother's Bit on the Side in 2013, and has since appeared on shows like The Voice UK and Trending Live!.\n\nIn September, she will co-present a one-off revival of Channel 4's The Big Breakfast alongside comedian Mo Gilligan.\n\nShe said she was \"beyond chuffed\" to be on Strictly. \"I absolutely love the show and am fully committed to making the most of every second of the Strictly experience,\" she said. \"Bring it on!\"\n\nThe comic actor is best-known for his double act with David Mitchell in TV shows like Peep Show, That Mitchell and Webb Look and Back. Like Fletcher, he has also become an author.\n\nAnd Webb has form on the dance floor - he won Let's Dance For Comic Relief in 2009.\n\n\"It's a big, generous, joyful show and I can't wait to get packed into a spandex onesie and fired from a glitter cannon directly at Claudia Winkleman,\" he said.\n\nActor and children's TV presenter Stephenson is best known as the face of children's television channel CBBC, which he hosts live from the channel's Salford HQ.\n\nHe has presented such CBBC shows as Blue Peter and Saturday Mash-Up! and is an ambassador for children's mental health charity Place2Be.\n\n\"I cannot wait to experience it all: the costumes, the orchestra, even Craig's glare,\" he said of his participation in Strictly. \"I am ready!\"\n\nThe actor and children's TV presenter added he was already \"impatient to take part\" after being unveiled on Friday morning's Newsround news bulletin.\n\n\"I have dreamt about being on this show, and I know for a fact it is going to exceed every expectation,\" he said.\n\nWhaite is a chef, TV presenter and cookery author. He won the third series of The Great British Bake Off in 2012 at the age of 23.\n\nSince then he has presented TV shows and has a cooking segment on Steph's Packed Lunch on Channel 4.\n\nHe has also published five cookery books and runs his own cookery school, John Whaite's Kitchen.\n\n\"I'm so grateful, excited, and nervous to be joining the Strictly 2021 family,\" he said. \"I've been wearing sequins and jazzy attire since I was three years old and can't wait to hurl myself, full throttle, around the most glamorous dance floor on Earth.\"\n\nWhaite will be part of the show's first all-male partnership. He will follow in the footsteps of boxer Nicola Adams, who was the first celebrity to have a same-sex partner last year.\n\nThe 2012 Bake Off winner described his partnership as \"a great step forward in representation and inclusion\".\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion, email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Why now and will parental consent be needed?\n\nWe've moved to questions from journalists now and the first is from the BBC's Sanchia Berg. She asks why the JCVI has made this decision now - and if 16 and 17-year-olds will have to have parental consent to be vaccinated. Prof Wei Shen Lim said there was more data \"across a range of factors that influences advice\". In the UK a person who is 16 or above is deemed able to give consent themselves. If they are competent and able to consent for themselves, that consent therefore holds, he says. Prof Jonathan Van-Tam says there is no time to waste as schools and colleges will soon be going back. \"I want us to proceed as fast as is practically possible, that isn't going to be tomorrow, I don't think it's likely to be early next week.\" But he says the NHS has been preparing for very many weeks and the programme will start in \"a very short number of weeks indeed\". He says there is \"a plentiful supply\" to meet whatever form this stage of the vaccine rollout will take.", "An emotional Alice Dearing hopes becoming the first black woman to represent Great Britain in an Olympic swimming event makes a difference and that the sport is \"available to anyone\".\n\nWatch live coverage of Tokyo 2020 on BBC One, BBC Two, the BBC Sport website, app and BBC iPlayer\n\nCOVERAGE DETAILS: Tokyo Olympics: Day-by-day guide to the key events, big stars and British medal hopes", "Almost all of Scotland's remaining Covid-19 restrictions are to end from 9 August, Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed.\n\nSocial distancing will be dropped in most settings, meaning more capacity in pubs and restaurants and larger crowds at sporting events and concerts.\n\nAnd close contacts of those who test positive for Covid will no longer have to self-isolate - as long as they are fully vaccinated and test negative.\n\nHowever, the wearing of face coverings in some public spaces will continue.\n\nThis will include secondary schools, where staff will need to maintain 1m physical distancing for the first six weeks of term and twice-weekly testing will be required.\n\nThe first minister also said a \"gradual approach\" will be taken to returning workers to offices, warning that the virus still poses \"real challenges\".\n\nWhile the changes would restore a \"substantial degree of normality\", she said they do not \"signal the end of the pandemic or a return to life exactly as we knew it\".\n\nShe said: \"Declaring freedom from or victory over this virus is in my view premature.\"\n\nThe number of new Covid-19 cases has fallen markedly from the peak of the \"third wave\", with Ms Sturgeon saying the infection rate had fallen by two-thirds since early July.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon made the announcement in a virtual statement to MSPs\n\nThe percentage of tests coming back positive has also fallen, as has the number of patients being admitted to hospital and intensive care wards with the virus.\n\nThe first minister said uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine had been \"exceptional\", and that this - along with the fall in cases - made it possible to lift most of the legal restrictions still in force.\n\nFrom Monday, 9 August, the current limits on the number of people who can meet up will be dropped, as will social distancing rules in most settings.\n\nThis means nightclubs will be allowed to reopen, and larger crowds will be allowed to gather for indoor and outdoor events - although organisers of large events will still need to apply to local councils for permission.\n\nThe rules around self-isolation will also change, meaning that fully-vaccinated adults who are identified as a close contact of a positive case will no longer have to isolate if they return a negative PCR test.\n\nThe use of face coverings will continue in secondary schools for the first part of the new term\n\nThe government is still considering whether a certificate proving people have been vaccinated will be needed to enter \"higher-risk\" events.\n\nMs Sturgeon confirmed that a \"Covid status certification\" app was under development, but said she was \"considering very carefully\" whether such a scheme would be appropriate.\n\nShe also said she would not hesitate to take the \"tough decision\" to re-impose some local restrictions if there was a serious outbreak of the virus, saying the government \"will seek to take whatever action is necessary to keep the country safe\".\n\nWhile most restrictions will be lifted, a number of \"mitigations\" will remain in place, with Ms Sturgeon saying the harm of the virus \"cannot be underestimated\".\n\nThe use of face coverings in enclosed spaces like shops, hospitality venues and public transport will remain \"for some time\" to come, and venues will still be expected to collect customer details for contact tracing.\n\nThe first minister said it was \"vital\" that the return to working in offices was a gradual one, saying employers should consider a \"hybrid\" model of home and in-office work.\n\nTwo weeks after restrictions were lifted in England, the predicted spike of 100,000 new cases a day has not materialised.\n\nThat bodes well for Scotland to follow suit. Scotland was the first part of the UK to see a big surge in cases at the start of July but since then the data has been positive and even the more cautious scientists say it looks good to proceed.\n\nSome experts believe one thing that has helped is that behaviour has not significantly changed. We are not in contact with as many people, and many have continued to keep a distance.\n\nWith vaccines doing such an amazing job, could small efforts like this be enough to keep the virus at bay?\n\nWhat is around the corner is a bit tricky to predict.\n\nWe will see a return to schools and universities in the next few weeks, coupled with the end of the holiday season and cooler weather on the horizon. That's why things like the wearing of face coverings and an encouragement to work from home will continue for now.\n\nThe hope is the worst is behind us, but Covid has taken us by surprise before - it still could now.\n\nThe move was broadly welcomed by business groups, although some still voiced fears about the economic recovery.\n\nThe Federation of Small Businesses said firms would be \"elated\" that the bulk of curbs were being lifted, but trading conditions had been \"permanently changed by the crisis\".\n\nCBI Scotland said moving beyond level zero \"creates a much-needed platform for kickstarting Scotland's economic recovery\", but said firms would be \"confused\" about why ministers were still advising people to work from home.\n\nAnd the Scottish Beer and Pub Association said hundreds of pubs would now reopen for the first time, hailing this as \"fantastic news\" - adding that it was \"vital that we get the recovery phase right\".\n\nThe changes will allow hospitality venues to increase capacity\n\nThe Scottish Parliament was recalled from its summer recess for the announcement, giving opposition leaders the chance to question the first minister on the plans.\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said the statement was a \"mixed bag\", saying that \"ongoing restrictions will hold Scotland's recovery back\".\n\nHe said: \"We have moved beyond level zero - but still curbs remain in place. Yet again the goalposts have been moved. We are at level minus one or minus two, and still the government is clinging on to parts of people's lives.\"\n\nScottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said there was \"definitely light at the end of the tunnel\", but said \"we are at a crucial point for Scotland's recovery\".\n\nHe called for a \"new approach\" in the fight against the pandemic, calling for increased support for the test and trace system and pop-up vaccination clinics at sporting events and universities.\n\nDo you have a question about the Covid restrictions in place in Scotland? Use the form below to send us your questions and we could be in touch.\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read the terms and conditions.\n\nIf you are reading this page on the BBC News app, you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question on this topic.", "Benjamin Mendy has been remanded in custody\n\nManchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy has been charged with rape.\n\nThe 27-year-old defender has been charged with four counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, Cheshire Police said.\n\nThe charges relate to three complainants over the age of 16 and are alleged to have taken place between October 2020 and August this year.\n\nMr Mendy, of Prestbury, has been remanded in custody and will appear at Chester Magistrates' Court on Friday.\n\nThe left-back has played for last season's Premier League champions since 2017, when he joined from Monaco for a reported £52m.\n\nA police spokesman said: \"Cheshire Constabulary and the Crown Prosecution Service would like to remind everyone that criminal proceedings against Mendy are live and that he has a right to a fair trial.\"\n\nManchester City said the defender, who also plays for the French national team, had been suspended pending an investigation.\n\n\"The matter is subject to a legal process and the club is therefore unable to make further comment until that process is complete,\" the club added.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The supermarkets are being treated as crime scenes\n\nShoppers have been told to throw away food bought in three west London supermarkets on Wednesday evening, after a man was arrested on suspicion of injecting items using syringes.\n\nA Sainsbury's Local, Tesco Express and Little Waitrose on Fulham Palace Road, Fulham, remain closed.\n\nBoth food and non-food products were injected with an unknown substance, police said.\n\nPolice believe the man was acting alone.\n\nA Hammersmith and Fulham Council spokesman said shoppers at the three supermarkets \"are advised to bin anything bought after 18.00 BST on the evening of Wednesday 25 August,\"\n\n\"If you suspect any of the items purchased may be contaminated, please keep hold of these items and contact the police,\" the spokesman added.\n\nThere was a police presence outside Tesco Express\n\nThe Metropolitan Police said officers were called at about 19:40 BST after a man was reported to be shouting abuse at people in the street.\n\nThe Met said: \"It is currently unknown as to how many items have been contaminated, or what with. Investigations are ongoing to establish if other businesses in the area are involved in the incident.\"\n\nA Little Waitrose shopper, who lives on the same street as the stores, told the BBC: \"It is a bit a worrying because I was buying milk at the time and the police were escorting everyone out.\n\n\"It was quite panicky because we didn't know what was going on.\"\n\nIn an \"emergency alert\" notice on social media, Hammersmith and Fulham Council said: \"Members of the public are advised as a precaution to dispose of any food items bought from these supermarkets this evening.\n\n\"H&F Council's Environmental Health team are now working with the supermarket branches affected.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "There could be an \"highly lethal\" terror attack at Kabul airport within hours, a minister has warned.\n\nArmed Forces minister James Heappey said there were \"very credible\" reports of a \"severe\" threat in the capital.\n\nThe Foreign Office last night issued new guidance telling anyone near the airport to \"move away to a safe location and await further advice\".\n\nIt comes amid a race to airlift thousands from Afghanistan before foreign troops depart.\n\nThe US has set a deadline of 31 August for the withdrawal of its troops, with President Joe Biden rejecting calls from Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other allies for an extension.\n\nMr Heappey did not give a date for the last UK evacuation flights, but said it was likely that UK and other foreign troops would have to leave before the last American airlifts.\n\nOn Thursday, Mr Johnson said the \"overwhelming majority\" of eligible people had been evacuated from the country.\n\nHe added that about 15,000 had been flown out by the UK so far.\n\nKabul airport is currently being defended and run by the US, which has 5,800 troops on the ground - with the help of more than 1,000 UK troops.\n\nIn the update issued on Wednesday evening, the FCDO also warned that travelling by road was \"extremely dangerous\" with people alleged to have been \"mistreated\" on their way to the airport.\n\nThe US advised Americans in Afghanistan not to travel or gather at the airport \"because of security threats outside the gates\". Australia has also issued an alert, telling those outside the airport to leave immediately.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday, Mr Heappey said: \"There is now very, very credible reporting of an imminent attack and hence why the Foreign Office advice was changed last night.\"\n\nHe later told BBC Breakfast: \"The credibility of the reporting has now reached the stage where we believe that there is a very imminent, highly lethal attack possible within Kabul.\"\n\nAsked by Sky News whether an attack could occur in the coming few hours, Mr Heappey replied: \"Yes.\"\n\nStressing the \"severe\" nature of the threat, he told the BBC that it had created an \"extraordinarily challenging situation, both on the ground and as a set of decisions to be taken in Whitehall\".\n\n\"People are desperate, people are fearing for their lives anyway, and so I think there's an appetite among many in the queue to take their chances,\" he said.\n\nCrowds of people are waiting outside Kabul airport\n\nHe said UK troops were doing their best to provide security for those queuing, but the \"reality\" was that they were only holding \"defined bits of ground\" at the airport and at the hotel where people were being processed, and would therefore be \"relying\" on the Taliban for security beyond that.\n\nCol Richard Kemp, former head of British forces in Afghanistan, said the risk of a terror attack had been present from the start of evacuation efforts.\n\nHe told BBC Breakfast: \"I have no doubt that our forces are fully aware of the threat and already, for days now, have been taking measures to try and mitigate it, to prevent something like that happening.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Mr Heappey added that nearly 2,000 people have been evacuated on eight RAF flights in the past 24 hours, with 11 more flights scheduled on Thursday.\n\nAsked about the estimate that nearly 2,000 people eligible for the UK government's relocation programme - the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) - remained in Afghanistan, Mr Heappey said the actual number was \"potentially half\" of that.\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace told MPs that some Afghans wanting to flee to Britain may be better off trying to reach one of the country's borders and making their way to a third country.\n\nSpeaking in an online meeting, Mr Wallace is reported to have signalled there were few places left on evacuation flights and said \"not everyone is going to get out\".\n\nBut former Tory defence minister Tobias Ellwood, one of the MPs at the meeting, has said any land corridors would have to be agreed with the Taliban if the UK was to avoid the risk of putting people in harm's way.\n\nAnother Conservative MP, Julian Lewis, said he had raised the issue of 12 academics in Afghanistan who are at risk from the Taliban.\n\nMr Wallace told the MPs that all cases raised with him of people who are in serious danger would be considered by the teams processing urgent requests for evacuation.\n\nIt's incredible and very distressing to see huge numbers of people still turning up to the airport.\n\nWhole families, old women sitting in wheelbarrows because they are unable to walk, young children being carried by their parents.\n\nJust an endless stream walking through the filth, the dust, the heat. At times, they're facing gunshots.\n\nA large number of them have no realistic chance of boarding the evacuation flights because they just don't have the right paperwork, making it even more difficult for the handful that do have the right paperwork or are foreign citizens to push their way through the crowd.\n\nI was speaking to one elderly woman yesterday, her son was a former interpreter for the US Army.\n\nThey had all been told to go to the airport but they'd spent six days and six nights living in awful conditions in a kind of make-shift camp.\n\nI asked her, given all of this, isn't it worth just sticking it out in Afghanistan and seeing how things go?\n\nShe said: \"We just don't have that option. The Americans should shoot us or they should let us through - but we are not staying here.\"\n\nAny information about the threat from IS-K (a branch of the Islamic State group) or warnings about potential attacks from suicide bombers takes a long time to filter down to those people making their way to the airport - and they're so desperate that their priority is just to find some way out.\n\nLabour MP Yvette Cooper, who chairs the Home Affairs Select Committee, said the latest government advice was a \"further blow to desperate families who have been struggling to get to the airport\".\n\nShe said so many people who have worked with the UK government and military were now at grave risk.\n\nThe BBC's chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet said many Afghans would remain unaware of the Foreign Office advice and would continue to make their way to Kabul airport.\n\nSince the Taliban takeover, more than 82,000 people have been airlifted out of Kabul airport, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.\n\nMr Blinken said the Taliban had promised to allow foreigners and Afghans to leave beyond the end of August, adding that the US and its allies had \"a responsibility to hold [the Taliban] to that commitment\".", "Mike Ashley's Frasers Group has offered the retail tycoon's future son-in-law a £100m bonus - but only if he can more than double the share price.\n\nThe Sports Direct owner has put forward the bonus plan for Michael Murray when he becomes chief executive in May 2022.\n\nHowever, he will only collect if its share price reaches £15 for 30 trading days in a row before October 2025, up from its current level of about £6.50.\n\nThe company described the target as \"challenging but achievable\".\n\nMr Murray, 31, engaged to be married to Mr Ashley's daughter Anna, is currently \"head of elevation\" at Frasers and is in charge of modernising stores and transforming the business.\n\nThe board of Frasers Group, which owns Sports Direct and House of Fraser, said it had also recommended £1m a year salary for Mr Murray.\n\nShareholders are set to vote on the proposed bonus scheme at the group's annual general meeting on 29 September.\n\nMr Ashley is due to step down as chief executive when Mr Murray takes over, but will remain on the board as an executive director.\n\nMr Ashley founded Sports Direct in 1982 and retains 64% of the group.\n\nThe company listed its shares on the stock exchange in 2007, with shares priced at 300p. Prices surged to more than 900p in early 2014.\n\nWorries over corporate governance and working conditions, as well as the impact of Covid on retailers, have since hit the share price.\n\nThe group was renamed Frasers in December 2019, following its takeover of House of Fraser, but stores retained the Sports Direct brand.\n\nSports Direct promised in 2016 to end zero-hours contracts and offer its workers guaranteed hours, but unions have since accused the company of breaking that pledge.\n\nThe firm has attracted criticism for continuing to recruit workers on zero-hours contracts during the pandemic.\n\nMike Ashley will remain on the Frasers Group board after stepping down as chief executive\n\n\"The board believes that the significant increase in value of the shares to be achieved before Michael's share option award vests is suitably challenging but achievable and would be evidence of the success of the group's elevation strategy and Michael's leading role in this,\" the company said.\n\nMr Murray has been working for the group for several years, but his role at the company raised eyebrows after reports about him being paid millions of pounds in consultancy fees.\n\nMr Ashley was previously executive deputy chairman of the retail group - which changed its name from Sports Direct International to Frasers Group two years ago - until 2016, when long-serving chief executive Dave Forsey resigned.\n\nMr Ashley, 56, has been one of the High Street's most prominent and colourful figures since founding his business.", "The Royal College of Surgeons is calling for the creation of \"Covid-light sites\" where surgery can continue\n\nHealth Minister Robin Swann has apologised for lengthy hospital waiting lists in Northern Ireland.\n\nMore than half of patients waiting for a first consultant appointment in Northern Ireland are still waiting longer than a year.\n\nMr Swann told BBC News that wait times were not \"where we want them to be\".\n\nThe Royal College of Surgeons has described the figures as \"devastating\" and said an urgent summit was needed to tackle the backlog.\n\nThe latest figures from the Department of Health cover April to June this year.\n\nThey show that 348,867 people are waiting for a first appointment - an increase of almost 14,000 on the previous quarter, and a rise of 38,946 compared with the same time last year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Mary Anderson says she has had no health service support while she has been on a waiting list\n\nFifty-three percent (184,873) are waiting 52 weeks or more.\n\nIn this last quarter, the healthcare system was trying to restore services as coronavirus case numbers fell, before the Delta variant took hold.\n\nMore people were seen in the three months to June (82,788), compared with the previous quarter (71,404).\n\nThat is more than twice as many as were seen in the same period last year (34,645).\n\nThe ministerial target is that at least half of all those waiting should be seen within nine weeks.\n\nBut that target was breached for 285,937 patients (82%).\n\nThe picture is as bleak for the 112,915 people waiting for inpatient and day-case admission.\n\nRobin Swann says the health service has suffered from underinvestment\n\nMore than 91,000 have waited longer than the ministerial target of 13 weeks and 66,287 of those have been on a list for a year or more.\n\nMr Swann said there was a \"recognition\" in the Northern Ireland Executive that action was needed to address waiting lists.\n\n\"It's not where we want them to be - we don't want people waiting that long because it actually increases demand on our health service the longer people are waiting,\" he said.\n\nThe minister said the health system needed to be better resourced and said there were plans in place to train new staff to fill vacancies.\n\n\"This is about changing the direction of the underinvestment, not just in the health service but also in our workforce, so it takes time,\" he added.\n\nRising NHS waiting lists are now one of the main domestic policy challenges facing ministers in all of the UK's administrations.\n\nTrying to reduce backlogs of operations, caused by widespread postponements during the first and second peaks of Covid, is proving to be much tougher than expected.\n\nBut with more than 460,000 patients waiting to see a consultant or waiting to start hospital treatment - nearly a quarter of the population - Northern Ireland's problems are certainly more acute than those in the rest of the UK.\n\nWhile Covid has made things worse, the waiting list issue in Northern Ireland goes back several years before the pandemic.\n\nFailure to follow through on successive reform plans and political stalemate at times have been cited as factors holding back the health service.\n\nHealth Minister Robin Swann is well aware of the challenges and knows that radical action is needed.\n\nThe question now is whether he can persuade ministerial colleagues to make difficult decisions over funding and rationalisation.\n\nMark Taylor from the Royal College of Surgeons said that behind the statistics were \"patients waiting in pain, worry and in great distress\".\n\n\"It is heartbreaking as a clinician to tell patients that they may be waiting many more months, if not years for the treatment they need,\" he said.\n\nMary Anderson from south Belfast has arthritis and has been referred for an operation on her ankle and a scan on her shoulder.\n\nBut she said she had heard \"absolutely nothing\" about the treatments since April 2020.\n\nMinisterial targets were breached for the majority of patients\n\n\"I can't do a full shop, for example,\" she told BBC News.\n\n\"I have to sit down regularly because the pain is just so bad and I was also advised very strongly by the surgeon to be very careful because the ankle, if I went over on it, could shatter, and that would be a major problematic surgery.\n\n\"So it affects every aspect of just moving about.\"\n\nMs Anderson said there had been \"no communication\" about her treatments and explained there was \"no support for us whilst we're on the long waiting lists\".\n\nOn top of the regular waiting lists, separate figures for cataract treatment show 13,306 people are waiting for a first consultant-led appointment.\n\nThe number of people on the list for tests is 145,301, up more than 8,000 on the previous quarter (5.9%) but down slightly on the same time last year (149,403).\n\nBut a third of them (48,543) are waiting longer than six months.\n\nMark Taylor says long waiting lists are an \"ever increasing problem\"\n\nThe ministerial targets state that at least 50% of first appointments should happen within nine weeks, 55% of inpatient and day case admissions should take place within 13 weeks, and overall no-one should wait longer than a year for a service.\n\nBut those targets are being breached for the majority of patients across the board.\n\nTo tackle the waiting times, the Royal College of Surgeons said recently-retired surgeons could work in \"Covid-light sites\".\n\n\"This stop-start approach to surgery is wreaking havoc on operating lists,\" said Mr Taylor\n\n\"We are urging system health leaders to do all that they can to bring about an expansion of Covid-light hospital sites and surgical hubs, to allow surgery to continue irrespective of the peaks and troughs of the pandemic.\n\n\"Our health service was in need of radical change before the pandemic, and the situation has only worsened over the last year.\"", "The UK boss of Uber is to meet with the new leader of a trade union for the first time since a landmark court ruling on workers' rights.\n\nJamie Heywood and GMB's Gary Smith seek to end years of discord over the ride-hailing giant's business practices.\n\nUber recognised the union for the first time in May after the Supreme Court ruled its drivers should be classed as workers and entitled to better rights.\n\nThe bosses said \"the exploitation\" of all ride-hailing drivers must stop.\n\nIn a joint statement ahead of the meeting, Uber and GMB said an estimated 230,000 drivers were not receiving \"their legal rights\" from companies such as Bolt and Addison Lee.\n\nHowever, Addison Lee boss Liam Griffin rejected the claims, saying drivers were \"at the heart\" of his business.\n\n\"We guarantee the drivers that work with us get the London Living Wage level of earnings, as opposed to only the National Minimum Wage paid by Uber,\" he said.\n\n\"Drivers working with Addison Lee also get access to a pension and holiday pay.\"\n\nBolt said record numbers continued to earn through Bolt \"because they can take home more money\".\n\n\"We don't take business advice from competitors motivated by their own agenda,\" it added.\n\nFormer Uber drivers James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam spearheaded a battle that began six years ago to grant Uber drivers worker status\n\nSeparately, the former Uber drivers James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam, who spearheaded the Supreme Court case against Uber, accused the ride hailing giant of running a \"propaganda\" campaign.\n\nThe App Drivers & Couriers Union (ADCU) leaders accused the firm of failing to implement the court's ruling by not paying drivers for waiting time, which they said made up 40% of drivers' working hours.\n\nThe BBC has approached Uber for a comment.\n\nUnder the May deal between Uber and GMB, the union will be able to represent up to 70,000 Uber drivers across the UK in discussions over earnings, pensions, benefits and their health and wellbeing.\n\nThe agreement came after Uber lost the third and final stage of a five-year legal battle with drivers who claimed it had wrongly classified their employment status.\n\nFor years, Uber resisted calls to recognise unions, which had criticised the firm for not granting drivers basic rights such as sick pay or a minimum wage.\n\nIt argued it was a third-party booking agent, and its drivers were self-employed, but the Supreme Court ruled its drivers were workers, a category that means they are entitled to minimum legal, holiday and pension rights.\n\nMr Smith, GMB's general secretary, said the deal with Uber was the \"first step towards a fairer working life for millions of people\".\n\n\"It showed that when companies and trade unions work together, standards can be raised across these industries,\" he said\n\nHe said the Supreme Court ruling had set a precedent for all ride-hailing apps and urged others to follow.\n\n\"GMB and Uber today take the next step in our commitment to ending the exploitation of hundreds of thousands of ride-hailing app drivers,\" Mr Smith said.\n\nJamie Heywood, Uber's regional general manager for northern and eastern Europe, said he hoped working with GMB would \"show the rest of the industry what can be achieved\".\n\n\"We may not seem like obvious allies, but together we made history by striking a recognition agreement to improve workers' protections and, crucially, give drivers a stronger say in how Uber operates,\" he added.\n\nMr Heywood told the BBC that UK employment law had been \"extremely ambiguous\" on issues such as who was an employee and who was self-employed.\n\nThe Supreme Court had now \"clarified\" the law and given Uber the \"mechanism\" that it needed to act, he said.\n\nWhen it was put to him that Uber had spent years exploiting that very ambiguity, he denied the charge, saying the firm was now able to \"keep the flexibility that workers value, but also provide them with the protection that they deserve\".\n\nOn the issue of whether Uber Eats riders would receive the same protection, Mr Heywood said he was \"committed to providing good flexible work across both our Eats and our rides business\".\n\nHowever, he said the law was different for people in the Eats business, since the Court of Appeal had ruled in June that Deliveroo riders were self-employed and not employees of the company.\n\nEmployment experts and unions have heralded Uber's deal with GMB as a big step forward for workers' rights that would be felt across the gig economy.\n\nHowever, the UK is the only country in which Uber has recognised a union, and it is still being challenged by drivers in other markets over similar issues.\n\nMr Griffin, chief executive of Addison Lee, said a decline in driver earnings and wellbeing across the industry was a \"product of Uber's operating practices and predatory pricing model\", which had led to a race to the bottom and threatened driver livelihoods.\n\nResponding to the comments, Uber said its drivers were making \"more than ever before driving with Uber, so the claim of a race to the bottom is totally untrue\".", "Police were called to three stores, including Tesco Express\n\nA solicitor has appeared in court accused of injecting blood into food items at three west London stores.\n\nLeoaai Elghareeb, 37, from Fulham, did not enter a plea at Westminster Magistrates' Court to a charge of contaminating goods with intent.\n\nThe case relates to incidents at a Sainsbury's Local, Tesco Express and Little Waitrose on Fulham Palace Road, Fulham, on Wednesday evening.\n\nHe is in custody and will appear at Isleworth Crown Court on 24 September.\n\nThe court heard the defendant, of Crabtree Lane, is accused of entering the Waitrose store and \"throwing around\" syringes of blood and injecting them into food items.\n\nShoppers have been advised to throw away products bought on Wednesday evening\n\nHe is also accused of doing the same, along with throwing eggs, in a nearby Sainsbury's store, and going on to inject more items in Tesco Express before he was arrested, the court heard.\n\nHammersmith and Fulham Council advised shoppers to throw away products bought in the stores after 18:00 BST on Wednesday.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Denmark is one of the countries moving to the green list\n\nCanada and Denmark are among seven countries moving to the green list in the latest changes to Covid restrictions.\n\nThailand and Montenegro are being added to the UK government's red list - meaning they are considered to be among the highest-risk destinations.\n\nFinland, the Azores, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Lithuania are also moving to the green list.\n\nThe changes will come into force at 04:00 BST on Monday.\n\nTravellers coming from green list countries do not have to quarantine when they come back to the UK - whether or not they have had two doses of a coronavirus vaccine. They still have to be tested before their return to the UK however, and book a test for day two after their return, and fill in a passenger location form.\n\nBut while Canada is on the green list, it currently has a ban on British nationals entering the country.\n\nOnly UK or Irish nationals, or UK residents, are allowed in to the UK if they have been to red list countries. They then have to pay to self-isolate in a government-approved quarantine hotel.\n\nThe Department for Transport said the changes were being made to the red list to reflect \"the increased case rates in these countries and the higher risk that travel from these countries poses to UK public health\".\n\nTravel lists are currently updated every three weeks. Most countries are on the amber list - fully-vaccinated adults do not have to quarantine on their return from these locations, but do have to have tests before returning and two days after they get back. Those who have not had both vaccines have to isolate at home for 10 days, as well as having the Covid tests.\n\nFrom 04:00 on Monday, only UK and Irish nationals or residents can travel back from Thailand\n\nAirlines UK, which represents UK-registered carriers, said the \"small number of green destinations\" was making international travel \"more expensive, burdensome and uncertain compared to other countries\".\n\nA spokesman said: \"Too many families are having to look over their shoulders for rule changes and pay through the nose for tests, with no sign from government that this will change.\n\n\"As has already happened across Europe, it's time for a more proportionate system where tests are dropped for the fully-vaccinated and from destinations where Covid risks are low, with tougher measures targeted at a small number of high risk countries.\"\n\nSean Doyle, British Airways' chairman and CEO, reacted to the travel changes by saying \"the UK's economic recovery remains far behind our more pragmatic European neighbours\". He added: \"We also need to urgently end the uncertainty caused by the constant threat of changes to countries' traffic light status.\n\n\"Our green list is much smaller than that of the US and EU, despite no new variants being transported into the UK.\"\n\nCharlie Cornish, chief executive of Manchester Airports Group which operates Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports, said the changes to the travel traffic light system will make \"little difference\" to the recovery of the travel industry and called on the government to \"overhaul\" it.\n\nHe said unless the government removed the need for fully-vaccinated people to take tests, it would \"continue to squander the advantage our world-leading vaccination programme was supposed to deliver\".\n\nShadow transport secretary Jim McMahon warned \"any loosening of restrictions carries with it risks, particularly from variants that could undermine the progress we have made on vaccines\".\n\nScotland's Transport Secretary Michael Matheson said the changes were \"welcome for Scots with loved ones in Canada but once again show that international travel remains challenging\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The former RAF paramedic said interpreters were “vital” to their work\n\nA former paramedic who served in Afghanistan has described seeing her interpreter and his family arrive safely in the UK as \"very emotional\".\n\nRachel Pompa, from Swansea, was based in Helmand province in 2006 and 2007, treating casualties during the war.\n\nOne of the people she worked most closely with during that time was her Afghan interpreter.\n\nShe remained friends with Mohammad - not his real name, and they have kept in touch for the past 15 years.\n\nShe said: \"Our contact built more recently, from the end of 2020, as he was part of a bigger process to try to move to America or the UK, but as things have escalated so fast and they were in extreme danger, he's managed to make it to the UK.\"\n\nMohammad arrived in the UK a few days ago with his wife and five children.\n\nThey are currently in quarantine at a hotel in England and waiting to find out where in the UK they will be able to live.\n\nSpeaking via video call from his hotel room, Mohammad told Ms Pompa: \"The last couple of weeks was very difficult and no-one was expecting this.\n\n\"To get to the airport for us was very, very difficult. The Taliban was beating people but finally we get here. Unfortunately, there are still some friends stuck in Kabul.\n\n\"Getting to the British forces inside the airport is very difficult. There are like six, seven [Taliban] check points before you get there.\"\n\nMohammad also said he knew of another interpreter friend who managed to make it into the airport, but his wife was still stuck outside.\n\nMs Pompa said much of her work as a paramedic in Afghanistan would not have been possible without the help of Afghan interpreters.\n\n\"We had a couple of interpreters attached to us and they were with us throughout, sleeping in our tents, coming on every mission, they were with us 24/7,\" she said.\n\n\"We couldn't have done our jobs without them, especially given the casualties we were picking up at the time weren't just British soldiers.\n\n\"They were sometimes Afghan nationals, French, as well as Taliban. We needed their linguistic skills to be able to interpret for us - they were absolutely vital,\" she said.\n\nRachel Pompa served in Afghanistan where she worked with the interpreter\n\nMs Pompa recalls a particular incident she experienced alongside Mohammad when they came under fire from the Taliban as they arrived in an area with 24 casualties.\n\nShe said they managed to evacuate them all and return them safely to the field hospital.\n\n\"I can't thank everyone enough really. From the Chinook pilots, the crew and the Afghan interpreters who risked their lives to help us,\" she said.\n\nReflecting on her time in Afghanistan and seeing the Taliban tighten its grip on the country once again, she added: \"It saddens me that 20 years ago we started making a difference.\n\n\"I think we did make a difference.\n\n\"I'm proud to have served in Afghanistan and proud to have helped.\n\n\"We did save lives. The country was in a better position for our work there and now it's just really sad and frightening about what could happen next and sad to think of the families that are there.\n\n\"The Afghan people are lovely, lovely people and no country should face what they're currently facing.\"\n\nMohammad told Ms Pompa he feels very safe now he is in the UK with his family.\n\nHe said: \"I feel like I am with my own people.\"\n\nMs Pompa has already paid a short visit to see him, stopping by the hotel where Mohammad and his family remain in quarantine to drop off donations of clothes and toiletries.\n\nAfter posting on Facebook about the arrival of Afghan refugees in the UK, she said she has been \"overwhelmed\" by the number of donations from friends and others in the local area.\n\nShe added Mohammad hopes it might be possible to move his family to Wales in the future.\n\n\"I did see them at the weekend to drop off some donations. I managed to see them from their hotel balcony for five minutes and it was very, very emotional. I don't think any of us could believe it's actually happened.\n\n\"We hope to meet up as families and help his children settle here. It's heart-warming. He has five children and I have two and they are similar ages. My girls want to help his children settle in this country if they can. It makes me proud.\"", "Secondary pupils must wear face coverings at all times while in school\n\nScotland's record number of Covid cases is partly being fuelled by the return of schools after the summer holidays, the deputy first minister has said.\n\nJohn Swinney said the data showed that high numbers of young people had tested positive in recent days.\n\nAnd he said the case for secondary pupils continuing to wear facemasks in school was growing \"ever stronger\".\n\nA total of 5,021 new cases of the virus were reported on Wednesday, a record high for the second day running.\n\nThat was up from 4,323 in the previous 24 hours - although the rate of positive results being returned was down from 14.5% to 11%.\n\nTuesday's figure had led First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to warn that the country was at another \"fragile and pivotal moment\" in the pandemic.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she could not rule out the possibility of some Covid restrictions being reintroduced - although the levels of serious illness remain relatively low at this stage.\n\nAbout a third of the new cases were in the under-19s age group - with almost 42% of 16 and 17 year olds having had their first dose of a vaccine.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme, Mr Swinney said there was no doubt that pupils and staff returning to school over the past fortnight had contributed to the \"unprecedented\" number of cases.\n\nHe added: \"Cases have risen very significantly within Scotland and we are looking closely at why that is the case.\n\n\"Undoubtedly the gathering of people together in schools will have fuelled that to some extent, and you can see that in the proportion of younger people who are testing positive.\"\n\nMr Swinney stressed that the government wanted to avoid school closures \"at all possible costs\", with the priority being to ensure that children's education was not disrupted any more than it had already been.\n\nHe said: \"A few weeks ago we were being criticised for insisting on the retention of face coverings within secondary schools - people were telling us we shouldn't do that.\n\n\"But of course, the justification for it appears to me to be ever stronger because of the need to try to avoid the circulation of the virus within the school environment.\"\n\nSecondary pupils must wear face coverings at all times when they are in school - including while sitting at their desk - for at least the first six weeks of term.\n\nBut Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville told the BBC last week that the requirement would be dropped earlier if possible.\n\nShe said the government was \"erring on the side of caution\" by keeping the rule in place after the summer holidays despite most other Covid restrictions being lifted.\n\nThe number of Covid cases in schools is released weekly, usually on a Friday.\n\nIt goes into detail of the age groups affected, the test positivity rate and how many young people are isolating. For context, just before schools stopped for the summer, there more than 900 cases and almost 29,000 isolating because they were a contact.\n\nWe should get the first report of this term at the end of the week. It will be worth looking out for just how many of these new cases are in school pupils. I expect we'll see a big drop in the number isolating, compared to last term, when there were more strict rules in place.\n\nThe latest figures from National Records of Scotland showed that Covid was mentioned on the death certificates of 41 people over the past week - the same total as the previous week.\n\nOf these, 12 deaths were of people aged under 65, six were people aged between 65-74 and there were 23 deaths of people aged 75 or over.\n\nThe majority - 28 - were male, with 13 female, while 20 of the country's 32 council areas recorded at least one Covid-related death.\n\nMr Swinney said acute illness remained relatively low in Scotland despite the country recording the highest number of cases it has ever seen, with the pressure on the NHS not as great as it was in other stages of the pandemic.\n\nHe said there were no plans to cancel large-scale events such as football matches and concerts \"at this moment\".\n\nAnd he said the government had to ensure that any new restrictions were proportionate based on the pressure the NHS was under, adding: \"that's the key assessment that ministers have to make\".\n\nHe added: \"In terms of fulfilling our legal obligations to apply any restrictions to the freedoms that individuals enjoy, we have to be able to be satisfied there is a proportionate danger and risk in having to act in that fashion\".\n\nMr Swinney also said the focus for now would be on attempting to ensure people followed the \"baseline measures\" such as wearing face coverings in shops and on public transport, trying to socially distance where possible and following good hand and cough hygiene.\n\nHe said that doing so would help to limit the circulation of the virus and avoid any further restrictions having to be applied in the future.", "England v India: Brilliant hosts dominate first day of third Test Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nThird LV= Insurance Test, Emerald Headingley (day one of five) England produced a stunning all-round display to take complete control of the third Test against India on the first day at Headingley. In a complete turnaround from their miserable defeat in the second Test at Lord's, the home side dismissed India for only 78 and then serenely moved to 120-0, a lead of 42. They were led by the peerless James Anderson, who claimed 3-6, including India captain Virat Kohli, as England exploited the seam movement on offer. Craig Overton, in for the injured Mark Wood, also took three wickets, and both he and Sam Curran had the chance of a hat-trick after taking two wickets in two balls. India lost their last seven wickets for 22 runs, at one stage losing four wickets for no runs in the space of six balls. England's day was further improved by the 60 not out made by Haseeb Hameed, restored to open the batting in Test cricket for the first time since 2016. With Rory Burns moving to an unbeaten 52, England's opening partnership passed India's total to leave the hosts in a perfect position to level the five-match series at 1-1.\n• None Watch Today at the Test on BBC iPlayer England's complete performance was as impressive as it was unexpected, given the way India had the better of the first two Tests, particularly when the hosts capitulated at Lord's. Two years ago to the day, Ben Stokes' individual brilliance gave England one of their most famous victories of all-time when Australia were defeated on this ground. Now, with their talismanic all-rounder just one of a lengthy list of absentees, Joe Root's side collectively reversed the momentum in what could turn into a stellar series. Everything went their way from the moment Kohli won the toss and elected to bat, giving England an opportunity to bowl that otherwise only the bravest captain would have chosen. Overton justified his selection over Saqib Mahmood, England's catching was vastly improved, while Hameed vindicated his promotion in place of the discarded Dom Sibley. India, by contrast, were awful - their batting loose, bowling without venom and fielding scruffy. The past has shown us that even the longest odds can be overcome at Headingley - England won from being bowled out for 67 in Stokes' Test - and an India victory from here would rank alongside that incredible comeback. Root said he was not disappointed to lose the toss. It took Anderson only five deliveries to show why. KL Rahul was drawn into a needless drive and, soon after, Cheteshwar Pujara prodded at a beautiful outswinger. When Kohli was again seduced into playing away from his body, Anderson was at the centre of England's emotional celebrations. Collectively, England held their length to take advantage of the slight encouragement offered by the pitch. As Ollie Robinson had Ajinkya Rahane and Rishabh Pant either side of lunch to take wicketkeeper Jos Buttler to five catches, Rohit Sharma was stuck at the other end with only 18 from his first 100 balls. It was Rohit's demise that began the real carnage. Overton dragged back his length and a horrible pull was caught at mid-on. From the next ball, also shorter, Mohammed Shami fenced to third slip. In the next over, Ravindra Jadeja played across Curran to be leg before, while Jasprit Bumrah joined Shami in registering a golden duck, meaning both of the tailenders who engineered England's Lord's downfall were out first ball. When Mohammed Siraj guided to first slip Root to give Overton his third wicket, India were dismissed for their lowest total against England in 47 years. England's poor run of results - they are without a win in seven Tests - is largely down to batting fragility. The latest reshuffle has seen Dawid Malan recalled to bat at three and Hameed join Burns to form England's 18th different specialist opening pair in nine years. The result was England producing only their third opening stand of 100 or more since 2016 as Hameed and Burns made the previously tricky surface look docile. Hameed mixed solid front-foot defence with wristy clips and punchy cuts. His only error was an edge off Bumrah on 47, with Rohit's drop at second slip giving Hameed the boundary that took him to his first Test half-century on home soil. Left-hander Burns swatted Siraj for six over square leg and reached his own half-century just before the close as the Headingley crowd taunted India in the evening sunshine. By the end, England had laid the perfect platform for a huge first-innings total, and they will hope Malan can cash in on Thursday to add further success to their raft of changes. 'A perfect day for England' - what they said England bowler James Anderson on BBC Test Match Special: \"We had a really low week at Lord's, but we had a good few days off to let that pass. We came here hungry and ready to show fight. \"We did that with the ball - the whole attack did really well. Then the two guys with the bat showed so much skill and fight.\" Former England captain Michael Vaughan: \"It's been the perfect day. England have been exceptional. It was a magnificent performance by the bowlers. It is exactly what England needed. \"India batted appallingly considering the amount of talent that they have in their changing room. KL Rahul set the tone with a poor drive, Virat Kohli with a poor stroke, Rishabh Pant with a nothing stroke, Rohit Sharma with a half-hearted pull shot, Ravindra Jadeja just missing a full straight delivery.\" BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew: \"England haven't done anything wrong today. It's hard to imagine India having a worst day than this.\"\n• None 78 is India's third-lowest total against England - and their lowest since being bowled out for 42 at Lord's in 1974.\n• None It is India's third-lowest total after winning the toss and choosing to bat first against any side.\n• None England passed the opposition's total without losing a wicket for only the fifth time in Tests.\n• None An hour of music from the 23-time Grammy winner\n• None Why do good cops go bad?: The story of one America's most corrupt police squads", "The prime minister lives in a flat above 11 Downing Street\n\nConservative party accounts reveal a Tory donor provided almost £53,000 towards the cost of Boris Johnson's Downing Street flat refurbishment.\n\nFigures confirm Lord Brownlow reimbursed the party for a \"bridging loan\" it initially provided for some of the works.\n\nThe costs were then settled by the prime minister, but it sparked a row over ministerial conduct.\n\nA report by the standards' adviser said the PM had acted \"unwisely\".\n\nDetails published clarify the extent of the Conservative peer's financial involvement in the renovations which are thought to have cost up to £200,000.\n\nConservative Party accounts show its central office provided a \"bridging loan\" of £52,802 to cover the works after being invoiced by the Cabinet Office in June last year.\n\nThe party was \"reimbursed in full\" by Lord Brownlow in October, before Mr Johnson \"settled the costs\" incurred by the Conservative peer in March.\n\nA Conservative spokesman said: \"As stated, the party provided a short-term bridging loan that was reimbursed to the party in full.\"\n\nPrime ministers receive an annual public grant of £30,000 to spend on their Downing Street living quarters, which are publicly-owned.\n\nBut a Cabinet Office report in July said more than £28,000 was spent on painting and sanding floorboards alone.\n\nAnd invoices for works, including services of interior designer Lulu Lytle, pushed the total costs significantly beyond the limit of public funding.\n\nMr Johnson's former chief adviser Dominic Cummings claimed the prime minister had planned to solve this shortfall by having donors \"secretly pay\" for the work.\n\nIn May, an investigation by the prime minister's adviser on standards, Lord Geidt, cleared Mr Johnson of misconduct although it found he should have been more \"rigorous\" in finding out how the costs were covered.\n\nWhile the report found Lord Brownlow had paid an invoice for some of the costs, it did not say how much he had put up to fund the refurbishment.\n\nLabour's deputy leader, Angela Rayner, said questions are hanging over so-called \"flatgate\".\n\nShe said the prime minister was embroiled in a \"web of conflicts of interests, secret loans and cover ups\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ex Royal Marine meets the pilot who airlifted him from Afghanistan on Paralympics flight\n\nBBC presenter JJ Chalmers has said he \"burst into tears\" when he realised the pilot flying him to the Tokyo Paralympics was the same man who flew him home injured from Afghanistan.\n\nChalmers was injured in a bomb blast while serving as a Royal Marine Commando in Afghanistan in 2011.\n\nWhile on the plane to Tokyo to cover the Paralympics for BBC Radio 5 Live, an air stewardess pulled him aside and said the pilot had recognised his name.\n\nChalmers - whose full name is Lance Corporal John James Chalmers - was flown home in an induced coma and had more than 30 operations after treading on an explosive device in Helmand Province.\n\nTen years later, he told 5 Live Breakfast he was on the plane to Tokyo - already \"so excited\" to be on the way to do his dream job of presenting at the Paralympics - when the air hostess came over.\n\n\"She sort of brought me to one side she said: 'Mr Chalmers am I right in saying you served in Afghanistan?' And I was like where is this going? What is going on here?\n\n\"And she said: 'Our pilot actually flew you back from Afghanistan, flew you back into the UK when you were injured 10 years ago, and he's noticed that and he'd like you to come this way, he's going to take the plane off and then he's going to come and have a word with you.'\n\n\"And I burst into tears, that was my reaction to that.\"\n\nChalmers was on patrol when the bomb went off, killing two of his colleagues and an Afghan interpreter\n\nChalmers said at first he felt some apprehension towards meeting the pilot.\n\n\"He's seen me unconscious, but like someone so profound and important in my life that you never think that you're going to meet, so I was overwhelmed by emotion,\" he said.\n\nAnd he said he was glad to be travelling with Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson, as \"I would've just been a blubbering mess otherwise.\"\n\nExplaining how the pilot realised he was onboard, Chalmers said: \"They get the passenger manifest three days before and he always takes a bit of a glance down and he said, particularly when you're working on something like this, you know there's going to be athletes and what not on board.\n\n\"He recognised my name, he googled it, and he found one of the first articles come up gave the specific date that I was injured, on 27 May 2011.\n\n\"So he took out his old RAF flying log, and he looked down it, and did the maths and figured out - yeah, right enough it was him that had brought me back and so he brought the log along with him.\n\n\"It was really nice... we were able to just talk like two veterans and it was really nice to, you know, pass the time talking to someone that sort of had a familiar background to what I did.\"\n\nThe pilot got out his old RAF flying logbook and found Chalmers' name\n\nChalmers said that when he got off the plane he told the pilot: \"I owe something that I'll never be able to repay to you, I'm unbelievably grateful for what you did for me - thank you - and in fairness his response was just perfect it was: 'We all had a job to do, that's what you did, that's what I did, that's what we all did.'\"\n\nAfter leaving the military, Chalmers won medals in non-amputee cycling in the Invictus Games and has since become a TV presenter, hosting coverage of the Paralympics. He also starred in Strictly Come Dancing last year.", "Scientists say light pollution may be contributing to \"worrying\" declines in insects seen in recent decades.\n\nIn a UK study, artificial street lights were found to disrupt the behaviour of nocturnal moths, reducing caterpillars numbers by half.\n\nModern LED streetlights appeared to have the biggest impact.\n\nThere is growing evidence that insect populations are shrinking due to the likes of climate change, habitat loss and pesticides.\n\nFactors are complex and varied, including the steady loss of forests, heathlands, meadows and marshes, overuse of pesticides, climate change and pollution of rivers and lakes.\n\nThe use of artificial lights at night-time has been proposed as another driver of insect decline, although the scale remains unclear.\n\nThis moth, the Buff Arches, has declined by 62% since the 1970s\n\nThe researchers say their study, published in Science Advances, is the strongest evidence yet that light pollution can have detrimental impacts on local insect populations, with consequences for the birds and other wildlife that rely on caterpillars for food.\n\n\"In a local setting we can now be quite confident that light pollution is important, but what's less clear is if we're looking at a whole landscape,\" said lead researcher Douglas Boyes of the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.\n\n\"If insects are in trouble - as we believe they are, and have evidence to support that - perhaps we should be doing all we can to reduce these negative influences.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Reports show many insect populations are declining. How will that affect us?\n\nThe researchers think street lights may deter nocturnal moths from laying their eggs or put the insects at risk of being spotted and consumed by predators such as bats.\n\nIn turn, caterpillars that are born under streetlights, particularly LEDs, alter their feeding habits.\n\nBut there are practical solutions that don't compromise public safety, they say, including dimming streetlights in the early hours, fitting motion sensors or using colour filters to cut out the most harmful wavelengths.\n\nIn the study, experts from the charity, Butterfly Conservation, Newcastle University and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology surveyed caterpillars on stretches of grassland and hedgerows at the sides of roads in southern England.\n\nEach of 26 sites with streetlights in Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire was compared with a similar stretch of unlit road nearby.\n\nSurveys showed a reduction of caterpillars by about half in lit areas (47% reduction in hedgerows; 33% in grass margins).\n\nIn a second experiment, lighting rigs were set up in fields. They found a reduction in caterpillars under LED lights, suggesting an effect on feeding behaviour.\n\nScientists are increasingly concerned about the decline of some populations of insects.\n\nOne scientific review of insect numbers in 2019 pointed to 40% of species undergoing \"dramatic rates of decline\" around the world.\n\nThe study said bees, ants and beetles were disappearing eight times faster than mammals, birds or reptiles, while other species, such as houseflies and cockroaches, were likely to boom.\n\nThe loss of insects has far-reaching consequences for entire ecosystems.\n\nInsects provide a food source for many birds, amphibians, bats and reptiles, while plants rely on insects for pollination.\n\nHear more about how artificial street lighting is impacting insects on the BBC Inside Science podcast on BBC Sounds", "Sidney Powell (centre) was among those to baselessly claim that electronic voting systems had switched millions of votes\n\nA US judge has issued a blistering ruling against prominent lawyers who represented Donald Trump after his 2020 presidential election defeat.\n\nUS District Judge Linda Parker described a lawsuit filed in Michigan by Mr Trump's counsel as a \"profound abuse of the judicial process\".\n\nHer 110-page ruling, issued Wednesday, sanctioned Sidney Powell, Lin Wood and seven others who alleged voter fraud.\n\nJudge Parker said the lawyers intended to undermine the electoral system.\n\n\"This case was never about fraud - it was about undermining the people's faith in our democracy and debasing the judicial process to do so,\" she said in her ruling.\n\nJudge Parker ordered the lawyers to pay the court costs of their opponents - the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan - and undergo 12 hours of legal education.\n\nShe also referred them to the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission and local disciplinary committees where they are licenced.\n\nLawyers representing Mr Trump filed a spate of lawsuits across the US after his 2020 election defeat making unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud.\n\nMr Trump refused to publicly concede defeat to his successor, President Joe Biden, for months. He only acknowledged a power transition would occur after a group of his supporters violently stormed the US Capitol building in January 2021, attempting to stop the result being certified.\n\nWednesday's ruling is the latest in a string of legal repercussions for those who pushed the former president's case in court.\n\nMs Powell was among those to baselessly claim that electronic voting systems had switched millions of votes and the Trump campaign later distanced itself from her.\n\nMs Powell was later sued, along with Mr Trump's former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, by Dominion voting systems over the allegations.\n\nMr Giuliani also had his law licence suspended earlier this year by the state of New York over what they described as \"demonstrably false and misleading\" claims he made around the 2020 US election.", "British Airways is considering plans for a short-haul flight operation at Gatwick Airport.\n\nThe airline confirmed it was working with unions on the proposals but said it would not comment further.\n\nThe British Airline Pilots Association told the BBC British Airways and the union were in the \"final stages of negotiations\" over pay and conditions.\n\nActing general secretary Martin Chalk said the union \"cautiously\" welcomed the airline's decision.\n\nMr Chalk said the move would \"create a number of much needed new pilot jobs\".\n\n\"We hope to bring these talks to a conclusion shortly,\" he added.\n\nThe Wall Street Journal, which first reported the story, said the airline was looking to create a new unit at London Gatwick, after it halted its short-haul flights from the airport at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThe paper reported carriers such as British Airways have typically relied on short-haul operations to feed traffic onto more profitable longer routes.\n\nLast month, British Airways owner IAG said it was ramping up its flight schedules as global air travel restrictions are eased.\n\nIAG said it would operate at about 45% of passenger capacity between July and September compared with pre-Covid levels, possibly rising to 75% by the end of 2021.\n\nThe company, which also owns Aer Lingus and Iberia, revealed a loss of more than €2bn (£1.7bn) in the six months to the end of June.\n\nIn April 2020, British Airways announced it would cut up to 12,000 jobs in response to the Covid crisis.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Johnson: \"We always knew this was a moment where there were going to be particular vulnerabilities to terrorism\"\n\nThe UK will continue its operation to evacuate people from Afghanistan despite the \"despicable\" attack at the capital's airport, Boris Johnson says.\n\nSpeaking after an emergency meeting, the PM pledged the UK would be working \"flat out\" until \"the last moment\".\n\nBut he also acknowledged the push was nearing its conclusion, with hours remaining.\n\nTwo explosions hit Kabul airport on Thursday, killing some 90 people - among them 13 US military personnel.\n\nAt least 150 people were also wounded in the attack, which the so-called Islamic State group say it was behind.\n\nThe Ministry of Defence (MoD) said there had been \"no reported UK military or UK government casualties\".\n\nFigures released by the MoD on Thursday night showed 13,146 individuals had been flown out by the UK so far.\n\nIn an address on Thursday night, President Joe Biden also promised to carry on with the evacuation, which is due to end on 31 August.\n\nHe said the US would \"not forgive\" and \"not forget\" the attack, telling the perpetrators: \"We will hunt you down and make you pay.\"\n\nUS commanders have said they are on alert for more attacks by so-called Islamic State, including possible rockets or vehicle-borne bombs targeting Kabul airport.\n\nIn the aftermath of the suicide bombings at the airport, the pace of the emergency airlift from Afghanistan has slowed but it has not halted.\n\nThe BBC understands that people who'd already been allowed inside the airport perimeter have continued to be processed, to be boarded on to departing planes.\n\nBut sources said the numbers arriving to be processed had decreased considerably as the Taliban were turning back many Afghans, particularly those who did not hold foreign passports or visas.\n\nBoris Johnson said the UK was \"coming towards the very end\" of its operation and suggested \"the overwhelming majority of those eligible\" had now been flown out.\n\nBut there remain many clamouring not to be left behind, including interpreters who had worked for the British military, security guards from the UK embassy, Afghan soldiers trained by British forces, those who worked with international organisations and academics.\n\nThursday's twin blasts took place outside the Abbey Gate - where US and British forces have been stationed to help with evacuations - and at a nearby hotel, following warnings there could be terrorist incidents in the area.\n\nSpeaking after chairing an emergency Cobra meeting, the PM described the blasts - reportedly carried out by suicide bombers - as \"barbaric\".\n\nHe said: \"I want to stress that this threat of a terrorist attack is one of the constraints that we've been operating under... in the big extraction that's been going on, and we've been ready for it, we've been prepared for it.\n\n\"And I want to stress that we're going to continue with that operation - and we're now coming towards the end of it, to the very end of it, in any event.\n\n\"But, clearly, what this attack shows is the importance of continuing that work in as fast and as efficient a manner as possible in the hours that remain to us, and that's what we're going to do.\"\n\nContinuing, Mr Johnson said the Foreign Office, Home Office and Border Force teams were \"going to work flat out\" to get people through \"as fast as they can\".\n\nHe added: \"We're going to keep going up until the last moment.\"\n\nThe US has set the deadline of the end of the month for the withdrawal of its troops, with President Biden rejecting calls from Mr Johnson and other allies for an extension.\n\nIn the past 12 hours, some countries including Canada, Germany and Australia have announced that they have ended their evacuation operations.\n\nForeign Secretary Dominic Raab has offered condolences to the families of the civilians who were killed or injured, saying the US troops who were killed and harmed \"paid the ultimate sacrifice while helping others reach safety\".\n\n\"The UK and US remain resolute in our mission to get as many people out as possible. It is testament to the remarkable courage of our personnel that they continue to do so while under fire,\" he said.\n\nA statement from the MoD said: \"Our primary concern remains the safety of our personnel, British citizens and the citizens of Afghanistan. We are in close contact with our US and other NATO allies at an operational level on the immediate response to this incident.\"\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer called the attack \"devastating\", and said his thoughts were with \"all those killed and wounded, serving personnel supporting the evacuations and all those desperately trying to leave\".\n\nHe added: \"The bravery of the troops at the airport will always outweigh the cowardice of those who wish to harm us.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Earlier, Boris Johnson said the UK had rescued the \"overwhelming majority\" of people to whom it owes a debt\n\nKabul airport is currently being defended and run by the US, which has 5,800 troops on the ground - with the help of more than 1,000 UK troops.\n\nArmed Forces minister James Heappey declined to give a date for the last UK evacuation flights, but said it was likely that UK and other foreign troops would have to leave before the last American airlifts.\n\nHowever, Mr Johnson has insisted the US deadline will not mark the end of the UK's efforts to help people wishing to flee the Taliban-controlled country.\n\nHe said on Thursday that the current airlifts were just the \"first phase\".\n\n\"Even beyond the US deadline of 31 of this month, we hope to be able to continue to say to people, well you can come out,\" he said.\n\nCrowds of people have been waiting outside Kabul airport in recent days\n\nAre you affected by issues covered in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "Japan has suspended the use of about 1.63 million doses of the Moderna vaccine due to contamination.\n\nThe health ministry said \"foreign materials\" were found in some doses of a batch of roughly 560,000 vials.\n\nTakeda Pharmaceutical, which sells and distributes the vaccine in Japan, said Moderna had put three batches on hold \"out of an abundance of caution\".\n\nIt said an issue at a manufacturing contract site in Spain was the likely cause, but did not elaborate.\n\n\"To date, no safety or efficacy issues have been identified,\" Moderna said, adding that it would work with regulators and Takeda to investigate the matter further.\n\nThere are no details of what the \"foreign objects\" are, but Takeda described it as particulate matter, after which it said conducted an emergency examination.\n\nReports of contamination also came from seven other vaccination centres, according to the Japan Times newspaper, with 39 vials - or 390 doses - found to have been affected.\n\nThe health ministry has published the batch numbers so that people who had received their shot before the suspension could check if they have got a potentially contaminated shot, Japan Times added.\n\nJapan is battling a spike in Covid cases, with eight more prefectures placed under a state of emergency on Wednesday.\n\nIts capital, Tokyo, is currently hosting the Paralympic Games.\n\nThe country has already approved the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines for use - it only started using Moderna in May.\n\nJust over 40% of Japanese people are fully vaccinated and around 50% have received one dose.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Mauritius has moved a symbolic step closer to wresting control of the Chagos Islands, in the Indian Ocean, from the UK.\n\nThe Universal Postal Union (UPU), a UN agency in charge of the world's postal policies, voted to block the use of UK stamps from the remote archipelago.\n\nAll post from the Chagos Islands must now bear stamps from Mauritius.\n\nThe UK says it will not cede control until the islands are no longer needed for security purposes.\n\nThe US currently uses the largest of the islands - Diego Garcia - for a military air base on what the UK describes as the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT).\n\nThree powerful UN bodies have already ruled that the archipelago, which has a population of about 3,000, is part of Britain's old empire and should be handed to Mauritius immediately.\n\nA set of pretty postal stamps showing sea slugs and angel fish might not seem like the sharp end of international diplomacy, the BBC's Africa correspondent Andrew Harding says.\n\nBut he adds that the near unanimous vote by the UPU to make those stamps illegal worldwide, is a blow to Britain, and another sign of its growing isolation over its claim to the Chagos Islands.\n\nThe next step could see Mauritius seeking to ban international flights over the area - a vast chunk of the Indian Ocean.\n\nAll indications so far show that on the Chagos issue Britain has almost no allies left, our correspondent says.", "The UK's new Information Commissioner will be charged with a post-Brexit \"shake up\" of data rules, including getting rid of cookie pop-ups.\n\nJohn Edwards has been named the next head of data regulator the ICO.\n\nThe government said Mr Edwards, currently the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner, would \"go beyond the regulator's traditional role\".\n\nThe job would now be \"balanced\" between protecting rights and promoting \"innovation and economic growth\".\n\nMr Edwards has been named as the government's preferred candidate, and said it is a \"great honour\".\n\n\"I look forward to the challenge of steering the organisation and the British economy into a position of international leadership in the safe and trusted use of data for the benefit of all,\" he said.\n\nHis predecessor, current Commissioner Elizabeth Denham, said Mr Edwards \"will take on a role that has never been more important or more relevant to people's lives.\"\n\nThe government's shake-up of the Information Commissioner's Office was announced alongside planned changes to data protection post-Brexit.\n\nIn an interview with The Telegraph newspaper, Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said the plans include getting rid of \"endless\" cookie pop-ups which are common on most large sites, asking for permission to store a user's personal information.\n\nThis is widely marketed as a tool for compliance with EU data law the GDPR, although the practice pre-dates it.\n\nHe told the newspaper that \"high risk\" sites would still need similar notices, but that many of them are \"pointless\".\n\nAnd he said reform of data protection rules is \"one of the big prizes of leaving\" the EU.\n\n\"There's an awful lot of needless bureaucracy and box ticking and actually we should be looking at how we can focus on protecting people's privacy but in as light a touch way as possible,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe proposed reforms extend to all sorts of data.\n\nIn the official announcement, the government said it will prioritise making new \"data adequacy\" partnerships that will allow it to send people's personal data internationally, to places such as the United States, Korea, Singapore, Dubai and Colombia, among others.\n\nData adequacy in this sense means an agreement that the protections in place are similar in two countries, with the idea of ensuring that personal information remains safe. It is a key part of EU regulations and was a minor sticking point in the Brexit negotiations.\n\nThe UK currently has a data adequacy agreement with the EU, though it needs to be renewed in future and could change if the law in the UK diverges too far from EU rules.\n\nOther details remain light, with the government promising to launch a consultation on what future data laws will look like.\n\nThe government said that as much as £11bn of trade \"goes unrealised around the world due to barriers associated with data transfers\".\n\n\"Now that we have left the EU I'm determined to seize the opportunity by developing a world-leading data policy that will deliver a Brexit dividend for individuals and businesses across the UK,\" Mr Dowden said.\n\n\"It means reforming our own data laws so that they're based on common sense, not box-ticking.\"\n\nAndrew Dyson, a data protection expert at law firm DLA Piper, said these announcements amounted to the \"first evidence\" of \"a bold new regulatory landscape for digital Britain post-Brexit\".\n\n\"It will be interesting to see the further announcements that are sure to follow on reforms to the wider policy landscape that are just hinted at here,\" he said.\n\nThis is a big moment in the evolution of the UK's data protection policies.\n\nAs New Zealand's Privacy Commissioner, John Edwards showed he was anything but timid in taking on the tech giants. After the Christchurch massacre, he described Facebook \"as morally bankrupt pathological liars who enable genocide (Myanmar), [and] facilitate foreign undermining of democratic institutions\" - in a tweet he later deleted.\n\nThe current commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, has been criticised by some privacy campaigners for not being robust enough in protecting data rights. But it looks as though the government wants her replacement to be even more cautious.\n\nMr Edwards \"will be empowered to go beyond the regulator's traditional role of focusing only on protecting data rights, with a clear mandate to take a balanced approach that promotes further innovation and economic growth.\"\n\nThat looks like a clear signal that the interests of those businesses complaining about the burden of what they regard as excessive data regulations will be given a hearing.\n\nOliver Dowden's told the Daily Telegraph that EU rules on cookies - which, by the way, predate the GDPR data laws - could be the first target of the new slimmed down approach to regulation. With many web users frustrated by the constant need to click \"accept\" on cookie banners every time they visit a new site, this could prove a popular move.\n\nBut data protection specialists warn that it's easy to generate headlines about a bonfire of regulations, much harder to frame new laws diverging from what applies across the English Channel.\n\nAnd the tech companies themselves may complain about EU data laws - but may see this as just adding another layer of complexity to their global policies, rather than a big opportunity.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Pen Farthing: \"Twice today I've had an AK poked in my face\"\n\nAn ex-Royal Marine who was near to the explosions outside Kabul airport has told how \"all hell broke loose\" as gunmen fired near his vehicle.\n\nDozens of people have been killed in two blasts near the airport after warnings that a terror attack could be launched in Afghanistan.\n\nPaul 'Pen' Farthing said his mission to get 200 dogs and cats out alongside his staff had been blocked by US policy.\n\nMr Farthing said there were chaotic scenes at the airport.\n\n\"All hell broke loose at the airport circle which is where I was, which is probably about a mile from the explosions across at the Abbey Gate and we had Taliban there firing into the air,\" Mr Farthing, who founded the Nowzad shelter, told the BBC.\n\n\"One let off a full magazine on automatic from his AK-47 right next to the window of our bus where we had women and children in.\n\n\"And as we were trying to then flee from the airport we were getting tear-gassed so we were obviously trying to drive the vehicle when we can't see anything. It was just the most horrific thing.\"\n\nMr Farthing set up the Nowzad animal shelter after serving in Afghanistan in the mid-2000s\n\nMr Farthing, originally from Dovercourt in Essex, said US President Joe Biden had \"stopped\" his attempt to get the animals out of the country.\n\n\"There's nothing I can do. The staff are telling me it's time for me to go. They don't think a foreigner will be welcome here,\" he said.\n\n\"Staff have asked me to take as many dogs and cats as I can. But now I can't get them past the Taliban check points.\"\n\nHe said the Taliban were stopping people from Afghanistan coming to the airport even if they also had British passports.\n\nPentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed the twin blasts occurred in a \"complex attack\" outside Hamid Karzai International Airport and there were \"a number of US and civilian casualties\".\n\nA senior Kabul health official told the BBC more than 60 people had died and more than 140 people were injured.\n\nAmerican officials said 11 US marines and a navy medic were killed.\n\nThe Ministry of Defence said there had been no UK military or government casualties reported.\n\nPen Farthing has appealed to Suhail Shaheen to allow the charity workers and animals into the airport\n\nMr Farthing and his supporters have been campaigning to have his staff and their families, as well as 140 dogs and 60 cats, evacuated from Kabul since the collapse of the Afghan government.\n\nHe has dubbed the plan Operation Ark and made a plea on Twitter to ensure his \"safe passage\" into Kabul airport on Thursday.\n\nAddressing the Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen, Mr Farthing said: \"Dear Sir; my team and my animals are stuck at airport circle. We have a flight waiting. Can you please facilitate safe passage into the airport for our convoy?\"\n\nThis 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 Pen Farthing 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.\n\nA privately funded plane due to fly from Luton Airport to rescue them out of the country was cancelled earlier amid safety concerns.\n\nOne from a country neighbouring Afghanistan is now set to be used instead but it is said it cannot land in Kabul until Mr Farthing is granted entry into the airport.\n\nMr Farthing set up the Nowzad animal shelter, rescuing dogs, cats and donkeys after serving in Afghanistan in the mid-2000s.\n\nHe has said he would not leave the country without his staff or animals.\n\nMr Farthing said US President Joe Biden had \"stopped\" his attempt to get the animals out of the country\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace said earlier this week he was not prepared to prioritise animals ahead of people \"in real danger\".\n\nMr Wallace has since tweeted to say: \"I never said I would not facilitate. I said no-one would get to queue jump.\n\n\"As I have said, we will facilitate at all stages but the priority will be people not pets.\"\n\nMr Wallace urged people to \"let my civil servants and military get on with dealing with one of the most dangerous and challenging evacuations for a generation\".\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The actress is reprising her role as the sharp-witted technological genius Shuri in the Black Panther sequel\n\nActress Letitia Wright was treated in hospital after an accident on the set of the upcoming Black Panther sequel.\n\nThe star, who plays Shuri, Princess of Wakanda, received minor injuries in what was described as a \"stunt rig accident\".\n\nThe film shoot was happening overnight in Boston, separate to the main production in Atlanta.\n\nAlthough the nature of her injuries was not disclosed, the actress was released from hospital after several hours.\n\nThe incident is not expected to have an impact on the shooting schedule for the superhero sequel.\n\nWright is one of several stars returning in the film, titled Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, alongside Daniel Kaluuya, Danai Gurira, Lupita Nyong'o and Angela Bassett.\n\nPlot details are being kept under wraps, but the movie is expected to continue the story of the technologically-advanced African nation of Wakanda after the death of King T'Challa, who was played by the late actor Chadwick Boseman.\n\nFilm studio Marvel has confirmed that Boseman's role will not be recast, and they will not use digital effects to include his likeness in the film.\n\nIt was recently announced that British star Michaela Coel - who created and starred in I May Destroy You - would join the cast in an unknown role.\n\nAdditionally, Dominique Thorne, who will play the up-and-coming superhero Ironheart in a forthcoming Disney Plus TV series, will make her Marvel debut in the Black Panther film.\n\nProduction on the sequel began in June, with Ryan Coogler back in the director's chair.\n\nHe has previously spoken about the challenges of continuing the story without Boseman, who died of colon cancer last year.\n\n\"This is one of the more profound things that I've ever gone through in my life,\" he told the Unbothered podcast last year, \"having to be a part of keeping this project going without this particular person, who was like the glue that held it together.\"\n\nBritish star Kaluuya, who plays T'Challa's second-in-command W'Kabi, said the sequel's goal would be to honour the late star.\n\n\"For me, what's important to me is not the Black Panther legacy, it's the legacy of Chadwick Boseman, because that's a human being and a spirit that is real,\" Kaluuya told The Ringer.\n\n\"How can we honour that? Black Panther is going to do what Black Panther does, but that's a man that lived for us. He did it for us, did it our nephews, our nieces, our kids. It's our duty to honour that man the way he honoured us.\"", "A major review of vaccines suggests the AstraZeneca jab does raise the risk of blood clots and another serious condition that can cause bleeding.\n\nBut the study found the risk of such problems following a coronavirus infection was still much higher.\n\nThe University of Oxford-led team also found an increased risk of stroke after the Pfizer jab - but again at a much lower rate than after infection.\n\nThe team said it once again showed the \"substantial\" benefit of vaccination.\n\nIt comes after a coroner ruled on Thursday that BBC Radio Newcastle presenter Lisa Shaw died because of complications from the AstraZeneca jab.\n\nThe 44-year-old died in May after developing headaches a week after getting her first dose. She suffered blood clots in the brain.\n\nThe research team looked at records from more than 29 million people who received a first dose of a Covid vaccine between December and April, who were mostly over 40, as well as nearly 1.8 million who were infected with the virus.\n\nThe study, published in the British Medical Journal, looked for complications up to 28 days after being jabbed or infected.\n\nIt found that for every 10 million people vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine:\n\nFor every 10 million people vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine, it found:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lead author Prof Julia Hippisley-Cox: \"These are really reassuring results\"\n\nLead author Prof Julia Hippisley-Cox said it was important people were aware of the risks, but that they were kept in context given the higher risk from being infected.\n\nFellow author Prof Aziz Sheikh added the findings \"clearly underscore\" the importance of getting vaccinated to reduce the risk of these clotting and bleeding outcomes.\n\nNone of the university researchers involved in this study were part of the Oxford team that helped develop the AstraZeneca vaccine.", "Iain Mackay was taken to a hospital in Glasgow following the crash\n\nA two-year-old boy injured in a two-car crash in the Highlands on Sunday has died.\n\nIain Mackay, from Wick, was taken to the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow with life-threatening injuries.\n\nHe was a passenger in a blue Peugeot 208 involved in a collision with a blue Nissan Qashqai on the A99 at Occumster.\n\nTwo women in the Peugeot - the driver, 25, and a passenger, 26 - were taken to hospital in Aberdeen and the other driver, a woman, 44, to Inverness.\n\nPolice Scotland have appealed for information about the crash, which happened at about 16:45.\n\nThe road was closed for about eight hours to allow an investigation to take place.\n\nSgt David Miller said: \"At this time, our thoughts are very much with Iain's family, following their unbearably tragic loss.\n\n\"Three women also sustained serious injuries as a result of this incident and we are appealing for anyone with information to please assist our enquiries, as we work to establish the full circumstances.\n\n\"If you were in the area and may have seen either of the cars involved, or have possible dashcam footage which could help our investigation, please get in touch with police.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Covid impacting the training of new HGV drivers\n\nSupply chain issues, in part due to a shortage of lorry drivers, are affecting businesses across the UK. One problem is that the pandemic has halted HGV driver training and testing for more than 12 months, according to the trade association Logistics UK. And the Road Haulage Association adds that, alongside Brexit, this has led to the current shortfall of around 100,000 HGV drivers. Trainee driver Hayley O'Beirnes has been speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live about the hurdles she has faced to get into the industry \"Any normal person would have thrown in the towel by now, what should have just taken a few months has taken nearly a year,\" she says. Ms O'Beirnes - who starting training in February - says she has always wanted to be an arctic lorry driver, but delays and rising prices of training have stopped her from completing her training. \"I couldn't afford the £3,000, which is the average cost of doing training up front, I was forced to find a company that did finance.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSenior politicians feared Prime Minister Boris Johnson might die when he was admitted to intensive care with Covid, the Welsh Secretary has said.\n\nSimon Hart said there was \"a real feeling that we could wake up the next morning and find he was dead\" when Mr Johnson was ill last April.\n\nHe said he thought \"this wasn't in the script,\" when he heard Mr Johnson was unwell.\n\nHe added it had showed him that \"nobody was out of reach\" from Covid.\n\nIn the days prior to being admitted, the prime minister tried to \"soldier on\" despite being obviously ill, Mr Hart told the BBC's Walescast podcast.\n\nHe said although Mr Johnson was looking \"quite cheerful\", he could remember telling a colleague they needed to finish the meeting soon because he was \"looking rough\".\n\nThe Welsh secretary also defended his boss from accusations he responded too slowly or missed key government meetings early in the pandemic.\n\nInstead, he credited the \"unbreakable optimism\" and \"extraordinary stamina\" of a leader who was determined \"to try to save as many lives as we can\".\n\n\"It was a very sobering moment [when Mr Johnson was in intensive care] for all concerned - because it just reinforced that this thing knew no boundaries and nobody was outside its reach.\"\n\nSimon Hart said Mr Johnson in hospital showed \"nobody was out of reach\" of Covid\n\nThe drama of last spring seems a long way from the interview at Pendine Sands holiday park, in Mr Hart's Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire constituency.\n\nHe won the seat, where he and his wife Abigail raised their two children, at the 2010 General Election.\n\nHowever, he had operated in political circles before that, and as chief executive of the Countryside Alliance he lobbied against Labour's ban on fox hunting.\n\nHe said that battle's \"days are gone\" and that \"nobody wants to re-engage in that\".\n\nAs a backbencher during Brexit, he voted to remain, but under Theresa May campaigned and cajoled Remainers and Eurosceptics to try to get a deal through Parliament.\n\nBoris Johnson then appointed him to the cabinet after his predecessor Alun Cairns resigned shortly before the 2019 General Election.\n\nPendine's beach is a popular tourist spot in the MP's constituency\n\nFrom Pendine's famous beach, which has been busy with visitors since lockdown restrictions in Wales have eased, Mr Hart said the furlough and vaccination programmes show how the union of the UK has underpinned Wales's response to the pandemic.\n\nBut his views on preserving that union clash with those of first minister Mark Drakeford, who has accused the UK government of putting the union at risk and of undermining the powers of the Senedd.\n\nMr Hart counters by accusing Mr Drakeford of \"talking up devolution endlessly\".\n\n\"I think talk of constitutional conventions and all sort of academic claptrap frankly to me doesn't seem to be in tune with the guys trying to run this camp.\"\n\nNevertheless, the Welsh secretary said he thinks he has a \"reasonable\" relationship with the first minister, who he sometimes spots on the seaside in his constituency.\n\n\"He's on holiday so I don't feel it's my place to pester him,\" he adds.\n\nNot intruding on people with political chit-chat is a theme.\n\n\"I wouldn't even know how half my friends vote,\" said Mr Hart.\n\n\"It wouldn't have ever crossed my mind to ask them.\"\n\nHe brings it up after telling us about how his home near Narberth was inundated with bird-watchers in 2018.\n\nThis 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 Simon Hart 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.\n\nEnthusiasts from all over the UK came to see a green heron - a native of Costa Rica and an exceptionally rare visitor to the UK - that had landed in his garden.\n\nHe said him and his family put trays of food out everyday but he was \"baffled\" by some people who said: \"'I'm never going to set foot in a Tory MP's garden'.\n\n\"They felt that strongly. I thought 'Oh, come on'.\"\n\nThe bird \"put on a show\" for a week, then flew off and the MP said his only regret was he wished \"it had done it in an election year\".\n\nBut then the migratory habits of birds, just like politics, don't always follow a plan.\n\nYou can listen to Walescast on BBC Sounds", "The road was closed for more than seven hours following the collision\n\nA top eventer has spoken of his devastation after four horses died when the vehicle carrying them was struck by a lorry on the A9 near Perth.\n\nNick Gauntlett was heading to the Land Rover Blair Castle International Horse Trials at the time of the crash at about 14:45 on Tuesday.\n\nThe horse transporter had broken down when it was hit by the lorry.\n\nHis horse, Party Trick, died alongside three animals belonging to US-born eventer Sophie Hulme.\n\nPolice Scotland are investigating the circumstances of the crash and said two people were taken to hospital for treatment.\n\nNick Gauntlett, pictured here on a different horse, said he and his family were \"heartbroken\" over the horses' deaths\n\nMr Gauntlett, who is an international eventer and coach, is based in Chipping Sodbury, South Gloucestershire.\n\nParty Trick was born in 2012 and was both a competition horse and breeding stallion.\n\nWriting on Facebook, Mr Gauntlett said: \"My amazing family are fine and that is definitely the main thing.\n\n\"You don't need the details, but we lost all four horses on board. We are obviously all heartbroken.\"\n\nGloucestershire-based Ms Hulme, who was already at Blair Castle, said: \"I am so absolutely devastated and at a loss for words.\n\n\"Three of my lovely horses my precious babies are gone. Taken far too soon from this world.\n\n\"My world is completely upside down at the moment.\"", "UK car production fell sharply last month, marking the worst July performance for the industry since 1956, a trade group has said.\n\nThe global microchip shortage, staff being affected by the so-called pingdemic, and shutdowns meant just 53,438 cars were built in the month.\n\nThat was a drop of 37.6% compared to July last year, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said.\n\nIt comes as sales of second-hand vehicles are soaring.\n\nOverall car production in the year to date is almost a fifth higher than during 2020 at 552,361 vehicles, but that is still 28.7% down on 2019 pre-pandemic levels.\n\nSMMT boss Mike Hawes said the July figures \"lay bare the extremely tough conditions UK car manufacturers continue to face\".\n\n\"While the impact of the 'pingdemic' will lessen as self-isolation rules change, the worldwide shortage of semiconductors shows little sign of abating,\" he said.\n\nNew cars often include dozens of microchips - also called semiconductors - but a shortage has put pressure on a number of carmakers, who are competing directly with tech companies and the consumer electronics sector for supply.\n\nAt the beginning of the pandemic, many car manufacturers cancelled orders due to fears of a long downturn in sales. However, as demand started to recover, companies found themselves at the back of the queue for microchips.\n\nManufacturers have had to grapple with absent workers as coronavirus restrictions eased due to employees being pinged by the NHS Covid app.\n\nAnalysts at Goldman Sachs have predicted that the automotive sector is set to be hit hard by the chip shortage, with up to $20bn (£14bn) wiped off global carmakers' operating profits in 2021.\n\nThe SMMT also revealed that car exports from the UK fell 37.4% in July, with just over 45,000 vehicles shipped overseas.\n\nHowever, demand for alternatively-fuelled models is picking up. More than a quarter of all cars made in July were either battery electric or hybrid electric, the SMMT said, the highest share on record.\n\n\"The UK automotive industry is doing what it can to keep production lines going, testament to the adaptability of its workforce and manufacturing processes,\" Mr Hawes added.\n\n\"But government can help by continuing the supportive Covid measures currently in place and boosting our competitiveness with a reduction in energy levies and business rates for a sector that is strategically important in delivering net zero.\"\n\nThe car industry is a vital part of the UK economy accounting for £78.9bn turnover.\n\nIt employs some 180,000 people in manufacturing and 864,000 across the wider supply chain. More than 30 manufacturers build around 70 car models in the UK.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "More than 82,000 people have been airlifted from Kabul since the Taliban gained control\n\nA number of nations say there is a high threat of a terrorist attack at Kabul airport and have warned their citizens not to travel there.\n\nAustralia, the US and UK have issued alerts to their citizens. Those already outside the airport are advised to leave the area immediately.\n\nMore than 82,000 people have been airlifted from Kabul, which fell to the Taliban 10 days ago.\n\nCountries are rushing to evacuate people by a 31 August deadline.\n\nThousands of people are still waiting inside and outside the airport, hoping to fly out of the country.\n\nThe Taliban have opposed extending the deadline but also promised to allow foreigners and Afghans to leave the country beyond 31 August, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.\n\nOn Thursday, Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Marise Payne, said: \"There is an ongoing and very high threat of a terrorist attack\".\n\nIt comes hours after the US State Department told those waiting at the Abbey Gate, East Gate or North Gate to \"leave immediately\".\n\nThe UK issued similar advice asking people there to \"move away to a safe location and await further advice\".\n\nThe Foreign Office said that the security situation in Afghanistan \"remains volatile\" adding that there was \"an ongoing and high threat of a terrorist attack\".\n\nNone of the countries gave any further information on the security threat.\n\nCountries are attempting to finish evacuations by the 31 August deadline\n\nIn a speech on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden said the US-controlled airlift would have to come to an end soon because of an increasing threat from the Islamic State group in Afghanistan.\n\nAbout 19,000 people have been evacuated on US-organised flights in the past 24 hours, Mr Blinken said on Wednesday, with airlifts stepped up in recent days amid scenes of chaos.\n\nHe said that the US was still on track to complete operations at Kabul airport by the end of the month.\n\n\"Only the United States could organise and execute a mission of this scale and this complexity,\" he told reporters in Washington.\n\n\"The Taliban have made public and private commitments to provide and permit safe passage for Americans, for third-country nationals and Afghans at risk past August 31st,\" he said.\n\nHe added that the US would help those who wanted to leave Afghanistan \"not just during the duration of our evacuation and relocation mission, but every day thereafter\".\n\nThe US is committed to getting as many Afghans as possible, Mr Blinken said\n\nUp to 1,500 US nationals could still be in the country and the administration was making exhaustive efforts to trace them, the secretary of state said.\n\nThe CIA and the US military have been carrying out clandestine operations to extract Americans using helicopters and ground troops, US and other officials have told the Wall Street Journal.\n\nThe perilous operations have been both inside and outside of Kabul, the paper says.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Tears on the tarmac as Afghan journalist Wahida Faizi speaks to the BBC's Lyse Doucet\n\nThe Pentagon has said 10,000 people are still waiting to be evacuated from Kabul airport by US aircraft. There are fears for thousands more Afghans who are desperate to leave but cannot reach the site.\n\nBBC correspondents say many of those being turned back by the Taliban at the airport gates appear to have travel papers.\n\nPresident Joe Biden tweeted that the US would \"do everything\" to \"provide safe evacuation\".\n\nThis 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 Joe Biden 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.\n\nThe UK said its evacuation operation was moving at \"significant pace\", with some 1,200 people flown out on Wednesday.\n\nForeign Secretary Dominic Raab said his government would use \"every hour and day that we've got left\" to fly British nationals and eligible Afghans out.\n\nKabul airport is currently being defended by 5,800 US and 1,000 British troops.", "The boss of supermarket Iceland says the supply chain chaos is getting worse, just as retailers start planning for the key Christmas period.\n\nRichard Walker told the BBC he estimated the UK's shortage of lorry drivers was now about 100,000, with the company itself about 100 short.\n\nTesco boss John Allan said \"there may be some shortages\", but people should not \"over-dramatise\" and panic-buy.\n\n\"It's very easy to make a drama out of a modest crisis,\" he told the BBC.\n\nThe continuing shortage of HGV drivers is starting to make retailers nervous, as they are about to start planning for the key trading period.\n\nThe government said there was a \"highly resilient\" food supply chain and it was taking measures to tackle the driver shortage.\n\nBut Mr Walker said: \"The reason for sounding the alarm now is that we've already had one Christmas cancelled at the last minute.\n\n\"I'd hate this one to be problematic as well,\" he added. \"We start to stock-build from September onwards for what is a hugely important time of year,\" he added.\n\n\"We've got a lot of goods to transport between now and Christmas and a strong supply chain is vital for everyone.\"\n\n\"The driver shortage is impacting the food supply chain on a daily basis and leading to shortages on the shelves,\" Mr Walker said.\n\n\"We've had deliveries cancelled for the first time since the pandemic began, about 30 to 40 deliveries a day.\"\n\nThe simple solution he said, was for heavy goods vehicle drivers to be added to the UK's skilled workers list, to help get drivers recruited from overseas.\n\n\"These men and women, these HGV drivers, have kept the show on the road for 18 months during the pandemic and it's criminal that we're not viewing them as skilled workers,\" he told the BBC.\n\nAsked if Brexit is responsible for the supply chain problems, Mr Walker responded: \"I think so, but it's a 'self-inflicted wound' rather than an inevitable consequence of Brexit, caused by the government's failure to appreciate the importance of HGV drivers and the work they do for us.\"\n\nTesco chairman Mr Allan echoed the warnings, but felt the situation was unlikely to develop into a crisis. \"There may be some shortages at Christmas, but I wouldn't want to overdramatise the extent to which that would be the case.\"\n\nHe said that normally, the supermarket industry would start building stocks now in readiness for Christmas, but \"at the moment we're running very hard just to keep on top of the existing demand and there isn't the capacity to build stocks that we would like to see\".\n\nHe said Tesco, like all its rivals, was \"very short of drivers\".\n\nFirms from a number of sectors in the UK have been battling with a supply chain crisis due to a shortage of lorry drivers.\n\nSteve Murrells, chief executive of the Co-operative Group, warned that current food shortages were \"at a worse level than at any time I have seen\".\n\nHe told the Times that the Co-op had significantly reduced its range of some products to help serve customers.\n\nMr Murrells said the disruption to supply had been driven by \"Brexit and issues caused by Covid\" and the firm was retraining staff as lorry drivers to help fill vacant roles.\n\nA government spokesperson said: \"We have a highly resilient food supply chain. We have well-established ways of working with the food sector and are working closely with them to ensure businesses have the labour they need.\n\n\"We have put in place a package of measures to tackle the HGV driver shortage. Additionally, our Plan for Jobs is helping people across the country retrain, build new skills and get back into work. As part of this, we are streamlining the process for people to get their HGV licence.\"\n\nTesco has been offering lorry drivers a £1,000 joining bonus amid a chronic shortage of drivers in the industry.\n\nOther companies are also understood to be offering similar incentives for HGV drivers after disruption to supply chains led to product shortages. Morrisons said it was working on schemes to train staff to become lorry drivers.\n\nOn Friday, Logistics UK, which represents freight firms, and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) wrote to the government to plead for new measures to alleviate the problem.\n\nProblems with shipping goods in from overseas could also hit Christmas, according to toy retailer boss Gary Grant.\n\nThe chairman of The Entertainer told the Mail Online that he had to contend with shortages of containers to bring goods in from Asia and a jump in shipping costs.\n\n\"What is unique to us is that Christmas is a fixed date, so we are under extreme pressure at the moment to move as much stock as we can, but are significantly behind with the shipment of products,\" he said.\n\n\"There's not a shortage of toys, but what will happen as when we get nearer to Christmas, the suppliers will not have back-up stock that we've previously relied upon. So the range of stock we have may be narrower.\"\n\nHe warned that popular toys such as Paw Patrol, Barbie and Rainbocorns could be in short supply.", "A plane is being sent to evacuate Pen Farthing and his team from Kabul\n\nA plane expected to fly from Luton Airport to rescue staff and animals from a charity in Afghanistan has been cancelled amid safety concerns.\n\nThe campaign to get Nowzad sanctuary founder Paul \"Pen\" Farthing, his staff and animals out of Kabul has become known as Operation Ark.\n\nA plane from a country neighbouring Afghanistan will now be used instead.\n\nTwo blasts at Kabul airport on Thursday followed a Foreign Office warning about an attack.\n\nTaliban officials said at least 11 people had been killed.\n\nWildlife campaigner and broadcaster Dominic Dyer, from Milton Keynes, told the BBC the volatile situation in the country meant the mission was \"too dangerous\" and that the private flight company \"could not enter Kabul airspace safely\".\n\n\"We have an option in place in a neighbouring country to lift Pen, his staff and animals out of Kabul before transferring them to the UK,\" he added.\n\nBut Mr Dyer warned the plane waiting in a neighbouring country could not land in Kabul until Mr Farthing is granted entry into the airport.\n\nHe is currently outside awaiting permission.\n\nThere had been criticism about prioritising animals over people, but approval was given for the flight.\n\nThis 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 Rt. Hon Ben Wallace MP 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.\n\nRoyal Marine veteran Mr Farthing, originally from Essex, founded the Nowzad animal shelter, rescuing dogs, cats and donkeys after serving in Afghanistan in the mid-2000s.\n\nHe has said he would not leave the country without his staff or animals.\n\nIt is understood Mr Farthing has about 68 staff and 150 cats and dogs as well as other people described as \"vulnerable\".\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace said earlier this week he was not prepared to prioritise animals ahead of people \"in real danger\".\n\nHe then said if the charity's founder got to the airport with his staff and animals, he would seek a slot for the chartered flight.\n\nMr Wallace has since tweeted to say: \"I never said I would not facilitate. I said no-one would get to queue jump.\n\n\"As I have said, we will facilitate at all stages but the priority will be people not pets.\"\n\nMr Wallace urged people to \"let my civil servants and military get on with dealing with one of the most dangerous and challenging evacuations for a generation\".\n\nThis 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 2 by Rt. Hon Ben Wallace MP 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.\n\nA supporter of Operation Ark has privately funded the plane due to take the charity workers out of the country.\n\nThe former Essex Marine pleaded with the Taliban to allow them in, saying his team had been waiting for more than 10 hours.\n\nAddressing Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen on Twitter, Mr Farthing said: \"My team & my animals are stuck at airport circle.\n\n\"We have a flight waiting. Can you please facilitate safe passage into the airport for our convoy?\"\n\nThis 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 3 by Pen Farthing 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.\n\nThis 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 4 by dominic dyer 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.\n\nMr Dyer described the campaign as involving \"probably the most high profile group of Afghan refugees anywhere, now\".\n\nHe said the group had two trucks and three mini-buses.\n\nPen Farthing has appealed to Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen to allow the charity workers and animals into the airport\n\n\"Now they're on the side of the street trying to keep the dogs and cats from dying of heat exhaustion,\" Mr Dyer said.\n\n\"I don't need to hear from ministers anymore that we have a priority list.\n\n\"I don't want to hear this 'we're putting pets before people' - it's nonsense.\"\n\nHe said the animals would be \"in the hold and we've got spare capacity in the seating and will take more refugees if we can\".\n\n\"This is a Dunkirk-spirit privately paid operation to rescue animals and protect people,\" he added.\n\n\"It's touch and go... but we're going to get them out of there.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Parents should be reassured the side-effects of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in 12 to 15-year-olds at high risk from Covid are mild and clear up quickly, a small study suggests.\n\nDoctors in Bristol tracked 27 children with neurological conditions for two weeks after their jabs.\n\nThey found the children, who had been shielding, had similar side-effects to adults.\n\nHigh-risk children benefited most from the vaccine, the researchers said.\n\nThe study, in Archives of Disease in Childhood, was in response to concerns from parents over the unknown side-effects of the Covid vaccine in their vulnerable children.\n\nBut these parents were also hoping the vaccine would make a major difference to their family life after shielding from Covid for so long.\n\nEach parent was asked to record any side-effects they noticed in their child.\n\nAll were aged between 12 and 15 and vaccinated in March or April this year, when only small numbers of extremely vulnerable children were being offered a jab.\n\nThe children had various conditions affecting the brain or nervous system, including cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy.\n\nThey also tended to have other conditions such as epilepsy, heart defects and problems with their immune system.\n\nThe most common symptoms after the first dose included a mild rash, headache, diarrhoea, neck pain and possible sore throat, which had all gone within 72 hours.\n\nAfter the second, five children experienced some of the following symptoms - vomiting, armpit swelling, diarrhoea and blisters around the mouth.\n\nOne child in the study experienced severe fatigue and discomfort and became more agitated than normal.\n\nAnd the family of another child, who had epilepsy, reported a rise in the frequency of seizures.\n\nAll side-effects had cleared up within a week, the study said.\n\nDr Tom Hilliard, a respiratory paediatrician from Bristol Children's Hospital, who led the study, said there would now be many families with children with less severe health conditions who would be wondering whether to have the vaccine \"and this should reassure them\".\n\n\"Even among children with severe neurological conditions, the Pfizer vaccine does not make side-effects any more common,\" he said.\n\nAnd although the study had tracked the children for a fortnight only, he was not aware of any other problems developing since.\n\nChildren eligible for a Covid vaccine in the UK include 12- to 15-year-olds, with:\n\nChildren aged 12 to 17 can be vaccinated if they live with somebody with a weak immune system.\n\nAnd all 16- and 17-year-olds have now been offered a vaccine.", "Covid cases in Wales are almost double the level seen at this point during the second wave\n\nCovid case rates have continued to climb in Wales to numbers not seen since January.\n\nHowever Public Health Wales figures show deaths and hospital admissions remain much lower, thanks to the vaccine rollout.\n\nRising cases were anticipated with restrictions easing and more mixing.\n\nCase rates are currently above the \"most likely scenario\" modelled by scientists but the impact on hospitals remains within calculations.\n\nThe Wales case rate has now risen to 334.1 cases per 100,000.\n\nOne further death was also reported, bringing the average over the past seven days to 1.1 deaths a day.\n\nAt this stage during the second wave there was an average of 23 deaths per day.\n\nSwansea continues to have the highest case rate, at just under 500\n\nSwansea has the highest level of positive cases in Wales with a case rate of 498.4 and more than half of the city's communities have case rates above 500.\n\nAcross Wales the average number of daily positive tests is 1,505, up from 946 the week before.\n\nThe positivity rate - the proportion of tests taken that come back positive - has also risen to 17.7%.\n\nHospital admissions are also rising but they remain at about 20% of the level they were at during the second wave.\n\nWhile vaccination has clearly reduced hospital admission figures, not all age groups are evenly vaccinated.\n\nJust over 60% of those under the age of 30 have been fully vaccinated in Wales, compared with around 90% of those aged 50 and above.\n\nPeople under the age of 30 accounted for 45% of new Covid cases. This figure was much lower during previous waves when vaccines were less widespread.\n\nIn Wales a total of 2,347,000 (74%) people have received one dose, and 2,171,499 (68%) people have been fully vaccinated.", "Butcher Chris George says young people \"don't want to do it\"\n\nA shortage of UK workers is hitting supermarket shelves in Wales.\n\nAvara Foods, which employs 350 at its turkey processing plant in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, said a combination of Covid and Brexit meant many of its EU national workers had returned home.\n\nLogistics UK has said there are 90,000 HGV driver vacancies in the UK and a family butcher has warned there are no young people to replace those retiring.\n\nThe UK government said it was working to attract UK domestic workers.\n\nEarlier this week, the IHS Markit/CIPS Composite Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for August hit a six-month low, prompting a warning staff and supply shortages have taken their toll on the UK's economic recovery.\n\nAvara Foods, which supply major retailers across the UK and restaurants, said EU nationals once made up half of its workforce because of a shortage of UK workers.\n\nJim Roberts from the company said: \"The UK labour simply wasn't there, so we would supplement it with non-UK workers that were either already in the country or traveling from overseas.\"\n\nHe said the company was now looking for workers but not finding them.\n\nLogistics UK has said there are 90,000 HGV driver vacancies in the UK\n\nUsually, the company would be getting about 80 job applications a month, but now they are getting between 20 and 30, he said.\n\n\"It looks to us like it's primarily Brexit-related although probably not in isolation - Covid undoubtedly has played a part, but it's certainly not Covid on its own.\n\n\"We track who is absent because of Covid on a daily basis and the numbers are very, very low. It looks much more like it's a reduced labour pool and that's primarily caused by non-UK workers returning back home.\"\n\nAvara wants the seasonal workers scheme to be extended to help with the Christmas rush.\n\nMr Roberts said they needed staff for \"a number of skilled roles, particularly butchery\".\n\nA third-generation family butchers may seem a world away from a processing plant with hundreds of staff but the pressures are the same.\n\nChris George's grandfather took over WJ George butchers in Talgarth in Powys from his uncle.\n\nIn recent years they have had up to six skilled butchers working there but now there are just two.\n\n\"As people have retired there's been nobody coming behind to replace them, so as they reach retirement age there's just no youngsters coming forward to take over the sort of skills you need for butchery,\" he said.\n\n\"And how serious is that shortage of skills? Quite serious really.\n\n\"You can't just put anybody in to do it, it takes years of practice to get it right.\"\n\nThere are calls to add butchers to the UK's shortage occupation list\n\nHe said young people were not interested in butchery: \"They just don't want to do it,\" he said.\n\n\"It's not a hospitable place to work, it's not glamorous, it just doesn't appeal to a lot of young - I think a lot actually just like to be in front of a keyboard and just push buttons and it's more appealing.\"\n\nSpeaking from its distribution centre in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, company owner Chris Chris Kiley said: \"We have got a lot of shortages going on.\n\n\"There is no one product, there is no range of products, its just across the board\n\n\"I think its the driver shortage that's the biggest problem.\"\n\nAndy Richardson who chairs the Welsh Government Food and Drink Board, agreed: \"We can't deny that there may be some manufacturers issues but the biggest issue is haulage.\n\n\"The lack of drivers because EU citizens went back home and because of problems at HGV testing centres during Covid lockdowns.\n\n\"We call upon government to look at all the possible short-term solutions as well as long-term strategic issues of driver shortages which have been highlighted by industry to government for months.\"\n\nAt Avara, Mr Roberts said there were \"oversights\" that can be easily corrected to ease the situation.\n\n\"The shortage occupation list doesn't currently include skilled roles that are necessary in food production, so butchers and HGV drivers could easily join an archaeologist, web designers and nurses [who are] on that list.\"\n\nHe also called for the seasonal workers scheme to include the Christmas season, saying: \"Again that's an oversight that could be quickly corrected.\"\n\nThe UK government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said: \"In 2021 and beyond, food and farming businesses will continue to be able to rely on EU nationals living in the UK with settled or pre-settled status.\n\n\"We are working with other departments to encourage and support the sector to attract UK domestic workers though offering training, careers options, wage increases and to invest in increased automation technology.\"", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nPremier League champions Manchester City have been drawn to face Paris St-Germain, RB Leipzig and Club Bruges in the Champions League group stage.\n\nHolders Chelsea come up against Serie A giants Juventus, Russian club Zenit St Petersburg and Swedish side Malmo.\n\nManchester United face Villarreal, who beat them in last season's Europa League final, as well as Italian club Atalanta and Swiss side Young Boys.\n\nLiverpool are in a tough group with Atletico Madrid, Porto and AC Milan.\n\nThis year's Champions League final takes place at the St Petersburg Stadium in Russia on Saturday, 28 May.\n\nPep Guardiola's City side, who were beaten by Chelsea last season in their maiden final in the competition, face a brace of tantalising Group A meetings with Lionel Messi's new club PSG.\n\nThose matches could see a reunion for Messi with old foe Cristiano Ronaldo, who has been heavily linked with a move to City from Juventus before transfer deadline day.\n\nThe two sides meet in the competition for the second consecutive season after last season's semi-final showdown, which City won 4-1 on aggregate.\n\nBundesliga side RB Leipzig will also be a difficult proposition, having knocked out Manchester United in the group stage last season.\n\nJurgen Klopp's six-time winners Liverpool are arguably in this season's hardest group, along with La Liga champions Atletico Madrid, Portuguese club Porto - winners in 1987 and 2004 - and seven-time European champions AC Milan.\n\nLiverpool beat Milan in the famous 2005 final in Istanbul, but the Italians gained revenge in Athens two years later.\n\nThe toughest task for Thomas Tuchel's Chelsea side will be negotiating home and away meetings with Juventus, while the defending champions should have few problems against Zenit and Malmo.\n\nOle Gunnar Solskjaer will be much happier with Manchester United's chances of progression from Group F, having been knocked out in the group stage last season.\n\nThe Red Devils will be aiming to take revenge on Unai Emery's Villarreal, who beat them on penalties in the Europa League final last season.\n• None Chelsea only lost one of their 13 Champions League matches last season, their quarter-final second leg at home to Porto, which they lost 1-0. They remained unbeaten in their seven matches played away from Stamford Bridge (W6 D1).\n• None In Champions League history, only one reigning champion has failed to progress from the initial group stage in the following season - that was Chelsea in 2012-13, who finished third in their group before lifting the Europa League that season.\n• None Of the 25 managers to have taken charge of at least 50 Champions League matches, Manchester City's Pep Guardiola has the best win percentage (63% - 86/136).\n• None With PSG in the same group, Lionel Messi could face Manchester City for a seventh time in the Champions League - the Argentine has scored more goals against City than any other player in the competition (six goals in six games).\n• None Liverpool have progressed from 11 of their 14 previous Champions League group stage participations, including all four under current manager Jurgen Klopp\n• None Liverpool have won just one of their six meetings with Atletico Madrid in all European competition (D2 L3), losing home and away against them in 2019-20 as the Spanish side knocked them out in the last 16.\n• None Only Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich have played more Champions League matches than Manchester United (230), with the Red Devils one of just five sides to have 100 or more wins in the competition (121).\n• None The four Champions League meetings between Manchester United and Villarreal have produced no goals, the most played fixture in the history of the competition to see no goals scored.", "Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater are both MSPs and co-leaders of the Scottish Green Party\n\nThe Scottish Green Party has confirmed that its co-leaders will become ministers if its deal with the Scottish government is approved.\n\nOn Saturday party members are due to vote on the agreement, which would take Greens into national government for the first time anywhere in the UK.\n\nIf approved, Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater will be given minister roles.\n\nThe power-sharing agreement between the pro-independence Scottish Greens and the SNP was announced last week.\n\nIt is understood the two Green ministers would have responsibility for areas of environmental and social justice policy and would work across several different departments.\n\nThe co-leaders could expect to earn an extra £30,000 a year each on top of their MSP salaries.\n\nWhile they would not serve in the Scottish Cabinet, they might be invited to attend from time to time.\n\nMr Harvie and Ms Slater's appointments are expected to be made next week by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.\n\nThe new ministers would be additions to the government so SNP ministers would not lose their jobs to make way for them.\n\nGreens say going into government for the first time is about maximising their influence, getting as much of their manifesto delivered as possible.\n\nThey know that does not come cost free. Some of their principles will come under pressure like never before.\n\nIf this deal is approved, Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater will become part of a government that remains committed to building new roads and has not set a date for ending oil and gas extraction.\n\nBut if the deal is rejected, Greens may lose the chance to shift more transport spending towards rail and cycling, set rent controls in social housing and expand renewable energy production.\n\nParty members have to decide if the deal includes enough Green clout to offset the compromises that come with sharing power.\n\nThe party's co-leaders stress their flexibility to criticise the SNP in policy areas outside their agreement but they may also be obliged to defend government decisions they do not like.\n\nFollowing her party's confirmation of the ministerial proposals, Lorna Slater said it was time for Scotland \"to step up efforts to decarbonise our economy and invest in a greener, independent future\".\n\nShe added: \"The co-operation agreement we've negotiated would put Greens at the heart of decision-making at this crucial time and if our members endorse it then I look forward to driving change in government.\"\n\nPatrick Harvie said if party members backed the plan, \"they can be assured that we'll waste no time getting to work to deliver on their transformative agenda\".\n\nHe said: \"With Greens in government we would be able to deliver positive change like tackling Scotland's emissions, protecting nature, advancing tenants' rights, bringing forward overdue equalities legislation and delivering an independence referendum.\"\n\nThe Scottish Greens are keen to tackle Scotland's emissions\n\nThe Scottish Conservatives' Covid recovery spokesman Murdo Fraser accused Nicola Sturgeon of looking to appoint \"extremists\" who \"don't believe in economic growth...and who actively want to limit Scotland's economy\".\n\nHe said: \"Neither Patrick Harvie or Lorna Slater should be anywhere near key financial decisions that will impact jobs and businesses.\n\n\"Their growing influence is a danger to our oil and gas industry and the 100,000 jobs it supports. The Greens seek to undermine the future of the North Sea sector at every turn, and Nicola Sturgeon is giving them a bigger platform to do that.\"\n\nThe Greens have signed up to the bulk of the government's policy - but there will also be areas where they are in disagreement with the SNP, and they will be able to criticise it on those points.\n\nThese excluded areas include aviation policy, international relations, policy on fee-paying schools, fox hunting and Nato membership if Scotland becomes independent.\n\nThe co-operation agreement says the two parties will work together to provide \"effective and responsible leadership for Scotland for this session of the Scottish Parliament, in the interests of Scotland, of the people who live in Scotland, and of future generations\".\n\nIt says they will secure a referendum on Scottish independence \"within the current parliamentary session on a specific date to be determined by the Scottish Parliament\".\n\nThey have also committed to holding a referendum on Scottish independence within the next five years, and preferably by the end of 2023.", "A lack of funding for rural youth work in England is leaving young people exposed to the dangers of county lines drug-dealing gangs, it is claimed.\n\nThe amount spent per head on youth work for 11- to 19-year-olds in rural England, £47, is 25% less than in urban areas, and half the level a decade ago.\n\nThe National Youth Agency said rural employment prospects and mental-health support access were also a concern.\n\nThe government said it had given youth-work charities £100m over the pandemic.\n\nBut the National Youth Agency is calling for it to implement a long-term spending plan.\n\nCounty-lines gangs often use vulnerable children to help them bring illegal drugs into areas across the UK - and move money out.\n\nThe National Youth Agency said it had seen an \"increasing trend\" for young people in county towns and rural areas to be targeted.\n\nYouth workers were vital in protecting those at risk by providing a known and trusted adult, chief executive Leigh Middleton told BBC News.\n\nBut, he added: \"As local authority budgets have shrunk, [resources have] gone to our towns and cities.\"\n\nYouth work can take many forms, supporting young people of all ages.\n\nIn Bridgwater, Somerset, 17-year-old Dan has struggled for work.\n\n\"In the smaller towns, there is not really much you can do, or look into, to get a job,\" he said.\n\n\"They are mainly in the cities and bigger towns.\"\n\nPoor social mobility is a key issue in rural areas, campaigners say.\n\nAnd there are often fewer vocational courses on offer.\n\nBut Dan's local youth service, Young Somerset, is trying to combat this.\n\nAnd through the charity's provision, he has achieved a qualification in mechanics.\n\n\"It has opened up a better opportunity for me with apprenticeships,\" he said.\n\n\"It has helped me for the future.\"\n\nThe charity Young Somerset supports young people of all ages across the county\n\nIn the Quantock Hills, a group of 12- and 13-year-olds taking part in Young Somerset's summer activities are lighting campfires and learning about habitat conservation.\n\nAnd as they sit smiling in the woodland, they are keen to express how much they have enjoyed their day.\n\n\"I'm glad I've done this,\" Tavey says.\n\n\"[If I was at home], I'd probably be sat on my bed watching YouTube.\"\n\nElissa, 18, says she relied on Young Somerset for mental health support during the pandemic\n\nYoung Somerset also runs wellbeing services and a shop to help young people who have special educational needs learn life skills.\n\nAnd with services becoming stretched during the pandemic, the charity said it had seen an \"influx\" of young people seeking mental-health support.\n\nOne of them, Elissa, 18, began feeling isolated while furloughed from work.\n\n\"I'd already struggled with mental wellbeing beforehand - and I think lockdown just made it worse,\" she said.\n\nElissa joined online groups run by Young Somerset, meeting new friends - and now has a volunteering role with the charity to help others.\n\n\"Reaching out to Young Somerset, and gaining that trust with them, made it much easier [to cope with my anxiety],\" she said.\n\nAnntoinette Bramble, of the Local Government Association, told BBC News \"increasing demand and cost pressures\" meant local authorities were having to cut youth services \"to prioritise spend on looked-after children and child-protection services\".\n\nThe Department for Culture, Media and Sport said its £500m Youth Investment Fund, \"designed to achieve levelling up across the country\", remained a manifesto commitment by the end of this Parliament, in 2024.", "The Swedish band are one of the biggest pop acts of all time.\n\nPop group Abba have teased a major announcement for next week, as fans await their first new music in 39 years.\n\nThe Swedish band launched a new website on Thursday morning titled \"Abba Voyage\", asking fans to register interest in a new project.\n\nIt is expected to be a long-gestating \"hologram tour\" that Abba initially announced in 2016.\n\nThe band are also expected to release five new songs to accompany the show.\n\nThis 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 ABBA Voyage 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.\n\nThe quartet - Agnetha Faltskog, Anna-Frid Lyngstad, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson - returned to the studio in 2018, promising two new songs later that year.\n\nThose tracks, I Still Have Faith In You and Don't Shut Me Down, have been repeatedly delayed - and the band are now planning to release five tracks to thank fans for their patience.\n\nEarlier this year, Ulvaeus confirmed the music would \"definitely\" come out this year.\n\n\"It's not a case any more of it might happen, it will happen,\" he told The Herald Sun.\n\nThe Abba Voyage website was launched on Thursday morning, featuring a cryptic image of four glowing planets, accompanied by the date 2 September.\n\nAccording to The Sun, the show will involve \"Abba-tars\" of the stars performing hits like Waterloo, Dancing Queen and Mamma Mia.\n\nIt said the holograms will be beamed onstage in a purpose-built east London theatre, where fans will also be able to see a documentary-style film on the band's comeback.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC during the early stages of the show's production, Ulvaeus said the idea had been presented to the band by Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller.\n\n\"He came to Stockholm and he presented this idea to us that we could make identical digital copies of ourselves of a certain age and that those copies could then go on tour and they could sing our songs, you know, and lip sync. I've seen this project half-way through and it's already mind-boggling.\"\n\nFilming for the project reportedly took place at London's Ealing Studios last year.\n\nFormed in 1972, Abba were essentially a Swedish supergroup, consisting of songwriters Ulvaeus and Andersson from The Hep Stars and singers Faltskog and Lyngstad, who had scored success as solo artists.\n\nBut their joint project completely eclipsed their previous work. After winning the Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo in 1974, the band sold almost 400 million singles and albums around the world.\n\nMamma Mia!, the musical based on their hits and produced by Ulvaeus and Andersson, has also been seen by more than 50 million people.\n\nDuring their most successful period, the band survived marriage break-ups between Ulvaeus and Faltskog, and Lyngstad and Andersson, but they finally called it a day in 1983.\n\nTheir final recording sessions, in 1982, produced the hits Under Attack and The Day Before You Came, which featured on the compilation album The Singles.\n\nTheir last public performance came three years later, on the Swedish version of TV show This Is Your Life, which honoured their manager Stig Anderson.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "The Netherlands is among the nations already rolling out Covid jabs to 12 to 15-year-olds\n\nNHS organisations in England have been told to prepare for a possible extension of the Covid vaccination programme to all 12 to 15-year-olds.\n\nAny change to the rollout next month will be dependant on a recommendation from experts on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).\n\nJab offers in this age group only now go to people living with a vulnerable adult or certain health conditions.\n\nThe Department of Health said no decisions had been made.\n\nBut it confirmed that planning for a range of scenarios was taking place to ensure all eventualities were prepared for.\n\nEarlier this month, the JCVI advised that all 16 and 17 year olds should be given a first dose of a vaccine. Unlike older age groups, no second dose is being scheduled.\n\nThe committee, which advises all four UK nations, has not made its final decision on whether the 12 to 15-year-old age group should be vaccinated.\n\nThe US, Canada, France and the Netherlands are among the countries which are already vaccinating children aged 12 and over.\n\nThe JCVI is weighing up the arguments on whether such a move should be made in the UK.\n\nExperts are assessing the risks and benefits to children of vaccination and how much it might slow the wider spread of the virus.\n\nOne JCVI member, Prof Adam Finn, told Sky News this week that the committee was taking a \"very cautious\" approach.\n\nIt comes as UK Covid infection levels have been rising again, with more than 30,000 new cases confirmed each day in the last week.\n\nThe latest government data on Wednesday showed there had been a further 35,847 lab-confirmed cases, and 149 people had died within 28 days of a positive test.\n\nNearly 88% of over-16s have had the first dose of a vaccine, while 77.4% are fully-vaccinated.\n\nThe extension to the vaccination programme being planned for would coincide with the start of the new school year.\n\nProf Mike Tildesley, an infectious disease modeller at the University of Warwick, says September will be a crucial moment in the pandemic, when pupils are back in classrooms across the whole of the UK and people return to offices after the summer holiday.\n\nA record number of daily Covid cases announced in Scotland on Wednesday was said to have been partly fuelled by the return of schools after the break.\n\nMeanwhile, secondary school pupils in England are being urged to get tested before the start of the term and vaccinated if they have been invited for a jab.", "GPs in Scotland are warning against a rush back to more face-to-face consultations with patients as part of the government's NHS Recovery Plan.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said the move will be one of the \"key actions\" for the next five years to reduce backlogs in healthcare.\n\nThe number of GPs will also be increased by 800 to try and tackle recruitment and retention problems.\n\nHowever, GPs insist the hybrid system for appointments should stay for now.\n\nThe Royal College of GPs in Scotland said it welcomed the government's recognition that general practice \"is going to be one of the ways out of this pandemic\".\n\nThe industry body also backed the announcement of increased investment to help in-person consultations eventually return to pre-Covid levels.\n\nBut it said a major shift back to face-to-face appointments should only be made when it is safe to do so.\n\nDavid Shackles, joint chair of the Royal College of GPs in Scotland, told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme that face-to-face consulting remained \"something that GPs and patients value\".\n\nHe said: \"It was only when we had the pandemic that there was this increased need for remote consulting.\n\n\"The model has served us very well throughout the pandemic.\n\n\"General practice is still open for face-to-face consultations when clinically necessary, and we see the likelihood of increasing face-to-face consultations as it becomes safe to do that. But we have got to make sure it is safe.\"\n\nThousands of patients have had video call consultations with their GP since the start of the pandemic\n\nDr Shackles pointed to the continued rise in Covid cases - with positives tests hitting a record high of 5,021 on Wednesday - as the main reason to be cautious.\n\nHe said \"With case numbers and hospitalisations rising, we've got to make sure that our vulnerable patients who do attend the surgery are not at risk of Covid because we are increasing the footfall too much.\"\n\nNicola Sturgeon has insisted that, overall, the recovery plan will both reform the NHS and increase its capacity.\n\nOpposition parties have described it as \"thin and flimsy\". The Conservatives said it contained \"a litany of recycled pledges and oversights\", while Scottish Labour said it was \"as underwhelming as it was overdue\".\n\nHowever, Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said it set out a series of benefits for under-pressure healthcare workers.\n\nHe told Good Morning Scotland: \"They are right to raise concerns because staff, of course, have had the most difficult 18 months possible.\n\n\"They are, quite frankly, knackered.\n\n\"So that is why we are going to invest first and foremost in their mental health and wellbeing to make sure that what we are asking them to do, they are able to do without feeling undue pressure.\"\n\nMr Yousaf added: \"We are also increasing the number of medical graduates that we are going to take by 100 per annum.\n\n\"But we will also have to look at, and the BMA and the Royal College of GPs have made this point to me quite strongly, how we retain staff in the professions that they are currently in.\"\n\nThe Scottish Conservatives' health spokesman Craig Hoy said he feared the recovery plan would be \"too little, too late\".\n\nHe said: \"We should be acutely aware that the Scottish NHS had a capacity problem before we went into the Covid pandemic, and that problem has undoubtedly got much worse as a result.\"\n\nMr Hoy said the 28-page document was \"very thin on content, and in many senses rows back on previous commitments\".\n\nHe added: \"We would have wanted, for example, to see a real commitment to establishing Long Covid clinics.\n\n\"Clearly, that [Long Covid] is going to put stress on GPs' surgeries and this would also stop many patients presenting themselves at A&E clinics.\n\n\"There is also very little reference has to how A&E clinics are going to receive additional funding.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Lee Peacock, 49, was found on a canal barge near Ferrymead Avenue in Ealing\n\nA man wanted by police in connection with a double murder has been found with \"life-threatening\" injuries, believed to be self-inflicted.\n\nLee Peacock was discovered on Wednesday evening by Met Police officers who had been called to a canal barge in Ealing.\n\nOfficers said they were confident the injured man was the 49-year-old being sought over the deaths of two people in central London on 19 August.\n\nMr Peacock is in a critical condition in hospital.\n\nClinton Ashmore and Sharon Pickles were fatally stabbed within hours of each other\n\nSharon Pickles, 45, and Clinton Ashmore, 59, were discovered fatally stabbed in Westminster last week.\n\nBoth had been stabbed in the neck.\n\nPolice believe the two killings are linked and that Mr Peacock knew both the victims.\n\nThe Met's Directorate of Professional Standards has been informed and the incident has been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct who have indicated that they will be conducting an independent investigation.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Most deaths from malaria worldwide are in the under-fives\n\nA new approach to protecting young African children from malaria could reduce deaths and illness from the disease by 70%, a study suggests.\n\nGiving them vaccines before the worst season in addition to preventative drugs produced \"very striking\" results, London researchers say.\n\nThe trial followed 6,000 children aged under 17 months in Burkina Faso and Mali.\n\nMost of the 400,000 deaths from malaria each year are in the under-fives.\n\nAnd the mosquito-borne disease is still a major health issue in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa.\n\nThis trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, focused on giving very young children a vaccine already in use and anti-malarial drugs at the time of year they are most vulnerable - often the rainy season (from June in Burkina Faso), when mosquitoes multiply.\n\n\"It worked better than we thought would be the case,\" said Prof Brian Greenwood, a member of the research team, from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), which led the trial.\n\n\"Hospital admissions were less, deaths were less in both countries - and we really didn't expect to see that.\"\n\nOver three years, the trial found three doses of the vaccine and drugs before the worst malaria season, followed by a booster dose before subsequent rainy seasons, controlled infections much better than vaccines or drugs alone - and, the researchers said, could save millions of young lives in the African Sahel.\n\nAmong the children who received vaccine doses and drugs, there were:\n\nAmong the same number of children who received preventative drugs alone - the current approach in those countries - there were:\n\nScientists say the combined effects of the vaccine and drugs in the trial appear to be surprisingly powerful.\n\nThe vaccine - called RTS,S and created by GlaxoSmithKline more than 20 years ago - kills parasites that multiply very quickly in the liver, while anti-malarial drugs target parasites in the body's red blood cells.\n\nVaccines against malaria have been rolled out before, such as this one in Ghana\n\nFlu vaccines have been used seasonally, to protect people ahead of winter, for many years - but it has rarely been tried for malaria.\n\nThe World Health Organization's global malaria programme director, Dr Pedro Alonso, said: \"We welcome this innovative use of a malaria vaccine to prevent disease and death in highly seasonal areas in Africa.\"\n\nThe vaccine has already reached more than 740,000 children in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, as part of routine childhood-vaccine programme.\n\nAnd researchers in Mali say they look forward to \"a quick policy decision\" by the WHO for this new approach.\n\nNo concerning side-effects were found in children in the trial.\n\nAnd the children involved will continue to receive vaccines, drugs or both until the age of five, with additional findings from the study available next year.\n\nCharity Malaria No More said ending malaria for good was \"dependent on the development and delivery of new products and interventions\".\n\nAnd the government must continue to invest in research projects such as this one.\n• None The game-changer in the fight against malaria", "OnlyFans has announced that it will delay making changes to policy on content creation, following a widespread backlash by its users.\n\nThe content subscription service announced plans last week to block sexually explicit photos and videos from October.\n\nOn Wednesday, it tweeted that it has \"suspended the planned 1 October policy change\".\n\nIt is currently unclear if the delay will be permanent.\n\nOnlyFans wrote on twitter that it would \"continue to provide a home for all creators\".\n\n\"Thank you to everyone for making your voices heard,\" said the company.\n\n\"We have secured assurances necessary to support our diverse creator community and have suspended the planned 1 October policy change.\n\n\"OnlyFans stands for inclusion and we will continue to provide a home for all creators.\"\n\nAnd in an email to its content creators, it said: \"The proposed 1 October 2021 changes are no longer required, due to banking partners' assurances that OnlyFans can support all genres of creators. \"OnlyFans is committed to providing a safe and dependable platform for all creators and their fans.\"\n\nOne OnlyFans creator, from London, welcomed the announcement but said those who had already found new homes for their content may still not return.\n\n\"So it is short-term good news for sex workers reliant on the platform - and I would like to see this as the start of increased support, celebration and championing of sex-worker rights by OnlyFans,\" he told BBC News.\n\n\"But I think there may well have been enough anxiety caused to see many models continuing the move to other platforms.\"\n\nOnlyFans makes its money by taking 20% of all payments made to its content creators.\n\nThe platform reported a 75% increase in new creators in May last year, during lockdown.\n\nWariness from investors was originally claimed to be the reason for last week's announcement.\n\nBut founder Tim Stokely blamed banks penalising the company for supporting sex workers.\n\n\"JPMorgan Chase is particularly aggressive in closing accounts of sex workers or... any business that supports sex workers,\" he told the Financial Times on Tuesday.\n\nBut a JPMorgan spokeswoman told BBC News it had \"no such policy\".\n\nIn June, a BBC News investigation found children had used fake ID to set up accounts on the site.\n\nAnd the children's commissioner for England said OnlyFans needed to do more to stop under-age users.\n\nIn response to the investigation, OnlyFans said it had closed the accounts flagged and refunded all active subscriptions.", "The report said insufficient consideration was given to the pandemic's effect on children and young people's lives\n\nThe coronavirus pandemic and restrictions have had \"a severe impact\" on children and young people.\n\nThat is according to a report from the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People (NICCY).\n\nMore than half (52%) of 16-year-olds who took part in the research felt their mental and emotional health had worsened during the pandemic.\n\n\"Insufficient consideration\" was given to how children and young people's lives would be affected, it said.\n\nAspects of their lives the report considered included education, mental and physical health and wellbeing.\n\nHowever, the report said that some \"restrictive measures\" had been necessary \"to protect the population from the spread of the virus\".\n\nNot being in school was among the most difficult aspects of lockdown for young people, says the research\n\n\"The long-term impact of the pandemic on children and young people's mental health has the potential to be significant, particularly if appropriate support and intervention is not provided,\" the report warned.\n\nThe report - called A New and Better Normal - also said that many existing inequalities have widened.\n\nIts findings are based on responses from 4,385 young people through surveys and focus groups.\n\nA report by the National Children's Bureau previously said that families of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) felt they were \"forgotten\" in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nMany therapies and essential services they relied on were withdrawn and have not fully returned.\n\nThe NICCY report draws attention to the widespread suspension of services and their effect on children.\n\nMany face-to-face services in early years, for children aged 0-3 and their families, were suspended.\n\n\"The risk of increased emotional or behavioural problems in younger children due to the pandemic is a concern,\" said the children's commissioner Koulla Yiasouma in her report.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Here we are 18 months later with families still struggling\" - Koulla Yiasouma\n\n\"Health visitors were redeployed to provide Covid-19 related care and services resulting in a reduction in the number of health assessments and home visits.\"\n\n\"Reductions in health visiting appointments, in addition to restrictions in access to other early years services, removed an important support system for parents, particularly first-time mothers and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.\"\n\nMore than a quarter (27%) of young people surveyed also said they could not \"get medical treatment during the pandemic for a health issue not related to coronavirus\".\n\nAnother young person who took part in the focus groups had lost their mum during the pandemic and had problems getting bereavement support.\n\n\"Yes [I've sought support for bereavement] but there is a waiting list and my guess is that it's as long as the Amazon River,\" they told the report's authors.\n\nThere was also a ban for periods on external visits for young people in the Juvenile Justice Centre, including from family.\n\nThe report said young people felt demonised when meeting together in public as restrictions relaxed\n\n\"Existing barriers faced by children with disabilities or complex health needs in accessing support and services significantly worsened during the pandemic,\" the report noted.\n\nIn a companion study undertaken by academics from Queen's University Belfast on behalf of NICCY, a number of experts also expressed serious concern about the safety of children and young people during the pandemic.\n\nRelated concerns were previously raised by the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland.\n\nMark Clegg, from west Belfast, is a father to three children aged under nine, all with additional needs.\n\nThe family get support and respite from the Kids Together centre in west Belfast but services stopped temporarily at the start of the pandemic.\n\nMr Clegg said the lack of routine was very difficult for his daughter who has \"very severe self-injurious behaviour\".\n\n\"It would lead to biting, hitting out at objects and when it's really bad she will hit out at us and become very aggressive and destructive in her room,\" he said.\n\n\"The stress on us as a married couple and as a family - sometimes you don't want to be in your own home.\"\n\nHe said school holidays were \"challenging\" for his daughter prior to the pandemic due to \"not constantly getting up, getting on the bus going to school and coming back from school\".\n\n\"Allowing these services to resume and become essential - we're very blessed to have them in our lives.\n\n\"Until they resumed we did feel abandoned.\"\n\nYoung people also \"felt they were negatively stereotyped and blamed for spreading the virus\", according to the report.\n\nIt found that 585 community resolution notices were issued to under-18s by police for breaches of the Coronavirus Health Protection Regulations in 2020-21.\n\n\"While media stories suggested that these breaches were common, the vast majority of children and young people adhered closely to issued regulations and guidelines,\" the report said.\n\n\"Despite this, children and young people maintained they felt demonised and discriminated against by adults when they met together in public as restrictions relaxed.\n\n\"Many have felt judged and scapegoated when they have met up with friends in public spaces.\"\n\nMany children and young people said they felt \"lonely and trapped\" during lockdowns and due to restrictions.\n\n\"It is clear from the children and young people with whom we engaged through surveys and focus groups how important friendships and developing relationships are throughout childhood and into the teenage years, and how deeply they have felt the restrictions on their social interactions,\" the report said.\n\n\"The research data shows that the decline in play, recreational and leisure activities has had a devastating impact on many children's physical health and emotional wellbeing.\"\n\nOnline learning as a result of the pandemic exacerbated many existing inequalities, according to the report\n\nThe NICCY report said that every effort should be made to ensure that school activities like sports, music, clubs and drama could be held.\n\nThe vast majority of children were also taught remotely out of school from March to June 2020 and again from January until Easter 2021.\n\nThe report said that had an impact on children from lower-income backgrounds especially.\n\n\"Children in poverty were identified as being particularly impacted by the move to online education, as they were more likely not to have access to an appropriate digital device or online IT access,\" it said.\n\n\"They were also more likely to be living in accommodation that did not have adequate inside or outside space to study and for recreational activities in lockdown.\n\n\"The continued closure of schools has undoubtedly exacerbated educational inequalities which were previously well documented before the pandemic.\"\n\nResearch conducted for the NICCY report found that 41% of primary seven respondents and 52% of 16-year-olds felt their mental and emotional health had worsened during the pandemic.\n\nA major study carried out before the pandemic had already found that anxiety and depression was 25% more common in children and young people in Northern Ireland compared with other parts of the UK.\n\nThe report found the NI Executive acted quicker than other parts of the UK in helping families entitled to free school meals\n\nThe NICCY report said the executive had acted more quickly in helping families entitled to free school meals than other governments in the UK.\n\nHowever, that was a rare positive note.\n\n\"As we move out of the pandemic, more children and young people and their families are living in poverty, health waiting lists are unacceptably long, many have had their education adversely impacted due to lack of access to digital equipment, children in care and other vulnerable groups have not received the support they need,\" the report said.\n\nIt included a number of recommendations and said that infants, children and young people should be prioritised in the Executive's Covid-19 recovery plan.\n\nThe children's commissioner said the system didn't listen to young people.\n\n\"Here we are 18 months later with families still struggling, with families trying to get back to an equilibrium, into a routine, and parents are exhausted,\" added Ms Yiasouma.\n\n\"We abandoned those families and it's inexcusable that that happened to them.\n\n\"There is a way forward, nothing is irreparable - we can make this right - but we need to recognise where we let children down where we didn't take into consideration their needs.\"", "Northern Ireland households and businesses are facing substantially higher gas bills this winter, the Utility Regulator has warned.\n\nJohn French said \"unprecedented\" increases in international wholesale prices were to blame.\n\nWholesale energy costs make up about half of gas and electricity bills.\n\nMr French said consumer gas prices would increase in September, but electricity prices would not be affected until next year.\n\nHe suggested gas bills could increase by more than £100 a year.\n\nHe said: \"It is likely that tariffs will increase from the current average household bill of about £515 per year, to be closer aligned with the average gas bills in GB (£625) and the Republic (£782).\n\nThe Fuel Poverty Coalition group said it was concerned about the possibility of many households being \"at risk of fuel poverty this winter\".\n\nIt highlighted that this is most common among older people, households with babies and young children, adults with disabilities and people living with long-term health conditions.\n\nIts chairperson, Pat Austin, advised consumers to take early \"practical steps\", such as making \"energy efficiency improvements or budgeting a little extra if they can each week to help cover the increased cost\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRaymond Gormley, head of energy at the Consumer Council, said people should \"seek help\" when they need it.\n\n\"While not practical for everyone, it is advisable to try to keep an energy budget aside for the coming winter,\" he added.\n\nElectricity prices have already increased this year.\n\nFor example, the regulated provider Power NI increased its tariffs by almost 7% in July with other providers increasing prices by up to 20%.\n\nMr French said he did not expect the regulated price to increase further this year.\n\nHowever, the picture is more uncertain next year and the higher gas prices could potentially feed through into higher electricity prices.", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nFormer England and Sussex captain Ted Dexter has died aged 86.\n\nNicknamed 'Lord Ted', Dexter was an aggressive batsman and useful seam bowler who played 62 Tests for England and was captain between 1961-1964.\n\nHe led Sussex to victory in the first two editions of the limited-overs Gillette Cup and went on to make a surprise two-Test comeback in 1968.\n\nIn a statement, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) described Dexter as \"one of England's greatest ever cricketers\".\n\n\"He was captain in 30 of his 62 Test matches and played the game with the same sense of adventure and fun that captures much of the story of his remarkable life.\"\n\nThe statement added that Dexter passed away peacefully in the Compton Hospice in Wolverhampton at midday on Wednesday, 25 August, surrounded by his family.\n• None Innovator, attacking batsman and 'one of England's greatest' - Dexter obituary\n\nAn attacking middle-order batsman, Dexter scored 4,502 runs at an average of 47.89 for England and took 66 wickets at 34.9.\n\nHe was renowned for the power with which he hit the ball and arguably his most famous innings was against the West Indies at Lord's in 1963 when he came in at 0-1 and smashed 70 off 73 deliveries. And six of his nine Test centuries were bigger than 140.\n\nHe missed the start 1964-65 tour of South Africa to stand as a Conservative Party candidate for Cardiff South East but joined the team as vice-captain after coming second in the ward.\n\nAfter retiring, he helped devise a ranking system for Test players and was chairman of selectors for England. Dexter was also a regular on the BBC's TV coverage of England home Test matches and was a newspaper columnist.\n\nThe ranking system was adopted by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and formed the basis of today's system.\n\nHowever, he had a difficult time as selector after inheriting a weakened England team between 1989 and 1993.\n\nHe was later named president of the Marylebone Cricket Club and was awarded a CBE in 2001.\n\n'A brilliant servant to the game' - Admirers and friends pay tribute\n\nThe England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said they were incredibly saddened to learn of Ted Dexter's death, adding the former England figurehead \"will be remembered both for his dashing and attractive strokeplay and his wide interests outside the game\".\n\nEngland's current players wore black armbands as a mark of respect during day two of their Test match against India at Headingley on Thursday.\n\nWorld cricket's governing body, the ICC, also paid tribute, calling him \"one of the greatest batsmen of his time\".\n\nICC acting chief executive Geoff Allardice added: \"His ability to dominate fast bowling was admirable and his superb batting against the West Indies and Australia teams is remembered by all. On behalf of the ICC, I would like to extend my condolences to his family and friends\"\n\nSpeaking on BBC Test Match Special, England captain Joe Root called Dexter a \"brilliant servant to the game\".\n\n\"I never had the pleasure of spending much time with him, but he did send me some emails out of the blue when I wasn't playing so well telling me how to get back to where I was,\" he added.\n\nFormer England international Mike Atherton said Dexter will be remembered for \"the way he played the game\".\n\n\"He was a great stylist who played with great flair and adventure. It's a day to celebrate a full and varied life, 86 - he squeezed every last drop out of life. I was very fond of him. He gave me my first cap and made me captain\".\n\nDexter's club side Sussex said they were \"deeply saddened\" to hear of their former player's passing.", "A US flag is seen posted in the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York, two days after the attack there Image caption: A US flag is seen posted in the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York, two days after the attack there\n\nThe BBC is covering the 20th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US, which led to the 20-year conflict in Afghanistan.\n\nThis is the story of Chris Cruz, who explains in an interview to BBC's OS programme why he decided to join the US army.\n\n\"My mother was heading to work on a normal 11 September day. As soon as she exited the subway, she was told to start running as the buildings were coming down. She literally saw them coming down and described people jumping out of the windows,\" says Chris.\n\n\"When she finally made it home, I - as an 11-year-old boy at the time - had to tell her that she had burn marks and blood spots on the back of her legs. She was in a state of shock.\n\n\"As I grew up, I realised... I had the ability to be part of an organisation that could defend and prevent these atrocities for all Americans.\n\n\"9/11 played a role, but not in a way of revenge. I didn't want to join out of bloodlust. I served two tours in Afghanistan. Both of those times I volunteered to go.\n\n\"I don't think our mission would have succeeded without our Afghan partners. I agree we couldn't be there forever, but we made a promise to keep our partners safe and that we wouldn't turn our backs on them, and that's exactly what we've done.\"\n\nChris adds: \"I do think the way we pulled out, the way we left it, was completely wrong. There needed to be a better exit strategy.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Twin bombs exploded near the perimeter of Kabul airport, hours after warnings from Western governments\n\nPresident Joe Biden has promised to hunt down the jihadists behind an attack in Kabul which killed at least 90 people - including 13 US troops.\n\nMr Biden warned the US would \"not forgive\" the perpetrators.\n\nThe twin blasts, claimed by a local branch of Islamic State (IS), tore through crowds of men, women and children outside Kabul airport.\n\nThey were hoping to join the 100,000 people airlifted out of Afghanistan since it fell to Taliban militants.\n\nThere had been repeated warnings that an attack was likely, but it either did not reach or did not deter those waiting.\n\nUS troops in control of Kabul international airport have been facilitating the evacuation of foreign nationals and Afghans who had been working with foreign missions.\n\nThey have been aiming to complete this within a 31 August deadline for US forces to leave under an agreement with the Taliban.\n\nA number of European countries have already announced the end of their evacuation plans. The UK said on Friday it would not be processing any more applications, acknowledging it was leaving people behind.\n\nSpeaking hours after Thursday's attack, Mr Biden vowed to complete the evacuation mission, adding \"we will not be deterred by terrorists\".\n\nHe said the US military had been ordered to attack the leadership, assets and facilities of the group known as Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K), active in Afghanistan and Pakistan.\n\nThe group is part of the global IS network, but has local links - even to the Taliban. However, IS-K have accused the Taliban of abandoning the battlefield in favour of a negotiated peace settlement.\n\nThe attack at the airport - which began at about 18:00 local time (13:30 GMT) - targeted \"translators and collaborators with the American army\", the jihadist group said.\n\nThe first blast happened near the Abbey Gate, where US and British forces have been checking people entering the airport, followed by a second minutes later at a hotel which was used by British officials to process Afghans hoping to travel to the UK.\n\nSurvivors described the horror in the wake of the attack, with one saying they saw \"bodies and body parts flying in the air like a tornado blowing plastic bags\".\n\nAnother recounted how they tried to take an injured baby to safety, only for the child to die in their arms.\n\nPictures being shared on social media suggest families have lost several members.\n\nHospitals were quickly overwhelmed with the injured. Alberto Zanin, the medical director of one facility run by Italian NGO Emergency, described on Twitter how the victims \"could not speak, many were terrified, their eyes totally lost in emptiness, their gaze blank\".\n\nThirteen US troops were among those killed - the first US military casualties in Afghanistan since February 2020.\n\nMr Biden said the troops who had died \"were heroes who were on a selfless mission to save the lives of others\".\n\nThe head of US Central Command, Gen Frank McKenzie, said the threat from IS-K remained high and US forces were working with Taliban to try to stop further attacks and that the Taliban had already prevented many.\n\nBut the attack is likely to significantly complicate the evacuation effort ahead of the deadline.\n\nThere are currently 5,800 US troops on the ground at Kabul airport with a further 1,000 UK troops also there.\n\nTo date, 104,000 civilians have been transferred from Afghanistan, including 66,000 by the US and 37,000 by allies and partners.\n\nAbout 5,000 people are waiting at the airport and many more are still trying to get through the perimeter checkpoints.\n\nA number of countries, including Canada, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Denmark had already stopped their operations.\n\nTurkey has announced that its troops, who had been providing security at the airport for six years, were withdrawing.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Extinction Rebellion protesters have erected a structure in the centre of Oxford Circus\n\nNearly 200 people have been arrested at Extinction Rebellion demonstrations in London over the past four days.\n\nOn Wednesday, the climate change protesters blocked off roads near Oxford Circus, glued themselves to a giant table and formed a human chain around the area cordoned off by police.\n\nDozens were carried to police vans by officers who used loudspeakers to warn the crowd to leave or risk arrest.\n\nAt least 10,000 people congregated near the rallies since they began on Sunday.\n\nCurrently, 196 people have been arrested on suspicion of a variety of offences.\n\nThe Brazilian embassy, Piccadilly Circus and the Department for International Trade (DIT) were also targeted, with thousands listening to speeches and parading through the streets.\n\nThe group gave the DIT a mock award for \"making an outstandingly awful contribution to climate change\" and the embassy gathering was \"to show solidarity with indigenous people in the Amazon rainforest\".\n\nThe table, which had previously been erected in Seven Dials, represents an invitation to \"come to the table\" for discussions about fossil fuel. Chairs were left empty to represent an invitation to all those who identify as female, nonbinary or trans.\n\nJust after 14:00 BST about 50 female protestors converged on the road junction at the centre of Oxford Circus.\n\nA van drew up, the back doors were flung open, and women began to unload what looked like giant pieces of pink Lego.\n\nQuickly they began to assemble these in the middle of the road.\n\nAt the same time, 30 or so women formed a circle and superglued their hands together.\n\nOthers lay down in the road and padlocked themselves together with locks inside steel tubes.\n\nThe idea is to make it as difficult and as time consuming as possible for the police to dismantle the protest.\n\nWithin minutes, dozens of police officers arrived, charging into the middle of the group amid screams from the protesters.\n\nAnd the now familiar stand-off began, with police gradually tightening their cordons until - probably early tomorrow morning - they will go in and clear the remaining protesters from the streets.\n\nThe demonstrations are planned to continue next week\n\nThe demonstrations are planned to continue next week, when the activists will protest against the links between \"big finance, fossil fuels and the fossil of politics that is Westminster\".\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Disability Sport\n\nCoverage: Follow on Radio 5 Live and on the BBC Sport website\n\nLee Pearson won his 12th Paralympic title as Great Britain took five golds across four sports on day two of the Tokyo Paralympics.\n\nThe Para-equestrian rider, who made his debut at Sydney 2000, and his horse Breezer, claimed victory in the Grade II individual test with team-mate Georgia Wilson third.\n\nThere was also joy for a trio of Paralympic debutants - cyclist Jaco van Gass and swimmers Tully Kearney and Maisie Summers-Newton, who all set world records on their way to winning gold medals.\n\nAnd wheelchair fencer Piers Gilliver, a silver medallist in Rio, went one better this time in the epee A final.\n\nVan Gass, 35, who was injured while serving with the Parachute Regiment in Afghanistan in 2009, beat team-mate Fin Graham in the C3 3,000m individual pursuit final.\n\nBoth riders had smashed the world record in qualifying for the final, with Graham knocking more than six seconds off the previous mark before Van Gass lowered it by another two seconds to three minutes 17.593 seconds.\n\nKearney, who had finished a heart-breaking second in Wednesday's S5 200m freestyle final, bounced back brilliantly to take gold in the 100m freestyle while Summers-Newton beat a world-class field, including defending champion Ellie Simmonds, in the SM6 200m individual medley.\n\nGilliver got revenge on China's Sun Gang, who beat him in the final in Rio, in the last four before a 15-9 win over Russian Paralympic Committee athlete Maxim Shaburov in the decider.\n\nThere were also silvers for cyclists Jody Cundy (C4-5 1000m time trial), tandem pair Aileen McGlynn and Helen Scott (B 1000m time trial) and Para-equestrian rider Sophie Wells (grade V individual test). Wheelchair fencer Dimitri Coutya won bronze in the men's epee B event.\n\nPearson, whose gold sees him overtake Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson and former swimmer Dave Roberts to sit third in the British all-time list, has been a mainstay of the British team since he made his international debut in 1999.\n\nHe was born with the condition arthrogryposis, which meant the muscles in his arms and legs grew as scar tissue in the womb.\n\nThe 47-year-old was visibly moved after his performance, which scored him 76.265%, with Austrian rival Pepo Puch on 73.441 and Wilson impressing on her debut on 72.765.\n\n\"I'm as emotional as the first - probably more,\" he told Channel 4. \"I don't think I've cried immediately after saluting at the end of a test before now.\n\n\"I saw Breezer as a day-old in my parents' field and to be here with him as a home-bred and win a gold medal - it's literally fairy-tale stuff.\n\n\"He's very highly bred and he was getting tied up and tense because he knew it was a special day. He didn't let me down, but he stayed with me and I'm really proud of him.\n\n\"The judges love him now and I'm going to carry on taking him up the levels with able-bodied too. I just feel so lucky I've got horses in my life. They give me their legs, I'm useless at dancing in real life but we can dance here.\"\n\nKearney and Summers-Newton take their chance to shine\n\nIn the pool, Kearney showed huge determination to recover from her 200m disappointment where she was overhauled in the last 10 metres by China's Zhang Li.\n\nThe 25-year-old, who won in one minute 14.39 seconds, has overcame a series of health issues, including a persistent shoulder problem, and paid particular tribute to team physio Ritchie Barber for getting her to the start-line.\n\n\"I said yesterday my fitness wasn't where I wanted it because of the injury,\" she said.\n\n\"Today I felt rubbish in the warm-up, I felt terrible in the heats. I was struggling to recover from yesterday and a sore shoulder and I was not expecting to be able to swim that quick.\n\n\"Nineteen days ago I got to the point where my shoulder was getting worse every session and I couldn't swim, it was too painful.\n\n\"I didn't actually think I would make it out here, so the fact that I have and then gone and won is just insane. Ritchie has spent so many hours on me, getting me ready and getting my shoulder to the state it is now that I can compete.\"\n\nSummers-Newton, who was inspired to start swimming when she watched Simmonds triumph in 2012, added Paralympic gold to the world title she won in London in 2019.\n\nThe 19-year-old was in fourth place at the halfway mark but her strong breaststroke leg took her into the lead with 50 metres left and she held off Ukraine's Yelyzaveta Mereshko to win in a new world record of two minutes 56.68 seconds. Simmonds came fifth.\n\n\"I knew how badly I wanted it and put everything into it,\" Summers-Newton told Channel 4.\n\n\"When I saw how close they all were I just thought 'put your head down and go for it'. I just can't believe I've got it.\"\n\nSouth Africa-born Van Gass' life changed when he was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, leaving him with a collapsed lung and other internal injuries, shrapnel wounds and leg injuries, while he also also lost his left arm at the elbow.\n\nSince then he has gone on to be part of a record-breaking team of wounded soldiers who trekked to the North Pole, with Prince Harry joining them for part of the journey, won gold at the Invictus Games, run several marathons, climbed mountains and become a downhill skier.\n\nVan Gass said that his Paralympic gold was a dream come true.\n\n\"At this very moment in time, this is the best thing I've done,\" he said. \"I have done some amazing stuff and they all have their difficulties and today was very tough.\n\n\"It's such a relief to finally be here representing GB and coming away with the top prize.\n\n\"I'm very happy with myself. We've got to enjoy this moment but in a few hours' time I need to reset, forget about all this and go again tomorrow. We still have other races to give our very best in.\"\n\nCundy set a Paralympic record in his C4 class but he could only watch as Spain's C5 rider Alfonso Caballo Llamas claimed a new world record to win gold.\n\nThe 42-year-old, who was a swimmer before taking up cycling, becomes the first British man to win a medal at seven Games.\n\nMcGlynn and Scott, who won silver at London 2012, only returned to training together 12 weeks ago.\n\n\"It's amazing to do the time we did which was a 2.5-second personal best for us as a team,\" said McGlynn. \"We are so proud of what we achieved.\"\n\nElsewhere on day two\n\nGB are into the semi-finals of the wheelchair rugby event after making it two wins out of two with a 60-37 success over New Zealand. They will play the USA on Friday (09:30 BST) to decide who finishes top of the pool.\n\nThe GB men's wheelchair basketball team made a winning start to their campaign with a 70-43 victory over Algeria but the women suffered their second defeat in a row, losing 54-48 to Japan.\n\nPowerlifter Zoe Newson missed out on a medal at a third consecutive Games when she could only finish fourth in the -41kg event.\n\nIn table tennis, defending champion Will Bayley made it two wins out of two in class 7 with a 3-0 victory over Chalermpong Punpoo of Thailand to qualify for the quarter-finals. Team-mates Jack Hunter-Spivey (class 5) and Joshua Stacey (class 9) are also into the last eight of their events while Aaron McKibbin, Billy Shilton and Ross Wilson are through to the last 16 of the men's class 8 singles.\n\nOn a busy day of action in the pool, Ellen Keane won Ireland's first gold medal of the Games when she held off the challenge of nine-time Paralympic champion Sophie Pascoe of New Zealand in the SB8 100m breaststroke final.\n\nAmerican teenager Anastasia Pagonis, who has become a social media star, thanks to her Tik Tok videos which challenge preconceptions about being blind, set a new world record on her way to gold in the S11 400m freestyle.\n\nHosts Japan won their first gold medal of the Games when Takayuki Suzuki claimed victory in the S4 100m freestyle. There is a strong British link to his win - the 34-year-old has been based at Northumbria University since 2015 where he trains with coach Louise Graham.\n\nThe first member of the Refugee Paralympic Team in action in Tokyo - Syria-born swimmer Ibrahim Al Hussein - was disqualified in the heats of the SB8 100m breaststroke.\n• None An hour of music from the 23-time Grammy winner\n• None Why do good cops go bad?: The story of one America's most corrupt police squads", "The UK has lost 83% of its main department stores in the five years since the collapse of the BHS chain.\n\nThe figure highlights the extent of the upheaval in the High Street as the Covid pandemic sped up changes in shopping habits.\n\nThe data, compiled by commercial property information firm CoStar Group, also reveals that more than two-thirds of these shops remain unoccupied.\n\nSome 237 big stores have yet to be taken over by a new business.\n\n\"The data undoubtedly highlights the acceleration of change in the retail sector in recent years, which the pandemic has only exacerbated,\" said CoStar Group's head of analytics, Mark Stansfield.\n\nCoStar tracked the UK's largest chains, from BHS and Beales to Debenhams and House of Fraser, from 2016 to the present day.\n\nFive years ago, they had 467 stores between them. Now, however, only 79 are left.\n\nCoStar Group also examined what had happened to the 388 that had closed.\n\nAlthough 237 are currently sitting empty, 52 already have either firm plans in place or early planning approval for a change of use or repurposing. The research was done in July.\n\nMr Stansfield told the BBC he believed the pace of change would soon step up.\n\n\"We are increasingly seeing forward-thinking real estate owners getting ahead of the problem and reshaping what are key assets in our town centres to provide a focal point for regeneration,\" he said.\n\n\"I think we'll see many more plans come to light in the coming months. With these store closures come new opportunities.\"\n\nDepartment stores have long been the cornerstone of UK shopping areas. Many are in purpose-built shopping centres, while some occupy historic buildings.\n\nFiguring out what to do with all this redundant space is one of the biggest challenges for landlords, as well as for the town centres that host those properties.\n\nBHS is a good illustration of why there is no quick fix for the problem. Five years after the retailer ceased trading, a quarter of its former outlets have still failed to attract new tenants.\n\nIn 2016, the BBC visited the old BHS store on Edinburgh's Princes Street, one of the biggest in the chain. The owners already had new ideas for the site - and crucially, they decided to turn it into a building with a mix of different uses.\n\nIts six floors, once riddled with asbestos, have slowly been transformed. The old staff locker rooms and half of the building have been turned into hotel bedrooms by Premier Inn.\n\nThe former BHS store on Princes Street in Edinburgh has been repurposed\n\nThey're also putting the finishing touches to a state-of the art office right at the top, while the basement will hopefully become a bowling alley. There will also eventually be retail, just a lot less than before.\n\n\"It costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time to turn these large format spaces into new uses,\" says the architect behind the project, Frank Hinds of CDA.\n\n\"In development terms, we did this in a relatively short space of time.\"\n\nWhen it comes to repurposing, says Mr Hinds, the stumbling blocks are often financial. Investors have to be able to make a return to justify the huge investment. Luckily for this BHS, it's on a world-class street.\n\n\"The viability comes from the location and the desire that people have to be in that location,\" he adds.\n\nFor Premier Inn, the hotelier involved, it was an opportunity too good to miss. \"Buildings like this don't come along very often with beautiful views across to the castle,\" says Valerie Graham, regional operations director.\n\nPremier Inn's Valerie Graham: \"Buildings like this don't come along very often\"\n\n\"Seeing so many people get use of the space is just fantastic. And the demand is there. We're creating jobs too.\"\n\nEdinburgh has lost four of its main department stores in the past few years, but, fortunately, there are solutions under way for all of them.\n\nFor instance, the former House of Fraser store at the other end of Princes Street is about to open its doors as the Johnnie Walker Whisky Experience.\n\nFilling the gaps in smaller towns is a much greater challenge. In Dumfries, the old Debenhams store is still vacant.\n\nIt's the biggest retail unit in the town, with no takers so far for the space.\n\n\"It comes down to money,\" says Scott Mackay, who runs the Midsteeple Quarter, a local company founded to benefit the community.\n\nThrough crowdfunding, donations and public money, it's buying old, empty, shops and bringing them back to life with new tenants.\n\nThe community group is buying up shops around the historic Midsteeple in Dumfries\n\n\"This is a small rural town historically and there isn't the amount of money to be invested in Dumfries compared with our bigger cities. We stand or fall on our own two feet,\" he says.\n\nWould he like to take on the former Debenhams site as well? \"If we had the funding, absolutely we would take on a building like this,\" he says.\n\n\"I think it would make a great small boutique cinema or food court on the ground floor, with potentially residential on the upper floors.\"\n\nSome of form of intervention is needed, he believes, to avoid the store sitting empty for years.\n\nDebenhams is a more recent casualty of the changing High Street environment than BHS, having shut its last stores in May this year.\n\nIn all, 149 former Debenhams stores are currently vacant, as the data from CoStar Group shows.\n\nCoStar Group's team has been scouring planning applications and talking to property agents on the ground as well as big landlords for this research, which is the most comprehensive picture to date on the huge structural changes to have hit this part of British retail.\n\nThe appetite for quality shop space hasn't completely diminished. For instance, Next has already taken space in Debenhams stores for its new beauty concept, while Mike Ashley is redeveloping or re-letting space for his Flannels brand.\n\nBut if BHS is anything to go by, reviving many of these these vast sites will take time, as well as some radical thinking.", "NHS England has admitted that a shortage of vials used for blood tests will worsen over the next few weeks and will last until mid-September.\n\nIt said supplies remain constrained and are forecast \"to become even more constrained over the coming weeks\".\n\nWhile the NHS expects the position to improve by the middle of next month, \"overall supply is likely to remain challenging for a significant period.\"\n\nDoctors had been told to stagger some blood tests due to the shortage.\n\nThey are warning that patient care will suffer due to delays.\n\nIt comes after Becton Dickinson, a company that makes vials for the health service, said it is experiencing serious supply chain issues.\n\nDue to the shortage, the NHS has temporarily stopped some blood testing for fertility, pre-diabetes, allergies and certain blood disorders.\n\nNHS England issued guidance urging doctors to delay regular blood tests if clinically safe and NHS Wales issued similar guidance.\n\nIn its guidance, NHS England said \"alternative products are being sought to alleviate these constraints,\" as a result of the global shortages of blood tube products.\n\nDr Farah Jameel, a GP based in north London and a representative from the British Medical Association trade body said she was having \"difficult conversations\" with patients about rationing the vials \"among the very sickest\".\n\nDr Jameel is having \"incredibly challenging\" conversations with patients about delayed blood tests.\n\nShe said there has been \"very unclear messaging from NHS England on how quickly we're going to run short and what the impact will be on patient care.\"\n\n\"The NHS needs to communicate clearly with the public and with the profession so there is a clear understanding of the problems which will help us manage expectations,\" Dr Jameel said.\n\n\"These tests are a fundamental part of patient care, giving us essential insights into different conditions, warning signs and overall health.\"\n\nDoctor Gavin Jamie, an GP based in Swindon agreed that preventative care is going to be slower, in addition to screening delays cause by the pandemic which he said he's still trying to catch up on.\n\n\"We've not seen the full effect yet but it looks like it could carry on for at least a few months from the time scale NHS England have been giving us,\" he added.\n\nGPs across the country have tweeted about the difficulties the shortage is causing, while patients have tweeted texts from their surgeries which have said their blood tests have been cancelled.\n\nAlison Webb's blood tests have been delayed by four months due to the shortages\n\nAlison Webb, from Wales, told the BBC she was told that she can't have her yearly thyroid and cholesterol checked due to the blood tube shortages. She has a condition which means the thyroid gland does not produce enough hormones and said her blood tests are currently overdue by four months.\n\n\"Now I've been told to ring again in a month's time. Terrible,\" she said.\n\nThe medical device company, Becton Dickinson, which partly manufactures its tubes in the US, said the need to test Covid-19 patients in addition to routine testing for procedures which were delayed due to the pandemic had increased demand.\n\nResponding to the new NHS guidance, the British Medical Association said that healthcare staff were \"still no closer to understanding how this situation was able to develop and why there wasn't a contingency plan\".\n\n\"Today's guidance does not explain what will happen if hospitals or GP surgeries do run out of stock, and this must be addressed as a matter of urgency,\" said Dr David Wrigley, deputy chair of BMA council.\n\n\"No doctor wants the consequence of delayed diagnosis for patients due to these shortages, and they also need to know they are protected from any possible negligence claims,\" he added.\n\nLike many other industries, Becton Dickinson said in addition to increased demand, it was experiencing \"continued transportation challenges\", which included port and transport capacity, air freight capacity and UK border challenges.\n\n\"Suppliers are also challenged to meet increased demand for raw materials and components,\" the firm told the BBC.\n\n\"We are balancing the frequency of preventive maintenance leading to plant shutdown to provide continuing supply of products, and we are working closely with our raw material suppliers, transport agencies and other necessary third parties to minimize supply disruptions,\" a spokesperson added.\n\nA spokesperson for the Department for Health and Social Care told the BBC: \"Patient safety and continuity of care is our priority and we are working to ensure there is minimal possible impact on patient care.\n\n\"The health and care system is working closely with Becton Dickinson to put mitigations in place to resolve any problems if they arise,\" they added.\n\nDiabetes UK expressed concerns for the 13.6 million people in the country at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The symptoms of type 2 diabetes can develop more slowly than those for type 1.\n\nNikki Joule, policy manager at the charity, said the supply issues would make the condition \"harder to spot\" and said it's \"very important\" that those at risk \"do not fall through the cracks due to a logistical issue.\"\n\nGwenda Burns, chief executive of Fertility Network UK agrees that the logistical issue is \"extremely worrying\" for those awaiting fertility tests.", "People who have had Covid-19 gain even more antibodies when fully vaccinated\n\nHaving two doses of Covid vaccine remains the best way to protect against the Delta variant, first identified in India and now dominant in the UK.\n\nThe Oxford-AstraZeneca jab, though initially less effective, offers the same high protection as the Pfizer-BioNTech after four to five months, the largest study of its kind suggests.\n\nBut neither is as effective as it is against the Alpha variant, responsible for most UK infections last winter.\n\nThere is insufficient data for Moderna.\n\nBut researchers believe it \"almost certainly at least as good as the others\".\n\nThey analysed two and a half million tests results from 743,526 participants in the UK's Covid-19 household-infection survey - led by Oxford University and the Office for National Statistics.\n\nThe Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine had 93% effectiveness against symptomatic infection two weeks after the second dose, compared with Oxford-AstraZeneca's 71%.\n\nOver time, however, the Pfizer-BioNTech's effectiveness dropped while the Oxford-AstraZeneca's remained largely the same.\n\nBut there was no cause for alarm, Prof Sarah Walker, at the University of Oxford, said because \"when you start very very high, you've got a long way to go\".\n\n\"The World Health Organization set the bar at 50% and we're way above that,\" she said.\n\n\"Both of these vaccines are still doing very well against Delta.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOther key points from the research include:\n\nThe study also echoes previous research showing fully vaccinated people who do become infected with the Delta variant have similar levels of the virus to those unvaccinated.\n\nWith the Alpha variant, in contrast, their viral loads were much lower.\n\n''We don't yet know how much transmission can happen from people who get Covid-19 after being vaccinated,\" Prof Walker said.\n\n\"For example, they may have high levels of virus for shorter periods of time.\n\n\"They definitely have the potential to transmit as much.\n\n\"But the fact that they can have high levels of virus suggests that people who aren't yet vaccinated may not be as protected from the Delta variant as we hoped.\n\n\"This means it is essential for as many people as possible to get vaccinated - both in the UK and worldwide.\"", "Mrs Barrott worked as a nurse at St James's Hospital in Leeds\n\nA man wanted in connection with the murder of his wife has been traced to Elgin in Scotland, police said.\n\nEileen Barrott, 50, was found injured in Naburn Fold, Whinmoor, Leeds, on Sunday evening, but died at the scene.\n\nWest Yorkshire Police said officers attended a property near Elgin on Tuesday and confirmed Mark Barrott had been staying there, but had left.\n\nThe force said it was continuing to cooperate with Police Scotland in tracing the 54-year-old.\n\nOfficers also recovered Mr Barrott's silver Toyota Avensis from the Lincoln Green area of Leeds shortly before 19:00 BST on Tuesday.\n\nMr Barrott is believed to have left Leeds railway station by train at about 13:00 on Sunday and arrived at Edinburgh Waverley station at 16:00.\n\nHe then travelled on to Aberdeen and was last seen on CCTV in Huntly Street in the city centre at 21:16 on Sunday.\n\nPolice believe he travelled to Elgin again by train from Aberdeen.\n\nMark Barrott was captured on CCTV at Leeds railway station on Sunday before travelling to Scotland\n\nMr Barrott's car was recovered in Leeds on Tuesday evening\n\nDet Ch Insp Vanessa Rolfe, from West Yorkshire Police, said the force had sent detectives to work alongside Police Scotland officers in the search for Mr Barrott.\n\n\"We are still working to locate and arrest Mark Barrott as a suspect for his wife Eileen's murder, and we are keen to hear from anyone who has seen him following this latest confirmed sighting in the Elgin area yesterday.\n\n\"Our advice remains that anyone who sees him should not approach him but should contact police immediately on 999.\"\n\nPolice have released an image of Mark Barrott taken in 2015 as they continue to try and trace him\n\nPolice Scotland said it was assisting the West Yorkshire force and said there would be increased patrols in Elgin.\n\n\"Anyone with any concerns is asked to contact police,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nMrs Barrott was a nurse and had worked at St James's Hospital in Leeds.\n\nDet Ch Insp Rolfe said members of her family were going through an \"incredibly difficult\" time.\n\n\"I would appeal directly to Mark Barrott to hand himself in to police and avoid prolonging things any further,\" she said.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "From Portugal to France to Montenegro, a look at some of the fires spreading across Europe - and the rest of the globe.", "Over 800,000 US military members served in Afghanistan during America's longest war. Over 2,000 were killed and more than 20,000 were injured.\n\nThe United States spent $822bn (£598bn) fighting the war and training Afghan forces, only to witness the Taliban's rapid conquest of the country.\n\nFour veterans who served in Afghanistan reflect on the war and the fall of the country they tried to help rebuild.\n\nJason served in the US Army and was deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2010.\n\nI feel like I'm watching the end of the movie Titanic. You knew the ship was going to sink, you just didn't know when or how quickly.\n\nI think what Biden said about the Afghan forces being unwilling to fight was harsh, but true. It's not surprising the Afghan army fell quickly. They couldn't hold rural areas once we ended the surge a decade ago. The cities were next, with the smaller ones falling first. Afghan soldiers were not going to keep dying for what looked inevitable. I don't blame them. The only partially surprising part is the Taliban didn't wait until we were completely out of the country to take the capital.\n\nThe US should not have stayed - this was always going to happen. When Biden said staying in Afghanistan for one or five more years wouldn't have changed things, he's absolutely correct.\n\nServing in the war made me re-evaluate how I feel about war in general - you realise how much of it is out of your control. So much of what the US wanted to accomplish there was contingent on what others needed to do, like Pakistan, Afghan soldiers, local citizens. Nobody was on the same page in Afghanistan.\n\nIt's unfathomable that people let it go on for so long.\n\nMichelle is a member of the US Air Force and was deployed in 2016.\n\nI'm disappointed in our behaviour as a country. It's very sad. I feel so badly for all the Afghans. Especially the females who will now be put back in the dark ages under the Taliban.\n\nLook at Vietnam. Look at Korea. War is never worth the cost. Was this one done correctly? Apparently not. The Taliban went into hiding and waited everyone out.\n\nDid we do a full assessment of the capabilities of the Afghan army? I don't think so. We trained helicopter pilots. We allegedly trained their soldiers. But apparently we didn't do a very good job.\n\nI think the exit should have been different. After 20 years, that's a whole generation of people. There are young Afghans I met there who looked up to the American military. They wanted to work with Americans. There was a good living and a standard of life. Now it's gone.\n\nCan we change it? No. Is this a Democrat versus Republican issue? No… nobody had a plan. I am just truly disappointed.\n\nMike Jason is a retired US Army colonel who served for 24 years.\n\nIt's frustrating. It's maddening. The speed at which this started collapsing makes it very hard. It's faster than our ability to process our experiences over the last 20 years.\n\nI've been texting with an Afghan senior officer in hiding right now. His family is in hiding. There's a real life crisis going on. For veterans, this isn't about us right now. Our friends are in real danger today. It's not over yet. This is not the time to feel sorry for ourselves.\n\nI am an idealist who joined the Army because I wanted to do good. When 9/11 happened, I wanted to do something. When we got to Afghanistan, it was a lesson in empathy, working in foreign cultures, seeing a beautiful country with a rich history.\n\nWas it worth it? Was my role worth it? At the time I thought I'd done some good - but now I need time to reflect.\n\nWe created a military for a country that did not yet exist, a colleague of mine once said. The Afghan army felt no loyalty to a government that they saw as corrupt and illegitimate. I don't know if more US troops would have stopped the inevitable.\n\nI don't know that anybody who worked on the ground there is particularly shocked at the outcome.\n\nThe tragedy is that there are people in Afghanistan that just want their kids to grow up and be safe. For some, they had a taste of what that's like when we were there, and now darkness has returned.\n\nKyle Hanson served in the US Army from 2006 to 2012.\n\nI'm feeling a lot of different emotions. I feel sadness for so much of my fellow comrades' youth spent and lost for this cause. However, I certainly do not feel shock - it has long been known the ineffectiveness of the Afghan state and military.\n\nThis was known to be what would happen when we left. American politicians passed it back and forth for 20 years, but the war stopped being worth it shortly after it began.\n\nI'm not surprised by how quickly the Afghan army fell - the Taliban had been given plenty of time to prepare, and given nearly exact dates to work with.\n\nShould we have stayed? I don't think staying was an option, but the way the pull out was handled by the Trump and Biden administrations was callously dictated by US domestic politics. There was also a lack of honesty of the situation on the ground in Afghanistan to the American people.\n\nWar is an extension of politics. Our military tried its best, and our politicians let us and the Afghans down.", "At least 15 countries have sent military planes to the Afghan capital\n\nChaotic scenes have been reported outside Kabul international airport as governments rush to bring home their citizens as well as Afghan colleagues.\n\nTaliban militants controlling access to the airport have fired shots into the air to disperse approaching crowds.\n\nSome 5,000 people have been evacuated in the last 24 hours through the airport, which is being run by specially deployed US troops.\n\nIt comes three days after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.\n\n\"It's absolutely hectic and chaos out there,\" one Western official told the Reuters news agency, as thousands of people remain desperate to leave, including Afghans who helped the US-led mission in the country over the past 20 years.\n\nTaliban fighters deployed around the airport are reportedly not permitting Afghans without documents to enter. They are, however, allowing entry to people with American passports, according to US officials.\n\nThe hardline Islamist group's dramatic takeover of Kabul on Sunday took many Western governments by surprise.\n\nStaff at the Dutch embassy have faced criticism after saying they did not have time tell Afghan colleagues they were going.\n\nThe former president of the Dutch military union feared there was little time left to evacuate interpreters and local staff: \"If we don't succeed in the next 48 to 72 hours it'll be too late,\" Anne-Marie Snels told the BBC.\n\nThe first of Germany's evacuees arrived at Frankfurt airport on Tuesday evening\n\nDozens of planes from around 15 countries have reportedly been sent to Kabul to assist with the evacuations. American, French, Dutch, German, Spanish and British aircraft have all left in recent hours.\n\nThe US military, which is planning to evacuate more than 30,000 people by the end of the month, is guarding the runways and has taken over air traffic control.\n\nIts troops fired shots overnight as part of crowd-control efforts but no-one was injured, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday.\n\nHe said 4,500 US troops were currently at the airport, but hundreds more were set to arrive in the coming hours.\n\n\"We have an obligation to get as many people out of Afghanistan as we can,\" Mr Kirby said, adding that the US was aiming to increase its evacuation capacity to more than 5,000 people a day.\n\nAbout 11,000 US citizens remain in the country, AFP news agency reports. Two thousand people have been evacuated by the US in the past 24 hours, including 325 Americans.\n\nFrance, Germany, Spain, Poland and the Czech Republic all said they had successfully evacuated some of their citizens as well as Afghans.\n\nSome 700 British nationals and Afghans were airlifted out on Tuesday and the UK was \"trying to scale up the speed and pace over the next couple of days\", UK Ambassador Laurie Bristow said.\n\nOne British aid worker told the BBC that she felt lucky to escape. \"The runways were crowded with hundreds of Afghan families hoping to get out somehow,\" Kitty Chevallier told the PA news agency,\n\nShe added that she was aware of how \"immensely lucky\" she was to have been helped out, when others, including friends and colleagues, remained stranded.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Everybody got very emotional\": Hassina Syed describes getting out of Afghanistan on a British military plane\n\nElsewhere, one woman who left Afghanistan on a German evacuation plane spoke of her fear before boarding.\n\n\"We had to force our way through and my little son fell over and we were scared but we made it,\" she told Reuters. \"An American guy showed goodwill and realised we were totally exhausted.\"\n\n\"He said 'all good, you may go in'. Others behind cried and lay on the ground. It was scary,\" she said.\n\nThe unfolding crisis has prompted wider calls for Western countries to resettle Afghan refugees.\n\n\"We cannot abandon [Afghan colleagues] and we are doing everything we can to offer them shelter,\" the European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said on Wednesday.\n\nGerman Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, however, was among a number of European leaders to warn of an influx of refugees from Afghanistan, suggesting between 300,000 and five million people could head to Europe.\n\nThe UK has said it will settle 20,000 Afghan refugees over the next few years, while Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said on Wednesday that \"the aim must be to keep the bulk of people in the region\".\n\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron has come under fire from opponents for saying Europe should put together a \"robust initiative to thwart illegal migration\". He accused critics of twisting his comments and said \"France does and will continue to do its duty to protect those who are in the most danger\".", "The bosses of Britain's biggest companies earned 86 times the average full-time wage last year.\n\nThe median pay of a chief executive of a FTSE-100 firm - the UK's blue chip company index - was £2.69m in 2020, according to the High Pay Centre.\n\nThat was down 17% from £3.25m in 2019, before the pandemic hit.\n\n\"These are still very generous rewards,\" said High Pay Centre director Luke Hildyard.\n\nThe think tank's research revealed average bonus size fell from £1.1m in 2019 to £828,000 last year.\n\nMeanwhile the average long term incentive plan payment fell from £2.4m to £1.38m.\n\n\"CEO pay packages are designed to reflect the experience of shareholders, employees and other stakeholders so in one sense the lower pay levels this year show the system working as intended,\" Mr Hildyard said.\n\nBut he pointed out that most chief executives have already made millions of pounds over the course of their careers and the still high rewards come \"at a time when, in general, government support for the economy has probably been more important to the survival and success of the UK's biggest companies than the decisions of their executives.\"\n\nThe research also showed that average chief executive earnings at the nine FTSE-100 companies that used the furlough scheme to pay their employees, was £2.39m.\n\nMr Hildyard said the UK's high chief executive pay reflected a wider gap between rich and poor in Britain than in most other European countries.\n\nPascal Soriot of drugs giant AstraZeneca was the highest-earning chief executive, making £15.45m last year.\n\nHe was considerably ahead of Brian Cassin of credit reference agency Experian who made £10.3m, according to the think tank's figures.\n\nIn third spot was Albert Manifold of building materials company CRH who received £9.92m.\n\nLaxman Narasimhan of consumer goods firm Reckitt Benckiser was fourth with £9.24m, while the fifth highest-paid FTSE boss in 2020 was Rob Perrins of housebuilder Berkeley, who made £8.03m.\n\nChief executive pay has fallen when their roles have never been more valuable, reckons Matthew Lesh, head of research at the Adam Smith Institute.\n\n\"Amid a historic global crisis the captains of industry have played a key role in keeping us fed, entertained and connected,\" he said.\n\nGenerous compensation is necessary to attract top talent that delivers innovative products, creates jobs and boosts company value, Mr Lesh added.\n\n\"Investors are known to react viciously to changing CEOs because leadership is key to business success.\"\n\nHe said that rather than obsessing about chief executive pay, \"we should embrace policies that will boost pay for all workers as the economy recovers from Covid-19.\n\n\"This means cutting taxes and red tape that holds down incomes.\"\n\nQuite apart from the reminder of the huge gap that has, over the years, opened up between the best-paid employees and the average - with chief executives on 86 times as much as the average worker - the High Pay Centre think tank's analysis is also a reminder of the weakness of the premise on which exorbitant bonuses and long-term incentive plans are based.\n\nThis is namely that the key determinant of a company's success is the shareholder value it generates. In addition, it is the notion that the key determinant of that is a talented top boss who must be attracted, retained and incentivised to do their best by the offer of big money.\n\nIt wasn't Pascal Soriot, the highest paid chief executive of a FTSE-listed company (pay: £15.45m), who led the team that came up with AstraZeneca's vaccine. That was Sarah Gilbert and Andrew Pollard of Oxford University. But the reason shareholders won't begrudge him it isn't because of what it did to AstraZeneca's profits.\n\nIn fact, by offering to distribute it at no profit (unlike Pfizer), AstraZeneca's losses due to the vaccine in the first half of 2021 were more than $50m.\n\nBut what it's done for the firm's reputation - and the benefit to public health - are incalculable. It's not just the bottom line that counts.", "A mother has appeared in court charged with the murder of her two-year-old son in Bridgend.\n\nNatalie Steele, 31, of Broadlands, spoke only to confirm her name and address during the hearing at Cardiff Magistrates' Court earlier.\n\nReid Steele, died at University Hospital Wales, Cardiff, last Thursday after being found in a critical condition at a house the previous day.\n\nMs Steele is due to appear before Cardiff Crown Court on Thursday.\n\nDet Ch Insp Matt Davies, of South Wales Police, said: \"This is a harrowing case for all concerned.\n\n\"My thoughts go out to Reid's family who continue to be supported by specially trained officers.\n\n\"Legal proceedings are now live, and whilst I appreciate there are concerns in the community, I would urge people to refrain from speculating on social media.\"\n\nHe added the investigation is ongoing and for anyone with information to come forward.\n\nPeople left flowers near to the house where the boy was found last week\n\nPaying tribute to him last week, Reid's family said: \"He was a super, super-happy, wonderful and intelligent little boy who lit up everyone's lives.\n\n\"He loved the garden and the beach, picking raspberries and going for walks collecting shells.\n\n\"He was a very chatty little boy and would happily speak to anyone.\"", "Twenty years of conflict in Afghanistan – what happened when?\n\nFrom 9/11, to intense fighting on the ground, and now full withdrawal of US-led forces, here’s what happened.\n\nAl-Qaeda, led by Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan, carries out the largest terror attack ever conducted on US soil. The World Trade Centre is reduced to rubble Four commercial airliners are hijacked. Two are flown into the World Trade Centre in New York, which collapses. One hits the Pentagon building in Washington, and one crashes into a field in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people are killed. A US-led coalition bombs Taliban and al-Qaeda facilities in Afghanistan. Targets include Kabul, Kandahar and Jalalabad. The Taliban, who took power after a decade-long Soviet occupation was followed by civil war, refuse to hand over Bin Laden. Their air defences and small fleet of fighter aircraft are destroyed. The Northern Alliance, a group of anti-Taliban rebels backed by coalition forces, enters Kabul as the Taliban flee the city. Coalition-backed Northern Alliance fighters ride tanks into Kabul as the Taliban retreat By the 13 November 2001, all Taliban have either fled or been neutralised. Other cities quickly fall. After protracted negotiations at a “loya jirga” or grand assembly, the new Afghan constitution is signed into law. The constitution paves the way for presidential elections in October 2004. Hamid Karzai led anti-Taliban groups around Kandahar before becoming president Hamid Karzai, the leader of the Popalzai Durrani tribe, becomes the first president under the new constitution. He serves two five-year terms as president. British troops arrive in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold in the south of the country. Soldiers of the Parachute Regiment lead the first UK deployment to Helmand Their initial mission is to support reconstruction projects, but they are quickly drawn into combat operations. More than 450 British troops lose their lives in Afghanistan over the course of the conflict. US President Barack Obama approves a major increase in the number of troops sent to Afghanistan. At their peak, they number about 140,000. US troops in intense combat operations in the south of the country The so-called “surge” is modelled on US strategy in Iraq where US forces focussed on protecting the civilian population as well as killing insurgent fighters. Bin Laden is traced to a compound located less than a mile from a Pakistani military academy The leader of al-Qaeda is killed in an assault by US Navy Seals on a compound in Abbottabad in Pakistan. Bin Laden’s body is removed and buried at sea. The operation ends a 10-year hunt led by the CIA. The confirmation that Bin Laden had been living on Pakistani soil fuels accusations in the US that Pakistan is an unreliable ally in the war on terror. The founder of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammed Omar, dies. His death is kept secret for more than two years. The Taliban leader is believed to have suffered a shrapnel wound to his right eye in the 1980s According to Afghan intelligence, Mullah Omar dies of health problems at a hospital in the Pakistani city of Karachi. Pakistan denies that he was in the country. At a ceremony in Kabul, Nato ends its combat operations in Afghanistan. With the surge now over, the US withdraws thousands of troops. Most of those who remain focus on training and supporting the Afghan security forces. The Taliban launch a series of suicide attacks, car bombings and other assaults. The parliament building in Kabul, and the city of Kunduz are attacked. Islamic State militants begin operations in Afghanistan. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says more than 45,000 members of his country’s security forces have been killed since he became leader in 2014. The figure is far higher than previously thought. The US and the Taliban sign an “agreement for bringing peace” to Afghanistan, in Doha, Qatar. The US and Nato allies agree to withdraw all troops within 14 months if the militants uphold the deal. The deal lays out a timetable for full withdrawal US president Joe Biden announces that all US troops will leave Afghanistan by 11 September 2021. In just over a month, the Taliban sweep across Afghanistan, taking control of towns and cities all over the country, including Kabul. Afghan security forces collapse in the face of the Taliban advance.", "The notional deficit figures reflect huge changes in public spending and revenues due to the pandemic\n\nScotland's public spending deficit more than doubled to £36.3bn last year as spending increased and revenues fell due to the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nTotal spending by the Scottish and UK governments and other public bodies rose to £99.2bn as Scotland went into lockdown.\n\nIncome from taxes fell to £62.8bn, leaving a gap between spending and revenue equating to 22.4% of GDP.\n\nThe deficit for the UK as a whole over the same period was 14.2% of GDP.\n\nScotland's figure for the previous year - before the onset of the pandemic - was £15.1bn, or 8.6% of GDP.\n\nThe figures were calculated by Scottish government statisticians as part of the annual Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (Gers) report.\n\nIt illustrates how public finances were hit by the pandemic, with huge spending on healthcare as well as relief programmes such as the furlough scheme and payments to businesses forced to close by lockdown.\n\nPublic sector spending in Scotland increased by 21% in the 2020-21 tax year, with the figure compounded by falling revenues and the price of oil.\n\nTotal spending was equivalent to £18,144 per person - £1,828 per person more than the UK average.\n\nThe Fraser of Allander Institute - an economic think tank based at Strathclyde University - said the figures were \"the largest ever seen in terms of the notional deficit\", noting that the UK has also recorded its largest deficit since the second world war.\n\nDirector Mairi Spowage said the increase in the Scottish figure relative to the UK was \"a little larger than we might have expected\", due to a larger fall in Scottish GDP caused by the contraction of the North Sea oil industry.\n\nKate Forbes said the Scottish government should be given more powers to deal with financial crises\n\nScottish Finance Secretary Kate Forbes said the \"significant economic impact\" of the Covid-19 pandemic had \"fundamentally shifted our fiscal landscape\".\n\nShe said: \"While we face continued challenges, there are welcome signs that the Scottish economy is beginning to recover strongly. Business confidence is back above pre-pandemic levels, output is increasing and job vacancies are rising.\n\n\"As we rebuild, we are pushing forward with an ambitious 10 year agenda of economic transformation to help seize Scotland's potential and deliver a more prosperous, fairer and greener economy.\"\n\nMs Forbes also called for further borrowing powers to be devolved to Holyrood as part of efforts to rebuild the economy.\n\nShe said the pandemic had \"clearly demonstrated the need for fiscal reform and tat the Scottish government's financial powers are insufficient to deal with the new economic reality\".\n\nHowever, Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said the figures \"show how all of us in Scotland have benefitted from being part of a strong United Kingdom\".\n\nHe added: \"We have been able to weather the Covid storm as part of the UK but we now face the challenge of rebuilding our economy and supporting our heroic NHS and other public services. Our focus remains on that task.\n\n\"We have faced a terrible crisis far, far stronger as one UK - and we will build back better as one UK.\"\n\nMeanwhile, business group CBI Scotland said the Covid-19 crisis had \"served to exacerbate many of the weaknesses found in the Scottish economy pre-pandemic\".\n\nDirector Tracy Black said: \"After an incredibly tough eighteen months, the Scottish government must fully commit to making economic recovery their number one priority.\n\n\"If the Scottish government plans to launch a series of ambitious spending plans, this must be backed-up by consistent revenue generation. That means supporting enterprise to deliver the jobs and growth we need by taking steps to build public and business confidence in the recovery.\"", "Helen Macdonald’s animal was ordered for destruction after twice testing positive for bovine tuberculosis (bTB)\n\nThe owner of a condemned alpaca has vowed to fight on despite losing a last-ditch attempt to save the animal.\n\nHelen Macdonald said she will \"obstruct\" anyone who comes to her farm to put eight-year-old Geronimo down.\n\nHe has twice tested positive for bovine tuberculosis, and the Department of Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) ordered him to be euthanised.\n\nAn application for an injunction to halt the destruction order was refused at London's High Court earlier.\n\nMs Macdonald said: \"It's not changed my mind. I haven't done this for four years to just roll over.\n\n\"There was always a principle at stake here about valid testing for all animals in the UK, proper science and we're just not getting it. I'm just disgusted really by the whole attitude.\"\n\nMs Macdonald believes the tests are returning false positives and has been refused permission to have Geronimo tested a third time\n\nMs Macdonald, who owns a farm at Wickwar, South Gloucestershire, has received public support over the past few weeks, with more than 130,000 people signing a petition calling on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to halt the killing.\n\n\"It's not over. They seem to want to make it my decision, and make me put my animal to sleep, to get the blood off their hands. I'm not doing it,\" she said.\n\nAsked what she will do if officials arrive at her property, she added: \"Well, we'll just obstruct. I don't want to break the law. I'm not a criminal. They're trying to make me into one but I'm not a criminal. I will obstruct anyone who comes on to my farm.\"\n\nIn the High Court on Wednesday afternoon, Mrs Justice Stacey refused the urgent application for an injunction and concluded there was \"no prospect\" of Ms Macdonald succeeding in her bid to reopen a previous ruling.\n\nShe said the farmer's complaint about non-disclosure did not give rise to an arguable case, but was a \"disingenuous and backdoor way of seeking a further route to appeal\" when there was none left.\n\nNed Westaway, representing Defra and the Animal and Plant Health Agency, told the court it will not seek to execute the warrant on Wednesday evening, and would give Ms Macdonald the opportunity to make her own arrangements for Geronimo's destruction.\n\nMs Macdonald has received support from the public but her last-ditch appeal was refused on Wednesday\n\nRepresenting Ms Macdonald, Catrin McGahey QC, told the High Court it had come to light that other animals subjected to the same testing regime as Geronimo had shown no signs of the disease after being euthanised.\n\nHowever, Mrs Justice Stacey said that on the evidence before her, Ms Macdonald had not succeeded in showing there was any prospect of her reopening the litigation.\n\n\"There are no plans to execute the warrant today,\" said a Defra spokesperson after the hearing.\n\n\"We are sympathetic to Ms Macdonald's situation, just as we are with everyone with animals affected by this terrible disease.\n\n\"It is for this reason that the testing results and options for Geronimo have been very carefully considered by Defra, the Animal and Plant Health Agency and its veterinary experts, as well as passing several stages of thorough legal scrutiny.\"\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk", "Apple is a big brand in China, with flagship shops in cities such as Shanghai\n\nApple censors references to Chinese politicians, dissidents and other topics in its engraving service, a report alleges.\n\nCitizen Lab said it had investigated filters set up for customers who wanted something engraved on a new iPhone, iPad or other Apple device.\n\nAnd Apple had a broad list of censored words, not just in mainland China but also in Hong Kong and Taiwan.\n\nApple said its systems \"ensure local laws and customs are respected\".\n\n\"As with everything at Apple, the process for engraving is led by our values,\" chief privacy officer Jane Horvath wrote in a letter provided to CitizenLab in advance of the publication of its report.\n\nAnd the engraving service tried not to allow trademarked phrases, alongside those that \"are vulgar or culturally insensitive, could be construed as inciting violence, or would be considered illegal according to local laws, rules, and regulations\".\n\nBut CitizenLab accuses Apple of having \"thoughtlessly and inconsistently curated keyword lists\".\n\nCitizenLab, a research group at the University of Toronto known for its work in technology and human rights, said there had been previous research on the censorship of Apple's App Store in China.\n\nBut there were until now only anecdotal reports of engravings being refused, it said.\n\nIts new report found more than 1,100 filtered keywords, across six different regions, mainly relating to offensive content, such as racist or sexual words.\n\nBut it alleges the rules are applied inconsistently and are much wider for China.\n\nA reference to 4 June 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square - \"8964\" - was blocked in China\n\n\"Within mainland China, we found that Apple censors political content, including broad references to Chinese leadership and China's political system, names of dissidents and independent news organisations, and general terms relating to religions, democracy, and human rights,\" it says.\n\nThe report also alleges that censorship \"bleeds\" into both the Hong Kong and Taiwan markets.\n\nIn contrast, Japan, Canada and the US had between 170 and 260 filtered words.\n\nIn Hong Kong, phrases referencing the \"umbrella revolution\", pro-democracy movement, and freedom of the press appeared to be blocked, along with the names of some political dissidents.\n\nIn Taiwan, the report found filtering of senior members of China's ruling Communist Party, including historical figures such as Chairman Mao Zedong.\n\nHong Kong is what is known as a special administrative region of China.\n\nThe former British colony is part of China but governed under special principles and enjoys a high degree of autonomy.\n\nTaiwan, meanwhile, is self-governing but Beijing considers it a breakaway rebel province that will one day be reunited with mainland China.\n\n\"Much of this censorship exceeds Apple's legal obligations in Hong Kong and we are aware of no legal justification for the political censorship of content in Taiwan,\" the report says.\n\nIt also cites mistakes - such as 10 people with the surname Zhang having their engravings censored, a restriction with no obvious political significance.\n\n\"Apple does not fully understand what content they censor,\" CitizenLab alleged.\n\n\"Rather than each censored keyword being born of careful consideration, many seem to have been thoughtlessly reappropriated from other sources,\" it said - possibly including a list used to censor products at a Chinese company.\n\nChina was a valuable market for big technology companies, CitizenLab said.\n\nBut its research \"points to a more alarming trend of the export of one jurisdiction's regulatory and political pressures to another\".\n\nThere were \"growing uncertainties and dilemmas global companies face between upholding internationally acknowledged human-rights norms and making decisions purely based on commercial interests\", it added.\n\nReplying to the group, Ms Horvath said Apple's rules depended on the region - and \"no third parties or government agencies have been involved in the process\".\n\n\"To a large degree, this is not an automated process and relies on manual curation,\" she said.\n\n\"At times, that can result in engraving requests being mistakenly rejected.\n\n\"And we have a process in place to review and correct those situations when they occur.\"", "ME can cause post-exertional malaise, muscle pain, memory loss and digestive issues\n\nA health watchdog has paused a final update to ME treatment guidance just hours before planned publication due to disagreement on its contents - a move that has angered some charities.\n\nNICE says it needs more conversations with patient groups and professionals so that the advice is supported.\n\nThere are strong and varied views on how the illness should be best managed.\n\nAn earlier draft scrapped one controversial recommendation of graded exercise therapy.\n\nMany patients with ME or chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) say the therapy, which encourages patients to slowly increase their levels of activity, makes their condition worse, not better.\n\nThe draft recommendations for England and Wales, published in November 2020, said people should remain in their \"energy envelope\" when undertaking activity of any kind, and a physical activity programme should only be considered in specific circumstances.\n\nIt is not clear yet if the final guidance will say the same when it is published.\n\nThe draft also changed advice on a talking therapy, known as CBT, clarifying that it was only helpful in treating anxiety around the condition, not the illness itself.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIt said that there was no \"one size fits all\" approach to managing ME, which is estimated to affect more than 250,000 people in England and Wales.\n\nNICE has acknowledged that the controversy over the best treatment has served only to alienate many people with the condition and, in some cases, undermined the confidence of those caring for them.\n\nSeveral members of the committee who prepared the guidelines left the group last month.\n\nOne of them is Dr Charles Shepherd, medical advisor to the ME Association. He has said it became increasingly difficult to comment on graded exercise and CBT issues in public while holding both roles.\n\nNICE said it wanted to thank everyone who had contributed to the guideline, particularly the committee and the patient groups who had worked so diligently.\n\n\"However, unless the recommendations in the guideline are supported and implemented by professionals and the NHS, people with ME/CFS may not get the care and help they need,\" it said.\n\nSian Leary, from #MEAction UK, accused NICE of \"capitulating to the vested interests of those who support graded exercise therapy, instead of standing up for the thousands of people being harmed.\"\n\nOther groups including Forward ME, Action for ME, ME Association, Doctors for ME and ME Research UK criticised the delay, saying the document had been approved by the committee and should be published.\n\nAndrew Goddard, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said: \"We were extremely concerned that the final guidelines proposed by NICE may not have taken into consideration the extensive comments we made to the draft version, particularly in relation to treatments we know to have significantly benefited many patients.\n\n\"There is reasonable evidence, for example, that graded exercise therapy helps a group of patients with ME/CFS and, while not without risk, our experts strongly support its ongoing use as an option in this condition.\n\n\"Similarly, our experts would strongly recommend specialist individualised rehabilitation for patients with complex rehabilitation needs.\n\n\"We hope that in delaying the final publication of these guidelines, NICE will re-consider our evidence submitted and incorporate it into their final publication.\"", "Nando's says it will lend some of its staff to its suppliers to help \"get things moving\" in the supply chain after shortages hit some of its shops.\n\nThe restaurant group has had to shut around 50 outlets temporarily after apparently running short of its staple fare: peri peri chicken.\n\nCustomers were quick to react online, complaining about local closures.\n\n\"The UK supply chain is having a bit of a [night]'mare right now,\" Nando's tweeted in reply.\n\n\"This is having a knock-on effect with some of our restaurants across England, Scotland and Wales.\"\n\nThis 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 Nando's 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.\n\nThe chain said delivery schedules meant the situation was changing rapidly and suggested customers check the website before they visit.\n\nFood and other supply chains across the UK have struggled to operate normally this summer, due to what has been dubbed the \"pingdemic\" - staff being required to self-isolate if they have come into contact with someone with coronavirus.\n\nStaff shortages have also have been blamed on EU workers leaving the UK following Brexit as well as during the pandemic and the furlough scheme keeping some workers out of the jobs market.\n\nDairy giant Arla had to cut back on milk deliveries to supermarkets due to lorry driver shortages last month, leaving some supermarket shelves short of stock.\n\nLast week rival fast food chicken store KFC said some items were missing from its menus due to \"disruption\".\n\nThe problem has also affected carmakers, transport operators, restaurants and pubs. Road haulage firms have been a particular pinch point because the industry was already short of qualified drivers.\n\nFrom this week, fully vaccinated staff no longer have to self-isolate, a rule-change the government hopes will ease the pressure on businesses running short of staff.\n\nAt the same time Nando's says it is exploring an alternative solution by offering its staff to help suppliers, although it didn't say whether any had accepted the offer, or what work they would be doing.\n\nThe South African chain, famous for its peri peri sauce, operates more than 400 restaurants across the UK.\n\nNando's said the shortages were not affecting any of their outlets in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.\n\nNote September 6 2021: This story was updated to include a broader context around staff shortages after Brexit and the pandemic.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Andy Johnson drove more than 300 miles to pick up the VHS tapes\n\nA movie buff has rescued more than 20,000 VHS tapes from landfill after travelling 300 miles to collect them.\n\nAndy Johnson, who runs what is said to be the UK's last video shop, drove from Liverpool to Dundee to pick up the mammoth haul.\n\nThe vast collection, which filled three lock-up garages, was amassed by George McInnes over decades from car boot sales.\n\nMr Johnson, who owns VideOdyssey, said: \"I've never seen anything this big.\"\n\nThe vast collection of VHS tapes filled three lock-ups\n\nThe 42-year-old fulfilled his dream of opening a video shop in the Toxteth TV venue in 2018 and described the response since then as \"phenomenal\".\n\nHe even had to expand the store after being inundated with tapes from well-wishers across the country.\n\nEarlier this year, the shop featured on a movie lovers' bucket list, compiled by Time Out Magazine, alongside Hobbiton in New Zealand and the Ghostbusters firehouse in New York.\n\nBut the Dundee donation will more than double his existing 15,000-strong collection and he is applying for funding to create a national archive.\n\nThe vast collection includes everything from action movies to romantic comedies\n\nMr Johnson made a 600-mile round trip from Liverpool to Dundee to collect the tapes\n\nMr Johnson told BBC Scotland: \"I was just absolutely amazed when I got the phone call.\n\n\"The guy who got these lock-ups told me it could be more than 20,000 so we are quite excited.\"\n\nIf he had been unable to take the tapes, they would have been destined for landfill as VHS tapes cannot be recycled.\n\nMr Johnson believes young people brought up in the age of live streaming are keen to experience movies on tape.\n\nHe said: \"VHS is starting to have a similar comeback seen with vinyl. People want that physical connection to their favourite films, rather than the cold experience of playing something from the cloud.\"\n\nHaving worked as a clerk in a video shop as a teenager, Mr Johnson now finds himself travelling across the country on his days off to gather people's collections of old gems and save films, which never came out on a digital format, from oblivion.\n\nMr Johnson's store in Toxteth, Liverpool, will more than double its collection of 15,000 VHS tapes\n\nDuring the Covid lockdowns, he even offered customers a special nostalgia pack with a player and 10 tapes.\n\nMr Johnson added: \"It's taken over my life in a short space of time. Thankfully, I have a very understanding wife.\n\n\"As we have a three-year-old boy, and they've both travelled with me to pick up VHS hauls. But nothing like the size of this collection in Dundee.\n\n\"A lot of amazing movies were never brought out digitally and they're in danger of being lost forever.\"\n• None VHS fan bids to save 20,000 tapes from being dumped\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Trendy neighbours may have bought fire pits and pizza ovens during lockdown, or worked from home in a shoffice - but the risk of an expensive blaze grew.\n\nInsurer Zurich has warned that outbuilding fires - in sheds, garages and conservatories - rose by 16% last year compared with 2019.\n\nIt said the popularity of conversions to home offices, gyms and domestic drinks bars increased the fire risk.\n\nThree-quarters of areas in the UK recorded more fires, the data shows.\n\nPhil Ost, from Zurich, said: \"Aside from storing gardening tools, our sheds and garages have become a haven to escape the stresses of family life and for others, a place to work.\"\n\n\"But as they take refuge in their garden sheds and garages, it appears to have sparked a rise in accidental blazes.\"\n\nIn April, a survey by another insurer, Aviva, suggested that one in 10 of those asked worked from a converted shed, garage or summerhouse - a proportion expected to rise to 13%.\n\nThe popularity of so-called shoffices - shed offices - has risen, with some people spending significant sums for a luxury cabin.\n\nThe word garage also become the most popular search item on property website Rightmove, and planning applications to convert them rose sharply.\n\nHowever, analysts said some people risked invalidating their insurance if they failed to inform their insurer about a new line of work, if it created extra risks.\n\nWhile some insurers have allowed people setting up in business at home to extend their cover at no extra cost, some people may need to buy new policies or pay larger premiums owing to the extra risk.\n\nThere is also the risk that expensive equipment might bust insurance limits in existing policies if stolen or damaged.\n\nElectrical equipment, as well as popular lockdown purchases such as pizza ovens and fire pits, added to the existing fire risks created in gardens by mowers, barbecues, and paint thinners.\n\nData collected by Zurich from UK fire authorities showed that there were 3,681 residential outbuilding fires recorded in 2020, compared with 3,170 the year before.\n\nPeople lost belongings in a fire at storage units in Greater Manchester earlier this year\n\nWarnings have also been issued about property moved to self-storage units while people are working from home.\n\nSome warehouses have gone up in flames, with devastated customers speaking of how they have been unable to replace their lost belongings.\n\nStuart Bensusan, from insurance specialist Surewise, said: \"It highlights the importance of thoroughly vetting any storage facility you use and taking the necessary steps to protect your possessions while they are in it.\"\n\n\"Many consumers have complete faith in storage units, and unfortunately it simply never crosses their minds that something might happen to their unit, or the whole building. This leads to many customers being under-insured or worse having no insurance cover at all.\"\n\nMany storage unit operators offer insurance, but customers may shop around for cheaper deals, and some may have cover included through their home insurance policy.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Female presenters return on Afghanistan's Tolo News, with one interviewing the Taliban\n\nTwo days after the Taliban took control of the Afghan capital, Kabul, female presenters have returned to at least some TV channels, after briefly going off air as the militants took over the country.\n\nTolo TV, the private channel which previously broadcast a mix of Western-style game shows, soap operas and talent contests, said there was a little bit of uncertainty at the time about what would unfold next and temporarily removed their female presenters.\n\nTolo News' Siyar Sirat said on Tuesday things looked like they were returning to normal, with \"normal resources at the office, we have women on screen and we are reporting from around the city\".\n\nThese women and children were among those trying to get to the airport on Monday\n\nOne of the big questions now is what will happen to Afghan women - they are still visible on TV screens so far, and the Taliban have given assurances that their rights will be respected.\n\nNot many women could be seen at Kabul airport on Monday where crowds thronged the tarmac of the runway in a desperate bid to get out of the country.\n\nOn Monday, Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai - who was shot aged 15 by the Taliban for campaigning for girls' education in Pakistan - expressed concern about the situation for and the safety of women and girls in the country.\n\n\"I had the opportunity to talk to a few activists in Afghanistan, including women's rights activists and they are sharing their concern that they are not sure what their life is going to be like,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"A lot of them remember what was happening in 1996-2001 time and they are deeply worried about their safety, their rights their protection, they are worried about their access to school.\n\n\"And we have already seen news reports that many girls have been sent back from university. A lot of them have been asked to get married at age 15, 12.\"\n\nTaliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen says the group will respect the rights of women and minorities \"as per Afghan norms and Islamic values\".\n\nOn Tuesday, the group declared an amnesty across Afghanistan and said it wanted women to join its government.\n\nIndeed, some women have chosen to stay.\n\nPayvand Seyed Ali currently works as an education consultant in Kabul, where she has lived and worked for 10 years. She was senior adviser to the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, and also led the UK government's largest education fund in Afghanistan, the GEC.\n\n\"I don't think it's useful to wonder or have expectations of what the Taliban will do when it comes to women's rights and education. We have to work with what we have, and what we have include high-level Taliban promises that women will have access to education, and work.\n\n\"What makes sense is to treat these promises not as 'conciliatory noises', but as commitments, and work actively with Taliban leadership to craft solutions that keep girls in school and women working,\" she told the BBC News website.\n\nShe says accountability will be key: \"The ministry of education budget, including all staff salaries, is almost entirely donor-funded, including a large portion facilitated and monitored by the World Bank. The objectives remain, the indicators remain, the accountability measures remain, and we should work with any new government towards compromises to meet development goals, and to keep our kids - all our kids - in school.\n\n\"So far, it seems that most, though not all, girls' schools have remained open or are reopening, albeit with personnel changes and high absenteeism. District and provincial staff for the most part continue to work.\n\n\"In more rural areas, I have reliable reports that the largest NGO in the country, the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, has reopened or kept open almost all of its girls' schools. So have most other leading NGOs supporting education in government and community schools. Many of these community schools have had some Taliban engagement since inception. Most have insisted on female or mullah teachers for years.\"\n\nShe will stay in Kabul and says women around her are still mostly at home, but cautiously planning visits and outings in the coming days.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Women won't be silenced by the Taliban, says teacher and humans rights activist Pashtana Durrani\n\nActivist Pashtana Durrani says that people must be wary.\n\n\"For starters, you have to understand that what they say and what they are putting in practice, they are two different things,\" she told the BBC on Monday.\n\n\"Girls in Herat, they were not able to go to their universities; girls in Kandahar, they were asked to go to their home and their male relatives were asked to fill in... their positions in the bank.\n\n\"So... they [the Taliban] are looking for legitimacy from all these different countries, to be accepted as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, but then at the same time, what are they doing in practice?\n\n\"Either a) they don't have control on their foot soldiers, or b) they really want the legitimacy but they're not willing to do the work. Those are two different things.\"\n\nMs Durrani also points out that when the Taliban talk about women's rights, they talk about them in vague terms: do they mean mobility rights, socialising rights, political rights, their representative rights and/or voting rights? It is not clear whether they mean all or only some of those rights, she says.\n\nAfghanistan's women and girls must now wait to see how life pans out under Taliban rule, as fears and uncertainties remain while there is no government in charge.\n• None Fearing the Taliban, Kabul's young women plead for help", "Wrightbus is to create 300 permanent jobs to build its zero-emission buses.\n\nThe company said it would also convert 120 temporary jobs into permanent positions at its Ballymena headquarters.\n\nWrightbus said it would have 930 permanent members of staff when the new jobs were filled.\n\nJo Bamford, who bought the company in 2019 after it went into administration, said the company was \"firmly back in business, creating jobs\".\n\nIn March, it was announced the Ballymena-based manufacturer would receive £11.2m from the government to develop hydrogen-fuel technology.\n\nThe company had already started to increase its workforce after Translink ordered 100 zero-emission buses in December 2020.\n\nTwenty of them will be hydrogen powered and the other 80 will be battery operated.\n\nThe hydrogen-powered buses have no exhaust fumes and emit only water from the tailpipe.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Ballymena-based bus maker is hiring new staff and making another 120 posts permanent.\n\nOn Tuesday, the UK government unveiled a strategy for kick-starting a hydrogen industry, which they say could attract billions of pounds in investment.\n\nWrightbus managing director Neil Collins said the company had been reinvigorated.\n\n\"Our order book is looking very healthy with our zero emission buses in high demand, and we have multiple conversations ongoing with a number of bus operators from across the UK and Ireland,\" he added.\n\n\"We're building an incredible team in Ballymena and we want the best people to come and work for us.\n\n\"We're aiming to increase bus production again next year, which will in turn lead to the creation of even more permanent jobs.\"\n\nMr Bamford said building the workforce from the 56 that remained when he bought the company in 2019 was \"incredibly satisfying\".\n\n\"We're continuing to invest not only in employees, but in the technological advances that will keep our buses at the very pinnacle of the industry,\" he added.\n\nLast year, Translink put in an order for 20 hydrogen-powered buses\n\nNorth Antrim MP Ian Paisley said it was great news for the local economy.\n\n\"Hydrogen technology is the way ahead for zero emissions and a hydrogen hub in Ballymena training engineers and developing products would be a natural fit for the area,\" he said.\n\n\"The prospects of this throw out challenges to schools and colleges to encourage engineering and science subjects to local children as there will be significant and skilled jobs available in this sector in the years ahead.\"\n\nJobs on offer will include coachbuilders, welders, vehicle installation electricians, driveline operatives and factory operatives.", "Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada is a political and religious leader who is the third Supreme Commander of the Taliban\n\nThe Taliban took many by surprise as they swept across Afghanistan in just 10 days in August, quickly taking control of towns and cities.\n\nThe militant group has announced an interim government, declaring the country an \"Islamic Emirate\".\n\nThe cabinet will be led by Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, one of the movement's founders.\n\nSo, here's what is known about who is leading the Taliban today.\n\nHibatullah Akhundzada became the supreme commander of the Taliban in May 2016, and is now leader of the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.\n\nIn the 1980s, he participated in the Islamist resistance against the Soviet military campaign in Afghanistan, but his reputation is more that of a religious leader than a military commander.\n\nAkhundzada worked as head of the Sharia Courts in the 1990s.\n\nAfter first seizing power in the 1990s, the Taliban introduced and supported punishments according to their strict interpretation of Islamic law: they publicly executed murderers and adulterers and amputated thieves' limbs.\n\nUnder the leadership of the reclusive Mullah Mohammed Omar (who is thought to have died in 2013), the Taliban also banned television, music, movies, make-up, and stopped girls aged 10 and over from attending school.\n\nVery few images exist of former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, who died in 2013\n\nAkhundzada is believed to be in his 60s and has lived most of his life in Afghanistan.\n\nHowever, according to experts, he maintains close ties with the so-called \"Quetta Shura\" - the Afghan Taliban leaders said to be based in the Pakistani city of Quetta.\n\nAs the group's supreme commander, Akhundzada is in charge of political, military and religious affairs.\n\nMullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund is one of the four men who founded the Taliban in Afghanistan in 1994.\n\nHe is a longtime head the Taliban's powerful leadership council, or Rehbari Shura.\n\nHe served as foreign minister and deputy prime minister during the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan in 1996-2001.\n\nHe is under UN sanctions for his role in the government during that period.\n\nSirajuddin Haqqani is another of the group's top figures, who is on an FBI most wanted list.\n\nAfter the death of his father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, he became the new leader of the Haqqani network, which has been credited with some of the most violent attacks that have occurred in Afghanistan against Afghan forces and their Western allies in recent years.\n\nThe Haqqani network is currently one of the region's most powerful and feared militant groups. Some say it is even more influential than the Islamic State group in Afghanistan.\n\nThe Haqqani network is currently one of the most powerful and feared militant groups in the country\n\nThe group, designated by the US as a terrorist organisation, oversees the Taliban's financial and military assets along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.\n\nHaqqani is believed to be around 45.\n\nIn an opinion piece in the New York Times last year before the signing of the Doha agreement, Haqqani wrote: \"For more than four decades, precious Afghan lives have been lost every day. Everyone has lost somebody they loved. Everyone is tired of war. I am convinced that the killing and the maiming must stop.\"\n\nHe became a lynchpin of the insurgency after the militants were toppled by the US-led invasion in 2001.\n\nBut he was captured in a joint US-Pakistani operation in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi in February 2010.\n\nHe remained in prison for eight years, until he was released as part of a plan to facilitate the peace process. He has been the head of their political office in Qatar since January 2019.\n\nIn 2020, Baradar became the first Taliban leader to communicate directly with a US president after having a telephone conversation with Donald Trump. Before that, Baradar signed the Doha agreement on the withdrawal of US troops on behalf of the Taliban.\n\nThen US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Abdul Ghani Baradar met in September 2020 in Doha\n\nMohammad Yaqoob is the son of the founder of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammed Omar.\n\nHe is believed to be little more than 30 years old and is currently the leader of the group's military operations.\n\nFollowing the death of former Taliban leader Akhtar Mansour in 2016, some militants wanted to appoint Yaqoob as the group's new supreme commander, but others felt that he was young and lacking in experience.\n\nAs the Taliban advanced through the country, Yaqoob urged Taliban fighters not to harm members of the Afghan military or government and to stay out of abandoned homes of government and security officials who had fled, according to the Associated Press news agency.", "There's a quote in To Kill A Mockingbird where Jem is told by Miss Maudie that \"things are never as bad as they seem.\" For Joe Biden, right now, things do look pretty dark.\n\nBut if I'm digging into my quotations book, who can better Kipling's If - and that line about treating triumph and failure as the impostors that they are? Politicians have been told down the ages that there is no coming back from this or that catastrophe, and - yet - back they come.\n\nThe shambolic unravelling of America's withdrawal from Afghanistan comes from a yet to be written textbook of \"how to lose at everything\". Warnings hadn't been heeded, intelligence was clearly totally inadequate, planning was lamentable, execution woeful.\n\nLet's just focus in on one thing - although there are any number that are worthy of examination.\n\nThe withdrawal came during the \"fighting season\" - a phrase I have to say I have always found rather odd. But in Afghanistan there is a fighting season which starts in spring - and then in winter, when the country freezes over, there is a time when the Taliban go home to their tribal homelands. Did no-one think that it might have been better to have ordered the withdrawal for the dead of winter when Taliban forces weren't there, poised to fill the vacuum?\n\nTaliban soldiers patrol the streets of Jalalabad on 17 April\n\nThe end result might have been the same - a Taliban takeover - but it would have almost certainly led to a more orderly drawdown. Yet the Biden administration wanted an eye-catching date. They wanted the withdrawal completed by 11 September. Twenty years on from 9/11 - an artificial, self-imposed deadline.\n\nOne more quote. After the catastrophic Bay of Pigs invasion, when Cuban emigres backed by the CIA tried to overthrow Fidel Castro, John F Kennedy - the president at the time of that debacle - noted sorrowfully that victory has a hundred fathers, but failure is an orphan.\n\nJoe Biden is an orphan right now. And that could have consequences for his presidency; and far more importantly how the rest of the world sees America.\n\nBiden's election campaign could be boiled down to three messages to distinguish himself from Donald Trump. First, he would be more empathetic. He would be more competent. And instead of \"America First\", it would be replaced by the mantra \"America is back\".\n\nBut in his address yesterday, there wasn't a whole lot of empathy towards the thousands of Afghans who've helped Americans these past 20 years. On competence, even his biggest cheerleaders would struggle to say the withdrawal of American troops has been anything other than shambolic.\n\nAnd after the bewildering events of the past few days, how exactly is America back? Many see what has unfolded on President Biden's watch in Afghanistan as a linear continuation of Donald Trump's America First policies - and, as some have joked cruelly, not as well organised.\n\nPresidents Truman and Kennedy (right) both had to face up to failures\n\nBut on the policy itself, Joe Biden is utterly defiant. He summoned up his inner Harry Truman and made clear in his speech that the buck stops with him. He was, however, happy to distribute blame in much the same way that a muck spreader disperses manure in all directions. The Afghan leadership weren't up to it, the Afghan armed forces had no fight in them; Donald Trump had negotiated a bad deal.\n\nThere can be an endearing chirpiness to Joe Biden, but there's also a chippiness. He doesn't like being questioned, and on many foreign policy questions he is convinced of his own rightness.\n\nJoe Biden has never been a \"liberal interventionist\", thinking that liberal democracy is something that can be shipped out of Baltimore Harbour in 40ft containers and exported around the world. He thinks the US military should only be overseas to defend vital US interests. And with al-Qaeda largely beaten, Osama Bin Laden dead, it was job done. Time to come home.\n\nThat is a view, I should add, shared by millions of Americans. But approving of the policy is very different from the dysfunctional implementation. And what if terror groups, feeling emboldened by the Taliban victory, decide to launch their own attacks on Americans abroad - or Americans at home? Then it could be politically catastrophic.\n\nWhich brings us to how Western leaders see America now. A fascinating nugget from a briefing that's just been given by Joe Biden's National Security Adviser. Since the fall of Kabul, Jake Sullivan revealed, Biden hadn't spoken to another world leader. Wasn't that just a bit surprising, given that there were a lot of other nations - including Britain - who'd committed vast resources to Afghanistan? Following Sullivan's briefing, the White House announced that Biden had spoken with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.\n\nWhen the G7 gathered in Cornwall and the Nato nations met in Brussels the sense of relief was palpable among the prime ministers and presidents that a more outward looking American president was in charge. But given what has unfolded - how America has been humiliated, how Joe Biden embarked on a policy he was cautioned against by these leaders - there is now a good deal more wariness.\n\nAnd who will feel they have gained most from America's departure - apart from the Taliban, of course? Why, three countries near Afghanistan - Russia, Iran and China. I'm not sure that is what Joe Biden had in mind when he said after his inauguration that \"America is back\".", "Dhan Gurung returned to protesting outside Downing Street after going to hospital when his heart slowed\n\nA Gurkha veteran who was taken ill during a hunger strike outside Downing Street has returned to the protest.\n\nA spokesperson said Dhan Gurung has refused food for 12 days and was taken to hospital because his heart slowed.\n\nThe 60-year-old, from Basingstoke, Hampshire, is part of a group protesting unequal pensions with other British Army veterans.\n\nMore than 100 people have also gathered for a march through London in support of those on hunger strike.\n\nGurkhas who retired before 1997 receive a fraction of the pension British-born members of the army get.\n\nProtest spokesperson, Yam Gurung, said it was initially believed diabetic Dhan Gurung was having a heart attack.\n\nHe has since left hospital and returned to Downing Street.\n\nWednesday's march will end at Downing Street, where Mr Gurung has returned to continue his protest\n\nMr Gurung has been protesting in a wheelchair alongside fellow ex-soldier Gyanraj Rai, 63, and Gurkha widow Pushpa Rana Ghale, 59, who travelled from Nepal.\n\nThe trio previously told the BBC the strike was a \"last resort\", but they were \"prepared to die\" if it meant they would be treated equally.\n\nGurkhas have served the British Army in two world wars and in the past 50 years in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Borneo, Cyprus, the Falklands, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.\n\nThose who retired before 1997, like Mr Gurung, receive a fraction of the pension the rest of the British Army receive because the Gurkha Pension Scheme (GPS) was based on Indian Army rates.\n\nFrom left, Dhan Gurung, Pushpa Rana Ghale and Gyanraj Rai on hunger strike outside Downing Street\n\nLast week, Mr Gurung explained his pension in 1994 was £20 a month and said he and his family lived in poverty because of the British government's \"penny pinching\".\n\nHe said he was sacrificing his life to urge the government to \"solve 207 years of historical injustice\".\n\nIn a statement, the Ministry of Defence said: \"We greatly value the huge contribution Gurkhas make to the British Army, and ensure they are supported with a generous pension and medical care during retirement in Nepal.\"\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe 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. PM Boris Johnson says British troops should be \"proud of their achievements\" in Afghanistan\n\nBoris Johnson has faced a barrage of criticism from MPs over the UK's role in Afghanistan, in an emergency House of Commons debate on the crisis.\n\nHis predecessor as PM Theresa May said it was \"incomprehensible\" the UK was not doing more to maintain a presence, while ex-minister Johnny Mercer demanded more help for veterans.\n\nBut Mr Johnson argued Nato's \"core mission\" in Afghanistan had succeeded.\n\nAddressing a packed Commons, he said the country had been largely cleared of al-Qaeda terrorists, while the population had enjoyed better education, women's rights and free elections since the 2001 invasion.\n\nBut Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, who chairs the Commons foreign affairs committee and himself served in Afghanistan, said it had been \"shameful\" of US President Joe Biden to question the willingness of the Afghan army to fight the Taliban.\n\nAnd, in an emotional speech that was heard in silence, he told of grief and rage felt by veterans at the \"abandonment\" of Afghanistan.\n\nUK troops ceased combat operations in 2014 and most of those who remained, primarily to help train the Afghan army, left last month.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Recap: Former soldiers were among the MPs who spoke in the debate\n\nThe government has agreed to resettle up to 20,000 Afghan refugees displaced by the return of the Taliban over the next few years.\n\nEfforts are also continuing to evacuate UK nationals from Kabul airport, but Downing Street did not deny a report that one plane had taken off \"almost empty\".\n\nParliament was recalled from its summer break for the seven-and-half-hour debate on the situation in Afghanistan.\n\nShe said it was \"incomprehensible and worrying\" that the UK government had not been able to put together an \"alternative alliance of countries\" to continue to support the Afghan government in the absence of US forces.\n\nAnother Conservative MP and former soldier, defence committee chairman Tobias Ellwood, argued the UK \"should never have left\" Afghanistan.\n\n\"What we require is the backbone, the courage, the leadership to step forward, yet when our moment comes such as this we are found wanting,\" he said.\n\nMr Mercer, who served in Afghanistan and who quit as veterans' minister earlier this year, accused Mr Johnson of \"consistently failing\" to support ex-soldiers.\n\nThis was the first full in-person session in the House of Commons for over a year and Boris Johnson felt the full force of it.\n\nHe had to battle through parts of his opening statement on the crisis in Afghanistan, in a noisy chamber, as MPs from all sides vied to intervene.\n\nIt was a striking contrast to the often flat proceedings that have been a hallmark of the part-virtual Parliament over the past year.\n\nNow, lined up on the front bench, Mr Johnson and his ministers not only had to hear the searing criticisms from colleagues but look them in the eye as well, whether in the chamber or in backrooms, corridors and passages.\n\nSome 457 UK personnel have died and more than 2,000 have been wounded in Afghanistan since the invasion, prompted by the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US by al-Qaeda.\n\nMr Johnson said that \"in spite of all the difficulties and challenges we knew we would face... we succeeded in that core mission\" of removing the terror group's operatives from Afghanistan.\n\n\"It would be fair to say [recent] events in Afghanistan have unfolded and the collapse [of the Afghan government] has been faster than even the Taliban themselves predicated,\" he said.\n\n\"What is not true is to say the UK government was unprepared or did not foresee this.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sir Keir Starmer: \"We face new threats to our security and an appalling humanitarian crisis\"\n\nMr Johnson said the Taliban, who have promised to observe human rights, must be judged on \"actions rather than words\".\n\n\"At this bleak turning point we must help the people of Afghanistan determine the best of all possible futures,\" he added.\n\nBut opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer accused the prime minister of \"staggering complacency\" and \"appalling\" judgement by failing to plan properly for the withdrawal of troops over the past 18 months.\n\nHe called the government's refugee repatriation target too small and claimed the 20,000 figure had been \"plucked out of the air\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Theresa May: “The politicians decided to withdraw, the politicians must be responsible for the consequences”\n\nTo jeers from Conservative MPs, he said: \"The prime minister's response to the Taliban arriving at the gates of Kabul was to go on holiday.\"\n\nMr Johnson received little backbench support during the debate, but Conservative Alicia Kearns said the government had \"called for Nato allies to help us build a new coalition in Afghanistan to prevent the Taliban recapturing it, and we were let down\".\n\nFellow Tory Caroline Nokes praised the prime minister for putting in place a scheme to \"ensure that we can prioritise women and girls\" in Afghanistan \"and bring them to safety\".\n\nBut SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford argued that the future of Afghanistan had \"never been so uncertain\" and that refugees needed more help.\n\nLiberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey branded the prime minister a \"national liability\" who could not \"escape culpability for this disaster\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Five days after an earthquake killed more than 2,000 people, many in Haiti are still waiting for help.\n\nHaitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry says his country is \"on its knees\" after more than 2,000 people were killed in Saturday's powerful earthquake.\n\nMr Henry said Haiti was \"physically and mentally devastated\".\n\nMore than 12,000 people have been left injured and 332 are still missing after the 7.2-magnitude quake.\n\nThere were further tremors late on Wednesday causing many to rush from their places of shelter into the streets.\n\nHospitals have been struggling to treat the many thousands of injured\n\nHaitian officials estimate there are 600,000 people in need of emergency assistance. The delivery of aid has been further hampered by heavy rains brought this week by Tropical Storm Grace.\n\nThe UN Children's Fund (Unicef) says about 500,000 children have limited or no access to shelter, safe water and food.\n\nUnicef also warned that many schools had been destroyed three weeks before they were due to reopen. Children have been out of school for months at a time because of the Covid pandemic combined with security challenges.\n\n\"It is so crucial for children who have just gone through this traumatic earthquake-plus-extreme weather experience, to have the normalcy and stability of being in a classroom with their friends and teachers,\" Unicef Haiti representative Bruno Maes said.\n\nAnger is growing in many remote areas, where aid has yet to arrive.\n\n\"There were a lot of mudslides in the mountains that injured and killed a lot of people. Some are missing and we don't have the means to go find them,\" a resident of the Maniche area told Agence France Press news agency.\n\nUS aid agency USAID said many roads remained impassable.\n\nAid agencies and rescue workers are also having to contend with armed gangs who have attacked convoys travelling to the worst-hit areas.\n\nBut the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Tuesday that following negotiations, the gangs had agreed to let aid through.\n\nIn the city of Les Cayes, one of the areas worst affected by the quake, many survivors are sleeping in make-shift tents on the city's football field.\n\nThe football stadium in Les Cayes turned into a muddy field after the heavy rains\n\nThe earthquake compounds problems facing the impoverished nation, which is already reeling from a political crisis following the assassination of its president last month.\n\nHaiti has been hit by a series of natural disasters in the past, including Hurricane Matthew in 2016.\n\nThe deadliest was the 2010 earthquake which killed more than 200,000 people and caused extensive damage to the country's infrastructure and economy.\n• None Haiti: What you need to know", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Mathew Richards' health problems have been made worse by living next to the landfill, his mother says\n\nA community blighted by noxious smells from a landfill site has come together for a High Court legal challenge against the Environment Agency (EA).\n\nThe action about Walleys Quarry, in Staffordshire, is being brought by the family of a boy, five, with breathing problems who live near the site.\n\nMathew Richards' doctors say hydrogen sulphide gas from the site has worsened his underlying health issues.\n\nThe EA and operator Walleys Quarry Ltd say work continues to address issues.\n\nThousands of residents have complained of sleeplessness and breathing difficulties and claim it has got worse since the beginning of this year.\n\nEA figures have previously shown how hydrogen sulphide levels recorded at the Silverdale site have, at points, exceeded World Health Organization guidelines.\n\nHydrogen sulphide (H2S) is a poisonous, corrosive gas with an eggy smell.\n\nThousands of complaints have been made about the smell from the landfill in Silverdale\n\nMathew, who had chronic lung disease as a baby, lives half a mile from Walleys Quarry and his family believe it has made his condition worse.\n\n\"The first three years of his life, we were just [in] hospital, continuously, with chest problems, bronchiolitis, consistent cough,\" his mother Rebecca Currie said.\n\n\"If we lose I am going to be forced out of my home because there is no way I can keep Mathew around here.\"\n\nThe mother-of-five added: \"He has nights when he's coughing, vomiting, choking.\n\nRebecca Currie said living near the quarry was \"horrendous\"\n\nThe family's case is part of a judicial review set to take place at the court into the EA's enforcement of the operator Walleys Quarry Ltd.\n\nCampaigners want an immediate stop to landfill activities at the site and for the site to be made safe.\n\n\"The community is in crisis, with widespread physical and mental health conditions due to the emissions,\" barrister Ian Wise QC, for Mathew, told the High Court on Wednesday.\n\nLawyers are accusing the regulator of \"failing\" to take measures and being in breach of Mathew's rights to life and to private and family life under the European Convention on Human Rights as well as seeking a declaration that the EA \"failed to properly inform itself about the safe levels of H2S emissions... for children such as Mathew\".\n\nDr Ian Sinha, from Alder Hey Children's Hospital, in Liverpool, prepared a report for the judicial review.\n\nHe said environmental exposure to H2S was significantly impairing Mathew's current health and quality of life and said continued exposure would \"subsequently reduce his life expectancy\".\n\nDr Sinha said Mathew had a three to five-year \"window of opportunity\" to recover or risk developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).\n\nHis report said the levels of hydrogen sulphide from the landfill were high enough to cause airway and lung problems, which poses a particular risk to the elderly and the 1,773 children under the age of five living in the area.\n\n\"There is an unexpectedly excessive burden of respiratory illness and death in Silverdale,\" he added.\n\nSpeaking at the hearing, Dr Sinha said exposure to H2S could impair a person's immune system, and that \"any low-dose exposure will be particularly harmful to children with problems like Mathew\".\n\n\"There's a way for him to recover and it's not by breathing air that's polluted,\" he said.\n\nEnvironment Agency figures show hydrogen sulphide levels at the landfill have, at points, exceeded World Health Organization guidelines\n\nLawyers acting for the EA, which is responsible for regulating major industry and waste in England, reject the claim that there is a \"public health emergency\" at Walleys Quarry and argue there is not a real and immediate risk to Mathew's life.\n\nThey say Public Health England's position is that \"currently any risk to long-term health is likely to be small, but a risk cannot completely be excluded if exposure were to continue at current levels\".\n\nThe lawyers added the agency had taken \"very substantial steps\" at the landfill site and is continuing to review the matter.\n\nWalleys Quarry Ltd said it remained committed to doing everything in its power to help remedy the situation as soon as possible.\n\nWe know Walleys Quarry smells. But is it actually making people nearby, particularly children, sick? That's what today's hearing in the High Court is all about.\n\nFive-year-old Mathew Richards' doctors say hydrogen sulphide gas from the site has had an impact on his underlying health issues and if the problem continues it \"will subsequently reduce his life expectancy\".\n\nThe company that runs the quarry says it is sympathetic but will present its own medical evidence at the hearing.\n\nOver the next two days we could discover if the quarry is causing more than just a bad smell. Or if it's posing a health risk to children living nearby.\n\nProf Sir Colin Berry, a histopathologist and toxicologist, called to give evidence on behalf of Walleys Quarry Ltd, said the studies cited by Dr Sinha pointed to \"association\" but not evidence of \"causation\" of problems.\n\nHe said Mathew's case was \"all explicable by what happened at birth\".\n\nProf Berry accepted that people with COPD had a reduction in their life expectancy, but said he believed Mathew's \"pre-term events are a significant part of the explanation of his subsequent illnesses\".\n\nThe hearing is due to continue on Thursday and Mr Justice Fordham is expected to give his ruling at a later date.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Students due to start a university year in Spain within weeks are facing visa delays, with some unsure whether they will be able to take up their places.\n\nSpain has overtaken France as the top destination for UK students wanting a year abroad, with 4,500 going annually.\n\nBut Brexit means they now need visas. And some have waited more than a month for a visa appointment.\n\nSpanish authorities said time was needed for universities and students to adapt to the new system.\n\nThey said student visa are a priority for all Spanish Consulates.\n\nBut, Universities UK International has written to the Spanish embassy and the Foreign Office, asking if students can apply in Spain.\n\nA UK government spokesperson said visa applications were a matter for Spanish immigration authorities, but added it had raised the issue with the Spanish government.\n\nElla Perret is due to travel to Madrid next week to spend a year there as part of her law degree.\n\nBut she says: \"I haven't booked a flight or accommodation because I don't know if I'm going.\"\n\nLike most students, Ms Perret began the process in June, as the visa documents have to be issued within 90 days of departure.\n\nNow the UK is no longer in the European Union, students wanting to study in Spain have to compile a dossier of documents, including:\n\nMs Perret is due to travel to Madrid next week\n\nDocuments have to be translated and go through a legal process called a Hague apostille to verify them for international use.\n\nMs Perret says it has cost hundreds of pounds but she feels no nearer to her dream of studying in Spain.\n\n\"So many times I've been tempted to just say I'm not going,\" she says.\n\nSam Downes, an economics student with a place to study in Granada, southern Spain, has heard nothing since he asked for an appointment in June.\n\n\"I paid September's rent for my accommodation and my deposit - but it's looking unlikely that I'll be going in time,\" he says.\n\nThe university in Granada has said it cannot offer Mr Downes online learning if he does not arrive in time.\n\n\"So in the next week or two I might have to decide whether to cancel the whole year abroad,\" he says.\n\nAfter weeks of sending emails, with no replies, some students have been turning up at the consulate in London and queuing for hours in the hope of securing a firm appointment.\n\nAmong them this week was Laurie, who did not want to give his surname because he was worried it might affect his visa application.\n\nHe has a flight and accommodation in Spain booked from 6 September but does not yet know if he will have a visa in time to travel.\n\nLaurie took last year out so he could work and save up for his year studying abroad.\n\nBut the process has been exhausting and frustrating.\n\n\"Jumping through all these hoops is difficult and annoying enough but to not get a response from the consulate is dreadful,\" Laurie says.\n\nAfter speaking to staff at the Spanish consulate, he is hoping to receive email confirmation of a visa appointment soon.\n\nVivienne Stern, of Universities UK, said: \"Delays in visa processing this year are causing real anxiety among students who are due to travel to Spain soon.\"\n\nShe has written to the Spanish embassy and the Foreign Office asking them to work together to resolve the issue.\n\nOne temporary solution her letter proposed would allow students to travel on a tourist visa for the start of term and submit their paperwork in Spain.\n\nA spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain said: \"This is the first academic year that student visas are needed after Brexit; therefore, British students and universities need to get used to the new regulation and the necessity of applying for a visa, and some adaptation time is still needed.\n\n\"All Spanish Consulates are offering all the facilities in order to speed up the visa procedures.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Leanne Wood said she has not been friends with Adam Price since his challenge to her leadership of the party in 2018\n\nFormer Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood says she and Adam Price \"have not been friends for years\" since he challenged her for the party leadership in 2018.\n\nMs Wood, Plaid leader for six years, said Mr Price's timing and the way it happened were \"a bad judgement call\".\n\nShe said the party had gone backwards since. In May's Senedd election, she lost her Rhondda seat.\n\nPlaid Cymru praised her \"invaluable contribution\" to the party but said it was proud of being \"member-led\".\n\nThis, it said, gave \"the leader a clear mandate through leadership elections\".\n\nMr Price has previously described how the decision to challenge one of his \"oldest friends in politics\" was \"the most difficult thing I've had to wrestle with in my political life\".\n\nLeanne Wood says she has not spoken to Adam Price, both pictured at an election event in 2016, for years\n\nBut he said deep friendships could survive \"this kind of thing\" and had felt the party was at an impasse.\n\nMs Wood was elected Plaid leader in 2012, before losing the position in the 2018 contest, where she came last behind Adam Price and fellow challenger Rhun ap Iorwerth.\n\nShe had won the seat of Rhondda from Labour in 2016 - a prized constituency for Plaid Cymru which has sought to expand its reach in the south Wales valleys.\n\nBut Plaid failed to make further inroads at May's Senedd election. It lost Rhondda and came third behind the Conservatives overall, though it gained an extra seat.\n\nMr Price was voted into the top job by Plaid Cymru members in the autumn of 2018.\n\nEarlier that year he threatened to challenge Ms Wood for the post if she did not agree to share the job, accusing the party of \"predictable, plodding politics\" at the time.\n\nLeanne Wood was Plaid leader for six years\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Walescast politics podcast, Ms Wood said the co-leadership proposal was \"unconstitutional\".\n\n\"I don't feel like it was done correctly really and probably that's part of why it's been quite difficult,\" she said.\n\n\"We're not friends now. We haven't been friends for years.\"\n\nAsked if that had been difficult to deal with, she replied: \"Losing a friendship is difficult isn't it?\n\n\"And losing a friendship under these political circumstances, when the project you believe in and is getting somewhere is stopped, that adds an extra layer of difficulty.\"\n\nIn the midst of the chaos that engulfed the political scene after the Brexit referendum of 2016, many supporters of the Remain campaign called for a second vote to be held.\n\nAs leader, Ms Wood initially accepted the leave result but she also told a special party conference that Plaid should \"stand up for all those who voted to remain\".\n\nIn October 2017 she said Plaid could support a second referendum if no exit deal was agreed by March 2019.\n\nMs Wood told Walescast the policy shift was not something she supported, and that she argued behind the scenes that the 2016 result - where Wales voted leave - should be respected.\n\n\"I always thought the idea of a second referendum was a really bad idea,\" she said.\n\nMs Wood said the \"pressure was immense\" from Mr Price and others within the party to back a new EU poll, support for which increased under him.\n\n\"I really felt very, very strongly that if you ask people a question in a democracy you have to accept the result, no matter how much you don't like it.\n\n\"I spent a lot of time internally within Plaid Cymru trying to persuade people that we needed to accept this result, trying to persuade people that the messages and the words we were using to describe what had happened were causing great anger amongst people in some places.\n\n\"But it was a debate that people couldn't face I think.\"\n\nAdam Price made independence a major plank of his 2021 election campaign\n\nAs party leader Mr Price made independence a cornerstone of his party's platform, setting up a commission to look at how the party should prepare for holding a referendum.\n\nAt the 2021 Senedd election, he promised an independence referendum within five years if Plaid won a majority of seats.\n\nIt was a significant contrast to Ms Wood's approach and she told Walescast not enough ground work had been done to give answers for \"some of the very real questions\" voters had.\n\n\"It's no good just saying 'let's do it, let's go' because the only people you're going to take with you there are the people who are already behind that idea.\"\n\nHaving lost her seat, Ms Wood said she had no plans to return to front-line politics.\n\n\"I've decided to take some time out now over the summer to relax and reflect,\" she said.\n\n\"I've not had time off for a long time where I've not had something to do or some case to be concerned about or somebody to watch out for behind you.\n\n\"So it's refreshing and good for my well-being to be able take this time out.\"\n\nA Plaid spokesman said: \"Leanne Wood has made an invaluable contribution to the work of Plaid Cymru and will undoubtedly continue to play an important role within wider Welsh public life in future.\n\n\"Plaid Cymru is proud of being a member-led party that empowers its membership to take key decisions, including granting the leader a clear mandate through leadership elections.\"", "The Biden administration's rush for the exit in Afghanistan has been accompanied by a similar rush to judgement among pundits and commentators who, by and large, have castigated the US president for a decision that many see as unnecessary and a betrayal, both of those who served in Afghanistan and of the Afghan people themselves.\n\nThe heartbreaking images from the airport in Kabul only reinforce this message. And there is justifiably a good deal of emotion to go round. The West has invested a lot of blood, time and money in Afghanistan. The Afghan people, much, much, more.\n\nIt is hard to argue with the criticism of the Biden administration's precipitate departure. Afghanistan may indeed be un-salvageable, its governing structures too unrepresentative and corrupt. This though only underscores the argument that Afghanistan was not \"lost\" in the past two years but during the previous 20.\n\nNonetheless the decision to cut and run is being seen as a terrible blow to US credibility - to its reliability as a partner, and indeed to its moral standing in world affairs. How does this square with Mr Biden's clarion cry on taking office, that America was back?\n\nComparisons are being made with Vietnam - the similarities with helicopters shuttling US nationals away from a falling city being too much for the newspaper front-pages to resist. But in reality - despite the superficial similarities -there are some important differences, too.\n\nSouth Vietnam collapsed some two years after US troops left. Indeed it looks as though the Americans expected their Afghan allies to soldier on for a significant period without them. The US was humbled by Vietnam - its population deeply divided and its military morale damaged. But while Vietnam turned out to be a tragic side-show in the Cold War, the US still ultimately won that contest. Nato was not weakened. US allies around the globe did not shy away from expecting US support. The US remained the pre-eminent superpower.\n\nAfghanistan is altogether different. Internal divisions in the US over this conflict have in no way been comparable to Vietnam's. The Afghanistan mission was certainly unpopular at home but there were no mass rallies against it.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nCrucially though, today's international context is dramatically different from that of the 1970s. The US - indeed the West in general - is engaged in multiple contests, in few of which they are outright winners. The Afghan collapse is potentially a disaster in the so-called war on terror. But in the wider conflict between democracy and authoritarianism, Washington's failure can only be seen as a serious set-back.\n\nThere will be smiles in Moscow and Beijing, at least for now. The Western model of liberal interventionism - promoted as a means of spreading democracy and the rule of law - has perhaps been tested to destruction in Afghanistan. One cannot see much enthusiasm for similar undertakings in the future.\n\nThose of Washington's allies who joined in the Afghanistan project are smarting. They feel badly let down. Even British ministers, jealous of their oft touted \"special relationship\" with Washington, have been openly critical of President Biden's decision.\n\nAnd for America's European allies in general, it underscores how dependent they are upon the US and how little their views count once the White House decides to go in one particular direction.\n\nSo bad news for the West. But how long-lasting will be the smiles in Beijing, Moscow and even Islamabad? It was Pakistan that nurtured and gave safe haven to the Taliban for its own geo-strategic purposes. But if renewed Taliban rule produces a simple turning back of the clock - if international terrorism finds a renewed haven - then Pakistan may find that the growing turbulence in the region has decidedly negative consequences.\n\nChina is happy to see the US failure. Indeed, if Mr Biden's reason to pull out from Afghanistan was due to his desire to re-focus US national power to rival a rising China, then this step has simply given China an opportunity to expand its own influence in Afghanistan and beyond.\n\nChina, though, must have concern, too. Its shares a short border with Afghanistan. It is actively persecuting its own Muslim minority and must be concerned at the possibility that anti-Beijing Islamist terrorists might seek to use Afghanistan as a base. No wonder then that Chinese diplomacy over recent weeks has been so eager to court the Taliban.\n\nRussia, too, must have worries about the return of instability and terrorism. Maybe it feels a little better about itself now that the US has similarly been humbled by Afghan tribal fighters, just as the Soviet Union was in the late-1980s.\n\nBut its chief interest is the security of a large part of Central Asia, many of whose states are allies of Moscow. This summer Russia moved tanks to the Tajikistan-Afghan frontier for exercises intended to demonstrate its determination to prevent any spill-over from an Afghan collapse.\n\nSo in the short-term, the Afghan debacle certainly benefits the West's opponents. But their attitudes were not going to change anyway.\n\nWhat really matters are the ramifications among Washington's allies. What will they take away from the Afghan experience? Beyond the immediate crisis, will the NATO countries, Israel, Taiwan, South Korea or Japan see the US as a less reliable partner? If they do, then Mr Biden's decision to quit Afghanistan will prove fateful, indeed.", "A global campaign described as a \"game-changer\" has been launched to improve the lives of more than one billion disabled people by 2030.\n\nWeThe15 wants to improve inclusion, raise awareness and end discrimination of disabled people around the world.\n\nIt brings together a coalition of organisations from the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to Unesco.\n\nThe launch comes ahead of the delayed Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games which begin on 24 August.\n\nUsing the event as a springboard, the IPC and International Disability Alliance has joined forces with arts, business and human rights organisations including UN Human Rights and The Valuable 500 to \"raise awareness, change attitudes and create more opportunities\" for disabled people.\n\nThe campaign has been set-up to represent the 15% of the world's population that is disabled - about 1.2bn people, according to the World Health Organization.\n\nAs part of it, the IPC, Special Olympics, Invictus Games and International Committee of Sports for the Deaf will collaborate for the first time to ensure there will be a major sport event - and platform for the campaign - every year until 2030.\n\nOn Thursday, for the launch, 125 landmarks will turn purple - the internationally recognised colour of disability - from New York's Empire State Building to Moscow's Ostankino Tower and the London Eye.\n\nPresident of the IPC, Andrew Parsons, said: \"[The project] aims to put disability right at the heart of the inclusion agenda, alongside ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation.\n\n\"I strongly believe WeThe15 could be a real game-changer.\"\n\nHe said collaborating with big organisations would ensure a significant presence at local, grassroots, levels to help improve people's lives.\n\nSam Milne, from Leicester, has cerebral palsy and plays with a local basketball team.\n\nShe said society's general perception of disabled people could be problematic and she had faced discrimination.\n\nSam Milne plays basketball for a local club and says she often faces discrimination when she is out and about\n\nShe said people often presume she can't speak because she uses a wheelchair and that going back to basics, such as ensuring as many places as possible are accessible, would improve her life and enable her to get out into the community more easily.\n\nOne of her wishes is that more doors could be power-assisted rather than relying on strength to open them.\n\n\"I can walk a bit, but if I can't open the door how far am I going to get? This awareness needs to go down to the everyday - to the shopkeepers and the hair salons.\"\n\nBut she warned that awareness \"needs to grow\" and not disappear once the Paralympics is over.\n\nThe WeThe15 campaign plans go beyond sport and over the next 10 years it says it will focus on different \"pillars\" which need greater equality.\n\nThis year it will concentrate on access to vaccinations against Covid-19, while in the run-up to the LA Paralympics in 2028 - the home of Hollywood - it is expected to focus on disability representation in the entertainment industry, such as ensuring disabled actors play disabled characters.\n\nAccording to the IPC, 85% of disabled people around the world live in poverty, about 50% are unemployed and 75% of countries have no laws protecting them.\n\nMr Parsons said: \"We want to tackle employment, we want to tackle mobility.\n\n\"Of course it will be different country-to-country. This is why we will need the local presence there to understand the challenges and that's why it's a 10-year campaign. We're trying to cover all basis and all nations.\"\n\nWhile WeThe15 focuses on the statistic that 15% of the global population is disabled, the US government puts it much higher at 26% for its citizens while the UK government says it's 22%, but the definitions of disability often vary.\n\nIn the UK a person is considered to have a disability if they report a long-standing illness or impairment which causes substantial difficulty with day-to-day activities.\n\nFor long jumper and Paralympic medallist, Stef McLeod Reid, Tokyo 2020 will be her fourth Games.\n\nThe track athlete, who had a foot amputated as a teenager following a boating accident, hopes WeThe15 will stop people viewing disabled people as \"other\".\n\n\"When you realise that one billion people in the world live with a disability you realise this should be at the front of every single inclusion agenda.\n\n\"There is so much potential and talent sitting there left untapped because the world is designed around this very specific idea of 'normal'.\"\n\nShe said \"disability is expensive\" - from purchasing the right equipment to making buildings accessible - and that needs to be addressed.\n\n\"What we are lacking, unfortunately, in different parts of the world, is money and investment and a commitment that everybody should be able to fulfil their potential.\"\n\nShe believes success will rely on \"shifting mindsets\" to make the \"world more accessible to everyone\".\n\nFor more disability news, follow BBC Ouch on Twitter, Facebook and listen to our podcasts which also have transcripts.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Nando's says it is hoping to reopen all its restaurants from Saturday after shutting about 50 outlets because of supply problems.\n\nThe chicken chain's restaurants were closed after it ran out of some food, including its popular peri-peri dish.\n\nThe group blamed the closures on staffing issues at its suppliers' factories.\n\nNando's said it seconded 70 staff to the suppliers to help \"get things moving again\".\n\nA Nando's spokesperson said on Wednesday: \"The UK food industry has been experiencing disruption across its supply chain in recent weeks due to staff shortages and Covid isolations, and a number of our restaurants have been impacted.\"\n\n\"However, since Monday, a team of our brilliant Nandocas have been supporting our key suppliers onsite - working in partnership to help get things moving again, and this has already had a positive impact on affected restaurants.\"\n\nAs a result it said it intended that all of its restaurants should be open again from this Saturday.\n\nThe South African-owned chain operates more than 400 Nando's restaurants across the UK.\n\nThe so-called pingdemic has hit food and other supply chains this summer, as staff have been forced to self-isolate if they have come into contact with someone with coronavirus.\n\nLast week, KFC said some items were missing from its menus due to \"disruption\".\n\nThe shortages follow a stark warning last month from Ranjit Singh Boparan, founder of the country's largest supplier of supermarket chicken, the 2 Sisters Food Group.\n\n\"Supply of chicken and turkey is under threat. Our retail partners and the wider supply chain have worked together closer than ever before to ensure we retain food supply and this is of huge credit to everyone. But we are at crisis point,\" he warned.\n\nThe problem has also affected other industries, including carmakers, transport operators, restaurants and pubs.\n\nFrom this week fully-vaccinated staff are no longer required to self-isolate which should help ease the pressure on businesses.", "Aspirin may help fight aggressive breast cancer by making hard-to-treat tumours more responsive to anti-cancer drugs, doctors say.\n\nA team at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust, in Manchester, are beginning a trial with triple-negative breast-cancer patients.\n\nThey suspect it is aspirin's anti-inflammatory properties rather than its analgesic effect that gives the boost.\n\nThere is some evidence aspirin might help prevent certain other cancers and lower the risk of it spreading.\n\nBut it is too early to recommend people start taking it. More research is needed.\n\nAbout 8,000 women are diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in the UK each year - a less common but often more aggressive type of breast cancer that disproportionately affects younger women and black women.\n\nThese tumours lack receptors some other breast cancers have, meaning certain treatments, such as herceptin, will not work. Although, other medicines and treatments can help.\n\nIn the trial, funded by a research programme run by the charity Breast Cancer Now, some patients will be given aspirin as well as immunotherapy drug avelumab before they receive surgery and chemotherapy treatment.\n\nIf it is successful, there could be further clinical trials of aspirin and avelumab for incurable secondary triple-negative breast cancer, when cancer cells that started in the breast spread to other parts of the body.\n\nBeth was treated with chemotherapy, followed by a mastectomy and radiotherapy\n\nBeth Bramall, 44, from Hampshire was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in 2019.\n\nShe said: \"There's no easy cancer but triple negative is particularly gruelling, with few treatment options and a long and debilitating treatment plan.\n\n\"It floored me, with side-effects of hair loss, nausea, joint and muscle pain, diarrhoea and constipation, burning palms and feet, migraines, night sweats and fatigue like I've never known before.\n\n\"I'm blessed that I've had a pathological complete response to treatment.\n\n\"But it's been the hardest 18 months for me and my family.\n\n\"And I have over two more years of treatments and scans ahead.\"\n\nTrial lead Dr Anne Armstrong said: \"Not all breast cancers respond well to immunotherapy.\n\n\"Trialling the use of a drug like aspirin is exciting because it is so widely available and inexpensive to produce.\n\n\"We hope our trial will show that, when combined with immunotherapy, aspirin can enhance its effects and may ultimately provide a safe new way to treat breast cancer.\"\n\nCo-researcher Dr Rebecca Lee said their lab findings suggested that aspirin can make certain types of immunotherapy more effective by preventing the cancer from making substances that weaken the immune response.\n\n\"We hope aspirin can dampen down bad inflammation so the immune system can get on with the job of killing cancer cells,\" she said.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Afghan people line up outside AZIZI Bank to take out cash as the bank suffers amid money crises in Kabul\n\nThe International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said Afghanistan will no longer be able to access the lender's resources.\n\nThe move follows the Taliban's takeover of the country last weekend.\n\nAn IMF spokesperson said it was due to \"lack of clarity within the international community\" over recognising a government in Afghanistan.\n\nResources of over $370m (£268m) from the IMF had been set to arrive on 23 August.\n\nThese funds were part of a global IMF response to the economic crisis.\n\nAccess to the IMF's reserves in Special Drawing Rights (SDR) assets, which can be converted to government-backed money, have also been blocked. SDRs are the IMF's unit of exchange based on sterling, dollars, euros, yen and yuan.\n\n\"As is always the case, the IMF is guided by the views of the international community,\" the spokesperson added.\n\nIt comes after an official from the Biden administration told the BBC that any central bank assets the Afghan government has in the US will not be made available to the Taliban.\n\nIn a letter to the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Congress members called for assurances that the Taliban would receive no US-backed aid.\n\n\"The potential of the SDR allocation to provide nearly half a billion dollars in unconditional liquidity to a regime with a history of supporting terrorist actions against the United States and her allies is extremely concerning,\" 17 signatories wrote.\n\nEarlier, the head of Afghanistan's central bank said the US had cut off access to its assets - around $7bn of which are held at the U.S. Federal Reserve.\n\nAjmal Ahmady, who fled the country at the weekend, tweeted that Da Afghanistan Bank's total reserves were approximately $9bn as of last week.\n\nBut he said as per international standards, most of this was held in safe, liquid assets such as US Treasury bonds and gold offshore.\n\n\"Given that the Taliban are still on international sanction lists, it is expected (confirmed?) that such assets will be frozen and not accessible to Taliban,\" Mr Ahmady tweeted.\n\n\"We can say the accessible funds to the Taliban are perhaps 0.1-0.2% of Afghanistan's total international reserves. Not much.\"\n\nMr Ahmady added that Washington's suspended shipments of physical dollars were causing Afghanistan's currency to depreciate. The Afghan currency, the Afghani, has fallen to record lows.\n\n\"I believe local banks have told customers that they cannot return their dollars — because [Da Afghanistan Bank] has not supplied banks with dollars,\" he tweeted.\n\n\"This is true. Not because funds have been stolen or being held in vault, but because all dollars are in international accounts that have been frozen.\"\n\nIn June, the IMF gave Afghanistan its latest loan instalment which was approved in November. In the same month, the UN published a report which stated that the \"primary sources of Taliban financing remain criminal activities,\" including \"drug trafficking and opium poppy production, extortion, kidnapping for ransom, mineral exploitation and revenues from tax collection in areas under Taliban control or influence.\"\n\nThe World Bank also funds many development projects in the country and has provided Afghanistan with $5.3bn since 2002. It has not yet responded to the BBC's request for comment on the current status of this funding.\n\nIndependent money transfer giant Western Union has also suspended money transfer services to Afghanistan \"until further notice\".\n\nThe IMF has taken similar steps against other regimes not recognised by a majority of its members. This happened in April 2019 when SDR access was blocked after more than 50 member countries refused to recognise President Nicolas Maduro as the legitimate leader of Venezuela. The IMF also halted payments to Myanmar after the military junta seized control.\n\nOn Monday, the IMF will complete a $650bn allocation of SDRs to its 190 member countries.\n\nThe sudden advances made by the Taliban left the IMF with an urgent decision. It is about to hand out to almost all its members a reserve asset called special drawing rights. It's an exercise that is not about Afghanistan. It's about reinforcing the global economic recovery from the pandemic related crisis. And it's happening on Monday.\n\nSo if the new regime in Kabul were to be excluded at this stage the IMF had to move quickly. And it has done so, reflecting what a spokesperson called a lack of clarity about the recognition of the government. That is what lies behind the IMF decision at this stage.\n\nIt does also raise the possibility that financial assistance might come to be used as leverage to encourage the Taliban not to allow the abuses that many fear - and that some reports say are already taking place.", "US DIY store chain the Home Depot discriminated against a Minneapolis employee for raising issues of racial harassment with colleagues and bosses, a federal watchdog has alleged.\n\nThe National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) alleges the chain also stopped the employee from displaying a Black Lives Matter slogan on his apron.\n\nThese actions are protected under law, the watchdog said.\n\nHome Depot said the complaint \"misrepresents the relevant facts\".\n\n\"The Home Depot does not tolerate workplace harassment of any kind and takes all reports of discrimination or harassment seriously, as we did in this case,\" said spokeswoman Sara Gorman.\n\nAccording to the complaint, filed by the Minneapolis office of the NRLB, the employee's actions, including his refusal to remove the BLM slogan, led to his constructive dismissal.\n\nIt alleges the store unlawfully enforced its otherwise lawful dress code and apron policies. And it accused Home Depot of warning employees not to engage in \"activity regarding racial harassment\".\n\n\"Issues of racial harassment directly impact the working conditions of employees,\" said NRLB regional director Jennifer Hadsall.\n\n\"The National Labor Relations Act protects employees' rights to raise these issues with the goal of improving their working conditions. It is this important right we seek to protect in this case.\"\n\nThe independent watchdog said it wanted Home Depot to post notice at all of its US stores advising employees of their rights.\n\nBut the retailer said the NRLB had mischaracterised the situation and that it looked forward to \"sharing the facts\" with the watchdog.\n\n\"Regardless of the outcome, we will continue to be fully committed to diversity and respect for all people,\" Ms Gorman added.\n\nLast year, workers at Whole Foods sued the US supermarket for punishing them for wearing Black Lives Matter masks.\n\nThe federal lawsuit said the firm discriminated against black staff by selectively enforcing its dress code.\n\nHowever, in February, a US District Judge threw out most of the lawsuit, saying Whole Foods and its parent, Amazon, had not engaged in racial discrimination or violated Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act - which specifically prohibits discrimination in the terms and conditions of employment.\n\nA number of the plaintiffs who were fired for not changing their dress code have appealed.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Home Secretary Priti Patel says she doesn't believe the Taliban's \"PR operation\" on women's rights\n\nWomen and girls and persecuted minorities will make up the bulk of the Afghan refugees resettled in the UK, the home secretary has said.\n\nWhile the Taliban said women's rights will be respected, Priti Patel told the BBC it was hard to believe \"the PR operation that we're currently seeing\".\n\nThe UK government will work with other nations and pledged to resettle 5,000 Afghans in the UK in the first year.\n\nHowever, some MPs have criticised the scheme for not going far enough.\n\nThousands of Afghans have been trying to flee the country after the Taliban seized control of the capital Kabul.\n\nThe government has committed to resettling up to 20,000 Afghan refugees in the UK in the long term - and Ms Patel said she wanted the majority of those to be women and girls and persecuted minorities.\n\nThe Taliban have promised the rights of women in Afghanistan will be respected \"within the framework of Islamic law\".\n\nBut the home secretary said the group had a history of oppressing women and \"that's not going to change overnight\".\n\n\"I genuinely do not think that we should be at all believing the spokespeople or the PR operation that we're currently seeing,\" she told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.\n\nAppearing on BBC Breakfast, Ms Patel refused to give a timescale for how long it would take for the 20,000 Afghans to be brought to the UK.\n\nHowever, she compared the new scheme to one introduced for Syrian refugees, which saw a similar number of people resettled over a period of seven years.\n\n\"We could end up bringing many more [than 20,000] but first of all we have to have the underpinning and the infrastructure and the support to do that,\" she said.\n\nShe said a target of 5,000 in the first year was \"deliverable\", adding: \"It would be terrible quite frankly to bring people and not be able to give them the support that they would need in terms of accommodation, resettlement and giving them the opportunity to build a new life in the UK.\"\n\nDowning Street also said the 5,000 figure was \"not a hard cap\" but based on expectations of how many people would be able to leave over that time period.\n\nAsked how the UK would get vulnerable people, who may not feel safe leaving their homes, out of Afghanistan, Ms Patel said ministers would work with third party agencies, humanitarian organisations and other governments, including the US and Canada.\n\nShe added that people could also be resettled from neighbouring countries, as well as Afghanistan itself.\n\nMeanwhile, Parliament has been recalled and Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been updating MPs about the situation in Afghanistan.\n\nHe said the government would be doing everything it can to support those who have helped the UK mission in Afghanistan and to \"avert a humanitarian crisis\".\n\nMinisters have been rushing to put this scheme together in response to the situation in Afghanistan, with the final details signed off on Tuesday.\n\nInformation on how to apply is expected soon.\n\nThe scheme is loosely based on the one introduced during the Syrian war, which also saw 20,000 move to the UK from 2014 to 2021.\n\nBut ministers acknowledge the practicalities of getting people out of Afghanistan will be considerably more complicated because of the extent of Taliban control.\n\nGovernment insiders don't know the extent to which the new regime will allow people to flee if they so choose.\n\nThere will be funding for the resettlement programme - and the government will work with local councils and devolved governments on where to house Afghans who come to the UK.\n\nThe scheme has faced criticism from opposition parties and some Conservative MPs.\n\nTory MP Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Defence Select Committee, told the Daily Mirror it was a \"woefully inadequate response\", citing the government only aiming to help 5,000 refugees in the first year when \"the threat is at its greatest\".\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the target of resettling 20,000 Afghans was \"too small\" and had been \"plucked out of the air\".\n\nLib Dems foreign affairs spokeswoman Layla Moran agreed that \"20,000 should be the starting point of this scheme, not the target\".\n\nRefugee charities welcomed the announcement as a positive first step but said the timeframe was too slow and eligibility for asylum should be expanded.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Afghan interpreter: \"I'm so worried about my parents and my sisters' safety\"\n\nAmong those hoping they might get help to leave Afghanistan through the scheme is a former teacher in Kandahar.\n\nThe 21-year-old woman - who the BBC is not naming to protect her safety - fled for Kabul after the Taliban captured Kandahar but said she was now too afraid to leave the house.\n\n\"I was working with an educational organisation - the Taliban, they do not accept these things,\" she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\n\"Now I do not feel safe at all... I'm just like a prisoner in the house now.\"\n\nShe said Afghans needed help to escape now - and if she had to wait years for help it may be too late.\n\n\"We are in the situation that we cannot guarantee our lives for tomorrow,\" she said.\n\n\"Will I be alive tomorrow? We cannot guarantee that.\"\n\nAn RAF plane arrived at Brize Norton on Tuesday as part of UK efforts to evacuate people from Afghanistan\n\nThe new plan is on top of an existing scheme for interpreters and other Afghans who have worked for the UK government - the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP).\n\nSome 5,000 Afghans and their family members will come to the UK via that scheme this year. Nearly 2,000 have arrived since 22 June.\n\nThe UK has already sent about 900 troops to Afghanistan to help evacuate British nationals and Afghans who are eligible to resettle in the UK.\n\nChief of the Defence Staff General Sir Nick Carter said seven more planes were being sent to Kabul and the UK hoped to fly out 1,000 more people on Wednesday.\n\nHe told the BBC that British forces were collaborating with the Taliban, who were providing security around Kabul's airport.\n\nSir Nick said the Taliban seemed prepared to allow people to leave the country at the moment but \"we need to be clear that this is only possible if they behave in a reasonable fashion\".", "Labour's Chris Bryant says he feels \"ashamed\", describing the situation as \"the most sudden and catastrophic collapse of a foreign and military policy objective since Suez\".\n\n\"We have managed to humiliate ourselves, we have shamed our politics and our way of doing business, we have trailed the British flag and frankly our own honour in the dirt and the mud,\" he says.\n\nBryant goes on to say he is fearful for the women and children but also for the gay men in Afghanistan.\n\n\"Now they know that they will be exterminated,\" he says, adding that gay men can be dealt with by stoning in Afghanistan.\n\nHe finishes by saying he is angry with the government and in particular with the prime minister, saying Boris Johnson was not courageous enough in standing up to the US president either this year or last year.\n\nTory MP Nusrat Ghani says when she worked for BBC World Service she had gathered some women to speak in the Afghan parliament for the first time.\n\n\"We did that under the threat of the Taliban. But I had a British passport, I knew I could come home and be safe. And I was naively optimistic and thought that these women's lives would be improved for the better.\n\n\"And now I am receiving phone calls and they are telling me it is game over.\"\n\nShe says it took 20 years to get 69 women MPs in Afghanistan but now they know they need to get out \"and get out soon\", along with their families and people who have worked with them.\n\n\"It means that 20 years from now we will have to start all over again,\" she says describing it as a \"watershed of a failure by the West\".", "Larissa, 26, hopes she will help save lives\n\nUK scientists behind the AstraZeneca Covid jab have given the first trial volunteers a new plague vaccine.\n\nOne of them, Larissa, 26, hopes she can help save lives by volunteering for the research, at the University of Oxford, where she studies genetics.\n\nThe phase-one trial will see at least 40 healthy 18- to 55-year-olds test the vaccine, which uses the same technology as the coronavirus jab.\n\nIts target is a centuries-old bacterial threat, not the new pandemic virus.\n\nFor much of the world plague is a history lesson - the most infamous plague pandemic, the Black Death that swept through Europe in the 1300s, killed as much as half of the population.\n\nBut there are still cases in some rural areas of Africa, Asia and America.\n\nAnd in 2017, an outbreak killed 171 people in Madagascar.\n\nAntibiotics can now be used to treat plague, if given early,\n\nBut many of the regions at risk of outbreaks are very remote.\n\nAn effective vaccine could offer a new way to protect lives.\n\nAnd the trial will check how well the body recognises and learns to fight the plague after vaccination.\n\nLarissa said: \"I'm lucky enough to live in a time where vaccines are being developed.\n\n\"And so, when I saw that there was a study aiming at developing a vaccine against a disease that's been around for 2000 years and has killed millions and millions of people, I didn't hesitate, I just wanted to do my bit.\"\n\nAsked if she was worried about side-effects, Larissa said: \"I'm not too concerned.\n\n\"The vaccine that's being assessed today is using the same platform as the Covid vaccine, which has literally been administered to millions of people around the world.\"\n\nLike the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, the jab uses a weakened version of a common-cold virus - adenovirus - from chimpanzees that has been genetically altered so it cannot cause an infection in people.\n\nThis vaccine does not contain plague bacterium and so cannot cause plague.\n\nBut it does include added genes that make proteins from the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis.\n\nAnd this should teach the body's immune system how to fend off the real infection, should it ever need to.\n\nThe same approach could be used for other diseases too, the investigators say.\n\n\"We've already done clinical trials using similar technology against a bacterium, meningitis B, and a virus, Zika,\" Oxford Vaccine Group senior clinical researcher Dr Maheshi Ramasamy said.\n\n\"But we're also looking to develop vaccines against new and emerging diseases such as Lassa fever or the Marburg virus\n\nThe trial, which will run for at least a year, is funded by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, the national funding agency investing in science and research in the UK.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Richard Fleetwood says the service has been a lifeline for some people\n\nTrials of shared banking hubs in two communities where all the branches have closed down are to be extended.\n\nThe premises, managed by the Post Office, include counter services, ATMs and, crucially, the opportunity for local businesses to deposit cash.\n\nThe trials, in Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire, and Rochford, Essex, were due to finish in October, but have been extended to April 2023.\n\nThe government is consulting on plans to protect community banking services.\n\nThe trials allow a member of staff from a different bank to come into the hub once a week to help with trickier transactions.\n\nThroughout the week, the counter service and machines allow individuals and small business owners to access accounts, and to withdraw and deposit notes and coins.\n\nShortly after the service opened in Rochford, the BBC was told it had been \"a lifeline\" for people living in the area.\n\n\"One lady came in to say 'thank you, you have changed my life', and that's not an understatement,\" said Richard Fleetwood, postmaster at the Rochford Bank Hub - a converted carpet shop.\n\nAn estimated 12,000 people have used the hubs for basic banking needs.\n\n\"It is really clear that the hubs have been hugely popular and it would be a bad decision to close them. The banks have therefore taken the view that they want to keep them open, and keep innovating in them so we can refine the model further,\" said Natalie Ceeney, who oversees the trials.\n\nThe trials are part of a wider project aiming to test ways to ensure people and businesses have access to cash. It also addresses the issue of bank branch closures, which are showing signs of accelerating as the UK emerges from the Covid crisis.\n\nAnother element of the project to be extended is the prevalence of cashback without having to make a purchase in local stores. So far, an average of £28 has been withdrawn from tills, with shoppers often taking out non-round amounts unavailable from ATMs.\n\nHundreds more shops should be offering the service by early next year.\n\nBanks are in discussion over many of these projects, including shared hubs, as the government plans to legislate on access to community banking as bank branches close.\n\nIn their proposals, ministers said that people should not have to travel beyond a reasonable distance to withdraw or deposit money, even if they are in low population areas.\n\nInitially, the Treasury suggests that people should not have to travel more than 1km, but that distance could be extended over time if cash becomes less popular. The distance proposal is open to views during consultation.\n\nOther considerations include whether the facilities are appropriate for vulnerable people, are accessible for people with disabilities, have adequate opening hours, and are suitably secure for high-value cash deposits.", "British nationals and Afghan evacuees arrived on an RAF plane at Brize Norton on Tuesday evening\n\nPeople who have fled Afghanistan for the UK after the Taliban takeover have spoken of their relief to have escaped the country.\n\nUK troops are continuing to evacuate British nationals and eligible Afghans after insurgents seized control of the capital Kabul.\n\nNo 10 says 306 UK nationals and 2,052 Afghans have been evacuated so far.\n\nOne British aid worker said she felt \"lucky\" to escape, but that we \"must not forget Afghanistan\".\n\nKitty Chevallier, a 24-year-old charity worker from Basingstoke in Hampshire, left Kabul via a UK evacuation flight on Monday morning.\n\nShe said she was aware of how \"immensely lucky\" she was to have been helped out of Afghanistan, when others, including friends and colleagues, remained stranded.\n\n\"As we drove there at 04:00, the runways were crowded with hundreds of Afghan families hoping to get out somehow,\" she told the PA Media news agency.\n\n\"One of the strangest moments was getting on the plane, not knowing when we'd be able to come back or what the city would look and feel like when we did.\"\n\nMs Chevallier had worked in Kabul since last September with Afghanaid, a UK-registered charity that promotes women's rights and provides clean water and sanitation for Afghans.\n\nShe said it felt \"bizarre\" to be out of the country, but that \"the real tragedy\" was speaking to friends and colleagues \"for whom the chances of leaving the country are far, far smaller, and who have so much more to lose\".\n\n\"I've been doing what I can to help arrange their departure, where that has been possible, and I've been encouraged to see that most of them have now been given the opportunity to leave on a UN flight tomorrow,\" she added.\n\nThere have been fears that Afghans who worked with Western authorities or groups could be at higher risk of reprisals from the Taliban, though the group has denied this will happen.\n\nMs Chevallier said while the messages from the Taliban have made it sound as though there will be no \"danger\" from them, she had heard several examples of \"scared\" aid workers getting \"threatening messages, even death threats\".\n\nShe called on the UK to \"increase, not cut\" aid going to Afghanistan and said the criteria allowing people to return to the UK need to be urgently expanded \"to include aid workers and civil society activists, especially women\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn addition to those who have already been evacuated to the UK, Downing Street said a further 2,000 Afghan applications had been completed - with \"many more being processed\".\n\nThe UK government has also committed to take in up to 20,000 Afghan refugees over the next few years under a new resettlement scheme - including 5,000 this year.\n\nThe Refugee Council - a UK-based charity helping refugees - welcomed the government's new scheme as a \"positive first step\".\n\nBut the charity wants the government to go further to resettle at least 10,000 people a year, and also to expand the eligibility for families so that Afghans living in the UK can be reunited with their loved ones.\n\nThe latest plans are in addition to an existing scheme for Afghan interpreters and others who worked for the UK government - the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP).\n\nThe Home Office says 2,000 Afghan former staff and their families have already come to the UK via this scheme this year - with a target of 5,000 by the end of 2021.\n\nThe speed of the Taliban's takeover of major Afghan cities and the capital Kabul appeared to catch Western governments off guard.\n\n\"Everyone, I think, has been surprised by the scale and the pace at which the Taliban have taken over in Afghanistan, and that's a lesson that we've all got to learn from,\" Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Monday.\n\nThe PM's official spokesman said on Wednesday that UK humanitarian aid to Afghanistan had \"effectively... doubled to £286m\" as ministers sought to ensure it does not fund the Taliban.\n\nChallenged on the impact of recent cuts to overseas aid, the PM's spokesman said: \"I think people will accept that when the situation changes on the ground, we need to react accordingly, that's what we've done.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Everybody got very emotional\": Hassina Syed describes getting out of Afghanistan on a British military plane\n\nHassina Syed, an Afghan businesswoman and activist, said she felt great \"relief\" as the evacuation flight she was on took off from Afghanistan.\n\nShe said she fled the country \"quickly\" because the situation was \"very unpredictable\".\n\nAsked about the atmosphere on the flight, she told BBC Two's Newsnight: \"Everybody got very emotional, most of us began to cry a lot.\"\n\nMs Syed said UK troops gave passengers bottled water and food, and that it was \"really touching\" to see them help soothe crying children.\n\nWomen back in Afghanistan are \"worrying\" and \"want to get out\" she says, because they fear that the Taliban will \"capture them\".\n\nShe said that during the Taliban's news conference on Tuesday - their first since seizing control of Kabul - there appeared to be a \"bit of changes [sic] that make us a little bit hopeful\".\n\nJack, from Birmingham, whose name has been changed to protect his family still in Afghanistan, left the country on a UK evacuation flight this week.\n\nSpeaking to PA Media, the 27-year-old said it was \"strange and frightening\".\n\n\"(Most) of those fleeing had to sit on the plane's rough floor but overall it was worth it - I am extremely thankful,\" he said.\n\n\"Family and friends are (still) there. It was tough not being able to say goodbye.\"\n\nAn RAF plane carrying UK nationals and Afghans landed at Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on Tuesday night.\n\nHalf a dozen more flights are due to arrive in the UK in the next 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Defence.\n\nAmid continued chaos at Kabul's airport, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer on Wednesday accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of \"staggering complacency\" and \"betraying\" the Afghan people.\n\nHe also cited reports from NGOs that an evacuation plane left \"almost empty\" because people couldn't get through the airport.\n\nDowning Street did not deny the reports, and acknowledged there was a \"difficult situation\" on the ground.\n\nDozens of planes from around 15 countries have reportedly been sent to Kabul to help with evacuations of foreign citizens and Afghan colleagues - including those from the US, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and the UK.\n\nTaliban fighters controlling access to the airport are reportedly not permitting Afghans without documents or passports to enter and have fired shots into the air to disperse approaching crowds.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Bill Bailey says his friend and fellow comedian Sean Lock was a “brilliant comic”\n\nComedian Sean Lock has died from cancer at the age of 58, his agent has confirmed.\n\nA comedy panel show favourite, Lock was a team captain on the series 8 Out of 10 Cats, hosted by Jimmy Carr.\n\nHe also appeared on QI, The Last Leg, Have I Got News for You, and The Big Fat Quiz of the Year.\n\nPaying tribute, comedian Bill Bailey said: \"It's heartbreaking to lose my dearest friend Sean Lock, he was a true original, a wonderful comic.\"\n\nJon Richardson, who appeared opposite Lock as a fellow team captain on 8 Out of 10 Cats, tweeted: \"I idolised Sean as a comic long before I became a comedian myself and 10 years working alongside him didn't diminish that in the least. An incredible comic brain and a truly unique voice.\"\n\nA statement from his agent Off The Kerb Productions said: \"It is with great sadness that we have to announce the death of Sean Lock. He died at home from cancer, surrounded by his family.\n\n\"Sean was one of Britain's finest comedians, his boundless creativity, lightning wit and the absurdist brilliance of his work, marked him out as a unique voice in British comedy.\n\n\"Sean was also a cherished husband and father to three children. Sean will be sorely missed by all that knew him. We kindly request that the privacy of his family and children is respected at this difficult time.\"\n\nThis 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 Jimmy Carr 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.\n\nFollowing the announcement author, TV producer and Pointless star Richard Osman tweeted: \"Over 15 years producing 8 Out Of 10 Cats, Sean Lock made me laugh so much and so often. A unique and brilliant comic voice. Love to his family and his many friends.\"\n\n\"Sad news about Sean Lock,\" added stand-up comedian and QI panellist Alan Davies. \"Funny on stage, hilarious off.\"\n\nComedian and actor Ricky Gervais added: \"Such sad news. RIP the great Sean Lock. One of the funniest, most influential comedians of a generation. A lovely man.\"\n\nLee Mack, fellow comedian and a close friend of Lock's, described the news of his death as \"heartbreaking\", adding in a statement: \"A true original both in comedy and life. I will miss him so much.\"\n\nComedy writer Laura Claxton said: \"No one did it like Sean. I got to work with him over the years and seeing his ad libs, improvisation and wit play out first hand like it was the most natural, fluid thing in the world never ceased to astound me.\n\n\"A truly hilarious, talented, humble and impressive man. What a loss.\"\n\nChannel 4 announced it will pay tribute to the comedian Sean Lock with special programming on Thursday night.\n\nThe network will air the comedian's stand-up special, Sean Lock: Keep It Light, followed by a classic episode of 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown, in Lock's memory.\n\nBorn in Chertsey, Surrey, Lock left school in the early 1980s and began working on building sites but developed skin cancer, which he blamed on over-exposure to the sun. He recovered and decided to focus on a career in comedy.\n\nEarly in his TV career, Lock appeared on the 1993 series Newman and Baddiel in Pieces, alongside fellow comics Rob Newman and David Baddiel.\n\nOn Wednesday, Baddiel said: \"He made all these characters effortlessly funnier than we had written them. He went on to perform with us on our last tour in 1993, the one that ended in Wembley Arena, and I have great - and very funny - memories of sharing a stage, and a dressing room, with him from that time.\n\n\"He was a supremely talented comedian - and a friend I remember with great fondness.\"\n\nLock co-wrote the screenplay for the 2001 feature film This Filthy Earth alongside director Andrew Kötting, which was adapted from the 1887 novel La Terre by Émile Zola.\n\nLock was named best live comic at the British Comedy Award in 2000 and has also previously been nominated for the prestigious Perrier Comedy Award.\n\nIn 2006, he presented and produced the Channel 4 series TV Heaven, Telly Hell, in which guests would discuss their likes and dislikes in television.\n\nGuests on the show included Alan Davies, Johnny Vaughan, David Mitchell, Bill Bailey, Johnny Vegas and Nick Hancock.\n\nQI panellist Alan Davies (right) said Sean Lock was \"funny on stage, hilarious off\"\n\nLock also appeared at Channel 4's Comedy Gala and co-hosted the Big Fat Quiz of the Year with James Corden in 2008.\n\nHe wrote and starred in the popular BBC sitcom 15 Storeys High. The show was set in a tower block and centred on a pessimistic character called Vince (played by Lock) and his flatmate Errol, played by Benedict Wong.\n\nBut Lock was best known as a team captain on 8 Out of 10 Cats, the comedy panel show hosted by Jimmy Carr.\n\nThe show saw panellists answer questions based on statistics and opinion polls.\n\nThe show's title is a reference to famous misquoting of an old advertising strapline for Whiskas cat food, which claimed that \"8 out of 10 owners said their cats prefer it\".\n\nHe appeared on the first 18 series, opposite team captains including Jason Manford and Jon Richardson.\n\nLock exited the show in 2016 and was replaced by Rob Beckett at the beginning of series 19.\n\nHe and Richardson also appeared on the spin-off series 8 Out of 10 Cats does Countdown.\n\n\"I wish I had the words to describe the exceptional man that was Sean Lock. But today I don't, and I think he might have liked it that way,\" tweeted Susie Dent, who features in Countdown's dictionary corner.\n\nThis 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 2 by Alan Davies 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.\n\nHarry Hill, former host of TV Burp and commentator of You've Been Framed, paid tribute to Lock in an article published in The Guardian.\n\n\"At his best, Sean reminded us all what we loved about a great gag and why we got into comedy in the first place. That's why he was so often called \"the comedian's comedian\", Hill said.\n\n\"He took his illness in typically dry style. I heard he was in a hospice for a bit of a rest. I called him up. 'Wow!' I said. 'A hospice, what's that like?' 'It's OK,' he said '… and the sex is amazing.'\"\n\nLock appeared as a guest alongside Katherine Jenkins on The Graham Norton Show\n\nFollowing the news of his death, Comedian Katy Brand said: \"Sean Lock was a brilliant comedian and I always learned something watching him work. Thoughts with his friends and family. Very shocking and sad. RIP.\"\n\nPresenter Gabby Logan, who has appeared alongside Sean Lock on 8 Out Of 10 Cats, paid tribute to the comedian \"who could make your cheeks ache from laughing\".\n\nShe said on Twitter: \"Just awful to hear the news about Sean Lock, I was lucky enough to watch his genius comedy up close when appearing on 8/10 Cats a good few times. Love and light to all of his family and friends.\"\n\nFormer QI host Stephen Fry said: \"I think it safe to say that the best episodes of QI that I was involved with were always the ones where Sean Lock was a guest. Such complete brilliance in every comic direction. What a loss. My heart goes out to his family.\"\n\nJohn Bishop tweeted: \"I am shocked and saddened at the news of the loss of Sean Lock. He was a brilliant comedian but more importantly he was a great person on so many levels . He will be missed hugely.\"\n\nKevin Bridges described Lock as \"brilliant comedian, obviously, but just a genuinely hilarious guy too and one of the soundest guys in comedy,\" while Diane Morgan added: \"He was one of the funniest people I've ever met. 15 Stories High was was absolute genius. I'll miss him so much.\"\n\nThis 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 3 by Dawn French 💙🔴🏳️🌈 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.", "A courtroom artist sketched R. Kelly (second right) in court as his trial began\n\nThe trial of the US R&B singer R. Kelly has begun at a court in Brooklyn, New York.\n\nThe star is accused of racketeering, sexual abuse and bribery; charges which he has repeatedly denied.\n\nSome of the allegations made against the singer - whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly - date back more than 20 years.\n\nIf he is convicted on all counts he could be sentenced to several decades in prison.\n\nThe first witness, Jerhonda Johnson Pace, told the jury R. Kelly knew she was underage in 2009 when they had intercourse in Chicago, where the age of consent is 17.\n\nNow 28, she testified that she had initially told Mr Kelly she was 19, but had revealed her real age on the day they had sex for the first time.\n\n\"I felt uncomfortable. I felt like it wasn't right, that I should tell him my age.\n\n\"He asked me, 'What is that supposed to mean?' and told me to tell everyone I was 19 - and to act 21,\" said Ms Pace, who admits she had once been a fan of the singer.\n\nMr Kelly faces charges that he was the ringleader of a two-decade-long scheme where he recruited women and underage girls for sex.\n\nLawyer Gloria Allred (L) pictured outside the Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday\n\nIn her opening argument, Mr Kelly's lawyer Nicole Blank Becker claimed the alleged victims are aggrieved groupies, who originally consented to sex before later becoming \"spiteful\".\n\n\"He didn't recruit them. They were fans. They came to Mr Kelly,\" she told the court, adding that some of the relationships were \"beautiful\" and \"long-term\".\n\nMs Becker portrayed her client as a victim of women, saying some enjoyed the \"notoriety of being able to tell their friends that they were with a superstar\".\n\nProsecutors meanwhile described Mr Kelly as \"a man who used lies, manipulation, threats and physical abuse to dominate his victims and to avoid accountability for years\".\n\n\"This case is about a predator,\" Assistant US Attorney Maria Melendez said in her opening statement.\n\n\"This case is not about a celebrity who likes to party a lot.\"\n\nThe Grammy-winning artist - wearing a grey suit, purple tie, and glasses - sat silently, his head down at times as the prosecution opened its case.\n\nMs Melendez said Mr Kelly's celebrity status meant he \"had his pick of young fans\" and that he hoarded his victims \"like objects\" and used \"every trick in the predator handbook\".\n\nR Kelly's defence attorney Nicole Blank Becker (left) was pictured arriving outside the court\n\nMs Melendez alleged the singer used bodyguards, drivers, lawyers and accountants to cover up his alleged crimes.\n\nShe also said he bribed victims by photographing and filming them having sex and then threatening to release the tapes.\n\nMr Kelly is accused of requiring victims to demonstrate \"absolute commitment\" and obey strict rules, including that they eat or go to the bathroom only with his permission, not look at other men, and call him \"Daddy\".\n\nThe trial, delayed several times by the pandemic and predicted to last about one month, is expected to include testimony from some female accusers and at least one male accuser.\n\nEven if he is acquitted, Mr Kelly still faces sex-related charges in Illinois and Minnesota, where he has also pleaded not guilty.\n\nMr Kelly has been in jail for the last two years. He was moved in June to Brooklyn from Chicago for the trial.\n\nR. Kelly, pictured in a courtroom artist's sketch, has denied any wrongdoing\n\nThe singer is best known for hits including Ignition (Remix), I Believe I Can Fly, Bump n' Grind and If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time.\n\nOn her way into the court, BBC producer Monica Miller reported seeing supporters of the singer shouting \"Free R. Kelly\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lanita Carter explained in 2019 why she decided to speak out publicly", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch the key moments from the Taliban's news conference\n\nThe rights of women in Afghanistan will be respected \"within the framework of Islamic law\", the Taliban say.\n\nIn the group's first news conference since taking control of the country on Sunday, a spokesman said women would be free to work but gave little detail about other rules and restrictions.\n\nZabihullah Mujahid repeated that all Afghans must live \"within the framework of Islam\".\n\nRights groups fear women's freedoms could be eroded under the Taliban.\n\nThe militant group introduced or supported punishments in line with their strict interpretation of Islam's legal system, Sharia law, when they controlled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001.\n\nWomen had to wear the all-covering burka, and the Taliban also disapproved of girls aged 10 and over going to school.\n\nIn the news briefing on Tuesday, Mr Mujahid fielded several questions from the international media about what women's rights could look like under a Taliban government.\n\n\"We are going to allow women to work and study within our frameworks,\" he said. \"Women are going to be very active within our society.\"\n\nBut he did not expand when asked about dress codes and what roles women would be able to have within the country's workforce.\n\nEarlier on Tuesday, the Taliban declared a general amnesty across Afghanistan and said it wanted women to join its government.\n\nAnalysts say the group is running a sophisticated PR campaign in an effort to win the hearts and minds of both Afghans and the international community.\n\nThe message of the new rulers has been received with mixed feelings inside Afghanistan.\n\n\"I don't believe what they're saying,\" a woman in Kabul who watched Mujahid speak on television told the BBC.\n\n\"It's a ruse and we're being lured outside to be punished. I refuse to study or work under their laws,\" said another.\n\nYet some others saw some early promise.\n\n\"If we're able to work and get educated, that's the definition of freedom for me, that's my red line. That red line is not crossed by the Taliban yet,\" one Afghan woman said.\n\n\"As long as my right to study and work is protected, I don't mind wearing a hijab. I live in an Islamic country and I'm willing to accept the Islamic dress code - as long as it's not a burqa though because that's not an Islamic dress code.\"\n\nTaliban fighters with heavy weapons have been patrolling the streets of Afghan cities\n\n\"All their rights within Islam\" - that's the phrase the Taliban have used countless times when it comes to the lives of Afghan women and girls.\n\nIn recent years, foreign envoys and Afghans have tried, without much success, to establish with Taliban leaders based in Doha exactly what that means.\n\nI've heard references to women's rights in conservative Arab societies including Saudi Arabia, or Qatar. A founding member of the Taliban once blurted out that university classes would have to be segregated, areas partitioned, with obligatory head coverings.\n\nMore telling are recent reports from rural and urban areas that women journalists have been told to go home, women in offices told their jobs would now go to men. Restrictions may vary by region.\n\nIt's always been said that the rules in Kabul and other more open cities may be a bit different; women will now be testing the limits as a new order emerges.\n\nThe Taliban's return to rule brings an end to almost 20 years of a US-led coalition's presence in the country.\n\nKabul was the last major city in Afghanistan to fall to a Taliban offensive that began months ago but accelerated in recent days as they gained control of territories, shocking many observers.\n\nOn Monday, thousands of civilians desperate to flee the country headed to the airport where chaotic scenes unfolded throughout the day.\n\nMany thronged the runway, running alongside a moving military transporter aircraft as it prepared for take-off.\n\nSome clung to the side of a plane, and at least two of them are reported to have perished when they fell from the aircraft after it had left the ground.\n\nAmerican troops also killed two armed Afghans who were part of the crowd that breached the airport perimeter. Seven people are reported to have died in total.\n\nMilitary flights evacuating diplomats and civilians were temporarily suspended due to the chaos, but they resumed on Tuesday.", "The research takes place at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California\n\nA US science institute is on the verge of achieving a longstanding goal in nuclear fusion research.\n\nThe National Ignition Facility uses a powerful laser to heat and compress hydrogen fuel, initiating fusion.\n\nAn experiment suggests the goal of \"ignition\", where the energy released by fusion exceeds that delivered by the laser, is now within touching distance.\n\nHarnessing fusion, the process that powers the Sun, could provide a limitless, clean energy source.\n\nIn a process called inertial confinement fusion, 192 beams from NIF's laser - the highest-energy example in the world - are directed towards a peppercorn-sized capsule containing deuterium and tritium, which are different forms of the element hydrogen.\n\nThis compresses the fuel to 100 times the density of lead and heats it to 100 million degrees Celsius - hotter than the centre of the Sun. These conditions help kickstart thermonuclear fusion.\n\nAn experiment carried out on 8 August yielded 1.35 megajoules (MJ) of energy - around 70% of the laser energy delivered to the fuel capsule. Reaching ignition means getting a fusion yield that's greater than the 1.9 MJ put in by the laser.\n\n\"This is a huge advance for fusion and for the entire fusion community,\" Debbie Callahan, a physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which hosts NIF, told BBC News.\n\nAs a measure of progress, the yield from this month's experiment is eight times NIF's previous record, established in Spring 2021, and 25 times the yield from experiments carried out in 2018.\n\n\"The pace of improvement in energy output has been rapid, suggesting we may soon reach more energy milestones, such as exceeding the energy input from the lasers used to kick-start the process,\" said Prof Jeremy Chittenden, co-director of the Centre for Inertial Fusion Studies at Imperial College London.\n\nNIF scientists also believe they have now achieved something called \"burning plasma\", where the fusion reactions themselves provide the heat for more fusion. This is vital for making the process self-sustaining.\n\n\"Self-sustaining burn is essential to getting high yield,\" Dr Callahan explained. \"The burn wave has to propagate into the high density fuel in order to get a lot of fusion energy out.\n\n\"We believe this experiment is in this regime, although we are still doing analysis and simulations to be sure that we understand the result.\"\n\nAs a next step, Dr Callahan said the experiments would be repeated. \"That's fundamental to experimental science. We need to understand how reproducible and how sensitive the results are to small changes,\" she said.\n\n\"After that, we do have ideas for how to improve on this design and we will start working on those next year.\"\n\nProf Chittenden explained: \"The mega-joule of energy released in the experiment is indeed impressive in fusion terms, but in practice this is equivalent to the energy required to boil a kettle.\"\n\nHe added: \"Far higher fusion energies can be achieved through ignition if we can work out how to hold the fuel together for longer, to allow more of it to burn. This will be the next horizon for inertial confinement fusion.\"\n\nExisting nuclear energy relies on a process called fission, where a heavy chemical element is split to produce lighter ones. Fusion works by combining two light elements to make a heavier one.\n\nInterior of the target chamber, where fusion takes place\n\nConstruction on the National Ignition Facility began in 1997 and was complete by 2009. The first experiments to test the laser's power began in October 2010.\n\nNIF's other function is to help ensure the safety and reliability of America's nuclear weapons stockpile. At times, scientists who want to use the huge laser for fusion have had their time squeezed by experiments geared towards national security.\n\nBut in 2013, the BBC reported that during experiments at NIF, the amount of energy released through fusion had exceeded the amount of energy absorbed by the fuel - a breakthrough and a first for any fusion facility in the world. Results from these tests were later published in the journal Nature.\n\nNIF is one of several projects around the world geared towards advancing fusion research. They include the multi-billion-euro Iter facility, currently under construction in Cadarache, France.\n\nIter will take a different approach to the laser-driven fusion at NIF; the facility in southern France will use magnetic fields to contain hot plasma - electrically-charged gas. This concept is known as magnetic confinement fusion (MCF).\n\nBut building commercially viable fusion facilities that can provide energy to the grid will require another giant leap.\n\n\"Turning this concept into a renewable source of electrical energy is likely to be a long process and will involve overcoming substantial technical challenges, such as being able to re-create this experiment several times a second to produce a steady source of power,\" said Prof Chittenden.", "A group which represents 200,000 Army veterans who served in Northern Ireland says it fully supports the government's controversial Troubles legacy plan.\n\nRepresentatives of the Northern Ireland Veterans Movement (NIVM) held hour-long talks in London with Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis.\n\nThe government plans to end all investigations and prosecutions related to the Troubles.\n\nThe plan is opposed by NI political parties and victims organisations.\n\nSome other military veterans have also criticised it.\n\nIf implemented, the law would apply to former members of the security forces and to ex-paramilitaries.\n\nThe plans also include an end to all legacy inquests and civil actions related to the conflict.\n\nThe NIVM said after the meeting it would bring its \"full strength to bear\" in support of the proposals.\n\nRobin Horsfall is a representative of the Northern Ireland Veterans Movement\n\nFollowing the meeting, Robin Horsfall NIVM said the group believed the proposals \"offer a way forward for those who served in Northern Ireland\".\n\nHe said the group was \"sensitive to the feelings of the innocent victims of terrorism and the hurt that a statute of limitations will cause them\", but believed \"the simple and painful truth is that no terrorists will ever be convicted\".\n\n\"That battle was lost with the Good Friday Agreement,\" he added.\n\nThe proposals are seen as a way in which the government is honouring a 2019 Conservative election manifesto pledge to protect veterans from Troubles investigations.\n\nMr Horsfall said: \"We hope to get to a situation where veterans are left alone to live the last years of their lives in relative peace without being pursued for political reasons.\"\n\nHe said NIVM would scrutinise every detail of the proposed bill and consult and lobby MPs from all parties to support the proposed legislation.\n\nAnother NIVM spokesman, Paul Young, said: \"This fulfils promises made by the government …this is the way forward.\"\n\nA statute of limitations would end all prosecutions in Troubles-related cases\n\nIt is the latest meeting in a series of discussions the government is having about the controversial proposals.\n\nAnother military veterans group has criticised the government proposals.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News NI, Ian Simpson from the Northern Ireland Veterans Association, said he did not support an equivalence between the paramilitary groups and military veterans.\n\n\"You can't do away with prosecutions and if you haven't broken the law, you have nothing the fear from the law, but this brings an amnesty to terrorists,\" he said.\n\n\"You cannot equate veterans and terrorists in the same sentence.\"\n\nSpeaking after the proposals were announced in July, Mr Lewis said it was \"the best way to help Northern Ireland move further along the road to reconciliation\".\n\n\"We know that the prospect of the end of criminal prosecutions will be difficult for some to accept, and this is not a position that we take lightly,\" he said.\n\nMr Lewis said the proposals also included a body to help families recover information on Troubles incidents and an oral history initiative.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said the legacy proposals would allow Northern Ireland to \"draw a line under the Troubles.\"", "The UK's Defence Secretary Ben Wallace claimed this morning that Labour Leader Keir Starmer had supported the deal between the US and the Taliban last year.\n\nThe deal – secured by Donald Trump and signed in Doha, Qatar in February 2020 – committed to the withdrawal of US and allied (including British) troops from Afghanistan by May 2021.\n\nAfter his election, US President Joe Biden continued the plan for withdrawal but with an end date of 31 August.\n\nAt the time, Mr Wallace praised Mr Trump’s deal as a “small but important step towards the chance for Afghans to live in peace, free from terrorism\".\n\nBut in the past week, Mr Wallace has described the deal as “rotten”. He has said that just after the deal he publicly expressed that it was a “mistake”, but we have yet to find a reference to this in either Parliamentary records or news cuttings from the time.\n\nBen Wallace, the UK's defence secretary, initially said Donald Trump's deal with the Taliban was \"rotten\" Image caption: Ben Wallace, the UK's defence secretary, initially said Donald Trump's deal with the Taliban was \"rotten\"\n\nMr Wallace said today: “I never heard from a single Labour MP when that deal was done, 18 months ago… one single criticism. In fact, Keir Starmer supported it, as did all other parties in the House of Commons.”\n\nWe have found no evidence that Mr Starmer publicly supported last year’s deal in the period after it was announced. But it should be noted he was not Labour leader then, and nor was there any debate in the Commons over the terms of the deal.\n\nIn yesterday’s debate Mr Starmer focused on the lack of planning for the withdrawal rather than saying he had opposed it and said: “Nobody believes that Britain and our allies could have remained in Afghanistan indefinitely, or that Britain could have fought alone.”\n\nMr Wallace also said this morning that he had “felt uncomfortable” about the Doha deal and “made representations to the US and others at the time”.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA grocery run turned into a snake rescue for an Australian woman when she was greeted by a python poking out from a supermarket shelf.\n\nHelaina Alati, 25, was at a Sydney store on Monday when the 3m non-venomous snake slithered out.\n\nThe Woolworths supermarket lies on the edge of a large expanse of bushland on the city's north- west outskirts.\n\nBut encountering a snake in the spice aisle is not what Ms Alati expected.\n\nFortunately for both parties, Ms Alati is a wildlife rescuer and familiar with snakes.\n\n\"I just turned my head and he was about 20cm from my face, just looking straight at me,\" she told the BBC.\n\nShe did a double-take but remained calm. No one else was around.\n\nRecognising it instantly as a diamond python, Ms Alati knew it wasn't venomous as it protruded and flicked its tongue.\n\n\"He was looking straight at me the whole time, almost like he was saying: 'Can you take me outside please?'\" she said.\n\nHelaina Alati says she alerted staff to the \"10ft python in the shop\"\n\nAfter filming the snake, Ms Alati alerted staff and said she could help them get it out.\n\nShe retrieved a snake bag from her home, returned to the store, \"tapped him on the tail and he just slithered in\".\n\nShe then released it away from houses in bushland - a natural habitat for the species around Sydney.\n\nA trained snake handler, Ms Alati has conducted at least 20 snake rescues before.\n\nShe says her friends have previously joked about her being \"the snake girl\", referencing a zoo scene in a Harry Potter film where the boy wizard finds that he can talk to snakes.\n\nMs Alati says she can't speak Parseltongue like Harry, but \"that scene's been mentioned to me a few times\".\n\n\"They kind of just gravitate to me, like maybe they just sense that I'm the kind of person into caring and protecting animals,\" she said.\n\n\"To be honest, it's the most exciting thing that's happened in a little while given lockdown. The staff were all taking photos of it.\"\n\nAustralia's largest city has been in a lockdown since June to fight a Delta outbreak. Grocery shopping is one of the few reasons people are allowed to leave their homes.\n\nMs Alati said she suspected the snake had been in the shop overnight, probably initially in the ceiling where diamond pythons like to nestle.\n\nIt had probably lurked on the shelf all morning as \"dozens of people... passed it and grabbed spices\", she added.", "Jake Davison, who lived in Biddick Drive, Keyham, had been in contact with a mental health phone line service over the last 18 months\n\nA man who shot and killed five people had received support from mental health services during the coronavirus lockdown, it has emerged.\n\nAfter killing five people in Plymouth, Jake Davison turned his gun on himself.\n\nThe NHS said he had been in contact with a telephone helpline service in the city, run by the Livewell Southwest organisation, over the last 18 months.\n\nA spokeswoman said: \"When mental health services were approached for help, it was given.\"\n\nShe added: \"The first response service continued throughout lockdown and was strengthened to help people who were struggling.\"\n\nOn Thursday, the 22-year-old killed his mother Maxine Davison, 51, Stephen Washington, 59, and Kate Shepherd, 66, along with father and daughter Lee Martyn, 43, and Sophie Martyn, three.\n\nHe had a shotgun licence returned in July, after it was removed in December 2020 following an allegation of assault.\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has launched an investigation.\n\nPolice forces in England and Wales are being asked to review their current firearm application processes in the wake of the shootings.\n\nThe Home Office is preparing new guidance to ensure higher standards of decision making around applications.\n\nIn online videos Davison spoke of being \"beaten down\" and \"defeated by life\".\n\nHe said he was socially isolated, struggled to meet women and made references to \"incels\" - the misogynistic online groups of \"involuntary celibate\" men, who blame women for their sexual failings and who have been linked to a number of violent acts around the world.\n\nOn Reddit he complained about being a \"virgin\" and stated: \"I can't attract women at all\".\n\nIn the attack, Davison shot his mother first before killing Sophie and her father.\n\nHe then killed Mr Washington in a nearby park before shooting Ms Shepherd, who was taken to Derriford Hospital where she died.\n\nHe also shot and wounded a 33-year-old man and a 53-year-old woman, who were taken to hospital, before turning the gun on himself.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "When the Taliban delivered their first news conference since seizing control of Afghanistan on Tuesday, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid was doing most of the talking.\n\nMr Mujahid fielded a wide-range of questions from reporters in the historic press conference, in which he claimed that the rights of women would be respected \"within the framework of Islamic law\".\n\nFor most journalists watching, something else was also significant: it was the first time they had seen his face. For years he has operated in the shadows, only a voice on the end of the phone.\n\nThe BBC's Yalda Hakim says she was \"shocked\" to see the face of a man she had been speaking to for more than a decade, answering the first question from a female journalist.\n\nThe spokesman sought to strike a tone of conciliation, telling another reporter: \"We don't want any internal or external enemies.\"\n\nBut Ms Hakim says this is a far cry from some of the messages she used to receive from him.\n\n\"Some of these texts were hardcore Islamist texts. Some of those you think: 'This guy is bloodthirsty for the Americans, he's bloodthirsty for anyone in the Afghan government.' Then today he sits there and says there will be no reprisals,\" she says.\n\n\"For years he has sent out these bloodthirsty statements and now he's suddenly peace loving? It's hard to reconcile.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Taliban spokesman: \"We will not allow the soil of Afghanistan to be used against anyone\"\n\nIn fact Mr Mujahid was sitting in the seat which until recently belonged to Dawa Khan Menapal, the director of Afghanistan's media and information centre, who was assassinated by Taliban militants earlier this month.\n\nMr Mujahid claimed responsibility at the time and said Mr Menapal \"was killed in a special attack\".\n\nMany other reporters have been tweeting about witnessing Mr Mujahid, including veteran BBC journalist, John Simpson, who called him \"a relatively moderate, pleasant man\".\n\nThis 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 John Simpson 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.\n\nThis 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 2 by Sharif Hassan 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.\n\nBut for years there has been speculation as to whether the faceless spokesman might actually be more than one person.\n\nLyse Doucet, the BBC's chief international correspondent, said these discussions were going on long before the days of social media, when reporters had to call him on a landline. Some have suggested that the man sitting in front of the cameras on Tuesday looked too young to be the same person fielding questions for all those years.\n\n\"There has been speculation for years that it was a made up name, that there were many \"Zabihullahs\" who took turns. Now of course we are all accepting this is THE Zabihullah Mujahid. Maybe he isn't?\" Ms Doucet says.\n\nMs Hakim says the mystery is all part of the Taliban playbook.\n\n\"That's what the Taliban are, they're organised and ideological - nothing is done by accident. To create mystery around a single person, suddenly he appears on screen - you couldn't write the script better,\" she says.\n\nRegardless whether Mr Mujahid is one person or not, Ms Hakim says she was wary of his words on Tuesday despite his efforts to appear measured.\n\n\"The caveat was really the sharia law - that sent chills down my spine,\" she says. \"They still haven't laid out what that looks like.\"\n\n\"That's the thing with the Taliban - they're deceptive, they're charming, they know how to use the right language, but you're never quite sure whether you should believe them or not,\" she says.\n\n\"There is a lot of mystery ... but do we really know who they are?\"", "The UK inflation rate fell to 2% in the year to July as the economy continued to reopen from Covid-19 restrictions.\n\nThe Consumer Prices Index (CPI) measure of inflation dipped from 2.5% in the year to June, the highest level for nearly three years, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.\n\nThe rate fell to the Bank of England's 2% inflation target, after being higher for two months in a row.\n\nThe dip in inflation was driven by price falls in clothing and footwear.\n\nPrices of games, toys and hobbies were also down and package holidays fell slightly compared with a year ago.\n\nHowever, those decreases were \"largely offset\" by price rises in transport, the ONS said.\n\nAverage petrol prices stood at 132.6p per litre in July 2021, compared with 111.4p per litre a year earlier. The latest price is the highest recorded since September 2013.\n\nSimply put, inflation is the rate at which prices are rising - if the cost of a £1 jar of jam rises by 5p, then jam inflation is 5%.\n\nIt applies to services too, like having your nails done or getting your car valeted.\n\nYou may not notice low levels of inflation from month to month, but in the long term, these price rises can have a big impact on how much you can buy with your money.\n\nLiz Martins, UK economist at HSBC, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that experts were expecting the annual inflation to decrease a little, but added the size of the fall was a \"a bit of a surprise\".\n\n\"Today's figure puts the brakes on those who argue that inflation is about to go out of control, but there are reasons to think it does go up further later in the year,\" she said.\n\nMs Martins said the reasons for the dip in inflation were \"quite broad based\", but added the main contributors were \"good sales\" in the clothing shops over the summer, as well as a year-on-year fall in the prices of computer games and food.\n\nHowever, she said there were still expectations that inflation would rise later this year. The temporary VAT cut is going to be removed for hospitality, we've got some inflationary big energy bill hikes coming.\n\n\"So we do think inflation could go up towards the end of the year and then come back down again around the turn of the year and into next year.\"\n\nRegulator Ofgem has said the price cap for default domestic energy deals would be raised to cover suppliers' extra costs, with typical gas and electricity bills likely to rise by £139 to £1,277 a year.\n\nJuly's CPI figure was below most economists' forecasts of an increase of about 2.3%.\n\nThough falls in the price of clothes drove down the inflation, it was partially offset by recent rises in second-hand car prices, the ONS said.\n\nSecond-hand car sales in the UK have more than doubled in the last few months as a result of a delays in the supply of new cars, caused by the shortage of semiconductor chips used in their production.\n\nSamuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said usually, a seasonal jump in transport prices was countered by a big drop in clothing prices.\n\n\"Stepping back from the detail, the big picture is that July's drop in CPI inflation will be short-lived,\" he said.\"The headline rate will rise to nearly 4% by the end of this year.\"\n\nHowever, Mr Tombs said with energy prices \"unlikely to soar indefinitely\", and wage growth to be dampened when the furlough scheme ends, inflation would return to 2% by the end of 2022.\n\nYael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG UK, said the rate dip \"masks the strength of inflationary pressures currently within the UK economy\".\n\n\"We expect inflation to accelerate further during the rest of this year, rising significantly above the Bank of England's 2% target, as supply chains remain under strain faced with a strong rebound in demand,\" she added.\n\nThe Retail Prices Index (RPI), a separate measure of inflation, increased to 3.8%. The number in July is typically used to calculate rises in regulated rail fares.\n\nHowever, the government said no decision had been made on national fares, with a spokesman stating it is \"considering a variety of options\".\n\nAs the economy reopens, economic figures are disco-dancing in seemingly random directions.\n\nInflation came in lower than expected, bang on the Bank of England's target of 2%, thanks to a fall in the price of clothing.\n\nBut some of the comparisons reflect last year's reopening trends, for example in July 2020 clothes prices did not fall, as is usual during the sales.\n\nSome prices are difficult to calculate, such as package holidays.\n\nOther prices are still surging, such as the used car market, when in July the 12-month inflation rate was 14%, reflecting shortages of new cars due to difficulties in semiconductor production. Petrol prices are well up on a year ago too.\n\nSo the broad story is that this is a pause for breath as inflation marches towards 4% this year.\n\nBut the fact it has dipped provides more support for the majority of Bank of England decision makers on the Monetary Policy Committee who believe that the anticipated rise will be temporary and does not need an immediate response, in order to contain it.", "Taliban security guards in Kabul, a year on from their triumphant return to power\n\nThe Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, two decades after being removed from power by a US-led military coalition.\n\nThe hardline Islamist group advanced rapidly across the country, seizing province after province before taking the capital Kabul on 15 August last year, as the Afghan military collapsed.\n\nForeign forces, who had agreed to leave, were stunned by the speed of the advance and had to accelerate their exit. Many Western-backed Afghan government leaders fled, while thousands of their compatriots and foreigners fearing Taliban rule scrambled to find room on flights out of the country.\n\nWithin weeks, the Taliban were in control of all of Afghanistan - something they had not managed to do in their first stint in power between 1996 and 2001.\n\nThe group had struck a deal with the Americans in 2020 for US troops to withdraw, following a bloody but ultimately successful guerrilla campaign lasting many years.\n\nTaliban fighters pictured in Laghman Province last year as they began a lightning offensive to retake the country\n\nUnder the deal, the Taliban committed to national peace talks, which never took place, and to preventing al-Qaeda and other militants from operating in areas that the Taliban controlled.\n\nFollowing the group's return to power, Afghanistan's economy imploded, leaving a huge portion of the population struggling to find enough money to eat and to access other essentials.\n\nBillions of dollars in Afghan assets held abroad are frozen as the international community waits for the Taliban to honour promises still to be met on security, governance and human rights, including allowing all girls to be educated.\n\nThe Taliban, or \"students\" in the Pashto language, emerged in the early 1990s in northern Pakistan following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.\n\nIt is believed that the predominantly Pashtun movement first appeared in religious seminaries - mostly paid for by money from Saudi Arabia - which preached a hardline form of Sunni Islam.\n\nThe promise made by the Taliban - in Pashtun areas straddling Pakistan and Afghanistan - was to restore peace and security and enforce their own austere version of Sharia, or Islamic law, once in power.\n\nFrom south-western Afghanistan, the Taliban quickly extended their influence. In September 1995, they captured the province of Herat, bordering Iran.\n\nExactly one year later, they captured the Afghan capital, Kabul, overthrowing the regime of President Burhanuddin Rabbani - one of the founding fathers of the Afghan mujahideen that resisted the Soviet occupation. By 1998, the Taliban were in control of almost 90% of Afghanistan.\n\nAfghans, weary of the mujahideen's excesses and infighting after the Soviets were driven out, generally welcomed the Taliban when they first appeared on the scene.\n\nTheir early popularity was largely due to their success in stamping out corruption, curbing lawlessness and making the roads and the areas under their control safe for commerce to flourish.\n\nBut the Taliban also introduced or supported punishments in line with their strict interpretation of Sharia law - such as public executions of convicted murderers and adulterers, as well as amputations for those found guilty of theft. Men were required to grow beards and women had to wear the all-covering burka.\n\nThe Taliban also banned television, music and cinema, and disapproved of girls aged 10 and over going to school. They were accused of various human rights and cultural abuses. One notorious example was in 2001, when the Taliban went ahead with the destruction of the famous Bamiyan Buddha statues in central Afghanistan, despite international outrage.\n\nThis time round, there has been no repeat of such excesses, but the Taliban are accused of a range of well-documented abuses, including killing opponents, as well as beating and detaining journalists and Afghans protesting for their rights.\n\nWomen are no longer allowed to go on long-distance journeys without a male chaperone and, while not required to wear the burka, have been ordered to cover their faces in public. Most women are not allowed to work.\n\nPakistan has repeatedly denied that it was the architect of the Taliban enterprise, but there is little doubt that many Afghans who initially joined the movement were educated in madrassas (religious schools) in Pakistan.\n\nPakistan was also one of only three countries, along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which recognised the Taliban when they were in power the first time round in Afghanistan. It was also the last country to break diplomatic ties with the group.\n\nAt one point, a Pakistani offshoot of the Taliban threatened to destabilise Pakistan from areas it controlled in the north-west. One of the most high-profile and internationally condemned of all Pakistani Taliban attacks took place in October 2012, when schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai was shot on her way home in the town of Mingora.\n\nA major military offensive two years later following the Peshawar school massacre greatly reduced the group's influence in Pakistan, though. At least three key figures of the Pakistani Taliban had been killed in US drone strikes, including the group's leader, Hakimullah Mehsud in 2013.\n\nSchoolgirl and rights activist Malala Yousafzai was shot by Taliban gunmen in October 2012\n\nThe attention of the world was drawn to the Taliban in Afghanistan in the wake of the 11 September 2001 World Trade Center attacks in New York. The Taliban were accused of providing a sanctuary for the prime suspects, Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda movement.\n\nOn 7 October 2001, a US-led military coalition launched attacks in Afghanistan: by the first week of December, the Taliban regime had collapsed. The group's then leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, and other senior figures, including Bin Laden, evaded capture despite one of the largest manhunts in the world.\n\nMany senior Taliban leaders reportedly took refuge in the Pakistani city of Quetta, from where they guided the Taliban. But the existence of what was dubbed the \"Quetta Shura\" was denied by Islamabad.\n\nDespite ever higher numbers of foreign troops, the Taliban gradually regained and then extended their influence in Afghanistan, rendering vast tracts of the country insecure, while violence in the country returned to levels not seen since 2001.\n\nThere were numerous Taliban attacks on Kabul and in September 2012, the group carried out a high-profile raid on Nato's Camp Bastion base.\n\nPakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike in 2013\n\nHopes of a negotiated peace were raised in 2013, when the Taliban announced plans to open an office in Qatar. But mistrust on all sides remained high and the violence went on.\n\nIn August 2015, the Taliban admitted they had covered up Mullah Omar's death - reportedly from health problems at a hospital in Pakistan - for more than two years. The following month, the group said it had put aside weeks of infighting and rallied around a new leader, Mullah Mansour, who had been the deputy of Mullah Omar.\n\nAt about the same time, the Taliban seized control of a provincial capital for the first time since their defeat in 2001, taking control of the strategically important city of Kunduz.\n\nMullah Mansour was killed in a US drone strike in May 2016 and replaced by his deputy Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, who remains in control of the group.\n\nIn the year following the US-Taliban peace deal of February 2020 - which was the culmination of a long spell of direct talks - the Taliban appeared to shift their tactics from complex attacks in cities and on military outposts to a wave of targeted assassinations that terrorised Afghan civilians.\n\nThe targets - journalists, judges, peace activists, women in positions of power - suggested that the Taliban had not changed their extremist ideology, only their strategy.\n\nDespite grave concerns from Afghan officials over the government's vulnerability to the Taliban without international support, new US President Joe Biden announced in April 2021 that all American forces would leave the country by 11 September - two decades to the day since the felling of the World Trade Center.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Hibatullah Akhundzada is a religious scholar and he is former head of the Taliban courts\n\nHaving outlasted a superpower through two decades of war, the Taliban began seizing vast swathes of territory, before once again toppling a government in Kabul in the wake of a foreign power withdrawing.\n\nThey swept across Afghanistan in just 10 days, taking their first provincial capital on 6 August. By 15 August, they were at the gates of Kabul.\n\nTheir lightning advance prompted tens of thousands of people to flee their homes, many arriving in the Afghan capital, others heading for neighbouring countries.\n\nThe future for Afghans living under the Taliban's rule remains highly uncertain. While most are relieved war is over, millions are struggling to survive.\n\nNo country has recognised the Taliban government in the year since they returned to power.\n\nThe August 2022 killing in a US drone attack of al-Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul will do nothing to persuade Taliban critics that the group has turned over a new leaf.\n\nHardliners in the movement appear to have the upper hand on issues such as female employment, freedom of speech and secondary education for girls, meaning that desperately needed foreign-held funds are unlikely to be released any time soon.", "Most Conservative MPs went mask-free as they listened to Wednesday's debate\n\nMost Tory MPs did not wear face masks during a packed Commons debate, despite government guidance to do so in crowded areas.\n\nMore opposition MPs than Conservatives covered their faces, as MPs sat shoulder-to-shoulder to discuss developments in Afghanistan.\n\nIt is the first time the Commons, which has been recalled to debate the crisis, has been full since March 2020.\n\nNo 10 said it was a \"matter for the parliamentary authorities\".\n\nA Downing Street spokesman said the government was still advising people in England to wear face coverings in crowded places.\n\nA union representing parliamentary staff accused non-mask wearing MPs of showing \"contempt\" towards their colleagues and Commons personnel.\n\nCovid rules allowing MPs to speak in debates via video link have been allowed to lapse since Parliament went into recess on 22 July.\n\nIt means MPs wanting to take part in Wednesday's all-day emergency Commons debate had to do so in person.\n\nIn scenes not seen since the advent of the pandemic, the Commons chamber was packed as Prime Minister Boris Johnson updated MPs after the Taliban rapidly seized control of Afghanistan following the departure of US-led forces.\n\nHowever, the Commons authorities are continuing to \"strongly encourage\" MPs to wear face coverings in the chamber.\n\nDuring Wednesday's debate, noticeably more Labour and SNP MPs decided to wear masks than Conservative backbenchers.\n\nGovernment ministers, including cabinet ministers, were also pictured maskless during the proceedings.\n\nMask-wearing was much more common among Labour, SNP and Liberal Democrat MPs\n\nThe Prospect union, which represents staff in Parliament, said MPs had shown \"huge disrespect\" to Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle by not wearing masks.\n\nGeneral secretary Mike Clancy said: \"It is abundantly clear that large numbers of MPs believe that rules simply don't apply to them, and are comfortable with recklessly undermining public health messaging.\"\n\n\"With the Commons set to resume full time in just a few weeks, it is time to rethink the light touch approach to mask wearing in the chamber.\n\n\"It has demonstrably failed, and more rigorous enforcement must be considered.\"\n\nDave Penman, head of the FDA union that represents clerks in Parliament, said the political parties should \"go further\" in enforcing mask-wearing.\n\n\"MPs refusing to wear masks in the chamber show scant regard for the well-being of their colleagues,\" he added.\n\nThe House of Lords has also been debating the Afghanistan crisis, after peers were recalled to hold an emergency debate of their own.\n\nHowever, the upper chamber - where peers are still being allowed to speak over video link - was noticeably less busy than the Commons.\n\nThere was also less of a partisan divide, with more peers on the government side, including ministers, donning face coverings.\n\nAt the start of the debate, Lords Speaker Lord McFall said social distancing measures had gone but peers were still \"strongly encouraged\" to wear masks, except when speaking.\n\nWith some peers still dialling in, the Lords was much less busy than the Commons chamber\n\nThe wearing of face masks is no longer mandatory under Covid laws in England, after rules were eased on 19 July.\n\nBut the government says it \"expects and recommends\" people to do so in \"crowded and enclosed spaces where you come into contact with people you don't normally meet\".\n\n\"You should use your judgement in deciding where you should wear one,\" the guidance adds.\n\nThe SNP-run Scottish government has kept the legal requirement to wear masks in shops and on public transport, as well as pubs and restaurants when not seated.\n\nThe Labour-run Welsh government has kept mandatory mask-wearing on public transport all public indoor areas, but not in pubs and restaurants.\n• None Johnson attacked from all sides over Afghanistan", "The deaths of Harrison and David Louden were initially treated as unexplained\n\nThe deaths of a police officer and his three-year-old son are being treated as a murder-suicide, police have said.\n\nDavid Louden, 39, and his son Harrison were found at their home in Kidderminster on Friday.\n\nWest Mercia Police said following post-mortem examinations it was now treating Harrison's death as murder, while its own officer was thought to have killed himself.\n\nThe force confirmed nobody else was being sought over the deaths.\n\nIt also said safeguarding reviews would be carried out and inquests would take place in due course.\n\n\"This is a dreadfully sad case and our thoughts are with David and Harrison's family and friends,\" Assistant Chief Constable Damian Barratt said.\n\nThe pair were found dead at their home on Cairndhu Drive in Kidderminster\n\nInitially their deaths were treated by police as unexplained, and a statement from the family at the weekend had described Harrison as a \"happy, well-loved little boy\".\n\nWest Mercia Police said the family had requested time to grieve and there would not be any further comments from them at this time.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "Twitter is introducing a way to report posts as \"misleading\" for the first time.\n\nMany of the large social media networks have been accused of not doing enough to fight the spread of disinformation during the Covid pandemic and US election campaigns.\n\nTwitter's reporting function has never offered a clear option for such posts.\n\nIt said the new feature was only a test, and will only be available in a few countries to begin with.\n\n\"Some people\" in Australia, South Korea, and the United States will now see an option for \"it's misleading\" when trying to report a tweet, the tech giant said.\n\nIt also warned users that the system may not have a significant effect.\n\n\"We're assessing if this is an effective approach so we're starting small,\" the company said on its safety account.\n\n\"We may not take action on and cannot respond to each report in the experiment, but your input will help us identify trends so that we can improve the speed and scale of our broader misinformation work.\"\n\nTwitter plans to eventually launch the feature in other countries around the world.\n\nCurrently, someone reporting misinformation must choose from options such as \"it's suspicious or spam\" or \"it's abusive or harmful\" - and then narrow that down to more specific sub-categories to make a report.\n\nBecause the options are so specific, it can often be unclear which one to use.\n\nIf I had a penny for how many times people message me asking why there's no option to report misinformation on Twitter, I'd be a very rich woman.\n\nSince the start of the pandemic, pressure has mounted on social media sites to do more to combat a wave of harmful falsehoods that have spread online.\n\nThat includes unfounded conspiracies about Covid-19 and vaccines, as well as surrounding last year's US election, which went on to inspire the riots at Capitol Hill and saw US President Donald Trump's account suspended.\n\nI've spent the past year-and-a-half covering the real-world impact of misleading posts online - scaring people off Covid jabs, destroying relationships, and provoking violence.\n\nSome critics argue that the option to report misinformation should have been introduced months ago to help prevent this offline harm. But the question remains - what impact will this really have?\n\nThere are fears that the social media site will struggle to moderate the avalanche of content reported - including from those promoting falsehoods, who then flag accurate information as misleading.\n\nTwitter has focused on issuing suspensions and bans to accounts which consistently spread harmful Covid-19 misinformation when they come to the company's attention.\n\nIt also began putting warning labels on such tweets in early 2020, announced a collaboration with news organisations as part of an attempt to debunk false information, and started a pilot scheme in January to allow a small number of people to submit \"notes\" about misleading content.\n\nHowever, Twitter and other tech giants continue to be criticised for the spread of false information.\n\nChief executives have repeatedly appeared before US politicians to answer questions about their policies, while groups such as the Center for Countering Digital Hate have accused them of not doing enough to combat vaccine misinformation - among other forms of harm.", "Austin Mitchell served as the Labour MP for Grimsby for 38 years\n\nThe former MP Austin Mitchell has died at the age of 86, the Labour Party has confirmed.\n\nMr Mitchell worked as a journalist for Yorkshire Television before being elected to the Great Grimsby constituency in 1977. He held the seat until 2015.\n\nHe is understood to have died at Leeds General Infirmary on Wednesday morning.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Mr Mitchell had served the voters \"with remarkable commitment for 38 years\".\n\nMr Mitchell was a colourful figure in the North East Lincolnshire port, even temporarily changing his name by deed poll to Austin Haddock in 2002 in a bid to promote the fishing industry.\n\n\"There are few MPs whose dedication to their constituents would translate into changing their surname to 'Haddock' to promote local industry\", said Sir Keir.\n\nLabour leader Sir Kier Starmer said Mr Mitchell served his constituents \"with remarkable commitment for 38 years\"\n\nTony Blair's former director of communications, Alastair Campbell, said on Twitter: \"Sorry to hear of the death of Austin Mitchell.\n\n\"Great contact when I was a journo and great company when I was with Labour, even when we disagreed.\n\n\"Best known of course as an MP, but a place in history as TV Interviewer who did the 'real life' Brian Clough-Don Revie interview immortalised in Damned United. RIP.\"\n\n\"His big sense of humour was matched by his deep Labour values. My thoughts are with his wife Linda and his children.\"\n\nFew gave Austin Mitchell a chance of winning Great Grimsby in the by-election that followed the death of Tony Crosland in 1977.\n\nThe Yorkshire Television presenter was widely seen as an underdog in a contest that came at a difficult time for Labour under Jim Callaghan's leadership.\n\nBut he won with a majority of 520 votes and held the seat until he stepped down as an MP in 2015.\n\nWidely seen as on the left of the party, Austin Mitchell campaigned for Britain to leave the EU long before Brexit became part of the political vocabulary.\n\nHe was a passionate advocate for Grimsby's food and fish processing industry.\n\nOne of my abiding memories is Austin Mitchell stood on Westminster Bridge in a trawlerman's outfit and clutching a giant fish finger to support a well-known seafood firm. Not many MPs would have ditched their pinstripe suits to do that.\n\nIn recent times, Austin and his wife Linda produced a series of video diaries for BBC Look North talking about their life in lockdown.\n\nIt made for hilarious viewing, with the razor-sharp Mitchell wit still going strong in his mid-80s.\n\nMany political journalists will remember the self-deprecating humour that raised serious issues with a smile.\n\nGreat Grimsby MP Lia Nici, who won the seat for the Conservatives in 2019, said: \"I am very sad to hear about the loss of my friend and predecessor, Austin Mitchell.\n\n\"I learned an awful lot from him. He worked incredibly hard for Great Grimsby and will be sadly missed.\"\n\nMr Mitchell was a keen photographer and took part in the annual Parliamentary Photographic Competition\n\nMr Mitchell was born in Bradford in 1934 and moved to New Zealand in the late 1950s to lecture at the University of Otago. He returned to the UK in the late 1960s.\n\nHe was a TV journalist for the nightly Calendar news programme between 1969 and 1977, apart from a brief spell at the BBC in 1972.\n\nGreat Grimsby Labour Party said: \"His passion for Grimsby knew no bounds. His good humour, kind nature and booming laugh will never be forgotten in our town or our party.\"\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Record numbers of GCSE passes mean extra pressure on sixth forms\n\nColleges and sixth forms in England need an extra £570m to keep pace with the rising number of students, says the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).\n\nThe rise in numbers of older teenagers, and higher GCSE grades, is set to push up college numbers.\n\nThe IFS says funding for 16-to-18 learning fell in real terms by 11% in colleges and 25% in schools since 2010.\n\nThe government says it has announced an extra £291m for 2021-22 in addition to a £400m increase in the previous year.\n\nThe IFS research says further education colleges and sixth forms in England have seen the largest falls in funding in the education sector over the past decade.\n\nImran Tahir, research economist and co-author, said: \"These institutions now also face a plethora of additional challenges created by fast rises in student numbers and the need to help pupils catch up on lost learning.\"\n\nThe government gave the sector an extra £400m in 2020-21, a sum it described as \"the single biggest annual uplift since 2010\".\n\nBut the IFS says with student numbers growing by 5% in 2020 alone, this restores funding back to 2018-19 levels, at best.\n\nThe IFS calculates that an extra £570m will be needed in the 2022-23 academic year, just to keep funding per student at the level it was the previous year.\n\nColleges and sixth forms will need even more money if they are to respond to the major long-term challenges they face, it says.\n\nThese include helping students catch up on months of learning lost during the pandemic, and a projected rise in the number of 16 and 17-year-olds of 17% or 200,000 in England between 2019 and 2024.\n\nThe researchers point out that the rate of 16 and 17-year-olds in full-time education had already risen to an historical high of 85% in 2020.\n\nThis includes especially large rises in 2020 due to \"abnormally\" high GCSE results and reduced opportunities outside education during the pandemic, they say.\n\nGiven that GCSE results were higher again in 2021, the researchers suggest there is likely to be a further jump in students.\n\nAt the same time, the number of 16 and 17-year-olds doing apprenticeships fell to an all-time low of 3% in 2020 - with a 30% fall in numbers in 2020 alone. This reflects both the effects of the pandemic and a gradual reduction in take-up over the long term, according to the research.\n\nThe chief executive of the Association of Colleges, David Hughes, said: \"There is an urgent need for the Department for Education to guarantee full funding for every student recruited by schools and colleges this autumn, much the same way they do for universities as well as seek a commitment in the Spending Review to a longer-term revenue and capital budget that anticipates demographic trends.\"\n\nA Department for Education spokesman said:\"Further education is playing a vital role in delivering the skills young people need to get ahead. So we can meet the needs of all 16-19-year-olds we've announced an extra £291m for 2021-22, in addition to the £400m increase in 2020-21.\n\n\"Funding for future years beyond 2021-22, including anticipated increases in the 16-19 population will be considered as part of the upcoming Spending Review.\"", "The Competition and Markets Authority has told the BBC it warned government officials that consumers could face risks from the fast-growing Covid PCR testing industry in April and May.\n\nThe business and competition regulator said it provided advice and market analysis to officials from the Department of Health and Social Care.\n\nIt said the advice detailed potential market and consumer risks.\n\nIt comes after the CMA was criticised by its former chairman this week.\n\nLord Tyrie told the BBC that the situation with PCR testing for travel was a 'predictable Covid rip-off', and that the competitions watchdog hadn't done enough.\n\nThe government has said it was provided with some general market analysis from the CMA on the potential implications for the PCR testing market and that its advice informed the government's approach on the private provider list.\n\nThe CMA said it cannot disclose this information.\n\nThe revelation comes after a summer of complaints from travellers and holidaymakers who have taken a holiday or visited family who they've been cut off from because of the pandemic.\n\nThe UK government has made it a condition of any international travel that tests before travel, and on your arrival in the UK are mandatory.\n\nThe number of tests that are needed is dependent on your arrival from either a green or amber country or your vaccination status. Arrivals from red countries must still use quarantine hotel facilities.\n\nSome of the most common complaints from travellers mention tests listed on the government's list of providers that don't exist at the price advertised whilst others allege poor service.\n\nAt the start of August, the Health Secretary asked the competition watchdog to investigate \"excessive\" pricing and \"exploitative practices\" among PCR Covid test firms.\n\nIn a letter to the CMA, Sajid Javid said it was time for a \"rapid high-level\" review to protect consumers.\n\nThe BBC understands that a full CMA market study or investigation would require a formal consultation before an investigation could be launched and these investigations typically last between 6 and 18 months. Therefore, a wholesale reform of the market could be difficult because of time constraints.\n\nIt is understood that due to the time and process needed for a full review of the market, the Government was advised it is better placed to tackle immediate issues in this market.\n\nThe travel industry has been demanding action, after complaining about the 'onerous' level of testing in place, which they believe is a barrier to passenger revival.\n\nBut, given the lateness of any government intervention, and the impact on the travel sector, people in industry believe the damage has already been done.\n\nJulie Lo Bue Said, chief executive of Advantage Travel Partnership, the UK's largest group of independent leisure & business travel agent experts, said \"it feels like a PR exercise for the government to come out and say 'we're looking at this now'.\n\n\"It is far too late, when the public has had to pay for all these tests,\" she added.\n\nOn Friday, Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary announced that the price of PCR Covid tests provided by NHS Test & Trace for travel would fall, by £20 for one test to £68, and by £35 for two tests to £138.\n\nThe Government has consistently maintained that testing for travellers is in place to protect public health.", "Covid-19 tests for children aged 11 and under will be free as almost all are ineligible for vaccination\n\nIsrael is now requiring anyone over the age of three to show proof of vaccination or a negative Covid-19 test before entering many indoor spaces, as it tackles a sharp rise in infections.\n\nRestaurants, cafes, museums, libraries, gyms and pools are among the venues covered by the \"Green Pass\" system.\n\nHowever, proof of immunity is not needed to go into shops or malls.\n\nThe country's Covid-19 tsar said it was \"at war\" with the virus despite its world-leading vaccination programme.\n\n\"Our morbidity is rising day by day,\" Salman Zarka told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday, according to the Jerusalem Post.\n\nThe next two weeks leading up to the Jewish New Year festival of Rosh Hashanah on 6 September would be \"critical\", he warned.\n\nIf things did not improve, \"we will get to a lockdown like the first and second ones, where we do not go farther than 100 meters from our houses\".\n\nIsrael has seen a surge of infections driven by the more contagious Delta variant since late June.\n\nThe health ministry reported some 7,870 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, which was slightly down on Monday's six-month daily record of 8,752.\n\nMore than 120 people have died after contracting the virus in the past week - double the monthly total recorded in July - and 600 people are in a serious or critical condition in hospital.\n\nIsrael is experiencing a fourth wave of infections and hospitalisations\n\nThe government has sought to combat the surge by reinstating the restrictions it lifted in mid-June and by bringing back the Green Pass, which shows whether someone has been fully vaccinated, has recently recovered from Covid-19, or tested negative in the previous 24 hours.\n\nBefore Wednesday only children aged 12 and over, who have been eligible to get a vaccine since June, and adults were required to present a Green Pass.\n\nIt will now also apply to children between the ages of three and 11. Their tests will be funded by the government as they are ineligible for vaccination, unless they are five or older and are considered are at significant risk from Covid-19.\n\nThe approximately one million residents - about 11% of the population - who have not been vaccinated despite being eligible must pay for their own tests.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Why it is normal for some people to experience short-term side effects from Covid-19 vaccines\n\nIsrael has also begun giving third doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to people over 50, medical workers and those with underlying health conditions.\n\nSo far, some 1.1 million eligible people have received their booster shots.\n\nIsraeli healthcare provider Maccabi, which covers about a quarter of the population, reported on Wednesday that a third Pfizer dose was 86% effective at preventing Covid-19 infection in people over 60.\n\nMr Zarka also noted that no-one who was currently in a critical condition in hospital had received a booster shot.", "The UAE says it has welcomed Mr Ghani and his family on humanitarian grounds\n\nAfghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani has taken refuge in the United Arab Emirates, the Gulf nation says.\n\nMr Ghani left Afghanistan as the Taliban advanced on the capital city Kabul over the weekend.\n\nThe UAE's foreign ministry said the country had welcomed Mr Ghani and his family on humanitarian grounds.\n\nIn a video address later on Wednesday, Mr Ghani denied fleeing and said he had left to prevent what he described as a \"huge disaster\".\n\n\"For now, I am in the Emirates so that bloodshed and chaos is stopped,\" he said. \"I am currently in talks to return to Afghanistan.\"\n\nMr Ghani also said rumours that he had travelled to the UAE with a large amount of money were \"completely baseless\" and \"lies\".\n\nThe 72-year-old has faced intense criticism from other Afghan politicians for leaving the country.\n\n\"God will hold him accountable and the nation will also judge,\" said Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of Afghanistan's High Council for National Reconciliation.\n\nUS President Joe Biden also criticised Afghanistan's government for fleeing in a speech on Monday.\n\nAnd later on Wednesday, the US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told reporters that Mr Ghani was \"no longer a figure in Afghanistan\".\n\nHowever, the US has continued to refer to \"President Ghani\", with the State Department saying that there has not been a formal handover of power.\n\nIn his video address, which was streamed live on Facebook, Mr Ghani said he was evacuated by his security team from the presidential palace \"in a condition where I couldn't even put on my shoes\".\n\n\"Events unfolded at a fast pace. I wanted to negotiate an inclusive government with the Taliban,\" he said, adding that he supported talks between the Taliban and former officials from his administration.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. On the streets of Kabul: 'Many here will be deeply fearful for their future'\n\nThis is not the first time the UAE has provided a safe haven for deposed or fugitive leaders from other countries. Pakistan's Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto made Dubai her new home in the 1990s before later returning to power.\n\nBut the UAE, which hosts a large population of Afghan and Pakistani guest workers, will not want to see its territory used as a political platform, the BBC's Security Correspondent Frank Gardner says.\n\nMr Ghani came into office in 2014 and was re-elected in February 2020.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC earlier this year, he dismissed fears of a Taliban military victory. \"This is not Vietnam. The government is not collapsing,\" he said.", "Stephen Watson described the scheme as \"patronising nonsense\"\n\nA so-called Citizens' Contract outlining what people could expect from Greater Manchester Police has been torn up by the force's new chief constable.\n\nGreater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham endorsed the move by Stephen Watson, who was appointed in May.\n\nUnder the scheme, the force implied not all crime could receive the same focus due to strained resources.\n\nMr Watson told the Manchester Evening News the contract was \"just complete tosh\" and had been \"scrapped\".\n\nHe added: \"We just think it's patronising nonsense, which pretty much tells the public, you know, 'can you just stop troubling us because we're really busy and you just don't understand how hard it is for us'.\"\n\nThe Citizens Contract was introduced two-and-a-half years ago as a way of balancing squeezed police resources with increased public demand.\n\nThe contract will now be replaced following a consultation.\n\nThe Citizens' Contract was introduced under former chief constable Ian Hopkins\n\nWhen asked about the chief constable's remarks, Mr Burnham said: \"We are very much with the chief.\"\n\nHe said the head of the force had the right to put his \"stamp\" on the organisation and agreed with the idea that officers should be investigating all crime.\n\nMr Burnham said recent increases in recruitment would help the under-pressure force.\n\nMr Watson succeeded Ian Hopkins, who stood down in December following a damning watchdog report which revealed the force had failed to properly record 80,000 crimes.\n\nIn June he told how he \"absolutely would not\" take the knee in uniform, believing the gesture could undermine officers' impartiality.\n\nHe said the public were \"getting a little bit fed up of virtue-signalling police officers\" and would \"rather we just locked up burglars\".\n\nMr Watson also said he was concerned police could be overwhelmed by the creation of new \"hate crimes\" which \"sought to criminalise what people think about difficult social issues, as opposed to what they do\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nEliud Kipchoge says he has \"fulfilled\" his legacy after the Kenyan became the first athlete since 1980 to retain an Olympic marathon title at Tokyo 2020.\n\nKipchoge, only the third person to win successive Olympic marathons, finished in two hours eight minutes 38 seconds.\n\nRegarded as the greatest marathon runner of all time, the 36-year-old crossed the line one minute 20 seconds ahead of the Netherlands' Abdi Nageeye.\n\nIn the race for bronze, Belgian Bashir Abdi edged out Kenyan Lawrence Cherono.\n\n\"I think I have fulfilled the legacy by winning the marathon for the second time, back-to-back. I hope now to help inspire the next generation,\" world record holder Kipchoge said.\n\n\"Tokyo 2020 has happened, it means a lot. It means there is hope. It means we are on the right track to a normal life,\" he told BBC Sport. \"We are on the track to our normal lives, that is the meaning of the Olympics.\n\n\"I am happy to defend my title and to show the next generation, if you respect the sport and be disciplined you can accomplish your assignment.\"\n• None Sporting drama amid a state of emergency: How will Tokyo 2020 be remembered?\n• None Follow live coverage of the final day of Tokyo 2020\n\nIt is a fourth Olympic medal for Kipchoge, who famously recorded the first sub two hour marathon in 2019.\n\nKipchoge suffered his first marathon defeat in seven years in London last October, but he looked in control throughout the race in Sapporo, Japan, before moving well clear of the field after 30km.\n\nThe Kenyan - whose official marathon record is the 2:01:39 he ran in Berlin in 2018 - won 5,000m bronze in 2004 and silver in 2008, before claiming his first Olympic gold in Rio five years ago.\n\nBritain's Chris Thompson was 54th in 2:21:29, however compatriots Callum Hawkins and Ben Connor did not finish the race.\n\nScottish record holder Hawkins, who collapsed in the Gold Coast heat at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, had placed ninth on his Olympics debut in Rio but was unable to stay with the leaders before withdrawing before the 30-kilometre mark.\n\nOn Friday, Kenya's Peres Jepchirchir won the women's marathon in 28C heat and, while the temperatures reached 27C on Saturday, the men benefitted from increased cloud cover.\n\nBrazil's Daniel Do Nascimento suffered a nasty looking fall when in the lead group and was among the 30 athletes to pull out.\n• None Find out these athletes' favourite One Hit Wonders\n• None How it all started for Blossoms and why they are still true to Stockport", "The Umrah pilgrimage can be undertaken at any time of the year\n\nSaudi Arabia is to begin accepting vaccinated foreign visitors to the holy city of Mecca as part of the Umrah pilgrimage.\n\nThe authorities will begin taking travel requests from Monday.\n\nThe kingdom closed its borders some 18 months ago because of the coronavirus pandemic. Since 1 August, vaccinated foreign tourists are also allowed in.\n\nLast month, only around 60,000 vaccinated residents were allowed to take part in a scaled-down Hajj.\n\nThe Hajj is a pilgrimage to Mecca that Muslims who are able to must perform at least once in their lifetime. It takes place at a set time of year: in 2022, it will run from 7 to 12 July.\n\nThe Umrah pilgrimage can be undertaken at any time of the year and attracts millions from around the world. Pilgrims may also visit the holy city of Medina.\n\nSaudi Arabia will initially allow 60,000 pilgrims to perform the pilgrimage each month, gradually increasing numbers to reach two million people a month, the state Saudi Press Agency (SPA) says.\n\nSaudi Arabia recognises the following vaccines: Pfizer/BioNTech, Oxford-AstraZeneca, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.\n\nForeign visitors will also have to agree to undergo quarantine if necessary, the SPA quotes deputy hajj minister Abdulfattah bin Sulaiman Mashat as saying.\n\nThe country has recorded nearly 532,000 coronavirus cases and more than 8,300 deaths.\n\nSeparately, it has also said it will begin compensating the families of health workers who died because of the coronavirus, state media reported.\n\nLast year, it said each would receive 500,000 riyals ($133,000; £96,000).", "Philip Morris sells more than a tenth of cigarettes worldwide\n\nTobacco giant Philip Morris has raised its bid to buy respiratory drugmaker Vectura to more than £1bn.\n\nVectura makes inhaled medicines and devices to treat respiratory illnesses such as asthma, and counts Novartis and GSK among its customers.\n\nThe Marlboro cigarette maker increased its offer to £1.65 ($2.29) per share after US private equity firm Carlyle offered £958m ($1.3bn) on Friday.\n\nVectura has not yet responded to requests for comment on the new bid.\n\nIt previously said it was backing Carlyle's offer and withdrawing its recommendation for Philip Morris' earlier bid.\n\nThe London-listed company said on Friday that it believed it could better positioned under Carlyle's ownership, noting the \"reported uncertainties relating to the impact on Vectura's wider stakeholders arising as a result of the possibility of the company being owned by PMI (Philip Morris)\".\n\nVectura has also agreed to develop a potential inhaled treatment for Covid-19 with Inspira, a UK-based pharmaceuticals company which focuses on developing therapies for respiratory and infectious diseases.\n\nIn a statement, Philip Morris said: \"The PMI (Philip Morris International) increased offer values the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of Vectura at approximately £1.02bn ($1.41bn).\"\n\n\"PMI intends to operate Vectura as an autonomous business unit that will form the backbone of its inhaled therapeutics business,\" the tobacco company added.\n\nThe latest offer represents a premium of 10p per share to the rival offer of £1.55 a share by Carlyle Group.\n\nThe fresh bid comes after Philip Morris said it could stop selling cigarettes in the UK in 10 years' time as it focuses on alternatives, such as heated tobacco.\n\nThe firm indicated it would welcome a government ban on cigarettes and said \"strong regulation\" was needed to \"help solve the problem of cigarette smoking once and for all\".\n\nHowever, health charity Ash said it was hard to take such claims seriously from the firm responsible for selling over a tenth of cigarettes globally.", "The Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan, almost 20 years after being ousted by a US-led military coalition.\n\nEmboldened by the withdrawal of US troops, they now control all key cities in the country, including Kabul.\n\nThe Taliban took some areas from government by force. In other areas, the Afghan National Army withdrew without a shot being fired.\n\nAlthough renewed clashes had been going on for several weeks, from 6 August the Taliban made a more rapid advance across the country, as they took control of provincial cities.\n\nThe maps below start in early July and show the 400 or so government districts as they fell to the Taliban.\n\nUS forces based outside Afghanistan had launched air strikes against Taliban positions earlier last week, but they failed to slow the advance of the insurgents.\n\nAlthough most US troops left in July, several thousand returned to Kabul at the weekend to help evacuate American and allied personnel from the capital.\n\nThe airport in the capital was the only official route out of the country after the Taliban took control of all the major border crossings.\n\nCustoms duty on goods entering the country via crossings they control is now collected by the Taliban - although exact amounts are unclear as the volume of trade has fallen as a result of the fighting.\n\nBut, Islam Qala on the border with Iran was, for example, capable of generating more than $20 million per month.\n\nDisruption to the flow of imports and exports has affected prices of essential goods in the markets - fuel and foodstuffs in particular.\n\nUS troops and their Nato and regional allies forced the Taliban from power in November 2001. The group had been harbouring Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures linked to the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US.\n\nBut despite a continued international presence in the region, billions of dollars of support and training for the Afghan government forces, the Taliban regrouped and gradually regained strength in more remote areas.\n\nA BBC study in 2017 showed the Taliban were in full control of a number of districts. But the research also showed they were active in many other parts of the country, mounting weekly or monthly attacks in some areas, suggesting significantly higher strength than previous estimates.\n\nIn 2017 about 15 million people - half the population - were reported to be living in areas either controlled by the Taliban or where the Taliban were openly present.", "A record-breaking bat that flew more than 1,200 miles (2,018 km) from London to Russia died after being attacked by a cat.\n\nThe female Nathusius' pipistrelle bat, the size of a human thumb, was discovered in Russia's Pskov region.\n\nThe bat, whose wing had a \"London Zoo\" marking, was rescued by a bat rehabilitation group but later died.\n\nIt is the furthest recorded journey by a bat from Britain across Europe, beating all known British records.\n\nThe pipistrelle bat, which weighed 8g (0.3 oz), was discovered by Russian resident Svetlana Lapina in the small village of Molgino and the finding was reported to the Bat Conservation Trust in the UK.\n\nLisa Worledge, head of conservation services at the Bat Conservation Trust, said: \"This is a remarkable journey and the longest one we know of any bat from Britain across Europe. What an Olympian.\n\n\"Her journey is an exciting scientific finding and another piece in the puzzle of bat migration. The movements of Nathusius' pipistrelles around the UK and between the UK and the continent remain largely mysterious.\"\n\nHer wing had a marking after being ringed in 2016 in London by bat recorder Brian Briggs.\n\nMr Briggs said: \"This is very exciting. It's great to be able to contribute to the international conservation work to protect these extraordinary animals and learn more about their fascinating lives.\"\n\nThis record is topped by only one other known bat journey in Europe - that of a Nathusius' pipistrelle that migrated from Latvia to Spain in 2019, a record-setting 1,382 miles (2,224km).\n\nThe expanding range of the Nathusius' pipistrelle's migration is linked to climate change, with future climate change predicted to further impact on the species.\n\nThere have been more than 2,600 Nathusius' pipistrelles recorded in the UK since the national Nathusius' pipistrelle project launched in 2014 to shed light on their breeding, distribution and migration behaviours.\n\nMaternity colonies are known in Kent, Northumberland, Surrey and Greater London.", "Last updated on .From the section Newcastle\n\nNewcastle have agreed a fee with Arsenal in excess of £20m to sign midfielder Joe Willock.\n\nMagpies boss Steve Bruce has made no secret of his desire to sign the 21-year-old on a permanent deal after a successful loan spell last season.\n\nWillock scored in seven consecutive Premier League games to help steer the club away from relegation after joining in January.\n\nIt is understood personal terms are yet to be agreed.\n\nArsenal manager Mikel Arteta refused to confirm why Willock was missing from his squad in the Gunners' friendly defeat by Tottenham on Sunday.\n\nThe England under-21 international made only seven league appearances for the Gunners last season.\n\nArsenal have been linked with Leicester midfielder James Maddison as a potential replacement, but on Thursday Foxes boss Brendan Rodgers said he thought the England international would stay.\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "The body was found on Charley Road near Woodhouse Eaves\n\nA 29-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a woman whose body was found in rural Leicestershire.\n\nPolice said the woman was found on Charley Road near Woodhouse Eaves in the early hours of Sunday.\n\nOfficers have connected the discovery to a report of a missing woman made from outside the county on Saturday evening.\n\nThe man, from Coalville, remains in custody and officers do not believe anyone else was involved in the death.\n\nThe body was found close to the junction with the B591 Beacon Road.\n\nDet Insp Steve Wragg said: \"Our investigation is very much in its early stages and one man who was arrested in the early hours of this morning is being questioned by detectives.\n\n\"While Charley Road is a rural country road, I would like to speak to anyone who happened to have been driving or walking in the area either yesterday evening or in the early hours of this morning and saw or heard anything unusual or suspicious.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A Roman coin of the last pagan emperor which might have been deliberately damaged as an \"act of erasure\" was found by two metal detectorists.\n\nIt depicts Julian the Apostate, part of Rome's first Christian dynasty, who revived paganism when he became the emperor in AD361.\n\nThe coin was part of a hoard found near King's Lynn, Norfolk, in March 2020.\n\nIt appears to have been hidden during the AD367 Barbarian Conspiracy, a time of great turmoil in Roman Britain.\n\nA British Museum expert suggested a gouge on the coin around Julian's eyes could be an \"act of erasure against the last pagan emperor\".\n\nBut Adrian Marsden, a numismatist or coin specialist with the Norfolk Historic Environment Service, believes it looks more like accidental damage, as other Julian coins discovered in the hoard remain untouched.\n\nIt is part of a hoard of Roman gold and silver coins which is going through the treasure inquest process\n\nConstantine I (AD324 to 337) converted to Christianity and by the AD350s it was the empire's official religion.\n\nDr Marsden said his nephew Julian, who was raised a Christian, was appointed caesar, or deputy emperor, in AD355.\n\nHe led a successful, lightning campaign against the German tribes and on becoming emperor tried to reintroduce paganism.\n\nBut while on campaign in Persia, he \"gets himself killed by a stray arrow\" and died after less than two years in charge, to be succeeded by Christians, said Dr Marsden.\n\nThe coin was part of a hoard of at least 15 gold and 226 silver coins which were found in a field near King's Lynn.\n\nIt was hidden at the time of Barbarian Conspiracy era, an alleged invasion attempt by Picts and Saxons.\n\nBut with just one source claiming it took place and no \"archaeological evidence for an invasion, we do wonder whether the turmoil might have been an internal rebellion\", Dr Marsden said.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe 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. The coastguard moved 650 people from Limni, in the north of the island of Evia\n\nGreece's prime minister has talked of a \"nightmarish summer\" as forest fires continue to ravage the country.\n\nThousands have been evacuated from their homes, and more than 1,000 firefighters have been deployed to bring the flames under control.\n\nGreece is experiencing its worst heatwave in more than 30 years.\n\nAuthorities have warned that the risk of further fires remains high in many regions, including Athens and Crete.\n\nPrime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the government's priority has been \"first and foremost , to protect human lives\".\n\nIn the last 10 days, more than 56,000 hectares (140,000 acres) have been burnt in Greece, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.\n\nMore than 2,000 people have been evacuated from the island of Evia by ferry\n\nDozens of wildfires have broken out in the last 24 hours with the largest fronts in Evia - Greece's second largest island - and areas in the Peloponnese including Arkadia and Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games.\n\nIn Evia, more than 2,000 people have been evacuated via ferry. Ten ships are waiting at Pefki, in the north of the island, ready to evacuate more people if needed, a Coast Guard spokesperson told AP news agency.\n\nOn Saturday, a fire just north of Athens on Mount Parnitha spread smoke across the capital. Authorities set up a hotline for people with breathing difficulties, according to AP news.\n\nThousands of people have been evacuated from the area since Thursday but by Saturday the flames had receded. However with strong winds forecast, there are concerns that the fire could flare again.\n\nOne resident, who was sitting in a car park with his girlfriend, said they had only spent one night in their newly built house before they had to flee. He had spent four hours trying to use a garden hose to save his property.\n\nA number of countries have offered assistance in tackling the fires\n\nA number of countries have offered support to Greece. Nations including the UK, France, Romania and Switzerland have sent firefighters to the area.\n\nIn Turkey, authorities have been struggling to contain a number of blazes, which have been described by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the country's worst wildfires.\n\nTens of thousands of hectares have been destroyed in Mediterranean and Aegean provinces.\n\nClimate change increases the risk of the hot, dry weather that is likely to fuel wildfires.\n\nThe world has already warmed by about 1.2C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.\n\nAre you in the area? Have you been affected by the fires? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "The fall of two regional capitals in 24 hours is a blow to security forces, seen here in the city of Herat\n\nThe Taliban say they have taken control of the city of Sheberghan in the northern Afghan province of Jawzjan.\n\nAn Afghan defence ministry spokesman told the BBC government forces were still in the city and would clear out the Taliban \"soon\".\n\nThis is the second regional capital to fall to the militants, after Zaranj in the south-western province of Nimroz fell on Friday.\n\nIt is a major blow to security forces, with battles raging across the country.\n\nThere are also reports of heavy fighting in Kunduz in the north and Lashkar Gah in the south.\n\nViolence has escalated across Afghanistan after US and other international forces began to withdraw their troops from the country, following 20 years of military operations.\n\nTaliban militants have made rapid advances in recent weeks, capturing large swathes of the countryside, and are now targeting key towns and cities.\n\nSheberghan is a stronghold of the former Afghan vice-president and warlord, Abdul Rashid Dostum, whose supporters have been leading the fight against the insurgents.\n\nLocal media reports that 150 people travelled to the city to help Afghan forces.\n\nThe Taliban first took control of the governor's compound on Friday during intense fighting, before it was retaken by Afghan security forces.\n\nHowever, the region's council chief, Babur Eshchi, told the BBC the militants were now in control of the whole city, except an army base, where fighting was still going on.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Afghan interpreter relocated to UK: \"A better life for my wife and children\"\n\nAfghan defence ministry spokesman Fawaad Aman told the BBC's Newshour programme government forces were still in \"the majority\" of the city, including the airport, and insisted Sheberghan would be \"clear of terrorists soon\".\n\nBut he conceded the Taliban had captured parts of the city, and that government troops had retreated \"to prevent civilian casualties\".\n\nAccording to the Afghan defence ministry, US B-52 bombers have hit Taliban positions in the city.\n\nTaliban officials meanwhile said they had taken a prison in Sheberghan. Video on social media shows hundreds of inmates leaving the city jail.\n\nOther provincial capitals under pressure include Herat in the west, and the southern cities of Kandahar and Lashkar Gah.\n\nThe Afghan military says dozens of Islamist fighters, including senior commanders, have been killed in Lashkar Gah. The Taliban however have denied the military's version of events.\n\nAnd in the Afghan capital Kabul this week, the Taliban shot dead President Ashraf Ghani's former spokesman and carried out a bomb attack on the house of the acting defence minister.\n\nTaliban fighters have also captured key border crossings with neighbouring countries in recent weeks.\n\nThe militant group has closed the border with Pakistan, and pictures show dozens of Afghans stranded on the Pakistani side, unable to return to their families.\n\n\"We came [to Pakistan] to attend a funeral three days ago. Now the border is closed. We're sitting here. We have no food and no money,\" a man trying to get home to Kandahar told Reuters news agency.\n\nThe US and UK governments have urged its citizens to leave the country immediately because of the worsening security situation.\n\nOn Friday, the British Foreign Office warned that militants were very likely to carry out attacks in Afghanistan. The US said citizens can receive a repatriation loan if they cannot afford to pay for a commercial flight themselves.", "The health secretary has asked the competition watchdog to investigate \"excessive\" pricing and \"exploitative practices\" among PCR Covid test firms.\n\nIn a letter to the Competition and Markets Authority, Sajid Javid said it was time for a \"rapid high-level\" review to protect consumers.\n\nHolidaymakers have complained of huge prices and poor service from many of the 400-plus firms offering PCR tests.\n\nTests cost about £75 per person on average but prices can reach hundreds.\n\nMr Javid wrote in his letter to CMA chief executive Andrea Coscelli: \"I know that for too many people the cost of PCR testing can act as a barrier, especially for families who want to travel together.\n\n\"We have all experienced enormous disruption to our lives over this pandemic but it is not right if some families experience yet further disruption unnecessarily because of potentially unfair practices in the market for private travel tests.\"\n\nRather than wait for a long competition investigation, Mr Javid has requested immediate advice from the CMA on how to \"stamp out any exploitative behaviour in this market\".\n\nThe government publishes a list of companies and clinics offering testing but there have been reports that many have not got full accreditation.\n\nThere are reports of PCR tests being offered for as little as £20, and more than £500. In addition to complaints about high charges, consumers have also reported not receiving test results or of being sent damaged PCR kits.\n\nAvi Lasarow, chief executive of Covid testing company Prenetics, said the decision to investigate excessive pricing was \"long overdue\".\n\n\"Companies on the government list must be responsible in their pricing strategies,\" he said.\n\n\"The list has been exploited by some testing providers luring in consumers with misleading prices and then offering tests that are up to nine times more expensive.\"\n\nMr Lasarow said the \"easiest way\" to make tests cheaper would be for the government to axe VAT on holiday Covid tests.\n\n\"If VAT was removed, a family of four flying from London to Majorca could save £166 - which would pay for the cost of the flights,\" he said.\n\nA spokesperson for the CMA said that as formal investigations can take a long time, in this instance it will provide advice to Mr Javid with a view to taking swift action.\n\n\"We are aware of concerns about the evolving markets for Covid-19 tests for international travellers. We look forward to providing the Secretary of State with advice on how best to ensure that travellers have access to tests that are affordable and reliable,\" the CMA said.\n\nThe government has been under pressure from the travel industry and its own MPs to ditch the costly PCR tests.\n\nWillie Walsh, former boss of British Airways and now director general of the International Air Travel Association, has accused PCR firms of \"profiteering\".\n\nAnd last week, Conservative MP Huw Merriman, chairman of the Transport Select Committee, tweeted: \"Passengers are being ripped off with expensive PCR tests.\"", "Waterways have become increasingly popular places to swim, especially with pools closed in lockdown\n\nSwimmers planning a dip in Wales' rivers have been warned to be wary of sewage and pollution before diving in.\n\nWaterways have become increasingly popular places to swim, especially with pools being closed during lockdown.\n\nDŵr Cymru's own figures revealed that in 2020, raw sewage was dumped in Wales' rivers more than 100,000 times for almost 900,000 hours.\n\nThe Welsh government said it had spent millions of pounds on Wales' waters and 46% of rivers were \"at good status\".\n\nBut wild swimmer Angela Jones said her favourite waterway, the River Wye, was \"dying\" because of sewage and farm pollution.\n\nDubbed the \"Wild Woman of the Wye\", Ms Jones said she had been monitoring the state of its waters and, in her 35 years on the river, she had never seen it in such a state, with sections where she would not swim any longer.\n\n\"It's just disrespect from water companies and farmers treating it like an open sewer,\" the 55-year-old said.\n\nIn April, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water said 100,000 discharges happened across more than 2,000 water treatment works and sewer overflows across the Welsh network in 2020.\n\nAnd over the years Dŵr Cymru has been fined hundreds of thousands of pounds for killing fish, spilling chemicals as well as dumping sewage.\n\nMs Jones, who sometimes spends as much as 40 hours a week in the Wye, reports the problems she sees.\n\nAngela Jones monitors the quality of the water flowing along the River Wye\n\n\"It's companies, it's people, it's businesses who just think it's an easy way to get rid of sewage, wash-off from poultry farms, everything,\" she said.\n\n\"I desperately want to protect the river and feel like I am letting it down.\"\n\nShe called for greater accountability, changes to the law and greater fines for those found to have polluted.\n\nIn December, a report by Natural Resources Wales (NRW) found more than half of the River Wye was failing to meet pollution targets.\n\nConcerns have been raised about the effects of phosphates from chicken farms on pollution levels in the Wye.\n\nBut, while NRW said poultry farms in Powys were having an impact, it said the reasons behind the pollution were more complex and sources were varied.\n\nMs Jones recently highlighted the state of the Wye by swimming a kilometre (0.6 miles) along the river in Monmouth while towing a coffin bearing the words \"Death of the Wye\", alongside paddle boarders dressed as grim reapers.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Wild swimmer Angela Jones says she hopes her specially designed coffin will catch attention\n\n\"When you see the amount of sewage that is dumped, it is diabolical,\" said Angela, who lives in Monmouthshire.\n\n\"There is no way I am going to give up on this river.\"\n\nIn April, the BBC's Panorama highlighted Dŵr Cymru as one of the worst offenders among UK water companies for dumping untreated sewage.\n\nEnvironmentalist George Monbiot highlighted algae which has flourished in rivers like the Wye.\n\nAccording to the Natural Environment Research Council, this is caused by excess phosphorus from sewage, and run-off from fields fertilised with phosphorus compounds.\n\nIt also leads to a reduction of oxygen in water.\n\nMr Monbiot drew attention to damage wrought on rivers by farming as chemicals and nitrates from the dung of cattle, pigs and chickens ran into them.\n\nHe added: \"We are seeing a comprehensive ecological collapse going on in Wales' rivers.\"\n\nThe Welsh government has designated the whole of Wales a \"nitrate vulnerable zone\" (NVZ) and introduced stricter rules on the storage and spread of slurry, in a bid to tackle river pollution.\n\nBut a farming union is challenging Wales' pollution rules in the High Court.\n\nAfonydd Cymru, which represents river trusts, said sewer overflows needed to be addressed, but warned replacing the existing system would take decades and cost billions of pounds.\n\nIt said agricultural pollution had worsened as livestock farming intensified.\n\nChairman Chris Mills said: \"Waste products being produced from this farming are simply too great for the land to cope with, coupled with inadequate storage capacity, inappropriate spreading, and poor land use management.\"\n\nMonmouth MP David Davies is calling on the Welsh government to follow the UK government and bring in new legislation to tackle river pollution.\n\nThe UK government says its Environment Bill would include new legal duties to tackle sewage discharges into rivers.\n\nMr Davies, a wild swimmer himself, said: \"It is absolutely vital we protect our waterways\".\n\nNFU Cymru said it was concerned about \"false claims\" made about poultry farming.\n\nA spokeswoman said: \"Despite claims from some campaigners regarding the impact of poultry farming within the Wye catchment, a recent NRW report is clear that the overall pattern of failures in the Wye does not support the hypothesis that poultry units are the main, or even a particularly important reason, for nutrient failures within the catchment.\"\n\nThe Welsh government said it had provided £9.5m during this financial year to improve water quality in Wales, and that 42% of Wales' water bodies and 46% of rivers were at \"good status\".\n\nBut, it added: \"Pressures from the past, such as legacy chemicals, will affect the water environment for decades to come.\"\n\nNatural Resources Wales' Ceri Davies said it had a range of projects to improve the health of Wales' rivers, citing its £6.8m \"Dee life\" scheme.\n\n\"We have prosecuted water companies three times over the past six years, whilst five prosecutions have been related to agricultural pollution,\" she said.\n\nNRW's Ceri Davies says the government body has prosecuted water companies three times in the past six years\n\nDŵr Cymru Welsh Water said it had invested more than £85m in the past decade on removing phosphorus from rivers, including at 10 locations on the Wye, where it said it had been responsible for \"less than a third\" of phosphorus.\n\n\"We are committed to working collaboratively with all bodies involved and to play our part in helping to further enhance river water quality,\" a spokesman added.", "The artwork in Nicholas Everitt Park near Lowestoft appeared around the same time as several others on the east coast\n\nA piece of street art possibly created by secretive graffiti artist Banksy has been removed over flooding fears.\n\nThe work in Oulton Broad, near Lowestoft, Suffolk, showed three children, apparently standing in a small boat placed under the painting.\n\nOulton Broad Parish Council said the metal \"boat\" was removed because it was blocking a drain and rain was forecast.\n\nBanksy-style art has also appeared in Gorleston and Great Yarmouth in Norfolk but have not been authenticated.\n\nA parish council confirmed contractors removed the \"boat\" section of the piece because it was blocking a drain\n\nThe boat in the piece in Nicholas Everitt Park appeared to have been made from a piece of scrap metal.\n\nOne child is looking ahead as though out to sea, another child stands behind looking over their shoulder, and a third child at the back of a boat appears to be leaning over the side holding a bucket.\n\nAbove the artwork was written: \"We're all in the same boat.\"\n\nAn Oulton Broad Parish Council spokeswoman confirmed contractors had taken the metal boat section because heavy rain was forecast over the weekend but promised it would be put back.\n\nAnother piece in Lowestoft depicts a child near a dug-up pavement\n\nAnother artwork was spotted on a wall outside the former Lowestoft Electrical shop on London Road North, which appears to show a child next to a sand castle.\n\nOthers spotted on the east coast include people dancing on a bus shelter and an amusement arcade-style toy-grabbing crane.\n\nThe BBC has attempted to contact representatives of Banksy, whose recent work includes a hula-hooping girl and an escaping prisoner.\n\nHe has previously confirmed he was responsible for pieces of street art via posts on his Instagram account and website.\n\nBanksy expert Prof Paul Gough, principal and vice chancellor of Arts University Bournemouth, said he was \"pretty sure\" the works were by Banksy, \"or they are very good fakes\".\n\n\"Banksy has clearly been enjoying an East Anglian staycation: these are very sophisticated stencils showing an artist at the top of his game,\" he said.\n\nThe piece in Gorleston depicts the type of crane you would see in an amusement arcade\n\nOne artwork has appeared on Admiralty Road, Great Yarmouth\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe 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 as the coastguard moves hundreds of people to safety\n\nHundreds more people have been forced to flee their homes in Greece as firefighters struggle to contain huge, days-old, wildfires.\n\nTourists and locals were evacuated by boat from Evia, the country's second-largest island, on Sunday.\n\nMore than 2,000 people have now been evacuated in total. Houses and power lines have also been destroyed.\n\nWhile the fire on Evia is the most severe, dozens of smaller blazes are burning around the country.\n\nThe fires broke out after the most severe heatwave in 30 years, in which temperatures spiked to 45C (113F).\n\nHeatwaves such as this are becoming more likely and more extreme because of human-induced climate change. The subsequent hot, dry weather is likely to fuel wildfires.\n\nFirefighting aircraft dropped water onto the blazes on Sunday\n\n\"We have ahead of us another difficult evening, another difficult night,\" Civil Protection Deputy Minister Nikos Hardalias said on Sunday.\n\n\"On Evia we have two major fire fronts, one in the north and one in the south,\" he said, adding that the situation around the capital Athens had improved.\n\n\"We are afraid of the danger of flare-ups,\" Mr Hardalias warned.\n\nHundreds of firefighters have been deployed to Evia, and a total of 17 planes and helicopters are being used. The army has also been sent in.\n\nDramatic footage showed ferries full of people surrounded by the burning landscape and bright red skies.\n\n\"I feel angry. I lost my home... nothing will be the same,\" one resident, Vasilikia, told Reuters news agency as she boarded a rescue ferry on Sunday.\n\n\"It's a disaster. It's huge. Our villages are destroyed, there is nothing left from our homes,\" she added.\n\nAuthorities say the risk of further fires remains high in many regions, including Athens and Crete. Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has warned the country could face a \"nightmarish summer\" of continuous forest fires.\n\nIn the last 10 days, more than 56,000 hectares (140,000 acres) have been burnt in Greece, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.\n\nOn Saturday, a fire just north of Athens on Mount Parnitha spread smoke across the capital. Authorities set up a hotline for people with breathing difficulties, according to the Associated Press.\n\nThousands of people were evacuated from the area but the flames have receded. However, with strong winds forecast, there are concerns that the fire could flare again.\n\nA number of countries have offered support to Greece. The UK, France, Romania and Switzerland have sent firefighters to the country.\n\nThere are long queues of cars at the port in Evia, waiting to get on ferries to the mainland.\n\nHolidaymakers and some locals are leaving, to get to a place of safety, away from the heavy cloud of smoke and ash that hangs in the air.\n\nOne woman said she was hopeful that her holiday home would be safe, but others were angry with the authorities. They have abandoned us, one man said.\n\n\"They know wildfires can happen, but they've made no preparations, people are having to put out the flames by themselves,\" he said.\n\nAre you in the area? Have you been affected by the fires? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "Last updated on .From the section Golf\n\nEver had that sinking feeling that it's just not your day?\n\nWhen Kim Si-woo hit five straight shots into the water on the 11th at the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational, he would certainly have been asking the question.\n\nAnd it's not one he is going to be allowed to forget anytime soon, as his score of 13 goes down as the highest on a par three on the PGA Tour - outside of the four majors - since 1983.\n\nIt saw him slip from five over par to 15 over and tumble to the back of the field in one horror 155-yard hole.\n\nHis disastrous bid to find terra firma saw Kim send his tee shot right of the island green.\n\nThe South Korean, who has won three PGA Tour events, then went to a drop zone 96 yards from the hole.\n\nFrom there, it became a recurring golfing nightmare as he plonked his next four shots into the water before finally finding the rough with his 11th shot.\n\nKim then chipped to within a foot of the cup before tapping in for an unenviable 13.\n\nAnd how does one respond to such a showing?\n\nWell, it was a mixed bag from Kim who last week finished in a share of 32nd in the men's golf competition at the Tokyo Olympics.\n\nHe birdied the next hole, then had more trouble on the par-three 14th where he sent another tee shot into the water and double-bogeyed before following up with three birdies.\n\nWhile it was a significant recovery, it was not enough to avoid finishing last in the field of 65 that completed all four rounds at TPC Southwind in Memphis.\n\nKim finished 30 shots adrift of the trio of Abraham Ancer, Sam Burns and Hideki Matsuyama who finished 16 under par to go to a three-way play-off.\n\nAncer eventually prevailed on the second play-off hole with a birdie to clinch his first Tour victory and become just the fourth Mexico-born player to win a title.\n\nThe 30-year-old had started the day four strokes adrift of overnight leader Harris English, but produced a solid final round 68 to find his way into the play-off.\n\nEnglish looked to be closing in on a wire-to-wire victory going onto the final nine holes of the event, but doubles bogeys on the 11th and 14th and a bogey on the 16th saw him fall one stroke short of the play-off trio.\n• None Find out these athletes favourite One Hit Wonders\n• None How it all started for Blossoms and why they are still true to Stockport", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. North Korea is struck by severe flooding, leading to homes destroyed and thousands of people evacuated\n\nNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called on the military to carry out relief work in areas recently hit by heavy rains, state media report.\n\nMore than 1,000 homes were damaged and about 5,000 people evacuated after the ensuing flooding, state television reported earlier this week.\n\nThe move comes amid concerns over an economic crisis and food shortages.\n\nAgricultural land has been damaged, and Kim Jong-un said in June the country faced a \"tense\" food situation.\n\nHe said at the time the agricultural sector had failed to meet its grain targets due to typhoons last year, which caused flooding, and that much would depend on this year's harvest.\n\nFootage from the state-run KCTV showed homes flooded up to their roofs, as well as damaged bridges and railroads in the eastern province of South Hamgyong. It also said about 17km (10 miles) of roads and bridges had been damaged.\n\nThe report said \"hundreds of hectares of farmland\" were also submerged or lost as river levees collapsed, AFP news agency reports.\n\nThe ruling Workers' Party's Central Military Commission held a meeting on Thursday to discuss recovery from the disaster, the official KCNA news agency said.\n\nMr Kim did not attend the meeting, but party officials conveyed his message that the military should provide necessary supplies in the region, KCNA said.\n\nWith the soil already saturated, further rains could cause more damage.\n\nHeavy rain was forecast until 10 August, with eastern areas expected to be particularly hit, according to the country's meteorological agency.\n\nNorth Korea is struggling under international sanctions, imposed because of its nuclear programme.\n\nThe country has also closed its borders to contain the spread of Covid-19, leading to trade with China - which North Korea relies on for food, fertiliser and fuel - plummeting as a result.\n\nNorth Korea suffered from a nationwide famine in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union left it without crucial aid. The total number of people who starved to death at the time is not known, but estimates range up to three million.", "Dennis Thomas (L) with Robert \"Kool\" Bell in Philadelphia in 2019\n\nDennis Thomas, one of the founder members of 1970s and 80s soul-funk band Kool & the Gang, has died aged 70.\n\nHe died \"peacefully in his sleep\" in New Jersey on Saturday, the band said in a Facebook statement.\n\nDescribed as the \"cool cat\" in the group, he was its sax player, flutist, percussionist as well as master of ceremonies at shows.\n\nThe band became one of the era's most popular and influential with hits such as Celebration and Get Down On It.\n\nTheir music also featured in several films including Saturday Night Fever, for which they received a Grammy in 1978, and Pulp Fiction.\n\nThomas was one of the original founders of the group, which started in 1964 along with Robert \"Kool\" Bell, his brother Ronald - who died last year - and four other schoolfriends: Robert Mickens, Charles Smith, George Brown and Ricky Westfield.\n\nThe band released 23 albums across their career\n\nTheir career was split into two distinct halves. In the early 70s, they scored US hits with the foot-stomping funk of songs like Jungle Boogie and Hollywood Swinging.\n\nThen, with the addition of vocalist James \"JT\" Taylor in 1979, they morphed into a hit-making R&B band, scoring the biggest commercial success of their career as they reached their 20th anniversary.\n\nThey thrived in the 1980s, scoring huge hits with sentimental ballads like Joanna and Cherish, as well as the party anthems Steppin' Out, Get Down On It, which is now their most-streamed song on Spotify, and Celebration.\n\nThe group received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2015 for their contribution to the world of entertainment, and were inducted into the Songwriters' Hall Of Fame in 2018.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nAn emotional Lionel Messi said joining Paris St-Germain was \"a possibility, but nothing is agreed\" as he confirmed his exit from Barcelona.\n\nMessi is ending his 21-year association with Barca, who cannot afford to honour the new contract they agreed with him because of La Liga's salary limit.\n\nThe record six-time Ballon d'Or winner, 34, is now a free agent.\n\n\"My family and I were convinced we were going to stay here, at home,\" he said during a news conference on Sunday.\n\n\"This is the end with this club and now a new story will begin,\" added the Argentina forward. \"Yes, it's one of the most difficult moments for me.\n• None Messi says goodbye to Barcelona - as it happened\n\n\"I don't want to leave this club - it's a club I love and this is a moment I didn't expect.\n\n\"Last year I wanted to leave, this year I wanted to stay. That's why I'm so sad.\n\n\"It was like my blood ran cold. I was really sad. It was really difficult right up to now. I'm still trying to process it all.\n\n\"When I get home I will still feel bad; it will be even worse. I'm not ready for this.\"\n\nWhat else did Messi say?\n\nMessi, Barcelona's record goalscorer, submitted a transfer request last summer before agreeing to stay for the final year of his contract.\n\nThat expired on 1 July and Messi is now in talks over a move to PSG, where he would play alongside Kylian Mbappe and former Barca team-mate Neymar.\n\n\"It is a possibility, but I have not agreed anything with anyone,\" he said. \"I have got different clubs interested. Nothing is definitive but clearly we are talking to them.\"\n\nMessi left Argentina for Spain when he was 13 and made his first-team debut for Barcelona aged 17 in October 2004.\n\nHe went on to score 672 goals in 778 games and helped the Spanish giants win 35 trophies, replicas of which were displayed at his news conference at the Nou Camp.\n• None Would Messi give PSG football's best front three?\n\n\"I'm so grateful for the love that everyone's shown me, for all my team-mates, and the club being by my side,\" he said. \"Today I have to say goodbye to all this.\n\n\"I arrived when I was very young, 13 years old, and after 21 years I am leaving with my wife and three Catalan-Argentine children.\n\n\"I cannot be more proud of everything I did and lived in this city. I have no doubt that, after a few years away, we will return because it is our home.\"\n\nMessi added: \"I'm leaving the club without seeing the fans for over a year and a half [due to the pandemic]. If I imagined it, I would imagine the Camp Nou full, and to say goodbye properly. But it has to be this way.\"\n\nMessi looked set to extend his stay at the Nou Camp having agreed a new five-year contract in July, halving the £123m a season he reportedly received in his previous contract.\n\nThe agreement was dependent on player departures to get Barca's wage bill under La Liga's limit, however, and the club were unable to do so.\n\n\"I offered to reduce my salary by 50% and they didn't ask me for anything else,\" Messi said. \"It is not true that they asked me for anything more.\n\n\"I only know that it was not possible because of La Liga, because the club did not want to go into more debt.\"\n\nBarcelona president Joan Laporta said on Friday that trying to keep Messi could have put the club at risk for 50 years.\n\nOnce it became clear Barca were unable to honour the contract they had agreed with Messi, his representatives contacted PSG, but wherever Messi goes next, he said he wants to \"play my last years competing for titles\".\n\nHe also had a warning for his former Barca team-mate Dani Alves after the 38-year-old right-back helped Brazil win Olympic gold to extend his record for career titles to 43.\n\n\"I congratulate Dani Alves and warn him that I am going to fight to catch up with him and surpass him,\" Messi added. \"It's my mentality. I have to find my way to keep competing and winning.\"\n\n'Imagining the club without you is difficult'\n\nHundreds of fans gathered outside the Nou Camp and several of Barcelona's first-team players were also in attendance.\n\nMessi was in tears as he walked on to the stage and he received a round of applause before, during and after his news conference.\n\nAndres Iniesta, who won the Champions League four times with Messi, tweeted: \"We shared magical moments and always stayed together. Imagining the club without you or being able to see you at the Camp Nou with another shirt is difficult.\"\n\nXavi Hernandez, another member of that legendary Barca midfield, added: \"I can only thank you for everything you have given us during these years. Whatever you do, I wish you the best.\"\n\nCurrent Barca captain Gerard Pique said: \"Nothing will ever be the same again. Not the Camp Nou, not the city of Barcelona, not ourselves. The reality, sometimes, is very harsh.\"\n\n25 August 2020 - Messi sends a fax to the club saying he wishes to exercise a clause in his contract, allowing him to leave for free with immediate effect.\n\n4 September 2020 - Messi says he is staying at Barcelona because it is \"impossible\" for any team to pay his 700m euro (£624m) release clause, which the club insist would have to be met.\n\n27 October 2020 - Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu, who had fallen out with Messi over his failed transfer request, resigns.\n\n28 December 2020 - Messi says he hopes to one day play in the United States, but is unsure of his future when his contract runs out.\n\n31 January 2021 - Barcelona say they will take \"appropriate legal action\" against Spanish newspaper El Mundo after it published details of Messi's contract, worth £492m over four years.\n\n16 May 2021 - Manager Ronald Koeman says he hopes Messi has not played his final home game for the club after a 2-1 defeat by Celta Vigo ended their title hopes and meant they finished outside the top two for the first time since 2007-08.\n\n22 May 2021 - Paris St-Germain are believed to be \"looking closely\" at Messi's contract situation.\n\n28 May 2021 - Barcelona president Joan Laporta says a new contract for Lionel Messi is \"not done yet\" but that \"things are going well\".\n\n1 July 2021 - Messi's Barcelona contract expires and he becomes a free agent.\n\n15 July 2021 - Messi agrees to stay with Barca on a deal until 2026 that includes reducing his wages.\n\n5 August 2021 - Barcelona announce Messi will leave the club \"because of financial and structural obstacles\".\n• None Find out these athletes' favourite One Hit Wonders\n• None How it all started for Blossoms and why they are still true to Stockport", "Thousands of comedy fans gave Peter Kay a standing ovation as he made his live return after several years away, with two quickly sold-out charity shows at the Manchester Apollo on Saturday.\n\n\"I've never in my life had a standing ovation when I came on,\" he joked. \"I'm going to go away for four more years.\"\n\nThe Bolton comic was taking part in two Q&A sessions, called Doing it for Laura, at the 3,500 capacity venue.\n\nIt was to raise money for 20-year-old Laura Nuttall's brain cancer treatment.\n\nThe live gigs, which sold out within 30 minutes on release last week, marked a rare public appearance for one of the nation's best-loved comedians. And Kay said that getting back on stage was like \"getting in a hot bath\".\n\nIn late 2017, the Phoenix Nights star cancelled his tour and all future work projects due to \"unforeseen family circumstances\".\n\nHe returned the year after with the finale of his BBC TV show Car Share, but has not appeared live since.\n\nThis weekend's matinee and evening shows were staged in aid of Manchester University student Ms Nuttall, who was diagnosed with having an aggressive form of brain cancer - glioblastoma multiforme - in October 2018, during her first term at King's College London.\n\nBrain scans showed six tumours, and she was told she had 12-18 months to live.\n\nSince then, Ms Nuttall, who was in the audience on Saturday, has been undergoing immunotherapy in Germany as one of the few avenues of treatment available, alongside a costly complex cell vaccination programme, with each jab costing £27,000.\n\nLaura Nuttall (left) with her mum Nicola and dad Mark ahead of Saturday's shows\n\nAt the Apollo, her sister Gracie introduced Kay and told the audience their family was \"eternally grateful\" to them for \"potentially saving my sister's life\".\n\nSoon after her initial diagnosis, Laura's mum Nicola said the family received an unexpected call from Kay, who she had previously met nearly 20 years ago when working at Granada television.\n\n\"He just called up out of the blue and said, 'How can I help?'\" she said previously.\n\nThis 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 Sheldan Keay 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.\n\nThose in attendance on Saturday were required to provide either proof of having been double vaccinated, or a negative Covid test.\n\n\"People have been bringing them to the gate in bags,\" quipped Kay, about the lateral flow tests.\n\nAnswering questions submitted by fans, he revealed he had written two Christmas special episodes of one of his shows, Max and Paddy, with Paddy McGuinness, but that they had never got round to making them.\n\nPeter Kay, pictured arriving at the Manchester Apollo, said he was \"nervous\" about his return to the stage\n\nHe also admitted he can no longer buy garlic bread from the supermarket, when quizzed about his famous catchphrase.\n\nThe first show, which ended as it started with a standing ovation, ran over by an hour, causing the evening crowd to queue in the rain for a later-than-advertised second instalment.\n\nMany also paid way over the asking price after tickets had been snapped up by touts.\n\nFans queued outside the venue to see Kay's return\n\nOfficial funds raised from the event will go mostly towards Ms Nuttall's treatment, but with some cash going to the Brain Tumour Charity.\n\nShe previously posted on her fundraising page: \"I still can't quite believe this is really happening!\"\n\nKay's only other public appearance in recent times was on Cat Deeley's BBC Radio 2 show this year to talk about his love of music, and in particular the Mamma Mia! musical.\n\nHe announced this week that a string of planned \"dance-a-thons\", which ended up being cancelled last year due to the pandemic, had now been rescheduled for 2022.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "In September 1952, the last man to be hanged at Cardiff went to the gallows.\n\nMahmood Mattan was wrongly found guilty for the murder of shopkeeper Lily Volpert in Cardiff's Tiger Bay.\n\nIt was to prove one of the most notorious miscarriages of justice in British legal history and went some way to hastening the abolition of capital punishment in the UK.\n\nNow, a novel inspired by his story has been longlisted for the Booker Prize.\n\nMr Mattan was posthumously acquitted in 1998 - 46 years after he was executed - when it was found evidence had been largely fabricated and manipulated by police at the time.\n\nSomali-born author Nadifa Mohamed said her motive for writing the semi-fictionalised The Fortune Men was to portray the real Mahmood Mattan.\n\n\"Previously, he's been cast as this almost passive victim of police brutality, but there was far more to his character than that,\" she said.\n\n\"People who knew him said he was spikey, brave, happy to stand up for his rights and for those of the people around him.\n\n\"I believe that is, in part, why the police had singled him out to take the blame for the next major crime to be committed in the area.\"\n\nBoth born in what is now Somaliland, Mohamed's father met Mahmood when the two emigrated to Hull.\n\n\"They were both in the Merchant Navy, but their lives took very different directions. My father said Mahmood was just an ordinary guy, albeit a bit of a loner,\" she said.\n\nA merchant seaman, Mahmood Mattan married paper factory worker Laura Williams in 1946 after settling in Tiger Bay, and the pair had three children together.\n\nHowever, by 1950, the couple had separated and were co-parenting and living in the same street.\n\nMahmood was largely ostracised from the Somali community after being accused of stealing money from the Tiger Bay mosque, but when he was charged with murder they rallied around to pay for his legal defence.\n\nOn the evening of 6 March 1952, moneylender Lily Volpert, 42, had just closed her outfitters shop and was preparing to have supper, when there was a knock on the door.\n\nHer niece saw her talking to a man at the entrance, but nobody could identify him. A few minutes later she was found with her throat cut, and around £100 was missing from the till.\n\nThe last two customers in the shop, Mary Tolley and Margaret Bush, said they had not seen anyone matching Mahmood's description loitering but, after pressurised questioning, Mary Tolley changed her story, only to change it back again at trial.\n\nA search of Mahmood's house produced no evidence, yet he was arrested on the strength of the testimony of a Harold Cover, who was known to have a history of violence.\n\nOther statements disproving Mahmood had been in the area were suppressed by the police in court; though his defence was hardly aided by his own barrister who, in summing up, described Mahmood as: \"Half child of nature, half semi-civilised savage\".\n\nThere was little - if any - evidence against Mahmood Mattan\n\nMohamed said her attitude to writing The Fortune Men had disturbing parallels with the police's own approach.\n\n\"I opted for semi-fiction because I wanted to convey the atmosphere of the time in a way I didn't think I could do with a straight-forward biography,\" she said.\n\n\"It opens with a family all gathered around the radio to listen to the news of George VI's death, a month before the murder.\n\n\"Yet the more I got into fictionalising the story, the more I realised that I was doing exactly what the police had done, I almost got into their mindset.\n\n\"It goes to show just how easily you can create a totally different version of events if you only look at what you're prepared to see.\"\n\nButetown, known then as Tiger Bay, attracted workers from different parts of the world, including British Somaliland\n\nTwo events would cast doubt on Mahmood's conviction.\n\nIn 1954, Tahir Gass, another Somali man investigated for Lily's murder, was convicted of killing wages clerk Granville Jenkins in a country lane near Newport.\n\nThen 15 years later, in 1969, Harold Cover, the man whose evidence had sent Mahmood to his death, was convicted of the attempted murder of his own daughter, by cutting her throat in precisely the same fashion as Lily had been killed.\n\nYet the Home Secretary James Callaghan refused to reopen the case.\n\n\"There really is no happy ending to this story,\" Mohamed said.\n\n\"Laura believed in Mahmood's innocence until the last but after his execution the family were moved to Ely and they never recovered; sinking into a life of poverty and despair.\n\n\"If there is any crumb of comfort, it's that Laura lived long enough to see Mahmood's conviction overturned by the Criminal Cases Review Commission in 1998 - the first case to be quashed by the organisation.\"\n\nThe Booker committee will decide if The Fortune Men has been shortlisted in September, with the prize being awarded in November.", "Many private businesses work in Cuba's tourist industry which has been hit hard by the pandemic\n\nCuba's communist government has legalised small and medium-sized private businesses in the wake of mass anti-government protests last month.\n\nUnder the new rules, enterprises with up to 100 employees will be allowed.\n\nPresident President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Cuba was taking firm steps to update its economic model.\n\nCritics say the government's plans have been accelerated because of July's protests, when thousands turned out to complain of economic ruin.\n\nDemonstrators condemned the handling of the coronavirus pandemic and demanded political change.\n\nDozens were arrested nationwide and that least one man died in the unrest.\n\nFriday's decision is seen as a major shift in government policy on the island, where state-run companies are the norm.\n\nIn July, the authorities said they would allow travellers arriving in the country to bring in food, medicine and other essentials without paying import duties.\n\nScrapping the import duties had been suggested by some Cubans as a way to ease the shortages of medicines and food.\n\nTourism, one of the most important sectors, has been devastated by global restrictions on travel during the pandemic.\n\nSugar, which is mostly exported, is another key earner for Cuba. But this year's harvest has been much worse than expected.\n\nAs a result, the government's reserves of foreign currency are depleted, meaning it cannot buy imported goods to supplement shortages, as it would normally do.\n\nCuba has blamed the US and its economic sanctions for the protests and Cuba's wider problems.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Thousands took to the streets in protest over the government's handling of coronavirus and the economy", "Police were called to an address in Noel Park Road in Wood Green\n\nTwo police officers and a social worker have been attacked in north London.\n\nPolice were called to assist the social worker who was attempting to check on the welfare of children in Wood Green at about 19:20 BST on Friday.\n\nThe 61-year-old social worker was stabbed multiple times, a police officer was slashed and a second officer was assaulted.\n\nA 33-year-old man who was arrested at the scene on suspicion of grievous bodily harm remains in custody.\n\nTwo other men were also arrested at a nearby property in connection with the incident. The Met said the nature of their involvement was still being established.\n\nThe officers have left hospital while the social worker's condition has been described as non-life changing.\n\nScotland Yard said when entry was refused, the officers forced entry leading to the attack in a communal part of the building in Noel Park Road.\n\nSteps have been taken to ensure the welfare of the children who were the subject of the initial welfare visit, police said.\n\nThe officers have left hospital while the social worker's condition has been described as non-life changing\n\nThe Met has appealed for anyone with information on the attack to contact the force or Crimestoppers anonymously.\n\nCh Supt Treena Fleming, policing commander for Haringey and Enfield, said she was appalled by the attack.\n\n\"Social workers play a vital role in ensuring that vulnerable people in our community, including children, are safe and protected,\" she said.\n\n\"This incident shows just how much of a threat knives pose to everyone in Haringey and across London.\"\n\nIn a joint statement, the leader of Haringey Council, councillor Peray Ahmet, and the local authority's chief executive, Zina Etheridge, said it was a shocking incident.\n\n\"Social workers do an incredibly important job. Their safety is of uppermost importance to us,\" they said.\n\n\"This type of incident, while rare, is an important reminder that frontline staff across the public sector put themselves in harm's way to do their jobs and we should all express our thanks and support for them as they do so.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "How are GB doing?\n\nGreat Britain have ended the penultimate day of Tokyo 2020 with 63 medals, one more than at this stage at London 2012 and three fewer than Rio 2016 after 15 days. The 20 gold medals are seven behind Rio and eight behind London. The final day in Rio delivered Joseph Joyce's boxing silver medal. In London, Anthony Joshua won boxing gold on the last day amongst three medals.\n\nThis year though, there are track cycling events on the last day with Jack Carlin and Laura Kenny as strongest potential medallists. In addition, Team GB have a guaranteed 64th medal from Lauren Price and Callum Hawkins amongst the best marathon runners.\n\nAs expected, ROC won three gold medals to overtake Great Britain on the medal table on day 15. Both have 20 gold medals but ROC have won five more silvers. On Sunday, ROC have two opportunities to win golds - in rhythmic gymnastics and handball. Russia won both of these events at the last Olympic Games and are favourites to win both again. To finish fourth on the medal table, Great Britain probably need to win two gold medals on Sunday and hope that ROC do not win both of these events.\n• None Britwatch: A daily guide on how Team GB are doing in Tokyo\n• None Find out these athletes' favourite One Hit Wonders\n• None How it all started for Blossoms and why they are still true to Stockport", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nA German coach has been thrown out of the Olympics for appearing to punch a horse who was refusing to jump or trot during the modern pentathlon.\n\nCoach Kim Raisner was heard on German TV urging tearful athlete Annika Schleu to \"really hit\" the horse while she struggled to control Saint Boy during the showjumping round of Friday's women's event.\n\nSchleu had been leading the event before the equestrian, where athletes are given just 20 minutes to bond with a horse they have never ridden.\n\nModern pentathlon's governing body, the UIPM, said it had reviewed video footage that appeared to show Raisner - who competed at the 2004 Olympics in modern pentathlon - striking the horse with her fist.\n\n\"Her actions were deemed to be in violation of the UIPM competition rules, which are applied to all recognised modern pentathlon competitions including the Olympic Games,\" the governing body said in a statement.\n\n\"The UIPM Executive Board [EB] has given a black card to the Germany team coach Kim Raisner, disqualifying her from the remainder of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.\n\n\"The EB decision was made today at the Tokyo Stadium before the resumption of the men's modern pentathlon competition.\"\n\nSaint Boy is not among the horses due to be ridden during Saturday's men's modern pentathlon competition.\n\nThe horse cleared just four fences before crashing into the fifth and then repeatedly refused to jump, eliminating Schleu with zero points as it had done earlier to another competitor, Gulnaz Gubaydullina.\n• None Find out these athletes favourite One Hit Wonders\n• None How it all started for Blossoms and why they are still true to Stockport", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Yousaf warns 'Covid has not gone away' as restrictions ease\n\nScotland's health secretary has warned that coronavirus cases will rise as a result of Monday's easing of restrictions.\n\nHumza Yousaf said people should remember the pandemic \"is not over\".\n\nFrom 9 August, social distancing will be dropped in most settings and children under 12 will no longer have to wear masks. Nightclubs will also be allowed to reopen.\n\nThe MSP said people should enjoy the new rules but remain careful.\n\nHe also said he was hopeful that further lockdowns could be avoided in the winter, but that there was \"no guarantee\".\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio Scotland's The Sunday Show, he said: \"We would expect cases to rise as people interact more, potentially in bigger numbers.\n\n\"Also when the schools return we would expect more cases. But that is the precise reasoning why we are keeping some mitigations in place. The modelling will hopefully tell us that the pressure we are facing on the NHS will be in a place we can cope with.\"\n\nOn Friday, new Scottish government guidance suggested that some measures - such as face coverings - would be in place until 2022. Distancing of 2m will also be kept in healthcare settings.\n\nThe health secretary said it was difficult to tell what would happen over the winter months.\n\n\"All it takes of course is a new variant that the vaccine is not effective, or less effective but we have had such a successful vaccine programme that there have been so many people vaccinated, I would be confident we wouldn't have to go into a full lockdown,\" he said.\n\n\"But I couldn't give you a cast-iron guarantee of that in the future.\"\n\nNightclubs will be able to reopen from Monday and clubbers will not need to wear masks while dancing\n\nMr Yousaf said people were right to look forward to the end of some restrictions.\n\n\"We should look forward to tomorrow. Monday is a significant day,\" he said.\n\n\"We are lifting some really big restrictions - limits on gatherings, limits that mean so much to people.\"\n\nBut he said that there was a reason that the term \"freedom day\", used in England last month, was discouraged in Scotland.\n\nHe told BBC Scotland News: \"The Scottish government has not used and has quashed any suggestion that it is \"freedom day\". We don't use that phrase because Covid has not gone away .\n\n\"Although case numbers have been going in the right trajectory for a number of weeks we still have high cases and unfortunately people are still dying from Covid.\"\n\n16-17-year-olds are now being vaccinated\n\nOn Saturday, some drop-in clinics began to vaccinate the 16-17-year-old age group.\n\nThe Scottish government hopes to have offered a first dose to this cohort within weeks.\n\nThe Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) made the recommendation to add this age group on Wednesday. And all mainland health boards are expected to be vaccinating the teenagers from Tuesday.\n\nMr Yousaf also said the Scottish government would continue to push the JCVI to recommend vaccinations for even younger children.\n\nProf Linda Bauld would like to see 12-15-year-olds getting the vaccine\n\nEdinburgh University public health expert Prof Linda Bauld said she would like to see this.\n\nShe said: \"I think it would make a difference because we have got a reservoir of infection potentially in the community in people who have got lots of social contacts, including teenagers, moving around.\n\n\"So if you have a younger person who is unvaccinated and can pass it on more easily then people who are vaccinated might also pick it up and that might include the more vulnerable and older.\n\n\"The MHRA has licensed the vaccine in those age groups and everybody is waiting to for the JCVI to say the next step may be 12-15 year olds. I hope they make that decision but I don't have all the evidence they are looking at all the time.\"", "Four million people in Scotland will be offered the flu jab this year\n\nFour million people are to be offered flu jabs this year in Scotland's largest-ever winter vaccination programme.\n\nThe free vaccine has been extended to protect as many lives as possible and avoid additional pressure on the NHS.\n\nIt is believed immunity may be diminished due to lower levels of the flu virus circulating last year as a result of lockdowns.\n\nThe flu vaccination programme will begin in September.\n\nScotland's deadliest flu epidemic in recent times was in 1989 when 2,400 people died in the seven days to Christmas Eve.\n\nResearch from Public Health England, carried out in the first pandemic wave before any Covid vaccine had been made or given, suggested risk of death was more than double for people who caught flu on top of coronavirus, compared with coronavirus alone.\n\nIn March this year, public health expert Dr Susan Hopkins warned that the NHS had to be \"ready\" for surges in flu and other similar illnesses.\n\nShe said the UK must prepare for a \"hard winter\" because the population immunity to respiratory viruses other than Covid could be lower than usual.\n\nIt is believed immunity could be low due to last year's lockdowns\n\nPreviously, the jab was limited to over-65s, those with certain health conditions, pregnant women, healthcare workers and carers.\n\nBut for the 2021-2022 flu season, the following will be invited to receive the free vaccine:\n\nHealth conditions considered to put people in an \"at risk\" groups include asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, multiple sclerosis, heart and lung diseases, or autoimmune disorders.\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf said flu could be\"extremely serious and infectious\". With Covid-19 still circulating in the community, he encouraged people in Scotland to get vaccinated against flu too.\n\n\"This will help to protect those most at risk as well as ease pressure on our National Health Service and social care services,\" he said. \"The vaccines are safe and the best way to help protect you, and others, from flu this winter.\"\n\nDeputy chief medical officer Dr Nicola Steedman said: \"The public health measures put in place to help fight against Covid-19 meant that the circulation of flu viruses was very low last season.\n\n\"As restrictions continue to lift and we get back to living our lives more normally it is important this year, more than ever, that you receive your flu vaccine if you are eligible, and before flu starts to spread widely. It only takes a few minutes to be vaccinated, and it helps to provide protection from flu for the period of time that flu is likely to be circulating in Scotland.\"\n\nMs Steedman also said the Joint Committee on Vaccine and Immunisation (JCVI) had published interim advice on providing a third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to those eligible in the autumn.\n\nShe added: \"Any such extension to the vaccine programme would run alongside the vital flu programme, to protect those at risk from flu this winter. We will take this into account while we await the final JCVI recommendations. But we urge people not to forget about flu, and to come forward for their flu vaccination this year.\"", "Withdrawing troops from Afghanistan is a strategic mistake that risks a resurgence of terrorism, a former top UK general has said.\n\nGen Sir Richard Barrons, who was head of UK Joint Forces Command, told the BBC the UK and Western allies have \"sold the future of Afghanistan\".\n\nMost British troops left last month and the Taliban have captured five cities in three days.\n\nFighting in Afghanistan intensified in recent weeks after President Joe Biden ordered the withdrawal of US forces, followed by allies such as the UK.\n\nTwo decades after they were removed from power by the US over their support for Osama Bin Laden in the wake of the 11 September attacks, Taliban militants are advancing across the country and have seized five regional capitals since Friday.\n\nGen Barrons told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend: \"The withdrawal now is a strategic mistake. I don't believe it's in our own interest.\"\n\nHe said the decision had \"sold the future of Afghanistan into a very difficult place\" and sent a \"really unfortunate message\" to allies in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.\n\nIt suggests \"we don't have the stomach to see these things through, and we would rather leave than ensure that a humanitarian or political crisis doesn't occur\", Gen Barrons said.\n\n\"We will run the risk of terrorist entities re-establishing in Afghanistan, to bring harm in Europe and elsewhere,\" he said. \"I think this is a very poor strategic outcome.\"\n\nThe UK government advised all British citizens to leave this week because of the worsening security situation.\n\nBut Gen Barrons said an exodus of the international community \"as fair weather friends\", followed by the Afghan elite, could undermine the government and its military, accelerating the crisis.\n\nHe said he feared the country could split in two or be plunged into a decades-long civil war unless political discussions could resume.\n\nTory MP Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the House of Commons Defence Committee, wrote in the Mail on Sunday that the UK was making a \"shabby withdrawal\" and \"abandoning the country to the very insurgency that drew us there in the first place\".\n\n\"Unless we wake up to the reality of what is taking place, Afghanistan might once again become a terror state. This, remember, is the country that brought us 9/11,\" he said.\n\nThe UK and its allies should retain an assistance force of 5,000 troops to give ground, air and intelligence support to the Afghan army in their fight against the Taliban, Mr Ellwood said.\n\nBy withdrawing, the UK was also giving up a \"strategically crucial space to an expansionist China\", he said.\n\nBut Gen Barrons suggested China would be key to any political resolution, because of its influence on Pakistan - which was one of the few countries to recognise the Taliban when it last held power.\n\nHe said because China shared a border with Afghanistan it would want to avoid any instability that could mean refugees - or militants - flowing over the border.\n\nA UK Government spokeswoman said: \"We recognise that the security situation in Afghanistan is serious, and reports of the escalating violence are extremely disturbing.\n\n\"We do not believe there is any military solution to Afghanistan's conflict, and call on the Taliban to end their campaign of violence and engage in meaningful dialogue with the Afghan government.\n\n\"There needs to be a negotiated solution to ensure a lasting peace.\"", "Tokyo Olympics: Day-by-day guide to the key events and British medal hopes\n\nLast updated on .From the section Olympics", "Police were called to an address in Noel Park Road in Wood Green\n\nA man has been charged with attempted murder after a social worker and two police officers were attacked.\n\nThe social worker was stabbed multiple times during a welfare visit to a home in Noel Park Road in Wood Green, north London, on Friday evening.\n\nSulai Bukhari, 33, of Noel Park Road, was also charged with two counts of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm.\n\nHe will appear at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court on Monday.\n\nThe officers, who were also assaulted, have left hospital while the 61-year-old social worker's condition has been described as non-life changing.\n\nMr Bukhari was arrested on Friday at his home address and remains in police custody after being charged on Sunday morning.\n\nTwo other men arrested in connection with the same incident have been released under investigation, the Met Police said.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Sir Richard sold a stake in his Virgin Galactic space business to help prop up the airline's finances\n\nSir Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic is exploring a possible listing on the London stock market to raise money to repair the airline's finances.\n\nThe move could see shares offered to private investors as well as big City firms, but mean he loses overall control of his flagship business.\n\nVirgin Group owns 51% of the airline, and US-based Delta Air Lines the rest.\n\nIt is understood Virgin has hired City advisors to draw up flotation plans, but the airline called it speculation.\n\nLike most airlines, Virgin Atlantic's finances have been battered by the coronavirus collapse in air travel. In April, the airline posted a £659m loss for 2020 after passenger numbers dropped 80%, and it has announced thousands of job cuts.\n\nSelling a stake in the airline would raise much-needed funds as global aviation rebuilds.\n\nHowever, the share prices of airlines such British Airways-owner IAG and Easyjet are still significantly lower than pre-Covid levels amid widespread scepticism among some investors about how long it will take the industry to recover.\n\nNews of a possible stock market launch was first reported by Sky News. It said Virgin Atlantic's advisors, including banks Citi and Barclays, have in recent weeks been pitching the possible flotation to several potential big investors, which had responded positively to the idea.\n\nVirgin Atlantic revenues are heavily dependent on UK-US services, and the airline is hoping for a rapid rebound in services as lockdown restrictions ease. Earlier this year, chief executive Shai Weiss said he did not expect to see a big drop in fares as travel resumes.\n\nA flotation would mark the first time Virgin Atlantic shares have been sold to the public, and would likely see Virgin Group's stake fall below 50%.\n\nSir Richard founded Virgin Atlantic in 1984, and its success enabled him to build a business empire that now includes the Virgin Galactic space travel arm.\n\nBut the airline's survival appeared in doubt last year, with administrators put on standby while Sir Richard negotiated a £1.2bn rescue package.\n\nThat package included a loan from the American hedge fund Davidson Kempner Capital Management.\n\nSir Richard had tried to secure rescue funds from the UK government, which refused his request, and use his Necker Island holiday resort as collateral to raise money.\n\nA Virgin Atlantic spokesperson called reports of a possible flotation \"speculation\" and declined to comment further.", "Afghan security forces have faced a major blow with the loss of Kunduz\n\nThe Taliban have captured three regional capitals in Afghanistan as they continue to make sweeping territorial gains in the country.\n\nThey seized control of the key northern city of Kunduz on Sunday, as well as Sar-e-Pul and Taloqan.\n\nIt means five regional capitals have fallen to the militants since Friday, with Kunduz being their most important gain this year.\n\nThe Taliban said there is no agreement on a ceasefire with the government.\n\nA spokesman for the group warned against further US intervention in Afghanistan while speaking to Al Jazeera TV on Sunday.\n\nViolence has escalated across Afghanistan after US and other international forces began to withdraw their troops from the country, following 20 years of military operations.\n\nTaliban militants have made rapid advances in recent weeks. Having captured large swathes of the countryside, they are now targeting key towns and cities.\n\nThe three northern cities fell to Taliban control within hours of each other on Sunday, with one resident in Kunduz describing the situation as \"total chaos\".\n\nThe Afghan government, meanwhile, said its forces were fighting to retake key installations.\n\nHeavy fighting has also been reported in Herat in the west, and in the southern cities of Kandahar and Lashkar Gah.\n\nThousands of civilians have been displaced this year. Families, including babies and young children, have been sheltering in a school in the north-eastern city of Asadabad.\n\n\"Many bombs were dropped on our village. The Taliban came and destroyed everything. We were helpless and had to leave our houses. Our children and ourselves are sleeping on the ground in dire conditions\", Gul Naaz told AFP.\n\n\"There was firing, one of my seven-year-old daughters went out during that fighting and disappeared. I don't know if she is alive or dead,\" another displaced resident said.\n\nDisplaced children take refuge at a school in Asadabad, Kunar province near the Pakistan border\n\nThe US has intensified its air strikes on Taliban positions, with Afghan military officials saying militants have been killed. But the Taliban say the air strikes hit two hospitals and a school in the city of Lashkar Gah. Neither claim has been independently verified.\n\nThe US embassy in Afghanistan condemned the Taliban's \"violent new offensive against Afghan cities\", saying the group's actions to \"forcibly impose its rule are unacceptable\".\n\n\"They demonstrate wanton disregard for the welfare and rights of civilians and will worsen this country's humanitarian crisis,\" it said in a statement.\n\nThis attack on a number of strategic cities and their fall to the Taliban was unprecedented. But as the deadline for the full withdrawal of foreign forces approached, a big change on the battlefield was expected.\n\nNow it is time for the Afghan government to prove that its well-equipped forces, 350,000 strong, are able to retake the lost areas.\n\nIt would be difficult for the Taliban to hold Kunduz, but for several weeks the group has kept control of commercial centres important for trade with Iran and Pakistan.\n\nThe populations in cities taken by the Taliban are paying the price of war, having lost loved ones or property. They are having to leave their homes, fearing the launch of a government operation to retake the cities.\n\nPeace talks with the Taliban in Doha are deadlocked. If the process resumes, from now on both sides will be trying to control the larger area to justify a greater share of power, if they agree on a transitional government.\n\nThe seizure of Kunduz is the most significant gain for the Taliban since they launched their offensive in May. The city, home to 270,000 people, is considered a gateway to the country's mineral-rich northern provinces.\n\nAnd its location makes it strategically important as there are highways connecting Kunduz to other major cities, including Kabul, and the province shares a border with Tajikistan.\n\nThat border is used for the smuggling of Afghan opium and heroin to Central Asia, which then finds its way to Europe. Controlling Kunduz means controlling one of the most important drug smuggling routes in the region.\n\nIt also holds symbolic significance for the Taliban because it was a key northern stronghold before 2001. The militants captured the city in 2015 and again in 2016 but have never been able to hold it for long.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Yogita Limaye travelled to Afghanistan's Kunduz province, most of which has fallen to the Taliban\n\nFormer British Gen Sir Richard Barrons says there is a danger of Afghanistan feeling \"friendless\", in the wake of recent battlefield defeats and the possible withdrawal of diplomats and contractors from Kabul if things get worse.\n\nIt is much too early to speculate about a Saigon-style withdrawal from the capital, echoing the way the Americans hastily left Vietnam in the final act of the war there, in 1975.\n\nBut in recent days, British and American calls for their nationals to leave the country threaten to create a dangerous narrative.\n\nIt is something that western military planners have been worried about for some time, following US President Joe Biden's decision, in April, to withdraw American forces by 11 September.\n\nIn June, classified UK Ministry of Defence documents were found at a Canterbury bus stop by a member of the public. One of them voiced just this concern, speaking about the need to counter an \"abandonment narrative\" in Afghanistan.\n\n\"Precise language may be needed,\" it said, \"to avoid misunderstandings about 'retrograde to zero' vs normal diplomatic (including military) representation.\"\n\n\"Retrograde to zero\" is the peculiar euphemism used to describe the withdrawal process now in its final weeks. In other words, planners were only too aware of creating the dangerous impression that Afghanistan might indeed be left \"friendless\".\n\nThat is not yet the case. American air strikes are still being used in an attempt to halt the Taliban's advances. Britain and the US will doubtless have hidden assets on the ground, working feverishly to stem the tide of the war.", "Jason Kenny became the first Briton to win seven Olympic gold medals with a spectacular defence of his men's keirin title - but wife Laura's reign as women's omnium champion has ended.\n\nLaura, GB's most successful female athlete, recovered from a crash in her first event to finish sixth in her bid for a third successive omnium title.\n\nJason stunned the men's keirin field as he sprinted clear with three laps remaining to claim victory.\n\nIt is his ninth Olympic medal overall.\n\nThe 33-year-old won silver in the team sprint at the Izu Velodrome to become GB's most decorated Olympian earlier this week but was unable to defend his individual sprint title.\n\nHis tally of seven golds is one more than former team-mate Sir Chris Hoy.\n\n\"Seven gold medals is really special. When you look back on the ones you have already got, it seems pretty easy,\" said Jason. \"Then when you try and get more, you remember how hard it is.\n\n\"I have been disappointed this week, I haven't been as competitive as I wanted to be. But in the keirin you can race hard and ride your luck a little bit.\"\n\nOn his future, he added: \"Before today I had all but given up, I was counting my career in days and races as opposed to years, but maybe I have bought myself more time now.\"\n• None Sporting drama amid a state of emergency: How will Tokyo 2020 be remembered?\n• None Follow live coverage of the final day of Tokyo 2020\n\nJason caught his five rivals by surprise with a long-range attack and held on to finish 0.763 seconds clear of Malaysia's Azizulhasni Awang, with the Netherlands' reigning world champion Harrie Lavreysen taking bronze.\n\nLavreysen made it three medals in Tokyo but had been aiming to emulate Jason's achievement of five years ago by winning all three men's sprint events.\n\nThe Briton said his decision to attack early was made before the race.\n\nHe told BBC Sport: \"I said [beforehand] if I get a gap [I'll go] and he [performance director Stephen Park] said very unconvincingly 'if it is a big one'. The first half a lap I was wondering if it was enough and then I thought 'it is now or never', so I will go for it.\n\n\"I have been racing every race like it is my last, just trying to survive really.\n\n\"I think because I ran every race like it was a final, when I got to the final I was pretty well rehearsed. For me it was [a case of] carry on doing what we have been doing.\"\n\nLaura, speaking about Jason's performance, told BBC Sport: \"The amount of people who came up to me afterwards and were like 'I'd have counted him out of this' - and to be honest, so had I!\n\n\"I was speaking to him last night and he was like 'I just want to go home'. Then obviously he won - just typical Jason, that.\"\n\nJason progressed from a semi-final that also included compatriot and individual sprint bronze medallist Jack Carlin, but the 24-year-old failed to qualify for the final after finishing fourth.\n\nContesting the race to decide the minor positions, Carlin finished second to claim an eighth-placed overall finish.\n\nIn the omnium, Laura arrived at the fourth and final event - the points race - down in ninth position and 38 points adrift of top place after a fall in the scratch event.\n\nBrought down in a pile-up on the penultimate lap of the competition's first of four disciplines, she then came out on top in the tempo race before finishing a disappointing 13th in the elimination race - widely considered her specialist event.\n\nThe Briton - along with nine others - received 16 points as the officials decided to award the fallen riders the next available number of points in the opening scratch race, placing Kenny 24 points behind the early lead.\n\nThe five-time Olympic gold medallist, who became the first British woman to win gold at three Olympic Games when she and Katie Archibald won the madison on Friday, recovered to fifth at the halfway stage after winning the tempo.\n\nHowever, she was left with too much to do in the final points race - despite taking maximum points in the final sprint - as American Jennifer Valente took gold from Japan's Yumi Kajihara and Dutch rider Kirsten Wild.\n\nOn the crash, Laura told BBC Sport: \"I hit them so fast because I was just about to come over and bam, I literally had nowhere to go and I had a mountain to climb.\n\n\"[In] the tempo race I just rode off adrenaline and then we only had 20 minutes. When I got into the elimination race I just felt really tired instantly and I just thought 'this is bad'.\n\n\"In the points race I had nothing to lose. I just wish we had got a lap and then obviously I would have jumped up the standings.\"\n\nOn winning a gold in Tokyo, she said: \"To be honest I was done after the madison. You just hit such a high. That really was the race that we targeted. We put so much work into that and I think because we did win you just go 'job done'.\n\n\"Worlds isn't that far away is it?\" she added on her future. \"I don't know. I don't see myself quitting any time soon.\"\n\nEarlier, GB team-mate Katy Marchant finished sixth in the women's sprint competition as she contested the race for fifth to eighth position.\n• None Find out these athletes favourite One Hit Wonders\n• None How it all started for Blossoms and why they are still true to Stockport", "Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union\n\nThe British and Irish Lions lost an agonisingly close series decider to South Africa as Morne Steyn's late penalty sealed a 19-16 victory.\n\nSteyn, 37, landed the kick that decided the 2009 series and proved little had changed as he put the Springboks ahead with two minutes left.\n\nThe Lions led at half-time after Ken Owens' try and composed kicking from replacement fly-half Finn Russell.\n\nCheslin Kolbe crossed and from there it was all down to the goal-kickers.\n\nRussell - who came on for an injured Dan Biggar in the 11th minute - landed a long-range effort to tie things at 13-13 with 18 minutes remaining.\n\nHe and Steyn then traded kicks, before the Springbok 10 dealt the final blow to add a Lions series win to their 2019 World Cup success.\n\nThe victory capped off an impressive turnaround after South Africa lost the first Test, but there were no fans to celebrate in Cape Town Stadium because of coronavirus restrictions.\n• None Listen: The final Test review with Kearney, Williams and Skinstad\n\nRussell rises to occasion in first half\n\nIt felt as if there was much more than a series on the line coming into the decider, with the build-up focused on the unentertaining style of the first two Tests and complaints from both sides about officiating.\n\nThe match did at least deliver on late drama, but with just six tries scored across the series questions may remain over the ability of the game to attract new fans in its current form.\n\nThe early entrance of Russell after Biggar departed with what looked like an injury to his right leg suggested the Lions might be forced to move to a more exciting gameplan than the reliance on physicality and kicking of the first two Tests.\n\nThe Scotland 10 - often labelled a maverick for his canny kicking for both club Racing 92 and country - looked composed as he took to the field with a smile for each of his team-mates.\n\nRussell had not played for five weeks because of an Achilles injury but looked undisturbed as he sent a penalty straight through the middle of the posts.\n\nThat would be his last kick on goal of the first half as the Lions showed ambition, with Russell sending a kickable penalty to the corner to set up Owens' try in a driving maul before nailing the conversion.\n\nThe Lions looked confident with the ball in hand and Russell sent two more opportunities for three points to the corner - a good idea at the time that was perhaps proved foolish by the final scoreline.\n\nPollard did no such thing and instead kept his side within four points after a second successful penalty before half-time.\n\nThe momentum had drastically swung at half-time in both the previous Tests, with the Lions bouncing back for victory in the first and South Africa winning the second.\n\nThis time, neither side made a move initially as multiple stoppages slowed play and the game began to lose momentum.\n\nThe Lions had made it clear during the week that they wanted to play with tempo. They were stripped of that ability, but at least remained ahead on the scoreboard as Pollard missed two penalties.\n\nThe match was eventually revived as South Africa won the high ball once again and Willie le Roux drew Jack Conan in, giving Kolbe all the space he needed to run round Liam Williams and score.\n\nA lengthy review proceeded to check whether Springbok eight Jasper Wiese had knocked the ball on in the air, but the try stood.\n\nRussell took another step on the road to Test greatness with a nerveless penalty from just inside South Africa's half to level things at 13-13.\n\nBut the Lions immediately conceded a penalty themselves and Steyn gave the Springboks the lead.\n\nThe Lions' hopes were high as they again kicked to the corner with 10 minutes remaining, but Mako Vunipola was held up over the line.\n\nThe tourists gave Steyn another chance to kick with two minutes left and the Springbok 10 once again ended Lions dreams, a defeat made all the more difficult to accept by the sacrifices players had made to complete the tour in a strict coronavirus bubble.\n\nFor South Africa, whose Test series almost ended before it began when most of the squad tested positive for coronavirus in the build-up and who had only managed one warm-up Test since the 2019 World Cup, it is a remarkable victory.", "Those waiting for more than a year for an operation has risen to almost 388,000 compared to 1,600 before the pandemic began, NHS statistics shows\n\nUp to 14 million people could be on NHS waiting lists in England by next autumn, new analysis suggests.\n\nCurrently, some five million are waiting for routine operations and procedures - many of whom are in pain.\n\nBut the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned there is a huge hidden backlog of patients who are still yet to come forward for treatment.\n\nThe government pointed to the £1bn it had given to the NHS this year to clear the backlog.\n\nThere have been repeated warnings over the length of hospital waiting lists in England. A record number of patients are currently waiting for surgery - such as hip or knee replacements - with more than 385,000 patients waiting more than a year, compared to just 1,600 before the pandemic.\n\nLast month Health Secretary Sajid Javid said he had been shocked to learn that waiting lists could rise to 13 million patients.\n\nThe IFS decided to crunch the numbers to see whether this was likely - it said Mr Javid's warning is \"well within the realms of possibility\".\n\nIn order to stop numbers getting that high, the NHS needs to treat even more patients than it did before the pandemic, the IFS said.\n\nExplaining how it reached its conclusions, the IFS said that after Covid hit in March last year, seven million fewer people joined waiting lists than was normal.\n\nIt is not yet known how many of these \"missing patients\" will come forward for treatment - but the IFS predicts that their return will increase waiting lists and put the NHS under more pressure.\n\n\"Even if only two-thirds of the missing patients return then with capacity at 95% of pre-pandemic levels - much more than the NHS is currently managing - waiting lists could easily exceed 13 million (and keep growing),\" said the IFS.\n\n\"Expanding capacity will be the only solution to cutting waiting lists in the future.\"\n\nAnd the IFS said the number could even soar to 14 million by autumn 2022 - and continue to increase - if 80% of the missing patients return and the NHS operates at 90% of its capacity levels in 2019.\n\nThis report argues there are millions of \"missing patients\" from the waiting lists who might have been expected to join it but haven't - perhaps because they're worried about Covid infections or their conditions haven't been picked up yet.\n\nThe researchers have looked at different scenarios depending on what happens next to these patients.\n\nIn one scenario, if the NHS can't treat more patients than it did pre-pandemic, the waiting list could rise to 14 million by next autumn.\n\nEven in the most optimistic projection, the IFS says it could rise to nine million by 2025, but that would need the NHS to be able to work at 5% more capacity than it did before the pandemic and would come at a cost of at least £2bn.\n\nIf the NHS can't boost capacity, the IFS warns, longer waiting lists will be with us for years to come.\n\nThe IFS said it was unlikely that all of the seven million missing patients would return, since some may have died, sought private treatment or chosen to live with their health issues - but they said most will probably come forward at some point.\n\nEarlier this year, the doctors' union urged people to remember that the waiting lists were not just \"numbers on a spreadsheet\". They are \"real people in pain\" who are distressed, the British Medical Association said.\n\nOne woman from Hampshire told the BBC that her hip pain was unbearable. \"It's like standing on jagged glass. I get so depressed about the pain I'm living with,\" she said.\n\nA new chief executive for NHS England was appointed last month - Amanda Pritchard. She acknowledged the NHS had \"big challenges ahead\", including the need to tackle backlogs.\n\nThe union for nurses said the IFS analysis showed the \"immense task\" that lies ahead - and called on Mr Javid to invest in the workforce.\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing added: \"A significant pay rise will demonstrate value and help retain experienced nursing staff whom health services can't afford to lose with this challenge ahead.\"\n\nAnd Labour's shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said the modelling should be a \"wake-up call for ministers\".\n\n\"Years of underfunding and cuts to healthcare had already left our NHS with ballooning waiting lists before the pandemic hit.\n\n\"Given these warnings it's now even more urgent that a long-term rescue plan is put in place to give the NHS the resources and staff it needs to bring down waiting lists and reducing waiting times for treatment.\"\n\nA spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said it was backing the health service with £9.6bn to help it recover from Covid.\n\n\"This includes dedicated investment of £1bn this year to tackle the backlog and reduce waiting lists, including by increasing capacity. The NHS is also trialling innovative ways to accelerate elective recovery and enable more hospitals to go further, faster.\n\n\"We will continue to support the NHS to deliver the appointments, operations and treatment people need.\"", "Tokyo Olympics: Team GB match London 2012 with 65 medals won as Kenny and Price take gold Last updated on .From the section Olympics", "The scene at the US Capitol on 6 January has been described as a \"medieval battlefield\"\n\nTwo off-duty police officers who stood by as President Donald Trump's backers stormed the US Capitol in Washington DC on 6 January have lost their jobs.\n\nAlexander Everett and Caitlin Everett, a married couple from Seattle, were fired following the recommendations of an inquiry into the attack.\n\nIt says they trespassed onto restricted grounds and stood by in the immediate vicinity of an \"active insurrection\".\n\nAt least 535 rioters have been arrested since the attack.\n\nProsecutors have so far secured only a few convictions into the attack aimed at disrupting the confirmation of Democrat Joe Biden's victory in last year's presidential election.\n\nThe assault led to the political impeachment and acquittal of Republican Mr Trump, who was accused by lawmakers of inciting the riot - a claim the now former president has repeatedly denied.\n\nThe decision to sack the two police officers was taken on Friday by Seattle's interim police chief Adrian Diaz.\n\nAccording to the investigation, the two police officers downplayed their actions in Washington DC.\n\nMr Diaz said such behaviour by law enforcement officers could not be tolerated.\n\nThe Everetts attended the pro-Trump rally that took place before the mob entered the Capitol. They say they were yards away and did not witness the assault.\n\nLast month, several police officers who defended the US Capitol testified before a Congressional committee investigating the attack.\n\nOne officer, Aquilino Gonell, said he feared he would be crushed by the mob.\n\nAnother officer, Harry Dunn, who is black, said he was racially abused.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Capitol Hill police officer in tears as he testifies", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nBritain's Lauren Price became the first Welsh fighter to win an Olympic boxing gold medal as she beat China's Li Qian in the women's middleweight final.\n\nPrice, 27, gained a 5-0 points victory at the Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo to earn Britain's 22nd gold of the Games.\n\nShe becomes the second British woman to win boxing gold after Nicola Adams' flyweight successes in 2012 and 2016.\n\nBritain have won 65 medals in Tokyo, matching their London 2012 total, with 22 golds, 21 silvers and 22 bronze.\n\n\"I can't really put it into words - it's a dream come true,\" Price told BBC Sport.\n\n\"I still have to pinch myself. It's been years of hard work and if you dream and work hard enough you can achieve anything.\n\n\"I'm just over the moon and I want to thank everyone who supported me on this journey from eight years old.\"\n\nPrice's grandfather Derek passed away in November and, in an emotional interview, Price dedicated her gold medal to him and also to her grandmother Linda.\n\n\"It's for him and my nan - I knew he would be looking down on me today and all week really,\" said Price, who was raised by her grandparents from three days' old.\n\n\"I can't really put into words what they've done for me over the years, I just love them both so much.\n\n\"Big shout out to my nan, I can't wait to see her and show my medal off.\"\n\nPrice, who has played international football for Wales and been a world kickboxing champion, won the opening round against former world champion Li with all five judges, able to pick off punches against her taller opponent thanks to quick hands and feet.\n\nShe continued to dominate in the second round, controlling the pace and tempo with her 31-year-old opponent struggling to land. Four of the judges gave that round to Price, meaning Li needed a stoppage or knockout in the final round.\n\nBut Price was never in danger in the third as her near-flawless performance gave her a 30-27 winning margin on four judges' scorecards and a 29-28 victory on the other one.\n\nAdams, watching from the BBC studio, said Price had been an overwhelming winner.\n\n\"Lauren had her tactics spot on and Li just couldn't cope,\" said the double gold medallist. \"She made it look easy - it was like watching a spar.\n\n\"She dealt with all the pressure really well.\"\n\nPrice had already become only the third Welsh boxer to win an Olympic boxing medal after Fred Evans won welterweight silver at London 2012 and Ralph Evans won a light-flyweight bronze at the 1972 Games in Munich.\n\nThe Newport-born fighter has also represented Wales at international level in different age groups in netball and taekwondo and won world, European and British honours in kickboxing.\n\nShe played 52 times as a defender for Wales' national football team across the age groups - winning two senior caps - before she focused on boxing.\n\nShe quickly set history by becoming the first Welsh woman to win a Commonwealth Games medal with a bronze in Glasgow in 2014, before taking gold four years later on Australia's Gold Coast and then winning a World Championship gold medal in 2019.\n\nGB end boxing event with six medals, including two golds\n\nPrice's gold was Britain's second in the ring in Tokyo following Galal Yafai's win in the men's flyweight competition on Saturday.\n\nPat McCormack (men's welterweight) and Ben Whittaker (men's light-heavyweight) both won silvers while Frazer Clarke (men's super-heavyweight) and Kariss Artingstall (women's featherweight) collected bronze medals.\n\nIt means Team GB won six medals - two gold, two silver and two bronze - from their 11-strong team, the most British boxing medals at a Games since Antwerp in 1920, although they did win three golds at London 2012.\n\nEarlier on Sunday, Ireland's Kellie Harrington beat Brazil's Beatriz Ferreira in the women's lightweight final.\n\nHarrington, 31, who works as a cleaner at a hospital in Dublin, became the second Irish woman to win boxing gold after Katie Taylor took lightweight gold at the 2012 Olympics in London.\n\nIt was a superb performance from Harrington, who collected a unanimous points victory, with two of the five judges giving her the win by 30-27 margins, and the other three scoring it 29-28 in her favour.\n• None Find out these athletes' favourite One Hit Wonders\n• None How it all started for Blossoms and why they are still true to Stockport", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nIn the early 2000s, an eight-year-old was asked to write down three goals as part of a school project.\n\nShe wrote that she wanted to become a kickboxing world champion, play international football for Wales and go to the Olympic Games.\n\nHer teacher raised an eyebrow, but the girl's grandmother told her to let the girl dream.\n\nShe had always told her granddaughter to reach for the moon and that if she fell short, she would land on the stars.\n\nBy the time she was 27, the girl had achieved all three of her goals.\n\nAnd then she went even further. Not only did she go to the Olympics, but the middleweight won a gold medal.\n\nThis is the story of Lauren Price: Olympic boxing champion.\n\nPrice was only three days old when it was decided her parents would not be able to look after her.\n\nHer nan, Linda, and granddad, Derek, took her in and raised her. Their terraced house in the south Wales town of Ystrad Mynach became Price's home too.\n\nThey used to call her Tigger.\n\nThe young Price had so much energy that her sporting journey began as a means of helping her burn off some steam.\n\n\"She was an adorable child - always smiling, always happy,\" Linda recalls. \"But always very, very busy - into everything.\n\n\"When she was very young, she was obsessed with football and running around. On a wet day she'd get a football and she'd be kicking it up and down the stairs.\n\n\"I knew we had to do something because she was continually on the go.\"\n\nThey tried athletics first. Derek took seven-year-old Lauren to a local club in Bargoed, but they were told she was too young.\n\nSo the former football coach contacted an old friend, who was setting up a football club in nearby Fleur-de-Lys. Price became their first, and only, girl member.\n\nShe loved the physical side of sport and it was not long before she took up kickboxing too. Rob Taylor had a club called Devils Martial Arts - the club that also shaped the early years of Great Britain taekwondo star Lauren Williams, who took silver in Tokyo - and coached groups of children in the local leisure centre.\n\n\"I'll always remember her coming through the door,\" Rob smiles. \"Little girl, bright blonde hair.\n\n\"She just had such an appetite for working. She always wanted to hit the pads.\n\n\"She was training seven, eight, nine, 10 hours a week. Three, four nights a week. Her gran and granddad would bring her along. She's back again, back again.\n\n\"We'd tried a competition and she'd do well in that. Then we'd move on and on.\n\n\"Her appetite and work-rate was insatiable. It was just infectious.\"\n\nBy the time Lauren was 13, she was fighting adults - and beating them.\n\nShe won four senior world kickboxing titles, as well as a host of European golds.\n\nAt every training session and competition, at home or abroad, her grandparents would be there.\n\n\"If it wasn't for my nan and granddad supporting me, I wouldn't have achieved anything,\" Price has said.\n\n\"They paid thousands for me to travel abroad and for me to compete, training every night, driving around the country.\"\n\nLinda says there was never a question. Welcoming the young Price into their home had given her and Derek a new lease of life.\n\nNearly every day of the week they would take her to training - kickboxing on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Football training twice a week, then a match on Saturday and another on Sunday.\n\n\"I just knew she was going to succeed,\" Linda says. \"She was one of these kids who got it into her head she was going to achieve and she just did.\n\n\"With her kickboxing, sometimes she'd train four hours a night. That's an awful lot of hours to be training when you're only nine or 10.\n\n\"She never once said, 'I don't want to go to training tonight'. Whether it was football or kickboxing. Never once. You just knew she was going to do something good.\"\n\nEven as the kickboxing titles racked up, Price continued to play football.\n\nAfter the age of 14, girls were no longer allowed to play in boys' teams. So she moved to Georgetown Girls in Merthyr Tydfil - before Cardiff City Women came calling.\n\n\"I don't think I'll ever coach another player as good as Lauren, with her ability but also her discipline,\" former coach Lesley-Ann Judd says.\n\n\"That's what I liked about Lauren. Her discipline to always improve.\n\n\"In training she'd be there early. Sometimes before I'd even set the cones up. And she'd be there right until the end.\n\n\"If she needed to work on something, she'd work on it. She listened and everything was just perfected.\"\n\nWhen she wrote out those three goals at school, Linda warned her teacher not to shatter her dreams.\n\n\"I've always said 'reach for the moon and if you fall short, you'll land on the stars',\" she says.\n\n\"Something will come. Just be determined and persevere. Always believe in yourself.\"\n\nPrice's footballing ability soon turned heads. She represented Wales at under-16, under-17, under-19 and senior level - all before her 17th birthday.\n\nShe went on to play for her country 52 times across all age groups and captained Wales Under-19s, winning two senior caps in 2012-13.\n\nThose kickboxing world titles and international football caps meant that two of the three goals that eight-year-old Lauren had written out had been achieved.\n\nBut the challenge to become an Olympian remained.\n\n\"I'd always watched the Olympics from a young age,\" Price said. \"I remember seeing Kelly Holmes [at Athens 2004] and people like that.\n\n\"It's the biggest sporting event ever. It just gave me goosebumps. I just wanted to compete in it one day. I didn't know in one sport or how.\"\n\nHer kickboxing and football careers continued, but Price had also gone for a trial at GB Taekwondo - and been successful.\n\nShe left home at 16 and moved to Manchester. She lived with future double Olympic champion Jade Jones, who had also recently joined the programme.\n\nThe London Olympics were round the corner but the sport was not quite right for Price.\n\n\"It didn't really fit with me,\" she admitted. \"It was hard being away from home at that age.\n\n\"In kickboxing I was always better with my hands than my legs. So I decided to come back and went to a boxing gym.\"\n\nIt proved to be a life-changing decision.\n\nThis was not Price's first time in a boxing gym. She had done a bit to improve her upper-body strength as she thought it would help her improve as a defender in football.\n\nBut it was the first time she started to take it seriously.\n\nAs ever, her granddad would willingly take her to train.\n\nUnsurprisingly, her kickboxing background and physical fitness meant she hit the ground running.\n\nIt was not long before she was sent to the Wales boxing squad for an assessment.\n\nShe impressed and at 17 years old was selected for the Youth World Championships.\n\nPrice reached the final and looked on course to win, only for the fight to be stopped because she got a nosebleed. She still seems aggrieved to this day.\n\nShe continued to box for Wales and play football for her country.\n\nIn football, she captained Wales Under-19s at a home European Championship.\n\nIn boxing, she was given an opportunity that would change the course of her sporting career for good.\n\nWomen's boxing had just been added to the Commonwealth Games programme. In 2014 she was given the chance to box for Team Wales.\n\nThe time had come to throw her weight behind one sport and having watched Nicola Adams and Katie Taylor win gold at London 2012, Price had the Olympic Games in her sights once again.\n\nShe went to the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and won bronze in the women's middleweight competition. Even now, she believes she was unlucky in the semi-final.\n\nPrice continued to train and continued to compete, but the Welsh programme was not full-time.\n\nSo she became a taxi driver at the weekend, delivering passengers back home through the night. It all helped make ends meet.\n\nThen, after the 2016 Olympics, she got a chance to trial for the British programme in Sheffield - which had brought back eight Olympic medals at the last two Games alone.\n\n\"Your initial thoughts are 'is she just awkward or is she good?',\" says GB Boxing performance director Rob McCracken.\n\n\"That's your first thought because it's early days. Then you quickly realise she was really good. Loads of potential.\n\n\"She had a really good platform with Wales. They brought her through on to GB and she's just got better and bigger and smarter and stronger - and technically [she is] really sound.\n\n\"Her achievements have been phenomenal. She's just been absolutely brilliant.\"\n\nWithin 18 months of moving on to the full-time GB programme, Price won Commonwealth gold in 2018. The following year she won European Games gold in the summer, before securing her first world title that autumn.\n\nWhen 2020 - an Olympic year - came around, Price was the reigning world, European and Commonwealth champion and world number one.\n\nIt seemed her third big target was finally about to be hit.\n\nBoxing's Olympic qualifying event in London was the perfect example of how quickly the world as we knew it unravelled. It began at the Copper Box Arena on Saturday, moved behind closed doors on Sunday and was suspended by the Monday.\n\nPrice had been due to fight for her Olympic spot on Tuesday afternoon.\n\nThe following week the Tokyo Games was postponed and Price, like everyone, was in lockdown - training in her garage in Sheffield.\n\n\"It affected me more mentally than anything,\" she said, \"just because I'd been on such a roll of winning.\n\n\"I hadn't boxed for 18 months [by the end] so you have a lot of questions in your head. Even though you're doing the training, it's totally different when you're in that ring.\n\n\"Luckily enough I had a good team behind me and they got me through it and peaked me at the right time.\"\n\n'He was my number one fan'\n\nBut while Price continued to train hard in Sheffield for the rearranged Tokyo Games, at home in Ystrad Mynach her granddad Derek's health was sadly deteriorating.\n\nHe had been diagnosed with dementia some years before and although the pride he felt for his granddaughter had burned through when he spoke to BBC Wales in 2019, it was obvious he could no longer remember all the precise details of Price's early sporting success.\n\nThe man who took Price to every boxing session, every kickboxing competition and every football match died in November 2020.\n\n\"He was such a big part of my life,\" Price says. \"He was my number one fan.\n\n\"He got me involved in it and he was sport mad. I'd go everywhere with him.\n\n\"For me I take it as a blessing that he's not suffering any more. I tried to prepare myself for it but when it happens there's nothing like losing someone. So I was in a bit of a state.\"\n\nPrice was home when he passed away. She stayed for the funeral but then flew to San Diego for a training camp. The Olympics were eight months away and, as Linda says, Price's granddad would not have wanted her to miss out.\n\nThe qualifying event was eventually held in Paris in June. Price took the gold to secure her spot in Tokyo in style.\n\nShe went back home, as she always did after a big competition. Usually she would show her granddad any medal she had won. Even when Derek was ill, Price says, she could tell he was still proud.\n\nThis time her granddad was not there. So Price placed her medal next to the vase that held his ashes. It is still there.\n\n\"A bit strange I know,\" Price says. \"But normally I'd give it to him and he wasn't there.\n\n\"For me the biggest thing I take from it is I know he's looking down on me and he's with me.\n\n\"We got there in the end.\"\n\nThe story of Lauren Price had one more remarkable chapter before she left for Tokyo. She was invited to Kensington Palace to be interviewed by the Duke of Cambridge.\n\nPrice calls her nan every night, wherever she is, and Linda responds with encouraging text messages.\n\nThe Duke joked we could all use that and she should start a motivational texting business. He then proceeded to give Price a cake to mark her 27th birthday.\n\nPrice - level-headed as ever - took the whole experience in her stride.\n\nShe arrived in Tokyo, completed her final preparations and walked out towards the ring to face Mongolian fighter Myagmarjargal Munkhbat.\n\nShe was an Olympian. But what more could she achieve?\n\nShe beat Munkhbat in the round of 16 and then beat Panama's Atheyna Bylon to guarantee herself an Olympic medal.\n\nThe semi-final pitted her against long-time Dutch rival Nouchka Fontijn. The woman Price had beaten to win her European Games and World Championship titles - but who had beaten her twice this year already.\n\nFontijn won the first round and looked on course to end Price's Olympic dream. But a brilliant final-round performance from the Welsh fighter secured a narrow win and a place in the final.\n\nChina's Li Qian, the 2018 world champion, now stood in her way but Price dominated from the start, outworking and outmanoeuvring her taller opponent.\n\nWith the first two rounds going to Price, her opponent needed a stoppage or knockout in the final round. But the Welsh southpaw's pressure was unrelenting and she skilfully took that as well for a 5-0 points victory, with a 30-27 winning margin on all five judges' scorecards securing the Olympic title - and Britain's 22nd and final gold in Tokyo.\n\nPrice also became the second British woman to win boxing gold after Adams' flyweight successes in 2012 and 2016 and the first Welsh boxer to achieve Olympics success.\n\nAt the family home in Ystrad Mynach, framed on the wall, is the phrase that Price was always told by her nan.\n\n'Reach for the moon and if you fall short, you will land on the stars.'\n\nBut this is the story of a girl who reached for the moon and grabbed it.\n\nA kickboxing world champion, an international footballer and an Olympic boxing champion.\n\nThe result of years of dedication, hours of hard training and, of course, the love and support of her nan and granddad.\n• None Find out these athletes' favourite One Hit Wonders\n• None How it all started for Blossoms and why they are still true to Stockport", "Taliban security guards in Kabul, a year on from their triumphant return to power\n\nThe Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, two decades after being removed from power by a US-led military coalition.\n\nThe hardline Islamist group advanced rapidly across the country, seizing province after province before taking the capital Kabul on 15 August last year, as the Afghan military collapsed.\n\nForeign forces, who had agreed to leave, were stunned by the speed of the advance and had to accelerate their exit. Many Western-backed Afghan government leaders fled, while thousands of their compatriots and foreigners fearing Taliban rule scrambled to find room on flights out of the country.\n\nWithin weeks, the Taliban were in control of all of Afghanistan - something they had not managed to do in their first stint in power between 1996 and 2001.\n\nThe group had struck a deal with the Americans in 2020 for US troops to withdraw, following a bloody but ultimately successful guerrilla campaign lasting many years.\n\nTaliban fighters pictured in Laghman Province last year as they began a lightning offensive to retake the country\n\nUnder the deal, the Taliban committed to national peace talks, which never took place, and to preventing al-Qaeda and other militants from operating in areas that the Taliban controlled.\n\nFollowing the group's return to power, Afghanistan's economy imploded, leaving a huge portion of the population struggling to find enough money to eat and to access other essentials.\n\nBillions of dollars in Afghan assets held abroad are frozen as the international community waits for the Taliban to honour promises still to be met on security, governance and human rights, including allowing all girls to be educated.\n\nThe Taliban, or \"students\" in the Pashto language, emerged in the early 1990s in northern Pakistan following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.\n\nIt is believed that the predominantly Pashtun movement first appeared in religious seminaries - mostly paid for by money from Saudi Arabia - which preached a hardline form of Sunni Islam.\n\nThe promise made by the Taliban - in Pashtun areas straddling Pakistan and Afghanistan - was to restore peace and security and enforce their own austere version of Sharia, or Islamic law, once in power.\n\nFrom south-western Afghanistan, the Taliban quickly extended their influence. In September 1995, they captured the province of Herat, bordering Iran.\n\nExactly one year later, they captured the Afghan capital, Kabul, overthrowing the regime of President Burhanuddin Rabbani - one of the founding fathers of the Afghan mujahideen that resisted the Soviet occupation. By 1998, the Taliban were in control of almost 90% of Afghanistan.\n\nAfghans, weary of the mujahideen's excesses and infighting after the Soviets were driven out, generally welcomed the Taliban when they first appeared on the scene.\n\nTheir early popularity was largely due to their success in stamping out corruption, curbing lawlessness and making the roads and the areas under their control safe for commerce to flourish.\n\nBut the Taliban also introduced or supported punishments in line with their strict interpretation of Sharia law - such as public executions of convicted murderers and adulterers, as well as amputations for those found guilty of theft. Men were required to grow beards and women had to wear the all-covering burka.\n\nThe Taliban also banned television, music and cinema, and disapproved of girls aged 10 and over going to school. They were accused of various human rights and cultural abuses. One notorious example was in 2001, when the Taliban went ahead with the destruction of the famous Bamiyan Buddha statues in central Afghanistan, despite international outrage.\n\nThis time round, there has been no repeat of such excesses, but the Taliban are accused of a range of well-documented abuses, including killing opponents, as well as beating and detaining journalists and Afghans protesting for their rights.\n\nWomen are no longer allowed to go on long-distance journeys without a male chaperone and, while not required to wear the burka, have been ordered to cover their faces in public. Most women are not allowed to work.\n\nPakistan has repeatedly denied that it was the architect of the Taliban enterprise, but there is little doubt that many Afghans who initially joined the movement were educated in madrassas (religious schools) in Pakistan.\n\nPakistan was also one of only three countries, along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which recognised the Taliban when they were in power the first time round in Afghanistan. It was also the last country to break diplomatic ties with the group.\n\nAt one point, a Pakistani offshoot of the Taliban threatened to destabilise Pakistan from areas it controlled in the north-west. One of the most high-profile and internationally condemned of all Pakistani Taliban attacks took place in October 2012, when schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai was shot on her way home in the town of Mingora.\n\nA major military offensive two years later following the Peshawar school massacre greatly reduced the group's influence in Pakistan, though. At least three key figures of the Pakistani Taliban had been killed in US drone strikes, including the group's leader, Hakimullah Mehsud in 2013.\n\nSchoolgirl and rights activist Malala Yousafzai was shot by Taliban gunmen in October 2012\n\nThe attention of the world was drawn to the Taliban in Afghanistan in the wake of the 11 September 2001 World Trade Center attacks in New York. The Taliban were accused of providing a sanctuary for the prime suspects, Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda movement.\n\nOn 7 October 2001, a US-led military coalition launched attacks in Afghanistan: by the first week of December, the Taliban regime had collapsed. The group's then leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, and other senior figures, including Bin Laden, evaded capture despite one of the largest manhunts in the world.\n\nMany senior Taliban leaders reportedly took refuge in the Pakistani city of Quetta, from where they guided the Taliban. But the existence of what was dubbed the \"Quetta Shura\" was denied by Islamabad.\n\nDespite ever higher numbers of foreign troops, the Taliban gradually regained and then extended their influence in Afghanistan, rendering vast tracts of the country insecure, while violence in the country returned to levels not seen since 2001.\n\nThere were numerous Taliban attacks on Kabul and in September 2012, the group carried out a high-profile raid on Nato's Camp Bastion base.\n\nPakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike in 2013\n\nHopes of a negotiated peace were raised in 2013, when the Taliban announced plans to open an office in Qatar. But mistrust on all sides remained high and the violence went on.\n\nIn August 2015, the Taliban admitted they had covered up Mullah Omar's death - reportedly from health problems at a hospital in Pakistan - for more than two years. The following month, the group said it had put aside weeks of infighting and rallied around a new leader, Mullah Mansour, who had been the deputy of Mullah Omar.\n\nAt about the same time, the Taliban seized control of a provincial capital for the first time since their defeat in 2001, taking control of the strategically important city of Kunduz.\n\nMullah Mansour was killed in a US drone strike in May 2016 and replaced by his deputy Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, who remains in control of the group.\n\nIn the year following the US-Taliban peace deal of February 2020 - which was the culmination of a long spell of direct talks - the Taliban appeared to shift their tactics from complex attacks in cities and on military outposts to a wave of targeted assassinations that terrorised Afghan civilians.\n\nThe targets - journalists, judges, peace activists, women in positions of power - suggested that the Taliban had not changed their extremist ideology, only their strategy.\n\nDespite grave concerns from Afghan officials over the government's vulnerability to the Taliban without international support, new US President Joe Biden announced in April 2021 that all American forces would leave the country by 11 September - two decades to the day since the felling of the World Trade Center.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Hibatullah Akhundzada is a religious scholar and he is former head of the Taliban courts\n\nHaving outlasted a superpower through two decades of war, the Taliban began seizing vast swathes of territory, before once again toppling a government in Kabul in the wake of a foreign power withdrawing.\n\nThey swept across Afghanistan in just 10 days, taking their first provincial capital on 6 August. By 15 August, they were at the gates of Kabul.\n\nTheir lightning advance prompted tens of thousands of people to flee their homes, many arriving in the Afghan capital, others heading for neighbouring countries.\n\nThe future for Afghans living under the Taliban's rule remains highly uncertain. While most are relieved war is over, millions are struggling to survive.\n\nNo country has recognised the Taliban government in the year since they returned to power.\n\nThe August 2022 killing in a US drone attack of al-Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul will do nothing to persuade Taliban critics that the group has turned over a new leaf.\n\nHardliners in the movement appear to have the upper hand on issues such as female employment, freedom of speech and secondary education for girls, meaning that desperately needed foreign-held funds are unlikely to be released any time soon.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nTottenham fans put north London rivalries aside to welcome Arsenal's Bukayo Saka back to domestic duties for the first time since Euro 2020.\n\nSaka's introduction into Arsenal's 1-0 pre-season defeat at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was his first appearance since he was racially abused after missing a penalty in England's shootout defeat by Italy in the final.\n\nWith no away fans for any of the Mind Series matches, the Spurs fans gave Saka a warm ovation as he replaced skipper Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.\n• None Where is your club playing in pre-season?\n\nTottenham fans also displayed a banner which read \"North London stands with Bukayo Saka and all players against racism and discrimination\".\n\nSaka almost scored as well but new Tottenham goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollini kept out the 19-year-old's low shot.\n\nAfter Dele Alli had twice hit a post from close range, Son Heung-min secured victory for the hosts 10 minutes from time when he drove home from Japhet Tanganga's lay-off.\n\nSaka's England team-mate Ben White made his first start for the Gunners but Harry Kane was missing for the hosts.\n\nTottenham boss Nuno Espirito Santo later confirmed Kane was isolating at the club's training ground and hopes to speak to him - socially distanced - on Monday.\n\nNuno also refused to talk about about Inter Milan's £60m-rated striker Lautaro Martinez, who Tottenham are trying to sign.\n\n\"Harry is with us. He has to quarantine, he's in the lodge but he's training. He already had the first day with the sports scientists. He's with us,\" said the former Wolves boss.\n\n\"I didn't speak today because today was a match but we have a training session tomorrow. Hopefully, socially distanced, I will speak with Harry.\"\n\nOn Martinez, he added: \"I won't speak about any player. I will speak only about my players, Tottenham players, nothing else.\"\n\nArsenal midfielder Joe Willock, who has been linked with a move to Newcastle, was absent for the Gunners on Sunday, with manager Mikel Arteta refusing to comment on his future.\n\n\"We will explain the reasons when we can,\" said the Spaniard. \"It's all I can say now, when I can say more I will let you know.\"\n\nElsewhere, Liverpool defender Andy Robertson was forced off with an ankle injury during the Reds' 1-1 pre-season draw against Athletic Bilbao at Anfield.\n\nThe Scotland international went over on his right ankle while attempting to block a cross shortly before half-time and had to be helped from the field by the medical team.\n\nManager Jurgen Klopp confirmed after the game that Robertson will have a scan on Monday to determine the severity of the injury.\n\nLater on Sunday Robertson tweeted : \"Thank you for all your messages. I'm positive but let's see what tomorrow brings!\"\n\nDiogo Jota converted Sadio Mane's pass to give Klopp's side the lead in the first half, but winger Alejandro Berenguer levelled after the break to earn Bilbao a draw.\n\nReds defender Virgil van Dijk played 72 minutes as he continues his recovery from a serious knee injury.\n\nLiverpool apologised \"wholeheartedly\" to supporters after issues with their new ticketing system caused huge queues at the turnstiles and saw kick-off delayed by half an hour.\n\nThe Merseysiders play Osasuna in their final pre-season game on Monday before travelling to Norwich for their Premier League season opener on Saturday.\n\nDanny Ings scored on his debut as Aston Villa came from behind to beat Serie A newcomers Salernitana behind closed doors at Villa Park.\n\nIngs, a £25m signing from Southampton, cancelled out Joel Obi's opener before Anwar El Ghazi's penalty put Villa 2-1 up at half-time.\n\nFormer England international Ashley Young, who rejoined the club earlier this summer, wrapped up the victory in the second half.\n\nDean Smith's side open their campaign at newly promoted Watford on Saturday.\n• None Get news and features about your favourite team direct to your phone with the BBC Sport App's Premier League club news notifications, along with line-ups, latest scores and results. Download the App here:\n• None Notifications, Live Guide, social media and more with BBC Sport", "The UN has condemned the practice of child marriage\n\nPolice in Zimbabwe are investigating the death of a 14-year-old girl during childbirth, a case that sparked outrage among citizens and rights activists.\n\nMemory Machaya is reported to have died last month at a church shrine in the eastern region of Marange.\n\nThe case has exposed the exploitation of minors, as she was reportedly forced to abandon school to get married.\n\nThe United Nations urged the government to recognise child marriage as a crime and bring an end to the practice.\n\nThe organisation said it \"notes with deep concern\" and \"condemns strongly\" reports into the circumstances surrounding the death.\n\n\"The current trend of unresolved cases of violence against women and girls in Zimbabwe, including marriages of minors, cannot continue with impunity,\" the UN said in a statement on Saturday.\n\nThe girl's death on 15 July has put the spotlight on the practice of child marriage within Zimbabwe's Apostolic Church, which often rejects medicine and hospital treatment.\n\nHer family has said that the baby survived the birth and was doing well, local media report.\n\nThe circumstances that led to the death and subsequent burial are under investigation by the police and the country's state gender commission.\n\nAn online petition calling for \"justice for Memory Machaya\" has so far received more than 57,000 signatures.\n\nZimbabwean feminist activist Everjoice Win said it was time for people to pressure those \"with the power to uphold the law, or make new laws\".\n\nWomen and girls were \"not seen as fully human, with individual rights... to control our own bodies\" she wrote on Twitter.\n\nBy law, Zimbabwean girls are allowed to get married at the age of 18, while 16 is the age of sexual consent.\n\nBut some families believe child marriage can provide financial benefits.\n\nMany child brides hope marriage will provide the opportunity to go to school. However, young girls typically end up falling pregnant soon after, or being kept at home to carry out household chores.", "Ant McPartlin and Anne-Marie Corbett wed at St Michael's Church in Heckfield, Hampshire\n\nAnt McPartlin and Anne-Marie Corbett have married at a star-studded wedding ceremony.\n\nThe pair beamed as they waved to photographers and cheering fans following the wedding at a quaint rural church in Hampshire.\n\nThe couple shared a kiss before departing the venue in a black Rolls Royce.\n\nThey and their guests exited St Michael's Church in Heckfield through a specially-constructed arch made of hydrangeas and roses.\n\nMcPartlin and TV sidekick Declan Donnelly, pictured before the ceremony, wore matching suits\n\nMcPartlin previously described his now wife as his \"rock\"\n\nThe couple waved at photographers and fans who gathered for the occasion in rural Hampshire\n\nTelevision presenters Cat Deeley and Patrick Kielty, who are married, were among those who attended\n\nPhilip Schofield said the ceremony was \"great fun\"\n\nCrowds gathered to cheer the couple, who left in a black Rolls Royce\n\nSchofield said the ceremony was \"amazing\" and \"great fun\" as he left the church.\n\nA large group of photographers were gathered outside the venue to capture the occasion.\n\nDozens of fans were also standing outside the church to catch a glimpse of the happy couple.\n\nTelevision presenter McPartlin, 45, and 43-year-old Corbett, who was formerly his personal assistant, have been in a relationship since 2018.\n\nThey got together following McPartlin's separation from Lisa Armstrong, his wife of 11 years, earlier in 2018.\n\nMcPartlin and Corbett were reportedly planning to marry abroad but opted to host the ceremony in the UK because of the pandemic.\n\nCorbett has two daughters from her relationship with ex-husband Scott Corbett.\n\nBritain's Got Talent presenter McPartlin, from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, has previously described Corbett as his \"rock\" after she supported him following his 2018 drink-driving arrest and stint in rehab.\n\nAmanda Holden, his Britain's Got Talent co-star, apologised for not being able to make the ceremony as she is on holiday.\n\nShe wrote on Instagram that she was \"so sorry\" to miss the special day, adding: \"Sending our love and huge congratulations to Ant & Amzie on this amazing day.\"\n\nOther guests included married television presenters Patrick Kielty and Cat Deeley, singer Alesha Dixon and former footballer Frank Lampard and his television presenter wife Christine.", "Former Business Secretary Alok Sharma is now leading COP26, the climate summit in Glasgow in November\n\nThe world is \"dangerously close\" to running out of time to stop a climate change catastrophe, the UK government's climate chief Alok Sharma has said.\n\nMr Sharma - who is leading COP26, the climate summit hosted by the UK this year - said the effects were already clear with floods, fires and heatwaves.\n\n\"We can't afford to wait two years, five years, 10 years - this is the moment,\" he told the Observer.\n\nBut he did not condemn the government for allowing more fossil fuel projects.\n\nAnd he defended his decision to travel to more than 30 countries in seven months.\n\nMr Sharma's interview with the Observer comes ahead of a major report being released on Monday from the United Nations' climate change researchers.\n\nThe report is set to be the strongest statement yet from the UN group on the science of climate change - and will likely give details about how the world's oceans, ice caps and land will change in the next decades.\n\nThe summary has been approved in a process involving scientists and representatives of 195 governments, which - having signed off on the findings - will be under pressure to take more action at COP26 in November.\n\nDoug Parr, chief scientist with Greenpeace UK, said \"world leaders have done a terrible job of listening\" to warnings about climate change.\n\n\"This year, this has to change. We don't need more pledges, commitments and targets - we need real action right here right now.\"\n\nWildfires are currently raging in Greece, forcing thousands to evacuate their homes - and fires have also been burning in Turkey and California in the US. This summer, western Europe also saw its worst flooding in decades, which killed dozens of people.\n\nMr Sharma said if urgent action was not taken, the consequences would be \"catastrophic\".\n\n\"I don't think there's any other word for it,\" he said. \"You're seeing on a daily basis what is happening across the world. Last year was the hottest on record, the last decade the hottest decade on record.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHe added: \"We're seeing the impacts across the world - in the UK or the terrible flooding we've seen across Europe and China, or forest fires, the record temperatures that we've seen in North America. Every day you will see a new high being recorded in one way or another across the world.\"\n\nMr Sharma said the report released on Monday is \"going to be the starkest warning yet that human behaviour is alarmingly accelerating global warming\".\n\n\"I don't think we're out of time but I think we're getting dangerously close to when we might be out of time. We will see [from the IPCC] a very, very clear warning that unless we act now, we will unfortunately be out of time.\"\n\n\"Africa has been waiting for the rest of the world to catch up and act on climate change for years,\" Fredrick Njehu, Christian Aid's senior climate change and energy adviser for Africa, highlighting the \"changing rainfall patterns or overbearing heat\" endured by the continent in recent years.\n\nHe added: \"The important thing now is that rich world governments make up for lost time and act quickly to reduce emissions and deliver promised financial support for the vulnerable.\"\n\nGlasgow is set to host the COP26 summit in November - which is the UN climate change conference.\n\nThe summit is seen as vital if climate change is to be brought under control, and leaders from 196 countries will meet to try and agree action.\n\nBut campaigners have accused the UK of hypocrisy, as there are plans to tap a new oil field off Shetland. The government has also said more oil and gas wells can be drilled in the North Sea, and there are plans for a new coal mine in Cumbria.\n\nEarlier this year, the global energy watchdog the International Energy Agency said there cannot be any new investment in oil, gas or coal projects if we want to limit global warming to 1.5C. Experts say the impacts of climate change are far more severe when the increase is greater than 1.5C.\n\nMr Sharma refused to criticise the government's plan for the projects, saying: \"Future [fossil fuel] licences are going to have to adhere to the fact we have committed to go to net zero by 2050 in legislation.\n\n\"There will be a climate check on any licences.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Climate change: How 1.5C could change the world\n\nMr Sharma's interview comes after he was criticised for flying abroad for meetings - and visiting more than 30 countries in seven months.\n\nHowever, since then some environmental campaigners including Greenpeace have defended him, saying face-to-face meetings are important to persuade other nations to tackle climate change.\n\nMr Sharma told the Observer that in-person meetings were \"incredibly vital and actually impactful\".\n\n\"It makes a vital difference, to build those personal relationships which are going to be incredibly important as we look to build consensus,\" he said.\n\nIt also emerged in the Sunday Mirror that Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab did not self-isolate after returning from France, which was on the amber plus list meaning all arrivals must quarantine.\n\nA government spokesman said it was Mr Raab's job to represent the UK abroad and he followed Covid guidelines on return.\n\nThere is an exemption for ministers to avoid quarantine when returning from abroad.", "Level zero ended in Scotland at midnight with almost all remaining restrictions now removed.\n\nCovid restrictions in Scotland have been lifted at the \"right moment\", according to the first minister.\n\nNicola Sturgeon admitted to feeling \"nervousness\" at the move, but said the vaccine was now giving \"significant protection\".\n\nLevel zero ended at midnight with almost all of the remaining anti-Covid measures now removed.\n\nThe legal requirement for physical distancing ends in most places and hospitality can open at full capacity.\n\nLarge outdoor gatherings can go ahead and nightclubs are allowed to open.\n\nMany clubs in Scotland opened their doors overnight for the first time since March 2020, with hundreds queuing up for the midnight reopening.\n\nOne clubber at the Buff Club in Glasgow told BBC Scotland: \"We are so excited for tonight. This is Freedom Day - we're ready.\"\n\nScotland has been under varying levels of Covid restrictions for almost 18 months.\n\nMs Sturgeon said in an interview with ITV's Good Morning Britain: \"I think there's always going to be nervousness when we lift restrictions after such a long period.\n\n\"I have to be honest that there's some butterflies in my stomach about it today, but I think it's the right moment to do this.\"\n\nNightclubs were able to open their doors for the first time since March 2020\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney said care was still required when dealing with the virus, but added it was the \"right moment to act\".\n\n\"We've seen a sustained fall in the number of cases that we've been experiencing of Covid,\" he told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland.\n\n\"We have very high levels of vaccination as a consequence of the supremely successful vaccination programme that has been put in place, so we have a significant amount of protection.\n\n\"And we have the benefit that we are still in the summer period and there is an opportunity for people to be spending more time out of doors.\"\n\nLarge outdoor gigs will be allowed to go ahead - with permission - with no physical distancing\n\nHowever, Mr Swinney, the Scottish government's minister for Covid recovery, warned that face coverings were likely to a \"significant\" part of life in Scotland \"at least through the winter\".\n\n\"When I've travelled in Asia there is a common use of face coverings by individuals... and it becomes part of the cultural activity of particular countries,\" he said.\n\n\"I don't know if that will happen here, but I think some people will feel safer as a consequence of wearing face coverings.\"\n\nResponding to Mr Swinney's comments, Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said the threat of Covid rules lasting until 2022 would \"dismay\" people across Scotland.\n\n\"Nicola Sturgeon seems determined to cling on to control, even when the public health data does not support all of the government's decisions,\" he said.\n\n\"For instance, they have provided no evidence to explain why 12 year olds need to keep wearing face masks but 11 year olds do not.\n\n\"It's vital that the rules are straightforward, logical and communicated clearly. That no longer appears to be the case.\"\n\nThe new rules also signal the return of outdoor events of more than 5,000 people and indoor events of more than 2,000 - but they must apply for permission from local authorities and the government to go ahead.\n\nOn Friday it was also announced that children under 12 would no longer have to wear face coverings.\n\nThere are also new rules on self-isolation for close contacts of positive cases.\n\nDouble-vaccinated adults and all children can now avoid self-isolation if identified as a close contact so long as they are symptomless and provide a negative PCR test.\n\nWhole classes in schools will no longer have to stay at home if an infection is discovered, although children and adults who are higher-risk close contacts will be told to isolate.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon: \"We should feel positive about where we are... and should act with appropriate caution\"\n\nIn an interview with BBC Breakfast, Nicola Sturgeon said the policy of wearing face coverings in schools will be reviewed after six weeks but she doesn't know how long the requirement will be kept in place in other settings.\n\nThe first minister said people should be cautious, but should also \"feel positive about where we are right now\".\n\nEdinburgh University public health expert Prof Linda Bauld, also said caution was still needed as the Office of National Statistics infection survey showed there remained a \"reasonable amount\" of infections in the community.\n\n\"There are still a large number of people who are very anxious about going through this next phase. They may be clinically vulnerable and we need to think about them in our own behaviour,\" she told BBC Scotland.\n\n\"The virus has not gone away.\"\n\nHowever, Prof Bauld added she was \"really optimistic\" that Scotland was \"getting on top of the pandemic\".", "A firefighter was unfairly dismissed from his union job after speaking at a pro-Brexit rally in Westminster, an employment tribunal has found.\n\nPaul Embery was also barred from being a Fire Brigades Union (FBU) official for two years after appearing at the Leave Means Leave rally in March 2019.\n\nNorwich Employment Tribunal ruled he was unfairly dismissed after a \"witch hunt\" with a pre-determined outcome.\n\nBut it found Mr Embery was not dismissed for supporting Brexit itself.\n\nThe FBU said it was disappointed with the findings and that it was assessing its options.\n\nMr Embery, a prominent left-leaning political activist and writer, was employed by the London Fire Brigade but released to conduct union duties as a full-time regional official in the capital between 2008 and 2019.\n\nOver a three-day hearing in February the union argued Mr Embery displayed gross misconduct in his role.\n\nThis was because, it claimed, he did not exempt FBU officials from criticism during his speech at the rally and went against the union's anti-Brexit policy.\n\nMr Embery called for Brexit to go ahead, without a deal if necessary, during the 29 March event, which was held on the day the UK was due to leave the European Union.\n\nThe tribunal heard there had been regular disagreements between Mr Embery and FBU General Secretary Matt Wrack over the issue of Brexit. Mr Embery was warned of reprisals and at one point accused of siding with the far right.\n\nThe conflict appeared to come to a head as Mr Embery planned to attend the Leave Means Leave rally in Parliament Square.\n\nBefore the rally, the tribunal heard Mr Embery was told by FBU President Ian Murray that he should not attend as a speaker and that to do so could breach the union's policy against Brexit, which passed in 2016.\n\nMr Murray was also said to have suggested it could contravene a statement prohibiting FBU officials from campaigning with political opponents during the referendum campaign.\n\nMr Embery believed Mr Murray was wrong, and that the policy had lapsed once the referendum was held, the tribunal was told.\n\nThe activist was introduced at the rally as an organiser of Trade Unions Against the European Union and used a speech to describe a battle to defend the principle of democracy, after a majority voted to leave the EU in June 2016.\n\nMr Embery said in the speech that the \"message to the leaders of my movement is, if you want to stay relevant, then it's about time you put yourself on the side of the people over the establishment and big business, and you better do that damn quickly\".\n\nOther speakers at the rally included Nigel Farage, Brexit Party chairman Richard Tice and then Labour MP Kate Hoey.\n\nNigel Farage and then Labour MP Kate Hoey also appeared at the Leave Means Leave rally\n\nTwo weeks later, the FBU launched an internal investigation which found Mr Embery had gone against the union's anti-Brexit policy and appeared alongside individuals \"with whom there should be no shared platform\".\n\nThe investigation found Mr Embery had acted in a way that was \"prejudicial to the interests of the union\" and had failed to make a specific exception for the FBU when, it said, he criticised those in the movement who continued to oppose Brexit.\n\nThe tribunal heard that, as a result, Mr Embery was removed from office for gross misconduct and was subsequently barred from standing as a union official for two years.\n\nIn a written judgement, Employment Judge Robin Postle said Mr Embery's removal from office amounted to unfair dismissal under the Employment Rights Act 1996.\n\nHe said the finding of gross misconduct \"was not a reasonable response that a reasonable employer would or should make on the history of the claimant's campaigning with the open knowledge of the union\".\n\nThe tribunal agreed with Mr Embery that the 2016 anti-Brexit policy did not apply at the time of the rally in 2019 because the referendum effectively made it irrelevant.\n\nIt also said that the transcript of Mr Embery's speech showed there was no mention of his role within the FBU.\n\nThe judgement added: \"Where is the gross misconduct? How could any fair minded member come to a reasonable belief on the facts that the claimant had committed any form of misconduct?\"\n\nThe judge said it appeared \"right from the start... there was an agenda\" to remove Mr Embery from his FBU role.\n\nPart of the union's investigation looked like a \"witch hunt, a fishing exercise\" with its outcome \"pre-determined\", he added.\n\nThe FBU, which was represented at the tribunal by Oliver Segal QC, had also argued Mr Embery was not an employee of the FBU but was on full-time release from his job as a firefighter to the union as an elected representative.\n\nMr Embery, who represented himself, said that for 11 years between 2008 and 2019, being a full-time union official, working at least 42 hours a week, was the only job he had known. He began his career as a firefighter in London in 1997.\n\nThe tribunal found Mr Embery \"worked full time for the union in return for substantial remuneration\" of around £7,000 on top of his normal firefighter's salary, which the union reimbursed.\n\nWhile the tribunal agreed Mr Embery's pro-Brexit stance was \"well advanced, argued and long held\" and a protected philosophical belief in national independence under the Equality Act 2010, it found it was not the reason for his dismissal.\n\nIn a statement, Mr Embery described the judgement as \"emphatic\".\n\nHe said: \"While I am glad that, after two years, justice has finally been served, I take no pleasure in the outcome. It was an honour to serve as an FBU official for 20 years, and I remain to this day a proud member of the union.\"\n\nAn FBU spokesperson said: \"We are disappointed with the findings and we do not agree with the decision. However, we have only recently received it and are still considering the matter. We are assessing our options for next steps.\"\n• None What happens now that a deal's been done?", "The New York Times crossword puzzle is currently syndicated to more than 300 other newspapers\n\nThe digital version of The New York Times (NYT) daily crossword puzzle will no longer be available in third-party apps from next week.\n\nInstead the crosswords will only be accessible digitally through the publication's own website or app.\n\nThey have been available in the Across Lite format, which allows anyone with a NYT subscription to download and open them in an app of their choice.\n\nCrossword fans have questioned the move, describing it as \"maddening\".\n\nAcross Lite is a free program that uses the .puz format, and enables users to create and open the puzzles on a PC or Mac.\n\nThe NYT's Games subscription - which includes the popular crossword - is separate from the newspaper and costs $1.25 a week, or $5 a month.\n\nOne of the advantages of subscribing is that users can download any of the crosswords that have featured in the paper since 1993, and the change also applies to this service.\n\nThe decision to end support for Across Lite has infuriated some of the publication's followers.\n\nCrossword champion Dan Freyer claimed on Twitter that he believed the move was nothing more than a \"cash grab\".\n\n\"This is maddening. This change benefits none of the millions of online #NYTXW solvers who pay an annual subscription for access to the crosswords.\"\n\nHe continued: \"It is a pure cash grab, removing the convenience that has been part of digital crosswords since the mid-'90s.\"\n\nThis 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 Dan Feyer 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.\n\nIn response, the NYT's games editor, Everdeen Mason, said the decision was made for \"editorial reasons\".\n\nShe said in a tweet she wanted to build something which her staff could control, adding: \"It takes a lot of time, and I'm confident this is the best move for my team.\"\n\nThis 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 2 by EverQueen Mason 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.", "The number of NHS Covid-19 app alerts fell significantly in England and Wales in the last week of July, official statistics show.\n\nNearly 396,000 people were pinged, compared with the previous week's record of 690,129, a fall of 43%.\n\nThe number of people reporting symptoms into the app also fell - 24,391 reports compared to 36,156 the week before.\n\nThe figures were collected before changes to the app, which means it now notifies fewer close contacts.\n\nThe number of positive tests linked to the app also fell 43% to just over 84,500 in England and Wales.\n\nThe latest numbers show two pings were issued by the NHS app in England for every reported case.\n\nThat is a fall from the previous week, but still well above levels seen in May when it was just over 1.1 isolation alerts for every reported case.\n\n\"Pings\" are sent to people who have been using the app and have spent enough time close to another person with it, if that person later tests positive for Covid-19 and enters their result into the app.\n\nThe big fall in alerts doesn't include the impact of changes to the app intended to reduce the number of contacts advised to self-isolate following a close contact with a positive case.\n\nAn update released earlier this week means the app will look for contacts two days prior, rather than five, when someone without symptoms tests positive.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid said it would reduce disruption, but still protect those at risk.\n\nA number of industries, including car manufacturers, had complained that the number of staff isolating because of pings was disrupting production.\n\nSome bar staff told the BBC managers had asked them to delete the app to avoid having to isolate.\n\nThe number of check-ins to venues using the app also saw a large decline.\n\nIn the week ending 28 July there were 2.4 million check-ins in England and Wales, down from 6.8m the week before - a drop of 65%.\n\nThe total number of downloads of the app also increased more slowly compared with the previous week.\n\nHowever, the government is urging the public to continue using the app.\n\nIf you are \"pinged\" by the app you are advised - but not legally obliged - to self-isolate.\n\nThe government has allowed some key workers - such as those working in food distribution - to be exempt from having to self-isolate if pinged. Instead, they have to take daily tests.\n\nA peer reviewed study published in May suggested that the app helped prevent several hundred thousand COVID-19 cases.", "UK music festivals and other live events are to be protected by a government-backed insurance scheme if they have to cancel because of Covid.\n\nIt will begin next month with a £750m budget to cover cancellation costs if events are legally unable to happen due to government Covid restrictions.\n\nThe live events industry, which has repeatedly called for such a plan, broadly welcomed the announcement.\n\nMore than half of all music festivals have been cancelled this summer.\n\nAnd several events, including the Boomtown and Womad festivals, have cited an inability to obtain cancellation insurance as a factor in their decision.\n\nThe new scheme will see insurance companies provide cover for live events, with the government agreeing to act as a reinsurer - guaranteeing that any pay-outs will be funded.\n\nJulian Knight MP, who chairs the House of Commons culture select committee, said: \"Though it is a shame that it has come too late for some this summer, this scheme will provide the confidence the sector needs to plan and invest in future events.\"\n\nPromoter Live Nation UK called it a \"vital intervention\" that would give the sector \"certainty\".\n\nHowever, there are concerns that it will just pay out if events are banned by another lockdown. The Musicians' Union said \"the major problem\" with the scheme is that it does not cover events that would become uneconomical if social distancing came back into force.\n\nThe Association of Independent Festivals welcomed the scheme, but said it doesn't \"cover a festival needing to reduce capacity or cancel due to social distancing restrictions being reintroduced\".\n\nGreg Parmley, chief executive of industry association Live, said the scheme was \"good news\" but \"the devil is very much in the detail\".\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the association wanted to work with government to ensure it covered cancellations due to the reintroduction of social distancing making an event financially unviable and artists being forced to self-isolate after catching the virus.\n\nHe added that these situations were \"far more likely\" to cause events to be cancelled in the coming months than another lockdown.\n\nChancellor Rishi Sunak said the lack of \"the right kind\" of insurance had proved \"a problem\" for the UK's live events industry.\n\n\"As the economy reopens I want to do everything I can to help events providers and small businesses plan with confidence right through to next year,\" he said.\n\nRishi Sunak said \"the right kind of insurance\" was needed\n\nCulture Secretary Oliver Dowden called it \"an important next step\" for the live events sector, and said it would give organisers \"the confidence they need to plan for a brighter future\".\n\nThe development comes after the government's £1.8bn Culture Recovery Fund was set up to provide grants for arts organisations and heritage sites affected by the pandemic.\n\nJamie Njoku-Goodwin, head of trade body UK Music, said: \"We are extremely grateful to government for listening to the calls of the sector and delivering a solution to the market failure in the insurance industry.\"\n\nMichael Kill, the CEO of the Night Time Industries Association, said: \"I am extremely pleased the government has decided to introduce an insurance scheme for the events and festival sector, it stands testament to a government that is starting to acknowledge the varying issues within the sector and through engagement, take the appropriate action to protect businesses and jobs.\"\n\nBut, he added: \"It is devastating that the timings of this scheme could not have been earlier, as we have already lost many amazing festivals and events to the uncertainty that this pandemic represents.\n\nLabour said the funding was a \"bare minimum\" and promoters would still be taking risks by staging events.\n\nShadow culture secretary Jo Stevens described the scheme as \"a solution that doesn't address the problem\".\n\nThe government also published endorsements from the Events Industry Alliance, the Meetings Industry Association and the organisers of Southampton International Boat Show.\n\nEvents companies will be able to purchase the cover from next month, with the scheme set to run until September 2022.\n\nBut the events industry is not the only sector currently calling for more government support.\n\nThe travel industry has urged the Treasury to extend the furlough support scheme to protect jobs.\n\nTim Alderslade, chief executive of industry body Airlines UK, said despite the latest changes to the UK's traffic light system it was one of the \"few sectors that cannot reopen properly\".\n\n\"We've now had two summers of precious little revenue and we're at the limit of what we can borrow,\" he said. \"Tens of thousands of jobs are at stake and without furlough it will be very tough.\"\n\nThe government said it was providing an \"unprecedented package\" of support to protect jobs and businesses, and the airlines sector would have received about £7bn by the end of September.\n\nOn Thursday 30,215 new Covid cases were reported across the UK, along with a further 86 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.", "The global giant which produces the Oatly oat milk drink accused a rival of copyright breaches\n\nA family-run farm has won a legal battle against the multimillion-pound makers of plant milk, Oatly, which accused it of trademark infringement.\n\nOatly brought legal action against Glebe Farm Foods, in Cambridgeshire, saying their product PureOaty took \"unfair advantage\" of their own drink.\n\nA High Court judge ruled in favour of the farm saying he did not see \"any risk of injury to the distinctive character\" of the Oatly brand.\n\nThe farm said it was \"gratifying\".\n\nOatly was founded in the 1990s and produces a milk substitute made from oats.\n\nThe brand is endorsed by a number of celebrities including Oprah Winfrey.\n\nDuring the two-day hearing in June, the court heard Oatly had sold more than £38m worth of its \"barista edition\" oat milk, and more than £13m of other varieties.\n\nGlebe Farm Foods, based near Huntingdon, launched an oat milk in 2019 called \"Oat Drink\", before rebranding it \"PureOaty\" in 2020.\n\nOatly's lawyers said the farm had infringed five of their firm's trademarks with the \"PureOaty\" name and the drink's packaging, as well as \"passing off\" their product as Oatly's.\n\nOatly sought a High Court injunction earlier this year to stop Glebe Farm Foods selling its PureOaty brand\n\nGlebe Farm Foods, run by brother and sister Philip and Rebecca Rayner, denied the claims.\n\nRuling in favour of the farm, Judge Nicholas Caddick QC, said while there were similarities between the initial PureOaty packaging and the Oatly packaging, including the use of the colour blue and the use of an irregular font for the product name, these were \"at a very general level\".\n\n\"It is hard to see how any relevant confusion would arise from the defendant's use of the sign 'PureOaty',\" he said.\n\nHe concluded: \"On the facts of this case, I do not see that there is any risk of injury to the distinctive character of Oatly's marks.\"\n\nPhilip and Rebecca Rayner said the outcome was \"enormously gratifying\"\n\nMr Rayner said his farm had \"always felt certain that we have done nothing wrong\".\n\n\"You only need to look at the two products and packaging side by side to appreciate how different these brands are, and how unnecessary this legal action was,\" he said.\n\n\"It is enormously gratifying... to see that smaller independent companies can fight back and win.\"\n\nA spokeswoman for Oatly said the company would not be appealing the decision.\n\n\"For us, this case has always been about protecting our trademark and how the single letter Y creates too much of a similarity between Oaty and Oatly.\"\n\nShe said Oatly wished Glebe Farm Foods \"total success... moving forward\", but added: \"We just think they should do so in their own unique voice, just like we do.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Man City\n\nManchester City have signed England midfielder Jack Grealish from Aston Villa for a British record £100m.\n\nThe 25-year-old joins the Premier League champions on a six-year contract and will wear the number 10 shirt recently vacated by Sergio Aguero.\n\nThe fee surpasses the £89m Manchester United paid to re-sign midfielder Paul Pogba from Juventus in 2016.\n\n\"City are the best team in the country with a manager considered to be the best in the world,\" said Grealish.\n\n\"It's a dream come true to be part of this club.\"\n\nThe move makes Grealish the ninth most expensive footballer in history.\n\nHe could make his debut for Pep Guardiola's side in Saturday's Community Shield against Leicester City at Wembley.\n• None Villa 'hoped' Grealish £100m release clause would never be met\n• None Where does Grealish fit in at Man City?\n• None Quiz: Name the past 13 players to go for a British transfer record\n\nA boyhood Villa fan, Grealish joined the club aged six and made 213 appearances in all competitions, scoring 32 goals.\n\nHe said: \"It was obviously a difficult few months because I have been an Aston Villa fan for my whole life, but when I spoke to the manager here and you see what type of players they have got here, in the end it was something I couldn't say no to.\n\n\"Competing for major trophies is something that I wanted to do. It was something I couldn't turn down.\n\n\"Playing in the Champions League was a massive thing for me, I haven't done that yet. When I was sitting there on a Tuesday or Wednesday night last year it was just what I wanted to do. To be able to do it with this club is going to be a dream.\n\n\"I had a long chat with [Pep Guardiola] about positions and stuff like that, all football. It was such a positive chat and shows why I want to play under him.\n\n\"The way this team is set up to play suits me down to a tee, the way the manager likes to play suits me.\"\n• None How would you get Grealish in the team? Pick your Man City XI\n• None Listen: The Football Daily Podcast breaks down Grealish's move to Man City\n\nCity director of football Txiki Begiristain said: \"Jack's development over the past few seasons both for club and country has been plain for everybody to see.\n\n\"His natural talent together with his commitment to improve as a player has seen him become one of the most exciting attacking players in world football today.\"\n\nIn an address to supporters explaining the reasons behind Grealish's sale, Villa chief executive Christian Purslow revealed there was a £100m release clause in the five-year deal he signed last summer.\n\n\"Jack wanted to be certain if at any point a Champions League club came in for him and Aston Villa were not in the competition we would not stand in his way,\" said Purslow.\n\n\"For that reason, we agreed to incorporate a so-called release clause. We set the value at a level we hope would not be met, but reflected his true value to Villa.\"Manchester City said they would be willing to pay £100m to trigger the clause.\n\n\"It was a highly emotional moment when Jack finally told me his decision, leaving me in no doubt how hard it had been for him to decide to leave.\"\n\nAfter progressing through the Villa youth set-up, Grealish went on loan to Notts County, then in League One, in 2013 to gain senior experience.\n\nHe made his Villa debut in a 4-0 defeat by City in May 2014 and made 17 Premier League appearances during the 2014-15 season as Villa finished one place above the relegation zone.\n\nDuring the following season, he scored his first top-flight goal against Leicester City in September 2015 and made 16 league appearances as Villa finished bottom and were relegated to the Championship.\n\nVilla spent three seasons in the Championship before Grealish helped them regain their Premier League status with a play-off final win against Derby County.\n\nHe made 36 Premier League appearances during 2019-20 and scored eight goals, including one in the 1-1 draw against West Ham United which secured Villa's top-flight survival on the final day of a season interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nA Republic of Ireland Under-21 international, Grealish announced in 2015 that he wanted to represent England. Having switched to their Under-21 side, he made his senior England debut in a goalless draw against Denmark in September 2020.\n\nLast season, Grealish scored six goals in 26 Premier League appearances, including two in a 7-2 win over Liverpool, as Villa finished 11th.\n\nHe spent three months out injured from mid-February to mid-May but his return just before the end of the campaign saw him selected in England manager Gareth Southgate's squad for Euro 2020.\n\nGrealish impressed in warm-up wins against Austria and Romania and made one start and four substitute appearances, registering two assists, for England during the tournament.\n\nFor all the nudges about Manchester City's spending and the questions about how the club manages to do deals like this one without falling foul of profit and sustainability rules, it is worth noting they are now responsible for the biggest single purchase by an English club during their Abu Dhabi ownership for only the second time.\n\nThe first occasion was that never-to-be-forgotten night in 2008 when Sheikh Mansour went on an elaborate sweep of available players to prove he was a man to be taken seriously and spent £50m on Brazil striker Robinho.\n\nIn the same period, Manchester United have held the record seven times. It is United's £89m purchase of Paul Pogba in 2016 that the Grealish deal has overtaken.\n\nOf City's 'big six' rivals, only Tottenham have not invested a significant sum in an individual player during the pandemic - although United and Chelsea are the only clubs that can truly be argued to have spent such high sums so consistently over so many seasons.\n\nThere is a book-balancing exercise going on as well.\n\nIncluding Leroy Sane's exit for Bayern Munich last summer and the £11m they received as a sell-on payment from Borussia Dortmund's sale of Jadon Sancho to Manchester United, City sources argue the club has already raised £109.5m over the past 12 months - with - potentially - another £55m to come through sales of younger players.\n\nThis does not include the exit of high-earning Sergio Aguero to Barcelona, nor the potential sales of bigger names before the transfer window closes, the most likely of which is Bernardo Silva, who wants to move to Spain.\n\nOn the basis that some clubs will always have more money than others, some may wonder why this is important anyway.\n\nHowever, given their recent skirmish with Uefa over Financial Fair Play, it is understandable why City are sensitive when it comes to their finances.\n\nEvidently though, the club is in a different place to 20 years ago, when they were trying to re-invent themselves under Kevin Keegan. Back then their idea of a big name was Eyal Berkovic, who joined them from Celtic for £1.5m.\n\nFind all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.\n• None Get news and features about your favourite team direct to your phone with the BBC Sport App's Premier League club news notifications, along with line-ups, latest scores and results. Download the App here:\n• None Notifications, Live Guide, social media and more with BBC Sport", "The Mexican government has sued some of the biggest US gun manufacturers, accusing them of fuelling bloodshed through reckless business practices.\n\nThe lawsuit alleges that the companies knew they were contributing to illegal arms trafficking, which has been linked to many deaths.\n\nOfficials say Mexico is seeking as much as $10bn (£7.2bn) in compensation, though any amount would be decided by the court.\n\nThe companies have not yet commented.\n\nThey include Smith & Wesson and Barrett Firearms, among others. The BBC has contacted both companies for comment.\n\nThe lawsuit was filed on Wednesday in the US state of Massachusetts.\n\nIt says the Mexican government took the action \"to put an end to the massive damage that the [companies] cause by actively facilitating the unlawful trafficking of their guns to drug cartels and other criminals in Mexico\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe gun manufacturers \"are conscious of the fact that their products are trafficked and used in illicit activities against the civilian population and authorities of Mexico\", the Foreign Ministry said in a document related to the lawsuit.\n\nMexico said the companies had used \"marketing strategies to promote weapons that are ever more lethal, without mechanisms of security or traceability\".\n\nMexican officials said that some of the guns made by Colt appeared to target the Mexican market in particular, such as a pistol engraved with the face and name of Mexican revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata.\n\nMexico has strict rules regulating the sale of weapons and they can only be purchased legally at one shop located on an army base in the capital.\n\nAs a result, those who want to buy weapons often get them from the US.\n\nAccording to a Mexican government statement, criminal organisations buy thousands of pistols, rifles, assault weapons and ammunition in supermarkets, on the internet and at arms fairs in the US which are then used to commit crimes in Mexico.\n\nThe US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found that 70% of firearms recovered in Mexico between 2014 and 2018 which were submitted for tracing had come from the US.\n\nIn 2019 alone, more than 17,000 murders in Mexico were linked to trafficked weapons.\n\nOne official told reporters the damage caused by trafficked guns would be equal to around 1.7% of Mexico's gross domestic product (GDP).\n\nSpeaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said: \"We are going to win the trial and we are going to drastically reduce illicit arms trafficking to Mexico.\"\n\nMexican officials stressed that the lawsuit was not aimed at the US government. Mr Ebrard said he believed that President Joe Biden's administration was willing to work with Mexico to curb arms trafficking.\n\nBut experts have cast doubt on Mexico's likelihood of success with the lawsuit.\n\nLorenzo Meyer, an emeritus professor at the College of Mexico, told AFP news agency that US law \"makes it almost impossible for gun manufacturers to be held responsible\" for the illegal trade.", "UK travel rules must be simplified, says travel chief\n\nWillie Walsh, director general of the International Air Travel Association, says \"a simpler [international travel] system is definitely what is required to avoid confusion in the case of consumers\". Speaking to BBC Radio 4's World At One programme, he said it would also provide some form of certainty for people who are wanting to travel - and in some cases \"absolutely need to travel\". Walsh also said the market for PCR tests was \"in many cases unregulated\", with tests being advertised online for £20 but actually costing £150. A Covid test is needed three days before returning from an amber country, and a PCR test two days after arriving. Those arriving from Spain are being asked to use a PCR test for the first of those two tests. \"This expensive and unnecessary testing I think needs to be challenged and I think the government should demonstrate why they require it,\" Walsh said. \"I think there is a valid reason and a concern, and I would accept that maybe for some of these high-risk countries that have been identified you can make the argument that some form of testing should be done.\" But, referring to the number of PCR tests he said had been taken by travellers since 25 February, he added: \"I don't think you can justify requiring 2.2 million people to undertake PCR tests when only 8,000 of those are subsequently sequenced.\"", "Sudesh Amman was jailed for 40 months in 2018 for preparing and engaging in acts of terrorism\n\nA Probation Service worker has denied there was a \"missed opportunity\" to recall a convicted terrorist before he went on a stabbing spree.\n\nSudesh Amman was shot dead by police on Streatham High Road on 2 February 2020, after stabbing two people.\n\nDays before the attack he was spotted buying items later used to fashion a fake suicide belt, his inquest heard.\n\nAt the time the Probation Service was \"satisfied\" the purchases had not breached any licence conditions.\n\nA man and a woman were stabbed by Amman with a stolen knife during the 62-second knife attack on Streatham High Road. Both survived.\n\nThe inquest into Amman's death at the Royal Courts of Justice heard that two days before the attack he had been seen buying some bottles of soft drink, a roll of tape and some kitchen foil.\n\nHe later fashioned these items into a fake suicide belt.\n\nProbation staff were aware of the purchases, the inquest jury was told, but decided Amman's actions were not enough to recall him to prison.\n\nThe inquest was told Amman stole a 20cm kitchen knife from a shop\n\nRajiv Menon, representing Amman's family, said to Carina Heckroodt, of the Probation Service: \"Your failure to recall him was a most serious missed opportunity in this case.\"\n\nMs Heckroodt replied: \"I disagree, it was not a missed opportunity.\"\n\nBilal Rawat, representing the Probation Service, asked her: \"If you were aware of the risk he presented, if you found a legitimate basis to recall him, would you?\"\n\nMs Heckroodt replied: \"I would have done it immediately.\"\n\nBefore he was released from prison for terror offences, police had described Amman as \"one of the most dangerous individuals that we have investigated\".\n\nOn 9 January, police, MI5 and probation officials met to discuss Amman's imminent release. At the meeting police predicted he would attack the public upon his release, jurors heard.\n\nMs Heckroodt also attended the Joint Operational Team (JOT) meeting on 9 January.\n\nIn a witness statement read to the jury, she said: \"During this JOT, the police said that Amman was a high threat and that an attack would be when, not if.\"\n\nThe 20-year-old was captured on CCTV during the attack\n\nJurors previously heard that police had asked the prison governor not to release Amman from HMP Belmarsh.\n\nHowever, this happened on 23 January as there was no mechanism to prevent it.\n\nThe 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. Kaylee-Jayde Priest: CCTV shows last time she was seen before her death\n\nA mother has been convicted alongside her then boyfriend of killing her three-year-old daughter, days after threatening to do so in a text message.\n\nKaylee-Jayde Priest was found dead at the flat in Solihull where she lived with her mother, Nicola Priest, 23, on 9 August last year.\n\nPriest and lover Callum Redfern, 22, were cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter.\n\nThe youngster died from serious chest and abdominal injuries.\n\nThe child's mother rang 999 but a jury convicted Priest after hearing the youngster had been \"dead before the call was made\".\n\nMedical examinations later showed she had also suffered historical injuries including broken ribs, lower leg fractures and a broken sternum, Birmingham Crown Court heard.\n\nNicola Priest and Callum Redfern pointed the finger of blame at each other during their trial\n\nPriest and Redfern were at the time in a \"close sexual relationship\".\n\nJurors had heard how the mother would hit Kaylee around the head, while the youngster was also heard crying \"in a fearful tone\".\n\nOn one occasion, neighbours in a flat below at Kingshurst House, Solihull, recalled hearing a bang above and then the girl crying, before allegedly hearing Priest say: \"I'll just say she fell off the bed.\"\n\nThe same residents claimed they noticed that \"when Kaylee cried, the response appeared to be to drown out her crying with music\".\n\nIn a text message exchange on 24 July last year, days before the youngster's death, Priest told Redfern: \"I'm gonna kill her... because she keeps leaving the living room or going in the kitchen, so I've paled [hit] her one and smacked her for [dirtying] her nappy.\"\n\nRedfern said: \"Good - give her one from me.\"\n\nThe youngster's grandmother said she \"deserved to show the world who she could have been\"\n\nFrom the time the mother moved in to the flat in mid-2019, neighbours heard her \"shouting with real regularity\" at Kaylee, including comments like \"Shut up\", \"Go away\" or \"Leave me alone\" - and \"never anything positive or kind\".\n\nIn CCTV played to court, the girl and Priest were seen together, hours before the youngster's fatal collapse, using a lift at the block of flats where they lived.\n\nAt no point in the footage was there any physical contact between the pair, with the mother neglecting to reach out to hold her daughter's hand.\n\nPriest, of Poplar Avenue, Edgbaston, Birmingham, and Redfern, of Temple Street, Dudley, will be sentenced on Friday.\n\nThe mother was also found guilty of cruelty to a child, relating to the youngster's historical injuries, but Redfern was cleared of that charge.\n\nIn a statement released through police after the verdicts, Kaylee's grandmother, Debbie Windmill, said she could \"never stop staring at the smile on her beautiful face\".\n\nThe grandmother added preparing to buy her first grandchild her pre-school uniform \"was something that filled me with such happiness\".\n\nShe said: \"I couldn't wait to see her in it, but this opportunity was stolen from me in the most brutal of ways.\"\n\nSpeaking afterwards, Det Insp Adam Jobson, said he did not think \"we will ever fully know what has happened\".\n\nHe added: \"One thing is clear, Nicky Priest has failed her daughter, she's failed to protect her and she should be - being a mother to that little girl - the one person who should have been able to protect her.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "About 1.4 million 16 and 17-year-olds in the UK could now get a jab\n\nSixteen and 17-year-olds in Wales could be offered a jab before they return to school or college for the new term, the health minister has said.\n\nEluned Morgan said \"in an ideal world\", invitations would start going out in the next few days.\n\nThe UK Joint Committee on Vaccine and Immunisation (JCVI) has decided they will not need parental consent and would receive the Pfizer-BioNTech jab.\n\nMs Morgan said \"the right thing to do is to listen to the experts\".\n\n\"We are hoping that we will be able to get this done, ideally, before they go back to their sixth forms, their colleges at the beginning of September,\" she added.\n\nThe JCVI changed guidance earlier this week, meaning 1.4 million teenagers across the UK will be eligible.\n\nMs Morgan said: \"There's around 400 years of experience around that JCVI table, people who really know what they're talking about.\n\nThe health minister said the decision was based on the advice of experts\n\n\"So what they've done is they have looked at all the issues which could arise and we do have to appreciate that there are lots of harms.\n\n\"It's not just about Covid - there are mental health issues, there are other issues.\"\n\nShe said the Welsh government needed to ensure pupils remained in school and to give at least a first dose of the vaccine.\n\nLaura Doel, director of head teachers' union NAHT Cymru, said it should not be the responsibility of schools and teachers to encourage vaccine uptake.\n\n\"Vaccination decisions need to be based on the medical and scientific evidence and if the Welsh government says that's what they're doing that's of course something we would support,\" she added.\n\n\"We do feel however that every parent has the choice to make that decision, and we don't feel that schools have a role to play in enforcement or promoting that choice.\"\n\nWalk-in centres have been set up to make it easier for those who have not had a first dose\n\nThe health minister said she hoped enough sixth-formers would come forward to mean there would be no role for teachers in encouraging them.\n\n\"We are talking to schools about the need to make sure there is appropriate ventilation and that we go into the winter prepared for what could be a difficult time, but of course we do hope that we are in a situation now where so much of the population have received both doses of the vaccine that we'll be in a different place,\" she said.\n\nMs Doel also said she was concerned about other measures ending.\n\n\"Schools have had staggered starts and finish times in place for a number of months,\" she added.\n\n\"This disapplication of the regulations has now ceased so that means schools won't be able to have that flexibility, and if you take away those staggered start and finish times, if you take away things like contact groups you need to make sure that whatever is put in place in terms of mitigation is robust and make sure that schools are as safe an environment as possible.\n\n\"What we don't want is for vaccinations to take the place of those other rigorous mitigation measures because we believe they all have a role to play in the safety of schools.\"", "Domenico Paviglianiti was arrested on the streets of Madrid carrying six mobile phones\n\nA suspected boss of Italy's powerful 'Ndrangheta mafia clan, which controls much of Europe's cocaine trade, has been arrested in Spain.\n\nDomenico Paviglianiti, one of Italy's most wanted fugitives, was detained on the streets of Madrid, officials say.\n\nDubbed the \"boss of the bosses\", Paviglianiti, 60, had been on the run for two years.\n\nThe 'Ndrangheta is one of the world's richest criminal groups, operating from Calabria in southern Italy.\n\nOfficers hunted the fugitive down following a joint operation carried out by Italian and Spanish authorities.\n\nPaviglianiti had six mobile phones, nearly €6,000 (£5,000) in cash and fake Portuguese documentation on him when he was arrested on Tuesday while leaving his house.\n\nWanted for his role in crimes committed in the 1980s and 1990s, including murder and drug trafficking, Paviglianiti was first arrested in Spain in 1996.\n\nHe was extradited three years later to Italy, where he was convicted and began serving a life sentence. But in 2019 he was released early due to an error in his sentencing.\n\nHe fled to Spain, where he was allegedly helped by family members who live there.\n\nAn Italian court handed Paviglianiti a fresh 11-year jail sentence in absentia in January for a series of crimes, including murder and criminal association with the aim of drug trafficking.\n\nPolice believe Paviglianiti is the head of a 'Ndrangheta clan, overseeing shipments of cocaine from South America.\n\nThe 'Ndrangheta has amassed huge wealth importing cocaine from Latin America and hashish from North Africa into Europe.", "Steven Barrett's pet cat Freyja seemed healthy just over a week ago, but after going downhill rapidly, she died on Tuesday.\n\nSteven fears that her death is linked to dry cat food he had been feeding her without knowing it had been recalled.\n\nRecently there has been a big UK spike in a rare disease called feline pancytopenia.\n\nInvestigations into a possible to link to pet food manufactured by Fold Hill Foods continue.\n\nFreyja, who was nine years old, had been fed from a 7.5kg bag of Applaws Chicken dry cat food that Steven had ordered from Amazon, but she had been poorly for six days.\n\nHe was unaware that the food had been recalled as a precaution in June until he tried to order another bag, found it was unavailable, and started searching on the internet.\n\nAs soon as Steven found out about the recall and the possible link to pancytopenia, he took Freyja to the vets.\n\nHowever, she went rapidly downhill. She received palliative care, but the vet was unable to do anything more for her.\n\nShe died from organ failure caused by suspected pancytopenia.\n\n\"It feels like we've lost a family member,\" he says.\n\n\"I'm grieving,\" he adds. \"I've been in floods [of tears]\".\n\nSteven says Freyja's death has been a \"huge blow\".\n\nPancytopenia is a bone marrow disease which causes the number of blood cells to rapidly fall and is often fatal.\n\nThere has been a big spike in pancytopenia in cats which started to pick up pace in the spring, according to figures from the Royal Veterinary College (RVC).\n\nSo far this year there have been 528 known cases, with 335 of those cats dying so far.\n\nHowever, the RVC says that these figures don't give the full picture.\n\nOnly a small percentage of UK vets are reporting to the RVC, and cats ill with pancytopenia may not be taken to the vet, the college said.\n\nTypically the college sees one case per year.\n\nSteven, who is a barrister, has a young daughter, and Freyja had been with them every day through the coronavirus lockdowns.\n\n\"It's a total nightmare,\" he adds. \"I wasn't expecting her to die.\"\n\nThe speed of Freyja's deterioration caught Steven by surprise, and he said the disease was \"virulent and incredibly quick.\"\n\nFreyja, a Ragdoll cat, was always kept indoors.\n\nHe said his grief is not being helped by the possibility that there could be a link to pet food, and that other family cats may yet suffer from the disease.\n\nThe Food Standards Agency (FSA), which is investigating the spike in the disease alongside the Royal Veterinary College, said in July that toxins produced by fungi had been found in a small number of pet food samples, but that does not indicate that they are the cause of feline pancytopenia.\n\nFold Hill Foods, which manufactures pet food for other firms, recalled several brands of dry cat food in June, the Food Standards Agency announced.\n\nThese include various types of Applaws, which is sold by Amazon and various small pet shops; Ava, which is sold by Pets at Home, and two types of Sainsbury's own brand food.\n\nSeparately, Wilko decided to pull a number of its products as a precautionary measure, although these were not part of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) recall.\n\nFold Hill Foods said in June that \"there is currently no established link between these deaths and food we produce and vet teams are working hard to establish the source\".\n\n\"We recognise and appreciate the distress this is causing to many people and are working with the FSA, Pet Food Manufacturers Association and veterinary authorities to assist them in identifying the source of the feline pancytopenia cases,\" the company said.\n\nThe RVC is analysing cat blood samples sent by vets, and samples of food have been tested in independent labs.\n\nThe investigations are ongoing, an RVC spokeswoman said on Wednesday.\n\nThe FSA said that Fold Hill Foods' manufacturing facility in Lincolnshire had been visited by the county council.\n\n\"This is a complex issue with lots of potential causes to consider and follow-up,\" an FSA spokeswoman said.\n\n\"We are working at pace with other government departments and businesses to get to the bottom of this,\" she added.\n\nIt is possible to sign up to receive FSA food and allergy alerts by text message or email to get notices about recalls.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Athlete Krystina Timanovskaya: \"It's dangerous for me in Belarus\"\n\nA sprinter from Belarus who refused her team's orders to fly home early from the Olympics has revealed she decided to flee after her grandmother warned her it was not safe to return.\n\nKrystina Timanovskaya told the BBC she was being driven to the airport when her grandmother called, saying: \"Do not come back.\"\n\nThe athlete had been ordered to return home after criticising her coaches.\n\nShe is now in Poland, where she has been given a humanitarian visa.\n\nBelarus says she was removed from the national team because of her emotional state. But the 24-year-old says this is not true.\n\nThe case has again put the spotlight on Belarus, which has been ruled by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko since 1994. Last year, nationwide protests over his disputed re-election were violently repressed by the security forces.\n\nMs Timanovskaya's removal came after the sprinter complained on social media about being entered into the 4x400m relay race at short notice, after some teammates were found to be ineligible to compete.\n\nThe video led to criticism in state media, with one television channel saying she lacked team spirit.\n\nMs Timanovskaya said two coaches came into her room and told her to pack her bags immediately, ready to return home. She was told to say that she had been injured.\n\nThe sprinter revealed her grandmother said she was concerned that something bad might happen, after watching local news reports on the situation.\n\n\"I couldn't believe [that my grandmother would tell me not to come home] but I asked, 'Are you sure?' And she said, 'Yes. I'm sure. Do not come back,'\" she recalled.\n\n\"That was the reason why I went to the police.\"\n\nAt the airport, Ms Timanovskaya showed officers a translated plea for help on her phone in an effort to avoid being put on a plane home.\n\nShe was then given police protection before being moved to the Polish embassy in Tokyo. She travelled to Poland on Wednesday.\n\nThe mass protests that gripped Belarus last year saw security forces often use violence to break up the demonstrations and thousands of people arrested.\n\nSome of the protesters were national-level athletes, who were then stripped of funding, cut from national teams and detained.\n\nBut Ms Timanovskaya insists that she is \"not a political girl\" and just wants to focus on her sporting career.\n\n\"I don't know anything about politics. I never was in politics,\" she said.\n\nThe sprinter told the BBC she wanted to return to Belarus, but that it was too dangerous at the moment.\n\nHer husband has also fled Belarus and has been given a visa for Poland, but her relatives remain in the country.\n\nShe said her parents were \"OK, just a little bit nervous\", and trying to avoid watching TV reports about their daughter.\n\n\"They know me and they know the truth and they know what's happened,\" she said.\n\nShe added that the support she had received from people around the world had made her stronger.\n\nIn a separate case, two Belarusian opposition figures have gone on trial this week, charged with incitement to undermine national security.\n\nAnd on Tuesday, Vitaly Shishov, the head of an organisation helping Belarusians fleeing abroad, was found dead near his home in neighbouring Ukraine. He had reportedly been followed recently.\n\nAsked about her hopes for Belarus, Ms Timanovskaya said: \"I want people in my country not to be afraid anymore\".", "Bukayo Saka was one of the black players who received abuse after missing a penalty in the Euro 2020 final\n\nPolice have arrested 11 people as they continue a hate crimes investigation into social media messages sent after the Euro 2020 final.\n\nThe UK Football Policing Unit received 600 reports of racist comments sent to England's black players after the defeat and judged 207 to be criminal.\n\nOf these, 123 were posted by people overseas, while 34 came from the UK.\n\nPolice said people who think they can hide behind social media accounts \"need to think again\".\n\nA wave of racist social media abuse was aimed at Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka after they missed penalties in the shoot-out at the Euro 2020 final last month.\n\nIt led to condemnations by the Football Association, England manager Gareth Southgate and the prime minister.\n\nChief Constable Mark Roberts, National Police Chiefs' Council Football Policing lead, said the investigation was proceeding \"at pace\" and said a \"vast amount of work\" went into identifying the 11 people arrested so far.\n\nThe majority of the arrests were on suspicion of malicious communications or breaching section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 - which includes sending messages which are \"grossly offensive\", convey a threat or are \"menacing\".\n\nMalicious communications offences carry a maximum penalty of two years in prison, while a breach of section 127 can lead to a sentence of six months in jail.\n\nThree people were arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred, which can mean a sentence of up to seven years in prison in the most severe cases.\n\nDetails of the 123 foreign accounts are due to be passed on to their respective countries for local authorities to take action.\n\nPolice are awaiting information from social media companies about the owners of the remaining 50 accounts.\n\n\"There are people out there who believe they can hide behind a social media profile and get away with posting such abhorrent comments,\" Mr Roberts said.\n\n\"They need to think again - we have investigators proactively seeking out abusive comments in connection to the match and, if they meet a criminal threshold, those posting them will be arrested.\"\n\nHe said the complexities of investigating social media abuse \"cannot be underestimated\" and thanked Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for responding quickly to police inquiries.\n\nThousands of fans sent supportive messages, which Arsenal posted on a wall as Bukayo Saka returned to training\n\nMeanwhile Bukayo Saka, the 19-year-old Arsenal forward who took England's final penalty, said he was \"speechless\" after his club presented him with a wall of supportive messages.\n\n\"How do I even say thank you for all of this?\" he asked.\n\nIn one, a young fan invited Saka to play football with him in the park and promised to \"let him win\".\n\nThose arrested include three people from London, two from Christchurch, Dorset, one from Runcorn, Cheshire, one from Sale, Greater Manchester, one from Folkestone, Kent, one from Reading, one from Shrewsbury and one from Worcester.", "Hong Kong residents believe China is undermining its rights and freedoms\n\nThousands of Hong Kong residents are to be offered a temporary \"safe haven\" in the US, President Joe Biden says.\n\nMr Biden said that because Hong Kong's freedoms were being violated by China, the US would allow visitors to stay for a period of 18 months.\n\nThousands of Hong Kong residents already in the US may benefit.\n\nChina has reacted angrily to the announcement, describing the decision as a gross interference in Hong Kong's internal affairs.\n\nThe UK has offered people from Hong Kong a path towards permanent residency following last year's adoption of China's security law for the territory.\n\nThe law criminalises what are deemed to be acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion.\n\nMr Biden said there were \"compelling foreign policy reasons\" to allow Hong Kong visitors to stay.\n\nHe said China had been \"undermining its remaining democratic processes and institutions, imposing limits on academic freedom, and cracking down on freedom of the press\".\n\nHe pointed to the arrests of more than 100 people, including activists and opposition politicians, under the new security regime.\n\nLiu Pengyu, the spokesman for China's embassy in Washington, criticised the US government's actions, which he said \"disregard and distort facts, and grossly interfere in China's internal affairs\".\n\nThe Chinese foreign ministry's Hong Kong office said the US had engaged in a \"plot to oppose China and stir up trouble in the city\".\n\nMaggie Shum, a researcher in the US, said many students had been left in limbo amid uncertainty about returning to Hong Kong and welcomed Thursday's news.\n\n\"I feel elated and welcome this Biden decision to not abandon us - the US did not abandon us,\" she told Reuters news agency.\n\nSamuel Chu of Washington-based Hong Kong Democracy Council, which campaigned for the move, says the group estimates that it could affect some 100,000 people.\n\n\"It is a significant number because, I think, its a pretty good chance that a pretty large number of visitors would benefit from this,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"Partly also because the situation in Hong Kong has been unfolding pretty publicly, and you've seen people travelling and leaving Hong Kong in droves, not just to the US but other countries.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. From protests to 'patriots': Why China is bent on crushing Hong Kong dissent\n\nThe US government says some 155,000 visitors arrived from Hong Kong in 2019 and 23,000 came in 2020.\n\nThose who have serious criminal convictions will reportedly not be eligible to stay.\n\nThe move is the latest action Mr Biden has taken to combat what he says is an erosion of democracy in Hong Kong.\n\nIn July, the US government warned firms over the risks of doing business in Hong Kong under the security law.\n\nIn January, the UK introduced a scheme allowing residents of the former British colony to come to the UK for up to five years and apply for permanent residency. It launched the visa after China imposed the security law.\n\nThe British government estimates 5.4 million Hong Kong residents are eligible for the scheme, and expects 300,000 people to take up the offer in the first five years.", "Agricultural pesticides sold to farmers ready-mixed into \"cocktails\" can kill twice as many bees, according to an analysis of 90 studies.\n\nEach measured the impact of environmental stresses such as pesticides and poor nutrition.\n\nResearchers used that data to quantify how combinations of those stresses affected the pollinating insects.\n\nAnd they say commercial formulas, which contain multiple chemicals, should now require their own licences.\n\nThe UK has lost 97% of its wildflower meadows - an important food source for bees - since the 1930s\n\n\"Exposure to multiple pesticides is the norm, not the exception,\" Dr Harry Siviter, from the University of Texas at Austin, who led the study, told the BBC Radio 4's Inside Science programme.\n\nOne 2016 study showed bee colonies containing larger numbers of pesticides were much more likely to die.\n\n\"If you have a honeybee colony exposed to one pesticide that kills 10% of the bees and another pesticide that kills another 10%, you would expect, if those effects were additive, for 20% of the bees to be killed,\" Dr Siviter said.\n\n\"And that's exactly what we found when we looked at the interactions,\" he said.\n\n\"So we really should consider the interaction between those chemicals\" when licensing commercial formulas for use, Dr Siviter said.\n\n\"We don't continue to monitor pesticides once they're licensed for use, so we're proposing post-licensing observations.\n\n\"If those pesticides [used in combination] harm bees, that harm is recorded.\"\n\nAnother study published this week, however, suggests bees around the world are developing the ability to \"clear out\" a particularly damaging parasite - varroa, a mite that lives and feeds on honeybees and larvae.\n\nBees already have complex organised hygienic behaviours, such as removing infected broods of larvae from the hive.\n\nAnd now, data published in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B, from 40 years of research into colonies that survive infestations, without any chemical treatment, reveals they are evolving to \"repurpose\" that behaviour against varroa.\n\n\"We're seeing this resistance increasing around the world,\" Isobel Grindrod, from the University of Salford, said.\n\n\"And we're also seeing an increase recently in bee-keepers not having to treat [the mites] with chemical treatments.\"\n\n\"Pressure\" from the mites was driving healthy bees to adapt, she said.\n\n\"Their adaptability is really important, and that's why we need to maintain healthy bee colonies - to keep that adaptability - because there will be other, new diseases and pressures in the future.\"\n\nHear more about bees' battles with parasites and pesticides on BBC Inside Science on Radio 4 and BBC Sounds", "The crash happened near the Czech village of Milavce\n\nA train crash near the Czech Republic-German border has killed at least three people and injured dozens more.\n\nCzech Transport Minister Karel Havlicek said an express train from Munich heading to Prague went through a stop signal and hit a commuter train bound for the town of Domazlice.\n\nEarly indications were that the express train had failed to stop at a red light, he added.\n\nLocal media report both drivers were killed, as well as a female passenger.\n\nThe collision took place after 08:00 local time (06:00 GMT) near the village of Milavce, 140km (87 miles) south-west of the Czech capital Prague.\n\nSeveral foreigners were on the Munich train and some of them were among the injured, local media reported. The three people who died were all Czech nationals, a police spokesperson told Reuters news agency.\n\nFootage posted on social media shows crushed carriages and debris strewn across the tracks.\n\nDozens of emergency workers were assisted by helicopters. Rescue services took the most seriously injured to hospital.\n\nRescuers reported that seven people injured in the crash were in a critical condition.\n\nAn investigation has been launched into the crash\n\nThe Czech Republic's railway inspectorate has launched an investigation into the crash.\n\nCzech Prime Minister Andrej Babis tweeted his \"sincere condolences to the families of the dead\".\n\n\"Unfortunately, this summer is full of tragedies,\" he wrote.\n\nIn June, a tornado swept through several villages in the Czech Republic, killing five people and leaving more than 150 others injured.", "Logan was found dead in the River Ogmore on Saturday\n\nThe mother and step-father of a five-year-old boy whose body was found in a river have appeared in court.\n\nLogan Mwangi, also known as Logan Williamson, was found in the River Ogmore in Aberkenfig, Bridgend county, on Saturday.\n\nHis step-father John Cole, 39, has been charged with his murder.\n\nBoth Mr Cole and the boy's mother, Angharad Williamson, 30, both from Sarn, have been charged with perverting the course of justice.\n\nA 13-year-old boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, has also been charged with perverting the course of justice.\n\nAngharad Williamson and John Cole have both been charged over the death of Logan\n\nThe three defendants appeared separately at Cardiff Magistrates' Court on Thursday.\n\nThe court heard all charges relate to the period between the 28 July and 1 August.\n\nAll three defendants were remanded in custody and will appear at Newport Crown Court on Friday.\n\nMr Cole and Ms Williamson spoke only to confirm their name, age and address.\n\nLogan's body was found at about 05:45 BST on Saturday after reports of concerns for a missing five-year-old.\n\nHe was taken to Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend, where it was confirmed he had died.\n\nOne of Logan's classmates, who came with her parents to pay tribute near where his body was found, described him as a \"happy boy\" who \"liked Spider-Man\" and \"playing hide and seek\".\n\nThe girl's mother said: \"He just seemed really happy and a good boy. He was in my daughter's class for two years I think and they would be going up to big school in September.\"\n\nTeddies and balloons were left next to the River Ogmore in memory of Logan\n\nLogan's neighbour Teresa Mason said: \"The boy was really sweet. A happy-go-lucky child.\n\n\"We can't get our heads around it. We normally see him running around here with other kids. We got up Saturday and there was police outside the house. It's just shocking.\"", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nEmilio Ballack, the son of former Germany and Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack, has died at the age of 18.\n\nThe teenager was involved in a quad-bike accident which police told Reuters took place in the early hours of Thursday morning south of Lisbon.\n\nMichael Ballack's former clubs Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen sent messages of condolence to the family.\n\nOliver Kahn, who played alongside him for Germany and Bayern Munich, said he was \"shook deeply\" by the news.\n\n\"There are no words at a time like this,\" Khan said in a statement on Bayern Munich's website.\n\nThe German club said it was \"united in grief with its long-serving player and his family\".\n\nChelsea, where Ballack won the Premier League title, League Cup and FA Cup three times, said they were \"shocked and saddened\" to learn of Emilio's death.\n\nBallack played for Leverkusen from 1999 to 2002 and 2010 to 2012, and their sporting director Rudi Voller said: \"The news came as a shock and it's hit me very hard.\n\n\"We mourn for the lad and our thoughts are with Michael and Simone.\"\n\nGerman fourth-tier side Chemitzer FC said Emilio, who was the grandson of their supervisory board member Stephan Ballack, had completed a three-week internship with the club in 2019.\n\n\"Chemnitzer FC expresses its deeply felt sympathy for the Ballack family and wishes all relatives a lot of strength in this difficult time,\" they said in a statement.\n\nFormer Chelsea captain John Terry wrote on Instagram: \"Words can't describe how heartbroken I am.\"", "The factory is located in the Granville industrial estate near Dungannon\n\nA man has died following an incident at a food processing plant in County Tyrone.\n\nLinden Foods is in the Granville industrial estate near Dungannon.\n\nOne emergency crew and two officers were dispatched by the Ambulance Service after a report was made at 08:03 BST on Thursday.\n\nThe Health and Safety Executive are at the scene, and the police are also investigating the circumstances surrounding the death.\n\nLinden Foods said its thoughts were \"with the family, friends and workmates\" of the man.\n\n\"Safety is a priority at Linden Foods and we are investigating the circumstances of the tragic accident and fully co-operating with the relevant authorities,\" it added.\n\n\"We will be providing full support to those colleagues impacted by this tragic incident.\"\n\nUlster Unionist councillor Meta Graham said the \"thoughts and prayers\" of the community were with the man's family.\n\n\"He was an exceptional young man, an asset to everything he participated in,\" said Ms Graham.\n\nThe Clogher Valley representative said the community had been plunged into \"immense grief\".\n\nSinn Féin MP Michelle Gildernew said her thoughts were with the family, friends and loved ones of the man \"who are receiving the awful news of his tragic death\".\n\nDUP councillor Frances Burton said she was \"devastated\" and added the community \"will be deeply saddened by the death of this popular young man\".\n\n\"I know the family personally and I wish to send my condolences to them,\" she said.\n\nLinden Foods processes and manufactures beef, lamb, pork and chicken for branded and own label products.", "Mila asks for help through her Instagram page to find a new job in Barcelona\n\nA Russian lesbian family who featured in a controversial health food ad say they have left Russia after suffering online abuse and death threats.\n\nThe mother, Yuma, said on Instagram \"we're safe, we're resting\".\n\nThe family were targeted in a hate campaign after appearing in an ad for grocery chain VkusVill. The firm later apologised and replaced the photo with one of a heterosexual family.\n\nYuma's daughter Mila wrote in an online post that they are now in Barcelona.\n\nBoth Yuma and her oldest daughter Alina are in same-sex relationships.\n\nMila said \"now my family and I really need to get settled in Barcelona, these are not easy times for us and we need friends\".\n\nShe also told the BBC: \"We're very tired and depressed. We hope we'll be safe in Barcelona.\"\n\nYuma's post earlier showed herself and family members looking happy in a park with palm trees, and waving a rainbow LGBT flag.\n\nShe thanked their social media followers who had supported them, and said fleeing the Russian hate campaign had left them shaken.\n\n\"This was a tough ordeal for all of us, we're all in a fragile psychological state,\" she said.\n\nA later post shows them in a Barcelona metro station, with Yuma's caption explaining that they had to leave Russia \"so that my daughter could marry her girlfriend\".\n\nThe family posted this image from Barcelona with the slogan \"right to a family\"\n\nYuma voiced her own pain at having been rejected by her parents \"because I'm a lesbian\".\n\n\"In Russia we're denied the basic right to have a family. No matter who we are, we should all have that right!\"\n\nLast month VkusVill apologised after its original ad, showing the same-sex family, had triggered strong reactions on social media.\n\n\"There was an article here that hurt the feelings of many of our customers, staff, partners and suppliers,\" the organic health food chain said.\n\nThe food retailer removed this photo of the family from its website\n\nA 2013 law in Russia - widely condemned in the West - bans any promotion of gay values and lifestyles to minors.\n\nHomophobia is widespread in Russia, where many supporters of President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church identify LGBT+ activists with Western liberal values, seen as contrary to Russian tradition.\n\nIn a YouTube interview, recorded just before their departure, the family described the hate campaign directed against them. They spoke to YouTuber Karen Shainyan, who discusses LGBT issues on his channel.\n\nYuma said \"I was just knocked back by comments to my granddaughter, where some people wrote that they wanted to rape her, kill her, stab a child who is just sitting and smiling in the photograph\". She added: \"I'm most afraid for my granddaughter.\"\n\nShe said they had experienced previous homophobic attacks, including ones targeting the Bok o Bok (side by side) LGBT international film festival in Russia.\n\n\"In Moscow it was hell, there was an ambush, some chemicals were thrown at our volunteers,\" she said, referring to Bok o Bok.", "Amelia Halls, centre, with XR's Zoe Blackler and Riz Choudhry, was told she should not have received a criminal record\n\nA third Extinction Rebellion protester has had their conviction quashed at the Old Bailey in as many days.\n\nAmelia Halls, 23, was told she should not have been given a criminal record for peacefully obstructing a road during a 2019 demonstration.\n\nHer win comes amid mounting questions for the Crown Prosecution Service over cases brought against the protesters.\n\nA judge at the Old Bailey pressed prosecutors to explain whether they stand by a string of XR convictions.\n\nSince 2019, XR says that hundreds of its followers have been convicted of blocking roads.\n\nMany of those convictions now appear to be in doubt after the Supreme Court recently ruled that peacefully and briefly obstructing a highway for a genuine political cause was lawful activity.\n\nRobert MacQueen, 65, from Haslemere, Surrey, had his conviction overturned on Wednesday. On Tuesday, a judge quashed the conviction of Emma-Rose Goodwin, 47, from Exeter.\n\nAt least seven more XR-related appeals are due before courts in the coming weeks.\n\nIn October 2019, Amelia Halls sat down in the road outside London City Airport along with other XR protesters.\n\nShe did not threaten violence, but was arrested as police removed her from the scene.\n\nShe was later convicted by magistrates of obstructing the road and received a conditional discharge - a form of warning from a court that leads to a criminal record - and ordered to pay £400 prosecution costs.\n\nOn Thursday, counsel for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) Alex Slater told Judge Mark Dennis QC that it would not fight Ms Halls' appeal.\n\nMr Slater said the decision came in light of the Supreme Court's ruling in June that a peaceful and brief occupation of a road was part of the right to publicly protest.\n\nJudge Dennis quashed Ms Hall's conviction, ordered the CPS to pay her £30 train fare, and told its lawyers to declare next Wednesday what it would do with other cases in the appeals queue.\n\nMs Halls told BBC News she was delighted with the outcome.\n\n\"I feel really relieved that it has been quashed and it's encouraging for future appeals,\" she said.\n\n\"It seems that the courts are taking seriously the Supreme Court's verdict that obstruction of the highway is a proportionate response to the ecological emergency.\n\n\"Being sat in the road for 10 minutes is not a reason to give me a criminal conviction.\"\n\nIt is not clear how many Extinction Rebellion protesters have appealed against their convictions\n\nWhile hundreds of XR protesters have been convicted for the same offence, it is not clear how many have appealed.\n\nMike Schwarz, a solicitor acting in XR cases and an expert on protest laws, said: \"The police, prosecution and lower courts must take the right to protest seriously, particularly in the light of the recent Supreme Court judgement. They must not give way to any countervailing political pressure they may experience.\n\n\"But, frankly, it was the responsibility of the police and prosecution to get it right in the first place. It is pretty clear they have not.\n\n\"The only question is the degree of their failures. The burden on them is even greater to identify and correct any errors now and to account for themselves publicly.\"\n\nThe Crown Prosecution Service has confirmed that it is looking \"closely\" at XR-related convictions in light of the Supreme Court's ruling and Judge Dennis' request for a review - but has not confirmed how many cases may be affected.\n\nA spokesman said: \"We have a duty of continuous review of our cases which includes cases which have already been charged or are at the appeal stage. This enables us to take account of any change in circumstances or legal rulings. Each case is decided on its own merits\".", "Our viewing habits changed in lockdown with many people turning to streaming services\n\nUK adults spent nearly a third of their waking hours watching TV and online video content in 2020, according to a report from regulator Ofcom.\n\nScreen time, spurred on by pandemic lockdowns, was a daily average of five hours and 40 minutes, up 47 minutes on the previous year.\n\nFor the first time, more households had a Netflix subscription than a paid TV account such as cable or satellite.\n\nAnd nearly 80% of households now have their TVs connected to the internet.\n\nThe Media Nations Report, which Ofcom compiles annually, found that Covid-19 restrictions were the main drivers for the increase in screen time, especially for on-demand content.\n\nIt helped the UK's public service broadcasters secure some of their highest TV viewing figures for five years.\n\nNearly a third of UK adult internet users now regularly use TikTok\n\nBut the highest growth was seen in video-on-demand, with time spent on services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video almost doubling in 2020 to an estimated one hour and five minutes per person per day.\n\nSuch services were used by 60% of all UK households by the third quarter of 2020, up from 49% a year earlier.\n\nYouTube remained the most popular user-generated online video service, with people spending an estimated 41 minutes per day watching videos on its channels.\n\nBut Chinese-owned video app TikTok is also gaining in popularity and was being used by 31% of adult internet users by March 2021.\n\nYih-Choung Teh, Ofcom's group director of research, said: \"TV and online video have proved an important antidote to lockdown life, with people spending a third of their waking hours last year glued to screens for news and entertainment.\n\n\"The pandemic undoubtedly turbo-charged viewing to streaming services, with three in five UK homes now signed up.\"\n\nSome 29 of the 30 most watched titles on subscription services were on Netflix, including Bridgerton, The Dig, Behind her Eyes and Fate: The Winx Saga.\n\nAnd during the UK's winter lockdowns, people sought to cheer themselves up by spending almost an hour a day watching comedy programmes.\n\nThe average time spent watching traditional broadcast TV each day was just over three hours, but this was mostly driven by people aged 45 and over.\n\nYounger age groups spent far less time on linear TV, with those aged 16-24 only spending just over an hour watching broadcast content, slightly down from the figures in 2019.\n\nOther findings from the report include:", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nBarcelona say Lionel Messi will not be staying at the club \"because of financial and structural obstacles\".\n\nMessi, 34, has been a free agent since 1 July when his contract expired.\n\nHe agreed a new deal on reduced wages with the club two weeks later, but it was dependent on Barca selling players to afford his salary.\n\n\"Both parties deeply regret that the wishes of the player and the club will ultimately not be fulfilled,\" the club said.\n• None Is this really the end for Messi at Barcelona?\n\nBarcelona had said Messi was poised to extend his 21-year association with the club by signing the new deal on Thursday, and blame La Liga for the failure to do so.\n\nHe had reached an agreement to stay with the Catalan side until 2026 - but La Liga said the club must reduce wages before he and any new players can be registered.\n\n\"Despite FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi having reached an agreement and the clear intention of both parties to sign a new contract today, this cannot happen because of financial and structural obstacles [Spanish La Liga regulations],\" the club said.\n\n\"FC Barcelona wholeheartedly expresses its gratitude to the player for his contribution to the aggrandisement of the club and wishes him all the very best for the future in his personal and professional life.\"\n\nMessi is Barcelona's record scorer with 672 goals and has won 10 La Liga titles, four Champions Leagues and seven Copa del Reys, as well as claiming the Ballon d'Or on a record six occasions.\n\nKeeping Messi at the Nou Camp had been president Joan Laporta's top priority this summer.\n\nThe Barca future of a player who is widely regarded as being one of the world's greatest of all time, however, has been severely complicated by the club's financial problems.\n\nThe presidential election earlier this year was held against the backdrop of Barca being on the verge of bankruptcy.\n\nThe Argentine arguably now becomes the most in-demand player in world football.\n\nMessi has long been linked with a move to either Paris St-Germain or Manchester City, where he would be reunited with his former Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola.\n\nAmerica's Major League Soccer, which Messi has previously considered experiencing, is another option.\n\nThe announcement that Messi is to move on comes a year after he sent a fax to Barcelona bosses saying he wished to exercise a clause in his contract that would have allowed him to leave for free last summer.\n\nDays later he said he would stay, admitting it was \"impossible\" for any team to pay his 700m euro (£624m) release clause, which Barca insisted needed to be met.\n\nAged 13 Messi joined Barca's famed La Masia academy in 2000 from Argentine side Newell's Old Boys and made his senior debut aged 16 in 2004.\n\nHe has gone on to make 778 appearances for the club, scoring 672 goals, including 120 Champions League goals (second behind Cristiano Ronaldo), and a record 474 La Liga goals.\n\nHe has collected the European Golden Shoe award for the continent's top scorer on six occasions.\n\n25 August 2020 - Messi sends a fax to the club saying he wishes to exercise a clause in his contract, allowing him to leave for free with immediate effect.\n\n4 September 2020 - Messi says he is staying at Barcelona because it is \"impossible\" for any team to pay his 700m euro (£624m) release clause, which the club insist would have to be met.\n\n27 October 2020 - Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu, who had fallen out with Messi over his failed transfer request, resigns.\n\n28 December 2020 - Messi says he hopes to one day play in the United States, but is unsure of his future when his contract runs out.\n\n31 January 2021 - Barcelona say they will take \"appropriate legal action\" against Spanish newspaper El Mundo after it published details of Messi's contract, worth £492m over four years.\n\n16 May 2021 - Manager Ronald Koeman says he hopes Messi has not played his final home game for the club after a 2-1 defeat by Celta Vigo ended their title hopes and meant they finished outside the top two for the first time since 2007-08.\n\n22 May 2021 - Paris St-Germain are believed to be \"looking closely\" at Messi's contract situation.\n\n28 May 2021 - Barcelona president Joan Laporta says a new contract for Lionel Messi is \"not done yet\" but that \"things are going well\".\n\n1 July 2021 - Messi's Barcelona contract expires and he becomes a free agent.\n\n15 July 2021 - Messi agrees to stay with Barca on a deal until 2026 that includes reducing his wages.\n\n5 August 2021 - Barcelona announce Lionel Messi will leave the club \"because of financial and structural obstacles\".", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nTeam GB moved past 50 medals at the Tokyo Olympics as cyclist Matt Walls secured gold in the omnium, while Holly Bradshaw and Liam Heath secured bronze in the pole vault and kayak events respectively.\n\nThe trio served up eye-catching moments as Team GB reached 51 medals on day 13 of the Games, equalling the number won at Beijing 2008 with three days of competition to go.\n\nBoxer Galal Yafai, who like team-mate Lauren Price had already guaranteed himself a medal, won a thrilling semi-final to reach the gold-medal match in the 52kg flyweight division.\n\nDina Asher-Smith made a return to the track as Britain's 4x100m relay team secured a place in the final, but the relay story was not so positive for the US men's 4x100m team, who were deemed an \"embarrassment\" by American sprint legends Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson after being eliminated in their heat.\n\nElsewhere, 18-year-old Keegan Palmer put on a gripping display to win park skateboarding gold for Australia, who now sit fourth in the medal table, with Great Britain sixth.\n• None Relive all the action from day 13\n\nTokyo 2020 is now Great Britain's fourth best Olympics and second best outside the UK, after Rio 2016. The 51 medals are seven ahead of the number our pre-Olympic forecast had at this stage. Galal Yafai is also guaranteed gold or silver so we have adjusted our projected British medal total upwards to 60, including 18 gold medals as the number of golds is now four ahead of schedule.\n\nOnly London 1908 (146 medals), London 2012 (65) and Rio 2016 (67) have produced more medals for Great Britain than Tokyo 2020.\n\nCompared to London and Rio at this stage, Tokyo has not produced as many medals with 52 in London and 55 in Rio by this point.\n\nThe 16 golds won so far fall well short of London's 25 and Rio's 22 at this stage.\n• None How did GB athletes do on day 13?\n\nWalls, 23, improved on the omnium results of Ed Clancy, who won bronze in 2012, and Mark Cavendish, who took silver in 2016, to win Great Britain's first track cycling gold of the Games.\n\nHe ended the event on 153 points, 24 more than silver medallist Campbell Stewart of New Zealand, while Italy's defending champion Elia Viviani took bronze.\n\nBBC Sport's 1992 Olympic gold medallist Chris Boardman said: \"It was a dominant performance from start to finish. He didn't put a foot wrong anywhere. Tactically and physically he was class.\"\n\nWalls, who tested positive for Covid-19 in March, sealed Team GB's 50th medal in Tokyo and the 16th gold.\n\n\"It's been a hard day but I came into that points race with a bit of a lead and breathing room,\" said Walls.\n\n\"Thank you to all my family and friends, I wouldn't be here without them, especially my parents.\"\n\nTwo-time defending champion Jason Kenny's nine-year reign as men's sprint champion ended when he was beaten in the quarter-finals by Dutch world champion Harrie Lavreysen, while Katy Marchant saw her keirin campaign cut short in the quarter-finals after she was caught up in a crash.\n\nBradshaw sought to gain about 5kg in muscle during the Covid-19 lockdowns, and the performance benefits were on show in the lead-up to the Games.\n\nIn claiming bronze she secured Britain's first medal in pole vault at an Olympic Games, and the first global outdoor medal of her career.\n\nThe 29-year-old, who came sixth at London 2012 and fifth at Rio 2016, cleared 4.85m to finish behind Russian athlete Anzhelika Sidorova and American Katie Nageotte in what BBC Radio 5 Live's Allison Curbishley said was \"a phenomenal final\".\n\n\"This is what I have wanted my whole career,\" said Bradshaw. \"I am almost emotionless as I don't know what emotion it is I'm feeling.\n\n\"I knew I could get it one day and I can't express how grateful I am to be involved in this sport and to get an Olympic medal.\"\n\nHeath - the Olympic champion in 2016 - initially looked like he may come up short after a poor start to his men's kayak single 200m, only to find a surge that earned him a nail-biting photo finish for the bronze medal.\n\n\"I was maybe a bit hesitant off the start and didn't reach my potential in terms of peak speed,\" said Heath, who clocked 35.20 seconds behind Hungarian winner Sandor Totka on 35.03.\n\n\"I am still happy with the performance.\"\n\nOn winning another medal, he said: \"It is hard to put into words. It is what you work towards to be at your best for these events.\"\n\nHeath, who has previously said retirement after the Games was likely, added: \"It has been a roller coaster, over such a long period of time in the extended Olympic cycle. So many highs and lows, so many tests and lessons. I am feeling really good, to be honest.\"\n\nFrom factory to fighting for gold\n\nYafai also found himself lost for words after progressing to the Olympic final, where he will walk away with at least a silver medal.\n\nThe Birmingham fighter started at pace against Kazakhstan's Saken Bibossinov, scoring a standing count in round one before the contest developed into a thrilling back-and-forth affair.\n\nYafai hugged a visibly distraught Bibossinov as his narrowest of victories was read. He will now face Carlo Paalam of the Philippines in Saturday's 52kg flyweight final.\n\nYafai, 28, is a former car factory worker, and said: \"I was doing the rubbish, picking up boxes, delivering parts. Just a skivvy job really. But now I'm on the verge of becoming Olympic champion.\n\n\"I can't believe it. It's ridiculous, it's a dream. It's the Olympic gold isn't it, man? Olympic gold is crazy. Just imagine being the Olympic champion.\"\n\nAnd BBC Radio 5 Live boxing analyst Steve Bunce remarked: \"He just wouldn't be denied. We'll get a gold from him on Saturday.\"\n\nElsewhere on Thursday, heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson said she would be taking time to \"heal my body and spirit\" after injury forced her out of the Games.\n\nBig-name injuries have blighted Britain's medal hunt on the track, including Asher-Smith, who withdrew from the 200m because of a hamstring complaint but chose to compete in the 4x100m relay on Thursday.\n\nAsher-Smith ran leg three and along with Asha Philip, Imani Lansiquot and Daryll Neita set a new British record of 41.55 seconds.\n\n\"There was never any doubt in my mind that I'd be lining up here today because the relay's really important, we got a bronze medal in Rio,\" Asher-Smith told BBC Sport.\n\nBut Team USA's efforts in the men's really were not enough as they finished sixth in a heat featuring some poor baton exchanges.\n\nThe US team won the event at the 2019 World Championships but have not won a 4x100m Olympic gold since 2000.\n\n\"Trying to get two people running full speed to exchange a baton within a 20m zone requires practice! Especially when you haven't won this event since Sydney 2000 due to drops and zone violations!Embarrassing and ridiculous.\"\n\nNine-time Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis added: \"The USA team did everything wrong in the men's relay. The passing system is wrong, athletes running the wrong legs, and it was clear that there was no leadership. It was a total embarrassment, and completely unacceptable.\"\n\nWhat else happened on day 13?\n• None An outside medal chance disappeared for Team GB when Andrew Pozzi placed seventh in the men's 110m hurdles final, clocking 13.3 seconds as Jamaica's Hansle Parchment took gold in 13.04.\n• None to win gold, launching 23.30m with his final effort of the day.\n• None The US basketball team were buoyed by Kevin Durant and Devin Booker as they came from behind to beat Australia and set up a final against France or Slovenia.\n• None American Nelly Korda shot a superb nine-under 62 to take a four-stroke lead at the halfway mark in the\n• None for the 1500m final as Jake Wightman, Josh Kerr and Jake Heyward all got through their semi-finals.\n• None Steven Gardiner of the Bahamas won gold over , beating Colombia's Anthony Zambrano into silver and London 2012 champion Kirani James into bronze.\n• None In the absence of Britain's injured world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Belgium's Nafi Thiam retained her heptathlon crown, while Canadian Damian Warner triumphed in the decathlon.\n• None A teenage battle played out in the women's 10m platform diving as China's 14-year-old Quan Hongchan Chen Yuxi, 15, to take gold. Great Britain's Andrea Spendolini-Siriex and Lois Toulson placed seventh and ninth respectively.\n• None Callum Wilkinson finished 10th for Great Britain in the men's 20km walk, while Tom Bosworth was 25th.\n• None Great Britain's Hector Pardoe said he thought he had after being elbowed in the men's marathon swim and consequently pulled out of the race.\n• None The music that makes The Hundred: Check out the best new music from your teams region\n• None Could a DNA test find you the perfect diet? How people are using the findings for nutrition advice", "Adrian Underwood died when the ship was hit on Thursday\n\nA British security guard killed in a drone attack on a ship off the coast of Oman has been named.\n\nAdrian Underwood and the merchant tanker's Romanian captain died when the MV Mercer Street was hit on Thursday.\n\nThe UK, US and Israel have blamed Iran, which denies responsibility.\n\nMr Underwood served in the British Army and was working for a Hereford-based security company, Ambrey, when he was killed.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police is investigating the incident on behalf of a coroner.\n\nMT Mercer Street is managed by the London-based company Zodiac Maritime.\n\nThe private maritime security guard's name was revealed by a newspaper in Fiji, the country of his birth, and later confirmed by sources in Britain.\n\nAmbrey said the former soldier had a distinguished record of service in the British Army.\n\nIt said his qualities were quickly recognised and he had been promoted to team leader.\n\nThe explosive-laden drone blew up close to the bridge.\n\nThe Mercer Street was attacked off the coast of Oman\n\nBritain, the US, Israel and Romania have blamed Iran, promising a co-ordinated response.\n\nSpeaking on the BBC's Today programme, Chief of Defence Staff General Sir Nick Carter said Iran had made a big mistake with the incident and that it needed to be deterred from attacking shipping.\n\nHe said: \"Convoys may not necessarily be the right method, we've used other methods, and ultimately we've got to keep reviewing this.\n\n\"But ultimately, we have got to restore deterrence because it is behaviour like that which leads to escalation, and that could very easily lead to miscalculation and would be very disastrous for all the peoples of the Gulf and the international community.\"\n\nThe UK's Maritime Trade Operations unit, which monitors security in the Gulf region, has warned ship operators to be extra vigilant in the Gulf of Oman.\n\nA second tanker was attacked on Tuesday, but the two events appeared to be unrelated, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said.\n\nUp to nine armed men are reported to have boarded a medium-sized tanker in the Gulf of Oman. But less than 24 hours later they had left the ship to go on its way.\n\nMaritime sources believe this event may have been related to criminal networks and smuggling.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "Early signs suggest a year of high A-level grades, says a university's head of admissions\n\nA-level results next week in England, Wales and Northern Ireland could see high levels of top grades, according to an annual analysis of exam trends.\n\nProf Alan Smithers, at the University of Buckingham, is predicting a \"bumper crop\" of A* and A grades, in results for exams cancelled by the pandemic.\n\nBut he warns against allowing \"grade inflation\" to become the norm.\n\nThe University of East Anglia (UEA) is also reporting early signs that it could be a \"record year for grades\".\n\nThere have been suggestions that if more pupils receive high grades - which are being submitted by teachers for a second year in a row - there will be a crush for places at the most sought-after universities and courses.\n\nThere is also pressure from record numbers applying, with more than 680,000 seeking university places.\n\nProf Smithers said some universities could consider introducing their own exams to help them choose between students.\n\nThere have already been reports of oversubscribed medicine courses trying to get applicants to defer for a year - such as at the University of Exeter, where students were offered £10,000 to delay.\n\nBut Richard Harvey, director of admissions at UEA, reassured students that even if grades are higher than last year's record high levels, there is capacity in the university system.\n\n\"Of course that will cause pressure in certain subjects, mostly medical ones, and in certain universities. At UEA, medicine and related subjects look a bit pressured, but in other subjects I do hope we can continue to welcome people, so I'd encourage people to get in touch,\" he said.\n\nUniversities get an advance sight of whether applicants have achieved their required grades, and will be going through their admission decisions ahead of the official release of results next week.\n\nThere is expected to be particular pressure on places for medical and dentistry courses - with a 20% increase in applications and more students expected to get the required grades this year.\n\nThe Department for Education says it will create more places and flexibility - allowing \"over 9,000 places\" - but with no fixed numbers for an increase. Last year, there was an intake of almost 9,300 for these medicine and dentistry courses.\n\nNick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it was much harder to create more places for medicine because of the high cost of training doctors, the length of the course and the need for hospital placements.\n\nMr Hillman said he was \"a little bit uncomfortable\" with the suggestion that students could be asked if they wanted to shift to other medical schools with more capacity.\n\n\"If you've had your sights set on one particular medical school from the moment you applied or even the moment you started your A-levels, it's quite a big mental jump to decide you're going to go somewhere else,\" he said.\n\nThis will be the second year in which results will be decided without pupils taking the usual set of exam papers.\n\nSchools submitted grades for pupils, based on a range of evidence, including mini-exams, mock exams and coursework, and next week will see the final results issued by exam boards.\n\nLast year saw huge controversy after an initial downgrading of many pupils' grades - which was then reversed in a U-turn which saw the highest-ever proportion of A* and A grades.\n\nAlmost two in five A-levels, 38.5%, were awarded an A* or A last year after the U-turn, up from 25.5% for pupils in 2019.\n\nProf Smithers, in his annual pre-results report, suggests results are once again going to be very high, or even higher, to compensate for the disruption facing pupils.\n\n\"While logically there is no reason why A-level standards should not be restored to what they were in 2019, my fear is that the various pressures will cause the government to allow what they became in 2020 to stand,\" he said.\n\nHe warned that issuing so many top grades makes it hard for universities to distinguish between students.\n\n\"Leading universities could be forced to set their own tests to help them distinguish between the many prospective students awarded straight As,\" said Prof Smithers.\n\nBut Prof Graham Galbraith, vice chancellor of the University of Portsmouth, rejected the focus on grade inflation.\n\n\"These young people have had a very difficult time since March 2020. How their grades compare with other years is of secondary importance. We should prioritise this year's students and treat this year as the extreme exception it obviously is,\" he said.\n\nTom Middlehurst, of the ASCL head teachers' union, said speculation about grades was \"unhelpful\" and said that if grades were higher this year \"it would be a reflection of the system devised by the government and [regulator] Ofqual\" rather than a decision by teachers.\n\nEducation Secretary Gavin Williamson, promising extra places for medical courses, said: \"Students have worked incredibly hard over the past 18 months and we have continued to put their best interests first to ensure they can progress on to the next stage of their education training or career.\"\n\nAre you waiting for your A-level results and hoping to get into medical school? Share your stories. Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "Rugby player-turned-pundit Ugo Monye has become the 15th and final celebrity to be confirmed for the 2021 series of Strictly Come Dancing.\n\nMonye will join Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty, BBC Breakfast's Dan Walker, actress Nina Wadia and 11 other stars when the BBC show returns next month.\n\nThe former England player, soon to be seen as a team captain on A Question of Sport, said it was \"a dream come true\".\n\n\"I love an outfit at the best of times, so bring on the sequins!\" he went on.\n\nThe announcement came hours after the participation of Olympic gold medallist Peaty was revealed, along with that of comedian and Loose Women panellist Judi Love.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Adam Peaty: I'm going to be very uncomfortable on Strictly\n\nThe trio were the final celebrities to be named for the 19th series of Strictly, which will be the normal length after being slightly shorter in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.\n\nBruno Tonioli will be absent from the judges' desk, replaced by long-serving professional dancer Anton Du Beke. Four new professionals have also been revealed.\n\nHere are 2021's celebrity contestants in full:\n\nThe former Harlequins winger won 14 international caps for England and also played two Tests for the British & Irish Lions.\n\nAfter retiring in 2015, he moved into the media and his Strictly signing comes weeks after he was named among a new line-up on the BBC's long-running A Question of Sport.\n\n\"Strictly is the biggest entertainment show on TV and I can't wait to show everyone I've got more than just dad dancing moves,\" he said in a statement.\n\n\"My two beautiful daughters never had a chance to see me on the rugby pitch, so to know they can watch me waltzing and twirling every week is really special to me.\"\n\nSwimmer Peaty will be hoping to follow the two gold medals he won at the recent Tokyo Olympics with Strictly's coveted glitterball trophy.\n\nThe 26-year-old won the 100m breaststroke in Tokyo, becoming the first British swimmer to defend an Olympic title. He also scooped gold in the mixed 4x100m medley relay and silver in the 4x100m medley relay.\n\n\"I'm not the most fluid on land,\" he told BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat. \"But, saying that, I am an athlete. I am used to working hard.\"\n\nIn a separate statement, Peaty said he was \"really looking forward to doing something totally different and challenging myself away from the pool\".\n\nJudi Love is a TV presenter, stand-up comedian, online comedy star and OK! magazine columnist.\n\nShe said she had watched Strictly for years and \"admired the phenomenal abilities of these dancers and celebrities that have taken part and dedicated themselves to learning a new craft\".\n\nShe added: \"I'm truly looking forward to pushing myself in something that I could have only dreamed of doing and now it's actually coming true!! I can't lie I'm soooo nervous but excited at the same time.\"\n\nThe EastEnders actress, who has played Frankie Lewis in the BBC soap since 2020, is set to become Strictly's first deaf dancer.\n\n\"To be the first deaf contestant on Strictly Come Dancing is so exciting and a little bit scary,\" she said in a statement. \"I hope I will do the deaf community proud and break down more barriers.\n\n\"But I am also very excited to learn an incredible new skill, and even better I get to learn whilst wearing beautiful dresses made especially for me!\"\n\nAyling-Ellis, who communicates using British Sign Language, made history by becoming the first deaf actor to play a deaf character in EastEnders' fictional Walford suburb.\n\nFormer EastEnders and Goodness Gracious Me actress Wadia admitted she was \"so scared\" when her name was added to the line-up.\n\n\"I like dancing like no-one's watching,\" she told ITV's Lorraine after she was revealed. \"So we just need to blindfold the judges and I'm going to win,\" she joked.\n\nWadia played Zainab Masood (later Khan) in EastEnders between 2007 and 2013 and is also known for her role in BBC comedy Still Open All Hours.\n\n\"A lot has happened in the last couple of years, and I just want to grab life by the balls and enjoy it,\" she said.\n\nThe 19-year-old has more than 9.5 million followers on TikTok and is known for presenting CBBC's Matilda and the Ramsay Bunch, which features her family - including her father, chef Gordon.\n\nShe said she \"can't wait to get my dancing shoes on and show my dad how it's done\".\n\nHe wished her well in a video when she was announced as a contestant on ITV's This Morning, signing off with the warning: \"Don't date those dancers.\"\n\nAsked if she thought she had an advantage by posting dance videos on social media, Ramsay replied: \"Yeah, I guess that's true. You've got to learn them and you've got to remember them for the video, but luckily that's not live and you can do as many takes as you need.\"\n\nThe actor rose to fame by playing John Willoughby in the 1995 film Sense and Sensibility, on which he met his future wife Dame Emma Thompson.\n\nWise also appeared in Cranford, played Lord Mountbatten in The Crown, and created the 2019 film Last Christmas with Dame Emma, whom he married in 2003.\n\nHe dedicated his Strictly appearance to his late sister Clare, with whom he wrote the book Not That Kind of Love.\n\n\"My beautiful sister was a huge disco queen,\" he said. \"She left our world almost exactly five years ago in a glitter ball coffin. This is for her.\"\n\nDan Walker has been a regular presenter of BBC Breakfast since 2016, when he replaced Bill Turnbull.\n\nHe said on Tuesday he was \"excited, a little bit worried, mostly terrified\" about joining Strictly.\n\nKeen sports fan Walker presented BBC Olympic Breakfast throughout this year's games. He also hosted Football Focus for 12 years and has covered many major events, including Wimbledon, the Grand National and Royal Ascot.\n\nOther presenting roles have included The One Show and Songs of Praise.\n\nHe added: \"My kids have only ever asked me to go on two shows… Saturday Mash Up and Strictly. I did Saturday Mash Up this summer so… it's time to embrace the sequins.\"\n\nKatie McGlynn meanwhile said she was getting ready \"to shake my shimmy\".\n\n\"I'm really not a dancer, but I'm so excited to learn a new skill on this crazy journey and cannot wait to slip into some sequins along the way,\" she said.\n\nThe actress, who plays newcomer Becky Quentin in Hollyoaks, formerly starred as Sinead Tinker in Coronation Street. The role earned her a Bafta nomination and a National Television Award in 2020. She also featured in the BBC One drama series Waterloo Road and The Syndicate.\n\n\"A lot of my roles have involved quite serious and challenging storylines, so I'm fully ready to let my hair down and do something different, even if it is completely outside of my comfort zone,\" she added.\n\nSara Davies, 37, became the youngest ever dragon on the BBC show's panel of entrepreneurs when she joined in 2019.\n\nKnown as the Den's \"Crafting Queen\", Davies started her business Crafter's Companion when she was still a student. It now employs nearly 250 people.\n\nThe County Durham-born entrepreneur said her \"mam and dad are going to be so excited\" about her joining Strictly.\n\n\"I'm really nervous because so far the producers keep asking me if I can dance. Truth be told - I haven't got a clue! I've not danced since I did ballet lessons when I was little.\"\n\nShe added: \"The business world has taught me that tenacity, drive and determination deliver results, I hope that I can bring that to the dance floor. And I'm excited to see the impact of all those hours of training on my mum tum!\"\n\nThe singer and guitarist, who scored seven UK number one singles with McFly between 2004 and 2007, is taking to the dance floor exactly a decade after his bandmate Harry Judd lifted the coveted glitterball trophy.\n\nFletcher has also carved out a successful sideline as a children's author, and his family could do a unique reality TV double after wife Giovanna won I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! last year.\n\nHe said he was \"incredibly excited\" but also \"totally terrified\" to do Strictly. \"My kids were excited too until I started showing them my best dad-dancing in the kitchen,\" he said. \"I'm not sure how far they'll get me in the competition but I can't wait to add some new moves to my embarrassing dad-dancing repertoire.\"\n\nThe Blackburn-born presenter rose to fame hosting Big Brother's Bit on the Side in 2013, and has since appeared on shows like The Voice UK and Trending Live!.\n\nIn September, she will co-present a one-off revival of Channel 4's The Big Breakfast alongside comedian Mo Gilligan.\n\nShe said she was \"beyond chuffed\" to be on Strictly. \"I absolutely love the show and am fully committed to making the most of every second of the Strictly experience,\" she said. \"Bring it on!\"\n\nThe comic actor is best-known for his double act with David Mitchell in TV shows like Peep Show, That Mitchell and Webb Look and Back. Like Fletcher, he has also become an author.\n\nAnd Webb has form on the dance floor - he won Let's Dance For Comic Relief in 2009.\n\n\"It's a big, generous, joyful show and I can't wait to get packed into a spandex onesie and fired from a glitter cannon directly at Claudia Winkleman,\" he said.\n\nActor and children's TV presenter Stephenson is best known as the face of children's television channel CBBC, which he hosts live from the channel's Salford HQ.\n\nHe has presented such CBBC shows as Blue Peter and Saturday Mash-Up! and is an ambassador for children's mental health charity Place2Be.\n\n\"I cannot wait to experience it all: the costumes, the orchestra, even Craig's glare,\" he said of his participation in Strictly. \"I am ready!\"\n\nThe actor and children's TV presenter added he was already \"impatient to take part\" after being unveiled on Friday morning's Newsround news bulletin.\n\n\"I have dreamt about being on this show, and I know for a fact it is going to exceed every expectation,\" he said.\n\nWhaite is a chef, TV presenter and cookery author. He won the third series of The Great British Bake Off in 2012 at the age of 23.\n\nSince then he has presented TV shows and has a cooking segment on Steph's Packed Lunch on Channel 4.\n\nHe has also published five cookery books and runs his own cookery school, John Whaite's Kitchen.\n\n\"I'm so grateful, excited, and nervous to be joining the Strictly 2021 family,\" he said. \"I've been wearing sequins and jazzy attire since I was three years old and can't wait to hurl myself, full throttle, around the most glamorous dance floor on Earth.\"\n\nWhaite will be part of the show's first all-male partnership. He will follow in the footsteps of boxer Nicola Adams, who was the first celebrity to have a same-sex partner last year.\n\nThe 2012 Bake Off winner described his partnership as \"a great step forward in representation and inclusion\".\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion, email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Pret, McColls and Welcome Break are among almost 200 firms \"named and shamed\" by the government for not paying workers the minimum wage.\n\nIn total, 191 companies investigated between 2011 and 2018 failed to pay £2.1m to more than 34,000 workers.\n\nThe businesses were made to pay back the money as well as being fined £3.2m.\n\nPret, McColls and Welcome Break said the underpayments were historic errors and staff had been swiftly reimbursed.\n\nNearly half of the breaches involved firms deducting pay from wages, for things like uniforms and expenses. Others failed to pay for all the time staff worked or paid the incorrect apprenticeship rate.\n\nOther organisations named by the government included Sheffield United and four other football clubs, as well as the Body Shop chain, Worcestershire Cricket Club and Enterprise Rent A Car.\n\nRetail giant John Lewis was also named over an underpayment reported four years ago.\n\nThe National Living Wage, as it is now known, is currently £8.91 an hour for workers over the age of 23.\n\nThe government acknowledged that many of the breaches were not intentional, but said the minimum wage laws were meant to ensure that a fair day's work received a fair day's pay.\n\n\"It is unacceptable for any company to come up short. All employers, including those on this list, need to pay workers properly,\" said business minister Paul Scully.\n\n\"This government will continue to protect workers' rights vigilantly, and employers that short-change workers won't get off lightly,\" he added.\n\nLow Pay Commission chairman Bryan Sanderson said: \"These are very difficult times for all workers, particularly those on low pay who are often undertaking critical tasks in a variety of key sectors including care.\n\n\"The minimum wage provides a crucial level of support and compliance is essential for the benefit of both the recipients and our society as a whole.\"\n\nPret a Manger said the underpayment refers to a 2019 case that affected 33 employees, and that it had since made the required payments to staff and HMRC.\n\nThe team members had opted to use some of their salary in exchange for childcare vouchers.\n\nThose deductions reduced the National Minimum Wage eligible pay, a spokesperson said, adding that the government has since changed those rules.\n\nA Welcome Break spokesperson said: \"In 2018, HRMC informed us, along with many other businesses, that our policy on team member uniforms inadvertently led to a breach of the National Minimum Wage.\n\n\"As soon as we were made aware of this oversight, we fully reimbursed and apologised to all affected team members.\n\n\"We never intended to underpay our employees and have strengthened our policies and training to prevent this from happening again.\"\n\nA spokesperson for Enterprise Holdings said during an audit in 2017 HMRC noticed that we had mistakenly underpaid two apprentices over a two-year period.\n\nFurther investigation by the firm showed that 62 employees had also fallen below the minimum wage between 2012 and 2018, and they were reimbursed.\n\n\"Although these historic underpayments represent less than 1% of Enterprise's employees during the period, it is something that we take very seriously,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nMcColl's said the problem related to staff attendance recording processes and it had reimbursed those affected.\n\nIn all, 2,300 employers have been named since the current scheme was introduced in 2014.\n\nTrades Union Congress head of economics Kate Bell said these cases \"are likely to be just the tip of an underpayment iceberg\".\n\n\"Minimum wage workers have been at the heart of the pandemic, and deserve a decent wage of at least £10 an hour.\n\n\"But these figures show many workers aren't even being paid the legal minimum, with household name employers flouting their responsibility to properly pay staff.\n\n\"Government should step up inspections to catch every employer that underpays staff.\"\n\nShe added that workers who suspected they were being underpaid should discuss that with their union rep.", "Cpl Jake Hartley, who died in Afghanistan in 2012\n\nAfter the withdrawal of US troops, battles between the Taliban and government forces are raging across Afghanistan. But how are the families of British soldiers who died in Afghanistan coping now? The BBC spoke to one soldier's mother.\n\n\"Hello family. Please don't cry Mum. I'm not here now, I'm in a better place.\"\n\nThose were the words of Corporal Jake Hartley to his mum Nathalie in his last letter - the message written by soldiers to be opened in the event of their death.\n\nJake was 20 when he died in Afghanistan in 2012, and his mother has struggled to cope ever since. \"It makes me angry,\" says Nathalie. \"Jake gave his life for Queen and country.\"\n\nJake grew up with his mum and younger brother Ethan, whom he adored, in a village called New Mill near Holmfirth in West Yorkshire. Jake and his mother were inseparable.\n\n\"He could just walk in a room and if you were feeling sad or down he would just make you laugh,\" says Nathalie. \"He was just a lovely character. And he joked all the time, he could make anybody laugh, he was such a lovable person.\"\n\nNathalie had no idea that Jake wanted to be a soldier. When he was younger, he planned on becoming a plumber.\n\nBut a visit to an air show changed his life, and his heart was set on a career in the military - specifically, the Yorkshire Regiment. After joining the Army, he thrived, and quickly rose to become a corporal.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nathalie's son Cpl Jake Hartley was killed in Helmand in 2012\n\nJake first toured Helmand in 2009, before returning to Afghanistan in 2012. His family were incredibly proud, and he loved life in the regiment.\n\nBut in March that year, there was a knock at the door of the family home in New Mill that changed everything.\n\n\"When they knocked on the door, I was just in shock,\" says Nathalie.\n\n\"I just slammed the door when I saw them in uniform. I knew it, I had a really bad feeling that there was something wrong. I collapsed, and I can still hear my cry, a scream like a cry.\"\n\nCpl Jake Hartley was one of six servicemen killed when an improvised explosive device exploded under their Warrior armoured vehicle. At the time it was the biggest single loss of life in combat suffered by the British in the war.\n\n(In 2006, 14 British servicemen were killed when a Nimrod plane exploded in Afghanistan shortly after air-to-air refuelling - the cause was a fuel leak).\n\nNathalie says: \"They were in the Warrior and the six of them were going to do a patrol,\" says Nathalie. \"They got lost and they went off track. They didn't know that IEDs were planted there.\"\n\nNathalie is 49 now, and her home is full of pictures of Jake - images from his Army career and youth. It's a shrine to his memory; a life cut short just before his 21st birthday.\n\n\"I light a candle and I touch his picture,\" she says. \"I say good morning, good night Jake. I can hear laughter in the house. I'll talk to him, it's like he is here.\n\n\"I still charge his old phone and keep his wallet on the microwave, that's where he plonked them, with money and items like cinema and Blockbusters tickets.\n\n\"I've got his best clothes, I polish his boots, his buckle and I still have his shoes in the shoe rack. It's just little comforts, but it might seem crazy to some people.\"\n\nFor Nathalie, this is her way of coping with grief and pain that has lasted nearly a decade. Since losing Jake, life has been a struggle.\n\n\"I've had issues with alcohol. And it's been my worst nightmare, my worst enemy. But I've learned how to deal with that, to live with the pain.\n\n\"Some days are harder than other days and there are triggers - things can happen within my day that can take me back to that moment.\"\n\nSome days, Nathalie has been consumed with guilt and has wanted to end her own life. She still sees Jake's friends - some are 30 years old, married with children.\n\n\"I have depression - there's been times in my life that I've hit rock bottom,\" she says.\n\n\"Losing Jake has caused so much pain. I've not wanted to be here... it's like I just wanted to go to him and I wanted the pain and everything to just go away, I just didn't want to feel.\"\n\nAfter two decades of intervention and conflict, it has taken just weeks for the Taliban to seize control of large areas of Afghanistan after US forces left. It's been hard for Nathalie to watch.\n\n\"I don't think we should go back or have any involvement whatsoever; we've done what we can and it's cost too many lives. It makes me angry, Jake gave his life for Queen and country and for us to be safe.\"\n\nThe Ministry of Defence says 457 British military personnel lost their lives during the conflict in Afghanistan.\n\nJake was a highly commended soldier, and Nathalie believes he would have gone on to achieve his ambition of being selected for the SAS. She also says he would have loved to have settled down and start a family.\n\n\"Jake paid the ultimate sacrifice, but so do the families - we have definitely been forgotten about,\" she says,\n\n\"It's just a waste, it does feel like a waste but I think that there is no comeback. There is nothing we can do.\"", "Research into people's experiences of so-called conversion therapy in the UK has been buried, campaigners say.\n\nA report - commissioned over two years ago - hit minsters' desks last December, the BBC has discovered, but has yet to appear.\n\nBoris Johnson has promised to ban what he called the \"abhorrent\" practice of conversion therapy.\n\nThe government says the study will be published shortly when a consultation is launched.\n\nConversion therapy is defined as an attempt to change someone's sexual orientation or gender identity, according to a document signed by a number of health groups.\n\nThe prime minister said in July 2020 he would put a stop to the practice.\n\nIn the same interview, he said a study was examining \"how prevalent\" it was, adding: \"We will then bring forward plans to ban it\".\n\nResearch funded by the Government Equalities Office was commissioned when Theresa May was in Downing Street.\n\nIt was led by Adam Jowett, of Coventry University's Psychological, Social and Behavioural Sciences department.\n\nIn April 2019, the project called for people to share their first-hand experiences of conversion therapy, \"whether it happened in a medical, commercial or faith-based context\".\n\nBut the findings have never been published despite a Freedom of Information request by the BBC showing that a final draft was received on 15 December 2020.\n\nDr Jowett, who also chairs the British Psychological Society's sexualities section, called in May this year for a conversion therapy ban to be implemented \"as soon as possible\".\n\nCoventry University has been approached for comment.\n\nMatt Hyndman, co-founder of the Ban Conversion Therapy campaign group, said the report should have been published back in January.\n\n\"It sounds like it's just been buried in a drawer somewhere and it's not that urgent.\"\n\nCampaigners have previously claimed the government has \"dragged its feet\" on the issue.\n\nMr Hyndman said: \"If they've commissioned a study which says conversion therapy is happening and it's quite severe and they've been delaying to ban it, it's not a good look.\"\n\nHe added he didn't think more information was needed to move ahead with a ban.\n\n\"We have so many stories of people and organisations that can attest to the harm it causes.\"\n\nIt was confirmed in May's Queen's Speech that conversion therapy would be banned in England and Wales.\n\nBut the government said a public consultation would take place first, in September, to ask how the legislation can best stop the practice while protecting the medical profession, defending freedom of speech and upholding religious freedom.\n\nA government spokesperson said: \"Our approach is based on a range of evidence, which we will publish alongside the consultation, including the Coventry University report.\"\n\nSome groups had welcomed the consultation, including the Evangelical Alliance which represents 3,500 churches.\n\nIts UK director, Peter Lynas, said at the time that they wanted to avoid a situation where \"a person can be accused of conversion therapy for praying with someone who freely chooses and asks for prayer\".\n\nThe Royal College of Psychiatrists has said it would be taking part to highlight why conversion therapy is \"harmful\" but also \"to ensure clinicians can still help people fully explore their gender identity where appropriate.\"\n\nThe UK government indicated that the consultation will be short, with legislation to follow \"as soon as possible\".\n\nWhilst the legislation would apply to Wales the Welsh Government said it would \"if necessary\" seek additional powers in order to ban \"all aspects\" of the practice.\n\nThe Scottish government says conversion therapy is an \"abhorrent practice\" and that it's waiting on details of the UK government's proposals.\n\nNorthern Ireland's Department for Communities said that the \"inhumane\" practice should be ended and that the minister \"wishes to explore all legislative options\".", "Other countries have already been offering youngsters Covid vaccinations\n\nAll teenagers aged 16 and 17 in Wales will be offered Covid-19 vaccinations, the Welsh government has confirmed.\n\nHealth Minister Eluned Morgan said work was under way to expand the vaccination programme.\n\nIt follows new advice to offer 16 and 17-year-olds a first dose of the jab from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).\n\nThere are 67,142 teenagers in the age bracket in Wales - some have already been eligible for the jab.\n\nMs Morgan said: \"In line with the other nations of the UK, the Welsh government welcomes the latest JCVI advice and thanks them for their expertise and considered judgement on such important issues.\n\n\"We are now working with the NHS on the arrangements needed to offer the vaccination to all 16 and 17-year-olds in line with the JCVI advice.\"\n\nThe JCVI said advice on when to offer the second dose will come later.\n\nIt is not clear when the Welsh NHS will begin to offer the vaccinations. A spokesperson said the details are being finalised and arrangements will be confirmed \"very shortly\".\n\nPlaid Cymru's health spokesman Rhun ap Iorwerth said he hoped ministers would \"act quickly to roll out those vaccines\", and said schools need to be made as \"safe as possible\" ahead of their reopening in September.\n\nThe Welsh Conservatives said the roll out was \"great news and only made possible through the British government's procurement of plenty of vaccines\".\n\nThe only vaccine approved for use in the UK for under-18s is the Pfizer-BioNTech jab.\n\nUntil now children aged 12 or older have been offered jabs if they have health conditions that make them vulnerable to coronavirus, they live with others who are at high risk or are near to having their 18th birthday.\n\nIn Wales 9,618 16-17 year olds have already had a first dose.\n\nOther countries, such as the US and France, have already been vaccinating children over the age of 12.\n\nRecent figures show 75% of 18-29 year olds have had their first jab in Wales\n\nLaura Doel, director of NAHT Cymru, said the headteaching union would \"continue to urge ministers to ensure that alternative safety measures are put in place\" in schools \"such as better ventilation and a properly functioning test and trace system that takes into account how schools function\".\n\nThe JCVI has effectively set much of the UK's vaccine policy throughout the pandemic, although it is up to the Welsh government and other UK nations to decide if they follow the advice.\n\nSupplies have been purchased by the UK government, and distributed by the different NHS bodies in the four nations.\n\nThe committee said it expected one dose of the vaccine to give good protection against severe illness and hospitalisation in the 16 and 17 age group.\n\nRecent figures show that 75% of 18 to 29-year-olds have had their first jab in Wales.\n\nThe Covid case rate fell on Wednesday to 136.3 new infections per 100,000 people.\n\nMost lockdown rules are set to be eased this weekend, with social distancing laws set to be scrapped, and legal limits on who you can meet set to end.", "Boris Johnson has been urged to apologise for \"offensive\" comments about Margaret Thatcher helping the environment by closing coal mines.\n\nThe PM said the closures gave the UK \"a big early start\" in the fight against climate change.\n\nHe was speaking on a visit to an offshore wind farm in the Moray Firth.\n\nScotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the remarks were \"crass and deeply insensitive\" to mining communities.\n\nShe tweeted: \"Lives and communities in Scotland were utterly devastated by Thatcher's destruction of the coal industry (which had zero to do with any concern she had for the planet).\"\n\nLabour said he should apologise for the \"shameful\" comments.\n\nThe party's Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"The damage done to Welsh coal mining areas 30 years ago was incalculable and here we are 30 years later the Tories are still celebrating what they did.\"\n\nOn Thursday, during a two-day visit to Scotland, Mr Johnson was quizzed about preparations for the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November.\n\nPushed on whether he would set a deadline for ending the extraction of fossil fuels, he said the UK had already transitioned away from coal in his lifetime, and he suggested Mrs Thatcher had inadvertently got the ball rolling.\n\nHe said: \"Thanks to Margaret Thatcher, who closed so many coal mines across the country, we had a big early start and we're now moving rapidly away from coal altogether.\"\n\nHe is reported to have laughed and told reporters: \"I thought that would get you going.\"\n\nBoris Johnson may be ill-advised to summon the ghost of Lady T to support his climate policies - but he has a point.\n\nIn 1989, the Iron Lady riveted the United Nations by warning that greenhouse gases were \"changing the environment of our planet in damaging and dangerous ways\".\n\nShe continued: \"The result is that change in future is likely to be more fundamental and more widespread than anything we have known hitherto.\"\n\nHer pit closures were not part of a green policy, but they did fortuitously show the UK could prosper without coal.\n\nThis made Britain a global leader on climate change. But it crushed communities.\n\nPoliticians don't want to repeat the mistake, so they aim to create jobs in the environment sector.\n\nBut so far, the PM's climate advisors say his policies on green jobs are running behind his rhetoric.\n\nMr Johnson said there was a \"massive opportunity\" to increase the use of more environmentally friendly technologies.\n\nBut he also stressed that there needed to be a \"smooth and sensible\" transition from oil and gas to greener forms of power.\n\nIn 1984, there were 170 working collieries in Britain, employing more than 190,000 people - but by 2015, they had all closed.\n\nMrs Thatcher's announcement that she planned to close 20 of them, led to the year-long miners' dispute.\n\nMillions of people protested against pit closures and throughout the summer of 1984 there were violent clashes between striking miners and police, whose numbers often ran into several hundred at each confrontation.\n\nViolence led to widespread use of the breach of the peace charge.\n\nIn October, it was announced that miners convicted during the strike would be pardoned by the Scottish government following an independent review.\n\nPolice restrain picketers outside a pit during the miners' strike in the 1980s\n\nResponding to Mr Johnson's comments, SNP Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, tweeted that Mrs Thatcher had \"devastated communities across Scotland\".\n\nHe wrote: \"Many still bear the scars of brutal Tory cuts.\"\n\nBBC Political Correspondent, Nick Eardley, tweeted on Thursday that \"a few Scottish Tories have their head in their hands tonight after what they thought had been a decent first trip to Scotland since January\".\n\nHe added they had described the comments as an \"unforced error\", \"not helpful\" and \"crass\".\n\nLabour is opposed to the opening of new coal mines, saying they are not compatible with the UK wanting to be a world leader in reducing carbon emissions.\n\nBut Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, tweeted that Mr Johnson's comments were \"shameful\".\n\nHe wrote: \"Brushing off the devastating impact on those communities with a laugh, shows just how out of touch he is with working people\".\n\nAnd in a statement, shadow foreign secretary, Lisa Nandy, said the prime minister should apologise.\n\nShe said the remarks \"reveal the Conservative party's utter disregard for the communities still scarred by Thatcher's closure of the mines and failure to deliver good jobs in their place\".\n\n\"It is vital that a green transition is a fair transition\" she added.", "Apple has announced details of a system to find child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on US customers' devices.\n\nBefore an image is stored onto iCloud Photos, the technology will search for matches of already known CSAM.\n\nApple said that if a match is found a human reviewer will then assess and report the user to law enforcement.\n\nHowever there are privacy concerns that the technology could be expanded to scan phones for prohibited content or even political speech.\n\nExperts worry that the technology could be used by authoritarian governments to spy on its citizens.\n\nApple said that new versions of iOS and iPadOS - due to be released later this year - will have \"new applications of cryptography to help limit the spread of CSAM online, while designing for user privacy\".\n\nThe system works by comparing pictures to a database of known child sexual abuse images compiled by the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and other child safety organisations.\n\nThose images are translated into \"hashes\", numerical codes that can be \"matched\" to an image on an Apple device.\n\nApple says the technology will also catch edited but similar versions of original images.\n\n\"Before an image is stored in iCloud Photos, an on-device matching process is performed for that image against the known CSAM hashes,\" Apple said.\n\nThe company claimed the system had an \"extremely high level of accuracy and ensures less than a one in one trillion chance per year of incorrectly flagging a given account\".\n\nApple says that it will manually review each report to confirm there is a match. It can then take steps to disable a user's account and report to law enforcement.\n\nThe company says that the new technology offers \"significant\" privacy benefits over existing techniques - as Apple only learns about users' photos if they have a collection of known CSAM in their iCloud Photos account.\n\nHowever some privacy experts have voiced concerns.\n\n\"Regardless of what Apple's long term plans are, they've sent a very clear signal. In their (very influential) opinion, it is safe to build systems that scan users' phones for prohibited content,\" Matthew Green, a security researcher at Johns Hopkins University, said.\n\n\"Whether they turn out to be right or wrong on that point hardly matters. This will break the dam — governments will demand it from everyone.\"", "Beachgoers were evacuated from the sea off Boscombe Beach on Wednesday\n\nBeach-goers were evacuated from the sea after reports of a \"large marine animal\" in the water.\n\nLifeguards instructed swimmers to leave the sea at Boscombe Beach in Bournemouth while they scanned the water on Wednesday.\n\nVisitors took to social media and said there had been a shark sighting.\n\nThe RNLI said it received reports of \"significant movement\" in the water but lifeguards were unable to formally identify the animal.\n\nOn Twitter, one woman said: \"Possible shark sighting at Boscombe Beach. Everyone called out of the water.\"\n\nBeach-goer Steve Lutwyche tweeted: \"I'm on the beach at Boscombe where the RNLI have had to red flag the beach due to reported sightings of a shark.\n\n\"The lifeguard called everyone out of the water. They discreetly referred to sightings of a 'large marine animal' so as to not scare any children.\n\n\"Lifeguard crew patrolled the bay on a personal watercraft trying to spot it.\"\n\nHe added it was \"very well-handled\" by the RNLI.\n\nVisitors were able to re-enter the water 30 minutes later.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Climate change: How marine life is on the move\n\nThe RNLI has asked members of the public to report any concerns about wildlife to lifeguards as soon as they are spotted.\n\nBCP Council said the beach was temporarily closed as a precautionary measure while an inspection was carried out.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n• None Does climate change mean marine life is moving? Video, 00:03:10Does climate change mean marine life is moving?\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Amazon has told its US corporate staff not to return to the office until next year as Covid continues to spread.\n\nThe online shopping giant previously asked staff to work from home until 7 September, but will now extend this until 3 January 2022.\n\nIt comes as new Covid infections surge across America, with with daily cases at an average not seen in months.\n\nTwo US financial institutions, Wells Fargo and Blackrock, also said they would push back their office returns.\n\n\"As we continue to closely watch local conditions related to Covid-19, we are adjusting our guidance for corporate employees,\" said Amazon.\n\nThe online shopping giant's policy will apply to corporate and tech employees, but not the warehouse and delivery workers who make up the bulk of its workforce.\n\nStaff in the US will be affected but also some based abroad, although Amazon did not specify where.\n\nSeparately, Wells Fargo - the biggest US bank in terms of headcount - said it was delaying its return to the office from 7 September, to 4 October.\n\nThe lender, which has almost 260,000 employees, said it would also give staff eight hours of paid time off to enable them to get vaccinated.\n\nInvestment giant Blackrock is postponing the date it expects all staff to be back in the office by a month to 1 October.\n\n\"We are following the Delta variant in different parts of the country and closely monitoring the latest guidance from public health officials and local government authorities that encourages people to wear masks in indoor public spaces in areas of substantial or high transmission,\" said BlackRock's chief operating officer, Rob Goldstein, in a memo to staff.\n\n\"We know this raises concerns about returning to the office.\"\n\nThe contagious Delta variant of coronavirus is spreading rapidly across the US, with states such as Florida and Texas seeing high levels of new infections.\n\nA slowing vaccination rate is only adding to the problem, and companies are under pressure to act.\n\nGoogle, Facebook and Twitter have all said they will delay their returns to the office, with the former two also requiring employees to be vaccinated.\n\nWalmart and Uber, meanwhile, have asked their management, not frontline staff, to get the vaccine, while investment giant Vanguard on Wednesday said it would pay staff who got vaccinated $1,000 (£792).\n\nAmazon, which is not mandating vaccines, said it would continue to follow local government guidance to ensure a safe office return, including asking all unvaccinated staff to wear masks in the workplace.\n\nAs previously announced, its corporate employees will also be allowed to work from home two days a week, under a new hybrid model.", "Melinda Gates was angry at her husband's relationship with Epstein, US media have reported\n\nMicrosoft co-founder Bill Gates has admitted he made \"a huge mistake\" in spending time with sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.\n\nMr Gates told CNN he had \"several dinners\" about a philanthropy project that did not emerge, and should not have given him \"credibility\".\n\nEpstein hanged himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting a sex-trafficking trial.\n\nMr Gates also discussed his divorce with Melinda French Gates, calling it \"a source of great personal sadness\".\n\nThe 65-year-old, who announced in March last year he was stepping down from the Microsoft board, said he and his ex-wife were \"going to try and continue\" working together on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.\n\nMr Gates was also asked whether he had regrets following allegations of workplace misbehaviour - some Microsoft employees have accused him of bullying.\n\nHe did not respond specifically, saying: \"Certainly everyone does [have regrets] but it's a time of reflection, and at this point, I need to go forward.\"\n\nJeffrey Epstein took his own life in his cell in 2019\n\nMr Gates's representatives have previously played down his relationship with Epstein, saying there was no business partnership or personal friendship.\n\nHe echoed that in the CNN interview, saying: \"I had several dinners with him, you know, hoping that what he said about getting billions of philanthropy for global health through contacts that he had might emerge.\n\n\"When it looked like that wasn't a real thing, that relationship ended.\"\n\nHe did not give any timeframe for the meetings, although US media have said they were between 2011 and 2014.\n\nThat was before Epstein's arrest in 2019 on federal charges of sex-trafficking of minors, but after he had served a jail sentence following conviction in 2008 for other sex offences.\n\nMr Gates said: \"It was a huge mistake to spend time with him, to give him the credibility of being there.\"\n\nUS media have said Melinda French Gates was furious at his relationship with Epstein and wanted it to end.\n\nSpeaking of his ex-wife, Bill Gates said she was \"a great person, and that partnership that we had coming to an end is a source of great personal sadness\".\n\nThe couple announced their split in May after 27 years of marriage.\n\nShortly afterwards, it emerged that Microsoft was investigating a complaint that Mr Gates had \"sought to initiate an intimate relationship\" with a female employee in 2000. The investigation ended after Mr Gates left the board, but Microsoft said the two were not linked.\n\nSome former employees have also accused Mr Gates of having a hot temper, with the catchphrase \"that's the stupidest {expletive] idea I've ever heard\".\n\nFormer board member Maria Klawe had said \"a person like Bill Gates thinks the usual rules of behaviour don't apply to him\".\n\nHis representatives have also played down those comments.\n\nMr Gates said in his CNN interview: \"My work is very important to me. Within the family, we'll heal as best we can and learn from what's happened.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Michelle Fleury breaks down the story of Bill and Melinda Gates' relationship", "One in five people being admitted to hospital in England with Covid is aged between 18 and 34, the new chief executive of NHS England has said.\n\nIn her first major interview, Amanda Pritchard told the BBC that about 1,000 young adults were currently \"really unwell\" in hospital.\n\nShe said it was \"so important\" people came forward to get vaccinated.\n\nShe added the level of young adults being admitted to hospital was four times higher than the peak last winter.\n\nAbout 5.5% of those in hospital during the winter surge were young adults.\n\nNHS sources said the latest figures on hospital admissions reflected the success of the vaccination programme in protecting older age groups.\n\nMs Pritchard said: \"It shows how effective the vaccine programme has been in protecting people, stopping them needing hospitalisation, keeping them safe.\"\n\nShe warned that young people who have not been jabbed could become seriously ill, adding, they \"are not immune and the best way they can protect themselves absolutely is to get that vaccine if they haven't already\".\n\nLast week, about 250,000 18-30 year-olds had their first or second dose of a Covid vaccine, which was \"incredibly encouraging\", said Ms Pritchard.\n\n\"It is still really important for those young people who have not yet taken the opportunity to come forward - or they know someone who hasn't - this is the time,\" she told the BBC's health editor Hugh Pym.\n\nThe NHS England boss warned that young people who have not been jabbed could become seriously ill\n\nIn one sense the latest figures showing a sharply higher proportion of under 35s among Covid hospital patients illustrates the success of the vaccination programme.\n\nBack in January, when it was early days for administering the jabs, older people who were more vulnerable were more likely to get seriously ill with Covid and need hospital treatment. Now almost all have the protection of two doses.\n\nTotal hospital numbers in the latest wave have not been close to where they were during the winter and they are now levelling off.\n\nBut they rose rapidly in July and now we have one indication of the extent to which that was down to younger unvaccinated patients getting sick with the virus.\n\nIt serves as a reminder that people in their late teens and twenties who might not have been jabbed can get ill enough to need hospital treatment.\n\nShe said although hospital admissions have flattened out over the last few days and there were grounds for \"cautious optimism\", the NHS was still experiencing \"real pressure\".\n\nMs Pritchard, who was previously NHS England's chief operating officer, took over as chief executive from Sir Simon Stevens on 1 August.\n\nIn a statement issued by NHS England, she added: \"NHS teams are putting on pop-up clinics and walk-in centres in addition to around 1,600 permanent sites, to make it as easy as possible to protect yourself, your family and your friends.\"\n\nLast month, there were suggestions that vaccines could become compulsory for university students moving to halls of residence, but ministers later abandoned the idea.\n\nAbout 73% of adults in the UK have now received two doses of a Covid vaccination, and nearly 89% have had a first dose.\n\nOn Wednesday, ministers in the UK's nations all said they would offer Covid jabs to all 16 and 17 year olds following advice from experts on the Joint Committee on Vaccine and Immunisation.\n\nIt comes as a further 29,312 cases of people testing positive for coronavirus were recorded in the UK on Wednesday and 119 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.", "Last updated on .From the section Rugby League\n\nThis year's Rugby League World Cup in England has been postponed until 2022 after the withdrawal of champions Australia, and New Zealand.\n\nThe two countries pulled out of the tournament citing \"player welfare and safety concerns\" related to Covid-19.\n\nThe World Cup, featuring men's, women's and wheelchair events, was set to start in Newcastle on 23 October.\n\n\"It became unfeasible and irresponsible for us to carry on,\" said Jon Dutton, chief executive of the tournament.\n\n\"I think it will take some time for international rugby league to recover from this. I hope we can be a beacon of light.\n\n\"Certainly we've prioritised player voice and player choice, we know the players want to play, we took our responsibilities very seriously, and we are determined to stage the biggest and best ever rugby league World Cup.\n\n\"It's a real shame that it cannot be this year but leadership is about making tough decisions, it's about being responsible, and we've done this in the best interests of not just the tournament but of the sport of rugby league.\"\n\nOrganisers were given only four minutes' notice that the antipodean neighbours intended to pull out on 22 July, with Rugby Football League (RFL) chairman Simon Johnson calling it a \"selfish, parochial and cowardly decision\".\n\nDutton last week gave it a \"50-50\" chance of going ahead as scheduled this year after discussions with the board and numerous stakeholders, including players.\n\n\"There's been some really disappointing behaviour,\" added Dutton when asked about whether Australia, New Zealand and the NRL had called the shots.\n\n\"We can't end up in this position again and we'll make sure we don't.\"\n\nDelaying the World Cup by a year could mean it clashes with the football equivalent in 2022, but Dutton said a window will be found to avoid such a scenario.\n\n\"I am disappointed that we've needed to take the decision to delay the Rugby League World Cup,\" said Sport Minister Nigel Huddleston.\n\n\"Despite working tirelessly to explore solutions that would allow us to go ahead as planned, circumstances beyond our control have meant that postponing the Rugby League World Cup until next year is the strongest option for staging a successful tournament.\"\n\nThe Rugby League Players Association (RLPA) said it acknowledged \"the extremely difficult decision\" to delay the World Cup and the \"tremendous effort of the RLWC board, Jon Dutton, and the entire team to maintain the tournament's viability up to this point\".\n\n\"We have worked exceptionally close with the RLWC team to date and want to thank them for engaging in such a collaborative process which has allowed the players to feel respected and valued throughout the RLWC planning,\" said RLPA chief executive officer Clint Newton.\n\nFresh Covid outbreaks in Australia have forced most states to reimpose restrictions, while the majority of coronavirus restrictions in England have been lifted despite a rise in cases - although those numbers appear to be falling.\n\nThere were concerns about players and staff having to quarantine for 14 days on their return to Australia, with the country's borders currently closed because of the pandemic.\n\nRugby league officials estimate about 400-500 players, staff and team officials from Australia's National Rugby League - representing several different countries - would be impacted by any quarantine measures on their return to the country after the tournament.\n\nThose measures would mean players would only return to their NRL clubs two weeks before trial games for the 2022 season begin.\n\nThe number of those who would be affected is significantly higher when the women's and wheelchair events are taken into consideration.\n• None Outbreaks emerge across Australia in 'new phase' of pandemic\n\nThe postponement will be a major blow to English rugby league, a sport that has been hit hard by the financial fallout of the pandemic.\n\nThe UK government has provided rugby league with more than £32m in loan support in the past year.\n\nAustralia, as 11-time and defending men's champions, were favourites to win the tournament in England, while 2008 winners New Zealand were again poised to be contenders.\n\nThe event, regarded as one of the most inclusive sports events ever hosted in Britain, was to be staged across 16 towns and cities across England.\n\nSt James' Park, home of Premier League football side Newcastle United, was scheduled to host the opening game between England and Samoa.\n\nManchester United's Old Trafford stadium was to host the men's and women's finals in a back-to-back spectacle on 27 November.\n\nAnalysis - 'It's now fingers crossed for 2022'\n\nAustralia's NRL clubs have got their way.\n\nThe postponement seemed inevitable once they decided, through the voice piece of the Australian Rugby League Commission, that they didn't want to allow their players to compete in a World Cup in England this year.\n\nCovid is only the broad issue.\n\nThe risk of players being exposed to the virus in this country is a valid concern, despite the RLWC2021 organisers bending over backwards to ensure that protocols would have been in place to keep the tournament as safe as possible.\n\nBut at the heart of this is that those NRL clubs have only self-interest. They want to protect their own domestic competition going into the 2022 season, rather than seeing the bigger picture of what a World Cup could do for the international profile of the game.\n\nIt's to be hoped they will prove honourable when they say they will support a rearranged Rugby League World Cup.\n\nWith the number of Covid cases in Australia not yet reaching the numbers seen in other countries, and with their vaccine roll out programme a long way behind schedule, it's hard to gauge how badly the pandemic will hit that country in 2022. And indeed, whether a dramatic spike in cases over the next few months will again lessen their appetite to send players abroad.\n\nIn the meantime, some more incredibly hard work begins for the Rugby League World Cup organisers.\n\nStadiums will have to be rebooked. Cities and towns where the Men's, Women's and Wheelchair teams were going to be based will have to be re-primed in readiness for the delayed event. Broadcasters will have to reschedule.\n\nThis year's tournament had been over four years in the planning up to this point. Now they have to do a lot of the work again, but this time with less than 14 months to go.\n\nFinances will be stretched because budgets were only due to run up to the end of November of this year and the government will be called upon to add to the £25m that it's already invested into the tournament.\n\nBut in the circumstances of the last few weeks, and the stance of the NRL clubs, Jon Dutton, the RLWC2021 chief executive and his board of directors, had little option but to call a halt to their desperate hard work to get the tournament on as planned.\n\nIt's now fingers crossed for 2022.\n• None 'In my eyes, anyone can be an influencer':", "Fifteen small boats were intercepted by British vessels on Thursday\n\nA further 475 migrants crossed the English Channel in 15 small boats on Thursday, following a record 482 arrivals on Wednesday.\n\nThe Ministry of Defence earlier said an exercise on its firing range at Hythe had to be stopped on Wednesday when people landed on the beach there.\n\nAccording to Home Office figures, there have now been 10,711 arrivals in more than 440 boats so far in 2021.\n\nThe Home Office said French authorities stopped 138 people on Thursday.\n\nDan O'Mahoney, clandestine Channel threat commander, said: \"These dangerous small boat crossings, facilitated by criminal gangs, are putting lives at risk.\n\n\"These numbers are unacceptable, that's why we are taking action on all fronts.\n\n\"Law enforcement agencies are dismantling the people smuggling gangs. Joint work with the French has seen a doubling of police officers on French beaches.\"\n\nOn Wednesday, 482 people reached the UK in 21 vessels.\n\nThe previous highest totals of daily arrivals on small boats in recent years were 416 people on 2 September 2020, and 430 migrants on 19 July.\n\nA group of migrants are brought into Dungeness on Wednesday\n\nBella Sankey, director of charity Detention Action, said: \"Overall asylum applications are dropping and much lower than they were in the 2000s, but the number of high Channel crossings shows that desperate people trying to save their lives will risk everything to reach safety.\n\n\"MPs need to act swiftly and should pass legislation to allow those with strong prospects of receiving protection here safe passage to the UK from northern France to seek asylum here.\"\n\nDespite repeated promises from Home Secretary Priti Patel and her department to make the route across the Channel \"unviable\", crossings have continued to rise.\n\nLast month she announced an agreement to more than double the number of police patrolling French beaches, with the government to give France £54m.\n\nEarlier this week, Ms Patel met with members of the Greek government to discuss \"shared challenges\", during the visit she went on patrol with the Hellenic coastguard to learn about their methods for preventing small boat crossings.\n\nA Border Force vessel picked up migrants from one of the boats which crossed on Wednesday\n\nSteve Valdez-Symonds, Refugee and Migrant Rights Director at Amnesty International UK, said: \"The reason people are putting themselves in serious danger with these Channel crossings is that there are simply no safe alternatives open to them.\n\n\"On a global scale, very few people seek asylum in the UK and politicians need to stop peddling myths and stoking hostility toward often vulnerable people who've experienced persecution and trauma.\"\n\nIn June, Kent County Council said it would not be taking on any more unaccompanied asylum-seeking children who arrived in small boats as it has reached \"the limit of safe capacity\".\n\nLast week, members of the home affairs committee said women with babies and very young children were among 56 migrants being held in a cramped room covered with thin mattresses at a unit in Dover.\n\nThey said it was \"wholly inappropriate\" and a clear Covid risk, with some migrants held beyond legal limits.\n\nThe Home Office said it takes the welfare of migrants seriously.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mike Ashley's Frasers Group owns Sports Direct, House of Fraser, and several other retail brands\n\nSports Direct founder Mike Ashley is to step down from leading his retail empire and hand the reins to his future son-in-law.\n\nThe board of Frasers Group, which also owns House of Fraser, said talks were under way for Michael Murray, 31, to succeed the billionaire on 1 May 2022.\n\nThe move would see Mr Ashley step down as chief executive but remain on the board as an executive director.\n\nMr Ashley founded Sports Direct in 1982 and retains 64% of the group.\n\nMr Murray, engaged to be married to Mr Ashley's daughter Anna, is currently \"head of elevation\" at Frasers and is in charge of modernising stores and transforming the business.\n\nChris Wootton, Frasers Group's finance chief said the direction of travel to hand over more power to Mr Murray had been in place for a while.\n\n\"Without insulting him, by Mike's own admission he is a bit of a dinosaur. Michael is young, fresh and youthful and knows what the customer wants. Mike is very good at selling socks,\" Mr Wootton told The Times.\n\nIn stock market statement, Frasers Group said it was \"currently proposed\" that Mr Murray would assume the role of chief executive, with a \"reward and remuneration package\" now being considered.\n\n\"The board consider it appropriate that Michael leads us forward on this increasingly successful elevation journey,\" Fraser's Group said.\n\nMr Murray has been working for the group for several years, but his role at the company raised eyebrows after reports about him being paid millions of pounds in consultancy fees.\n\nMr Ashley was previously executive deputy chairman of the retail group - which changed its name from Sports Direct International to Frasers Group two years ago - until 2016, when long-serving chief executive Dave Forsey resigned.\n\nMr Ashley, 56, has been one of the High Street's most prominent and colourful figures since founding his business.\n\nHe first entered the fitness industry as a squash coach before opening his first high street sports shop in Maidenhead, Berkshire, in 1982.\n\nThrough the early 1990s, he expanded to a chain of stores rebranded as Sports Soccer, and had a portfolio of about 100 shops by the turn of the millennium.\n\nThe noughties saw more rebrands before the business found its current guise of Sports Direct and in 2007, Mr Ashley floated the business as a public company in a move which valued it at £2.5bn.\n\nLater that year, Mr Ashley became a significantly more recognisable figure when he bought majority control of Newcastle United. However, his tenure has come under criticism from fans over his ownership style and perceived lack of investment. He is currently seeking a sale after the collapse of a £300m deal with the Saudi Public Investment Fund.\n\nAway from football, he has rapidly grown his retail operation in recent years, snapping up a number of distressed British brands including House of Fraser, Evans Cycles, Jack Wills and Game.\n\nThe group is now worth around £3bn and operates almost 1,000 shops.\n\nHowever, there has been controversial moments.\n\nIn 2016, a parliamentary inquiry accused Mr Ashley of running Sports Direct like a Victorian workhouse after a report by the Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Select Committee said the company had used \"appalling working practices\" and treated \"workers as commodities rather than as human beings\".\n\nThe group has also come under heavy criticism over its use of zero-hours contracts for workers.\n\nLondon's High Court heard that the businessman once hosted a management meeting in a pub where he drank 12 pints and vomited into a fireplace.\n\nMr Ashley apologised in March 2020 after a series of blunders in the way his chain has reacted to the first coronavirus lockdown.\n\nThe retailer lobbied the government to keep his shops open, arguing they were an \"essential service\", but backed down after a backlash from staff and media.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe retail veteran's decision to back away from the chief executive position appeared surprising but retail analysts have said they think it could still be \"business as usual\".\n\nRetail analyst Richard Hyman said: \"Perhaps there is a move here to give Michael Murray more limelight and draw more focus to this elevation strategy he has been leading.\n\n\"I really think we need to be careful not to look too much at this company through a corporate lens, because it doesn't matter what titles they have, this is Mike Ashley's business and he will have final say.\"\n\nA graduate from the University of Reading, Mr Murray set up his own property consultancy in 2015. One of his clients was Mike Ashley's Frasers Group.\n\nHis consultancy firm is tasked with finding and negotiating deals for new Sports Direct and other retail shops across globe, as well as providing advice on the company's existing sites.\n\nHe was appointed \"head of elevation\" for Frasers Group in January 2019, with his job to modernise the business. One of his main projects was the development of Flannels, which is among Mr Ashley's retail empire.\n\n\"I looked at Flannels and thought it could be so much bigger than it was,\" Mr Murray said in an interview. \"Five years ago, it was a sleepy business, so I developed a strategy, Mike signed it off and we started rolling it out. Three years later, we're opening in Oxford Street.\"\n\nIn an interview with the Guardian following the opening of a Flannels flagship store in Leicester, Mr Murray said him and Mr Ashley were \"working like a partnership\".\n\n\"I'm thinking about the next 10 to 20 years. He looks after the back end - systems, logistics - I look after customer-facing side and the image of the business,\" he said\n\nHe is now Ashley's righthand man, and soon to be one of the family, after becoming engaged to Mr Ashley's daughter.\n\nFrasers Group revealed the leadership change in its latest full-year trading figures on Thursday, in which it said its revenue fell 8.4% to £3.6bn from £3.9bn in 2020.\n\nIts sports retail revenue also decreased by 10.7% from £2.2bn to £1.9bn due store closures caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the company said.\n\nPre-tax profits also dived by 94.1% to £8.5m for the year to 25 April, compared with £143.5m in the previous year.\n\nIn a statement Mr Ashley said: \"Our stores in the UK have reopened above expectations and our online channel continues to significantly outperform pre-Covid-19 periods.\n\n\"None the less, management remains of the view that there is a high risk of future Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, likely to be over this winter and maybe beyond.\"\n\nThis is a real changing of the guard. Mike Ashley is one of the most colourful figures in British retail who started out with a single store in Maidenhead and turned it into a £3bn business.\n\nUnconventional and brash, he's ruffled plenty of feathers along the way and liked to cock a snook at the City. But he's also a shrewd and canny businessman and in recent years has snapped up a host of big names out of administration.\n\nHe took on the role of chief executive in 2016, promising to \"fix\" the business after it came under fire for poor working practices at its main distribution centre. Now he clearly feels it's time to hand over the reins to his daughter's fiancé.\n\nMr Murray has won plaudits for how he's transformed a number of stores, including the new flagship Sports Direct store in London's Oxford Street.\n\nAt the age of 31, Mr Murray is now set to be catapulted into the top job in charge of some 1,000 shops and more than 20,000 employees.\n\nHe'll certainly bring a younger, more modern, face to this sprawling retail empire but he has some huge trainers to fill as Mike Ashley prepares to step back.", "A former athletics coach has been convicted of rape and serious sexual offences against teenage girls in Fife.\n\nEric Simpson raped one girl and subjected four other victims to indecent assaults and lewd behaviour between 1981 and 1999.\n\nThe 73-year-old from Kirkcaldy had denied the offences but was found guilty of seven charges at the High Court in Edinburgh.\n\nJudge Lord Arthurson told him to expect a \"very substantial\" prison term.\n\nHis youngest victim was just 13 years old.\n\nHe told her to undress and molested her while massaging her with baby oil. She said: \"I was frozen. I was too scared to do anything.\"\n\nAnother woman told the court that she heard Simpson saying it was very difficult working with young girls when they all fancied him.\n\nShe was also molested by him during massages, and was then raped by Simpson.\n\nHe was still working as an athletics coach when allegations against him surfaced in 2018.\n\nPolice Scotland said a victim agreed to speak to detectives after seeing a recent photograph of Simpson, still in a coaching role and posing with a young girl.\n\nHer account triggered the start of a police investigation.\n\nFive women agreed to give statements and Simpson was arrested and charged in May 2019.\n\nDet Sgt Graeme Dursley said: \"Simpson was well known in the local community. He was held in very high regard in athletic circles and many of those we spoke to couldn't believe the concerns were true.\n\n\"This shows his level of manipulation and the depraved character that he was.\n\n\"The women who agreed to testify against him are incredibly brave. When we approached them for the first time, they were all so glad that this was being investigated and that we believed them.\"\n\nHe said Simpson would not have been convicted had his victims not agreed to speak to the police.\n\nSimpson was placed on the sex offenders register and remanded in custody, pending sentencing in September.", "More power to your elbow: Hailey Mann says she is now living life to the full\n\nA 25-year-old Aberdeenshire woman has said she is now living rather than just existing, one year after getting a delayed cystic fibrosis drug.\n\nHailey Mann, from Westhill, had been advised to make end-of-life preparations as her condition worsened.\n\nShe said there were \"tears of joy\" when the drug was approved for her to start using last year.\n\nThe beauty therapist said her life had been transformed and she was now living it to the full.\n\nMs Mann said at the time that an agreement had been made with the pharmaceutical company which manufactures Kaftrio to make the medicine available to her on compassionate grounds.\n\nThe licensing of the drug in Scotland had been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, but was then approved for use.\n\nShe told BBC Scotland: \"It's been a rollercoaster year, but a much better one than I was on before. It's a complete 360.\n\n\"The amount of energy, the amount of things I'm doing - before Kaftrio I was just existing as opposed to living. Now I'm living. It's a totally different life.\n\n\"I feel like I've been given a second chance at life.\"\n\nHailey Mann spoke last year when she got the good news\n\nMs Mann said she tries to do something every day to to make the most of things \"because you don't know what's around the corner\".\n\nShe explained: \"Even with the pandemic I've been able to do so much more in this last year. The difference is unreal.\n\n\"I'm back to work, working from home. I love my job. In between all that, trying to do things all the time. Even just little things like going to the park with my little sister. Something as little as that I would have never been able to do before.\n\n\"I'm climbing up and down the stairs which were like a mountain beforehand. I don't require any oxygen anymore and just not having to depend on anybody. It's a complete U-turn.\"\n\nThe 25-year-old says she tries to do something every day\n\nShe added: \"I think last year when I was so ill, it just feels like a blur. I wasn't myself. I'm usually full of energy and doing things and usually quite positive. Last year was hard. I'd almost lost sight of all that. I'm now back to my old self.\"\n\nShe said she had stayed in touch with a transplant team and that they were happy with her progress, with her lung function going up and stabilising.\n\n\"So they're just keeping me on their radar so if there was to ever be any issues, they know who I am and where I'm at, but for now I'm happy with where I am,\" she said.\n\n\"Just to try and live everyday like it's your last. I'm hoping to go to Mexico with the family. That's our ultimate holiday destination.\"\n\nThe European Medicines Agency (EMA) allows for use of \"unauthorised medicine\" that has not yet been licensed under \"compassionate use programmes\".\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Half of all government spending on computers is dedicated to keeping old systems going, a report has found.\n\nThe government spends £4.7bn a year on IT across all departments, and £2.3bn goes on patching up systems, some of which date back 30 years or more.\n\nLabour said the situation showed Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove's \"incompetence and failure to deliver\".\n\nThe Cabinet Office said it was taking action to reduce the government's reliance on outdated technology.\n\nThe Cabinet Office report, called Organising for Digital Delivery, warns that government could end up spending between £13bn and £22bn over the next five years on obsolete systems.\n\nSome government digital services \"fail to meet even the minimum cyber-security standards,\" it adds, and data can not be properly extracted from them, making them \"one of the greatest barriers\" to civil service innovation.\n\nThe Home Office spends more than any other government department on IT but still relies on 12 so-called legacy systems, despite repeated efforts to retire them, the report found.\n\nThe Home Office is the biggest spender on IT, making sure their 12 legacy systems are kept operational\n\nThe government has made a big push to use data to improve public services, but despite \"significant sums\" being spent on data storage departments are \"making little use of this data to influence action or decision-making\".\n\nThe report also says the government is not carrying out any kind of monitoring of performance of computer systems, as is common in leading private and public sector organisations.\n\nA performance management system was put in place in 2012, but has since fallen into disuse - and even the technology that monitors its performance is now obsolete and vulnerable to a cyber attack.\n\nThe report also highlights digital success stories, such as the rapid launch of the NHS coronavirus testing service and the furlough scheme.\n\nThe Home Office's EU Settlement Scheme is also cited as example of rapid rollout.\n\nThe report says government departments that need a new digital service should launch a \"minimum loveable product\".\n\nThis means, for example, not worrying about making the website look nice and having lots of features, but to focus on the absolute bare essentials required for launching a service to the public.\n\nCommenting on the report, Labour's Shadow Cabinet Office minister Fleur Anderson said Michael Gove had \"created a culture of waste and inefficiency\".\n\n\"It is unacceptable that taxpayers' money is being pumped into failing and outdated infrastructure.\n\n\"Keeping old and broken systems going is what this Conservative government does best. They desperately need an upgrade.\"\n\nA Cabinet Office spokesman said the government had accepted the report's recommendations in full.\n\n\"We are reducing our reliance on legacy IT, moving away from costly, insecure and unreliable technology and laying the foundations for future digital transformation.\"\n\nOld IT systems are often used in complex, specialised areas and need to be carefully replaced to avoid further costs down the line, the spokesman added.\n\nThe Cabinet Office has launched a new department, the Central Digital and Data Office, to help update systems.\n\nHM Revenue and Customs recently announced it would scrap its 27-year-old Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight (CHIEF) system in March 2023. It has been in operation since 1994.\n\nIts replacement, the new Customs Declaration Service (CDS), was originally commissioned in 2015.\n\nBut when Britain voted to leave the EU the following year it had to be redesigned to handle far more customs declarations.\n\nThe extra cash needed is one of the reasons HMRC cut down on other digital initiatives in 2018.", "Fully vaccinated passengers returning to England, Scotland and Northern Ireland from France will no longer need to quarantine after Sunday.\n\nUnder widespread changes to the traffic light system for travel, France is being moved from amber-plus to amber.\n\nIt was added to the list last month amid concerns about the Covid Beta variant, which scientists believe may be more resistant to vaccines.\n\nBut thousands of Britons are in Mexico, which is moving to the red list.\n\nIt is one of four countries now considered to be among the highest risk destinations.\n\nDespite prior speculation, Spain will remain on the amber list, enabling travellers who are fully vaccinated to continue to enjoy a quarantine-free return.\n\nHowever, the Department for Transport has now said that \"arrivals from Spain and all its islands are advised to use a PCR test as their pre-departure test wherever possible\" instead of the cheaper lateral flow tests.\n\nBut in a series of tweets Conservative MP Huw Merriman, chairman of the Commons Transport Select Committee, criticised \"expensive\" PCR tests for travel as an \"unnecessary rip-off\" and a \"barrier to affordable travel\".\n\nIndia, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are being moved from the red list to the amber list as part of the changes, which come into effect from 04:00 BST on 8 August.\n\nAnd Germany, Austria and Norway are among seven nations being added to the green list.\n\nThe total number of countries or territories on the green list - from which all travellers can return without having to quarantine - will rise from 29 to 36.\n\nBut other countries have their own rules about allowing visitors - so being on the UK's green list does not guarantee travellers can visit there.\n\nThere are no changes to the rules requiring travellers to take tests before and after their return.\n\nTransport Secretary Grant Shapps said: \"We are committed to opening up international travel safely, taking advantage of the gains we've made through our successful vaccination programme, helping connect families, friends and businesses around the world.\"\n\nAsked about the advice on PCR tests for arrivals from Spain, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that ministers were \"not asking people to do anything different from what's been happening in Spain\".\n\nHe insisted the government was \"not changing the rules\", as in Spain's case, \"virtually everyone is taking a PCR\" to meet the government's performance standards for the pre-departure test - adding that PCR tests helped scientists monitor variants.\n\nHe said that between 5,000 and 6,000 British holidaymakers are in Mexico currently and would be \"making arrangements to come home\". They need to return by the 04:00 BST deadline on Sunday or pay for hotel quarantine.\n\nMoving from amber to green: Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Slovakia, Latvia, Romania and Norway\n\nMoving from red to amber: India, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE\n\nMoving from amber to red: Georgia, Mexico, La Reunion and Mayotte\n\nIf you have been in a red list country in the last 10 days, you can only enter the UK if you are a UK or Irish national or UK resident, and you then have to stay at a quarantine hotel.\n\nThe government has announced the cost of staying at one of those hotels is increasing, with the price for single adult travellers rising from £1,750 to £2,285 from 12 August, with a second adult paying £1,430.\n\nThis better reflects the costs involved, the government has said. That includes transport to the hotel, security, provision of welfare services and the two PCR tests which must be taken on day two and day eight of the stay.\n\nChildren aged 5-12 will still cost £325; it is free for children aged under five.\n\nBritish Airways said its teams had been \"working through the night to arrange as many additional seats out of Mexico as possible to help get Britons home\" before the new rules kick in.\n\nIt added that British Airways and British Airways Holidays customers could re-book their flights from Mexico \"at no additional cost\" ahead of the deadline, and that British Airways Holidays would \"automatically refund any customer with a booking to Mexico in the next four weeks\".\n\nThe UK government sets the red, amber and green lists for England, while the other nations are in charge of their own lists. Scotland and Northern Ireland confirmed they will be adopting the same changes as England.\n\nBut the Welsh government criticised the \"ad-hoc nature\" of the UK government's travel decisions. It said it will consider whether to follow the latest changes, adding: \"We continue to advise against all but essential travel abroad because of the continuing risk of infection.\"\n\nIs this enough to save the summer season for the travel industry?\n\nThere are some things for the sector to be pleased about. The green list is longer, France is fully amber and there are more countries turning amber from red.\n\nBut there are stings in the tail too. Of the seven green countries, only two - Latvia and Slovenia - currently allow in non-vaccinated UK tourists without quarantine.\n\nMany major holiday destinations like Greece and Spain are still amber. And the testing regime - which many in the industry want scrapped - is still firmly in place.\n\nThe government says it is being cautious and continuing to protect the UK from dangerous variants, and that this is a good step for passengers and travel.\n\nBut after months of changes and uncertainty, there are concerns in the travel sector that this doesn't do enough to reassure the public to book.\n\nBritish couple Katherine and Henry Walker, who own a campsite in west France, said they hoped the news will bring a flurry of last-minute bookings, but added: \"I think it's too late for families to come because they would have booked elsewhere in the UK.\"\n\nThey said they were at 40% occupancy - when they would usually be at 90% - because of the lack of visitors from the UK.\n\nLabour's shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon criticised the government for its \"flip-flopping over France\" and said it needed to explain how it had reached decisions.\n\n\"Ministers need to get a grip and set out a proper strategy, provide full data, and progress work with global partners on international vaccine passports so travellers and the industry can have clarity instead of reckless U-turns and confusion,\" he said.\n\nKatherine and Henry Walker said they are at 40% occupancy when they're usually at 90%, because of the lack of Britons\n\nBritish Airways boss Sean Doyle welcomed the news but urged the government to go further, saying the UK's economic recovery \"is reliant on a thriving travel sector and right now we're lagging behind Europe, with our more stringent testing requirements and a red list significantly broader than our European peers\".\n\nJames Martin, director of policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, urged the government to \"fundamentally simplify\" the traffic light system to give businesses \"confidence and clarity\".\n\nHe also called on the government to \"step up efforts to drive down the cost of tests\" as cost remained a \"significant barrier to both business and leisure travellers\".\n\nAnd Tim Alderslade, chief executive of the industry body Airlines UK, said the announcement was \"another missed opportunity\", with UK travel opening up \"far slower\" than the rest of Europe.\n\nAre you in Mexico? Are you planning on returning before Sunday to avoid hotel quarantine?\n\nOr are you returning from Spain with a PCR test?\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.\n• None How are travel rules being relaxed?", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nOlympic gold medallist sprinter Elaine Thompson-Herah was mistakenly blocked on Instagram, its owner Facebook Inc has confirmed.\n\nThompson-Herah, the fastest woman in the world, was blocked on Tuesday for sharing videos from her 100 and 200 metre races on her Instagram account.\n\nHer access to the app was reinstated several hours later.\n\nThere are strict copyright restrictions on sharing content from the Games online.\n\nThompson-Herah said on Twitter that she was blocked from accessing her account because she posted videos that she \"did not have the right to do so\".\n\nA spokesperson for Facebook told Reuters news agency that while the content had been removed, the suspension had been wrongly applied.\n\nInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) guidelines mandate that athletes must not post Olympic Games content containing audio and video of the sporting event or medal ceremony.\n\nThis is because a set number of broadcasters hold exclusive rights to broadcast the Games. Their rights include distribution on social media.\n\nHowever athletes \"are invited to share the content\" posted by these broadcasters on their accounts, the IOC told Reuters.\n\nAny content that breaks these rules is removed immediately. It is not clear where the footage the sprinter posted came from.\n\nFor the time period that includes the 2018 Pyeongchang winter Olympics and the Tokyo Games, the IOC is set to receive more than $4bn (£2.8bn) in broadcasting rights. The majority of the money goes back into the Games and supporting sports and athletes.\n\nThompson-Herah secured an unprecedented 100m - 200m double-double. She recorded 21.53 seconds in the 200m, just 0.19 seconds off Florence Griffith-Joyner's long-standing world record.\n\nThompson-Herah is set to compete on Friday in the 4x100m relay final.", "Maj Gen Alastair Bruce was married to Stephen Knott in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle last month\n\nWhen Alastair Bruce joined the army in 1979 it was illegal to be gay and serve your country.\n\nLast month Maj Gen Bruce became the highest-ranking officer in the British army to have a same-sex wedding.\n\nAfter years of hiding their relationship, he married his partner of 20 years, Stephen Knott, in Edinburgh in full military uniform.\n\nGen Bruce kept his sexuality under wraps for his entire professional life, fearing he would be \"dishonourably discharged\" from the institution he sacrificed so much for.\n\nHe served with the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards in the Falklands in 1982, and rose through the ranks hiding that side of him. He is now governor of Edinburgh Castle.\n\nIt wasn't until January 2000 that the British military changed its view on homosexuality.\n\nUntil then, gay, lesbian and bisexual people had been banned from serving in the British Army, the Royal Navy and the RAF\n\nBut even after Gen Bruce met Stephen in 2001, he continued to keep his relationship quiet.\n\nThe couple kept their relationship discreet but are now fully open after their wedding in Edinburgh\n\nThe royal broadcaster told BBC Radio Scotland's Mornings with Stephen Jardine programme: \"I think I had spent most of my life keeping it quiet anyway. Attitudes socially were somewhat different to what they are today.\n\n\"Some people haven't altered their view but most people have. As a consequence, in almost every professional interest I had at the time, there would have been an issue.\n\n\"As you join the army you have to adapt to be more physically able - it's all part of the training. So I think I had been well trained to cover up the fact that I had a particular sexuality and I just quietly got on with living as well as serving.\"\n\nHe met Stephen when he was lecturing on a cruise ship in the Great Barrier Reef.\n\n\"I never thought anyone came to my lectures under the age of 40,\" he said. \"I was amazed he would be interested in some of the historical stuff I talk about.\n\n\"But he returned and we got chatting and it just took time and within a few months he left where he lived in Northern Ireland to come and live with me in this country.\n\n\"It was such a huge brave step by him and I was awakened by his capacity for love to realise what really mattered in life. And although we continued to maintain a very low-key relationship, we knew this was something that was going to last.\"\n\nAs governor of Edinburgh castle, Gen Bruce takes part in high-profile ceremonial duties\n\nGen Bruce said the couple worked hard to be discreet.\n\n\"I used to say to Stephen if we were walking down a street and I saw someone in the army he would walk on ahead as if I didn't know who he was and we would meet up in the next shop.\"\n\nBut, as attitudes have changed, his did too, and as he revealed his private life to those closest to him, he found nothing but support.\n\nThe wedding at St John's Church on Princes Street, officiated by the Bishop of Edinburgh, started a new, more open chapter in his life.\n\nAfter the ceremony, the couple held a reception in Edinburgh Castle.\n\nHe explained: \"It was fantastic. It absolutely poured with rain, but nothing was going to dampen how Stephen and I felt.\n\n\"It has been a long journey and we were absolutely delighted and we are still thrilled.\"\n\nAnd it meant a lot to him to be married in full Army ceremonial uniform.\n\n\"I have really loved serving in the Army. I wanted to wear uniform at my wedding to say thank you to the armed forces for the incredible journey they have taken and the fact that now, as it should be, we only care whether people are able to deliver, as I put it, 'calculated precise and legal violence against the Queen's enemies' when the nation demands it.\n\n\"What people do in their spare time is of no consequence to that issue.\"\n\nHe does not see the earlier years as living a lie and has found peace with the past. Indeed many friends have told him they knew, but respected him enough to leave him alone.\n\nLast year, the MoD main building was lit in rainbow colours to celebrate 20 years since lesbian, gay and bisexual personnel were legally allowed to serve in the armed forces.\n\nHe said: \"It was complicated and you had to recognise there was a certain amount of jeopardy if you allowed it to become a more publicly-known issue.\n\n\"I am still a bit gauche but that is not caused by how people truly react because everyone is delighted.\n\n\"The truth is, my anxiety endures purely because I lived through a youth where I was cautious and I had a profession where I had to be very very careful and that does shape you.\"\n\nThe major general now looks forward to his work at Edinburgh Castle, with Stephen by his side, not walking ahead.\n\n\"Because I love history anyway and because I am a Bruce, it means so much to be here but to have Stephen by my side makes everything more entertaining - he adds levity and is brilliant with people.\n\n\"I hope we will be a firmament of that continuing welcome this castle affords to people all over the world who come to find the very best of Scotland.\"", "Benjamin Mendy has been remanded in custody\n\nManchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy has been charged with rape.\n\nThe 27-year-old defender has been charged with four counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, Cheshire Police said.\n\nThe charges relate to three complainants over the age of 16 and are alleged to have taken place between October 2020 and August this year.\n\nMr Mendy, of Prestbury, has been remanded in custody and will appear at Chester Magistrates' Court on Friday.\n\nThe left-back has played for last season's Premier League champions since 2017, when he joined from Monaco for a reported £52m.\n\nA police spokesman said: \"Cheshire Constabulary and the Crown Prosecution Service would like to remind everyone that criminal proceedings against Mendy are live and that he has a right to a fair trial.\"\n\nManchester City said the defender, who also plays for the French national team, had been suspended pending an investigation.\n\n\"The matter is subject to a legal process and the club is therefore unable to make further comment until that process is complete,\" the club added.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Man Utd\n\nManchester United have confirmed they have reached an agreement to re-sign Cristiano Ronaldo from Juventus.\n\nUnited have agreed to pay £12.8m for the 36-year-old, with the deal subject to personal terms, a visa and a medical.\n\nRonaldo scored 118 goals in 292 games in his first spell at Old Trafford before leaving for Real Madrid in 2009.\n\n\"Everyone at the club looks forward to welcoming Cristiano back to Manchester,\" said a United statement.\n• None Ronaldo in stats - how does his recent form hold up?\n\nUnited's announcement came after a dramatic 24 hours. Neighbours Manchester City had looked to be one of the favourites to land the forward and some reports suggested personal terms had already been agreed between the two.\n\nHowever, Ronaldo has opted to return to United where he spent six years and won three Premier League titles, one Champions League, two League Cups and one FA Cup - as well as the Fifa Club World Cup and Community Shield - under Sir Alex Ferguson.\n\nInitially, Ronaldo thought there was no chance of a deal with his former club, but United have decided to make it happen, while City have missed out on another striker option after main target Harry Kane committed to Tottenham.\n\nSpeaking before City face Arsenal in the Premier League on Saturday, manager Pep Guardiola said: \"Cristiano is a Juventus player. I cannot add anything else.\n\n\"In these three or four days left until the transfer window shuts, anything can happen but, in my view, there are few players - Cristiano Ronaldo included, Messi is another - they decide where they are going to play.\n\n\"Right now, my feeling is I am more than delighted with the squad we have and we will stay the same.\"\n\nUnited only appeared to become an option when manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer held a news conference on Friday afternoon and said their former star \"knows that we're here\".\n\nSolskjaer added United's Portugal midfielder Bruno Fernandes has been talking to his compatriot Ronaldo.\n\nA few hours later the club announced they had reached an agreement for what will be their third major signing of the summer transfer window following the arrivals of Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane.\n\nIn numbers: Why Ronaldo is one the world's best\n• None A five-time Ballon d'Or winner, claiming the coveted prize in 2008 (with Man Utd) and 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017 (all with Real Madrid).\n• None A five-time Champions League winner in 2008 (with Man Utd), and 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018 (all with Real Madrid).\n• None Won seven league titles in three major leagues in 2007, 2008, 2009 (all with Man Utd), 2012 and 2017 (with Real Madrid) and 2019, 2020 (with Juventus).\n• None Winner of 32 trophies for club and country with Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus and Portugal.\n\nOn Wednesday, Juventus told Ronaldo they were willing to sell him during the transfer window - but only if their conditions were met by interested clubs.\n\n\"[Ronaldo] gave his contribution, he made himself available, now he leaves and life goes on,\" boss Massimiliano Allegri said on Friday.\n\n\"Things change, it's a law of life. Juventus remains, which is the most important thing.\n\n\"He is to be thanked for what he has done, also as an example among the youngsters. But as I said, we must go on.\"\n\nAccording to reports, Ronaldo informed his Juventus colleagues he was set to leave this month after three years at the 36-time champions of Italy.\n\nHe then drove to the training ground on Friday morning but left before taking part in the session.\n\nRonaldo said goodbye to Juventus, who paid £99.2m for the player in July 2018, in an Instagram post.\n\n\"Today I depart from an amazing club, the biggest in Italy and surely one of the biggest in all of Europe,\" he wrote.\n\n\"I gave my heart and soul for Juventus and I'll always love the city of Turin until my final days.\"\n\nFormer Manchester United captain Rio Ferdinand said he had spoken to Ronaldo this week after reading reports linking him with a move to rivals Manchester City. He also said Ronaldo had spoken to former manager Sir Alex Ferguson before agreeing a return to Old Trafford.\n\n\"Sir Alex played a massive part,\" Ferdinand said. \"There was no way Cristiano was coming to Manchester United without speaking to Sir Alex. Simple as that.\n\n\"The attention on the club, the attention on the other players - you can't put into words what it's going to do for the dressing room and the fan base,\" Ferdinand added.\n\n\"He'll get you 25-30 goals this season. That's what he does - he outscored Romelu Lukaku last year in Serie A, but what he can do for Mason Greenwood, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho alone is worth bringing.\n\n\"He will show them what an A-lister, genuine superstar and an absolute obsessive professional lives and breathes on a daily basis.\"\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, Michael Owen added: \"Manchester United need a centre-forward who can bang in 25-plus goals a season; they haven't had that for a while.\n\n\"He's not a signing to appease the fans, he will be playing in all the big games. He definitely has a year or two more in him where he can score more than 20 goals.\n\n\"If he could score 30 goals this season I would be lost for words, but I wouldn't put anything past him, even now.\"\n\nOwen Hargreaves, who won the Champions League alongside Ronaldo in 2008, said: \"I remember my first day training with him. He was the first person on the training pitch, the first person in the ice bath and then the first person in the gym.\n\n\"I remember him doing sit-ups and at the end of his set he sat up and said: 'I'm going to be the best player in the world at the end of this year.' And he was.\n\n\"His dedication to his craft is equal to his talent, which is remarkable.\n\n\"Everyone thinks it's all about him, but he wants to win. He's coming back to United to win and that's why I think as a mentor for these young guys at United he is the perfect fit and I think it's going to be fabulous to watch it all.\"\n• None Our coverage of Manchester United is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything United - go straight to all the best content", "The UK's pig producers are warning that a shortage of workers is causing a surplus of pigs to be stuck at farms.\n\nTrade body the National Pig Association (NPA) said some abattoirs were running 25% below usual capacity.\n\n\"If the government doesn't do something soon there will be a lot of perfectly healthy pigs on farms that will have to be destroyed,\" said Zoe Davies, chief executive of the NPA.\n\nEach week, the number of excess pigs is growing by 15,000, the NPA said.\n\nThe shortage of workers in processing plants means they are unable to take in as many pigs to process as they normally would - resulting in too many pigs on farms.\n\nHaving to house the pigs for longer, while they grow at a rate of a kilo each day, is having a severe impact on the profitability of the farms, according to the NPA.\n\nThe industry body said extra costs of feed and abattoir charges for overweight pigs means many farms are operating at a loss.\n\nThe problem is exacerbating an excess of pigs, which had already been causing issues since the UK left the EU at the beginning of 2021, the NPA added.\n\n\"We need access to skilled labour now and we need the government to be able to supply us with the means to find these staff,\" Ms Davies said.\n\nA spokesperson from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the government understands the \"importance of seasonal labour\" and is \"aware of the challenges\" that the pork industry has faced in recent months because of the pandemic and labour shortages.\n\n\"Defra has been working closely with the pig and processing sectors during this time,\" they said.\n\n\"We will continue to work closely with the sector and are keeping the market under close review, recognising the pressures industry is currently facing.\"\n\nThe NPA, which represents 80% of the UK's pig producers, said its members had \"tried desperately\" to recruit people.\n\n\"They've upped wages but there are a good proportion of people that left after Brexit and you can't just fill those jobs with thin air,\" Ms Davies said.\n\nThe NPA said that the wasted meat from the surplus of pigs which could have gone into the food supply chain, will result in the UK's food sector having to import more from the EU.\n\n\"We have a good supply of willing people in other countries who do want to come and want to work and they should be allowed to do that,\" Ms Davies added.\n\nThe meat-processing industry is calling on the government for help in facilitating workers from overseas to solve the shortages. The NPA estimate that up to 80% of staff at meat processing plants are non-UK workers.\n\nThe UK has about five million pigs in total and 40% of the pork eaten in the country is British while 15-20% is exported.\n\nBrexit and Covid-19 and have put serious pressures on the food industry, which has already seen a shortage of fruit pickers, lorry drivers and fast-food restaurants unable to provide normal service.\n\nSupermarket bosses have also warned that it is vital to fix the labour shortage problems before key trading over the Christmas period.\n\nDairy giant Arla has also had to cut back on milk deliveries to supermarkets because of the driver shortages.", "Contactless cards have generally been used for lower-value purchases\n\nThe spending limit on each use of a contactless card is to rise from £45 to £100 from 15 October, banks have revealed.\n\nThe maximum amount was increased from £30 to its current level at the start of the pandemic, and plans to raise it further were announced in the Budget.\n\nNearly two-thirds of all debit card transactions are made via the tap-and-go technology.\n\nBut academics have warned that raising the limit could increase crime.\n\nWhen contactless card payments were introduced in 2007, the transaction limit was set at £10. Cards were generally used in this way in place of small change when buying snacks, papers and occasional groceries.\n\nThe limit was raised gradually, to £20 in 2012, then to £30 in 2015.\n\nThe pandemic accelerated a move away from cash, with shoppers often being encouraged to use contactless in many stores to reduce close contact between staff and customers.\n\nIt meant the government and industry hurriedly increased the limit to £45 and announced plans to raise it again to £100. Banks say that will allow people to pay, without the need for a Pin, when filling up the car with petrol or during weekly food shopping trips.\n\nThey added that, given the number of terminals that will need to be updated to accept the new limit, it would take some time for the new level to be introduced across all retailers.\n\nChancellor Rishi Sunak said: \"Increasing the contactless limit will make it easier than ever to pay safely and securely. As people get back to the High Street, millions of payments will made be simpler, providing a welcome boost for retailers and shoppers.\"\n\nHowever, there are concerns that the next increase will prove tempting for criminals to step up efforts to steal cards.\n\nA report for UCL's Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science said credit and debit cards were known as \"hot property\" for criminals.\n\n\"Raising the contactless card limit to £100 would likely make card theft more attractive, increasing a broad range of acquisitive crimes including snatch theft of wallets and purses, hold-up robberies, and home and vehicle break-ins to find cards that can be used fraudulently,\" the report said.\n\n\"Past experience suggests it could attract new cohorts of teen criminals who are more likely to progress to extended criminal careers, with implications for longer term crime rates.\"", "Former Royal Marine Pen Farthing set up the Nowzad animal shelter after serving in Afghanistan in the mid-2000s\n\nAn animal charity's founder has made it through Kabul airport's security, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.\n\nPaul \"Pen\" Farthing was trying to get his staff and rescue animals out of Afghanistan when they became caught up in Thursday's airport bomb blasts.\n\nOn Friday evening the MoD said Mr Farthing and his animals were assisted by the UK Armed Forces.\n\nIt added: \"They are currently being supported while he awaits transportation.\"\n\nThe MoD announcement did not mention the situation surrounding Mr Farthing's staff.\n\nMr Farthing, a former Royal Marine who is originally from Dovercourt in Essex, set up the Nowzad animal shelter in Kabul, rescuing dogs, cats and donkeys, after serving in Afghanistan in the mid-2000s.\n\nThis 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 Ministry of Defence Press Office 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. End of twitter post by Ministry of Defence Press Office\n\nSince the collapse of the Afghan government, Mr Farthing and his supporters have campaigned to have his staff, their families and 140 dogs and 60 cats evacuated from the country in a plan he has named Operation Ark.\n\nBut Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has complained some of Mr Farthing's supporters had \"taken up too much time of my senior commanders dealing with this issue when they should be focused on dealing with the humanitarian crisis\".\n\nConfirming the news Mr Farthing and his animals were through airport security on Friday evening via social media, the MoD said: \"On the direction of the Defence Secretary, clearance for their charter flight has been sponsored by the UK Government.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Pen Farthing: \"Twice today I've had an AK poked in my face\"\n\nMr Farthing had earlier said he had been \"turned away\" while trying to leave Kabul on Thursday.\n\nMr Wallace said his advisors and officials had received abusive calls, which he said were \"based mainly on falsehoods, that somebody, somewhere had blocked a flight - no-one blocked a flight\".\n\nHe continued: \"Fundamentally, as we have seen on the media, there are desperate, desperate people, and I was not prepared to push those people out of the way for that.\n\n\"When people's time is right, they were called forward, and that's the right thing to do.\n\n\"But I hope he comes back, he was advised to come back, his wife came back last Friday, so I hope he does as well.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Health officials are urging festival-goers this weekend to take a free rapid Covid test before they attend, stay outside and apart from other groups as much as possible.\n\nExperts say sharing public transport, tents and cars are key trigger points, with outdoor spaces far less risky.\n\nThere is concern the events, in places like Reading and Leeds, could lead to a rise in cases in young people.\n\nAll 16 and 17-year-olds have only recently been offered a Covid vaccine.\n\nAnd tens of thousands of them and older teenagers are expect to attend festivals this bank holiday weekend.\n\nDr Susan Hopkins, of Public Health England (PHE), advised youngsters to wear a face covering if using public transport to travel to festivals, and also urged caution when they return home.\n\n\"You may well have caught Covid-19 while you've been away,\" she said. \"Make sure you take an LFD [lateral flow device] test when you get home and then test twice a week after having mixed with a large group of people.\n\n\"Try and avoid seeing older or more vulnerable relatives so that you don't pass anything on.\"\n\nMeradin Peachey, director of public health for west Berkshire, which covers Reading, said: \"Sixteen, 17-year-olds are the main groups that are going to be there and they're not covered yet.\n\n\"We are trying to ask people to show proof of a lateral flow test before you even get anywhere near the gates.\"\n\nThe Boardmasters Festival in Cornwall earlier this month, which attracted about 50,000 people, is thought to have created 4,700 coronavirus cases.\n\nBut council leaders in the county, which has some of highest case rates in England, say there is no reason to cancel any holiday events this weekend.\n\nIt comes as cases in the UK are climbing again with 38,046 cases and 100 deaths with Covid-19 reported on Friday.\n\nCases are now at a similar to the number reported daily in mid-January around the winter peak.\n\nBut the number of people admitted to hospital and dying with Covid is far below the levels seen then because of high levels of protection from the vaccines.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics estimates that infection rates have increased across all four UK nations in the week up to 20 August, with some stark variations.\n\nThe number of people thought to be infected is:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Stay outside for the bank holiday, urges Welsh minister\n\nDr Michael Head, from the University of Southampton, said the main trigger points at mass gatherings were indoor settings.\n\n\"Where festival-goers are in a field, even in large numbers, the transmission risks will remain relatively low.\n\n\"It is the indoor shared spaces that are key, such as marquees, tents, or shared cars, and use of public transport to and from the event.\"\n\nHe said using masks would be helpful, and everyone should have a Covid-19 vaccine when offered one.\n\nDr Julian Tang, clinical virologist at the University of Leicester, said people needed to make their own assessments of risk.\n\nBut he said \"these are admittedly very difficult to make accurately without knowing your vaccine responses, those of others, as well as what viral loads people around you might be shedding at any point - and then your individual susceptibility to more severe or long-Covid complications\".\n\nThe London Ambulance Service is also asking people to use its services wisely this weekend as it prepares for a busy bank holiday, which could be \"what we normally see on New Year's Eve\", it said.\n\nThe service puts the extra demand down to increased spread of Covid in the community, more people being out and about, and travelling in and out of the capital.\n\nIt said August was expected to be one of the busiest months ever for the service.\n\nAlicia Demirjian, incident director for Covid-19 at Public Health England (PHE), said: \"Cases of Covid-19 are still high, especially among young people.\n\n\"If you have Covid-19 symptoms, please do not go out - stay at home and get a PCR test as soon as possible.\n\n\"If you are heading to a festival or other event this bank holiday weekend, to protect your friends and others we encourage you to take a free rapid test before you leave to check that you do not have the virus.\"\n\nPHE said it would be closely monitoring how the start of the school term, which is happening for many children next week in England, affects the number of new infections.", "A sick child in Houston, Texas, is taken to hospital after testing positive for Covid\n\nThe US intelligence community has been unable to determine the origins of Covid-19, and is split on whether it leaked from a lab or developed in nature, according to a new report.\n\nThe report issued by the office that oversees the nation's 18 spy agencies did conclusively determine that it was not developed as a biological weapon.\n\nExperts warn that time is running out to gather evidence of its beginnings.\n\nChina's foreign minister has dismissed the report as \"anti-science\".\n\nThe report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the intelligence community remains divided on Covid's most likely origin.\n\n\"All agencies assess that two hypotheses are plausible: natural exposure to an infected animal and a laboratory-associated incident.\"\n\nAccording to the report, several unnamed spy agencies thought Covid emerged from \"natural exposure to an animal infected with it or a close progenitor virus\". But they only had \"low confidence\" in this conclusion.\n\nOne intelligence agency developed \"moderate confidence\" that the first human infection was likely due a \"laboratory-associated incident\" at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has studied coronaviruses in bats for more than a decade.\n\nPresident Biden issued a statement after the report's publication, criticising China for not co-operating with the investigation.\n\n\"Critical information about the origins of this pandemic exists in the People's Republic of China, yet from the beginning, government officials in China have worked to prevent international investigators and members of the global public health community from accessing it,\" Mr Biden said.\n\n\"The world deserves answers, and I will not rest until we get them, \"he added.\n\nThe pandemic, which has claimed nearly 4.5 million lives around the world, began in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019.\n\nA World Health Organization (WHO) team, which visited Wuhan, concluded earlier this year that the disease most likely spilled over from an animal sold at a market.\n\nThis conclusion has been rejected by some scientists.\n\nIn May, Mr Biden asked US intelligence agencies to assess the data and produce a report that \"could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion\" on the origins of the virus.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid-19 and Wuhan: Why don't we know more?\n\nChina meanwhile has been stoking baseless claims that virus originated from Fort Detrick, a military installation in the US.\n\nEarlier this week, the WHO panel warned that it would soon be \"biologically impossible\" to gather evidence dating back to the virus' origin.\n\n\"The window of opportunity for conducting this crucial inquiry is closing fast,\" they warned, calling on researchers and governments to expedite studies.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Getting the plane out of Afghanistan was \"happiest moment of my life\"\n\nThe US says it will keep evacuating Afghans from Kabul airport until \"the last moment\", despite continuing concerns about attacks from the Islamic State (IS) group.\n\nReports from Kabul now suggest as many as 170 people died in Thursday's attack on crowds at a gate to the airport.\n\nThe Pentagon says there are still credible threats against the airport.\n\nThe US is still processing Afghans desperate to leave. Most Nato countries have now ended their emergency flights.\n\nFrance ended its evacuation effort on Friday, blaming deteriorating security at the airport. It said it had flown nearly 3,000 people out of the country.\n\nThe deadline set by the US for its forces to leave Afghanistan expires on 31 August.\n\nThe BBC's chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet, who is in Kabul, has been told by sources that the US and British troops are \"wrapping up\" at the airport, and that the Taliban will take over in \"a matter of hours\".\n\nA spokesman for the Taliban said on Friday night they had now taken control of parts of the airport. However, the Pentagon disputed this.\n\nHundreds of Afghans are still desperate to leave before the Taliban take full control of the airport\n\nAccording to the Pentagon, more than 5,000 people remain inside the airport, waiting to be flown out. Officials also said measures had been implemented, in conjunction with the Taliban, to improve safety.\n\nThe White House says more than 111,000 people have been evacuated since the airlift began nearly two weeks ago.\n\nThe mission, a White House official said, would prioritise the remaining American citizens who wanted to leave, with US forces \"engaged in a variety of means to get them to the airport safely\".\n\nMeanwhile, the US Embassy in Kabul advises American citizens to avoid travelling to the airport and avoid the airport's gates because of security threats.\n\nThe attack on Kabul airport was carried out by a suicide bomber who walked into the crowd of families waiting outside one of the gates, according to UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace.\n\nThere was no second blast near an airport hotel, as originally thought, US officials said on Friday.\n\nDozens of Afghans were killed - a final number has yet to be established. In addition, 13 US personnel, two British nationals and the child of a British national were among the dead.\n\nSome victims were blown into a sewage canal where Afghans were waiting to be processed, while dozens were rushed to hospital.\n\nHospitals in Kabul, already struggling with fewer staff since the Taliban took power nearly two weeks ago, have been overwhelmed with patients.\n\nWounded US personnel were flown to an American air base in Germany.\n\nMeanwhile, US President Joe Biden has been warned that another terror attack in Kabul is likely in the coming days.\n\nThe next few days would be \"the most dangerous period to date\", a White House official said, adding that US forces were looking at possible IS targets.\n\nIS-K, or Islamic State Khorasan Province, is the group that claimed to be behind Thursday's deadly airport attack.\n\nIt is the most extreme and violent of all the jihadist militant groups in Afghanistan. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the US took the group \"very seriously\".\n\n\"Obviously they are a serious terror threat,\" he said, adding: \"I think the threat is real and nobody wants to see that threat grow.\n\n\"We're not going to allow attacks on the homeland to emanate from Afghanistan again like they did 20 years ago.\"", "The government has announced plans to ban single-use plastic cutlery, plates and polystyrene cups in England as part of what it calls a \"war on plastic\".\n\nMinisters said the move would help to reduce litter and cut the amount of plastic waste in oceans.\n\nA consultation on the policy will launch in the autumn - although the government has not ruled out including other items in the ban.\n\nBut environmental activists said more urgent and wider action was needed.\n\nScotland, Wales and Northern Ireland already have plans to ban single-use plastic cutlery, and the European Union brought in a similar ban in July - putting ministers in England under pressure to take similar action.\n\nOn average, each person in England uses 18 single-use plastic plates and 37 single-use plastic items of cutlery every year, according to government figures.\n\nMinisters are also hoping to introduce measures under its Environment Bill to tackle plastic pollution - such as a deposit return scheme on plastic bottles to encourage recycling and a plastic packaging tax - but this new plan would be an additional tool.\n\nThe Environment Bill is going through Parliament and is not yet law.\n\nA consultation on the deposit return scheme proposal for England, Wales and Northern Ireland finished in June.\n\nEnvironment Secretary George Eustice said everyone had \"seen the damage that plastic does to our environment\" and it was right to \"put in place measures that will tackle the plastic carelessly strewn across our parks and green spaces and washed up on beaches\".\n\nHe added: \"We have made progress to turn the tide on plastic, banning the supply of plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds, while our carrier bag charge has cut sales by 95% in the main supermarkets.\n\n\"These plans will help us stamp out the unnecessary use of plastics that wreak havoc with our natural environment.\"\n\nBut the ban may take over a year to become law, with legislation needing to go through Parliament, and it is understood it could be April 2023 before it comes into force.\n\nCampaigners have urged the government to move quickly.\n\nJo Morley, from the campaign group City to Sea, told the BBC she welcomed the news but it was \"just the tip of the iceberg\".\n\nShe added: \"We need the government to go much, much, much further, we are facing a plastics crisis and we need to turn off the tap.\n\n\"We are really facing an environmental crisis, our oceans are full of plastic, and they're killing marine life, they are damaging our eco-systems and they are actually threatening human health.\"\n\nKierra Box from Friends of the Earth echoed the concerns.\n\nShe said: \"We need government to take an overall approach to say that what we are going to do is bring an end to all plastic pollution, and what we're going to do is drastically reduce the amount of all single-use products, not just a fork followed by a spoon followed by a cup.\"", "Police were called to three stores, including Tesco Express\n\nA solicitor has appeared in court accused of injecting blood into food items at three west London stores.\n\nLeoaai Elghareeb, 37, from Fulham, did not enter a plea at Westminster Magistrates' Court to a charge of contaminating goods with intent.\n\nThe case relates to incidents at a Sainsbury's Local, Tesco Express and Little Waitrose on Fulham Palace Road, Fulham, on Wednesday evening.\n\nHe is in custody and will appear at Isleworth Crown Court on 24 September.\n\nThe court heard the defendant, of Crabtree Lane, is accused of entering the Waitrose store and \"throwing around\" syringes of blood and injecting them into food items.\n\nShoppers have been advised to throw away products bought on Wednesday evening\n\nHe is also accused of doing the same, along with throwing eggs, in a nearby Sainsbury's store, and going on to inject more items in Tesco Express before he was arrested, the court heard.\n\nHammersmith and Fulham Council advised shoppers to throw away products bought in the stores after 18:00 BST on Wednesday.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Celebrities including Tinashe, Katy Perry and Hailey Bieber have worked with Shein\n\nChinese fast fashion firm Shein has launched an investigation into \"false\" discriminatory job adverts posted on recruitment sites under its name.\n\nAdverts seen by the BBC for factory and warehouse workers said those from certain ethnic minority backgrounds, including Uyghurs, must not apply.\n\nShein said it did not fund or approve the ads, and it was committed to \"upholding high labour standards\".\n\nThe plight of the Uyghurs in China has sparked international condemnation.\n\nFast-growing Shein competes with the likes of Boohoo in the market for young shoppers and has collaborated with celebrities and influencers to build its online following.\n\nSeveral adverts were posted under Shein's name between April and December of 2020 on Chinese recruitment websites.\n\nThey offered jobs working in its Guangzhou factories or warehouses earning about 16 yuan (£1.81) per hour, as well as saying workers did not need to get tested for Covid - or pass a medical exam to work on-site - at the height of the pandemic.\n\nA Shein spokesperson said the company was \"surprised and concerned\" to see the adverts using language that \"goes against\" its hiring principles.\n\n\"Shein is fully committed to upholding high labour standards across our entire supply chain and to improving the lives of workers in the global supply chain by supporting national and international efforts to end forced labour,\" they said, adding it has strict requirements for its suppliers and does not tolerate discrimination.\n\nIts recruitment company, Guangzhou Zhongzhi Human Resources Management, also said it would \"investigate the individuals who fraudulently used our company's name to release false information\" and hold them \"accountable to the fullest extent of the law\".\n\n\"We sincerely apologise for the impact this incident had on Shein and related applicants due to our company's negligence,\" it said in a letter.\n\nShein is winning over young shoppers in the US, UK and Europe by producing fast fashion even faster, and often at cheaper prices, than many of its rivals such as Boohoo or Asos.\n\nFounded in 2008, Shein reportedly relies on thousands of third-party suppliers in China to produce batches of clothes, which it orders again if they perform well with customers.\n\nGeorgia Toffolo and other British influencers have collaborated on clothing lines with the fast fashion firm\n\nOdds are if you're over the age of 30, you might not have heard of the Chinese company.\n\nBut on Instagram and TikTok, it's hard to escape videos of Shein \"hauls\", where users try on and review different outfits by the brand.\n\nUsing an army of influencers, from student \"campus ambassadors\" to reality stars such as Made in Chelsea's Georgia Toffolo or Amber Turner from The Only Way Is Essex, it has amassed more than 24 million followers.\n\n\"For a retailer without physical stores and a company that is virtually unknown to anyone but their target audience, Shein has utilised social media to reach consumers directly and become arguably the biggest digital clothing retailer,\" said Juozas Kaziukėnas, founder of research firm Marketplace Pulse.\n\nIts meteoric rise has not been without problems, though.\n\nThe private company has not disclosed financial figures and has been criticised for selling items such as a Muslim prayer mat described as a \"Greek carpet\", which it was forced to withdraw.\n\nIt has also been accused of copyright infringement and faces lawsuits from the likes of the maker of Dr Martens boots, although the e-retailer denies any wrongdoing and a hearing is scheduled later this year.\n\nThe prices for Shein's on-trend fashion items have sparked concerns online about sustainability and its labour practices.\n\nIts website previously stated that Shein was \"proudly in compliance with strict fair labour standards set by international organisations like SA8000\".\n\nThe SA8000 certification is issued to companies who have their performance measured in areas such as forced and child labour, health and safety and working hours.\n\nBut Social Accountability International (SAI), which created the standard, told the BBC in June that Shein was not certified and never had been to its knowledge.\n\n\"Companies sometimes reference SA8000 in their advertising if they use SA8000 principles in their internal social compliance programs or if they source from SA8000-certified facilities,\" an SA8000 spokesperson said.\n\n\"As long as a company does not claim to be certified and does not mention the SA8000 disingenuously, we do not consider it a violation to refer to the SA8000 Standard principles in this way.\"\n\nThe reference on Shein's website has since been removed.\n\nIt is alleged that Uyghur people are forced to pick cotton that supplies the global market\n\nThe discriminatory job adverts described as false by Shein were shared with the BBC by the Coalition to End Uyghur Forced Labour.\n\n\"What is really important is to be able to distinguish between those companies that are actually taking meaningful steps to respect the workers in their supply chains and those that are failing to do so,\" said Chloe Cranston, business and human rights manager at Anti-Slavery International, which forms part of the coalition.\n\nIn recent months, several big brands have come under scrutiny due to their activities in China's Xinjiang region.\n\nFrench prosecutors announced in July they were looking into accusations that Zara-owner Inditex, Uniqlo, SMCP and Skechers sourced goods made by forced labour from Uyghur Muslims in China.\n\nSkechers declined to comment, while the other three firms denied the claims.\n\nThe Xinjiang region produces 85% of China's cotton and accounts for about a fifth of global supplies.", "Denmark is one of the countries moving to the green list\n\nCanada and Denmark are among seven countries moving to the green list in the latest changes to Covid restrictions.\n\nThailand and Montenegro are being added to the UK government's red list - meaning they are considered to be among the highest-risk destinations.\n\nFinland, the Azores, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Lithuania are also moving to the green list.\n\nThe changes will come into force at 04:00 BST on Monday.\n\nTravellers coming from green list countries do not have to quarantine when they come back to the UK - whether or not they have had two doses of a coronavirus vaccine. They still have to be tested before their return to the UK however, and book a test for day two after their return, and fill in a passenger location form.\n\nBut while Canada is on the green list, it currently has a ban on British nationals entering the country.\n\nOnly UK or Irish nationals, or UK residents, are allowed in to the UK if they have been to red list countries. They then have to pay to self-isolate in a government-approved quarantine hotel.\n\nThe Department for Transport said the changes were being made to the red list to reflect \"the increased case rates in these countries and the higher risk that travel from these countries poses to UK public health\".\n\nTravel lists are currently updated every three weeks. Most countries are on the amber list - fully-vaccinated adults do not have to quarantine on their return from these locations, but do have to have tests before returning and two days after they get back. Those who have not had both vaccines have to isolate at home for 10 days, as well as having the Covid tests.\n\nFrom 04:00 on Monday, only UK and Irish nationals or residents can travel back from Thailand\n\nAirlines UK, which represents UK-registered carriers, said the \"small number of green destinations\" was making international travel \"more expensive, burdensome and uncertain compared to other countries\".\n\nA spokesman said: \"Too many families are having to look over their shoulders for rule changes and pay through the nose for tests, with no sign from government that this will change.\n\n\"As has already happened across Europe, it's time for a more proportionate system where tests are dropped for the fully-vaccinated and from destinations where Covid risks are low, with tougher measures targeted at a small number of high risk countries.\"\n\nSean Doyle, British Airways' chairman and CEO, reacted to the travel changes by saying \"the UK's economic recovery remains far behind our more pragmatic European neighbours\". He added: \"We also need to urgently end the uncertainty caused by the constant threat of changes to countries' traffic light status.\n\n\"Our green list is much smaller than that of the US and EU, despite no new variants being transported into the UK.\"\n\nCharlie Cornish, chief executive of Manchester Airports Group which operates Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports, said the changes to the travel traffic light system will make \"little difference\" to the recovery of the travel industry and called on the government to \"overhaul\" it.\n\nHe said unless the government removed the need for fully-vaccinated people to take tests, it would \"continue to squander the advantage our world-leading vaccination programme was supposed to deliver\".\n\nShadow transport secretary Jim McMahon warned \"any loosening of restrictions carries with it risks, particularly from variants that could undermine the progress we have made on vaccines\".\n\nScotland's Transport Secretary Michael Matheson said the changes were \"welcome for Scots with loved ones in Canada but once again show that international travel remains challenging\".", "Two British nationals, and the child of another British national, died in the explosion at Kabul airport, the foreign secretary has said.\n\nDominic Raab said two others were also injured in the suicide bomb attack on Thursday.\n\n\"It is a tragedy that as they sought to bring their loved ones to safety in the UK they were murdered by cowardly terrorists,\" he said.\n\nAt least 95 people were killed in the attack.\n\nMr Raab said he was \"deeply saddened\" by the deaths.\n\nHe added: \"Yesterday's despicable attack underlines the dangers facing those in Afghanistan and reinforces why we are doing all we can to get people out. We are offering consular support to their families.\n\n\"We will not turn our backs on those who look to us in their hour of need, and we will never be cowed by terrorists.\"\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said his thoughts were \"very much with their families and their loved ones\", adding that \"what their loss really underlines is the urgency of getting on and concluding\" the evacuation effort.\n\nThe US, which is running the airport, is withdrawing its troops by 31 August.\n\nMore than 150 people were wounded in the attack, which the group known as Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) says it was behind. The Pentagon said 13 US service personnel were also among those killed.\n\nIt had earlier been thought there were two explosions, but the Pentagon said on Friday that there had been no second explosion at, or near, the Baron Hotel, which is close to the airport.\n\nNews of the deaths comes as the UK entered the final stage of its evacuations from Kabul and ceased calls for people to come to the airport to leave.\n\nThe Ministry of Defence said processing facilities at the Baron Hotel had been closed.\n\nFollowing news of the British deaths, the SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford said the UK \"must not abandon those we have a responsibility to protect\".\n\nHe said: \"My heart goes out to the victims, their families, our personnel on the ground, and to the vulnerable Afghan people stuck in this nightmare situation.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace expressed his \"deep regret\" that not everyone eligible had been evacuated, including around 800 to 1,100 Afghans and 100 to 150 Britons.\n\nHe said the withdrawal had not been hastened by the airport attack.\n\nOn Friday morning, the MoD said 13,708 people had been evacuated by the UK from Kabul under Operation Pitting, which began on 13 August.\n\nMr Wallace said this included nearly 8,000 Afghans eligible under the UK's relocation scheme for those who worked for the UK government and other vulnerable individuals, as well as 4,000 British passport holders.\n\nOthers evacuated include embassy staff and nationals from partner nations.\n\nThe defence secretary said the operation was \"a remarkable achievement\" in a \"very hostile environment\".\n\nBut he told LBC Radio around 800 to 1,100 eligible Afghans would be left behind, as well as approximately 100 to 150 British nationals, some of whom he said were staying willingly.\n• None PM vows to help those left behind in Kabul", "Sidney Powell (centre) was among those to baselessly claim that electronic voting systems had switched millions of votes\n\nA US judge has issued a blistering ruling against prominent lawyers who represented Donald Trump after his 2020 presidential election defeat.\n\nUS District Judge Linda Parker described a lawsuit filed in Michigan by Mr Trump's counsel as a \"profound abuse of the judicial process\".\n\nHer 110-page ruling, issued Wednesday, sanctioned Sidney Powell, Lin Wood and seven others who alleged voter fraud.\n\nJudge Parker said the lawyers intended to undermine the electoral system.\n\n\"This case was never about fraud - it was about undermining the people's faith in our democracy and debasing the judicial process to do so,\" she said in her ruling.\n\nJudge Parker ordered the lawyers to pay the court costs of their opponents - the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan - and undergo 12 hours of legal education.\n\nShe also referred them to the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission and local disciplinary committees where they are licenced.\n\nLawyers representing Mr Trump filed a spate of lawsuits across the US after his 2020 election defeat making unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud.\n\nMr Trump refused to publicly concede defeat to his successor, President Joe Biden, for months. He only acknowledged a power transition would occur after a group of his supporters violently stormed the US Capitol building in January 2021, attempting to stop the result being certified.\n\nWednesday's ruling is the latest in a string of legal repercussions for those who pushed the former president's case in court.\n\nMs Powell was among those to baselessly claim that electronic voting systems had switched millions of votes and the Trump campaign later distanced itself from her.\n\nMs Powell was later sued, along with Mr Trump's former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, by Dominion voting systems over the allegations.\n\nMr Giuliani also had his law licence suspended earlier this year by the state of New York over what they described as \"demonstrably false and misleading\" claims he made around the 2020 US election.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Johnson: \"We always knew this was a moment where there were going to be particular vulnerabilities to terrorism\"\n\nThe UK will continue its operation to evacuate people from Afghanistan despite the \"despicable\" attack at the capital's airport, Boris Johnson says.\n\nSpeaking after an emergency meeting, the PM pledged the UK would be working \"flat out\" until \"the last moment\".\n\nBut he also acknowledged the push was nearing its conclusion, with hours remaining.\n\nTwo explosions hit Kabul airport on Thursday, killing some 90 people - among them 13 US military personnel.\n\nAt least 150 people were also wounded in the attack, which the so-called Islamic State group say it was behind.\n\nThe Ministry of Defence (MoD) said there had been \"no reported UK military or UK government casualties\".\n\nFigures released by the MoD on Thursday night showed 13,146 individuals had been flown out by the UK so far.\n\nIn an address on Thursday night, President Joe Biden also promised to carry on with the evacuation, which is due to end on 31 August.\n\nHe said the US would \"not forgive\" and \"not forget\" the attack, telling the perpetrators: \"We will hunt you down and make you pay.\"\n\nUS commanders have said they are on alert for more attacks by so-called Islamic State, including possible rockets or vehicle-borne bombs targeting Kabul airport.\n\nIn the aftermath of the suicide bombings at the airport, the pace of the emergency airlift from Afghanistan has slowed but it has not halted.\n\nThe BBC understands that people who'd already been allowed inside the airport perimeter have continued to be processed, to be boarded on to departing planes.\n\nBut sources said the numbers arriving to be processed had decreased considerably as the Taliban were turning back many Afghans, particularly those who did not hold foreign passports or visas.\n\nBoris Johnson said the UK was \"coming towards the very end\" of its operation and suggested \"the overwhelming majority of those eligible\" had now been flown out.\n\nBut there remain many clamouring not to be left behind, including interpreters who had worked for the British military, security guards from the UK embassy, Afghan soldiers trained by British forces, those who worked with international organisations and academics.\n\nThursday's twin blasts took place outside the Abbey Gate - where US and British forces have been stationed to help with evacuations - and at a nearby hotel, following warnings there could be terrorist incidents in the area.\n\nSpeaking after chairing an emergency Cobra meeting, the PM described the blasts - reportedly carried out by suicide bombers - as \"barbaric\".\n\nHe said: \"I want to stress that this threat of a terrorist attack is one of the constraints that we've been operating under... in the big extraction that's been going on, and we've been ready for it, we've been prepared for it.\n\n\"And I want to stress that we're going to continue with that operation - and we're now coming towards the end of it, to the very end of it, in any event.\n\n\"But, clearly, what this attack shows is the importance of continuing that work in as fast and as efficient a manner as possible in the hours that remain to us, and that's what we're going to do.\"\n\nContinuing, Mr Johnson said the Foreign Office, Home Office and Border Force teams were \"going to work flat out\" to get people through \"as fast as they can\".\n\nHe added: \"We're going to keep going up until the last moment.\"\n\nThe US has set the deadline of the end of the month for the withdrawal of its troops, with President Biden rejecting calls from Mr Johnson and other allies for an extension.\n\nIn the past 12 hours, some countries including Canada, Germany and Australia have announced that they have ended their evacuation operations.\n\nForeign Secretary Dominic Raab has offered condolences to the families of the civilians who were killed or injured, saying the US troops who were killed and harmed \"paid the ultimate sacrifice while helping others reach safety\".\n\n\"The UK and US remain resolute in our mission to get as many people out as possible. It is testament to the remarkable courage of our personnel that they continue to do so while under fire,\" he said.\n\nA statement from the MoD said: \"Our primary concern remains the safety of our personnel, British citizens and the citizens of Afghanistan. We are in close contact with our US and other NATO allies at an operational level on the immediate response to this incident.\"\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer called the attack \"devastating\", and said his thoughts were with \"all those killed and wounded, serving personnel supporting the evacuations and all those desperately trying to leave\".\n\nHe added: \"The bravery of the troops at the airport will always outweigh the cowardice of those who wish to harm us.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Earlier, Boris Johnson said the UK had rescued the \"overwhelming majority\" of people to whom it owes a debt\n\nKabul airport is currently being defended and run by the US, which has 5,800 troops on the ground - with the help of more than 1,000 UK troops.\n\nArmed Forces minister James Heappey declined to give a date for the last UK evacuation flights, but said it was likely that UK and other foreign troops would have to leave before the last American airlifts.\n\nHowever, Mr Johnson has insisted the US deadline will not mark the end of the UK's efforts to help people wishing to flee the Taliban-controlled country.\n\nHe said on Thursday that the current airlifts were just the \"first phase\".\n\n\"Even beyond the US deadline of 31 of this month, we hope to be able to continue to say to people, well you can come out,\" he said.\n\nCrowds of people have been waiting outside Kabul airport in recent days\n\nAre you affected by issues covered in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "Last updated on .From the section Disability Sport\n\nCoverage: Follow on Radio 5 Live and on the BBC Sport website\n\nBritain's Kadeena Cox retained her C4-5 500m time trial Paralympic title with a stunning world-record ride in Tokyo.\n\nThe 30-year-old, who won cycling and athletics gold at the 2016 Rio Games, knew she had to beat the time of 35.830 seconds set by Canadian world champion Kate O'Brien to win Britain's seventh gold of the Games.\n\nAnd she smashed that with a brilliant 34.812secs - beating the old record by 0.411secs.\n\n\"I knew I was going to have to do something special, and that if I put everything together that me and my coach had worked on, it would be amazing,\" she said.\n\n\"I executed a race that was near-perfect - I'm so happy.\"\n\nIn the pool, Hannah Russell and Reece Dunn both landed gold on another successful day for British swimmers.\n\nRussell held off the challenge of Russian Daria Pikalova to retain her S12 100m backstroke title.\n\nDunn, who finished second in the S14 butterfly on Wednesday, won his first Paralympic gold in the S14 200m freestyle.\n\nBethany Firth failed to retain her S14 200m freestyle crown, finishing second, with fellow Briton Jessica-Jane Applegate taking bronze.\n\nThere was also a bronze for Stephen Clegg in the men's S12 100m backstroke.\n\nNatasha Baker won Britain's fourth Para-equestrian medal in Tokyo, taking silver in the Grade III individual test on Keystone Dawn Chorus, known as Lottie.\n\nThe pair scored 76.265% with gold going to Denmark's 21-year-old Tobias Jorgensen and his mount Jolene Hill (78.971).\n\nEarlier in the velodrome, Britain's Jaco van Gass claimed his second medal of the Games with bronze in the C1-3 1000m time trial.\n\nThe pursuit gold medallist set a new world record in his C3 category, but it wasn't enough for victory.\n\nThere were also bronzes on day three for the men's wheelchair fencing epee team of Piers Gilliver, Dimitri Coutya and Oliver Lam-Watson, sprinter Maria Lyle in the opening session of the athletics competition and for powerlifting debutant Olivia Broome.\n\nIt was a second medal of the Games for both Gilliver and Coutya and a first for Lam-Watson on his debut.\n\nLyle finished third in the T35 100m in 14:18 seconds as China's Xia Zhou set a new world record of 13:00 while Broome had a best lift of 107kg in the -50kg event.\n\nBroome's team-mate Ali Jawad finished sixth in the men's -59kg event after a build-up where his training was not only affected by Covid-19 but also by the Crohn's disease which he deals with on a daily basis.\n\nCox goes again in Saturday's team sprint alongside Van Gass and Jody Cundy before switching sports and aiming to retain her T38 400m title on the athletics track next Saturday.\n\nAfter having a stroke in 2014, she was then diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and had to rebuild her sporting career.\n\nAfter her Rio heroics, where she became the first Briton to win two golds in different sports at the same Paralympic Games in 28 years, she has had to deal with a number of injuries and has had issues with what she referred to as \"disordered eating\".\n\nThe Tokyo heat has also presented her with a big challenge.\n\n\"I'm heat intolerant and it is tricky out here,\" she said. \"It has affected my muscle spasms and my speech.\n\n\"It's a little bit of a struggle and it will take me a bit longer to recover, which hopefully isn't too long because I've got another race tomorrow.\"\n\nCox, who has 11 siblings, says that she has spent most of her time travelling between cycling training in Manchester, athletics training in Loughborough and family in Leeds. She is feeling the support of her network of family and friends who have been unable to travel to support her, plus her Christian faith.\n\n\"It's been completely different, she's not had any of us with her,\" her sister Carmel Williams told BBC Breakfast.\n\n\"We're such a strong family, so to not have any of us with her is a big thing.\n\n\"So just providing that support, we've sent her loads of videos, just so that she can feel that she has our support, which obviously she does. She was watching them before the race to help her focus - and she won, which was great.\"\n• None Listen to The Sports Desk podcast - can the Paralympics change the world?\n\nSix-time Paralympic gold medallist David Weir found the going tough in the heats of the T54 5,000m and failed to qualify for Saturday's final.\n\nJack Hunter-Spivey (class 5), Tom Matthews (class 1) and Paul Karabardak (class 6) are guaranteed table tennis medals after reaching the semi-finals.\n\nThe wheelchair rugby team, who were already guaranteed a semi-final spot, lost 50-48 to the USA in their final pool game and will face Japan in Saturday's semi-finals (06:15 BST).\n\nOn the opening day of action in the rowing, Britain's Lauren Rowles and Laurence Whiteley set a new Paralympic best to reach Sunday's final of the PR2 mixed double scullst, while the PR3 mixed coxed four also did the same.\n\nHowever, Ben Pritchard in the PR1 men's singles sculls will need to finish in the top two in Saturday's repechage to get into the final.\n\nArcher Jess Stretton set a new Paralympic record to top the rankings in qualifying for the women's compound open event.\n\nBut the men's wheelchair basketball team lost 71-59 to Germany with player-coach Gaz Choudhry top-scoring on 14 points while the women suffered their third defeat out of three - 53-35 to Germany - and face a must-win game against Australia on Saturday (12:30).\n\nPoland's Marcin Polak, who won bronze in Wednesday's B 4,000m individual pursuit with pilot Michal Ladosz, has been provisionally suspended by the International Cycling Union (UCI) after testing positive for the banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin).\n\nPolak will be unable to compete in Saturday's B 1000m time trial and the upcoming road events.\n\n\"The consequences on the bronze medal he obtained will be determined by the relevant disciplinary panel,\" said a statement.\n\nAmerican blind long jumper Lex Gillette failed in his bid to win a long-awaited T11 long jump title, finishing with silver for the fifth Paralympics Games in a row.\n\nThe 36-year-old managed a best of 6.17m but was beaten by China's Dongdong di (6.47m).\n\nAbbas Karimi of the Refugee Paralympic Team marked his Games debut with eighth place in the final of the men's S5 50m butterfly.\n\nThe 24-year-old was born in Afghanistan, missing both arms. He left aged 16, fleeing first to Iran and then Turkey before settling in the US in 2016.\n• None Hayley Pearce finds out what has got us barking mad for puppies since lockdown\n• None How have these young entrepreneurs made profit during a pandemic?", "British Airways is considering plans for a short-haul flight operation at Gatwick Airport.\n\nThe airline confirmed it was working with unions on the proposals but said it would not comment further.\n\nThe British Airline Pilots Association told the BBC British Airways and the union were in the \"final stages of negotiations\" over pay and conditions.\n\nActing general secretary Martin Chalk said the union \"cautiously\" welcomed the airline's decision.\n\nMr Chalk said the move would \"create a number of much needed new pilot jobs\".\n\n\"We hope to bring these talks to a conclusion shortly,\" he added.\n\nThe Wall Street Journal, which first reported the story, said the airline was looking to create a new unit at London Gatwick, after it halted its short-haul flights from the airport at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThe paper reported carriers such as British Airways have typically relied on short-haul operations to feed traffic onto more profitable longer routes.\n\nLast month, British Airways owner IAG said it was ramping up its flight schedules as global air travel restrictions are eased.\n\nIAG said it would operate at about 45% of passenger capacity between July and September compared with pre-Covid levels, possibly rising to 75% by the end of 2021.\n\nThe company, which also owns Aer Lingus and Iberia, revealed a loss of more than €2bn (£1.7bn) in the six months to the end of June.\n\nIn April 2020, British Airways announced it would cut up to 12,000 jobs in response to the Covid crisis.", "\"Every effort\" was made to destroy sensitive material when British embassy staff evacuated their Kabul building as the Taliban approached, the Foreign Office has said.\n\nIt comes after a report in the Times said documents with contact details of Afghans working for the UK had been found \"scattered on the ground\".\n\nThe Foreign Office said three families in the story had been helped to safety.\n\nIt added staff had worked \"at pace as the situation in Kabul deteriorated\".\n\nBut Labour's shadow foreign secretary, Lisa Nandy, said the incident \"raised serious questions\" about what her government counterpart, Dominic Raab, had been doing in the hours before Kabul fell to the Taliban.\n\nThe UK relocated its embassy in Kabul to a secure location near the airport on 13 August as Taliban fighters approached Afghanistan's capital.\n\nThe Foreign Office had already been advising British nationals to leave the country and was continuing to relocate former Afghan staff and their families to the UK under a policy announced in May.\n\nAccording to the Times, the documents identifying Afghan workers and job applicants were discovered on Tuesday this week on the ground at the embassy compound, which by then was occupied by the Taliban.\n\nThe papers are said to have featured the name and address of seven staff members - including the holder of a senior post - as well as the contact details, work history and addresses of people who had applied for interpreter jobs.\n\nSome of the staff have since been evacuated to the UK, but the fate of at least two staff is not known, reported the Times.\n\nThree Afghan staff and eight members of their families, including five children, were later tracked down by the UK, it said.\n\nA Foreign Office source said the department was \"grateful to the Times for sharing the information retrieved with us and working with us to enable us to get these three families to safety\".\n\nThe British embassy in Kabul relocated to a secure location as the Taliban advanced\n\nIn a statement, an FCDO spokesperson said: \"We have worked tirelessly to secure the safety of those who worked for us including getting three families to safety.\n\n\"During the drawdown of our embassy, every effort was made to destroy sensitive material.\"\n\nParliament's Foreign Affairs Select Committee has already announced it is launching an inquiry into the Foreign Office's response to the situation in Afghanistan.\n\nForeign Secretary Dominic Raab is due to be questioned by MPs on 1 September.\n\nIn a tweet, committee chairman MP Tom Tugendhat referred to the report in the Times about the documents found in the embassy grounds. He said the way the Foreign Office \"handled this crisis\" will be the subject of the inquiry, adding: \"The evidence is already coming in.\"\n\nLabour's Ms Nandy said the foreign secretary had \"serious questions to answer\" when he appeared before MPs.\n\n\"The destruction of sensitive materials and the safe evacuation of the embassy should have been a top priority,\" she added.\n\n\"The government must urgently assess the individuals who have been exposed by this breach, whether ongoing British operations have been compromised and what other sensitive materials may have fallen into the hands of those who wish to do us harm.\"\n\nThe chair of the Commons Defence Committee, Tory MP Tobias Ellwood, has also confirmed to Sky News that his group will hold its own inquiry into the UK's part in the war in Afghanistan, and its exit.\n\nLiberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has written to the prime minister calling for an immediate inquiry into what he said was the biggest British foreign policy disaster since the Suez Crisis of 1956.\n\nHe said: \"With thousands of Afghans who supported us now trapped under the brutal Taliban regime, serious questions need to be answered about why things turned out the way they did and what could have been done differently.\n\n\"Why did we wait so long to start evacuating interpreters? Why did the foreign secretary go on holiday as the Taliban advance began? And how did UK intelligence get the situation so badly wrong?\"\n\nOn Friday the MoD said the UK had entered the final stages of its Kabul evacuation and no more people would be called to the airport to leave.\n\nFigures released by the Ministry of Defence on Thursday night showed 13,146 individuals had been flown out by the UK so far.", "Scientists advising the government say it is \"highly likely\" that high levels of coronavirus will be seen in schools in England by the end of September.\n\nThey add that it would be \"sensible\" for the government to plan for this happening, in a Sage statement from 11 August.\n\nCases in Scotland have reached a record high since schools reopened for autumn.\n\nA decision on whether a vaccine will be offered to all 12-15-year-olds is expected soon.\n\nAll 16 and 17-year-olds across the UK have now been offered a first dose of vaccine against Covid-19.\n\nThe Department for Education said: \"As we learn to live with the virus across society, we must strike the right balance of measures so that our children can continue with their lives and education in the best possible way.\"\n\nSchools will test students when they return to schools and colleges in September to help reduce transmission, it added.\n\nSage (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) says it is still difficult to work out whether schools are drivers of transmission, or simply reflecting the spread of the virus in the communities where they are located.\n\nBut if cases continue to rise, scientific advisers say the more pupils and teachers that contract Covid-19, the more schools and education will be disrupted.\n\nAnd it warns of the \"subsequent consequences for parents and carers, and the wider workforce implications\".\n\nIn Scotland, where pupils returned to school in mid-August, a third of new cases are in the under-19s.\n\nThe consensus statement from a sub-group of Sage continues: \"Schools will represent a high proportion of remaining susceptible individuals and it is highly likely that exponential increases will be seen in school-attending age groups after schools open.\"\n\nIt says vaccination will also have made \"almost no difference in these population groups over the summer holidays\", and when schools reopen, measures in place to limit the spread of the virus will be \"much reduced\" compared to the spring and summer.\n\nPupils and staff will no longer be recommended to wear masks in secondary schools in England, although they are still advised in Scotland.\n\nUnder new rules, aimed at keeping more children in school, pupils who are close contacts of positive cases will also no longer have to isolate when term starts.\n\nSecondary school pupils across the UK will be asked to take two rapid tests before term starts, to see if they have the virus, and twice-weekly tests at home after that.\n\nKevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said the Sage report was a rebuke to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson.\n\n\"Next to nothing has been done to prepare for the possibility of large numbers of cases which will lead to lots of education disruption as children and staff have to isolate because they are positive - or stay off because their Covid symptoms go on longer.\n\n\"It is perfectly clear to education professionals that the current safety requirements for schools and colleges are not sufficient to prevent a rise in cases come September,\" he said.\n\nLast week the government in England said it would provide around 300,000 carbon dioxide monitors to schools next term to help improve ventilation and lessen Covid outbreaks, but Mr Courtney says they will only diagnose a problem \"not solve it\".\n\nMike Tildesley, professor in infectious disease modelling at the University of Warwick, told the BBC that schools reopening in September would have an impact on mixing patterns in other walks of life.\n\n\"It remains to be seen what effect that has on cases and hospital admissions,\" he said.\n\n\"We will need to monitor that during September.\n\n\"And we need to be prepared for the fact that hospital admissions will start to rise - not just from Covid but from other respiratory viruses too, like flu.\"\n\nBut he said vaccines put the country in a much better place than before, although booster campaigns might still be needed.", "The hurricane is currently over Cuba and will hit the US by Sunday\n\nThe mayor of New Orleans has called on residents to evacuate unprotected city neighbourhoods as Hurricane Ida bears down on the Louisiana coastline.\n\n\"What I am told is that this storm will not be weakening,\" Mayor LaToya Cantrell said on Saturday.\n\nHurricane Ida has intensified over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico ahead of its expected arrival on the southern US coast on Sunday.\n\nIt has already brought heavy rain and high winds to western Cuba.\n\nA mandatory evacuation is in place for some parts of New Orleans - those outside the levees - while the rest of the city has been issued with a voluntary evacuation order.\n\nThe levees are a system of flood walls, built to protect low-lying New Orleans, and strengthened after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.\n\n\"If you're going to leave you need to do that now,\" Ms Cantrell said. \"We need to make sure you are in a safe place. Everyone, whether you are going to leave voluntarily or stay on site, hunker down.\"\n\nShe added that anyone unable to leave the city should \"prepare for damaging wind, power outages, heavy rain, tornadoes\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe impact of climate change on the frequency of storms is still unclear, but increased sea surface temperatures warm the air above and make more energy available to drive hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons. As a result, they are likely to be more intense with more extreme rainfall.\n\nForecasters say the hurricane will be at category 4 strength by the time it reaches the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico.\n\nMore than 80 oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico have been evacuated and half the region's oil and gas output has been suspended.\n\nIda passed over western Cuba on Friday, hitting the Isle of Youth with maximum sustained winds of 75mph (120km/h).\n\nCoincidentally, Sunday marks the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans after making landfall as a category 3. Katrina flooded 80% of the city and killed more than 1,800 people.\n\nExperts say that if storm surges hit at a time that coincides with high tides, sea water could flood over the New Orleans levee system and into the city.\n\nThis 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 NOLA Ready 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.\n\nGovernor Bel Edwards has declared a state of emergency and called for anyone along the state's coastline to shelter in place starting on Saturday evening.\n\nPresident Joe Biden said on Saturday that Ida was \"turning into a very, very dangerous storm\" and the federal government was ready to provide help.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMorecambe and Wise say they are \"bored stiff\" by cult comics Monty Python in a newly discovered TV interview.\n\nThe comedy legends made the comments on a student station in Norwich in 1973.\n\nEric Morecambe said the ensemble delivered \"university comedy... and I'm afraid that a lot of it is very unprofessional\".\n\nMonty Python member Sir Michael Palin said he was \"a little hurt\", but \"intrigued\", having seen the footage.\n\nMonty Python member Sir Michael Palin has seen the rediscovered Morecambe and Wise clip\n\nThe double act were interviewed for University of East Anglia (UEA) TV station Nexus while backstage at Norwich's Theatre Royal during a four-show run.\n\nMorecambe and Wise were huge stars of the era and their TV shows could pull in more than 20 million viewers a week.\n\nAt the time, the duo were BBC One stablemates with Monty Python, whose mould-breaking, surreal and subversive Flying Circus was met with shock and acclaim.\n\nDuring the interview, Morecambe - who died in 1984 - said he \"doesn't understand\" much Python material.\n\nHe went on to joke he liked \"parts\" of it, particularly \"the opening and the finish\".\n\n\"It's the little bit in the middle I don't like.\n\n\"I'm afraid that a lot of it is very unprofessional. And this irritates me, being a professional,\" he said.\n\n\"But what does make me laugh, really makes me laugh. And what doesn't make me laugh bores me stiff!\"\n\nMonty Python are revered for their intellectual and surreal style of comedy, as seen here in their toupee assistant TV sketch from 1974\n\nErnie Wise revealed he did \"like Monty Python\", but felt their shows often contained \"five or six minutes of utter boredom\".\n\n\"And then there's three minutes of very funny and then another eight minutes of boredom,\" said the comedian, who died in 1999.\n\nThis generational clash was revealed in a clip of student footage, found during the making of a BBC Radio Norfolk documentary on the Nexus station.\n\nNexus ran from the 1960s to 2009 and was mainly broadcast on a TV in the UEA's student foyer, before becoming UEA:TV and streaming online.\n\nThe incomplete interview clip, lasting two minutes, was put on a compilation tape in 1983.\n\nThe VHS tape was kept in Nexus' studio until at least the early 2000s, when former station member Paul Hayes, now a BBC radio producer, made a duplicate copy. He only digitised it earlier this year.\n\nEric Morecambe, actor Peter Cushing and Ernie Wise pictured during a dance routine in 1973\n\nThe footage has now been shown to Monty Python's Sir Michael, who remembered watching the duo in pantomime while growing up.\n\n\"It was a very interesting little interview,\" said Sir Michael.\n\n\"Though the quality wasn't great, you got exactly their feelings.\n\n\"I wasn't too surprised - I felt the way they talked about us, and the way they talked generally, was rather nice.\"\n\nThe Monty Python team, including the late Terry Jones (left), ahead of their last string of gigs in 2014\n\nSir Michael said it was unusual for comedians to comment on one another so directly at that time.\n\n\"People in the same sort of business were very careful about what they said about somebody else,\" he said.\n\n\"It was quite nice that they just relaxed. And it's most interesting what they say, because I think it's what they meant.\n\n\"It didn't seem particularly savage - but on the other hand, it was very clear what they felt.\"\n\nMorecambe's son Gary said his father's opinion \"wasn't news to me because he told me that about 50 years ago\", but he added that Eric \"adored\" Michael Palin, John Cleese and Eric Idle \"as people\".\n\nMr Morecambe said: \"But they [Monty Python] weren't really designed to be family entertainment.\n\n\"It's a very different form of humour that they were having to answer a question about because they came from a music hall background.\n\n\"It's a little bit difficult to then see their own form of professionalism against a more intellectual form of professionalism - maybe it just went over their head a bit.\n\n\"There was no bad feeling - it was simply an honest question being answered honestly.\"\n\nEric Morecambe and Ernie Wise discuss their thoughts about Monty Python in the grainy TV footage from 1973\n\nLouis Barfe, author of a recent biography about the pair, was also shown the clip. He said it was unusual to get even a semi-serious answer from Eric and Ernie to an interview question.\n\n\"It was slightly tough getting a serious answer out of Eric about anything,\" he said.\n\nStudent Colin Webb, then 25, carried out the interview for Nexus and remembered questioning them about Monty Python.\n\n\"They actually said a few things in even that small clip that I haven't really seen them talk about much elsewhere - namely, comedy that was going on at the time,\" he said.\n\n\"That delivers something really rather surprising and refreshing.\"\n\nPublisher Colin Webb (centre) later worked with Morecambe and Wise on a book\n\nFollowing his degree, Mr Webb went back to his career in publishing and ended up working on a book with them. He said he was \"delighted\" the footage of their first meeting had been found.\n\nProf Keith M Johnston, from the university, said the footage was an \"amazing archive find\" that he hoped would inspire the next generation of journalists and producers.\n\n\"For UEA student journalists to get an interview with Morecambe and Wise in the early 1970s, particularly one where they pass judgement on the new wave of comedians like Monty Python, shows the talent and dedication of our students,\" he said.\n\nNexus: Norfolk's Forgotten TV Station can be heard on BBC Radio Norfolk at 13:00 BST on Monday, 30 August 2021 and for 30 days afterwards online.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "A major review of vaccines suggests the AstraZeneca jab does raise the risk of blood clots and another serious condition that can cause bleeding.\n\nBut the study found the risk of such problems following a coronavirus infection was still much higher.\n\nThe University of Oxford-led team also found an increased risk of stroke after the Pfizer jab - but again at a much lower rate than after infection.\n\nThe team said it once again showed the \"substantial\" benefit of vaccination.\n\nIt comes after a coroner ruled on Thursday that BBC Radio Newcastle presenter Lisa Shaw died because of complications from the AstraZeneca jab.\n\nThe 44-year-old died in May after developing headaches a week after getting her first dose. She suffered blood clots in the brain.\n\nThe research team looked at records from more than 29 million people who received a first dose of a Covid vaccine between December and April, who were mostly over 40, as well as nearly 1.8 million who were infected with the virus.\n\nThe study, published in the British Medical Journal, looked for complications up to 28 days after being jabbed or infected.\n\nIt found that for every 10 million people vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine:\n\nFor every 10 million people vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine, it found:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lead author Prof Julia Hippisley-Cox: \"These are really reassuring results\"\n\nLead author Prof Julia Hippisley-Cox said it was important people were aware of the risks, but that they were kept in context given the higher risk from being infected.\n\nFellow author Prof Aziz Sheikh added the findings \"clearly underscore\" the importance of getting vaccinated to reduce the risk of these clotting and bleeding outcomes.\n\nNone of the university researchers involved in this study were part of the Oxford team that helped develop the AstraZeneca vaccine.", "Clinton Ashmore and Sharon Pickles were fatally stabbed within hours of each other\n\nA man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering two people found with fatal stab wounds in Westminster.\n\nSharon Pickles, 45, was pronounced dead at a home in Ashbridge Street at 21:30 BST on 19 August.\n\nIn the early hours of 20 August, Clinton Ashmore, 59, was found stabbed at a property in nearby Jerome Crescent.\n\nOn Thursday, police arrested a 49-year-old man at a London hospital on suspicion of their murders.\n\nHe was discharged and taken into custody at a London police station on Friday.\n\nDet Ch Insp Wayne Jolley said: \"This is a significant development in our investigation which I hope takes us a step closer to getting justice for the families of Sharon and Clinton.\"\n\nMs Pickles's body was found in a property in Ashbridge Street", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Pen Farthing: \"Twice today I've had an AK poked in my face\"\n\nAn ex-Royal Marine who was near to the explosions outside Kabul airport has told how \"all hell broke loose\" as gunmen fired near his vehicle.\n\nDozens of people have been killed in two blasts near the airport after warnings that a terror attack could be launched in Afghanistan.\n\nPaul 'Pen' Farthing said his mission to get 200 dogs and cats out alongside his staff had been blocked by US policy.\n\nMr Farthing said there were chaotic scenes at the airport.\n\n\"All hell broke loose at the airport circle which is where I was, which is probably about a mile from the explosions across at the Abbey Gate and we had Taliban there firing into the air,\" Mr Farthing, who founded the Nowzad shelter, told the BBC.\n\n\"One let off a full magazine on automatic from his AK-47 right next to the window of our bus where we had women and children in.\n\n\"And as we were trying to then flee from the airport we were getting tear-gassed so we were obviously trying to drive the vehicle when we can't see anything. It was just the most horrific thing.\"\n\nMr Farthing set up the Nowzad animal shelter after serving in Afghanistan in the mid-2000s\n\nMr Farthing, originally from Dovercourt in Essex, said US President Joe Biden had \"stopped\" his attempt to get the animals out of the country.\n\n\"There's nothing I can do. The staff are telling me it's time for me to go. They don't think a foreigner will be welcome here,\" he said.\n\n\"Staff have asked me to take as many dogs and cats as I can. But now I can't get them past the Taliban check points.\"\n\nHe said the Taliban were stopping people from Afghanistan coming to the airport even if they also had British passports.\n\nPentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed the twin blasts occurred in a \"complex attack\" outside Hamid Karzai International Airport and there were \"a number of US and civilian casualties\".\n\nA senior Kabul health official told the BBC more than 60 people had died and more than 140 people were injured.\n\nAmerican officials said 11 US marines and a navy medic were killed.\n\nThe Ministry of Defence said there had been no UK military or government casualties reported.\n\nPen Farthing has appealed to Suhail Shaheen to allow the charity workers and animals into the airport\n\nMr Farthing and his supporters have been campaigning to have his staff and their families, as well as 140 dogs and 60 cats, evacuated from Kabul since the collapse of the Afghan government.\n\nHe has dubbed the plan Operation Ark and made a plea on Twitter to ensure his \"safe passage\" into Kabul airport on Thursday.\n\nAddressing the Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen, Mr Farthing said: \"Dear Sir; my team and my animals are stuck at airport circle. We have a flight waiting. Can you please facilitate safe passage into the airport for our convoy?\"\n\nThis 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 Pen Farthing 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.\n\nA privately funded plane due to fly from Luton Airport to rescue them out of the country was cancelled earlier amid safety concerns.\n\nOne from a country neighbouring Afghanistan is now set to be used instead but it is said it cannot land in Kabul until Mr Farthing is granted entry into the airport.\n\nMr Farthing set up the Nowzad animal shelter, rescuing dogs, cats and donkeys after serving in Afghanistan in the mid-2000s.\n\nHe has said he would not leave the country without his staff or animals.\n\nMr Farthing said US President Joe Biden had \"stopped\" his attempt to get the animals out of the country\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace said earlier this week he was not prepared to prioritise animals ahead of people \"in real danger\".\n\nMr Wallace has since tweeted to say: \"I never said I would not facilitate. I said no-one would get to queue jump.\n\n\"As I have said, we will facilitate at all stages but the priority will be people not pets.\"\n\nMr Wallace urged people to \"let my civil servants and military get on with dealing with one of the most dangerous and challenging evacuations for a generation\".\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The fitness bike maker Peloton is to slash the price of its flagship bike as people head back to the gym and do less exercise at home.\n\nThe US firm will cut the price of its less expensive Bike machine by about 20% to $1,495 from Thursday.\n\nThe change will take effect in all of its markets, including the US, UK, Canada, Australia and Germany.\n\nIt came as losses widened at the firm in the fourth quarter of the year and revenue growth began to slow.\n\nThe company has also had to shoulder costs associated with a treadmill it recalled in May, following the death of a child.\n\nAs more people exercised at home during the pandemic, sales of Peloton products surged, more than doubling to $4bn in the year to 30 June.\n\nHowever, the New York-based firm said it only expected revenue of $800m in the first quarter of the financial year, far below market estimates of $1bn.\n\nIt also said the decision to slash the price of its flagship bike would hit near-term profitability, sending its shares down 15% in after hours trading.\n\nIt is the second time in a year that the firm has cut the price of its Bike product.\n\n\"We know price remains a barrier and are pleased to offer our most popular product at an attractive everyday price point,\" the firm said in a letter to shareholders.\n\nPeloton said it would begin selling a cheaper redesigned model of its Tread running machines next week in the US, after an older version and its more expensive Tread+ machine were pulled over safety concerns.\n\nIt came after a child was pulled under the Tread+ and died. Users had also reported the touch screen falling off the Tread.\n• None Peloton set to build first US factory", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A huge plume of thick, dark smoke fills the sky while residents report chemical smells\n\nEmergency crews are searching for a missing person after a huge fire at a plastics manufacturer.\n\nHomes were evacuated after the blaze at Leeson Polyurethanes Ltd in Leamington Spa caused explosions and reports of a strong chemical smell.\n\nA large plume of black smoke began to billow from the site on Friday morning and was visible from miles around.\n\nThe missing individual is an employee and his family have been kept informed, Warwickshire Police said.\n\nSupt Mike Smith described the fire at the site on Juno Drive as \"incredibly challenging\" and said all other staff were safe.\n\nThe company published a short statement on its website saying there had been \"a major incident at the premises\".\n\nPolice said everyone within 100m of the site had been evacuated, with those living within 500m advised to shut windows and doors.\n\nOne member of the public said his family were given masks to wear when neighbouring premises were evacuated.\n\nThere were additional reports of debris in the air and on the ground.\n\nChief fire officer Barnaby Briggs, from Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service, said there were explosions caused by vats of chemicals caught in the flames.\n\nHe said the blaze was contained, but would take several days to put out fully.\n\nSupt Smith said eight people so far had been evacuated from their homes. Most were able to stay with other family members, but he said the local authority was also involved in the operation.\n\nAsked when they might be able to return to their homes, he said he could not say and it depended on how well the investigation progressed.\n\nThick plumes of smoke could be seen near the town centre\n\nResident Anna Harrington-Ridley said she heard the explosions and was walking to work in nearby Whitnash when she first saw smoke at about 10:30 BST.\n\n\"I saw a little plume of smoke and thought it might be the allotments but it quickly got a lot darker and a lot bigger in the space of about two minutes and I realised it was definitely something a bit more serious,\" she said.\n\n\"I was stood down there at the end of the road that has been blocked off and you could see the massive plume of smoke, there was fire, explosions, all sorts of things.\"\n\nShe added there was a \"strong chemical smell\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Footage shows the scale of the fire at a plastics manufacturer\n\nResident Ben Coleman also reported an odour and explosive sounds.\n\n\"There's a bit of a smell,\" he said. \"I heard small explosions - nothing too big, it was a few, like, pops.\n\n\"I could see a big dark cloud, and I thought it was a thunderstorm, then I looked to my right and saw a big plume of smoke coming up from the building.\n\n\"Police had closed off the road leading to it, because it is in an industrial estate. [A] Lot of other places had got their staff out of the buildings.\"\n\nThe fire as seen from an air ambulance\n\nCarl Brown, from Rugby, was with his family at a trampoline park near the site when fire broke out.\n\n\"The trampoline park staff were really good, they got everybody out, the kids out, gave us all masks and everything,\" he said.\n\n\"We all put the masks on and as soon as we went outside we could see this huge black smoke and fire and stuff, and there was debris all over the car park.\"\n\nMr Brown said he could still see the smoke when he arrived home, approximately a 30-minute drive away.\n\nAt the scene, BBC Midlands Today correspondent Giles Latcham tweeted to say there appeared to be polystyrene falling from the sky.\n\nThis 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 Giles Latcham 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.\n\nKevin Hughes said he too was working from home when he noticed the sky had turned grey.\n\n\"I saw some post in the local Facebook group and when I walked to the back [of my property] I could see this massive plume of grey smoke floating over,\" he said.\n\nWarwickshire Fire and Rescue Service was joined at the scene by colleagues from West Midlands Fire Service and other neighbouring crews.\n\nWest Midlands Ambulance Service said it was called at 10:38 BST, and one ambulance, a paramedic officer and a Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) attended.\n\nIn a statement issued on Friday afternoon, it said it had treated no patients.\n\nFlame as well as smoke dominated the sky\n\nThe smoke could be seen billowing above The Parade in Leamington Spa\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Gogglebox star Andrew Michael has died at the age of 61, Channel 4 has confirmed.\n\nHe was well known for appearing on the series alongside his wife Carolyne and children Louis and Alex.\n\nThe family joined the show, which sees members of the public review the previous week's television, in 2013.\n\nA statement from Channel 4 and producers Studio Lambert said he died after a short illness last weekend with his family by his side.\n\n\"Retired hotelier Andy, who brought much wit and insight to Gogglebox, was one of the show's original cast members, appearing in the very first episode in 2013,\" it said.\n\n\"Beloved father to Katy, Alex, Pascal and Louis, and cherished husband of Carolyne, Andy was a much-loved and respected member of the Gogglebox family, and he will be very sadly missed.\n\n\"Our love and thoughts are with Carolyne and the entire family. The family have asked for privacy at this very sad time.\"\n\nThis 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 C4 Gogglebox 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.\n\nGogglebox star Sophie Sandiford tweeted a tribute, saying: \"Rest in peace Andy,\" which was retweeted by her brother Pete, while the show's Malone family added: \"So very sorry, rest in Eternal Peace, condolences to Caroline, children his family and friends xx.\"\n\nMichael, from Brighton, was the son of immigrant parents who came to the UK from Cyprus in 1951.\n\nThe family were among the original participants when the programme launched eight years ago.\n\nThey disappeared from the series when Michael stood as the Ukip candidate for Hastings and Rye at the 2015 general election.\n\nHe wasn't allowed to appear on Gogglebox at the same time and said his family were unhappy with his choice to put politics first.\n\nHe said in a BBC interview at the time: \"We had a number of family meetings and the children essentially interviewed me. They said, 'Dad, how much do you really want to do this? How much do you really want to be a Ukip MP?'\"\n\nBut they were allowed to return to the series when he was defeated, finishing in third place after attracting almost 6,800 votes, or 13% of the constituency total.\n\nDaughter Katy and son Pascal rarely appear on screen.\n\nMichael died in the same week as his Gogglebox co-star Mary Cook, who was 92.", "Teachers' unions are calling for all secondary pupils to be vaccinated amid rising Covid case numbers.\n\nConcerns have also been raised about \"confusion\" over contact tracing arrangements in schools.\n\nUnions say a spike in cases highlights the need for \"continuing caution and effective mitigations\" to stop the virus spreading in schools.\n\nNicola Sturgeon says she hopes that experts will soon recommend that all 12 to 15-year-olds are vaccinated.\n\nAnswering questions at a Covid briefing, the first minister said she would \"ideally\" have liked that to have happened before Scotland's schools returned from the summer holidays earlier this month.\n\n\"There are many countries across the world that are already vaccinating 12 to 17-year-olds, clearly there are expert groups there who think this is safe to do,\" said Ms Sturgeon.\n\nAnd she added: \"I really hope that the JCVI (Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation) feel that the evidence allows them very, very soon to recommend vaccination for all 12 to 17-year-olds.\"\n\nNational clinical director Professor Jason Leitch said: \"We are ready for when that advice comes, the vaccination programme is ready to go.\"\n\nThe JCVI has said one dose of the Covid vaccine should be offered to 16 and 17-year olds.\n\nThe vaccine has already been approved for over-12s with underlying conditions or those who live with others at high risk.\n\nNHS organisations in England have been told to prepare for a possible extension of the Covid vaccination programme to all 12 to 15-year-olds.\n\nThe general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association, Seamus Searson, told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme he was in favour of such a move.\n\nHe also said schools should go further than government guidance over safety measures.\n\nHe said: \"Some of the things that we were doing prior to the summer - having staggered starts and trying to isolate children so the opportunities for mingling would be reduced - those sorts of things would help.\n\n\"On 12 to 15-year-olds (being vaccinated), I think we need to be moving in that direction. To keep everybody safe, we need to make sure everybody is vaccinated.\"\n\nMr Searson said people should not get complacent and think they can \"go back to normal\".\n\n\"We've got a lot of work still to do. Trying to restrict the movement of children between year groups is a no-brainer, as far as I'm concerned,\" he said.\n\n\"We need to have a consistent message, regardless of what part of the country you are looking at, to make sure everybody is following the rules and everybody understands the rules.\"\n\nPupils continue to wear face masks while in school\n\nThe Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) pointed to figures from Public Health Scotland which showed that test positivity rates among children aged between two and 17 had increased from 18.5% to 19.9% this week.\n\nThe rate ranges from 190.1 cases per 100,000 among two to four-year olds up to 1,198.5 cases per 100,000 in 16 and 17-year-olds. In the general population, the rate was 435.9 per 100,000.\n\nEIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said the figures were a cause for concern and \"underline the need to remain on guard to ensure schools remain Covid conscious and that mitigations are maintained\".\n\nHe said the union also supported calls for all secondary pupils to be offered the vaccine.\n\nAnd he claimed that changes to contact tracing arrangements in schools were creating confusion for parents, pupils and staff.\n\nHe said all pupils identified as close contacts should be required to get a clear PCR test before returning to class.\n\nHighland Council has already said there has been an \"exponential increase\" in cases since pupils returned from the summer break.\n\nA third of all Highlands schools have been affected by Covid, with \"a significant number of year groups self-isolating\".\n\nIn total, more than 1,000 cases of Covid were recorded across Highland last week - the highest figure since the start of the pandemic.\n\nThe council's education chairman, John Finlayson, said the rise in case numbers among pupils had been expected following the start of the new school term.\n\nBut he warned that extending mitigations - including a return to home schooling - would have to be considered if the numbers kept rising so sharply.\n\nMr Finlayson told Good Morning Scotland: \"It's never off the table and is actually ongoing.\n\n\"Remote learning and online learning is working very successfully across Scotland, and particularly so in Highland.\n\n\"We had the previous experience so we've got back-up plans in place.\"", "In recent days 36 Irish citizens and residents have been evacuated from Afghanistan\n\nA number of Northern Ireland citizens are waiting to be evacuated from Afghanistan, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader has said.\n\nThey include people working for non-governmental organisations and charities, said Sir Jeffrey Donaldson.\n\nThe UK government has now entered the final stages of its Kabul evacuation.\n\nSome people from Northern Ireland may not make it out of the country, said Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie.\n\n\"I hope that a way can be found to help those people to be evacuated,\" Sir Jeffrey told the BBC.\n\nEarlier on Friday, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said no more people will be called to Kabul airport to leave the country.\n\nAbout 1,000 people who remained inside the airfield will be evacuated, he said.\n\nThe US, which is running the airport, is withdrawing its troops by 31 August.\n\nThe Ministry of Defence has closed processing facilities at the Baron Hotel, outside the airport in Kabul.\n\nOn Thursday, two explosions hit Kabul airport killing some 90 people - among them 13 US military personnel.\n\nAt least 150 people were also wounded in the attack, which the so-called Islamic State group say it was behind.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme, Sir Jeffrey said he would seek clarity from the foreign office and home office on Friday in relation to UK citizens still in the country.\n\n\"Whilst I understand the need to protect our armed forces and civilian staff working at Kabul airport, I am concerned that perhaps there remain British citizens who haven't yet been evacuated out of Kabul,\" he said.\n\n\"I am seeking clarity on that from the Foreign Office and the Home Office today. That includes some Northern Ireland citizens whose cases I have been dealing with.\n\n\"I'm hoping that by now they're in the airport compound and will be transported home, but those are matters that we need to clarify.\"\n\nSir Jeffrey Donaldson said he hopes a way can be found to evacuate those still in Afghanistan\n\nHe said he did not know what attitude the Taliban would take to charity and aid workers.\n\n\"Our thoughts are with the families here at home who are so anxious and stressed about what they're seeing on their TV screens and deeply worried about their loved ones,\" he added.\n\nHe said he believed that aid workers who worked for an Irish aid agency, some of whom come from Northern Ireland, had not yet been evacuated from Afghanistan.\n\nHe said he would raise the issue with Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin when they meet later on Friday.\n\nDoug Beattie said many people he had served alongside with in Afghanistan are now desperately contacting him for help.\n\nUlster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie, a former Army captain who served in Afghanistan, said people he met when he served with the Army in Afghanistan had contacted him in desperation to flee the country.\n\nHe told BBC Radio Foyle he was \"desperately trying to help them get processed and get out\".\n\n\"In many cases, I will have failed and they will not manage to get out,\" he said.\n\n\"We still have citizens over there from the UK, including people from Northern Ireland, who are likely not to get out as well.\n\n\"There is a tragic human cost to all of this.\"\n\nHe said he had \"received a flurry of messages\" from a person he had served with in Kajaki in 2008, \"desperately pleading to get out\".\n\n\"And I just can't help them, they are stuck in Kabul.\n\n\"I can't direct them to the Baron Hotel because it is closing. I can't direct them to the airport, because that's not safe.\"\n\nMr Kharotai, who has been living in Northern Ireland for the past three years, says he fears for his family's safety in Kabul\n\nMeanwhile, an Afghan man living in Londonderry said he had not heard from his mother and three sisters trapped in Kabul for the past seven days.\n\n\"I have the type of feeling that when you are not able to do anything for your loved ones and your country and for the people, it is a very bad feeling,\" he said.\n\n\"When you are not capable of doing anything it is absolutely heart-breaking.\"", "Parents should be reassured the side-effects of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in 12 to 15-year-olds at high risk from Covid are mild and clear up quickly, a small study suggests.\n\nDoctors in Bristol tracked 27 children with neurological conditions for two weeks after their jabs.\n\nThey found the children, who had been shielding, had similar side-effects to adults.\n\nHigh-risk children benefited most from the vaccine, the researchers said.\n\nThe study, in Archives of Disease in Childhood, was in response to concerns from parents over the unknown side-effects of the Covid vaccine in their vulnerable children.\n\nBut these parents were also hoping the vaccine would make a major difference to their family life after shielding from Covid for so long.\n\nEach parent was asked to record any side-effects they noticed in their child.\n\nAll were aged between 12 and 15 and vaccinated in March or April this year, when only small numbers of extremely vulnerable children were being offered a jab.\n\nThe children had various conditions affecting the brain or nervous system, including cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy.\n\nThey also tended to have other conditions such as epilepsy, heart defects and problems with their immune system.\n\nThe most common symptoms after the first dose included a mild rash, headache, diarrhoea, neck pain and possible sore throat, which had all gone within 72 hours.\n\nAfter the second, five children experienced some of the following symptoms - vomiting, armpit swelling, diarrhoea and blisters around the mouth.\n\nOne child in the study experienced severe fatigue and discomfort and became more agitated than normal.\n\nAnd the family of another child, who had epilepsy, reported a rise in the frequency of seizures.\n\nAll side-effects had cleared up within a week, the study said.\n\nDr Tom Hilliard, a respiratory paediatrician from Bristol Children's Hospital, who led the study, said there would now be many families with children with less severe health conditions who would be wondering whether to have the vaccine \"and this should reassure them\".\n\n\"Even among children with severe neurological conditions, the Pfizer vaccine does not make side-effects any more common,\" he said.\n\nAnd although the study had tracked the children for a fortnight only, he was not aware of any other problems developing since.\n\nChildren eligible for a Covid vaccine in the UK include 12- to 15-year-olds, with:\n\nChildren aged 12 to 17 can be vaccinated if they live with somebody with a weak immune system.\n\nAnd all 16- and 17-year-olds have now been offered a vaccine.", "The children were taken from an Islamic school in Tegina, Niger state\n\nGunmen in Nigeria have freed a number of pupils who were kidnapped from an Islamic school in May, according to their head teacher.\n\nSome 136 students from the school in Tegina, Niger state, were seized by gunmen demanding a ransom.\n\nThe head teacher said a small number escaped in June. There were unconfirmed reports that six died in captivity.\n\nMass abductions for ransom have become increasingly common across Nigeria in recent months.\n\nHead teacher Abubakar Alhassan said he could not give an exact number of how many students had been freed, but \"none of the pupils are in captivity\".\n\nHe told the BBC that the freed students were looking unhealthy, frail and exhausted. They are now being treated in hospital in the state capital, Minna.\n\nLast month, the parents and the school had raised funds to free the pupils but the kidnappers told them that it was not enough.\n\nMr Alhassan said that they then paid more money and even bought motorcycles for those behind the mass abduction to convince them to release the children, the BBC's Ishaq Khalid reports from the capital, Abuja.\n\nFati Abdullahi, whose 18-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son were taken by the group, told the AFP news agency that her children had been freed.\n\n\"We are anxious to see them,\" she said.\n\nOn 30 May, gunmen riding on motorcycles stormed the town and opened fire, killing one person and injuring another.\n\nAs people fled, the attackers went to the school and seized the children.\n\nIn July, kidnappers seized a man who was sent to deliver a ransom payment to secure the students' release. Parents and school administrators had sold possessions and part of the school's land to pay the ransom. But they later said they wanted more money.\n\nMore than 1,000 students have been abducted from schools across northern Nigeria since December last year, although most have since been freed.\n\nAuthorities there have been criticised for their failure to tackle the country's widespread insecurity including the deepening kidnapping crisis.", "A 12-year-old boy from London has made about £290,000 during the school holidays, after creating a series of pixelated artworks called Weird Whales and selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs).\n\nWith NFTs, artwork can be \"tokenised\" to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought and sold.\n\nThey do not generally give the buyer the actual artwork or its copyright.\n\nBenyamin Ahmed is keeping his earnings in the form of Ethereum - the crypto-currency in which they were sold.\n\nThis means they could go up or down in value and there is no back-up from the authorities if the digital wallet in which he is holding them is hacked or compromised.\n\nHe has never had a traditional bank account.\n\nBenyamin's classmates are as yet unaware of his new-found crypto-wealth, although he has made YouTube videos about his hobby, which he enjoys alongside swimming, badminton and taekwondo.\n\n\"My advice to other children that maybe want to get into this space is don't force yourself to do coding, maybe because you get peer pressured - just as if you like cooking, do cooking, if you like dancing, do dances, just do it to the best of your ability,\" he said.\n\nBenyamin's father, Imran, a software developer who works in traditional finance, encouraged Benyamin and his brother, Yousef, to start coding at the ages of five and six.\n\nThe children have had the advantage of a strong network of technology experts to call on for advice and help - but he is extremely proud of them.\n\n\"It was a little bit of a fun exercise - but I picked up on really early that they were really receptive to it and they were really good,\" Imran said.\n\n\"So then we started getting a little bit more serious - and now it's every single day... but you can't cram this stuff, you can't say I'm going to learn coding in three months.\"\n\nThe boys did 20 or 30 minutes of coding exercises a day - including on holiday, he said.\n\nWeird Whales is Benyamin's second digital-art collection, following an earlier Minecraft-inspired set that sold less well.\n\nThis time, he drew inspiration from a well known pixelated whale meme image and a popular digital-art style but used his own program to create the set of 3,350 emoji-type whales.\n\n\"It was interesting to see all of them hatch, as they appeared on my screen slowly generating,\" he said.\n\nBenyamin is already working on his third, superhero-themed collection.\n\nHe would also like to make an \"underwater game\" featuring the whales.\n\n\"That would be amazing,\" he said.\n\nImran is \"100% certain\" his son has not broken copyright law and has engaged lawyers to \"audit\" his work, as well as getting advice on how to trademark his own designs.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe art world is divided over the current trend for NFTs.\n\nArtists say they are a useful additional line of revenue.\n\nAnd there are many stories of eye-wateringly high sales.\n\nBut there is also scepticism over whether they are a realistic long-term investment.\n\nAnd former Christie's auctioneer Charles Allsopp told BBC News buying them made \"no sense\".\n\n\"The idea of buying something which isn't there is just strange,\" he said earlier this year.\n\n\"People who invest in it are slight mugs - but I hope they don't lose their money.\"", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nPremier League champions Manchester City have been drawn to face Paris St-Germain, RB Leipzig and Club Bruges in the Champions League group stage.\n\nHolders Chelsea come up against Serie A giants Juventus, Russian club Zenit St Petersburg and Swedish side Malmo.\n\nManchester United face Villarreal, who beat them in last season's Europa League final, as well as Italian club Atalanta and Swiss side Young Boys.\n\nLiverpool are in a tough group with Atletico Madrid, Porto and AC Milan.\n\nThis year's Champions League final takes place at the St Petersburg Stadium in Russia on Saturday, 28 May.\n\nPep Guardiola's City side, who were beaten by Chelsea last season in their maiden final in the competition, face a brace of tantalising Group A meetings with Lionel Messi's new club PSG.\n\nThose matches could see a reunion for Messi with old foe Cristiano Ronaldo, who has been heavily linked with a move to City from Juventus before transfer deadline day.\n\nThe two sides meet in the competition for the second consecutive season after last season's semi-final showdown, which City won 4-1 on aggregate.\n\nBundesliga side RB Leipzig will also be a difficult proposition, having knocked out Manchester United in the group stage last season.\n\nJurgen Klopp's six-time winners Liverpool are arguably in this season's hardest group, along with La Liga champions Atletico Madrid, Portuguese club Porto - winners in 1987 and 2004 - and seven-time European champions AC Milan.\n\nLiverpool beat Milan in the famous 2005 final in Istanbul, but the Italians gained revenge in Athens two years later.\n\nThe toughest task for Thomas Tuchel's Chelsea side will be negotiating home and away meetings with Juventus, while the defending champions should have few problems against Zenit and Malmo.\n\nOle Gunnar Solskjaer will be much happier with Manchester United's chances of progression from Group F, having been knocked out in the group stage last season.\n\nThe Red Devils will be aiming to take revenge on Unai Emery's Villarreal, who beat them on penalties in the Europa League final last season.\n• None Chelsea only lost one of their 13 Champions League matches last season, their quarter-final second leg at home to Porto, which they lost 1-0. They remained unbeaten in their seven matches played away from Stamford Bridge (W6 D1).\n• None In Champions League history, only one reigning champion has failed to progress from the initial group stage in the following season - that was Chelsea in 2012-13, who finished third in their group before lifting the Europa League that season.\n• None Of the 25 managers to have taken charge of at least 50 Champions League matches, Manchester City's Pep Guardiola has the best win percentage (63% - 86/136).\n• None With PSG in the same group, Lionel Messi could face Manchester City for a seventh time in the Champions League - the Argentine has scored more goals against City than any other player in the competition (six goals in six games).\n• None Liverpool have progressed from 11 of their 14 previous Champions League group stage participations, including all four under current manager Jurgen Klopp\n• None Liverpool have won just one of their six meetings with Atletico Madrid in all European competition (D2 L3), losing home and away against them in 2019-20 as the Spanish side knocked them out in the last 16.\n• None Only Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich have played more Champions League matches than Manchester United (230), with the Red Devils one of just five sides to have 100 or more wins in the competition (121).\n• None The four Champions League meetings between Manchester United and Villarreal have produced no goals, the most played fixture in the history of the competition to see no goals scored.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid in Scotland: 'Cases have roughly doubled in a week'\n\nScotland has recorded a record number of daily Covid cases as the number surged above 6,000 for the first time.\n\nA total of 6,835 new cases were reported on Friday - more than 1,800 above the previous highest figure.\n\nThis is the third time this week a new record has been set.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the sharp rise was a \"cause for concern\" - but the Scottish government was not currently considering the introduction of a circuit breaker lockdown.\n\nHowever, she stressed the importance of everyone \"playing their part\" in halting the spread of the virus.\n\nMs Sturgeon had previously said the country was at a \"fragile and pivotal moment\" in the pandemic.\n\nShe said on Friday that she could not rule anything out, but that no-one wanted to \"go backwards\" to even limited restrictions.\n\nMs Sturgeon urged people to get vaccinated, test themselves regularly and \"tighten up again\" on following the current guidelines.\n\nShe encouraged people to meet outdoors, avoid crowds, keep a safe distance from others and minimise physical contact.\n\nAnd she added: \"I hope we can get through this with all of us behaving sensibly and appropriately.\"\n\nThe daily test positivity rate reported on Friday was 14.2%, up from 11.5% the previous day.\n\nA record number of tests had been carried out on Thursday - but Ms Sturgeon said that did not entirely explain the increase in case numbers, which have doubled over the last seven days.\n\n\"It's important to point out that case numbers are rising across the UK just now, but after a period of slower increases in Scotland the rise here is particularly sharp at the moment,\" she said.\n\n\"That is possibly, at least in part, a reflection of the fact that our schools return earlier, with the increased interactions that come with that.\n\n\"And although vaccination has significantly weakened the link between a high volume of new cases and serious harm to health, it hasn't completely broken that link.\"\n\nThe number of people in hospital with Covid has risen from 312 to 479 over the last week.\n\nThere have been four further deaths, and no change in the number of patients in intensive care, which stands at 47.\n\nWe've seen record high figures this week, but the vaccination programme has disrupted the link between catching Covid and ending up in hospital.\n\nBut if case numbers get too high, even a small proportion of people becoming seriously ill can pose a challenge for the NHS.\n\nSo it's the number of people becoming seriously ill that will now define the path we take. And, crucially, whether restrictions have to come back.\n\nThe first minister is ruling out the harshest of restrictions - a circuit-breaker lockdown. She's actually hopeful that we can get through this without any additional measures.\n\nWe're being asked to take voluntary action: meet outdoors, avoid crowds and limit physical contact.\n\nBut that leaves the public in a slightly strange position - being asked to not take full advantage of the freedoms we were granted just a few weeks ago.\n\nVoluntary action now can help avoid more rules in the near future. That's Nicola Sturgeon's message for the weekend.\n\nNational clinical director Professor Jason Leitch was asked on BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime programme about the statistical modelling for case numbers.\n\nHe said that if the rate doubled again in another seven days, that would mean nearly 14,000 cases - unless we were close to a \"peak\" which was not currently visible.\n\nWhen the previous record total of new cases - 5,021 - was reported on Wednesday, Deputy First Minister John Swinney said the rise was partly being fuelled by the return of schools.\n\nScottish schools returned from the summer holidays in mid-August, several weeks earlier than in the rest of the UK.\n\nThe Scottish Secondary Teachers Association is calling for all secondary school pupils to be vaccinated.\n\nScottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser warned that \"heightening the threat of restrictions when our vaccine system has been so successful\" would jeopardise the country's recovery from the pandemic.\n\nHe added: \"The Scottish people cannot be kept in this holding pattern of removing and introducing Covid restrictions, particularly when there is no threat of a new variant at this time.\n\n\"The recovery of our NHS and Scotland's economy is at stake. The SNP must give that more consideration now that so many people have been vaccinated.\"\n\nScottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar voiced concerns about the case rate and increase in hospitalisations, and said the way we \"ramp up\" the rollout of the vaccine was crucial.\n\nHe suggested door-to-door vaccination in areas with a low uptake, along with mobile units at university campuses and high schools.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 20 and 27 August.\n\nSend your photos to scotlandpictures@bbc.co.uk. Please ensure you adhere to the BBC's rules regarding photographs that can be found here.\n\nPlease also ensure you follow current coronavirus guidelines and take your pictures safely and responsibly.\n\nConditions of use: If you submit an image, you do so in accordance with the BBC's terms and conditions.\n\nGeorge McLaughlin took this drone shot of Richard Groom's Floating Head concrete sculpture in the Canting basin in Glasgow.\n\nJamie Ballantine from Blanefield said that after \"hundreds of hours\" spent trying to capture a photo of a kingfisher, this one appeared \"on a branch above the water just five metres away.\"\n\nNatalie Gardiner from South Queensferry took this photo of her four-year-old son's \"last day of summer before starting Primary One\" at Seacliff Beach.\n\nTom Kelly from Edinburgh said: \"I was delighted to capture these goldfinches putting on quite a display around Murrayfield Stadium.\"\n\nMorag Calder sent in this picture of her dog Angus having a chat with the neighbours.\n\nJack Roden from Lanark captured this shot at the beach in Durness.\n\nRobyn Gilfillan took this tender photo at Inverbeg, Loch Lomond.\n\nRudi Pereira took this shot from the summit of Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh while waiting for the blue moon to rise.\n\nJayne Elder said: \"Splendid sunset with views to Jura and a piper, enjoying the ambience on camping holiday in Port Ban.\"\n\nIan Barnes said: \"This dog looked suitably bored on a warm and muggy day at South Queensferry watching life go by from the top window.\"\n\nKatrina McPherson took this dramatic shot on a boat trip near North Berwick.\n\nMarianne Lang from Aberdeen said: \"Peace returns to Salen Bay, Arisaig, after tropical rain.\"\n\nFrancis McCafferty took this photo of Loch Duich featuring Eilean Donan Castle.\n\nAndrew Davidson said: \"Snapped this pic of our 10-year-old son Jensen chilling, watching the beautiful sunset on the Lake of Menteith.\"\n\nAndrew Leishman said: \"Here is 10-year-old Bradley at his happiest catching stones whilst playing in the River Forth at Bo'Ness.\"\n\nChris Barrow braved the midges to stop and take this photo descending from Loch Ericht down towards Loch Rannoch on his bike.\n\nDanny McCafferty took this on \"a beautiful evening at Waulkmill Bay, Orkney\".\n\nDouglas Baxter snapped this photo of a Peacock butterfly in Larkhall.\n\nAllan Pettigrew said: \"Took this photo while having a walk through the Hermitage, just outside Birnam in Perthshire. It shows the Black Linn Falls in full flow below Ossians Hall.\"\n\nJane Borthwick took this photo of Nairn bandstand on a recent visit to her hometown.\n\nJean Crosland captured this shot of \"rainbow power\" at Swanston, Edinburgh.\n\nLloyd Best sent in this photo of kayaking in The Minch, off Scourie, as the sea haar descended.\n\nLouise Simpson from Banff said: \"I love the kaleidoscope effect created by afternoon sun shining through fluffy willowherb seeds\"\n\nMary McClymont from Edinburgh took this night shot of the Falkirk Wheel.\n\nNicola Rae said: \"Our five-year-old cockapoo Pepper enjoying a gloriously sunny evening walk under Stirling Castle at the Kings Knot known locally as \"the Cup and Saucer.\"\n\nSusan Ferguson from Livingston said she was \"photobombed\" by a hoverfly as she tried to take a picture of a linseed flower in her garden.\n\nCurtis Welsh said: \"Whilst driving from Kelso to St. Boswells in the Scottish Borders, I just had to stop and get this dramatic image of the Eildon Hills.\"\n\nAnna Bobak said: \"Amber and I were celebrating International Dog Day by watching sunset on Ben A'an. It was a stunning evening and she was such a good girl!\"\n\nPlease ensure that the photograph you send is your own and if you are submitting photographs of children, we must have written permission from a parent or guardian of every child featured (a grandparent, auntie or friend will not suffice).\n\nIn contributing to BBC News you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way, including in any media worldwide.\n\nHowever, you will still own the copyright to everything you contribute to BBC News.\n\nAt no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe the law.\n\nYou can find more information here.\n\nAll photos are subject to copyright.", "The report said insufficient consideration was given to the pandemic's effect on children and young people's lives\n\nThe coronavirus pandemic and restrictions have had \"a severe impact\" on children and young people.\n\nThat is according to a report from the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People (NICCY).\n\nMore than half (52%) of 16-year-olds who took part in the research felt their mental and emotional health had worsened during the pandemic.\n\n\"Insufficient consideration\" was given to how children and young people's lives would be affected, it said.\n\nAspects of their lives the report considered included education, mental and physical health and wellbeing.\n\nHowever, the report said that some \"restrictive measures\" had been necessary \"to protect the population from the spread of the virus\".\n\nNot being in school was among the most difficult aspects of lockdown for young people, says the research\n\n\"The long-term impact of the pandemic on children and young people's mental health has the potential to be significant, particularly if appropriate support and intervention is not provided,\" the report warned.\n\nThe report - called A New and Better Normal - also said that many existing inequalities have widened.\n\nIts findings are based on responses from 4,385 young people through surveys and focus groups.\n\nA report by the National Children's Bureau previously said that families of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) felt they were \"forgotten\" in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nMany therapies and essential services they relied on were withdrawn and have not fully returned.\n\nThe NICCY report draws attention to the widespread suspension of services and their effect on children.\n\nMany face-to-face services in early years, for children aged 0-3 and their families, were suspended.\n\n\"The risk of increased emotional or behavioural problems in younger children due to the pandemic is a concern,\" said the children's commissioner Koulla Yiasouma in her report.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Here we are 18 months later with families still struggling\" - Koulla Yiasouma\n\n\"Health visitors were redeployed to provide Covid-19 related care and services resulting in a reduction in the number of health assessments and home visits.\"\n\n\"Reductions in health visiting appointments, in addition to restrictions in access to other early years services, removed an important support system for parents, particularly first-time mothers and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.\"\n\nMore than a quarter (27%) of young people surveyed also said they could not \"get medical treatment during the pandemic for a health issue not related to coronavirus\".\n\nAnother young person who took part in the focus groups had lost their mum during the pandemic and had problems getting bereavement support.\n\n\"Yes [I've sought support for bereavement] but there is a waiting list and my guess is that it's as long as the Amazon River,\" they told the report's authors.\n\nThere was also a ban for periods on external visits for young people in the Juvenile Justice Centre, including from family.\n\nThe report said young people felt demonised when meeting together in public as restrictions relaxed\n\n\"Existing barriers faced by children with disabilities or complex health needs in accessing support and services significantly worsened during the pandemic,\" the report noted.\n\nIn a companion study undertaken by academics from Queen's University Belfast on behalf of NICCY, a number of experts also expressed serious concern about the safety of children and young people during the pandemic.\n\nRelated concerns were previously raised by the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland.\n\nMark Clegg, from west Belfast, is a father to three children aged under nine, all with additional needs.\n\nThe family get support and respite from the Kids Together centre in west Belfast but services stopped temporarily at the start of the pandemic.\n\nMr Clegg said the lack of routine was very difficult for his daughter who has \"very severe self-injurious behaviour\".\n\n\"It would lead to biting, hitting out at objects and when it's really bad she will hit out at us and become very aggressive and destructive in her room,\" he said.\n\n\"The stress on us as a married couple and as a family - sometimes you don't want to be in your own home.\"\n\nHe said school holidays were \"challenging\" for his daughter prior to the pandemic due to \"not constantly getting up, getting on the bus going to school and coming back from school\".\n\n\"Allowing these services to resume and become essential - we're very blessed to have them in our lives.\n\n\"Until they resumed we did feel abandoned.\"\n\nYoung people also \"felt they were negatively stereotyped and blamed for spreading the virus\", according to the report.\n\nIt found that 585 community resolution notices were issued to under-18s by police for breaches of the Coronavirus Health Protection Regulations in 2020-21.\n\n\"While media stories suggested that these breaches were common, the vast majority of children and young people adhered closely to issued regulations and guidelines,\" the report said.\n\n\"Despite this, children and young people maintained they felt demonised and discriminated against by adults when they met together in public as restrictions relaxed.\n\n\"Many have felt judged and scapegoated when they have met up with friends in public spaces.\"\n\nMany children and young people said they felt \"lonely and trapped\" during lockdowns and due to restrictions.\n\n\"It is clear from the children and young people with whom we engaged through surveys and focus groups how important friendships and developing relationships are throughout childhood and into the teenage years, and how deeply they have felt the restrictions on their social interactions,\" the report said.\n\n\"The research data shows that the decline in play, recreational and leisure activities has had a devastating impact on many children's physical health and emotional wellbeing.\"\n\nOnline learning as a result of the pandemic exacerbated many existing inequalities, according to the report\n\nThe NICCY report said that every effort should be made to ensure that school activities like sports, music, clubs and drama could be held.\n\nThe vast majority of children were also taught remotely out of school from March to June 2020 and again from January until Easter 2021.\n\nThe report said that had an impact on children from lower-income backgrounds especially.\n\n\"Children in poverty were identified as being particularly impacted by the move to online education, as they were more likely not to have access to an appropriate digital device or online IT access,\" it said.\n\n\"They were also more likely to be living in accommodation that did not have adequate inside or outside space to study and for recreational activities in lockdown.\n\n\"The continued closure of schools has undoubtedly exacerbated educational inequalities which were previously well documented before the pandemic.\"\n\nResearch conducted for the NICCY report found that 41% of primary seven respondents and 52% of 16-year-olds felt their mental and emotional health had worsened during the pandemic.\n\nA major study carried out before the pandemic had already found that anxiety and depression was 25% more common in children and young people in Northern Ireland compared with other parts of the UK.\n\nThe report found the NI Executive acted quicker than other parts of the UK in helping families entitled to free school meals\n\nThe NICCY report said the executive had acted more quickly in helping families entitled to free school meals than other governments in the UK.\n\nHowever, that was a rare positive note.\n\n\"As we move out of the pandemic, more children and young people and their families are living in poverty, health waiting lists are unacceptably long, many have had their education adversely impacted due to lack of access to digital equipment, children in care and other vulnerable groups have not received the support they need,\" the report said.\n\nIt included a number of recommendations and said that infants, children and young people should be prioritised in the Executive's Covid-19 recovery plan.\n\nThe children's commissioner said the system didn't listen to young people.\n\n\"Here we are 18 months later with families still struggling, with families trying to get back to an equilibrium, into a routine, and parents are exhausted,\" added Ms Yiasouma.\n\n\"We abandoned those families and it's inexcusable that that happened to them.\n\n\"There is a way forward, nothing is irreparable - we can make this right - but we need to recognise where we let children down where we didn't take into consideration their needs.\"", "A man who has been found guilty of drugs and firearms offences boasted about his wealth in music videos, a court has heard.\n\nAkeem Chand, 27, of Melbourne Road in Aspley, who was arrested following a spate of shootings across the Nottingham area, even hired a luxury yacht in the Caribbean to flaunt his drug earnings, Nottingham Crown Court was told.\n\nChand, together with seven others, was convicted of involvement in gang-related activity.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sir Jeffrey Donaldson wants Ireland to encourage the EU to change its stance on the Northern Ireland Protocol\n\nDemocratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has accused the Irish government of \"harming\" Northern Ireland's relationship with the rest of the UK through its support for the Brexit deal.\n\nHis comment came after he met Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Micheál Martin.\n\nTheir meeting in Dublin was their first since Sir Jeffrey became DUP leader.\n\nMr Martin said he accepted unionists had \"genuine concerns\" over post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland.\n\nBut Sir Jeffrey warned that relations between Dublin and Stormont could become \"untenable\" if problems with the Northern Ireland Protocol could not be resolved.\n\nMicheál Martin says he accepts that unionists' have concerns about the Northern Ireland Protocol\n\nHe called on the EU to \"change its tune\" on the protocol, which was agreed by the UK and EU to avoid a hard border in Ireland.\n\nIt does that by keeping Northern Ireland in the EU's single market for goods.\n\nThat has created a new trade border in the Irish Sea, which is strongly opposed by unionists in Northern Ireland.\n\n\"If the Irish government persists in harming our relationship with the rest of the United Kingdom through this protocol then of course that has an impact on our relationship with Dublin,\" said Sir Jeffrey.\n\n\"We are expected to operate as normal on a north-south basis - that is not a tenable position and not one I intend to continue with if we cannot resolve the issues around the protocol and do so quickly.\"\n\nThe DUP leader said he told the taoiseach that unionists' concerns that the protocol was having an negative effect on Northern Ireland were \"certainly not diminishing\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The EU is \"ready to respond\" to concerns about the Northern Ireland Protocol, says Micheál Martin\n\nHe cited the \"harm that it's doing to trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland\" and the \"political harm\" it could cause ahead of next year's Stormont assembly election.\n\n\"We need to address those issues and do so quickly - we need to remove the border that has developed between GB and Northern Ireland in trading terms,\" he said.\n\nSpeaking after the meeting, Mr Martin said he would continue to speak to unionists about their worries in relation to the protocol.\n\nHe called for a focus on maintaining relations between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.\n\nMicheál Martin and Sir Jeffrey Donaldson met at Government Buildings in Dublin\n\n\"It would be awful if there was to be any disruption of that progressive work,\" he said.\n\n\"I accept from a unionist perspective that they have genuine concerns.\n\n\"We don't necessarily agree that they're ones that can't be overcome - we'd have a different perspective to that - but I acknowledge the sincerity of the perspective that has been articulated to us.\n\n\"Europe wants to help here but there needs to be very clear presentation from the UK side in terms of where they see the resolution of this.\"\n\nOn Thursday the Northern Ireland Protocol was a key topic of discussion when French President Emmanuel Macron visited Dublin, where he met both Mr Martin and Irish President Michael D Higgins.\n\nEmmanuel Macron says Ireland has a \"faithful friend\" in France\n\nIn the past Mr Macron has ruled out any renegotiation of the Brexit deal.\n\nDuring his visit to Áras an Uachtaráin, the Irish president's residence, Mr Macron wrote in the guestbook that Ireland \"occupies a precious place in the heart of the European dream\".\n\nMr Macron's note explained that France would remain a \"faithful friend for the future\".\n\nIn June, Sir Jeffrey's predecessor as DUP leader Edwin Poots visited Dublin and met Mr Martin along with DUP colleague Paul Givan, who has since become first minister of Northern Ireland.\n\nMr Poots said Mr Martin recognised the \"genuine concerns in unionist and loyalist communities around the protocol\".\n\nBut Mr Poots was ousted within 50 days of becoming DUP leader and was replaced by Sir Jeffrey.", "About 3.5 million Americans said they face eviction in the next two months\n\nThe US Supreme Court has ruled to allow evictions to resume across the country.\n\nIt blocked the Biden administration's Covid-related moratorium on evictions, which would have extended protections to millions of Americans.\n\nThe moratorium was first put in place a year ago to combat homelessness during the Covid pandemic.\n\nAll three liberal judges dissented from the ruling, while all six conservatives ruled in favour of blocking the extension.\n\n\"If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it,\" the court wrote in an unsigned opinion released on Thursday evening.\n\nThe Biden administration had argued that the moratorium was needed due to a spike in Covid cases.\n\n\"The trajectory of the pandemic has since changed - unexpectedly, dramatically and for the worse,\" the Biden administration said in a brief. \"As of August 19, 2021, the seven-day average of daily new cases is 130,926, nearly a ten-fold increase over the rate when this court ruled\".\n\nBut extension opponents said many landlords are struggling with their mortgage repayments without regular rent money.\n\nWhite House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement that the Biden administration is disappointed by the Supreme Court's ruling.\n\n\"Families will face the painful impact of evictions and communities across the country will face greater risk of exposure to Covid-19,\" she said.\n\nMs Psaki added that the White House was calling on local and state courts, landlords and government agencies to \"act urgently\" to prevent evictions. To help renters, the Department of the Treasury on Wednesday also announced a reduction in paperwork requirements to receive emergency rental assistance. The department warned that state and local governments that fail to provide relief to at-risk renters may receive less funding than jurisdictions that do.\n\nAccording to August US Census bureau data, 3.5 million Americans said they face eviction in the next two months.\n\nSome states such as New York and California have extended their own moratoriums while some judges said they would make use of eviction diversion programmes to avoid people being made homeless as the pandemic intensifies, the New York Times reports.", "NHS England has admitted that a shortage of vials used for blood tests will worsen over the next few weeks and will last until mid-September.\n\nIt said supplies remain constrained and are forecast \"to become even more constrained over the coming weeks\".\n\nWhile the NHS expects the position to improve by the middle of next month, \"overall supply is likely to remain challenging for a significant period.\"\n\nDoctors had been told to stagger some blood tests due to the shortage.\n\nThey are warning that patient care will suffer due to delays.\n\nIt comes after Becton Dickinson, a company that makes vials for the health service, said it is experiencing serious supply chain issues.\n\nDue to the shortage, the NHS has temporarily stopped some blood testing for fertility, pre-diabetes, allergies and certain blood disorders.\n\nNHS England issued guidance urging doctors to delay regular blood tests if clinically safe and NHS Wales issued similar guidance.\n\nIn its guidance, NHS England said \"alternative products are being sought to alleviate these constraints,\" as a result of the global shortages of blood tube products.\n\nDr Farah Jameel, a GP based in north London and a representative from the British Medical Association trade body said she was having \"difficult conversations\" with patients about rationing the vials \"among the very sickest\".\n\nDr Jameel is having \"incredibly challenging\" conversations with patients about delayed blood tests.\n\nShe said there has been \"very unclear messaging from NHS England on how quickly we're going to run short and what the impact will be on patient care.\"\n\n\"The NHS needs to communicate clearly with the public and with the profession so there is a clear understanding of the problems which will help us manage expectations,\" Dr Jameel said.\n\n\"These tests are a fundamental part of patient care, giving us essential insights into different conditions, warning signs and overall health.\"\n\nDoctor Gavin Jamie, an GP based in Swindon agreed that preventative care is going to be slower, in addition to screening delays cause by the pandemic which he said he's still trying to catch up on.\n\n\"We've not seen the full effect yet but it looks like it could carry on for at least a few months from the time scale NHS England have been giving us,\" he added.\n\nGPs across the country have tweeted about the difficulties the shortage is causing, while patients have tweeted texts from their surgeries which have said their blood tests have been cancelled.\n\nAlison Webb's blood tests have been delayed by four months due to the shortages\n\nAlison Webb, from Wales, told the BBC she was told that she can't have her yearly thyroid and cholesterol checked due to the blood tube shortages. She has a condition which means the thyroid gland does not produce enough hormones and said her blood tests are currently overdue by four months.\n\n\"Now I've been told to ring again in a month's time. Terrible,\" she said.\n\nThe medical device company, Becton Dickinson, which partly manufactures its tubes in the US, said the need to test Covid-19 patients in addition to routine testing for procedures which were delayed due to the pandemic had increased demand.\n\nResponding to the new NHS guidance, the British Medical Association said that healthcare staff were \"still no closer to understanding how this situation was able to develop and why there wasn't a contingency plan\".\n\n\"Today's guidance does not explain what will happen if hospitals or GP surgeries do run out of stock, and this must be addressed as a matter of urgency,\" said Dr David Wrigley, deputy chair of BMA council.\n\n\"No doctor wants the consequence of delayed diagnosis for patients due to these shortages, and they also need to know they are protected from any possible negligence claims,\" he added.\n\nLike many other industries, Becton Dickinson said in addition to increased demand, it was experiencing \"continued transportation challenges\", which included port and transport capacity, air freight capacity and UK border challenges.\n\n\"Suppliers are also challenged to meet increased demand for raw materials and components,\" the firm told the BBC.\n\n\"We are balancing the frequency of preventive maintenance leading to plant shutdown to provide continuing supply of products, and we are working closely with our raw material suppliers, transport agencies and other necessary third parties to minimize supply disruptions,\" a spokesperson added.\n\nA spokesperson for the Department for Health and Social Care told the BBC: \"Patient safety and continuity of care is our priority and we are working to ensure there is minimal possible impact on patient care.\n\n\"The health and care system is working closely with Becton Dickinson to put mitigations in place to resolve any problems if they arise,\" they added.\n\nDiabetes UK expressed concerns for the 13.6 million people in the country at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The symptoms of type 2 diabetes can develop more slowly than those for type 1.\n\nNikki Joule, policy manager at the charity, said the supply issues would make the condition \"harder to spot\" and said it's \"very important\" that those at risk \"do not fall through the cracks due to a logistical issue.\"\n\nGwenda Burns, chief executive of Fertility Network UK agrees that the logistical issue is \"extremely worrying\" for those awaiting fertility tests.", "A US flag is seen posted in the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York, two days after the attack there Image caption: A US flag is seen posted in the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York, two days after the attack there\n\nThe BBC is covering the 20th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US, which led to the 20-year conflict in Afghanistan.\n\nThis is the story of Chris Cruz, who explains in an interview to BBC's OS programme why he decided to join the US army.\n\n\"My mother was heading to work on a normal 11 September day. As soon as she exited the subway, she was told to start running as the buildings were coming down. She literally saw them coming down and described people jumping out of the windows,\" says Chris.\n\n\"When she finally made it home, I - as an 11-year-old boy at the time - had to tell her that she had burn marks and blood spots on the back of her legs. She was in a state of shock.\n\n\"As I grew up, I realised... I had the ability to be part of an organisation that could defend and prevent these atrocities for all Americans.\n\n\"9/11 played a role, but not in a way of revenge. I didn't want to join out of bloodlust. I served two tours in Afghanistan. Both of those times I volunteered to go.\n\n\"I don't think our mission would have succeeded without our Afghan partners. I agree we couldn't be there forever, but we made a promise to keep our partners safe and that we wouldn't turn our backs on them, and that's exactly what we've done.\"\n\nChris adds: \"I do think the way we pulled out, the way we left it, was completely wrong. There needed to be a better exit strategy.\"", "Stewart Spensley helps to raise money for the Lee Rigby Foundation\n\nA thief who tried to steal a Lee Rigby Foundation charity box from a pub was caught by the landlord - one of the soldier's former comrades.\n\nStewart Spensley, landlord of The Two Tubs in Bury, gave chase after the donation box was taken from the bar.\n\nFusilier Rigby was killed outside Woolwich Barracks in south-east London in May 2013 in a terror-related attack.\n\nMr Spensley, 42, who served three tours of Afghanistan, said: \"I was not going to let it go.\"\n\nLee Rigby was killed outside Woolwich Barracks in south-east London in May 2013\n\n\"I ran out the building, saw him and chased him down,\" he said.\n\n\"When I got to him he dropped the box and started making threats so I restrained him until the police arrived.\n\n\"I think most people - if somebody's nicking from charity - if they could, they'd put a stop to it.\"\n\nMr Spensley helps to raise money for the Lee Rigby Foundation, set up by Fusilier Rigby's family to support military families.\n\nHe served alongside Fusilier Rigby in Cyprus and said he had a knack for keeping up morale.\n\nHe said: \"As soon as he walked in a room you knew he was going to say something or do something that would just have everyone laughing.\"\n\nThe landlord gave chase after the donation box was taken from the bar\n\nThe pub in Bury town centre is a well-known military pub.\n\nAs well as the donation box they also give money from the jukebox to the foundation and provide free meals to the military once a week.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Benjamin Mendy was charged on Thursday following a police investigation\n\nManchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy has been remanded in custody after appearing in court charged with rape and sexual assault.\n\nThe 27-year-old defender is accused of four counts of rape and one count of sexual assault at his home in Cheshire.\n\nThey relate to alleged attacks on three women, including one aged under 18, between October 2020 and August 2021.\n\nMr Mendy spoke only to confirm his name, address and date of birth at Chester Magistrates' Court.\n\nNo pleas were entered as the charges were put to the Premier League footballer, who had also been facing one count of breaking his bail conditions in August.\n\nThat charge was withdrawn in court.\n\nProceedings were relayed back to the French international via an interpreter.\n\nHe showed no emotion as he was taken from the court accompanied by two dock officers at the end of the hearing, which lasted about an hour.\n\nDistrict Judge Jack McGarva sent the case to Chester Crown Court where Mr Mendy is due to appear on 10 September.\n\nBenjamin Mendy appeared at Chester Magistrates' Court after being charged with rape and sexual assault\n\nThe left-back has played for last season's Premier League champions since 2017, when he joined from Monaco for a reported £52m.\n\nIn a statement on Thursday, Manchester City said the club had suspended the player pending an investigation.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe 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. Twin bombs exploded near the perimeter of Kabul airport, hours after warnings from Western governments\n\nPresident Joe Biden has promised to hunt down the jihadists behind an attack in Kabul which killed at least 90 people - including 13 US troops.\n\nMr Biden warned the US would \"not forgive\" the perpetrators.\n\nThe twin blasts, claimed by a local branch of Islamic State (IS), tore through crowds of men, women and children outside Kabul airport.\n\nThey were hoping to join the 100,000 people airlifted out of Afghanistan since it fell to Taliban militants.\n\nThere had been repeated warnings that an attack was likely, but it either did not reach or did not deter those waiting.\n\nUS troops in control of Kabul international airport have been facilitating the evacuation of foreign nationals and Afghans who had been working with foreign missions.\n\nThey have been aiming to complete this within a 31 August deadline for US forces to leave under an agreement with the Taliban.\n\nA number of European countries have already announced the end of their evacuation plans. The UK said on Friday it would not be processing any more applications, acknowledging it was leaving people behind.\n\nSpeaking hours after Thursday's attack, Mr Biden vowed to complete the evacuation mission, adding \"we will not be deterred by terrorists\".\n\nHe said the US military had been ordered to attack the leadership, assets and facilities of the group known as Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K), active in Afghanistan and Pakistan.\n\nThe group is part of the global IS network, but has local links - even to the Taliban. However, IS-K have accused the Taliban of abandoning the battlefield in favour of a negotiated peace settlement.\n\nThe attack at the airport - which began at about 18:00 local time (13:30 GMT) - targeted \"translators and collaborators with the American army\", the jihadist group said.\n\nThe first blast happened near the Abbey Gate, where US and British forces have been checking people entering the airport, followed by a second minutes later at a hotel which was used by British officials to process Afghans hoping to travel to the UK.\n\nSurvivors described the horror in the wake of the attack, with one saying they saw \"bodies and body parts flying in the air like a tornado blowing plastic bags\".\n\nAnother recounted how they tried to take an injured baby to safety, only for the child to die in their arms.\n\nPictures being shared on social media suggest families have lost several members.\n\nHospitals were quickly overwhelmed with the injured. Alberto Zanin, the medical director of one facility run by Italian NGO Emergency, described on Twitter how the victims \"could not speak, many were terrified, their eyes totally lost in emptiness, their gaze blank\".\n\nThirteen US troops were among those killed - the first US military casualties in Afghanistan since February 2020.\n\nMr Biden said the troops who had died \"were heroes who were on a selfless mission to save the lives of others\".\n\nThe head of US Central Command, Gen Frank McKenzie, said the threat from IS-K remained high and US forces were working with Taliban to try to stop further attacks and that the Taliban had already prevented many.\n\nBut the attack is likely to significantly complicate the evacuation effort ahead of the deadline.\n\nThere are currently 5,800 US troops on the ground at Kabul airport with a further 1,000 UK troops also there.\n\nTo date, 104,000 civilians have been transferred from Afghanistan, including 66,000 by the US and 37,000 by allies and partners.\n\nAbout 5,000 people are waiting at the airport and many more are still trying to get through the perimeter checkpoints.\n\nA number of countries, including Canada, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Denmark had already stopped their operations.\n\nTurkey has announced that its troops, who had been providing security at the airport for six years, were withdrawing.", "Hundreds who went to Bloodstock festival test positive for Covid\n\nHundreds of people who attended a heavy metal music festival in Derbyshire have tested positive for Covid-19, health officials say. Bloodstock took place on 11 to 15 August near the village of Walton-on-Trent, in Derbyshire. Local public health officials confirmed about 500 people from across the country had \"attended the festival prior to testing positive\". Iain Little, Derbyshire County Council's deputy director of public health, says there did not appear to be any rises in infections locally as most people had stayed on the festival site. He adds: \"Our public health team was involved in planning for the event with South Derbyshire District Council, and were happy that the festival organisers were following best practice and national guidance.\" This year's festival attracted 20,000 people - its largest attendance ever - after having to move online last year because of the pandemic. Rachael Greenfield, Bloodstock festival director, says organisers had done \"everything in their power\" to lessen the risks and went \"above and beyond\" government Covid guidance. She says while there was \"no guarantee\" all the cases derived from the event, it was \"impossible\" to completely remove the risk of infection.", "The UK has lost 83% of its main department stores in the five years since the collapse of the BHS chain.\n\nThe figure highlights the extent of the upheaval in the High Street as the Covid pandemic sped up changes in shopping habits.\n\nThe data, compiled by commercial property information firm CoStar Group, also reveals that more than two-thirds of these shops remain unoccupied.\n\nSome 237 big stores have yet to be taken over by a new business.\n\n\"The data undoubtedly highlights the acceleration of change in the retail sector in recent years, which the pandemic has only exacerbated,\" said CoStar Group's head of analytics, Mark Stansfield.\n\nCoStar tracked the UK's largest chains, from BHS and Beales to Debenhams and House of Fraser, from 2016 to the present day.\n\nFive years ago, they had 467 stores between them. Now, however, only 79 are left.\n\nCoStar Group also examined what had happened to the 388 that had closed.\n\nAlthough 237 are currently sitting empty, 52 already have either firm plans in place or early planning approval for a change of use or repurposing. The research was done in July.\n\nMr Stansfield told the BBC he believed the pace of change would soon step up.\n\n\"We are increasingly seeing forward-thinking real estate owners getting ahead of the problem and reshaping what are key assets in our town centres to provide a focal point for regeneration,\" he said.\n\n\"I think we'll see many more plans come to light in the coming months. With these store closures come new opportunities.\"\n\nDepartment stores have long been the cornerstone of UK shopping areas. Many are in purpose-built shopping centres, while some occupy historic buildings.\n\nFiguring out what to do with all this redundant space is one of the biggest challenges for landlords, as well as for the town centres that host those properties.\n\nBHS is a good illustration of why there is no quick fix for the problem. Five years after the retailer ceased trading, a quarter of its former outlets have still failed to attract new tenants.\n\nIn 2016, the BBC visited the old BHS store on Edinburgh's Princes Street, one of the biggest in the chain. The owners already had new ideas for the site - and crucially, they decided to turn it into a building with a mix of different uses.\n\nIts six floors, once riddled with asbestos, have slowly been transformed. The old staff locker rooms and half of the building have been turned into hotel bedrooms by Premier Inn.\n\nThe former BHS store on Princes Street in Edinburgh has been repurposed\n\nThey're also putting the finishing touches to a state-of the art office right at the top, while the basement will hopefully become a bowling alley. There will also eventually be retail, just a lot less than before.\n\n\"It costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time to turn these large format spaces into new uses,\" says the architect behind the project, Frank Hinds of CDA.\n\n\"In development terms, we did this in a relatively short space of time.\"\n\nWhen it comes to repurposing, says Mr Hinds, the stumbling blocks are often financial. Investors have to be able to make a return to justify the huge investment. Luckily for this BHS, it's on a world-class street.\n\n\"The viability comes from the location and the desire that people have to be in that location,\" he adds.\n\nFor Premier Inn, the hotelier involved, it was an opportunity too good to miss. \"Buildings like this don't come along very often with beautiful views across to the castle,\" says Valerie Graham, regional operations director.\n\nPremier Inn's Valerie Graham: \"Buildings like this don't come along very often\"\n\n\"Seeing so many people get use of the space is just fantastic. And the demand is there. We're creating jobs too.\"\n\nEdinburgh has lost four of its main department stores in the past few years, but, fortunately, there are solutions under way for all of them.\n\nFor instance, the former House of Fraser store at the other end of Princes Street is about to open its doors as the Johnnie Walker Whisky Experience.\n\nFilling the gaps in smaller towns is a much greater challenge. In Dumfries, the old Debenhams store is still vacant.\n\nIt's the biggest retail unit in the town, with no takers so far for the space.\n\n\"It comes down to money,\" says Scott Mackay, who runs the Midsteeple Quarter, a local company founded to benefit the community.\n\nThrough crowdfunding, donations and public money, it's buying old, empty, shops and bringing them back to life with new tenants.\n\nThe community group is buying up shops around the historic Midsteeple in Dumfries\n\n\"This is a small rural town historically and there isn't the amount of money to be invested in Dumfries compared with our bigger cities. We stand or fall on our own two feet,\" he says.\n\nWould he like to take on the former Debenhams site as well? \"If we had the funding, absolutely we would take on a building like this,\" he says.\n\n\"I think it would make a great small boutique cinema or food court on the ground floor, with potentially residential on the upper floors.\"\n\nSome of form of intervention is needed, he believes, to avoid the store sitting empty for years.\n\nDebenhams is a more recent casualty of the changing High Street environment than BHS, having shut its last stores in May this year.\n\nIn all, 149 former Debenhams stores are currently vacant, as the data from CoStar Group shows.\n\nCoStar Group's team has been scouring planning applications and talking to property agents on the ground as well as big landlords for this research, which is the most comprehensive picture to date on the huge structural changes to have hit this part of British retail.\n\nThe appetite for quality shop space hasn't completely diminished. For instance, Next has already taken space in Debenhams stores for its new beauty concept, while Mike Ashley is redeveloping or re-letting space for his Flannels brand.\n\nBut if BHS is anything to go by, reviving many of these these vast sites will take time, as well as some radical thinking.", "Cruise posed for pictures with British Transport Police while filming at Grand Central in Birmingham\n\nHollywood actor Tom Cruise's BMW was stolen while he was filming in Birmingham.\n\nThe actor has been in the city filming the seventh instalment in the Mission: Impossible film series.\n\nThe Sun claimed the vehicle used by Cruise was taken from outside the Grand Hotel with thousands of pounds worth of goods inside.\n\nA BMW X7 was stolen from Church Street on Tuesday and recovered a short time later, West Midlands Police said.\n\nThe vehicle was found in nearby Smethwick. CCTV is being examined and inquiries continue.\n\nParts of Grand Central shopping centre, above New Street Station in Birmingham, were closed from Sunday to Wednesday to allow filming to go ahead.\n\nMany fans have spoken of their \"excitement\" at seeing the film icon, who visited Indian Restaurant Asha's and met officers from British Transport Police during his time in the city.\n\nThe officers shared the picture on social media adding: \"I promise you, this isn't photoshopped.\"\n\nBirmingham Lord Mayor Muhammad Afzal also got to meet the Mission: Impossible stars.\n\nThe Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Muhammad Afzal, also had the opportunity to meet Cruise and his co-star Hayley Atwell\n\nHe said it had been a \"fantastic visit and fascinating look behind the scenes\".\n\n\"Can't wait to see the film when it's released,\" Mr Afzal added.\n\nTom Cruise has been filming Mission: Impossible 7 at Grand Central in Birmingham\n\nEarlier, Cruise caused a stir for one Warwickshire family when he landed his helicopter in their garden.\n\nParts of Grand Central shopping centre have been closed for the filming\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Max Woosey spent his 500th night sleeping under a shelter in the woods\n\nAn 11-year-old boy has spent his 500th night camping outside.\n\nMax Woosey started sleeping in his garden in Devon on 28 March 2020 after being inspired by a family friend who died of cancer and left Max his tent.\n\nSince then, he has raised more than £640,000 for the North Devon Hospice, which cared for his neighbour.\n\nHe said it was an \"amazing\" experience in the shelter he helped build, and he was already planning to be sleeping in something similar again.\n\nThe 11-year-old, from Braunton, has camped out at a variety of locations, ranging from his back garden to London Zoo and 10 Downing Street.\n\nTo mark the latest milestone, Max built a woodland shelter with his parents and best friends as he wanted to do something \"a bit more crazy and a bit more fun\" for his 500th night.\n\nMax said he had \"no intention\" of sleeping inside just yet\n\nHe said: \"It was amazing and such good fun - definitely an experience I'll always remember\".\n\nHe also said that the support he had received had been \"lovely and just remarkable\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Max Woosey has braved snow, rain and wind in his tent\n\nMax's mum, Rachael Woosey, said Tuesday's events before the night out included a masterclass on how to build a den and \"tea cooked over the fire\" as part of an \"amazing night\" which showcased Max's \"remarkable\" efforts.\n\nAfter he finished, she said she was \"definitely proud\" of what he had done.\n\nShe added that, even if he was just returning to the family's back garden to sleep there, it would be \"a bit tame compared to last night\".\n\nMax said he wanted to do something different for his 500th night\n\nMax said he still was not planning sleeping indoors despite more than a year spent outside.\n\nHe said: \"I don't think that's going to be done.\"\n\nMax first began his adventure when he heard hospice fundraising events were getting cancelled due to Covid-19.\n\nHis was inspired by neighbour Rick Abbott, who gave him a tent to \"have an adventure in\", before spending his final days at North Devon Hospice.\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.", "The University of Leeds said some courses in its business and law schools were oversubscribed\n\nStudents wanting to study law or business at the University of Leeds are being offered £10,000 cash and free accommodation to defer their courses.\n\nDeputy Vice Chancellor Peter Jimack said the university was making the offer as some courses were full.\n\nHe said the nature of teacher-assessed grades as opposed to exam-based grades had made it \"harder to predict\" the number of successful applicants.\n\nThe University of Exeter has made a similar offer to medical students.\n\nPeter Jimack said students who chose to defer their place would be supported by the university\n\nProf Jimack told the BBC: \"We've contacted students on a small number of programmes in two schools to let them know that we are going to make them an offer to defer to next year with an incentive of a cash payment of about £10,000 and our fee for their halls of residence in their first year being paid by the university.\n\n\"We are not putting pressure on anybody to make that choice, it's an entirely free choice.\"\n\nHe said any students who chose to defer until 2022 would be provided with online materials to help them prepare for their arrival next year.\n\nHe added that the university was also creating an extra 30 places to study medicine for students who were unable to get a place at universities which were oversubscribed.\n\nA record number of students have applied to study medicine this autumn, a rise of more than 20% on last year.\n\nThe number of places for medicine in England is capped by the government.\n\nProf Jimack said: \"We recognise that there is a national need and we know from the last 18 months how important our doctors and nurses are.\n\n\"So we're stepping-up and making available some additional places that we will make available to students from oversubscribed universities to come and study with us at Leeds.\"\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Bankstown-Lidcombe hospital in Sydney removed the employee from duty on Monday\n\nA woman is under investigation in Australia for allegedly pretending to be a doctor.\n\nAustralian media report that the 27-year-old worked for eight months at Sydney's Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital.\n\nBut the hospital said it discovered that she was not registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), which accredits medical staff in the country.\n\nNew South Wales Police are now investigating.\n\nA hospital spokeswoman said in a statement that an employee who started work in January this year was \"immediately removed from their duties\" when the authorities discovered on Monday that they were not accredited.\n\nIt added that this person was \"fully supervised\" throughout their time working at the hospital in south-west Sydney.\n\nBankstown-Lidcombe has reported the case to AHPRA and is also conducting an internal investigation.\n\nAccording to 7News the woman had failed her final exams and faked documents to get the job as a junior doctor.\n\nThe broadcaster reported she could face fraud offences. No charges have been brought.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sajid Javid expects booster vaccines to start being rolled out from 'early September'\n\nMore than 75% of UK adults have now received two Covid jabs, the government has said.\n\nA total of 39,688,566 people have now received both doses, while another 7 million have only had a single dose, according to the latest figures.\n\nBoris Johnson described the milestone in the vaccine rollout as a \"huge national achievement\".\n\nBut Oxford Vaccine Group director Prof Sir Andrew Pollard has warned that herd immunity is \"not a possibility\".\n\nMargaret Keenan became the first person to be vaccinated as part of the UK rollout on 8 December.\n\nSince then more there have been more than 86.7 million vaccinations delivered, with people receiving their jabs everywhere from sports stadiums to circuses.\n\nAt the peak of the rollout more than 752,000 jabs were given in a day on 20 March, although the rate has since slowed.\n\nThe UK reached the milestone of getting 50% of adults double jabbed on 3 June and 25% of adults had received both doses by 27 April.\n\nA further 32,250 first doses and 137,028 second doses were given across the UK on Monday.\n\nThe latest data also shows there were 23,510 new cases of Covid as well as a further 146 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test.\n\nThe prime minister hailed the \"incredible vaccine rollout\" and said it had provided vital protection against the virus for three-quarters of adults.\n\n\"It's so important that those who haven't been vaccinated come forward as soon as possible to book their jab - to protect themselves, protect their loved ones and allow us all to enjoy our freedoms safely,\" he said.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid said the vaccines were \"allowing us to reconnect with the things we love\", while vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said it had been \"phenomenal to see first-hand the enthusiasm of the British public for the vaccines\".\n\nBut Sir Andrew told MPs the idea of herd immunity was \"mythical\" with the Delta variant, now dominant in the UK, still infecting people who had been vaccinated.\n\nHe said while vaccines might \"slow the process\" of transmission down, they currently cannot stop the spread completely.\n\nEarlier Mr Javid said that plans are in place to give the most vulnerable groups a third or booster Covid jab in September.\n\nThis has been criticised, with Sir Andrew telling the All Party Parliamentary Group on coronavirus that any spare jabs should \"go where they can have the greatest impact\" to protect unvaccinated people abroad.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Margaret Keenan was given the vaccine by May Parsons, at University Hospital in Coventry\n\nThe latest data from Public Health England and Cambridge University suggests that around 60,000 UK deaths and 22 million infections had been prevented by vaccines so far, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.\n\nThe government said two doses of either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines provided over 90% protection against hospitalisation from the Delta variant, which is now dominant in the UK.\n\nAll adults in the UK will have been offered the chance to have both doses by mid-September, the DHSC said.\n\nMinisters will be watching the second dose figure to see how close it edges to 100% in the weeks ahead.\n\nThe government has already announced that by the end of September, people in England will require full vaccination status to go to nightclubs and some other events with large crowds.\n\nAnd from next Monday double vaccinated people will no longer be required to self-isolate if they are identified as a close contact of a positive Covid case.\n\nThe UK vaccine rollout began with people aged 80 and over as well as some health and care staff before moving to those at higher risk of illness from Covid and down through age groups.\n\nNHS England said nearly 16,000 16 and 17-year-olds had already received their vaccine over the weekend.\n\nSome children aged 12 and over who are at a higher risk of serious illness from Covid, or live with immunosuppressed adults, will be contacted about vaccines in coming weeks.", "An Iranian asylum seeker cleared of people smuggling has said he was made a \"scapegoat\" by British authorities.\n\nFouad Kakaei, who steered a dinghy across the English Channel, was found not guilty at a second trial after appealing against his first conviction.\n\nHis barrister believes a law intended to prosecute people smugglers is being used on asylum seekers, because they are \"easy targets\".\n\nThe Home Office said it had a new plan to \"fix the broken asylum system\".\n\nMore than 19,000 people have reached the UK in small boats since the start of 2020.\n\nLast year, 54 people were arrested for facilitating illegal entry into the UK across the Channel, according to figures obtained by BBC News.\n\nIranian Fouad Kakaei said he had to pilot the dinghy across the Channel because it was a \"a matter of life and death\"\n\nHowever, 33 of them were \"subsequently identified as asylum seekers\", with 18 of those going on to face prosecution, the Home Office revealed in a Freedom of Information request.\n\nMr Kakaei's lawyer Aneurin Brewer said he was concerned the government was \"taking easy targets\" by prosecuting people on the boats.\n\nMr Kakaei was jailed for two years and two months in January, but the conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal.\n\nThe court found it could not be proven he intended to avoid detection and enter the UK illegally, as the dinghy was intercepted by Border Force and all those onboard claimed asylum.\n\nHe was found not guilty by a jury following a retrial at Canterbury Crown Court in May.\n\nMr Kakaei paid smugglers for transport into the UK and was put onto a boat, he said.\n\n\"The condition of the boat was not satisfactory and nobody was able to steer it. I could see everybody's life was in danger, to save myself and the lives of the rest... I started to take control of the boat.\n\n\"It was a matter of life and death.\"\n\nDuring his time in custody he said he realised that \"one way or the other they wanted to find me guilty... they wanted a scapegoat\".\n\nIt was the second time Mr Kakaei tried to enter the UK, after being returned to Denmark initially\n\nIt was the second crossing Mr Kakaei had made from France. He was deported to Denmark after the first occasion because he had already started an asylum application there, but said authorities rejected his claim.\n\nHe said he fled Iran because his \"life was in danger\", adding the past five years in Europe had been \"hell\".\n\nMr Brewer said it was not a crime to arrive in the UK and claim asylum.\n\nHe said the law used was \"designed to protect or defend vulnerable migrants\" like Mr Kakaei, not prosecute him.\n\nThe Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) reviewed all similar cases after Mr Kakaei's successful appeal and subsequently scrapped 12 cases involving people accused of piloting small boats. Seven other cases are still active, it said.\n\nThe CPS published new guidance that recommends migrants should not be prosecuted in this way without strong evidence.\n\nHowever, the Nationality and Borders Bill, currently going through the House of Commons, will be tougher on migrants and smugglers.\n\nA Home Office spokesman said: \"We will welcome people through safe and legal routes whilst preventing abuse of the system, cracking down on illegal entry and the criminality associated with it.\"\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A man has admitted making hundreds of nuisance calls to the NHS 111 line in order to indulge a \"sexual foot fetish\", police said.\n\nRichard William Cove, 45, from Worthing, West Sussex, made more than 1,200 calls, costing the NHS £21,000.\n\nPretending to be an elderly woman, he would ask call handlers about their feet, Sussex Police said.\n\nPC David Quayle said Cove had admitted making the calls \"for his own enjoyment and personal benefit\".\n\n\"He said he had a sexual foot fetish which he indulged during most of the calls,\" PC Quayle said.\n\nAn investigation began in 2019 after members of the public said they had been contacted by clinicians about NHS 111 calls they had not made.\n\nBetween April 2019 and April 2021 the NHS 111 service identified 1,263 nuisance calls linked to an individual using \"false personal details, false telephone numbers and false ailments,\" police said.\n\nMany of calls led to clinicians responding and in some cases ambulances were dispatched.\n\nDavid Davis of South East Coast Ambulance Service, which runs the telephone service in the region, said the impact of the calls \"should not be underestimated\".\n\n\"Just one malicious and false call puts lives at risk by diverting our attention and resources away from people in genuine need of our help,\" he said.\n\n\"The nature of the calls have also caused unnecessary distress to our staff who are working tirelessly get people the help they require,\" he added.\n\nCove, of Boundary Road, Worthing, admitted one count of making malicious communications.\n\nHe will be sentenced at Worthing Magistrates Court on 13 September.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Love Island is now in its seventh series\n\nA recent episode of ITV's Love Island sparked almost 25,000 complaints to regulator Ofcom, a record for the show.\n\nFriday's instalment saw Faye Winter confront her partner Teddy Soares over footage, shown without full context, from Casa Amor week.\n\nThe week places male and female contestants in separate villas with the chance to be unfaithful.\n\nMost of the 24,763 complaints related to Faye's behaviour. Ofcom is deciding whether to launch an investigation.\n\n\"We've received a high volume of complaints about last week's Love Island, which is consistent with a trend of growing complaints about high-profile TV shows,\" a spokesperson for the broadcasting regulator said.\n\n\"We are carefully assessing the complaints we've received, before deciding whether or not to investigate.\"\n\nOfcom said the \"vast majority\" of the complaints related to the fallout from the Movie Night challenge, which involved islanders viewing footage of each other's behaviour while living apart in separate villas during Casa Amor week.\n\nThis 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 Ofcom 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.\n\nA clip of Teddy showed him telling Clarisse Juliette, who has since been eliminated, that he was attracted to her.\n\nHe also told her he was \"technically single\" during a flirty exchange and the pair were then shown kissing during a challenge.\n\nHowever, he did not act on his remarks outside the game, otherwise remaining faithful to Faye.\n\nAfter the clip was played to the islanders, Faye, who has admitted to trust issues, launched into an outburst.\n\nThe heated exchange sparked a debate over Faye's behaviour and Love Island's production values.\n\nThe New Statesman writer Sarah Manavis questioned whether producers had put pressure on the couple.\n\nThis 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 2 by Sarah Manavis 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.\n\nCampaigner and writer Gina Martin similarly felt the show's makers had \"added huge fuel to a fire they knew would explode\".\n\nThis 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 3 by Gina Martin 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.\n\nResponding to the backlash on Sunday via a statement posted on Faye's Instagram story, her family urged viewers to remember they were watching a \"highly edited TV show which is created for entertainment\".\n\n\"Faye is human. She may not always get things right,\" they said. \"There are human beings managing the islander's social media pages who will be seriously effected [sic] by your comments. We ask that everyone please remembers this before commenting or messaging.\"\n\nTeddy and Faye reconciled on Tuesday, with Faye saying: \"I am really sorry for the way I spoke to you.\n\n\"There's no excuse for the way I spoke to you or how I raised my voice and no-one should have someone speak to them like that.\"\n\nThe 6 August episode attracted six times the previous highest number of complaints made about a single episode so far this series, which started in late June.\n\nPreviously, more than 4,000 viewers complained that July's Casa Amor postcard episode was manipulative toward the female islanders.\n\nThe mental health of Love Island contestants and the aftercare offered to them has come under increased scrutiny in recent years.\n\nITV introduced revised duty of care protocols this year, including training islanders on how to handle the \"potential negativity\" of social media.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA police officer who shot dead a convicted terrorist on a south London street has described the moment he \"immediately feared for his life\".\n\nSudesh Amman, 20, ran towards one of the armed surveillance officers with a knife after stabbing two people on Streatham High Road last February.\n\nOfficer BX75, whose identity is being protected, said the pair \"locked eyes\".\n\n\"I thought he was going to stab me and kill me or certainly seriously injure me,\" the Royal Courts of Justice heard.\n\nThe inquest heard BX75 was part of a nine man surveillance team following Amman, who had been released from prison 10 days earlier.\n\nHolding his Glock pistol in both hands, BX75 described the moments outside Boots before he decided to shoot Amman, who was holding \"a large butcher's knife\", in the chest.\n\nSudesh Amman was jailed for 40 months in 2018 for preparing and engaging in acts of terrorism\n\nHe said: \"I saw him, he saw me - I am 100% confident we locked eyes.\n\n\"It was my immediate assessment - I was making my way as fast as possible towards him, him towards me - the point of impact was very, very soon.\n\n\"He was in my immediate personal space. His action was always going to beat my reaction, if I let him beat my next move.\"\n\nAmman did not react to being shot for the second time, by BX75's colleague BX87, the inquest heard.\n\nHe fell to the ground after being shot again by BX75 and was later pronounced dead.\n\nBX87 told the inquest he witnessed Amman \"plunge\" a knife into the upper back of a woman wearing a bright pink jacket.\n\nAlthough he thought the stab wound would be fatal, the woman and another victim survived.\n\nBX87 appeared to break down as he described his final confrontation with Amman from behind a screen at the Royal Courts of Justice.\n\nHe said: \"As I tried to slow myself my vision almost was like a cartoon - the blade of the knife almost doubled in size.\n\n\"It was a strange feeling. His body was forward. It was pretty clear to me he was intent on attacking me or further members of the public.\"\n\nHe added: \"I saw Mr Amman take a number of paces towards me, closing the gap further.\n\n\"It really dawned on me at this point that I was going to get stabbed.\"\n\nThe inquest previously heard there had been concerns about the 20-year-old's imminent release from HMP Belmarsh on 23 January 2020, part-way through a 40-month sentence for preparing and engaging in acts of terrorism.\n\nHowever, the request was turned down by the governor because the offence Amman was jailed for could not justify an extension of his sentence.\n\nAmman was placed in a bail hostel in Streatham after his release from prison\n\nJurors have also heard that both the police and MI5 decided against arresting Amman two days before the Streatham attack.\n\nHe was spotted buying items later used to fashion a fake suicide belt but the Probation Service was \"satisfied\" the purchases had not breached any licence conditions.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The highest ever number of top grades were awarded for A-levels this week\n\nThe former schools catch-up tsar says he is worried about the gap in A-level results between state and private school pupils.\n\nSir Kevan Collins says he is concerned that the \"educational legacy of Covid could be growing inequality\".\n\nFor independent school pupils in England, 70% of A-level results were A* or A, compared with 39% for comprehensive pupils.\n\nSir Kevan, speaking on the BBC Radio 4's Today programme, warned of a \"huge risk\" of widening social gaps in education in the aftermath of the pandemic.\n\n\"This is a deep problem in our system and one that seems to be growing,\" said Sir Kevan, who resigned in June over a lack of funding for his school recovery proposals.\n\nIndependent schools, which account for about 16% of A-level students, got higher results before the pandemic - but the gap has widened.\n\nAccording to Ofqual figures, in 2019 there was a 24 percentage point gap between independent schools and comprehensives in A* and A grades at A-level - this year it has risen to 31 percentage points.\n\nThe Independent Schools Council, said this year's grading system had been a level playing field and that \"irrespective of type of school\" there had to be evidence of the quality of students' work.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Advice to A-level students: 'We had to be creative'\n\nThe gaps were not just between state and private pupils, said Sir Kevan, but also in different parts of the country, warning that parts of the north of England were falling behind. In London almost 48% of results were A* and A grades, compared with 39% in the North East.\n\n\"We should be thinking about the inequality throughout the system,\" he said.\n\nHow schools were helped to recover after the pandemic would \"determine the fate of the English education system\" for the next decade, said Sir Kevan.\n\n\"We've got to get that right,\" he said.\n\nIn the wake of this week's record high grades in A-levels, with almost 45% of results at A* or A, there have been suggestions of changing the grading system, such as adopting the 9 to 1 system used in GCSEs.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Students who most need help from government are not getting it, says the Labour leader.\n\nBut head teachers have said that any short-term change to a numeric system was \"unrealistic\" - and it is not expected to be part of plans for next year's exams.\n\nPaul Whiteman of the National Association of Head Teachers said it took four years to plan the switch to using number grades for GCSEs.\n\nAny such major change would require \"meaningful consultation to ensure the fairest system for students,\" he said.\n\nSir Kevan Collins warned of widening social gaps in school after the pandemic\n\nGeoff Barton, leader of the ASCL head teachers' union, said \"rather than tinkering with different grading systems, the government should be concentrating on providing appropriate support for education recovery\".\n\nExams are already going to be adapted next summer, to take account of lost time in school, but Mr Barton warned it would be \"very harsh\" on next year's exam candidates to have grades returned straight down to the pre-pandemic levels of 2019.\n\nMr Barton suggested there would need to be a \"staged readjustment\" from next year.\n\nLabour's shadow education secretary Kate Green said the gap between results in state and private schools showed the lack of consistency in how grades were decided.\n\n\"The government didn't set down a clear standardised process early on last year - and schools were really awarding grades in very different ways,\" she said.\n\n\"There has been an increase in top grades for students from all backgrounds, and the relative increase of the proportion of As and above on last year is no higher in independent schools than in academies,\" said a Department for Education spokeswoman.\n\n\"We are committed to supporting students from all backgrounds. Ofqual report that the assessment approach this year is likely to have helped prevent previous gaps from widening as much as they would have done without this year's grading process.\"", "The former Fort Augustus Abbey Roman Catholic boarding school closed in 1993\n\nA Catholic boarding school in the Highlands was a \"haven for paedophiles\", a report from the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry has said.\n\nIt said that sexual abuse by monks at Fort Augustus Abbey, which closed in 1993, was a \"desecration of their vows\".\n\nThe report came after the inquiry heard evidence of physical, emotional and sexual abuse over many years.\n\nIt praised the BBC for bringing the issue into the public domain.\n\nIt was a BBC Scotland documentary in 2013 that first raised the issues of abuse perpetrated by Benedictine monks in Scotland.\n\nThe inquiry report said a number of the former pupils who provided evidence spoke positively about their involvement with the \"Sins of Our Fathers\" documentary by Mark Daly.\n\nIn June of this year, one former monk at the school - Fr Denis \"Chrysostom\" Alexander, who is now 85 - admitted two charges of lewd, indecent and libidinous practices against two boys between 1973 and 1976.\n\nAlexander, an Australian national, was first named as a paedophile by BBC Scotland in 2013.\n\nOne of his victims was Hugh Kennedy, now aged 58. He was in court and afterwards said his nightmare was \"now finally over.\"\n\nIf any of the men who first told the BBC of the horrors of Fort Augustus and Carlekemp needed any vindication, then this surely is it.\n\nAfter months of evidence, inquiry chairwoman Lady Smith has laid bare the evil carried out by monks who were supposed to be caring for young boys.\n\nWhat they did behind the ancient stone walls of this monastery is aptly described by Lady Smith as a \"desecration of their vows\" as holy men.\n\nThey beat, bullied, raped and emotionally tortured children as young as five.\n\nWhen producer Murdoch Rodgers and I started investigating this place in 2012 for our documentary Sins of our Fathers we could hardly believe what we were hearing.\n\nVictims were carefully selected and groomed. The monks would use increasing levels of violence against the boys until they were nearly helpless - then the sexual abuse would start, coming almost as a relief against the constant beatings.\n\nThe boys would sometimes tell their parents, even their headmaster what was going on. But their pleas would fall on deaf ears and often result in more abuse.\n\nOccasionally a monk would cross a line and need dealing with, but police were never called. The problem monk would just be shifted to another monastery or country, with no warnings given, sometimes to reoffend.\n\nSome have called into question the validity of inquiries such as Lady Smith's. Perhaps they should read her report.\n\nThe Benedictines have apologised, and some monks have been convicted in criminal courts. But this falls well short of repairing the lasting damage caused to countless children, some of whom did not live to see the publication of this report.\n\nThe brave men who brought this issue to the fore do not crave vindication; but they deserve our respect and sincere gratitude.\n\nThe report also looked at Carlekemp Priory School in North Berwick, which was associated with Fort Augustus.\n\nLady Smith, who chairs the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, said: \"Children were sexually abused at both schools. A number of monks were serial sexual predators and, because of the movement of monks between Fort Augustus and Carlekemp, they were able to target victims at both schools.\n\n\"Children were cruelly beaten by sadistic monks at both schools, and some beatings had sexual overtones. Children were humiliated and punished inappropriately and excessively.\n\n\"Some children complained to monks in positions of responsibility about being abused. They received either non-existent or inadequate responses.\"\n\nLady Smith said the children knew they would not be believed so refrained from complaining about abuse.\n\n\"Complaints made to devout Catholic parents were rejected because they would not accept it was possible that Catholic monks would abuse children,\" she said.\n\n\"The emotional scars caused by the trauma associated with sexual abuse, physical violence, and the denigration of children, were, for some, long-lasting and debilitating, blighting their adult lives.\"\n\nHearings in this part of the inquiry took place between 18 June 2019 and 1 October 2019, during which time it heard evidence from 43 witnesses.\n\nA representative for the English Benedictine Congregation told the inquiry the religious order offered an \"unreserved apology\" to everyone affected by the abuse.\n\nThe congregation said it accepted that children had been \"robbed\" of their childhoods and the schools had caused lasting damage\n\nLady Smith added: \"The monks were not trained to look after children on a residential basis. They lacked the capacity and ability to do so. The notion that untrained monks could care for school-aged children was seriously flawed.\"\n\nLady Smith will take these findings into account when she analyses all the evidence gathered by the inquiry and decides what recommendations to make in her final report.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "An aggressive campaign to cut methane emissions can buy the world extra time to tackle climate change, experts say.\n\nOne of the key findings in the newly released IPCC report is that emissions of methane have made a huge contribution to current warming.\n\nThe study suggested that 30-50% of the current rise in temperatures is down to this powerful, but short-lived gas.\n\nMajor sources of methane include agriculture, and leaks from oil and gas production and landfills.\n\nFor decades, the main focus of efforts to curb global warming has been the ever-rising emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from human activities, such as generating power and clearing forests.\n\nThere's been good scientific reasons for this, as CO2 is the biggest driver of temperatures responsible for around 70% of the warming that's taken place since the industrial revolution.\n\nMethane (CH4), though, hasn't had the same focus.\n\nThat may be changing, as earlier this year, a major UN study highlighted its environmental impact.\n\nNow, as this week's IPCC report points out graphically, methane's influence has been calculated as adding about 0.5C to the warming the world is experiencing right now.\n\nSo where is all this methane coming from?\n\nAround 40% of the gas comes from natural sources such as wetlands - but the bigger share now comes from a range of human activities.\n\n\"It's a combination of sources, from agriculture, including cattle and rice production, another large source of methane is rubbish dumps,\" said Prof Peter Thorne, an IPCC author from Maynooth University in Ireland.\n\nMethane bubbles up from a wetland in Sweden\n\n\"One of the biggest is from the production, transport and use of natural gas - which is really misnamed and should be called fossil gas.\"\n\nSince 2008, there's been a big spike in methane emissions, which researchers believe is linked to the boom in fracking for gas in parts of the US.\n\nIn 2019, methane in the atmosphere reached record levels, around two-and-a-half times above what they were in the pre-industrial era.\n\nWhat worries scientists is that methane has real muscle when it comes to heating the planet. Over a 100-year period it is 28-34 times as warming as CO2.\n\nOver a 20-year period it is around 84 times as powerful per unit of mass as carbon dioxide.\n\nHowever, one key positive about CH4 is that it doesn't last as long in the air as CO2.\n\n\"If you emit a tonne of methane today, in a decade's time, I would expect half that tonne to remain in the atmosphere,\" said Prof Thorne.\n\n\"In two decades, time, there would be a quarter of a tonne, so basically, if we managed to stop emitting methane today by the end of this century, emissions would be down to natural levels, that they were in about 1750.\"\n\nIn the short term, experts believe that if methane emissions were cut by 40-45% over the next decade, you'd shave 0.3C off the increase in global temperature by 2040.\n\nIn a world where every fraction of a degree counts, that's a potentially huge difference to hopes of keeping the 1.5C threshold alive.\n\nWhat excites many researchers is the belief that are a range of relatively simple actions that can quickly curb the production of methane.\n\n\"It's relatively cheap to bring down some of the sources,\" said Prof Euan Nisbet from Royal Holloway University of London.\n\n\"In particular, I'm talking about leaks from the gas industry, which now are so much easier to find, than they were 10-20 years ago, because the instruments are so much better.\"\n\n\"Some things we can do quite quickly - in the tropics, you can put soil on top of these huge urban landfills and you can do a lot about stopping crop waste fires.\"\n\nQuick fixes really do work. In the US, efforts to collect gas from landfill sites saw methane emissions cut by 40% between 1990 and 2016.\n\nCollecting gas at landfill sites in the US has slashed methane from dumps\n\nIn agriculture there are also many technical changes related to manure and animal feed that can make a difference in lowering emissions.\n\nBut getting the really big cuts will require political action.\n\nIn countries like Ireland and New Zealand, where farming plays a huge role in the economy, these changes are contentious.\n\nTo succeed, they will have to be fair and equitable.\n\n\"You can't just say that people can no longer keep cattle or sheep,\" said Prof Thorne.\n\n\"It needs policies to aid a transition to other means of managing the land, but it is not going to happen by people pronouncing you can't keep livestock any longer, it needs to be a much more nuanced approach.\"\n\nConsumer choice when it comes to dairy and meat will certainly impact this sector.\n\nThe oil and gas industry also faces a massive challenge in curbing methane.\n\nRegulations to date have failed to stop leaks, but there's a growing interest among fossil fuel companies in using technology that can rapidly identify and stem the emissions.\n\n\"If you look at it from an objective standpoint, the industry is improving, they are improving the leaks, they are improving the number of incidents, but it's not quick enough,\" said Arnel Santos, a 25-year oil industry veteran with Shell and now chief operating office of energy technology company mCloud Technologies.\n\n\"We need to go faster with respect to this challenge, to really show we can quickly deploy technology to augment what they're doing, because the improvements to date will not be quick enough with what we're seeing.\"\n\nAgriculture is one of the sources of methane that is difficult to tackle\n\nPerhaps the biggest change that's required is to separate out methane from other warming gases on the international stage.\n\nThere are worries that because UN climate negotiators deal with all greenhouse gases in the same process, there are concerns they may make trade-offs, comparisons and compromises on methane that muddy efforts to reduce these emissions.\n\nMany are now calling for a separate process for methane, along the lines of the Montreal Protocol, that successfully brought countries together to regulate ozone-depleting gases.\n\n\"To halt long-term warming, we need to halt carbon dioxide emissions,\" said Prof Thorne.\n\n\"But to aid us on that path, we could treat these gases differently. And if we were to treat methane differently, it might buy us time to adapt to the changes that are occurring.\"\n\n\"It's carbon dioxide that absolutely needs to get to net zero. But if we are to halt long term warming, methane can absolutely help us on the way.\"", "Virginia Giuffre, then Roberts, was pictured with Prince Andrew in London in 2001\n\nThe Duke of York \"cannot hide behind wealth and palace walls\" and must respond to sexual abuse allegations filed in a US court, his accuser's lawyer told BBC Two's Newsnight.\n\nPrince Andrew should allow a jury to decide what happened, David Boies, the lawyer of Virginia Giuffre, said.\n\nMs Giuffre has filed a civil case in New York alleging the duke sexually assaulted her when she was 17.\n\nThe duke has consistently denied the claims.\n\nA spokeswoman for the duke said there was no comment on the civil case.\n\nMr Boies said Ms Giuffre had \"tried every way she can to resolve this short of litigation\".\n\nHe said Ms Giuffre - who was an accuser of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein - now wants a judge and jury to hear the evidence.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prince Andrew said in 2019 that he could not recall any incident involving Virginia Roberts.\n\nMr Boies added that \"at this point litigation is the only way to establish once and for all what the truth is - and litigation is the only way to establish once and for all what Prince Andrew's evidence actually is\".\n\nThe lawyer said people \"ignore the courts at your peril\" and that \"it would be very ill-advised for Prince Andrew to ignore judicial process\".\n\n\"If he does, it will be a default judgement against him that will be, in effect, enforced not only in the United States, but in virtually every civilised country in the world,\" he said.\n\nMr Boies said Ms Giuffre intends to send a message to rich and powerful men that the alleged behaviour \"is not acceptable and that you cannot hide behind wealth and power and palace walls\".\n\nHe said she wanted to be compensated for damage she said was done to her and donate money to a charitable foundation to help victims of sex trafficking.\n\nBut asked what figure he had in mind, he said that was for a jury to decide - but they would seek compensatory and punitive damages and he believed each would be \"substantial\".\n\nThe civil proceedings taking place in New York will proceed even if the duke and his legal team do not engage. Prince Andrew does not face the prospect of an extradition hearing as this only applies to criminal charges and not civil cases.\n\nArick Fudali, a partner at New York legal firm Bloom, which has represented nine of Epstein's victims, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday that \"very few\" of such cases ended up going to trial but there was a \"small chance\" this could.\n\nThe alternatives are that it is settled beforehand, it is struck out by a judge, or the complainant ceases the action.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prince Andrew 'can't ignore the court' accuser's lawyer says\n\nThe complaint claims Prince Andrew sexually abused Ms Giuffre - then known as Virginia Roberts - at the London home of Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, and at Epstein's homes in Manhattan and Little St James in the US Virgin Islands.\n\nIt alleges the duke engaged in sexual acts without her consent, knowing how old she was and \"that she was a sex-trafficking victim\".\n\nThe case also says the \"extreme and outrageous conduct\" continues to cause Ms Giuffre, now 38, \"significant emotional and psychological distress and harm\".\n\n\"In this country no person, whether president or prince, is above the law, and no person, no matter how powerless or vulnerable, can be deprived of the law's protection,\" the documents read.\n\n\"Twenty years ago Prince Andrew's wealth, power, position, and connections enabled him to abuse a frightened, vulnerable child with no one there to protect her. It is long past the time for him to be held to account.\"\n\nCourt documents allege Prince Andrew and his representatives rejected requests to provide \"whatever facts, context or explanation he might have, and to explore alternative dispute resolution approaches\".\n\nSpeaking about Ms Giuffre's allegations in 2019, Prince Andrew said he could not remember meeting her.\n\n\"It didn't happen. I can absolutely categorically tell you it never happened. I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever,\" he said.\n\nIn a later statement, Prince Andrew said: \"I continue to unequivocally regret my ill-judged association with Jeffrey Epstein.\n\n\"His suicide has left many unanswered questions, particularly for his victims, and I deeply sympathise with everyone who has been affected and wants some form of closure.\n\n\"I can only hope that, in time, they will be able to rebuild their lives. Of course, I am willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required.\"\n\nMs Giuffre's claim was filed under New York State's Child Victims Act, which allows alleged survivors of childhood sexual abuse to file a case which had already been time-barred or expired.", "The UK is moving \"cautiously\" down the age groups as it decides how many under-18s should get a Covid vaccine - because of a \"delicate balance\" between benefits and risks, a scientist says.\n\nProf Adam Finn said the advice to invite 16 and 17-year-olds for their jab came after a small number of serious cases in this age group.\n\nHe said scientists want to learn more about any side effects of the jab.\n\nIt comes as more than 75% of UK adults have now had both jabs.\n\nProf Finn, who sits on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) which advises the government, told BBC Breakfast: \"Most young people who get this virus get it mildly or even without any symptoms at all.\n\n\"But we are seeing cases in hospital even into this age group - we've had a couple of 17-year-olds here in Bristol admitted and needing intensive care over the course of the last four to six weeks - and so we are beginning to see a small number of serious cases.\n\n\"What we know for sure is that these vaccines are very effective at preventing those kind of serious cases from occurring.\"\n\nAt the moment, 16 and 17-year-olds are only being invited to come forward for an initial dose and, unlike older age groups, no second dose is being scheduled.\n\nProf Finn said UK experts were \"cautious\" about the nature and timeline for second doses as they wanted to \"learn more about rare side effects\" such as reports of myocarditis - inflammation of the heart muscle - among some young people in the US and Israel. The risk of these incidents has been higher after second doses.\n\n\"So we're going cautiously down through the ages and we're using the vaccine where it's safe and effective and where the benefits are clear,\" he added.He said the JCVI would advise \"when and what\" the second dose for 16 and 17-year-olds would be after assessing more data.\n\nProf Finn said that even though 16-year-olds do not need parental consent to get the vaccine, in practice most are guided by parents, whom he hoped would advise their children to accept the vaccine when invited.\n\nNHS England said nearly 16,000 16 and 17-year-olds had already received their vaccine over the weekend. According to the ONS, there are 1.4 million people of that age in the UK.\n\nMeanwhile Prof Danny Altmann of Imperial College London said vaccinating under-18s was \"a good thing\".\n\nHe told Times Radio that the more unvaccinated people there are in the nation, the more lungs there are \"for virus to percolate in\".\n\nHe added: \"Therefore it's got to be a good thing to be vaccinating more children down through the age range.\n\n\"From a medical scientific point of view, I'd say there's nothing special about the virus in their lungs that can't transmit through to their families, through to their schoolteachers, through to their colleagues.\"\n\nProf Finn also said a third or booster Covid jab is likely to be necessary for people with weak immune systems but it was still unclear whether it would be needed for all over-50s.\n\nHe said: \"I think it's becoming quite clear that there are a small group of people whose immune responses to the first two doses are likely to be inadequate - people who've got immunosuppression of one kind or another, perhaps because they've got immunodeficiency or they've been receiving treatment for cancer or bone marrow transplants or organ transplants, that kind of thing.\n\n\"I think it's quite likely we'll be advising on a third dose for some of those groups.\"\n\nBut Prof Finn said a broader booster rollout remained \"uncertain\" and that experts needed to \"review evidence as to whether people who receive vaccines early on in the programme are in any serious risk of getting serious disease and whether the protection they've got from those first two doses is still strong\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sajid Javid expects booster vaccines to start being rolled out from 'early September'\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid has said that he expects booster jabs to start being rolled out from \"early September\".\n\nBut the head of the Oxford vaccine group, Prof Sir Andrew Pollard has said doses needed to \"go where they can have the greatest impact\" - to protect unvaccinated people abroad.\n\nIt comes as the government announced that more than 75% of UK adults are now fully vaccinated, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson describing the milestone as a \"huge national achievement\".", "There are a total of 18,449 registered nurses and midwives in Northern Ireland, according to the Department of Health\n\nMore than 180 nurses resigned from Northern Ireland's largest health trust in the first half of this year, BBC News NI has learned.\n\nFigures from the Belfast Trust show 315 nurses left between 1 January and 31 July for various reasons.\n\nMore than half (182) resigned, while 81 nurses retired and 21 transferred within the health service.\n\nA total of 533 nurses left all of the trusts during that time period but only the Belfast Trust gave a breakdown.\n\nA nursing union says it is angry and worried about the growing number of members leaving the profession.\n\nRita Devlin, acting director of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said it was now a safety issue as there were not enough nurses to give patients the care they needed.\n\nA nursing agency said the number of new registrations it received during the first six months of this year was up by about 10% compared to the same time last year.\n\nThe Department of Health said the 533 leavers figure would include retirees and nurses moving to other health and social care organisations.\n\n\"This level of leavers in recent years is commensurate with the size and composition of the workforce,\" the department said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'I was there for four years and was exhausted'\n\nKatharine Walker left the health service in June 2020 - several months after the start of the pandemic.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News NI, she said she wanted a work-life balance, which was not possible when mostly working nights.\n\n\"I loved my time working within the NHS but I was only there for four years and I was exhausted.\n\n\"I can't imagine how the staff are coping at the minute working with Covid and everything else.\n\n\"I worked in ICU [intensive care unit] and I worked with really incredible people who are so passionate about their job and the things you are seeing are almost indescribable at times.\"\n\nMs Walker joined an agency, which she says has given her flexibility and the \"slightly\" better pay means she can work fewer hours.\n\nShe is inundated with requests to work at the minute.\n\n\"All the hospitals are looking staff,\" she said.\n\n\"Some wards are really on their knees and it's hard because it plays on your good nature as a nurse because you want to help out but ultimately you have to look after yourself too.\"\n\nShe doesn't blame management for the staffing issues.\n\n\"They don't have enough staff to manoeuvre - so maybe if the staffing was there it would help,\" she added.\n\nMs Devlin said the RCN had been on the record for at least a decade over nursing shortages.\n\n\"They are starting to vote with their feet and they are leaving some of the high-pressure areas to go to other places or indeed to go and work for agencies,\" she said.\n\nKieran McCormick, managing director of Balmoral Healthcare, said nurses were leaving the health service and joining the independent sector so they could be more in control of the hours they work.\n\nMr McCormick, who once worked for the health service, said nurses wanted to be respected and generally felt \"fed up and done\".\n\n\"I believe the executive is trying to fix it but it's about the whole package - paying them good wages, offering nurses flexible working and allowing them to move around and progress within the system,\" he said.\n\nChief nursing officer Charlotte McArdle acknowledged that staff shortages were not something that could be \"fixed overnight\" but that a \"clear plan\" for recruitment had been put in place.\n\nShe also told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme that the safety of patients and nurses on wards was paramount.\n\n\"Any unit that would be unsafe, steps would be taken to ensure that position is rectified and there are a number of things that can be done to make that happen,\" she said.\n\n\"Bringing in additional staff, closing beds where they have to to maintain a safe staffing level, deploying other staff into that unit, there are steps that can be taken on a daily basis.\n\n\"Nursing is a safety-critical profession, I would agree with my colleagues in the RCN on that point, but steps are being taken to ensure that safety is maintained and that can be challenging at times but that is a requirement.\"\n\nPatricia McKeown, regional secretary of the union Unison, said the figures reflected \"the serious pressure that nurses are under working within a health service that is understaffed and under-resourced\".\n\nShe said that while many nurses would have moved within the health service, a significant number would have chosen to leave the NHS to work for nursing agencies, with pay a \"major factor in that decision\".\n\n\"These agencies charge a premium to cover staff shortages across the health service whilst vacancies remain unfilled,\" she said.\n\nShe said the executive must make pay a priority.\n\nOut of the nurses who left the Belfast Health Trust, 16 were from the intensive care unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital.\n\nThe figures for all leavers from the other trusts are:\n\nNot all of the health trusts could provide answers within the time requested, but according to the Southern Trust it has 255 unfilled posts. There are 150 in the Northern Trust.\n\nThe Department of Health said there were 18,449 registered nurses and midwives with a staff turnover rate of about 1,000 registrants per annum, \"which has been consistent for the past three years\".\n\n\"It should be pointed out however that this does not represent a reduction in overall staff numbers as the nursing and midwifery workforce has grown by 4.4% from March 2020,\" the department said.\n\nA spokesperson said the department had been addressing nursing shortages over the past five years through a range of measures.\n\n\"Since April 2020, over 3,800 new appointments have been made across Health and Social Care services, of which almost 2,200 are Health and Social Care appointments,\" they added.\n\n\"In addition, we have maintained the highest ever number of pre-registration nurse training places for this year - 1,325.\"", "Humanitarian organisations warn that women and children will be badly affected\n\nWith violence surging in Afghanistan, and the Taliban taking new territories in the north, thousands of people are fleeing their homes to seek safety in the capital Kabul.\n\nWhen they get there, many of these people face sleeping in abandoned warehouses or on the streets. They're struggling to find food, shelter and other basic necessities, such as medicine and sanitary items.\n\nBut they feel they have little choice - it is either hardship in Kabul, or potential death in their home region.\n\nNow, thousands have gathered in makeshift camps on scrubland on the city's outskirts.\n\nAsadullah, a 35-year-old street vendor from Kunduz province, travelled to the capital with his wife and two young daughters earlier this week after the Taliban set fire to his home.\n\n\"I was a street worker, I sold food and spices... but when the Taliban attacked we came to Kabul,\" he tells the BBC.\n\n\"Now we have no money to buy bread, or get some medicine for my child.\"\n\nAsadullah was a street worker in Kunduz province, selling food and spices\n\nAsadullah, his two daughters (pictured) and wife slept on the streets after arriving in Kabul\n\nAsadullah and his young family spent the night on the streets.\n\n\"All of our home and belongings caught fire, so we came to Kabul and pray to God to help us. Rockets and mortars hit our home... there were heavy clashes in the past seven days, we had no bread to eat and all the bakeries, shops and bazaars were closed.\"\n\nA woman, who didn't give her name, told the BBC she fled her home in the northern city of Pul-e-Khumri with her husband and children. Her husband, she says, was wounded in the war.\n\n\"We had a good life, but because of the bomb blasts we lost our home and came here,\" she says. \"We left our home with only one dress and no money.\"\n\nThis woman said her family had a good life in Pul-e-Khumri, but they've now lost everything\n\nHumanitarian organisations have been warning of a rise in internally displaced persons in Afghanistan since US-led forces began withdrawing from the country earlier this year, following 20 years of military operations.\n\nThe campaign began in 2001 following the 9/11 attacks on American soil. Now, most of the foreign troops have pulled out.\n\nSince then, clashes between the Taliban and government forces have escalated. The Taliban have taken at least eight of the country's 34 provincial capitals, and are threatening to seize more.\n\nThe Washington Post has also cited unnamed US officials saying that even Kabul could fall to the Taliban within the next 90 days, based on US military assessments.\n\nThis unrest has caused a rise in people fleeing their homes for the capital. In July the UN warned that around 270,000 more people were internally displaced in the country after troops started to leave - this number is estimated to have surged in just the last few days.\n\nAmid all of this more than 1,000 civilians have been killed, according to the UN.\n\nThousands of people are camped in scrubland on the outskirts of Kabul\n\nNGOs say that this mass displacement will hit women and children particularly hard.\n\n\"We're seeing a lot of increased reporting around health protection needs, gender-based violence, sexual exploitation and abuse and trafficking,\" Jared Rowell, Country Director of the Danish Refugee Council in Afghanistan, tells the BBC.\n\n\"Early marriage will become a larger problem too as girls and young women are sold off in order to get cash to provide for their families. Those types of issues, which have always been a problem, are going to get more and more severe.\"\n\nAs well as food, shelter and health and sanitary items, Mr Rowell says, displaced people in Kabul are in desperate need of cash.\n\n\"It's really important people have access to multi-purpose cash,\" he says. \"Meaning an agency like DRC would give them a cash distribution that they have the autonomy to determine what they spend that money on in order to best support their needs.\n\n\"Cash is also particularly important at this point in time, especially when they're relocating to a large city like Kabul with high food prices and markets with fluctuating prices due to the current instability.\"\n\nFor Asadullah, his main hope now is that his family can one day return to their normal life in Kunduz.\n\n\"We want to go back and continue our lives there,\" he says. \"We hope that one day peace will come to Afghanistan, and our country will be free.\"", "Previously women could not wear trousers in the Steward's Enclosure at the Henley Royal Regatta\n\nWomen can now wear trousers at the Henley Royal Regatta everywhere after it changed its \"draconian\" dress code.\n\nPreviously women could only wear a dress or skirt with a hemline below the knee to gain access to the Steward's Enclosure at the annual event in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.\n\nFor the first time in decades women can now wear trousers and trouser suits.\n\nRegatta chairman Sir Steve Redgrave said organisers believed women should wear trousers if they wished to.\n\nThe five-time Olympic champion said the dress code at the Steward's Enclosure was only adopted in the late 1970s.\n\n\"We felt with the introduction of all the new events for females, if they would like to wear trousers, they should be allowed to wear trousers,\" said Sir Steve.\n\n\"Within investitures they now allow trousers as well, so we've eased our dress code for that same sort of reason.\"\n\nIt comes after a petition last year by University of Oxford rower Georgia Grant who called the dress code \"draconian\".\n\nMs Grant said: \"It's quite a small change, but I think for them to sort of concede on it and change something which has existed for years, that's a huge step and it made me feel quite excited about attending the event.\"\n\nShe added her petition had led to transgender and disabled attendees sharing their struggles over their difficulty choosing what to wear, and that the next step should be \"de-gendering\" the dress requirements.\n\nThe Steward's Enclosure is only open to stewards who organise the regatta, members - who can reportedly wait years to be given membership - and their guests.\n\nIt is described by one rowing website as the \"equivalent of the Royal Enclosure at Ascot\", and has the best view of the finish line.\n\nMen are required to wear lounge suits, or jackets, or blazers with trousers, together with a tie or a cravat.\n\nSpectators Izzie Mayhew-Smith and Lucy O'Neill said they were pleased with the change\n\nIzzie Mayhew-Smith, who was wearing trousers to the Steward's Enclosure, said: \"It was a lot easier to find something to wear in my wardrobe, and I think it's good because men can wear trousers so we should be able to as well.\n\n\"The regatta becoming more modernised will maybe encourage more people to come and it's not just something for older people that's old fashioned.\"\n\nLucy O'Neill added: \"Trousers are just more comfortable personally and it's easier to walk around and sit down, so I've enjoyed wearing my trousers today.\"\n\nIn previous years women could only wear trousers in the Regatta Enclosure - which did not have a formal dress code.\n\nA trouser ban remains for women at some private member clubs alongside the river where spectators can view the regatta.\n\nThe annual five-day event, which is taking place from 11-15 August, has resumed after it was cancelled last year for the first time in its history outside of the World Wars due to Covid-19.\n\nHenley Royal Regatta sees rowers battle it out on the River Thames over five days of racing, attracting huge crowds.\n\nIt was first staged in 1839 and attracts participants ranging from Olympians, university and school teams, to amateur clubs.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nLionel Messi has signed a two-year contract with Paris St-Germain after leaving Barcelona.\n\nThe 34-year-old's deal also has the option of a third year.\n\nMessi left Barca - the only club he has played for - as they were unable to afford a new deal under La Liga's financial fair play rules.\n\n\"I am impatient to start a new chapter of my career in Paris. The club and its vision are in perfect harmony with my ambitions,\" said the Argentina star.\n\n\"I know how talented the players and staff are here. I am determined to build, alongside them, something great for the club and for the fans. I can't wait to set foot on the Parc des Princes pitch.\"\n\nPSG president Nasser al-Khelaifi said: \"I am delighted that Lionel Messi has chosen to join Paris St-Germain and we are proud to welcome him to Paris, with his family.\n\n\"He did not hide his desire to continue to evolve at the highest level and to win trophies. The ambition of the club is of course identical.\n\n\"The addition of Leo to our world-class team confirms the relevance and success of our recruitment. Together with our great coach and his staff, I look forward to seeing our team make history for all of our supporters around the world.\"\n\nConsidered one of the greatest players of all time, Messi scored a record 672 goals in 778 games for Barca, the club he joined as a 13-year-old.\n\nThe striker has won the Ballon d'Or a record six times and lifted 35 trophies with the Catalan club.\n\nHe becomes PSG's fourth free-transfer signing this summer after the arrivals of Netherlands midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum, Spain defender Sergio Ramos and Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.\n\nMessi, who will wear the number 30 shirt, will play in a front three alongside the two most expensive players of all time - Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.\n\nA PSG news conference will take place in the auditorium of the Parc des Princes on Wednesday at 10:00 BST.\n\nMessi could make his PSG debut at home to Strasbourg on Saturday.\n\nKeeping Messi at the Nou Camp had been president Joan Laporta's top priority this summer, but attempts to agree a new contract were severely complicated by the club's financial problems.\n\nHe officially became a free agent when his previous deal expired on 1 July, but it was still widely anticipated he would stay.\n\nHowever, Barcelona confirmed last week that Messi would be leaving the club because of \"financial and structural obstacles\".\n\nOn Sunday he broke down in tears at a news conference in which he admitted he did not want to leave Barcelona, but had no choice.\n\nMessi had agreed a new deal - on 50% of his old wages - to stay at Barcelona but the club could not afford to implement it because they were so far above the wage limit allowed by La Liga.\n\n\"He used to earn 140m euros gross a year at Barca, that's around £125m,\" BBC Sport columnist Guillem Balague told BBC Radio 5 Live. \"Take off about 40-50% for tax.\n\n\"He agreed to stay at Barcelona by reducing his wages by 50%, not more than that because that's illegal [under Spanish law]. Basically the league wouldn't believe he was reducing his wages to zero, which is what Barcelona may have tried to do as they are 1bn euros in debt. Basically they cannot afford him.\"\n\nThe news sparked a scramble for his services, with Manchester City and Chelsea among those to be linked, but it is PSG who have won the race to secure the Argentine superstar's signature, seen as one of the most noteworthy captures in football's history.\n\nHe will now form a formidable-looking strike force alongside his former Barca team-mate Neymar, France World Cup winner Mbappe and another Argentine, Mauro Icardi.\n\nMessi also joins international team-mates Angel di Maria and Leandro Paredes in the French capital, just three weeks after the trio helped Argentina win the Copa America for the first time in 28 years.\n• None Where will Messi, Neymar, Mbappe rank in the great forward lines?\n\nIs Messi the key to the Champions League?\n\nPSG are yet to win the Champions League in a decade of Qatari ownership and subsequent heavy investment, with the 2020 final defeat against Bayern Munich the closest they have come.\n\nMauricio Pochettino's side also finished second to Lille in Ligue 1 last season.\n\n\"Clearly what PSG's ownership want is a team that is in the Champions League final every year,\" said Balague.\n\n\"With Messi you have an advantage. Mauricio Pochettino being in charge and his contract being renewed as well means they have an idea how to do that, and Messi will complement that.\n\n\"They will win the league, that's almost a given now, even though they lost last season. It will be a less competitive league which means he will be fresh of course, or should be, for the Champions League campaign.\"\n\n25 August 2020 - Messi sends a fax to the club saying he wishes to exercise a clause in his contract, allowing him to leave for free with immediate effect.\n\n4 September 2020 - Messi says he is staying at Barcelona because it is \"impossible\" for any team to pay his 700m euro (£624m) release clause, which the club insist would have to be met.\n\n27 October 2020 - Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu, who had fallen out with Messi over his failed transfer request, resigns.\n\n28 December 2020 - Messi says he hopes to one day play in the United States, but is unsure of his future when his contract runs out.\n\n31 January 2021 - Barcelona say they will take \"appropriate legal action\" against Spanish newspaper El Mundo after it published details of Messi's contract, worth £492m over four years.\n\n16 May 2021 - Manager Ronald Koeman says he hopes Messi has not played his final home game for the club after a 2-1 defeat by Celta Vigo ended their title hopes and meant they finished outside the top two for the first time since 2007-08.\n\n22 May 2021 - Paris St-Germain are believed to be \"looking closely\" at Messi's contract situation.\n\n28 May 2021 - Barcelona president Joan Laporta says a new contract for Lionel Messi is \"not done yet\" but that \"things are going well\".\n\n1 July 2021 - Messi's Barcelona contract expires and he becomes a free agent.\n\n15 July 2021 - Messi agrees to stay with Barca on a deal until 2026 that includes reducing his wages.\n\n5 August 2021 - Barcelona announce Lionel Messi will leave the club \"because of financial and structural obstacles\".\n\n8 August 2021 - A tearful Messi confirms his departure from Barca and says a move to Paris St-Germain is \"a possibility\".\n\n10 August 2021 - BBC Sport's Guillem Balague reveals Messi has signed for PSG - a deal confirmed by the club that night.\n• None Is foreign exchange trading as easy as social media claims it to be?\n• None In an exclusive interview the music sensation opens up about the pressure of superfame", "Deliveroo has said demand for its services has strengthened despite Covid restrictions easing.\n\nThe food delivery firm saw orders double to 148.8 million in the first half of this year, while the value of its transactions also doubled.\n\nAt the same time, it narrowed its pre-tax losses to £104.8m, as against £128.4m a year earlier.\n\nIt was the first set of results from the company since it floated on the stock market in March.\n\nDeliveroo initially listed on the London stock exchange at 390p a share, but the price fell sharply on the opening day of trading, 31 March.\n\nOn Monday, its shares rallied on the news that German rival Delivery Hero had bought a 5% stake in the company worth £284m.\n\nBut in Wednesday trading, it was down 3.3% at 351p.\n\nCooped-up consumers flocked to order from Deliveroo during the earlier stages of the pandemic, when restaurants were closed and people switched to home deliveries.\n\nThe firm said it expected customer behaviour to moderate later in the year, but it remained \"excited about the opportunity ahead\".\n\nIt added that its outlook for the remainder of the year continued to be \"optimistic but prudent, combining confidence in continued year-on-year growth in orders with an expectation that average order values revert towards pre-pandemic levels\".\n\nDeliveroo said its gross transaction value for the six months was £3.4bn, a 99% rise from the same period in 2020.\n\nIt repeated an earlier forecast that gross transaction value for the whole of 2021 would be 50% to 60% up on last year.\n\nFounder and chief executive Will Shu said: \"We are seeing strong growth and engagement across our marketplace as lockdowns continue to ease.\n\n\"Demand has been high amongst consumers. We have widened our consumer base, seen people continuing to order frequently and we now work with more food merchants than any other platform in the UK.\n\n\"At the same time, more riders are choosing to continue to work with the company because they value the work we offer.\"\n\nFood delivery companies have been some of the standout winners of the pandemic. With people cooped up at home and dining in restaurants banned, a takeaway was for many the highlight of the lockdown week. Some analysts have questioned how much of that surge in business will persist as restaurants reopen.\n\nInterestingly, Deliveroo says orders are \"proving resilient\" since the re-emergence of the hospitality industry. But it doesn't expect that to remain the case forever. There are warnings that consumer behaviour \"may moderate\" later in the year and that the value (but not necessarily the number) of orders will return \"towards\" pre-pandemic levels.\n\nThe company has diversified, though - it now delivers groceries from the likes of Waitrose, Co-op and Aldi. Chancellor Rishi Sunak has described Deliveroo as a \"true British tech success story\". By many measures, it is. But it's not yet a financial success.\n\nDespite the huge increase in business over the past year, Deliveroo still didn't make a profit. Its losses were smaller than a year ago, but the company ended the first half £104.8m in the red. Investors - who were lukewarm on the company's shares when they started trading in March - may be wondering: if Deliveroo can't make a profit when eating in restaurants isn't allowed, when can it?\n\nDeliveroo said it now covered 72% of the UK population. This was ahead of its plans, which had envisaged 67% coverage by the end of this year.\n\nIn all, it operates in 11 countries, including Australia, Belgium, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Singapore, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.\n\nHowever, it said it had now decided to pull out of Spain, because \"achieving a top-tier market position would require a disproportionate level of investment with highly uncertain long-term potential returns\".\n\nThe move comes after the Spanish government announced plans to give more employment rights to workers at food delivery firms and other online services.\n\n\"Deliveroo appears to be dominating the takeaway scene in many towns and cities, where its distinctive mint green-jacketed riders operate, despite Uber Eats and Just Eat rivals breathing down their neck,\" said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.\n\n\"But investors appeared to have lost a little appetite for shares in early trading, with the company expecting customer behaviour to moderate later in the year.\"\n\nShe added: \"There is speculation growing that Deliveroo could potentially be a target for takeover, given the rush of acquisitions in the British market.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The National Police Air Service's South West helicopter located the girl in the pitch dark using their infrared camera system.\n\nA six-year-old girl who went missing was found asleep in a field near her home by a police helicopter.\n\nThe disappearance of the girl in north Devon sparked a large search also involving police dog handlers.\n\nPolice said officers were called out at about 21:30 BST on Saturday after the child was reported missing.\n\nThe National Police Air Service's (NPAS) South West helicopter said it was dispatched to assist in the search and found her at about 22:40.\n\nThe NPAS released video of her discovery on social media after it helped bring a happy resolution to her \"terrified parents\".\n\nThe girl went missing in the Umberleigh area.\n\nThe NPAS said she was \"located in the pitch dark by our helicopter crew using their infrared camera system\".\n\nIt added: \"She was found asleep in a field, over a half-a-mile [0.8km] away from her home.\"\n\nThis 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 NPAS South West Region 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.\n\nThe service said the situation was \"every parent's worst nightmare\".\n\nIt said finding the girl saw a \"massive team effort, from the police control room, the police officers on the ground and the officers in the air to get this child home safely to her terrified parents\".\n\nDevon and Cornwall Police confirmed officers were called \"after a young child was reported missing from a rural property\".\n\nThe force said officers \"attended and carried out an area search, along with the police helicopter and a dog unit\".\n\nIt added: \"The child was located safe and well in a field ... by the helicopter, working with officers on the ground.\n\n\"She was taken to hospital to be checked over as a precaution.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The scale of operations by a shadowy Russian mercenary group in Libya's civil war, which includes links to war crimes and the Russian military, is revealed in a new BBC investigation.\n\nThe group is notoriously secretive, but the BBC has managed to gain rare access to former fighters. They revealed what type of person was joining Wagner - and the group’s lack of a code of conduct with regard to treatment of civilians or prisoners of war.\n\nA Samsung tablet left by a fighter for the Wagner group exposes its key role - as well as traceable fighter codenames.\n\nRussia denies any links to Wagner. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the BBC: \"Russia is doing its utmost to promote a ceasefire and a political settlement to the crisis in Libya. Information about the presence of Wagner employees in Libya... is mostly based on rigged data... and is aimed at discrediting Russia's policy in the Libyan direction.\"", "Capital Karts claims to have the longest indoor go-karting track in the UK\n\nA 15-year-old girl has died four days after she was injured at a go-karting centre in east London.\n\nPolice and paramedics were called to Capital Karts in Barking on Friday afternoon over reports of an injured teenager.\n\nShe was taken to a major trauma centre for treatment but she died on Tuesday, the Met Police said.\n\nThe force said it was \"liaising with health and safety officials from the local council\" about what had happened.\n\nLondon Ambulance Service said it had been called to reports of an incident at Rippleside Commercial Estate at 14:25 BST on Friday.\n\n\"We sent a number of resources including an ambulance, medics in response cars, an advanced paramedic and an incident response officer.\n\nThe Met said its inquiries continue.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Facebook has removed hundreds of accounts which it says were involved in anti-vax disinformation campaigns operated from Russia.\n\nThe company said the network of accounts targeted India, Latin America and the US.\n\nThey attempted to recruit influencers to spread false claims to undermine public confidence in particular Covid-19 vaccines, it added.\n\nIn its latest report on \"coordinated inauthentic behaviour\", Facebook said it found links between the network and a botched disinformation campaign from influencer marketing agency Fazze - which is part of a Russian-based company called AdNow.\n\nLast month a BBC Trending investigation reported how in May this year influencers had been offered money by Fazze to spread false claims about the risks associated with the Pfizer vaccine.\n\nAccording to Facebook, that was the second wave of attempts by the network to smear Western vaccines.\n\nTheir investigation found that from November 2020 the same network attempted to falsely paint the AstraZeneca vaccine as dangerous because it uses a harmless adenovirus taken from chimpanzees.\n\nThis meme was shared by fake accounts in the network\n\nPosts from accounts in the network spread memes that used images from the Planet of Apes films to give the impression the vaccine would turn people into monkeys.\n\nThese posts appeared on Facebook in Hindi around the same time the Indian government was discussing emergency authorisation for the AstraZeneca vaccine.\n\nThe campaign used fake accounts, some of which Facebook says probably originated from account farms in Bangladesh and Pakistan.\n\nFacebook said it had removed 65 Facebook accounts and 243 Instagram accounts for violating their policy against foreign interference.\n\nBen Nimmo, Facebook's threat intelligence lead, described the campaign as \"a disinformation laundromat\" which planted content on a few online forums and then amplified that content on other platforms.\n\nThe operation spanned over a dozen platforms. Misleading posts appeared on Reddit and Medium, and petitions appeared on change.org expressing concern about the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine.\n\nAccording to Facebook's report, these links were then shared by a handful of influencers on Instagram who used the same hashtags and made references to the fact that the AstraZeneca vaccine was derived from chimpanzee adenovirus.\n\nBoth waves of the campaign were unsuccessful and failed to gain much traction - despite the diverse methods used.\n\n\"In addition to the previously-exposed efforts to enlist social media influencers, this operation appears to have used a whole range of tactics in a wider effort to seed misleading narratives online about Western-made Covid vaccines,\" said Jack Stubbs, Director of Investigations at social media analytics firm Graphika.\n\n\"There was a claimed hack-and-leak, the use of pay-to-publish pseudo-news sites, and a network of fake personas on Facebook and Instagram.\"\n\nMirko Dortschmann was one of the YouTubers who blew the whistle on the campaign\n\nDespite the best efforts of the campaign, Facebook's report observed sloppy practices, including mixing languages - such as posting Hindi language memes accompanied by hashtags in Portuguese.\n\nBBC Trending's investigation showed Fazze was part of a Russian company, AdNow. The BBC made repeated attempts to obtain a comment from AdNow's headquarters in Moscow, but received no response. However, a director of AdNow's British arm told the BBC that Fazze was being shut down.\n\nIn response to accusations by a German politician that discrediting Western vaccines was in the interests of the Kremlin, the Russian Embassy in the UK said: \"We treat Covid-19 as a global threat and, thus, are not interested in undermining global efforts in the fight against it, with vaccinating people with the Pfizer vaccine as one of the ways to cope with the virus.\"\n\nThe BBC has again attempted to contact Fazze for comment but the emails sent to Fazze addresses still bounce back from AdNow's domain.\n\nFacebook says Fazze is now banned from their platform.\n\nListen to BBC Trending: The anti-vax influencer plot that flopped on the World Service. Download the podcast or listen online.", "Esther Dingley sent this selfie at the top of a mountain on 22 November\n\nFrench Police have retrieved the body and belongings of a British hiker found by her boyfriend months after she went missing in the Pyrenees.\n\nEsther Dingley, from Durham, vanished on a solo trek in November sparking major searches by French and Spanish police and her partner Daniel Colegate.\n\nA bone found by a hiker in July was confirmed to be hers and Mr Colegate found the other remains on Monday.\n\nAn accident has been said to be \"the most likely hypothesis\".\n\nSources close to the investigation have confirmed to the BBC's Chris Bockman in Toulouse that human remains and hiking material were retrieved from a site in the Pyrenees and taken to the French city to be examined.\n\nForensic experts, who handle both criminal and accidental deaths, were led to the site by Mr Colegate, who has walked hundreds of miles in the search for Ms Dingley.\n\nLBT Global, a charity which is supporting Ms Dingley's family, said her death had been most likely caused by an accident \"given the location and other early indications\".\n\nDaniel Colegate and Esther Dingley were on an open-ended campervan tour of Europe\n\nMs Dingley, who was an experienced hiker, was trekking alone when she last communicated with her partner from the top of Pic De Sauvegarde at about 16:00 on 22 November.\n\nMr Colegate, who was staying 100 miles away in a French farmhouse, raised the alarm several days later when she failed to report in at an agreed time.\n\nThe couple were on an open-ended campervan tour of Europe and Ms Dingley was on the final walk of a month-long solo expedition when she vanished.\n\nMs Dingley was on the final walk of a month-long solo expedition when she vanished\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Abdel Manaam Mahmoud lays his brother's body to rest, though he can't be sure he's burying his brother\n\nAs the senior man in his family, in fact its only surviving adult male, it falls to Abdel Manaam Mahmoud to climb into the grave and lay his brother Esmail's body to rest. Though it may not be his brother he's burying today.\n\nAround him, the men of Tarhuna gather, pushing the red sandy earth and patting down the mound of dirt with their hands.\n\nNearby, Mr Mahmoud's father, Hussin, his brother Nuri and his uncle Mohamed are also buried - each a victim of Libya's civil war, casualties of its factional, shifting alliances and all murdered by the same militia who ruled their town.\n\nThe bodies were found and buried because of Libya's ceasefire signed last year. Since 2011 and the fall of the dictator Muammar Gaddafi, the country has been roiled by chaos, and later, civil war.\n\nThat war reached a crescendo in recent years, as Gen Khalifa Haftar, now aged 77, attacked from the eastern city of Benghazi and tried to unseat the internationally recognised government in the capital, Tripoli.\n\nHe had powerful backers: the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Syria, Jordan and France too. His lightning attack on Tripoli became bogged down and was then routed, after Turkey sent a naval force and attack drones to support the government in the east.\n\nAdded to this toxic mix were mercenaries from Syria, mostly on the government side, under the control of the Turks. Gen Haftar had his own hired guns - Russian contractors and fighters from Sudan and Chad.\n\nThe body count soared, and a country that had reached and passed the brink many times before teetered on the edge of greater catastrophe.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What's behind the fight for Libya? (January 2020)\n\nBut a ceasefire was agreed, and for the first time in years, Libya has a unified government. Its prime minister is Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, a fantastically rich businessman from the commercial hub of Misrata. While his family has links to the Muammar Gaddafi rule, little is known about the new prime minister, a political neophyte.\n\n\"He was no-one's bête noire,\" said one Western diplomat in Tripoli, explaining Mr Dbeibah's appointment by a UN-led process that created the interim government. Elections are supposed to be held in nine months, on Libyan Independence Day - 24 December - but already there are doubts.\n\n\"It is a tight deadline, but it's not impossible. But of course, again, it starts with all the institutions and authorities of Libya,\" says Jan Kubis, the UN's special envoy on Libya.\n\n\"Either they will deliver what they have to deliver, to make it happen. If not... they will find pretexts, excuses, not to do it... I hope that this will not happen because the people of the country, they would like to have the elections.\n\n\"It's not only the proclamations of the authorities and pledges. It's the wish of the people of the country to have the elections on 24 December.\"\n\nAfter our interview, Mr Kubis headed to Benghazi to meet Gen Haftar, the man many in Tarhuna believe empowered the seven Kani brothers (whom Mr Mahmoud accuses of killing his relatives) in their final killing spree before they quit town. Some suspect the general is sheltering the surviving brothers, some of whom have been added to US and European sanctions lists.\n\nThe town of Tarhuna was the western launchpad for the attacks on Tripoli and a flashpoint in the steady internationalisation of the country's civil war.\n\nFrom here, Gen Haftar's forces from the east, his self-styled Libyan National Army, led assaults on the capital. Mercenaries from Russia's Wagner group took up positions in the town too.\n\nThe Kani brothers reigned supreme in the town for years\n\nAt the town's cemetery, there are 13 burials today. The men and boys of the town are here in force, they walked in their hundreds after Friday prayers, some using their prayer mats to shade themselves from the afternoon sun.\n\nAfter the ceremony, Mr Mahmoud said: \"They took my family from their homes. They were simple civilians. In October 2020, the al-Kani militia came to their homes in cars that belonged to the state, they took them away from their homes and killed them.\"\n\nHe searched for his family for 10 months, in vain. First the bodies of Hussin, Nuri and Mohamed were found. Two months ago, Esmail's body was discovered.\n\n\"Even in his 42 years of ruling, Gaddafi never committed the kinds of killings that occurred after his rule. As Libyan civilians, there is no-one to protect us, our lives have become unprotected,\" Mr Mahmoud says.\n\nThe seven Kani brothers, famous for the three lions they had stolen from the zoo in Tripoli and kept as pets, reigned supreme. Mercurial, their Kaniyat militia switched sides more than once in Libya's civil war.\n\nTheir rule came to an end in June last year, when government forces, backed by Turkish support, took the town. Turkey sent seven naval frigates to Libya's coast to push back Gen Haftar's forces, and imported thousands of Syrian fighters from Idlib, Aleppo and Deir Ezzor to fight on the ground.\n\nIn the face of the onslaught, the remaining Kani brothers and their families fled east, their whereabouts unknown.\n\nThe body of Esmail Mahmoud is identified by a DNA reference number\n\nTarhuna's cemetery is austere in the Muslim tradition, surrounded by tall thirsty eucalyptus trees and with few headstones; it has only simple grave markers. But Esmail's marker bears a number: 051-000066.\n\nIt's a DNA reference. Because the body buried today may not be Esmail's. He was only identified by the clothes he was wearing, when he was discovered in a collection of mass graves to the south of the city.\n\nThe road to the farmhouse is surrounded by almond groves. A cardboard sign across the entry, warns: \"No Entry, Only Missing Person Committee Allowed.\"\n\nBeyond the farmhouse, fine red soil is piled in high mounds that stretch to the end of the property. There are too many to count, some the size of a single corpse, others far wider.\n\nIt's Friday, so there is no work today and the site is silent, but the evidence of the meticulous effort to uncover the crimes here is all around. In one pit, four red flags mark out the twisted remains of perhaps four bodies, wrapped together, almost unrecognisable.\n\nMen, women and children were buried here, some killed by a single bullet to the head, others with their hands bound with signs of torture on their bodies. The dry earth has left the bodies intact, and swollen. Like artefacts from a terrible disaster.\n\nEsmail's identity will be confirmed when a DNA match is made at a lab in Tripoli. So far, 140 bodies have been found, according to Libya's General Authority for Searching and Identifying Missing Persons. They have confirmed the identities of 22 of the dead by DNA matching.\n\nIn total, 350 people are missing from the town, although bodies from elsewhere may be buried here. Across Libya, more than 6,000 people have been declared missing since the downfall of Muammar Gaddafi. Only 1,950 have been found.\n\nAt the edge of the cemetery stands Ahmad Abdel-Mori Saad, who's here to bury a friend. Tarhuna is a city of ghosts, he said.\n\n\"I have seven siblings who were kidnapped by the Kaniyat. We have buried two of them found in the mass graves,\" he said.\n\nMr Saad doesn't know where his other brothers are, but he believes they are dead. He's left to care for all their children, 24 in total.\n\n\"We do not follow any political parties; we are not policemen or army men… If you have money, you die; if you have five young siblings, you die; you get in a discussion with me, you die; you don't support me, you die.\n\n\"You die for nothing, it's a death for no reason at all.\"", "The man worked at the British embassy in Berlin, German prosecutors said\n\nA British man has been arrested in Germany on suspicion of spying for Russia.\n\nGerman federal prosecutors said the man - named only as David S - worked at the British embassy in Berlin.\n\nHe allegedly passed documents to Russian intelligence \"at least once\" in exchange for an \"unknown amount\" of money.\n\nHe was arrested in Potsdam outside Berlin on Tuesday and his home and workplace have been searched.\n\nThe German Foreign Ministry said it is taking the case \"very seriously\".\n\nForeign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters: \"Spying on a close ally on German soil is absolutely unacceptable and we are in full solidarity with our British friends.\"\n\nThe arrest was the result of a joint UK-German investigation, the statement read.\n\nIt was intelligence-led and had been going on for some time leading up to the arrest, the BBC's Security Correspondent Gordon Corera says. MI5 and other UK agencies, as well as British police, had been working with the Germans to learn as much as they could about the alleged activity.\n\nLondon's Metropolitan Police confirmed the arrest of a 57-year-old British national in Germany, as well as the involvement of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command.\n\nGerman authorities are in charge of the investigation, but officers will continue to work with German counterparts, the police said.\n\nThe man appeared before an investigating judge in Karlsruhe on Wednesday, where he was ordered to remain under arrest pending further inquiries.\n\nProsecutors said he was hired as a local staff member at the embassy.\n\nGerman online news site Focus Online reports that the documents passed on were to do with counter-terrorism, and that the man is not thought to have diplomatic immunity.\n\nBerlin was the epicentre of Cold War espionage with spies working its streets and alleys in search of secrets.\n\nIntelligence gathering has changed since those days and often involves cyber-espionage carried out remotely nowadays.\n\nBut the old ways have not disappeared. Spy services still seek out people whom they can recruit to pass on sensitive information and that makes embassies a prime target with Berlin still a major focus.\n\nAnd it is not just diplomats who have direct access to secrets who spies are interested in.\n\nLocally hired staff - ranging from drivers to security guards to cleaners - can also be targeted with cash or other inducements because they can provide access to rooms to plant listening devices or gather information themselves.\n\nGerman and UK relations with Russia are already strained after several high-profile incidents in recent years.\n\nThe UK accused Russia of being responsible for a 2018 nerve agent attack in Salisbury against Sergei and Yulia Skripal - an accusation Russia has repeatedly denied.\n\nBoth survived the attack. But a local woman died after she came into contact with a perfume bottle thought to have been used in the incident and then discarded.\n\nGermany meanwhile treated Russian dissident Alexei Navalny after he was poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent on a Russian flight last year. Russian authorities have also repeatedly denied their involvement in this incident.\n\nLast month German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Joe Biden vowed to stand together \"against Russian aggression\".", "David Gomoh, who graduated with a marketing degree from London South Bank University, was stabbed at least nine times\n\nFour gang members have been convicted of the murder of a \"charismatic and intelligent\" NHS worker who was stabbed in the street in east London.\n\nDavid Gomoh, 24, was attacked as he talked on the phone to his girlfriend on 26 April 2020. He staggered back home and died in front of his family.\n\nHe had no links to any gangs but was randomly targeted in Canning Town as part of a feud.\n\nHis killers will be sentenced on 17 September.\n\nVagnei Colubali, 22, from Cambridge, Mohammad Jalloh, 19, from Pinner, north-west London, and David Ture, 19, of no fixed address, were found guilty along with a 17-year-old Telford boy who cannot be named because of his age.\n\nVagnei Colubali, Mohammad Jalloh, and David Ture (l-r) will be sentenced on 17 September, along with a 17-year-old\n\nMr Gomoh's mother Marian said: \"David's murder is without doubt the hardest thing my family and I have been through.\n\n\"Nothing will bring back a life that was so full of promise and hope, a life that was brutally taken away from us; but we are grateful that now we can begin to mourn and build a fitting legacy for David.\"\n\nThe four killers were all connected to a gang based in north Newham, the Old Bailey heard.\n\nProsecutor Oliver Glasgow QC, said Mr Gomoh's death was part of a \"petty but fatal game of one-upmanship\" played out on the streets of London.\n\n\"This was a ride out into enemy territory and they were hunting for someone, anyone, to attack\".\n\nMr Gomoh, who worked at St Barts hospital, was walking from his home in Custom House, east London, to go to the local supermarket.\n\nThe four killers fled the murder scene in a stolen car\n\nHis girlfriend heard the killers ask Mr Gomoh where he was from, followed by sounds of a scuffle.\n\nCCTV cameras on a bus captured the moment a stolen car - a Dodge Caliber - stopped beside Mr Gomoh and he turned to run.\n\nThe killers were then driven away.\n\nDuring the investigation police found sketches by Ture, which revealed a \"picture-book story\" of the murder.\n\nThe drawings found in Ture's bedroom showed a number of young men carrying out a stabbing in the area of Mr Gomoh's murder and the clothing worn by the defendants that night - elements of which helped identify some of the other killers.\n\nPolice found DNA evidence on two pairs of sunglasses, one at the scene and another in the abandoned stolen car, linking the 17-year-old and Jalloh to the killing.\n\nJurors heard Jalloh had two convictions for carrying knives and that Ture had previously pleaded guilty to wounding with a knife.\n\nTure's \"childish doodles\" were found by the police in his bedroom drawer and showed the group at \"Threemasons (sic) Road\" - the location of the killing\n\nTure also drew one of the gang members with an Armani man bag, which Colubali was seen wearing on CCTV\n\nThe four defendants first attacked a separate man, who they chased with their weapons, but he got away, jurors heard.\n\nAll four defendants were found guilty of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm with intent with regard to the earlier attack.\n\nDet Ch Insp Laurence Smith said; \"The four defendants set out that night ready and armed for savage violence.\n\n\"What they had not worked out was who their victim would be.\n\n\"They did not know David, they did not care who he was, or whether he was involved in a rival gang.\n\n\"He was simply a fair target in their petty game.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Two men and a 16-year-old girl have appeared in court charged with the murder of a man at a park in Cardiff.\n\nDr Gary Jenkins, 54, died 16 days after he was found injured in Bute Park.\n\nHe had been in hospital since the attack in the early hours of 20 July and died on 5 August.\n\nJason Edwards, 25, Lee William Strickland, 36, and a 16-year-old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared at Newport Crown Court on Wednesday.\n\nMr Edwards, from Riverside, Cardiff, and Mr Strickland, of no fixed abode, appeared in court, while the girl attended via video link.\n\nA hearing will take place on 15 October, where pleas are expected to be entered.\n\nDr Gary Jenkins was found seriously injured in Bute Park on 20 July", "Sky News Australia has been criticised for broadcasting misleading information\n\nSky News Australia has removed dozens of videos from its websites, after YouTube suspended the channel for spreading Covid misinformation.\n\nThe conservative TV network, owned by Rupert Murdoch, has been criticised for promoting conspiracies and questioning public health orders in its broadcasts.\n\nIn recent days it has taken down about 30 videos without explanation or making corrections.\n\nBut its parent company, News Corp Australia, told local media the network had taken an \"editorial decision\" to remove the videos.\n\nFormer Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd was among the first to accuse the channel last week of \"quietly scrubbing incriminating Covid-19 misinformation videos\" from its platforms.\n\nThis 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 Kevin Rudd 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.\n\nThe videos had showed network hosts including Alan Jones, Andrew Bolt and Rowan Dean expressing views that have been rejected by global medical authorities.\n\nOne video showed Mr Jones questioning the legitimacy of the pandemic, erroneously claiming it wasn't worse than the \"common cold\".\n\nAnother promoted an interview with a pathologist spreading misinformation that Covid was a hoax.\n\nAccording to Guardian Australia, most of the removed videos talked up the drugs ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.\n\nBoth drugs have gained attention after being promoted by figures including former US president Donald Trump. But medical authorities, including the WHO, say the evidence for their effectiveness against Covid remains unproven.\n\nMr Rudd and other critics have described Sky News Australia's broadcasts as dangerous and irresponsible.\n\nIt comes as millions of Australians remain in lockdown to prevent the spread of Delta outbreaks in Sydney and Melbourne.\n\nFewer than a quarter of Australians are vaccinated. Frustration over restrictions has also led to several large anti-lockdown protests.\n\nSky News Australia executives are due to face a parliamentary inquiry on Friday, after YouTube on 1 August penalised the channel's Covid coverage.\n\nThe network accused the tech giant of censorship, but lawmakers said the platform's decision reflected wider concerns.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Anti-lockdown protests in recent times have escalated into violent clashes\n\nGreens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who is leading the inquiry, questioned why broadcast regulators had not acted first.\n\nMr Rudd, a noted critic of Mr Murdoch's media outlets, has also written to Australian Communications and Media Authority to demand scrutiny.\n\n\"While it is unrealistic to believe that we can ever stamp out misinformation… it is especially alarming that so much of this content has been crafted and distributed by the country's largest media company, News Corporation, principally through Murdoch's Sky News,\" he said.\n\nSky News Australia has a small TV viewership locally, but a big presence online with a significant global following.\n\nThe station has said its uploads drew more than 22 million viewers a month.", "The Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan, almost 20 years after being ousted by a US-led military coalition.\n\nEmboldened by the withdrawal of US troops, they now control all key cities in the country, including Kabul.\n\nThe Taliban took some areas from government by force. In other areas, the Afghan National Army withdrew without a shot being fired.\n\nAlthough renewed clashes had been going on for several weeks, from 6 August the Taliban made a more rapid advance across the country, as they took control of provincial cities.\n\nThe maps below start in early July and show the 400 or so government districts as they fell to the Taliban.\n\nUS forces based outside Afghanistan had launched air strikes against Taliban positions earlier last week, but they failed to slow the advance of the insurgents.\n\nAlthough most US troops left in July, several thousand returned to Kabul at the weekend to help evacuate American and allied personnel from the capital.\n\nThe airport in the capital was the only official route out of the country after the Taliban took control of all the major border crossings.\n\nCustoms duty on goods entering the country via crossings they control is now collected by the Taliban - although exact amounts are unclear as the volume of trade has fallen as a result of the fighting.\n\nBut, Islam Qala on the border with Iran was, for example, capable of generating more than $20 million per month.\n\nDisruption to the flow of imports and exports has affected prices of essential goods in the markets - fuel and foodstuffs in particular.\n\nUS troops and their Nato and regional allies forced the Taliban from power in November 2001. The group had been harbouring Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures linked to the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US.\n\nBut despite a continued international presence in the region, billions of dollars of support and training for the Afghan government forces, the Taliban regrouped and gradually regained strength in more remote areas.\n\nA BBC study in 2017 showed the Taliban were in full control of a number of districts. But the research also showed they were active in many other parts of the country, mounting weekly or monthly attacks in some areas, suggesting significantly higher strength than previous estimates.\n\nIn 2017 about 15 million people - half the population - were reported to be living in areas either controlled by the Taliban or where the Taliban were openly present.", "Edward received the new gene therapy Zolgensma, which has a list price of £1.79m\n\nA baby with a fatal condition has received the world's most expensive drug after a campaign by his parents.\n\nEleven-month-old Edward, from Colchester, has severe spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) which means he lacks a protein vital for muscle development.\n\nHe received the new gene therapy Zolgensma, which costs £1.79m, at Sheffield Children's Hospital.\n\nHis mother Megan Willis said it was \"incredible\" and she was \"so excited and relieved\".\n\nZolgensma is thought to be the most expensive drug in the world, though NHS England said it had negotiated an undisclosed discount on its £1.79m list price.\n\nMs Willis, 29, said she was so thankful her son had been granted the drug, which contains a replica of the missing gene SMN1.\n\nEdward is one of 65 babies born with SMA every year in England\n\nThe family previously said they felt abandoned in their \"race against time\" for Edward to receive the drug, which must be given as early as possible.\n\nWhen it was approved for NHS use in March, guidelines said it should only be used for babies under six months old who were not already being treated.\n\nDecisions on babies outside of these parameters, like Edward, would be taken on a case-by-case basis, the guidelines said.\n\nMs Willis said it was \"so stressful knowing there was a wonder drug out there\" but they could not get hold of it.\n\nThey had tried to raise the money privately and had started to organise a protest before it was granted.\n\n\"For so long we have been trying to fight for this drug. I think I am in shock, I can't believe the day is here,\" she said.\n\nMegan Willis and John Hall say they are very excited for Edward's future\n\nAbout 65 babies are born with SMA in England each year. It causes muscle weakness and affects movement and breathing, meaning most babies do not live past the age of two without intervention.\n\nNone of the treatments available offer a cure for the condition.\n\nIn studies, Zolgensma has helped babies breathe without a ventilator, sit up on their own and crawl and walk after a single treatment.\n\nDr Min Ong, paediatric neurology consultant at Sheffield Children's Hospital, said Edward was the fifth child the hospital had treated with the drug.\n\n\"It is anticipated to help his motor skills... particularly the use of his hands and he has the potential to be able to sit unsupported and even stand or perhaps walk,\" she said.\n\n\"It is very exciting because SMA is the most common genetic condition that causes infant deaths and severe disabilities worldwide and we are very thankful to be able to deliver this therapy.\"\n\nMegan Willis and John Hall were determined their baby would have the best chance at life\n\nEdward, who was diagnosed at two months old, was receiving injections of another drug called Spinraza every four months.\n\nSpinraza helps slow degeneration but it involves regular injections in the spine for life, compared to the one-off injection of Zolgensma.\n\nMs Willis said she felt like her family had been \"reborn\" following the treatment.\n\n\"Edward has got a very bright future ahead of him. He is the perfect baby and he's a very happy little boy,\" she said.\n\n\"I feel like the first year of his life has been robbed from us, but he is one next month and we can move on as a family, now that we know he is having the very best treatment.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "The cake has come up for auction once again, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer's wedding\n\nA slice of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer's wedding cake has sold for £1,850 at auction.\n\nIt was given to Moyra Smith, a member of the Queen Mother's household at Clarence House, who preserved the topping with cling film.\n\nThe slice is from one of the 23 official wedding cakes and features a sugared onlay of the royal coat-of-arms coloured in gold, red, blue and silver.\n\nThe cake was bought by Gerry Layton in Leeds who bid online.\n\nIt was expected to raise just £500 but auctioneers said they were \"amazed\" at the interest.\n\nMr Layton, a luxury boat charterer, said he has put in his will the cake along with his estate is to go to charity after his death.\n\n\"I also thought that I could put it up as a raffle prize with some of the money going to Centrepoint, which Princess Di was patron of,\" he said.\n\n\"I will have to think of a way to stop myself from trying to eat it though.\"\n\nMr Layton said he planned to make the trip from Yorkshire to Gloucestershire to collect the cake next week, as he wanted to ensure it remained in good condition.\n\nThe auctioneers said bidders from the UK, USA and several countries in the Middle East had shown interest.\n\n\"It seemed to get far more attention than when we sold it with a Charles and Diana thank-you letter 13 years ago,\" said royal memorabilia specialist Chris Albury, of Dominic Winter Auctioneers in Cirencester, Gloucestershire.\n\n\"The bidding started at £300 and with commission bids, the internet and phone bidding quickly rose to the winning price of £1,850.\n\n\"This was an irresistible piece of royal memorabilia history for many.\"\n\nMrs Smith kept the slice in an old floral cake tin and taped a handmade label to the lid, reading: \"Handle with Care - Prince Charles & Princess Diane's [sic] Wedding Cake,\" which she signed and dated 27 July 1981.\n\nHer family sold the cake to a collector in 2008 and it has now come up for auction 40 years after Charles and Diana were married.\n\nCharles and Diana’s 1981 wedding was watched by a worldwide TV audience of more than 750 million\n\nThe Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer, who became Diana, Princess of Wales, married at St Paul's Cathedral on 29 July, 1981\n\nThe couple separated 11 years later in 1992, and divorced in 1996.\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe 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.\n\nAs lockdown restrictions have eased ambulance staff are having the busiest summer of their lives.\n\nBut the pressure on hospitals to find free beds can mean long waits outside for the paramedic crews until their patients can be admitted.\n\nSome say they are \"broken\" after spending so much time queuing outside A&Es - unable to respond to new calls.\n\nBBC Wales' health correspondent Owain Clarke has been given special access to crews, and 999 call managers.\n\nOsian Roberts said he spends most of his time queuing outside A&E\n\nParamedic Osian Roberts has spent most of his 12-hour shift in the back of his ambulance.\n\nHe is outside A&E at Glan Clwyd Hospital, in Bodelwyddan, Denbighshire.\n\nHe knows every inch of tarmac in the hospital's ambulance bay, because that is where he spends most of his time.\n\n\"We know there are people in the community that are screaming out for an ambulance, but as you can see, a lot of ambulances are waiting here,\" he said.\n\n\"It never ever used to be like this. We used to bring poorly patients in, and we were out on the road again in 15 minutes.\n\n\"We could do 10 jobs a shift, today we've done two. It's so demoralising.\"\n\nOsian first arrived at the hospital at 09:30 BST, two hours after clocking on in Llandudno, to bring in a woman in her 90s, who had fallen at a nursing home and hurt her elbow.\n\nThe patient, who has dementia, was given blood tests and a heart check, but must stay with Osian in the ambulance until a bed becomes available.\n\nIt is almost three hours until that happens.\n\n\"It is frustrating,\" Osian said. \"The patient is becoming a bit irritable and uncomfortable, but it's literally one out, one in, in the department.\"\n\nBy mid-afternoon Osian arrives at the hospital for a second time.\n\nThe situation is worse - there are eight ambulances queuing.\n\nOsian is with a man in his 70s who has fallen at home and may have had a mini-stroke.\n\nHe knows if a patient arrives more urgently in need of help, his will be pushed back.\n\nOsian and other paramedics must wait with patients until a spot in A&E becomes available\n\nThe longer he waits the less able he is to respond to calls.\n\n\"You feel you've let your community down,\" said Osian.\n\n\"Although we've done the best we can for the patient in our care, we know there are people out there waiting for ambulances and we can't get to them.\n\n\"And when we do get to them they're angry and cross, asking 'Where have you been?'\"\n\nThe patient is transferred to A&E at 18:50, just before the end of Osian's shift.\n\nThe crew has responded to three calls since starting at 07:30, out of 440 across north Wales that day.\n\nMatching piling numbers of calls with tied-up ambulances is putting control centre staff under pressure.\n\nParticularly as they say the service has been dealing with more 999 calls than ever this summer.\n\nCeri Roberts said this year was the busiest she had ever seen\n\nDuty control manager Ceri Roberts has been in the service for 20 years.\n\n\"This year I think it's the busiest I've seen,\" she said.\n\n\"August is always a busy month but this time there seems to be no respite at all. We've got over 24 calls waiting for a response at the moment and the longest amber call has been waiting five-and-a-half hours.\"\n\nThe waits, Ceri said, can be longer.\n\n\"It's quite heart-breaking at times,\" she said.\n\n\"You can go home from a shift tonight and come back in tomorrow and see the same patient waiting in the stack, not having had an ambulance at all.\n\n\"You want to empathise and think, 'gosh, what if that was my parent or my family member?'\"\n\nThe pressure on the north Wales service, she said, was caused by several factors.\n\nThey include the relatively elderly population in the area, a backlog in demand - as some have been reluctant to get symptoms checked during the pandemic, people more likely to be out as Covid restrictions have eased and, with fewer people travelling abroad, north Wales being busier than ever.\n\nDozens of calls can be waiting for responses at any one time\n\nSenior paramedic Hefin Jones works on the control centre's clinical desk and gives advice over the phone.\n\n\"I've been in the service 30 years and I've never seen it as busy as this,\" he said.\n\n\"It's people coming out of lockdown, people not going abroad as we live in a touristy area. The number of people on Anglesey, say, is three times more than the usual population.\"\n\nThis is an \"enormous worry,\" he added.\n\n\"The worst part, which we deal with a lot on the clinical desk, is people who've been waiting long, long hours for an ambulance response, but you don't have an ambulance to send.\n\n\"As clinicians we try to support them [on the phone] as best as we can.\"\n\nHefin said the post-lockdown workload had trebled with extreme pressures now routine.\n\nHe and Ceri urged the public to help ease the strain.\n\nSenior paramedic Hefin Jones said post-lockdown the workload had trebled\n\n\"We've had all types of calls, from sunburn, fish-hooks in feet, cramp in legs, through to much more serious calls,\" Ceri said.\n\n\"I'd like people to think before they dial 999. It's not just a go-to number.\n\n\"We've got the 111 symptom checker online and that's a good place to start.\"\n\nShe said the difference would be \"immense\" if people thought more before dialling 999.\n\n\"It could mean that the patient who was waiting five hours today could have had a response in maybe 10 to 20 minutes,\" Ceri said.\n\nElsewhere, it is a worrying time for those working on the front line.\n\nEmergency medical technician, Joanne Martin, is often on shifts relieving crews outside hospitals so they can take breaks.\n\n\"I've been coming into the hospitals during the crews' meal-break windows to allow them to have 30 minutes away from their vehicles,\" she said.\n\nShe had no answers to resolve the situation and feared the future held \"bleakness\".\n\nWelsh Ambulance boss, Jason Killens, said the service was in \"uncharted territory\"\n\nShe said: \"A lot of my colleagues have applied for other jobs or have left the ambulance service in the past six to 12 months and that's a great loss because they're good, qualified and experienced people.\n\n\"A lot of us feel pretty broken. It's not a positive future at the minute and a lot of people are weighing up their options.\"\n\nOsian Roberts said the current pressures are leaving staff demotivated and demoralised.\n\nMonitoring patients outside hospitals for hours was not the job he trained for 32 years ago.\n\nHe said: \"Even though the job itself gives you great satisfaction, helping somebody and making somebody better, being here for hours on end with someone who is needy, and someone who is poorly does get you down.\n\n\"Pre-hospital care for me was about helping people out in the community, and bringing them to hospital, not being part of the hospital on the yard.\n\n\"I think [the system] needs drastic reforms.\"\n\nWelsh Ambulance Service chief executive, Jason Killens, apologised to patients who had endured long waits, saying the service across Wales was in \"uncharted territory\".\n\nHe insisted the service was working hard to deal with the situation and had recruited \"over a couple of hundred\" new staff in the past 18 months.\n\n\"We're recruiting and training more through the rest of this year, which will be (paramedics) on the streets as we approach winter,\" he said.\n\nThe Welsh government said getting patients from ambulances and into A&E remained a \"significant challenge\" and recently announced £25m to improve the outcome of emergency calls.\n\nA spokesman said: \"A range of local and system-wide factors contribute to these delays, including reduced physical capacity within emergency departments, increased levels of demand, and pressures elsewhere in the system.\"\n\nBetsi Cadwaladr health board chief executive, Jo Whitehead, said it was working with councils to support patients who were fit to go home, but needed more help before they could be discharged safely.\n\nShe said: \"This will help to improve the flow in our hospitals and discharge rates, which will support our ability to transfer patients from ambulances more quickly.\"", "A court in China has convicted a Canadian businessman of espionage and sentenced him to 11 years in prison.\n\nMichael Spavor has been detained since 2018, after being arrested with fellow Canadian ex-diplomat Michael Kovrig.\n\nThe verdict will test a strained relationship between the Canadian and Chinese governments.\n\nIt comes as an extradition battle involving Meng Wanzhou, a senior executive at Chinese tech giant Huawei, takes place in Canada.\n\nCritics have accused China of treating both Spavor and Kovrig as political bargaining chips, held as part of what is known as \"hostage diplomacy\".\n\nIn a statement published on Wednesday, the Dandong court said: \"For the crime of spying and illegal provision of state secrets abroad [Spavor] has been sentenced to 11 years in jail, confiscation of 50,000 yuan ($7,715: £5,578) worth of personal property and deportation.\"\n\nThe statement did not explicitly state when the deportation would take place but China typically deports convicted foreigners only after they have completed their prison sentence.\n\nCanadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the conviction was \"absolutely unacceptable and unjust\".\n\n\"The verdict for Spavor comes after more than two-and-a-half years of arbitrary detention, a lack of transparency in the legal process, and a trial that did not satisfy even the minimum standards required by international law,\" he said in a statement.\n\nSpavor was first arrested in 2018, just days after Ms Meng was detained - and was later charged with espionage. His first trial, which took place in March, ended with no verdict.\n\nCanadian diplomats including the charge d'affaires to China were then denied entry to the court.\n\nSpavor is a founding member of the Paektu Cultural Exchange, an organisation which facilitates international business and cultural ties with North Korea.\n\nCanadian ambassador to China Dominic Barton said he \"condemned\" the conviction.\n\n\"There is the opportunity for an appeal,\" he told reporters outside the court, according to a report by AFP.\n\nSeparately, Michael Kovrig - who faces the same charges - also went to trial in March, though no verdict has been announced.\n\nOn Tuesday, another Canadian citizen lost his appeal against a death sentence for drug smuggling in China.\n\nThe court said it upheld Robert Lloyd Schellenberg's sentence because evidence against him was \"sufficient\".\n\nSchellenberg was initially sentenced to 15 years in jail, but a few days later, Canada detained Ms Meng on a US extradition warrant.\n\nChina at the time warned of unspecified consequences unless Ms Meng was released.\n\nSchellenberg later appealed against the 15-year prison term, but instead of reducing his sentence, judges ruled that his previous sentence had been too light and instead sentenced him to death.\n\nAt his hearing, the judges said that evidence proved he was more seriously involved in international drug smuggling.\n\nAt the time, Zhang Dongshuo, Schellenberg's lawyer, told Reuters that the sentence should not have been increased because no new evidence was presented at the trial.\n\nMr Barton said it was \"no coincidence\" that Schellenberg's verdict came as Ms Meng's extradition battle was taking place.\n\nMs Meng's court hearings mark the culmination of two-and-a-half years of legal battles.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ren Zhengfei described the arrest of his daughter Meng Wanzhou as politically motivated", "Jennie Berry posted about her ordeal to show \"the harsh reality\" disabled people face\n\nA disability campaigner was left naked and feeling vulnerable when she fell in a hotel bathroom where an emergency alarm cord was tied up out of reach.\n\nJennie Berry, a wheelchair user from Hartlepool, lay on the floor for 20 minutes after the accessible shower seat broke in her room on Saturday.\n\nThe 28-year-old managed to \"wriggle\" to a second alarm but when staff turned up they were unaware of how to lift her.\n\nThe Mama Shelter London apologised and said it would increase training.\n\nMs Berry, a community engagement manager for accessibility app Sociability, has called for more disability awareness in the hotel industry.\n\nThe emergency cord in the shower was tied up out of reach\n\n\"The shower chair completely came off the wall, leaving me on the floor - I hit my head as I went down,\" she told BBC Radio Tees.\n\n\"I'm a wheelchair user and I am paralysed from the waist down meaning I am unable to get myself back on the chair unassisted.\n\n\"I looked up and the red cord was tied to the ceiling so there was no way of reaching that one.\n\n\"Thankfully, there was a secondary one tied around a grab rail, which I was able to reach and kind of wiggle and keep yanking on until I was able to unhook it.\"\n\nShe said hotel staff then rang her room but she was unable to answer as she was stuck in the bathroom.\n\nThe accessibility seat in Jennie's hotel bathroom came away from the wall\n\n\"When they finally came they didn't really know what to do, they had no manual handling training, there was no equipment to help get me up,\" she added.\n\n\"It took three staff members 20 minutes to finally get me up, but obviously I was naked, I was soaking wet, and everything was just a bit of a mess.\n\n\"Thankfully I am not really hurt, I just have quite a lot of bruising on my arms of where they were dragging me and pulling me.\"\n\nMs Berry posted on Instagram about the ordeal to highlight \"the harsh reality\" many disabled people often face.\n\nJennie Berry travels to London to work once a month\n\n\"It's not just about the actual equipment itself, it's more so about the aftermath of how vulnerable you feel in that scenario,\" she added.\n\n\"Not only am I on the floor and unable to be as independent as I usually am, it's more so being on your own, being naked in front of strangers and them having to manhandle me.\n\n\"I just felt like a dead-weighted puppet - just being lifted about with absolutely no way of helping myself - just helpless.\"\n\nMs Berry has campaigned previously asking businesses to stop tying up the cords designed to help people.\n\nMs Berry said: \"Often it just gets brushed under the carpet as if people are making a mountain out of a molehill, when in actual fact, the situation that so many disabled people find themselves in is really severe and it has a lasting effect on many people.\n\n\"I think change is coming - just when, I do not know.\"\n\nA spokesperson for Mama Shelter London, in Shoreditch, said: \"We want to apologise unreservedly that this unfortunate incident occurred at our hotel that caused Jennie Berry understandable distress.\n\n\"We will be checking all facilities more rigorously in future from a maintenance point of view and increase the frequency of staff training for disability etiquette.\n\n\"We pride ourselves in being a wholly-inclusive brand and will redouble our efforts to fulfil this.\"\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.", "A Home Office deportation flight left for Jamaica overnight with just seven people on board, after last-minute legal challenges.\n\nThe flight, which is understood to have taken off from Stansted Airport in Essex just before 01:30 BST, was originally meant to deport 50 people.\n\nLawyers said it was \"an enormous waste of taxpayers' money\".\n\nThe Home Office said all those on board were convicted criminals with no legal right to remain in the UK.\n\nAnd it added that late legal claims can reduce the value for money of these operations.\n\nSome 18 of the legal challenges were made in the 24 hours before departure.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel is required by law to issue a deportation order for any foreign national who has been given a jail sentence of more than a year.\n\nPersistent offenders or those convicted of serious crimes may also be deported where it is deemed \"conducive to the public good\".\n\nCampaigners had been trying to stop the flight, with reports that some may have had a right to British citizenship.\n\nOn average, a deportation flight costs around £200,000, so returning the handful of passengers to the Caribbean is likely to have cost the Home Office about £30,000 each.\n\nThis is not the first time the Home Office has sought and failed to organise a mass deportation to Jamaica.\n\nIn December, another aircraft intended to have 50 Jamaican nationals on board left with just 13.\n\nOn that occasion, the Home Office acknowledged some of those due to fly may have been victims of modern slavery.\n\nThe home secretary is keen to demonstrate her commitment to securing Britain's borders.\n\nBut with record numbers of migrants arriving in small boats on the Kent coast, and continued problems in organising deportation flights, there is obvious frustration in the department.\n\nMaria Thomas, of Duncan Lewis Solicitors, said some deportees did not fly after claims they were entitled to stay in the UK as part of the Windrush Scheme, which grants residency to many West Indian migrants and their descendants.\n\nOthers, she said, had tested positive for Covid, while two of her clients - one in his 20s and another in his 30s who have lived in the UK since they were 10 and 11 - were taken to hospital in the afternoon after attempting to take their own lives in a government immigration removal centre.\n\nMs Thomas described the practice of removing by way of charter flights as \"brutal\". She said: \"It's extremely concerning.\n\n\"It's an enormous waste of taxpayers' money to charter a plane in these circumstances, particularly in light of an ongoing pandemic.\"\n\nBella Sankey, director of Detention Action which assists with some of the legal challenges, tweeted that the situation was \"complete chaos\" and the Home Office \"hasn't got a clue what it's doing\".\n\nThe Home Office said \"extensive checks\" had been carried out to ensure that no-one on board had been eligible for the Windrush Scheme.\n\nIt said the 43 people who did not fly had committed crimes including murder and rape, and that their combined sentences \"totalled 245 years\".\n\nDamion Thompson, known as Trimpy, is being held at a detention centre near Heathrow\n\nDamion Thompson, a Jamaican man who has lived in Leeds for 20 years, was due to be deported on Wednesday.\n\nIt's been 10 years since he was sentenced to jail for drugs offences - serving 14 months - triggering his automatic removal from the UK.\n\nHis wife, Linda Rose, said the deportation order had been \"hanging over the family\" ever since, despite several attempts to overturn it.\n\nNow the family say they have secured a seven-day injunction to try to stop his deportation - but they \"don't want to get too hopeful\".\n\nA Home Office spokesperson said: \"We make no apology for seeking to remove dangerous foreign criminals.\"\n\nMs Patel said those who were meant to be on board \"have violated our laws and values and have left their victims living with the scars of the crimes that took place against them\".\n\n\"The British people should be in no doubt of my determination to remove these criminals to protect both the victims of their crimes and the public. The government uses every means to continue to remove foreign nationals who have committed crimes against our citizens,\" she said.\n\n\"We remove foreign criminals from the UK to different countries every week and this flight is no different.\"", "Esther Dingley sent this selfie at the top of a mountain on 22 November\n\nThe boyfriend of a British woman who went missing while hiking in the Pyrenees has found her body and belongings.\n\nEsther Dingley, from Durham, vanished on a solo trek in November sparking major searches by French and Spanish police and her partner Daniel Colegate.\n\nA fragment of bone found in July was confirmed to be the 37-year-old's.\n\nLBT Global, which is supporting the family, said an accident \"is the most likely hypothesis\".\n\nA spokesman for the overseas crisis support charity said Mr Colegate found his girlfriend's remains on Monday afternoon, close to where the bone fragment was discovered.\n\nChris Bockman, a British journalist working in Toulouse, said French police searches had been hampered by a number of search and rescue operations and thunderstorms.\n\nHe said according to the French judge leading the investigation, officers are beginning to collect forensic information at the \"difficult to reach site\" which will be DNA analysed, while a helicopter will be used \"if necessary\" to recover Ms Dingley's body.\n\nDaniel Colegate and Esther Dingley were on an open-ended campervan tour of Europe\n\nSince Ms Dingley vanished, her partner had walked hundreds of miles in the mountains on the French and Spanish border looking for signs of her.\n\n\"At this stage an accident is the most likely hypothesis, given the location and other early indications,\" LBT Global said.\n\n\"A full investigation is under way to confirm the details surrounding this tragedy.\n\n\"The family remain incredibly grateful for the efforts of the police units involved and their commitment to understanding the exact circumstances of Esther's death.\"\n\nMs Dingley, who was an experienced hiker, was trekking alone when she last communicated with her partner from the top of Pic De Sauvegarde at about 16:00 on 22 November.\n\nMr Colegate, who was staying 100 miles away in a French farmhouse, raised the alarm several days later when she failed to report in at an agreed time.\n\nThe couple were on an open-ended campervan tour of Europe and Ms Dingley was on the final walk of a month-long solo expedition when she vanished.\n\nEsther Dingley was an experienced walker, her family said\n\nPolice on both sides of the border used helicopters and specialist teams to search for her in the days between her disappearance and the arrival of the heavy winter snow.\n\nThe failure to find any sign of her left Mr Colegate \"baffled\" and led to fears she may have been kidnapped.\n\nMr Colegate began his own searches when the winter weather eased in April followed a few weeks later by the police.\n\nDan and Esther had been together since meeting at university in 2003\n\nThe couple met in 2003 when they were both students at Oxford University and later moved to Durham.\n\nIn 2014, after Mr Colegate nearly died following an operation, they decided to swap their lives running their own businesses and embark on a campervan tour of Europe involving lots of hiking and cycling.\n\nDuring their travels, they adopted a pregnant dog in Spain who gave birth to five puppies who joined them on their adventure.\n\nMr Colegate has written books about their travels while Ms Dingley ran a blog detailing their exploits.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Oprah Winfrey onstage during her 2020 Vision tour, sponsored by Weight Watchers International\n\nShares in WW International, formerly known as Weight Watchers, have dived 25% after the firm said people were putting diets on hold after lockdown.\n\nThe weight loss firm, which is backed by talk show host Oprah Winfrey, had 4.9 million subscribers at the end of June, down from 5 million last year.\n\nBoss Mindy Grossman said part of this was a seasonal effect.\n\nBut she also said people are less worried about what they eat as they venture out of their homes again.\n\n\"While people are acknowledging their need for recommitting to weight loss and wellness, our recent consumer research shows that, at the moment, they're also asking for a pause to enjoy social reconnection,\" said Ms Grossman.\n\n\"With both traffic and search under pressure, this sentiment shift appears to be across the weight loss and wellness category.\"\n\nLike other dieting companies, WW benefited during the pandemic as consumers stuck at home decided to get back into shape.\n\nMany people had put on weight as they stopped commuting to work and increasingly turned to food and alcohol to manage stress.\n\nHowever, in the three months to 30 June, subscriber numbers fell or were flat in all its key markets, including North America, the UK and the rest of Europe. Sales of its branded products slipped 6.9%.\n\nFounded in 1963 in New York City, WW International provides a weight-management programme and food plan to subscribers. It also makes money out of branded goods and services such as magazines and snacks and drinks.\n\nIts high profile ambassadors include actress Kate Hudson, comedian James Corden, and Ms Winfrey, who bought a 10% stake in the company in 2015 and is a member of its board.", "David Cameron has denied commercially lobbying the government on behalf of a genetics company he worked for.\n\nIt comes after it emerged he encouraged Health Secretary Matt Hancock to speak at a conference co-hosted by the firm, Illumina, shortly before it won a £123m government contract.\n\nAccording to the Times newspaper, Mr Cameron wrote to Mr Hancock personally to recommend he attend the conference.\n\nMr Cameron's spokesman confirmed both men had attended the conference.\n\nThe former Prime Minister also mentioned his attendance at the conference on his Twitter account.\n\nThis 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 David Cameron 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.\n\nThe conference was co-hosted by Illumina and Genomics England.\n\nIn the letter, seen by the Times, Mr Cameron wrote to Mr Hancock: \"I understand Jay [Flatley, then executive chairman of Illumina] has sent this direct to your office, but I wanted to i) ensure that you had seen it personally; and ii) strongly endorse their invitation to this significant conference.\"\n\nThe BBC understands that Mr Cameron did forward a copy of a letter of invitation to the conference to Mr Hancock, after a previous one had been sent directly.\n\nThe Times reported that a week after the conference at the Four Seasons Hotel, in Hampshire, in September 2019, the company was given a multi-million-pound contract for genetic sequencing without competition. The contract is with Genomics England, a company wholly owned by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).\n\nThe DHSC said that the contract was \"was awarded in the correct way, through the proper process\".\n\nDeputy Leader of the Labour Party Angela Rayner said: \"There is rampant cronyism, sleaze and dodgy lobbying that is polluting our democracy under Boris Johnson and the Conservatives. They hand public money to their mates without a second thought.\"\n\nMr Hancock said that he \"had no involvement in the awarding of these contracts and all normal processes were followed\".\n\nMr Cameron's spokesman said: \"David Cameron's work for Illumina has never involved any discussion of commercial contracts.\n\n\"It has predominantly involved promoting the benefits of genomic sequencing and the world-leading example of Genomics England to other countries around the world. He has done this in Australia, the US, the Gulf, India and more recently in online calls with interested parties in Japan and Holland.\n\nHe said the former Prime Minister had made clear that promoting the science of genomics would occasionally bring him into contact with UK Government Ministers, officials and others, including at international gatherings.\n\n\"For instance, he and the former Secretary of State for Health, Matt Hancock, both spoke at an international genomics conference in September 2019 and this was publicised at the time, including on David Cameron's own Twitter account.\n\n\"As has been made clear on numerous occasions, David Cameron has never lobbied the Government on behalf of Illumina or been involved in any contract or commercial discussions,\" he added.\n\nThe Department for Health and Social Care said it carried out \"extensive due diligence\".\n\n\"This contract, signed to help save lives through better diagnosis, was awarded in the correct way, through the proper process and any suggestion of undue ministerial involvement in the decision making is completely wrong.\n\n\"Extensive due diligence was carried out and as set out in the transparency notice the contact was directly awarded because Illumina was the only company considered to have the technical capability to deliver this crucial work.\n\nIt said that the 2019 contract \"was a follow-on contract to the original sequencing contract with Illumina in 2014.\"", "God Save the Queen was played before Wales rugby games until the 1970s, when events at Twickenham and Cardiff Arms Park led to it being dropped\n\nIn 1905, before what was dubbed \"game of the century\", Welsh players and fans responded to New Zealand's Haka with Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau.\n\nIt is believed to be one of the first times an anthem was sung before an international sports match anywhere in the world.\n\nNow, 116 years later, it is played at rugby and football internationals, as well as Senedd events.\n\nBut should God Save the Queen, the UK's official anthem, be sung as well?\n\nIn an article, Archbishop of York, the Most Rev Stephen Cottrell, said it had become seen as \"just the English anthem\".\n\nHe added that, as part of \"a big vision for one United Kingdom\" to stop the union falling apart, when \"the different nations of the UK find themselves pitched against each other on the sports field we could belt out our English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish anthems. Then sing our national anthem together\".\n\nWhen the old Lansdowne Road was being redeveloped, Ireland played rugby matches at Croke Park\n\nRugby writer Peter Jackson believes it is seen by people as \"not the anthem of Wales\" and would be \"booed now even more than it was in the past\".\n\nHowever, he would not have anthems at all, saying his dad's view when he was growing up in Ireland was \"it only heightened the differences between one set of people and another\".\n\nGod Save the Queen was played at Croke Park in Dublin before Ireland v England in the 2007 Six Nations.\n\nMr Jackson described it as a place \"loaded with history of the most emotive kind\" as it was where British forces opened fire on the crowd attending a Gaelic football match in 1920, killing 14 people, including Tipperary player Michael Hogan.\n\n\"When they played it at the shrine of Gaelic football and Irish republicanism, you could hear a pin drop,\" he said.\n\n\"Compare that to it routinely being booed in Edinburgh and Cardiff - which are parts of the UK.\"\n\nGod Save the Queen continues to be played before Northern Ireland football matches while Scotland's rugby and football teams adopted Flower of Scotland in the 1990s.\n\nCould Alun Wyn Jones and Ken Owens sing God Save the Queen before Wales games?\n\n\"Each country should play what they want. England for years claimed God Save the Queen, even though it's the anthem of the UK, not England,\" said sports historian Huw Richards.\n\n\"We weren't bothered about fighting them for it because musically it's such an awful anthem.\"\n\nHowever, he said it was generally accepted and played as well as Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau before rugby games, until a \"tipping point\" came in the 1970s.\n\nMr Richards said: \"In 1973, God Save the Queen was played at Cardiff before Wales played Japan and unmercifully jeered, with it identified among Welsh fans as English, who asked 'why are they playing it at our game?'\n\n\"Then at Twickenham, a few months later, Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau wasn't played - it was suggested it was direct retaliation, with the RFU president thoroughly embarrassed, saying the band took unilateral action.\"\n\nFormer Wales striker Craig Bellamy wore the colours of Team GB but decided not to sing God Save the Queen\n\nHe believes this was the point where it was decided God Save the Queen was \"not appropriate for Wales games\" and it was \"quietly dropped\", with the WRU in a \"strong position to be assertive\" because of the great sides it had in the 1970s.\n\nMr Richards believes if God Save the Queen was a truly representative, UK-wide anthem, there would be more controversy about it not being used, adding: \"It's not about the UK, but celebrates a particular structure.\n\n\"You see it before France v England - one anthem is an appeal to the entire nation, then the next is about being subjects.\"\n\nMr Richards believes 116 years of history means that Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau now \"represents who we are\" in a way God Save the Queen simply cannot.\n\nThe Wales football team, supported by \"The Red Wall\" sing the national anthem at Euro 2016\n\n\"There is a parallel debate over the Prince of Wales feathers on the jersey - many suggest it's a colonial hangover and ask why we still wear them,\" he added.\n\n\"But now, many people look at them and see Bleddyn Williams, Gareth Edwards and Ieuan Evans.\n\n\"The meanings of things change over time, with the relationship of previously imposed princes to run the place irrelevant, and in a rugby context, the three feathers represent the great players who have worn them.\"\n\nIn that sense, for many players as well, history means God Save the Queen has come to represent Wales' greatest rivals.\n\nAt the 2012 London Olympics, Team GB played football matches in Cardiff, and despite wearing the jersey, Welshmen Craig Bellamy, Ryan Giggs, Joe Allen, Aaron Ramsey and Neil Taylor decided not to sing it.\n\nRather than being seen as their own anthem, Bellamy simply asked the crowd to respect it by not booing, adding: \"Every national anthem, it doesn't matter if it is your worst enemy, it's just one or two minutes and you should be quiet and respect it and that should be the same for everyone.\"", "All over-50s in the UK could be eligible for a third or booster dose of a Covid vaccine\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid says he has already put plans in place to give the most vulnerable groups a third or booster Covid jab early next month.\n\nBut the head of the Oxford Vaccine Group said doses needed to \"go where they can have the greatest impact\" - to protect unvaccinated people abroad.\n\nThe UK itself currently had no reason to panic, Prof Sir Andrew Pollard said.\n\nMr Javid said he would wait for final advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).\n\n\"My plan is to offer the flu vaccine, especially to over-50s, at the same time,\" he said.\n\nA bigger flu season than normal is expected, with scientists warning respiratory viruses will make a comeback this year after disappearing last year during lockdown.\n\nNHS bosses had previously said they needed lots of warning of a Covid booster programme in order to plan the logistics of vaccinating millions of people against both viruses.\n\nHowever, Prof Pollard, who led the team that created the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, said decisions on whether to give boosters \"should be scientifically driven\".\n\n\"The time we would need to boost is if we see evidence that there was an increase in hospitalisation - or the next stage after that, which would be people dying - amongst those who are vaccinated,\" he said.\n\n\"And that is not something we are seeing at the moment.\"\n\nProf Pollard told the all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus that people's immune systems would remember \"decades from now\" they had received two doses of vaccine - and that would help protect them against Covid-19.\n\n\"We are not seeing a problem with breakthrough severe disease and we have this understanding of the biology which puts us in a good place to know that even if we start to see some waning of protection, that would not be a complete switch-off of protection,\" he said.\n\nProf Pollard also warned that herd immunity was \"not a possibility\" because the delta variant would continue to infect people who had been vaccinated.\n\nEven if all children were vaccinated, that wouldn't stop transmission of the virus, he said.\n\nOver time, there needed to be a move away from community testing of mild infections - which will boost people's immunity - to clinically-driven testing of people who become unwell, he added.\n\nThe focus should be on improving treatment for people who become seriously ill from Covid in hospital, Prof Pollard said.", "People have been sleeping in makeshift camps in Kabul after fleeing their homes\n\nUS President Joe Biden has said he does not regret his move to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, as Taliban militants continue to make rapid advances.\n\nMr Biden urged Afghanistan's leaders to unite and \"fight for their nation\".\n\nA US-led military campaign began in 2001 following the 9/11 attacks on American soil - but now most of the foreign troops have pulled out.\n\nThe Taliban group has now seized nine of the country's 34 provincial capitals, and are threatening more.\n\nSpeaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Mr Biden said the US was keeping the commitments it had made to Afghanistan, such as providing close air support, paying military salaries and supplying Afghan forces with food and equipment.\n\nBut he said: \"They've got to fight for themselves.\"\n\nThe Washington Post cited unnamed officials as saying the capital Kabul could fall to the Taliban within 90 days, based on US military assessments.\n\nMore than 1,000 civilians have been killed amid fierce fighting between the Taliban and government forces in the past month, according to the UN. Its children's agency Unicef warned this week that atrocities being committed against children were growing \"higher by the day\".\n\nIn their latest major advances, Taliban militants seized three more provincial capitals in 24 hours - Faizabad, Farah and Pul-e-Khumri.\n\nOfficials said that on Tuesday the insurgents had raised their flag in the main square and on the governor's office in Pul-e-Khumri, the capital of Baghlan province, which is located about 200km (125 miles) from Kabul.\n\nA local journalist and provincial council member told the BBC that the western city of Farah had fallen.\n\nAnd on Wednesday, the Taliban claimed to have taken Faizabad in the north-west of the country.\n\nOther gains by the militant group this week include the key northern city of Kunduz. It is considered a gateway to mineral-rich provinces and is in a strategically important location close to the border with Tajikistan, which is used for the smuggling of opium and heroin.\n\nHeavy fighting is continuing in other parts of the country, and US and Afghan planes have been carrying out airstrikes.\n\nOn Wednesday Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani flew to Mazar-i-Sharif in an apparent drive to rally the defenders in the key northern city which is now threatened by the militants.\n\nThousands of people have been fleeing their homes in recent days.\n\n\"We saw bodies lying near the prison... there were dogs next to them,\" one woman who left Kunduz as the Taliban took control told AFP news agency.\n\nResidents still in the city said shops had begun to reopen as Taliban militants focused their attention on government forces who had retreated to the airport.\n\n\"People are opening their shops and businesses, but you can still see fear in their eyes,\" one said.\n\nThe Taliban have rejected international calls for a ceasefire.\n\nUK Chief of the Defence Staff Gen Sir Nick Carter told the BBC that if the Afghan state fractured, the \"ideal conditions\" could emerge for international terrorism and violent extremism.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Scotrail said it did not want to put staff in \"difficult positions\" by having to enforce the rules\n\nScotRail staff are not expected to enforce rules on wearing face coverings on trains, the operator has confirmed.\n\nOperations director David Simpson said it was not the job of rail staff to enforce the rules and he did not want to put them in \"difficult positions\".\n\nPassengers who are uncomfortable with others not wearing masks can contact British Transport Police, he said.\n\nMr Simpson said face masks were mandatory but it was up to passengers to take \"personal responsibility\".\n\nSocial distancing rules on public transport were lifted as part of Scotland's move out of Covid level zero, however face coverings remain a legal requirement.\n\nMr Simpson told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme: \"We're not expecting our staff to enforce it.\n\n\"Our staff can often be in very difficult position in that respect, particularly on evening services where customers are perhaps more refreshed than usual.\n\n\"What we don't want to do is put staff into difficult, challenging, potentially upsetting environments.\"\n\nWhile staff will not be required to enforce mask-wearing, passengers will be asked to follow the rules through announcements.\n\nPassengers are being asked to take \"personal responsibility\" to follow legal requirements over face coverings\n\nMr Simpson said CCTV monitoring had shown \"very high\" compliance and said ScotRail would work with British Transport Police (BTP) where there were \"trouble spots\".\n\nPassengers who are concerned if others are not wearing masks can contact the transport police or move to a different part of the train, Mr Simpson added.\n\nScotRail is also pushing the message to wear face coverings in an effort to help people feel safe during the Edinburgh Festival, which began on Friday.\n\nAdditional carriages have been added to trains and more late night services will run throughout the event.\n\nTransport Scotland said British Transport Police were responsible for enforcing Covid regulations on the railway network.\n\nA spokesperson said: \"We have published guidance for transport operators to enable them to keep their staff and passengers safe during the pandemic.\n\n\"This reinforces the importance of signage, announcements and messaging to remind passengers of Covid-19 requirements whilst using public transport.\n\n\"Transport Scotland and operators continue to reinforce messaging on the continuing legal requirement to wear face coverings in indoor public places including public transport.\"\n\nTravellers can expect to see further changes as ScotRail bid to increase passenger numbers as life returns to normal.\n\nMr Simpson said capacity was around 80% of pre-pandemic levels, but with only 50% of the usual passengers.\n\nThere has been a \"gradual rise\" in demand, particularly at weekends, but with people continuing to work from home the firm has not seen the return of commuter traffic.\n\nMeanwhile, the ban on the consumption of alcohol on trains remains in place but will be \"kept under review\".\n\nMr Simpson added: \"That's been very helpful in terms of reducing anti-social behaviour particularly in the evening. Again staff are asked to be vigilant, but we do expect customers themselves to be responsible.\n\n\"We've put tremendous amount of effort into enhanced cleaning on trains and in stations.\n\n\"We think face coverings gives an extra level of reassurance about using public transport and we will be making sure timetable matches demand to avoid overcrowding.\"\n\nLast month the first minister announced there would be a review of social distancing rules on public transport following a row with cross-border rail operators.\n\nAt the time ScotRail said \"physical distancing can't be guaranteed\" in stations or on trains.", "A photo of Ali Jayden Doyle was left among floral tributes to her\n\nTwo people have appeared in court charged over the death of a two-year-old girl in Dungannon, County Tyrone.\n\nAli Jayden Doyle died in hospital on Friday after sustaining head injuries.\n\nDarren John Armstrong, 32, of Ashbeg Grove in Dungannon, was charged with murder and perverting the course of justice.\n\nThe girl's mother, Jade Dempsey, 24, of Sycamore Drive, Dungannon, was charged with perverting the course of justice and causing the death of a child.\n\nA detective sergeant told Omagh Magistrates' Court he could connect the accused to the charges.\n\nThe court heard that paramedics found Ali unconscious at a house at Park Avenue in Dungannon.\n\nShe was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast where Mr Armstrong and Ms Dempsey gave their account of what happened.\n\nThe court was told Mr Armstrong told doctors that Ali's younger brother, a one-year-old, had hit her on the head with a toy and that she had fallen against a fireplace and hit her head.\n\nThe court heard doctors then phoned social services and informed the police.\n\nPolice cordoned off a house in Dungannon after the incident on Friday\n\nThe court also heard Ali's injuries were \"catastrophic\" and, according to the pathologist, could not have been accidental.\n\nThe police told the court the pathologist said she had \"never seen this level of injury on a child in an accidental fall\".\n\nThe court was told the child had \"no evidence of previous trauma\".\n\nThe judge told the court Ms Dempsey, who is originally from the Republic of Ireland, was a flight risk.\n\nShe also told the court that Mr Armstrong had a \"litany of breach of court orders\" and that she \"entertained no confidence that he would adhere to the conditions of bail\".\n\nThey will appear in court again on 1 September.", "The Mediterranean heatwave has led to the spread of wildfires across southern Italy\n\nThe Italian island of Sicily may have registered the hottest temperature ever recorded in Europe - 48.8C (119.8F).\n\nRegional authorities reported the reading, which needs to be verified by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), near Syracuse on Wednesday.\n\nAccording to the WMO, the current official record in Europe is 48C, registered in Athens, Greece, in 1977.\n\nThe latest heatwave in Italy is being caused by an anticyclone - nicknamed Lucifer - moving up from Africa.\n\nAnticyclones are areas of high atmospheric pressure where the air is sinking.\n\nLucifer is forecast to head north across mainland Italy, further raising temperatures in cities including the capital, Rome.\n\nItaly's health ministry has issued \"red\" alerts for extreme heat in several regions and the number of cities that face the highest health risk is expected to rise from eight to 15 by Friday.\n\nThe Mediterranean heatwave, which has seen some countries record their highest temperatures in decades, has led to the spread of wildfires across southern Italy, with Sicily, Calabria and Puglia the worst-hit regions.\n\nItalian firefighters on Wednesday said they had been involved in more than 300 operations in Sicily and Calabria over a 12-hour period, battling through the night to control blazes burning thousands of acres of land.\n\nThree fire-related deaths - two in Calabria and one in Sicily - have been reported by Italian media.\n\nSeparately, wildfires are continuing across Greece, fuelled by strong winds and parched vegetation. Foreign teams are helping to tackle blazes in what Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has described as a \"nightmarish summer\".\n\nClimate change increases the risk of the hot, dry weather that is likely to fuel wildfires.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe world has already warmed by about 1.2C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.\n\nOn Monday the UN released a major report saying human activity was making extreme weather events more common.", "At least 25 Algerian soldiers and 17 civilians have been killed in wildfires to the east of the capital Algiers, the country's prime minister has said.\n\nSeveral more soldiers were injured fighting the fires, in the forested Kabylie region.\n\nTemperatures of up to 46C were forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday.\n\nFires have caused devastation in several Mediterranean countries in recent days, including Turkey, Greece, Lebanon and Cyprus.\n\nClimate change increases the risk of the hot, dry weather that is likely to fuel wildfires.\n\nThe world has already warmed by about 1.2C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.\n\nMore than 100 fires have been reported across 17 Algerian provinces, the country's official news agency APS said on Tuesday evening.\n\nPresident Abdelmadjid Tebboune paid tribute to the soldiers who were killed, tweeting that they had succeeded in rescuing more than 100 people from the mountains of Bejaia and Tizi Ouzou.\n\nInterior Minister Kamel Beldjoud said that about 50 of the blazes were \"of criminal origin\".\n\nEarlier this week, a major UN scientific report found that human activity was changing the climate in unprecedented and sometimes irreversible ways.\n\nThe landmark study warned of increasingly extreme heatwaves, droughts and flooding, and a key temperature limit being broken in just over a decade, but scientists say a catastrophe can be avoided if the world acts fast.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nNew York Governor Andrew Cuomo has resigned after an inquiry found that he sexually harassed multiple women, prompting efforts to remove him.\n\n\"The best way I can help now is if I step aside,\" he said, while continuing to deny the claims. The resignation will take effect in 14 days.\n\nLt Governor Kathy Hochul will become the first woman to lead New York state.\n\nMr Cuomo had been facing pressure to resign from fellow Democrats, including President Joe Biden.\n\nJust a year ago he was basking in adulation as millions of Americans tuned in daily to his no-nonsense televised briefings on the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nMr Cuomo is the third New York governor in a row to leave office under a cloud of scandal.\n\nThe independent investigation by the New York Attorney General's office found that Mr Cuomo, 63, sexually harassed 11 women, including state employees.\n\nWomen alleged that he made sexual comments, inappropriately touched or groped them, and kissed them without consent.\n\nThe report led many prominent Democrats to turn against Mr Cuomo, including Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Senate leader Chuck Schumer and New York's two US senators.\n\nHis fellow New York Democrats had begun plans to impeach him. He is still facing criminal investigations relating to the harassment claims.\n\nAs he announced his resignation on Tuesday, Mr Cuomo continued to deny allegations of sexual harassment but said he wanted to \"deeply, deeply\" apologise to any women who may have been offended by his actions.\n\n\"In my mind I've never crossed the line with anyone. but I didn't realise the extent to which the line has been redrawn,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Brittany Commisso tells CBS This Morning: \"He groped me, he touched me\"\n\nHe added that his instinct was \"to fight through this controversy, because I believe it is politically motivated\".\n\nBut he said he was resigning because the \"current trajectory\" of the scandal would generate months of distractions and \"cost taxpayers millions of dollars\".\n\nMr Cuomo said the allegations had harmed his relationship with his daughters.\n\n\"I have sat on the couch with them, hearing the ugly accusations for weeks. I have seen the look in their eyes, and the expression on their faces. It hurt,\" he said.\n\nHe said he told them he \"never did and would never intentionally disrespect a woman\".\n\nWhat do the women allege?\n• None Eight womensay he made offensive, condescending or sexual comments\n• None Seven womensay he inappropriately touched or groped them at least once\n• None Four womenallege he kissed them without consent\n\nFollowing Mr Cuomo's announcement, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a long-time critic of the governor, said \"it was past time\" for him to resign.\n\n\"I respect the governor's decision,\" Mr Biden told reporters at the White House. \"I respect the decision he made.\"\n\nWhite House Press Secretary Jen Psaki earlier said the president had not spoken to his old friend since the report was published and did not have advance notice of his resignation.\n\nMr Cuomo's brother, CNN primetime anchor Chris Cuomo, has also faced calls to resign after it emerged he had been advising the governor ahead of his Tuesday announcement.\n\nThe younger Cuomo in May had apologised to viewers for strategizing with his brother about how to handle the initial misconduct claims. He recused himself from covering the matter on air, and has not commented on the official report. He has since gone on holiday.\n\nA separate federal inquiry is also looking into whether the governor's office deliberately undercounted the number of Covid deaths in New York care homes.\n\nThis is a stunning reversal of fortunes for a former heavyweight of the Democratic Party - who was hailed as a national hero during the Covid pandemic just last year. His image now is closer to that of a villain.\n\nBefore the report came out - and initially after its release - Andrew Cuomo tried to survive the scandal. He knew the #MeToo movement had changed the conversation around sexual assault, after all he had passed legislation with new protections for victims. So in public statements he tried, in a sense, to have it both ways.\n\nHe said women should be heard, but then tried to discredit his accusers. He said what the women had described as sexual advances were in his view harmless gestures that arose from his upbringing and culture's physical warmth.\n\nThe pressure did not let up and it became increasingly clear that Andrew Cuomo was backed into a corner. Still, when the resignation announcement did come from this defiant politician, it was major surprise that rocked New York and the country.\n\nKathy Hochul will become the first female governor of the fourth most populous US state.\n\nThe 62-year-old is a centrist Democrat from the Buffalo area of New York state. She joined the governor's team in 2014, and has held the largely ceremonial role of lieutenant governor.\n\nShe was not part of Mr Cuomo's inner circle, but he described her on Tuesday as \"smart and competent\".\n\nMs Hochul had joined the chorus of politicians denouncing the New York governor last week, and said his resignation on Tuesday was the \"right thing to do\".\n\n\"As someone who has served at all levels of government and is next in the line of succession, I am prepared to lead as New York State's 57th Governor,\" she said in a statement.\n\nIt's unclear whether she will seek a full term in the 2022 election.", "The hacker behind one of the largest cryptocurrency heists to date has returned almost half of the $600m (£433m) stolen assets.\n\nOn Tuesday, the firm affected, Poly Network wrote a letter on Twitter, asking the individual to get in touch \"to work out a solution\".\n\nThe hacker then posted messages pledging to return funds, claiming to be \"not very interested in money\".\n\nOn Wednesday, Poly Network said it had received $260m back.\n\nThe company, a blockchain platform which lets users swap different types of digital tokens, posted on Twitter that it had been sent back three cryptocurrencies, including $3.3m worth of Ethereum, $256m worth of Binance Coin and $1m worth of Polygon.\n\nA total of $269m in Ether tokens and $84m in Polygon tokens has yet to be recovered.\n\nA blockchain is a ledger, or log, of every single transaction made of a cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin.\n\nThe ledger is distributed to all the users in the network to verify all new transactions when they occur, instead of being held by any one single authority.\n\nThe hacker published a three-page-long Q&A session on one of the blockchains essentially in the form of a self-interview, according to Tom Robinson, co-founder of Elliptic, a London-based blockchain analytics and compliance firm.\n\nThe hacker claimed to have always planned to return the tokens and said the heist was carried out to highlight vulnerabilities in Poly Network software.\n\n\"I know it hurts when people are attacked, but shouldn't they learn something from those hacks?\" the hacker wrote in the notes embedded on the Ethereum blockchain.\n\nThe technology underpining all crypto-currencies is blockchain - a distributed log of every single transaction made of a digital currency, that is sent to all users on the network\n\nThe hacker claimed to have spent all night looking for a vulnerability to exploit. They said they were worried that Poly Network would patch the security flaw quietly without telling anyone, so they decided to take millions of dollars in cryptocurrency tokens to make a point.\n\nBut they stressed that they did not want to cause a \"real panic [in] the crypto-world\", so they only took \"important coins\", leaving behind Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency that started off as a joke.\n\n\"Either they just intended to commit theft and steal the assets, or they were acting like a white hat hacker to expose a bug, to help Poly Network make themselves more strong and secure,\" Mr Robinson, who routinely advises governments and law enforcement agencies about crypto-related crimes, told the BBC.\n\nHe added that the nature of blockchain technology makes it hard for cyber-criminals to profit from stealing digital currencies, because everyone can see the money being moved across the network into the hackers' wallets.\n\n\"I wonder whether this hacker stole the funds, realised how much publicity and attention they were getting, realised wherever they moved the funds they would be watched, and decided to give it back,\" said Mr Robinson.\n\n\"The blockchain itself has operated here flawlessly, but the problem is on blockchains like Ethereum, you can write your own smart contracts. Various services have started offering this, including Poly Network.\n\n\"So whenever a human being writes code, there's a chance they will make a mistake.\"\n\nDespite the volatility in prices and frequent news of cryptocurrency heists, more and more young people are buying and selling crypto-currencies online\n\nPoly Network's platform works by facilitating movement between several blockchains when people trade one cryptocurrency for another, such as trading Binance Coin for Ether.\n\n\"The Poly Network is the thing that facilitates the movement between these chains - ultimately, it's software, it's code, and code always has imperfections and defects in it,\" James Chappell, co-founder of London-based cyber-security firm Digital Shadows, told the BBC.\n\n\"And that's true of banks, or any financial system. Unfortunately, what seems to have happened here is a party has spotted a weakness in the implementation and exploited it to fool the network into transferring these tokens incorrectly.\"\n\nSimilar attacks have happened to several other services in the last 12 months. These include:\n\nAfter a rollercoaster 24 hours for the crypto community, it seems the hacker intends to return all or most of the stolen money.\n\nAs the criminal posted online: \"The pain suffered is temporary, but memorable.\"\n\nThe claim that it was all an elaborate way to force Poly Network to fix security failings is being treated with scepticism.\n\nWhy the taunting and boasting online if the motive was honourable?\n\nThere's some suggestion that the net may have been closing in, as one cyber-security company says it was close to working out the identity of a suspect.\n\nIt might have been the case that the hacker bit off way more than they could chew and got scared, so returned the money.\n\nRegardless, the authorities will still no doubt be working hard to find them.\n\nBut what this story mostly points to is just how powerful hackers can be and how powerless the unregulated, decentralised cryptocurrency world is when someone swipes a large fortune from under its nose.", "One of the writers of the sci-fi film I Am Legend has clarified its fictional nature amid rumours Covid-19 vaccines would turn people into zombies.\n\nThe 2007 film, starring Will Smith, is about a failed attempt to genetically re-engineer measles to cure cancer, killing 99% of the world's population.\n\nThose who survive the infection turn into mutant vampiric creatures.\n\nClaims that something similar would happen to people receiving Covid jabs have been circulating on social media.\n\nLast week, the New York Times reported that the owner of an eyewear store in the Bronx, New York, was struggling to persuade some of its staff to get a Covid vaccine, with one citing the plot of I Am Legend as a concern.\n\n\"One employee said she was concerned because she thought a vaccine had caused the characters in the film I Am Legend to turn into zombies,\" the report said.\n\nResponding to the article, Akiva Goldsman, 59, who co-wrote the screenplay based on a 1954 novel of the same name, tweeted: \"Oh. My. God. It's a movie. I made that up. It's. Not. Real.\"\n\nThis 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 Akiva Goldsman 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.\n\nBaseless posts and memes which cite the film as a reason not to get vaccinated against Covid have appeared on social media platforms for months, with some being labelled by Facebook as containing misinformation.\n\nOne meme claims in the film vaccinations cause humans to turn into zombies, both misrepresenting the plot and the fictional nature of the film.\n\nThis 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 2 by Vera Bergengruen 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.\n\nAnother meme claims the film was set in 2021, which would correspond to the pandemic and the global vaccination rollout - despite the fact the plot was actually set in 2012.\n\nI Am Legend is not the only film used by activists to spread misinformation about Covid and vaccines. Other films such as Children of Men and The Matrix have appeared in similar memes and posts.", "Should I be working from home or going back to the office?\n\nWe've already heard that Google in the US is considering cutting the pay of staff who work from home, but what is the work from home guidance in the UK? In England, people are are no longer being asked to work from home and a gradual return to workplaces is encouraged by the government. However, in the rest of the UK, people are still being advised to keep working at home where possible. You can ask to keep working from home in the future, but your employer doesn't have to agree. However, the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development - which represents HR professionals - says there could be much greater freedom and flexibility in how, when and where people work in future. \"People generally want a mix of workplace and home working, and the possibility of more choice in their working routines, meaning hybrid working can provide an effective balance for many workers.\" The CIPD adds that the lifting of Covid restrictions \"shouldn't signal a mass return to workplaces,\" and \"it should be down to individual organisations, consulting with their people, to agree working arrangements\". On Monday, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng rejected the idea that civil servants should be paid less if they continue working from home. Read more in our explainer on the UK's working from home guidance", "Sharing the exam news at Ark Burlington Danes Academy in west London\n\nGCSE students have received another set of record grades, in the second year of Covid disruption to exams in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nTop grades (7/As and above) rose to 28.9% from 26.2% last year, while grades 4/Cs and above - seen as passes - rose to 77.1% up from 76.3%.\n\nThis is a smaller rise than last year, the first time exams were cancelled and teacher assessed grades were used.\n\nExams regulators have insisted the process has been fair and thorough.\n\nTeachers submitted grades for the more than half a million pupils on GCSE courses this year, using evidence such as mock exams, course work and tests.\n\nThere were more top GCSE grades, but the increase was not as sharp as at A-level\n\nThere are different devolved systems for GCSEs:\n\nThe two years of replacement grades, after exams were cancelled in the pandemic, have had significantly higher results, for GCSEs and A-levels.\n\nExam officials say it reflects that no one has had a bad day in an exam and that pupils had multiple chances to show their best potential.\n\nEngland's exam watchdog Ofqual said the system was fair, each centre had its assessment policy reviewed and samples of work were checked during a \"quality assurance\" process.\n\nExam boards say that below 1% of grades were changed in the checking process.\n\nAs well as getting GCSEs, more than half a million vocational qualifications were also issued, including for 230,000 BTec students.\n\nSchools Minister Nick Gibb defended the way GCSE results had been awarded, saying this had been a \"very different year\" and it was right that exams were cancelled.\n\n\"This was the best alternative to exams,\" he told BBC Breakfast. \"I think people can be confident of the grades that have been awarded this year.\"\n\nMr Gibb said longer term, he wanted to get back to a pre-pandemic system where there are no \"significant changes\" year-on-year in the grades awarded to students.\n\nLabour's Shadow Education Secretary Kate Green said the exam results were a \"stark warning\" of a widening social divide.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. GCSE results day: \"It's amazing, I can't believe it\"\n\n\"Children on free school meals have been abandoned by this government and students in state schools are again being outstripped by their more advantaged private school peers,\" she said.\n\nJon Andrews of the Education Policy Institute think tank warned the higher results should not \"distract us from the huge learning losses that students have faced\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Schools minister: \"People can be confident of the grades awarded\"\n\n\"There is a risk that higher grades awarded to young people conceal the underlying losses that they have experienced from the pandemic.\"\n\nProf Alan Smithers, of the Centre of Education and Employment Research, at Buckingham University, said it would be difficult for the government to reverse the trend of increasing grades over the coming years - as the higher grades are popular with parents and schools.\n\n\"It will be quite a task for the government to put the genie back into the bottle,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. It is \"pretty astonishing\" that the education secretary is still in his job, says the Labour leader.\n\nBut head teachers say the replacement grades used this year will allow pupils to progress to the next stage of their education.\n\nNational Association of Head Teachers leader Paul Whiteman said it was important that these pupils have access to any additional academic or pastoral support they need as they progress into the next stage of their education.\n\nGeoff Barton, of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: \"It is important to focus on the achievements of this cohort rather than fixate on comparisons with other years, which are somewhat meaningless.\"\n\nSyeda in Dagenham got all grade 9s in her GCSE results\n\nSyeda had been hoping for high grades after sitting 62 assessments, instead of the usual exams, at Sydney Russell School in Dagenham, east London.\n\nAnd her hopes have been realised. \"I did it. I got all 9s in my GCSEs and two distinctions,\" she said.\n\n\"It's the best possible results and I'm so proud of myself. I think there is a big sense of relief.\"\n\nHer mum, Shahima came to the school with her to share the experience.\n\nShe says: \"I'm extremely, extremely proud of Syeda. She's put so much effort and hard work into this and lots of sleepless nights.\"\n\n\"It has been a bit crazy for everyone involved in this process this year,\" she says.\n\nRoman says he would have preferred the regular exam system\n\nRoman is celebrating four grade 7s and four grade 8s in his GCSEs.\n\n\"I'm definitely satisfied, but in a sense I feel I've been bumped down a few grades due to some exams being very different and out of the ordinary this year compared to other years.\"\n\nHe says the challenges he's faced over the past two years have had an impact.\n\n\"It's been a rollercoaster. So many ups and downs and so many battles, both mental battles and physical ones.\"\n\nHe says he would actually have preferred to sit exams as he feels one exam at the end would have been easier than the constant pressure of lots of tests.\n\n\"I don't think anyone could have ever imagined stuff like this,\" she says\n\n\"But the fact is that we have got through it - and hopefully our results tomorrow will prove that we have worked hard.\"\n\nTo those people who criticise the value of this year's grades, Syeda says: \"I would tell them they should try and be in our place.\"\n\n\"I don't think anyone can know what it is like unless you are experiencing it yourself.\"\n\nShe is aiming to sit A-levels next year and study English literature at the University of Cambridge.", "Police believe James Markham died after he confronted a group of youths\n\nTwo 14-year-old boys have been arrested after a man was stabbed to death in an east London street.\n\nIt is believed that James Markham, 45, died after he confronted a group of youths in Churchill Terrace, Chingford, at about 18:20 BST on Monday.\n\nThe Met said one teenager had been held on suspicion of murder while another was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder.\n\nBoth remain in custody at an east London police station, the force added.\n\nOfficers found Mr Markham fatally injured after they were called to the street over reports of a disturbance.\n\nHe was treated by paramedics but was pronounced dead at the scene.\n\nThe 45-year-old was found fatally injured in Churchill Terrace, Chingford\n\nA post-mortem examination found that Mr Markham died from a stab wound to the lung.\n\nDet Insp John Marriott said: \"We believe that James confronted a group of youths causing a disturbance and was stabbed as a result.\n\n\"The brutality of this response is beyond shocking and our thoughts are with James' family who have been left devastated by their loss.\"\n\nHe added that the arrests were \"a significant development\" but appealed for anyone with information about what happened to contact police.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Vicky Compton offered to donate one of her kidneys to boyfriend Eddie Huntley after finding out they were a match\n\nA man whose girlfriend donated one of her kidneys to him says she has given him the \"gift of life\".\n\nFor the past year Eddie Huntley had been undergoing dialysis three times a week and was in need of a transplant.\n\nBut after tests showed his girlfriend Vicky Compton was a match, she offered to step in.\n\nThe couple, who met in Scarborough about seven years ago before moving to Sheffield, say they are both doing well and looking forward to the future.\n\nBefore the transplant, Mr Huntley was having dialysis three times a week\n\nMr Huntley, a musician, developed a rare disease in childhood called Henoch-Schonlein purpura (HSP), which affects blood vessels and can sometimes lead to kidney problems.\n\nMs Compton said her boyfriend's kidneys rapidly declined in July 2019 and a year later he was on dialysis and the transplant waiting list.\n\n\"Knowing Ed needed a kidney transplant I went to get tested [and] I was a match,\" she said.\n\n\"It was just a case of well it's a match so we'll move forward with it,\" she said.\n\nMr Huntley - pictured after the transplant - said he had been given the \"gift of life\"\n\nTalking about the difference it would make, she said with her boyfriend's three times a week dialysis, making plans had been hard.\n\n\"Holidays are back open to us, visiting friends and family - these things are achievable now,\" she added.\n\nMr Huntley said: \"It's not something you can really turn down when you are in that situation... It's very hard to know what to say - it's the gift of life.\n\n\"All I can say is thank you and maybe one day I will get to pay that debt back,\" he added.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Nicks said she was vaccinated but \"still being extremely cautious\"\n\nSinger Stevie Nicks has cancelled all of her gigs for the rest of the year due to rising Covid cases in the US.\n\nThe 73-year-old Fleetwood Mac and solo star had been due to perform at events in Colorado, California and Texas.\n\n\"My primary goal is to keep healthy so I can continue singing for the next decade or longer,\" she said.\n\nAmerica is currently averaging more than 100,000 new cases a day for the first time since February, due to the Delta variant of the virus.\n\n\"These are challenging times with challenging decisions that have to be made,\" the singer explained in a statement.\n\n\"I want everyone to be safe and healthy and the rising Covid cases should be of concern to all of us.\"\n\nNicks made her name in the 1970s as the frontwoman of the second incarnation of Fleetwood Mac, singing hits like Go Your Own Way and Dreams, and went on to enjoy success as a solo star.\n\n\"While I'm vaccinated, at my age, I am still being extremely cautious and for that reason have decided to skip the five performances I had planned for 2021,\" she continued.\n\n\"Because singing and performing have been my whole life, my primary goal is to keep healthy so I can continue singing for the next decade or longer.\n\n\"I'm devastated and I know the fans are disappointed, but we will look towards a brighter 2022.\"\n\nHer cancelled concerts include appearances at the Austin City Limits Music and BottleRock Napa Valley festivals.\n\nLimp Bizkit said they wanted to be \"as responsible and proactive as possible\"\n\nMetal band Limp Bizkit also announced this week they were cancelling the remaining dates of their summer US tour due to Covid concerns.\n\nThe group said they had made the decision \"out of an abundance of caution and concern for the safety of the band, crew and most of all the fans\".\n\nSinger Fred Durst told Billboard: \"Even if the performers, crews, staff and promoters do their best to ensure safety on and behind the stage, that doesn't ensure the safety of the audience as a whole.\n\n\"We are all in this together, and we all - individually and as a whole - have to make our best efforts to be as responsible and proactive as possible moving forward to combat and stop spreading Covid.\"\n\nThe band had performed a handful of dates on their Limited Last Minute Post Pandemic Popup Party Edition tour before pulling the plug, scrapping concerts in Austin, Los Angeles and elsewhere.\n\nAfter confirming the cancellations, Durst denied rumours that bandmate Wes Borland had coronavirus and said the decision was made in response to a \"seriously flawed\" system.\n\nMeanwhile, Live Nation, the world's largest concert promoter, has said it will let artists decide whether concertgoers will be required to be fully vaccinated or show a negative test result for entry to their gigs in the US.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion, email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Google employees in the US who opt to work from home permanently may get a pay cut.\n\nThe technology giant has developed a pay calculator that lets employees see the effects of working remotely or moving offices.\n\nSome remote employees, especially those with a long commute, could have their pay cut without changing address.\n\nGoogle has no plans at this time to implement the policy in the UK.\n\nEmployees in many businesses have proved that working from home permanently is viable during the Covid pandemic.\n\nMany companies are looking ahead to how employees will work as the pandemic recedes, even as the US continues to battle the Delta variant of the disease.\n\nSilicon Valley firms, some of which are keen to get employees back to their desks, are experimenting with employee pay structures.\n\nBig tech companies including Microsoft, Facebook, and Twitter have offered less pay for employees based in locations where it is more inexpensive to live.\n\nBut smaller firms such as Reddit and Zillow have said they will pay the same no matter where employees are based, saying that this improves diversity.\n\nA Google spokesperson said: \"Our compensation packages have always been determined by location, and we always pay at the top of the local market based on where an employee works from.\n\n\"Our new Work Location Tool was developed to help employees make informed decisions about which city or state they work from and any impact on compensation if they choose to relocate or work remotely.\"\n\nOne Google employee, who works in Seattle but has a two-hour commute, complained to Reuters of being faced with a 10% pay cut for choosing to work from home full-time.\n\n\"It's as high a pay cut as I got for my most recent promotion,\" the employee said. \"I didn't do all that hard work to get promoted to then take a pay cut.\"\n\nJake Rosenfeld, a sociology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said Google's move raises alarms about who will feel the impact most acutely, including families.\n\n\"What's clear is that Google doesn't have to do this,\" Prof Rosenfeld said. \"Google has paid these workers at 100% of their prior wage, by definition. So it's not like they can't afford to pay their workers who choose to work remotely the same that they are used to receiving.\"\n\nA Google employee in Stamford, Connecticut, which is an hour away from New York by train, would be paid 15% less working remotely, while there were 5% and 10% differences in the Seattle, Boston and San Francisco areas.\n\nGoogle will not change employees' pay if they work fully remotely from the same city.\n\nIn the UK, it's a fundamental part of employment law that employers cannot alter aspects of contracts such as rates of pay without the consent of employees, or without terminating those contracts and renegotiating them, said Emma Bartlett, a partner at employment lawyers CM Murray.\n\nFrom an employee perspective, it would be demoralising to be paid less for doing the same job, she said, and from a business perspective, it would have the potential to create two tiers of employment, with some employees expected to be in the office, and some not.\n\nIf people stayed home working for childcare reasons, and women continue to take the main responsibility for childcare, then this could have the effect of widening the gender pay gap, she said.\n\nWorkers may be treated differently in other respects, she added, and organisations would have to work hard to make sure employees were not treated differently in terms of training, promotion, and access to clients.\n\nSome businesses, such as US technology giant Cisco, have put in place a hybrid working plan that has no mandates about how often employees go into the office.\n\nCisco expects that less than a quarter of its workforce will want to be in an office for three or more days a week.\n\nBut other firms, such as Goldman Sachs, want workers to return to offices.\n\nThe investment bank's boss, David Solomon, said in February that working from home was \"an aberration\" rather than \"the new normal\".\n\nThe Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), which represents human resource professionals in the UK, said it was always \"the safest option\" for firms to seek express written agreement from employees before changing the level of their pay.\n\nIn its guidance to employers, it says that imposing a pay cut is a \"high-risk\" approach, since workers can bring claims for breach of contract or even constructive unfair dismissal.\n\nRachel Suff, senior employment relations adviser at the CIPD, said: \"Rather than making sweeping decisions on issues like pay and how, where and when people work, businesses should aim to balance individual needs with the needs of the organisation.\n\n\"It would be quite near-sighted for employers to think about adjusting pay at this early point in hybrid working, given there are so many things to still be ironed out and many people are still yet to return to a physical workspace.\n\n\"Given the tight labour market, businesses also need to stay attractive and cutting pay could prove to be a false economy if it turns talent away.\"", "The 1,032ft (315m) tall mast, seen here in three different images, caught fire on Tuesday\n\nTV and radio services have been restored in some Teesside homes after being disrupted by a mast fire.\n\nThe blaze at the Bilsdale mast on Tuesday impacted Freeview, DAB and FM radio signals across North Yorkshire, Teesside and County Durham.\n\nHowever, after a blackout of more than 24 hours, BBC TV channels for some households in Hartlepool, Redcar and Middlesbrough are back on.\n\nBBC Tees FM is also back on air for some areas.\n\nMast operators, Arqiva, said it had managed to restore TV and radio services for hundreds of thousands of people.\n\nA spokesman said: \"We are assessing all options open to us but the process is a gradual one.\n\n\"We apologise for the inconvenience but ask that you bear with us as our teams work hard to deliver solutions for as many people as possible as quickly and safely as we can.\"\n\nThe fire has disrupted Freeview, FM and DAB services\n\nNorth Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said on Wednesday a 300m cordon around the site would remain in place until the operator could \"confirm that the tower is structurally secure\".\n\nA spokesperson added: \"When the site is safe, we will return for a closer examination. This will allow us to positively confirm that the fire has been extinguished and to begin the process of investigating the cause of the fire.\n\n\"At this time there is nothing to suggest that the first is the result of any criminal activity but this cannot be confirmed until a closer examination has been carried out.\"\n\nThe transmitter mast can be seen for miles around\n\nA spokeswoman for North Yorkshire Police previously said Airwave, the radio service used by all the emergency services, had not been affected by the mast fire.\n\nThe 1,032ft (315m) tall tower was built in 1969 and provides coverage for 500,000 homes across northern England, from Tadcaster to Seaham.\n\nArqiva said about 200,000 of those use Freeview as their main TV platform.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Euro Auctions was established in County Tyrone in 1998\n\nThe founder of a County Tyrone business that has been sold for £775m has said \"it is a fantastic deal for the company\".\n\nEuro Auctions in Dromore buys and sells industrial plant, construction equipment and agricultural machinery all over the world.\n\nThe firm was set up in Dromore in 1998 by Derek Keys and his brothers.\n\nIt has grown to have more than 200 staff across 14 countries.\n\nIt was bought by the Canadian company Ritchie Bros.\n\nLast year, Euro Auctions conducted 60 auctions, selling close to 90,000 items for more than £484m.\n\nBrothers Derek and Jonnie Keys said they were delighted for the company\n\nDerek Keys, Euro Auctions' founder, said it was \"a great day for myself, from humble beginnings with my father starting out in business\".\n\n\"I never thought the business would grow to this size and with the help of all the staff here in Dromore it's been great.\n\n\"I'm delighted for the company, it's been a good journey and I've enjoyed every day and I look forward to working with Ritchie Bros team.\"\n\nJonnie Keys, operations manager at Euro Auctions, said he is delighted for his family and the firm's 200 staff.\n\n\"The company is very family orientated and Ritchie Bros originated in the same background - three brothers started the business and they've taken it to a $5.4bn turnover, the largest industrial construction auctioneer in the world,\" he said.\n\n\"There's lots of services that the Ritchie Bros have that we are not able to offer our customers so, going forward, we'll be able to lock these services and bring them to our own customers throughout the world and help the business to grow further.\"\n\nHe said that moving the business to capture an online market helped the company to grow as well.\n\nFounder of Euro Auctions Derek Keys said he never thought the business would grow to this size\n\n\"We were one of the first in local auction and business to adopt the whole internet process which stood us in good steed.\n\n\"More recently we were able to switch our model at the start of Covid last year and we went straight to online which was a bit of a test in a zone.\n\n\"We have auctioneers based in the US and we did the internet bidding here in Dromore so I suppose the company is a technology company as well as an auction company, and that has allowed use to grow and expand very quickly.\n\nRitchie Bros' chief executive Ann Fandozzi said: \"When companies come together it's as much about culture and people and protecting a legacy that has been built by these brothers for 23 years.\"\n\nThe deal is expected to close late 2021 or early 2022.", "John McCorry set fire to the home he owned with his ex-wife in Kennford, near Exeter\n\nA man who burned down his home to take \"revenge\" on his ex-wife has been jailed for two years.\n\nJohn McCorry set the home he owned with his ex-wife on fire days before it was due to be sold.\n\nMcCorry, 75, of Lloyds Court, Exeter, previously admitted arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered at Exeter Crown Court.\n\nRecorder Donald Tait said: \"Your actions have destroyed her future and you have destroyed your own future.\n\n\"You would appear to have been entirely consumed by hatred for your wife at that time and this was revenge on your part.\"\n\nRecorder Tait also imposed a five-year restraining order banning McCorry from contacting his ex-wife, who had moved out about two years before the fire.\n\nThe court heard McCorry had spent years renovating the 200-year-old cottage.\n\nThe house was due to be sold days after the fire for £550,000, but due to the damage was only sold for £320,000.\n\nThe loss was not insured because McCorry had stopped paying the premiums without telling his wife after she moved out.\n\nThe house was due to be sold for £550,000 days after\n\nAt an earlier fact-finding hearing McCorry initially claimed the fire had been started accidentally.\n\nThe flames were only extinguished when neighbours alerted the fire service, who shut the entire village to battle the blaze.\n\nNeighbours were shocked to see McCorry sitting in his garden, sipping a glass of whisky, as the flames engulfed the back of the house.\n\nWhen asked what he was doing, he replied \"I'm watching it burn\", the court was told.\n\nMcCorry previously told the court he was not seeking a divorce and did not want to move out of the house.\n\nHe said: \"That came from her end. I was not angry, I was upset.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The 1,032ft (315m) tall mast, seen here in three different images, caught fire on Tuesday\n\nTV and radio services for more than a million people will remain off air indefinitely after a transmitter fire.\n\nThe blaze at the Bilsdale mast on Tuesday disrupted Freeview, DAB and FM radio signals across North Yorkshire, Teesside and parts of County Durham.\n\nOperator Arqiva said it would bring in temporary equipment but could not say when services would be restored.\n\nWitness Ron Needham, 71, reported seeing \"a huge black cloud of smoke come from the buildings at the bottom\".\n\nHe had been hiking on the North York Moors with his wife Sue, 69, when they stopped for lunch at the base of the mast.\n\nThey noticed \"nothing untoward\" but after continuing for about a mile-and-a-half noticed smoke coming from the top \"like a chimney\", Mr Needham said.\n\nDespite the loss of transmission from the tower, BBC television remains available on iPlayer.\n\nRadio stations can still be listened to on BBC Sounds.\n\nThe transmitter mast can be seen for miles around\n\nFirefighters were sent to the site at 13:19 BST on Tuesday after a call from an engineer working on the transmitter near Helmsley.\n\nNorth Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said there were \"concerns about the structural integrity of the mast\" and a 300m (980ft) exclusion zone was in place around it.\n\nIt also said the cause of the blaze was being investigated but did not believe it was as a result of a \"criminal act\".\n\nArqiva confirmed no-one was injured in the fire and thanked emergency services \"for their swift action\".\n\n\"We have started the process to gradually restore services using a combination of temporary structures and existing infrastructure elsewhere in the region, and will be moving through this process as quickly and safely as possible,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nA spokeswoman for North Yorkshire Police said Airwave, the radio service used by all the emergency services, had not been affected by the mast fire.\n\nThe 1,032ft (315m) tall tower was built in 1969 and provides coverage for 500,000 homes across northern England, from Tadcaster to Seaham. Arqiva said about 200,000 of those use Freeview as their main TV platform.\n\nSix fire crews attended the scene to extinguish the blaze\n\nPeople have contacted the BBC about how the loss of transmission has affected them, with one viewer saying they were \"stuck at home with severe disabilities\".\n\n\"I really relied on this, [there's] only so many books I can read in a day, which I can't hold for long,\" they said.\n\nAnother viewer in North Yorkshire told how their 86-year-old neighbour lived alone and had no broadband.\n\nThey said they had fitted a wi-fi extender to their internet and given her their Amazon Fire Stick so she was able to watch television.\n\n\"She's OK now, but many elderly people don't have people to help,\" they said.\n\nSky, Freesat and cable services are not affected.\n\nThe fire has disrupted Freeview, FM and DAB services\n\nCoverage of BBC Radio Tees on DAB is reduced but some reception should continue for most listeners and there is no need to retune.\n\nBBC Sport Tees's coverage of Middlesbrough's match against Blackpool is also affected.\n\nThis 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 BBC Sport Tees 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.\n\nBBC Radio York uses Bilsdale to relay its signal and bypassing the mast is resulting in a weaker service.\n\nListeners to the BBC's national radio services on FM should attempt to retune to a neighbouring transmitter, ensuring aerials are fully extended and placed near windows.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Taliban security guards in Kabul, a year on from their triumphant return to power\n\nThe Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, two decades after being removed from power by a US-led military coalition.\n\nThe hardline Islamist group advanced rapidly across the country, seizing province after province before taking the capital Kabul on 15 August last year, as the Afghan military collapsed.\n\nForeign forces, who had agreed to leave, were stunned by the speed of the advance and had to accelerate their exit. Many Western-backed Afghan government leaders fled, while thousands of their compatriots and foreigners fearing Taliban rule scrambled to find room on flights out of the country.\n\nWithin weeks, the Taliban were in control of all of Afghanistan - something they had not managed to do in their first stint in power between 1996 and 2001.\n\nThe group had struck a deal with the Americans in 2020 for US troops to withdraw, following a bloody but ultimately successful guerrilla campaign lasting many years.\n\nTaliban fighters pictured in Laghman Province last year as they began a lightning offensive to retake the country\n\nUnder the deal, the Taliban committed to national peace talks, which never took place, and to preventing al-Qaeda and other militants from operating in areas that the Taliban controlled.\n\nFollowing the group's return to power, Afghanistan's economy imploded, leaving a huge portion of the population struggling to find enough money to eat and to access other essentials.\n\nBillions of dollars in Afghan assets held abroad are frozen as the international community waits for the Taliban to honour promises still to be met on security, governance and human rights, including allowing all girls to be educated.\n\nThe Taliban, or \"students\" in the Pashto language, emerged in the early 1990s in northern Pakistan following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.\n\nIt is believed that the predominantly Pashtun movement first appeared in religious seminaries - mostly paid for by money from Saudi Arabia - which preached a hardline form of Sunni Islam.\n\nThe promise made by the Taliban - in Pashtun areas straddling Pakistan and Afghanistan - was to restore peace and security and enforce their own austere version of Sharia, or Islamic law, once in power.\n\nFrom south-western Afghanistan, the Taliban quickly extended their influence. In September 1995, they captured the province of Herat, bordering Iran.\n\nExactly one year later, they captured the Afghan capital, Kabul, overthrowing the regime of President Burhanuddin Rabbani - one of the founding fathers of the Afghan mujahideen that resisted the Soviet occupation. By 1998, the Taliban were in control of almost 90% of Afghanistan.\n\nAfghans, weary of the mujahideen's excesses and infighting after the Soviets were driven out, generally welcomed the Taliban when they first appeared on the scene.\n\nTheir early popularity was largely due to their success in stamping out corruption, curbing lawlessness and making the roads and the areas under their control safe for commerce to flourish.\n\nBut the Taliban also introduced or supported punishments in line with their strict interpretation of Sharia law - such as public executions of convicted murderers and adulterers, as well as amputations for those found guilty of theft. Men were required to grow beards and women had to wear the all-covering burka.\n\nThe Taliban also banned television, music and cinema, and disapproved of girls aged 10 and over going to school. They were accused of various human rights and cultural abuses. One notorious example was in 2001, when the Taliban went ahead with the destruction of the famous Bamiyan Buddha statues in central Afghanistan, despite international outrage.\n\nThis time round, there has been no repeat of such excesses, but the Taliban are accused of a range of well-documented abuses, including killing opponents, as well as beating and detaining journalists and Afghans protesting for their rights.\n\nWomen are no longer allowed to go on long-distance journeys without a male chaperone and, while not required to wear the burka, have been ordered to cover their faces in public. Most women are not allowed to work.\n\nPakistan has repeatedly denied that it was the architect of the Taliban enterprise, but there is little doubt that many Afghans who initially joined the movement were educated in madrassas (religious schools) in Pakistan.\n\nPakistan was also one of only three countries, along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which recognised the Taliban when they were in power the first time round in Afghanistan. It was also the last country to break diplomatic ties with the group.\n\nAt one point, a Pakistani offshoot of the Taliban threatened to destabilise Pakistan from areas it controlled in the north-west. One of the most high-profile and internationally condemned of all Pakistani Taliban attacks took place in October 2012, when schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai was shot on her way home in the town of Mingora.\n\nA major military offensive two years later following the Peshawar school massacre greatly reduced the group's influence in Pakistan, though. At least three key figures of the Pakistani Taliban had been killed in US drone strikes, including the group's leader, Hakimullah Mehsud in 2013.\n\nSchoolgirl and rights activist Malala Yousafzai was shot by Taliban gunmen in October 2012\n\nThe attention of the world was drawn to the Taliban in Afghanistan in the wake of the 11 September 2001 World Trade Center attacks in New York. The Taliban were accused of providing a sanctuary for the prime suspects, Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda movement.\n\nOn 7 October 2001, a US-led military coalition launched attacks in Afghanistan: by the first week of December, the Taliban regime had collapsed. The group's then leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, and other senior figures, including Bin Laden, evaded capture despite one of the largest manhunts in the world.\n\nMany senior Taliban leaders reportedly took refuge in the Pakistani city of Quetta, from where they guided the Taliban. But the existence of what was dubbed the \"Quetta Shura\" was denied by Islamabad.\n\nDespite ever higher numbers of foreign troops, the Taliban gradually regained and then extended their influence in Afghanistan, rendering vast tracts of the country insecure, while violence in the country returned to levels not seen since 2001.\n\nThere were numerous Taliban attacks on Kabul and in September 2012, the group carried out a high-profile raid on Nato's Camp Bastion base.\n\nPakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike in 2013\n\nHopes of a negotiated peace were raised in 2013, when the Taliban announced plans to open an office in Qatar. But mistrust on all sides remained high and the violence went on.\n\nIn August 2015, the Taliban admitted they had covered up Mullah Omar's death - reportedly from health problems at a hospital in Pakistan - for more than two years. The following month, the group said it had put aside weeks of infighting and rallied around a new leader, Mullah Mansour, who had been the deputy of Mullah Omar.\n\nAt about the same time, the Taliban seized control of a provincial capital for the first time since their defeat in 2001, taking control of the strategically important city of Kunduz.\n\nMullah Mansour was killed in a US drone strike in May 2016 and replaced by his deputy Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, who remains in control of the group.\n\nIn the year following the US-Taliban peace deal of February 2020 - which was the culmination of a long spell of direct talks - the Taliban appeared to shift their tactics from complex attacks in cities and on military outposts to a wave of targeted assassinations that terrorised Afghan civilians.\n\nThe targets - journalists, judges, peace activists, women in positions of power - suggested that the Taliban had not changed their extremist ideology, only their strategy.\n\nDespite grave concerns from Afghan officials over the government's vulnerability to the Taliban without international support, new US President Joe Biden announced in April 2021 that all American forces would leave the country by 11 September - two decades to the day since the felling of the World Trade Center.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Hibatullah Akhundzada is a religious scholar and he is former head of the Taliban courts\n\nHaving outlasted a superpower through two decades of war, the Taliban began seizing vast swathes of territory, before once again toppling a government in Kabul in the wake of a foreign power withdrawing.\n\nThey swept across Afghanistan in just 10 days, taking their first provincial capital on 6 August. By 15 August, they were at the gates of Kabul.\n\nTheir lightning advance prompted tens of thousands of people to flee their homes, many arriving in the Afghan capital, others heading for neighbouring countries.\n\nThe future for Afghans living under the Taliban's rule remains highly uncertain. While most are relieved war is over, millions are struggling to survive.\n\nNo country has recognised the Taliban government in the year since they returned to power.\n\nThe August 2022 killing in a US drone attack of al-Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul will do nothing to persuade Taliban critics that the group has turned over a new leaf.\n\nHardliners in the movement appear to have the upper hand on issues such as female employment, freedom of speech and secondary education for girls, meaning that desperately needed foreign-held funds are unlikely to be released any time soon.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nChelsea beat Villarreal 6-5 in a penalty shootout to lift the Uefa Super Cup for a second time after a draining 120 minutes in Belfast.\n\nSubstitute goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga saved captain Raul Albiol's spot-kick at Windsor Park on a night that began superbly for the Blues with an excellent first-half performance before the Spaniards stormed back into the contest after the break.\n\nHakim Ziyech opened the scoring midway through the opening 45 minutes but was then forced off with what looked like a worrying shoulder injury before half-time.\n\nThe Spaniards hit the woodwork either side of the break before Gerard Moreno equalised in the 73rd minute to force extra time.\n\nChelsea, who look set to complete a deal to re-sign striker Romelu Lukaku for a club record fee of £97.5m from Inter Milan, failed to rediscover their first-half vigour in extra time but did come close to a winner through Christian Pulisic and Mason Mount.\n\nIt was the first time the Super Cup was played in Northern Ireland and 13,000 spectators generated a fantastic atmosphere in the south Belfast stadium, the highest attendance at any sports event in the country since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.\n• None Kepa goes from Chelsea villain to shootout hero\n\nKepa was brought off the bench by Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel just a few minutes before the end of extra time and dived low to his right to save from Albiol - his second save of the shootout having also denied Aissa Mandi - and spark mass scenes of celebration among the Chelsea players and supporters.\n\nZiyech's goal arrived in the 27th minute when the lively Kai Havertz ran on to a ball into the left channel and delivered a precise pull-back, with Ziyech directing his shot in despite not getting a clean connection.\n\nVillarreal's equaliser was the result of a poor clearance out of defence by Antonio Rudiger, with Gerard Moreno feeding Boulaye Dia, whose clever flick-return to the Spaniard was clinically swept past Edouard Mendy.\n\nIt was an equaliser that looked like coming after Alberto Moreno crashed a volley off the underside of the crossbar in first-half injury time and Mendy had dived superbly to tip a Gerard Moreno shot on to the post after the keeper had initially given the ball away.\n\nThe opening 40 minutes were something of a stroll for Chelsea as they imposed themselves on Villarreal, not giving their Spanish opponents a glimmer of hope until just before the break.\n\nThe contrasting styles of captain-for-the-night N'Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic in midfield provided a base from which to apply pressure on the Europa League winners, with Kovacic's diagonal balls to Callum Hudson-Odoi on the right particularly penetrating.\n\nTimo Werner had their first chance in the sixth minute, having his close-range volley well saved by Sergio Asenjo, while Kante flashed just wide from 20 yards before Zouma volleyed an excellent chance over the bar.\n\nZiyech then clashed with Juan Foyth and went down, requiring oxygen treatment and going off the pitch with his right shoulder having to be supported amid a chaotic closing few minutes to the first half.\n\nTuchel's side looked flat as the second half got under way and were not helped when the inevitable host of substitutions began being made, though Villarreal deserve credit for taking advantage and giving their enthusiastic supporters something to cheer on their first Super Cup appearance.\n• None Penalty saved! Raúl Albiol (Villarreal) fails to capitalise on this great opportunity, right footed shot saved in the bottom left corner.\n• None Goal! Chelsea 1(6), Villarreal 1(5). Antonio Rüdiger (Chelsea) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the centre of the goal.\n• None Goal! Chelsea 1(5), Villarreal 1(5). Juan Foyth (Villarreal) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom right corner.\n• None Goal! Chelsea 1(5), Villarreal 1(4). Christian Pulisic (Chelsea) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom right corner.\n• None Goal! Chelsea 1(4), Villarreal 1(4). Dani Raba (Villarreal) converts the penalty with a left footed shot to the bottom right corner.\n• None Goal! Chelsea 1(4), Villarreal 1(3). Jorginho (Chelsea) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the centre of the goal.\n• None Goal! Chelsea 1(3), Villarreal 1(3). Moi Gómez (Villarreal) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Goal! Chelsea 1(3), Villarreal 1(2). Mason Mount (Chelsea) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the centre of the goal.\n• None Goal! Chelsea 1(2), Villarreal 1(2). Pervis Estupiñán (Villarreal) converts the penalty with a left footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Goal! Chelsea 1(2), Villarreal 1(1). Marcos Alonso (Chelsea) converts the penalty with a left footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Penalty saved! Aïssa Mandi (Villarreal) fails to capitalise on this great opportunity, right footed shot saved in the bottom left corner.\n• None Goal! Chelsea 1(1), Villarreal 1(1). César Azpilicueta (Chelsea) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom right corner.\n• None Goal! Chelsea 1, Villarreal 1(1). Gerard Moreno (Villarreal) converts the penalty with a left footed shot to the bottom right corner.\n• None Penalty saved! Kai Havertz (Chelsea) fails to capitalise on this great opportunity, left footed shot saved in the bottom right corner. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of Chelsea is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything Chelsea - go straight to all the best content", "There were a number of injuries following the crash\n\nA 12-year-old boy remains in hospital after an open-top bus hit a tree in Mumbles.\n\nThe crash happened at Mumbles Road, near Knab Rock, at about 14:30 BST on Tuesday and the road was shut for several hours but has since reopened.\n\nThe boy was air-lifted to University Hospital Wales, Cardiff, where he is being treated. His injuries are not life threatening.\n\nAnother person was taken to Morriston Hospital in Swansea.\n\nSeven other passengers were assessed and discharged at the scene and nobody sustained any life-threatening or life-changing injuries, South Wales Police said.\n\nPhotographs from the scene show the damage to the bus\n\nCheryl Hedges, from Mumbles, was on the top deck of the bus when it crashed.\n\nShe said: \"Suddenly, I heard screaming. There were about 14 of us on the open-top - about half were children.\"\n\n\"I looked across and the young lad across the aisle from me was trapped.\"\n\nMs Hedges said a bystander then got on the bus to help rescue those on the top deck.\n\n\"We got help to climb through this smashed window and we were able to get down the stairs,\" she said.\n\nShe said she had a black eye and cuts on her hands, but was discharged by paramedics at the scene.\n\nThe bus involved was one of First Cymru's \"Cymru Coasters\"\n\nScaffolder Jonathan Powell, who was in front of the bus when it crashed, helped rescue people who were trapped before the emergency services arrived.\n\n\"As soon as I heard the bang I just turned around, seen the bus with its roof like that and I just run straight to it and just lifted the roof up for people to get out,\" said the 36-year-old from Merthyr Tydfil.\n\n\"Another gentleman got them through the gap while I held the roof up so everyone could get off.\"\n\nMr Powell, who was then trapped under the roof himself until the fire service arrived on the scene to free him, sent his best wishes to the 12-year-old boy who remains in hospital.\n\n\"I'm hoping that he gets better soon,\" he said.\n\nPasser-by Jonathan Powell raced to the bus to help the trapped passengers\n\nThe bus involved was one of First Cymru's \"Cymru Coasters\", operating between Swansea Bus Station and Bracelet Bay, near Mumbles Pier.\n\nJane Reakes-Davies, managing director at First Cymru, said: \"We are deeply saddened to hear of those who sustained injuries in yesterday's incident in Mumbles and wish them a speedy recovery.\n\n\"I'd like to thank our driver, customers and passers-by for their quick action and efforts in evacuating the bus and alerting the emergency services.\n\n\"The safety of our passengers and colleagues is our priority and we remain committed to the highest standards to ensure our customers can travel with confidence.\"\n\nFirst Cymru said it was working with emergency services and authorities to investigate the crash.\n\nSwansea council said there had been no previous problems on the route, but would not comment further while a police investigation was ongoing.\n\n\"Our thoughts continue to be with the passengers at this time,\" a spokesman added.\n• None Two in hospital after bus crashes into tree\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The transmitter mast can be seen for miles around\n\nA TV transmitter fire that disrupted broadcasts for more than a million people has been put out but there are concerns about the mast's stability.\n\nThe blaze at the 315 metres (1,032ft) tall Bilsdale mast on the North York Moors affected Freeview and FM radio.\n\nNorth Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said the mast fire had led to \"concerns about its structural integrity\".\n\nWalker Ron Needham, 71, said he had seen \"a huge black cloud of smoke come from the buildings at the bottom\".\n\nHe had been hiking on the moor with his wife Sue, 69, when they stopped for lunch at the base of the mast.\n\nThey noticed \"nothing untoward at that stage\" but, after carrying on their walk for about a mile and a half, turned to look at the mast and noticed \"smoke coming out of the top, a bit like a chimney\", Mr Needham said.\n\nA 300 metre (984ft) exclusion zone is in place around the tower.\n\nEight pumps and crews from across the region were sent to tackle the blaze at 13:19 BST after a call from an engineer working at the transmitter north of Helmsley.\n\nIn a statement North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said firefighters had \"worked to control the fire in difficult circumstances and extinguished a fire in a single-storey stone building and transmitter mast\".\n\nIt added: \"Only one building in a complex of four was affected and there are concerns about the structural integrity of the mast.\n\n\"A 300 metre exclusion zone has been put in place around the mast.\"\n\nThe fire service said it would be working on Wednesday with Arqiva, the site operators, \"to bring the incident to a safe conclusion\".\n\nThe tower was built in 1969 and provides coverage for homes across northern England, from Tadcaster round to Leyburn, then up to Seaham and most of the way down the coast to Filey.\n\nBBC TV for Teesside, North Yorkshire and County Durham is available on iPlayer. Radio stations are available on BBC Sounds.\n\nSmoke was seen coming from the tower\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nMohamed Salah scored one and provided two assists as Liverpool got their Premier League title bid off to a winning start with a comfortable victory at newly promoted Norwich City.\n\nSalah got his side's third to become the first player to score on the opening weekend in five consecutive Premier League campaigns and cap a fine display after earlier setting up Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino.\n\nThe Reds were boosted before kick off by the return of talismanic defender Virgil van Dijk after 10 months out through injury and their day got even better when they took the lead midway through the first half.\n\nTrent Alexander-Arnold found Salah inside the box and the Egypt forward's touch fell into the path of Jota for the Portugal forward to finish clinically.\n• None Van Dijk relief at return after \"mentally tough\" 10 months out\n\nIt was a little harsh on Norwich, who had made a spirited start to the game as they were roared on by a buoyant home crowd making the most of their return to Carrow Road and the top flight.\n\nTeemu Pukki, who scored 11 goals in the Premier League two seasons ago, drew an early save out of Alisson after getting in behind the visitors' defence.\n\nBut once Liverpool went in front they rarely looked in danger of letting their lead slip as Norwich struggled to rediscover their early rhythm.\n\nMax Aarons cleared a goal-bound effort from Sadio Mane six minutes after the break but a second goal duly arrived shortly after the hour mark when substitute Firmino struck.\n\nThe Brazil forward had only been on the pitch for four minutes when he tapped in from close range after unselfish work from Salah, who opted to pass to his team-mate when he had the chance to shoot from a tighter angle.\n\nSalah then wrapped up the perfect opening day for the Reds when he collected the ball after a corner had only been half cleared and curled a fine strike into the back of the net.\n• None Reaction to Liverpool's win at Norwich in the Premier League\n\nLiverpool finished third in the Premier League last season, 17 points behind champions Manchester City after their campaign was derailed by a shocking slump as they struggled to cope with their defensive injuries.\n\nBut the signs are good that they will be well stocked in that area this campaign. Van Dijk made his first league appearance since October last year and he was joined in the centre of defence by Joel Matip, who is back after seven months out.\n\nJoe Gomez, who was also missing for most of the second part of last season, and new signing Ibrahima Konate were on the bench at Norwich as suddenly Liverpool appear well stocked in an area that looked threadbare in the last campaign.\n\nThere were elements of rustiness to the play from Van Dijk and Matip, particularly early on as Norwich got in behind the visitors' defence on a couple of occasions.\n\nBut they grew into the game and by the second half were repelling the Canaries' attacks comfortably - although they did require a brilliant close-range stop from Alisson at the end to secure a clean sheet.\n\nBigger tests will come for the Reds this season but with the defence now having depth to it and three of their four attacking players scoring against Norwich, they look in good shape to make a more extended run at the title this term.\n\nNorwich are back in the Premier League after one season in the Championship, which they comfortably won to return to the top flight.\n\nTheir last stint at this level saw them finish bottom of the table and be relegated with just 21 points, their season characterised by spells of good play in the majority of their games only to fail to capitalise on those.\n\nMaking the most of their return to Carrow Road and the Premier League, Norwich fans were in buoyant mood before kick off and those good vibes continued as the home side made a bright start.\n\nThey were the better side for the opening 25 minutes, attacking with pace and a directness that unsettled the returning Liverpool defence. But it soon became an all-too-familiar story as, despite their good play, they were unable to take advantage before their opponents went ahead.\n\nFrom then on they were second best, improving slightly towards the end as Alisson denied Ben Gibson a consolation.\n\nAn opening-day defeat against Liverpool is not going to be a result that defines their season and historically they have struggled against the Reds, who have now won 13 of their last 15 encounters.\n\nBut with reigning champions Manchester City up next followed by games against Leicester City and Arsenal it is a reminder of just how tough life in the Premier League is.\n• None Attempt missed. Lukas Rupp (Norwich City) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Kieran Dowell.\n• None Attempt missed. Joshua Sargent (Norwich City) right footed shot from the right side of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Max Aarons.\n• None Attempt missed. Max Aarons (Norwich City) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Kieran Dowell.\n• None Attempt saved. Adam Idah (Norwich City) right footed shot from very close range is saved in the top left corner. Assisted by Grant Hanley.\n• None Attempt blocked. Grant Hanley (Norwich City) left footed shot from very close range is blocked.\n• None Attempt saved. Ben Gibson (Norwich City) left footed shot from very close range is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Pierre Lees-Melou with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) left footed shot from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Virgil van Dijk following a corner. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "The Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan, almost 20 years after being ousted by a US-led military coalition.\n\nEmboldened by the withdrawal of US troops, they now control all key cities in the country, including Kabul.\n\nThe Taliban took some areas from government by force. In other areas, the Afghan National Army withdrew without a shot being fired.\n\nAlthough renewed clashes had been going on for several weeks, from 6 August the Taliban made a more rapid advance across the country, as they took control of provincial cities.\n\nThe maps below start in early July and show the 400 or so government districts as they fell to the Taliban.\n\nUS forces based outside Afghanistan had launched air strikes against Taliban positions earlier last week, but they failed to slow the advance of the insurgents.\n\nAlthough most US troops left in July, several thousand returned to Kabul at the weekend to help evacuate American and allied personnel from the capital.\n\nThe airport in the capital was the only official route out of the country after the Taliban took control of all the major border crossings.\n\nCustoms duty on goods entering the country via crossings they control is now collected by the Taliban - although exact amounts are unclear as the volume of trade has fallen as a result of the fighting.\n\nBut, Islam Qala on the border with Iran was, for example, capable of generating more than $20 million per month.\n\nDisruption to the flow of imports and exports has affected prices of essential goods in the markets - fuel and foodstuffs in particular.\n\nUS troops and their Nato and regional allies forced the Taliban from power in November 2001. The group had been harbouring Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures linked to the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US.\n\nBut despite a continued international presence in the region, billions of dollars of support and training for the Afghan government forces, the Taliban regrouped and gradually regained strength in more remote areas.\n\nA BBC study in 2017 showed the Taliban were in full control of a number of districts. But the research also showed they were active in many other parts of the country, mounting weekly or monthly attacks in some areas, suggesting significantly higher strength than previous estimates.\n\nIn 2017 about 15 million people - half the population - were reported to be living in areas either controlled by the Taliban or where the Taliban were openly present.", "If you like neat lines, tidiness and admire symmetry, what's not to like about the decision of Joe Biden to pull American combat troops out of Afghanistan by 11 September 2021 - exactly 20 years on from 9/11?\n\nIn modern day America it often feels that all roads lead back to 9/11; the single most defining - and scarring - event since Pearl Harbor: the surprise attack by the Japanese on America's Pacific fleet, which would ultimately bring America into World War Two.\n\nAnd so it was that 9/11 led to this country's longest military encounter. The attack on the Twin Towers, the plane that flew into the Pentagon, and the one that crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, were initially the spur for a surge of US nationalism. Young people - in fact people of all ages - were going along to armed forces recruitment offices wanting to sign up. America had come under attack; these patriots wanted to fight to defend the country the \"land of the free\", and seek revenge on those who would do the US harm.\n\nAnd don't mistake this for some kind of kneejerk jingoism. It wasn't that. I knew many people - not just Americans - who were of a liberal bent and had been no great fans of all the doings of the US of A but who have a visceral sense this was a moment where you had to pick your team.\n\nWere you on the side of the rule of law, free and fair elections, due process, sexual equality, universal education? Or were you on the side of those who would fly planes into buildings, or would stone people to death, or throw homosexuals off of buildings, or deny girls schooling? If that seems a massive over-simplification, maybe it is - but in the devastating aftermath of 9/11, that is how it seemed to many.\n\nBiden makes a surprise visit to Afghanistan as vice-president in 2011\n\nBut by 2016 it was one of the factors that led to Donald Trump's election: the weariness of the \"endless wars\" as candidate Trump would refer to the quagmires of Afghanistan and Iraq; the wariness of America being able to act as the world's policeman.\n\nAmericans understandably wanted to pull up the drawbridge, bring the troops home, leave it to the people in those countries to sort out their own problems, and finally give up on the idea that a US model of liberal democracy was an exportable commodity that could be imposed. The liberal interventionist crusade was over.\n\nTrump, if he had won last November, would have pulled out US troops, probably quicker. Although Joe Biden inherited Trump's promise to withdraw, in policy terms the easiest thing would have been to continue to sign the cheques to pay for American servicemen and women to stay in Afghanistan for another year. And then another. And another after that.\n\nThe political pressure was by no means overwhelming. If anything, the reverse. The defence top brass, the foreign policy establishment, America's allies abroad thought anything other than the status quo would be reckless. But one question was gnawing at the new president, and it was the one posed by Hillel the Elder back in biblical times: \"If not now, then when?\"\n\nBiden - who advised President Barack Obama not to send more troops in 2009 but lost the argument - went with now, in what could be the most consequential single decision of his presidency.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Taliban leaders speak to BBC News about conquer and compromise\n\nWhen 9/11 happened I was the BBC's Paris correspondent, reporting on Eurotunnel's attempt to force the closure of a Red Cross refugee centre called Sangatte - where many of the world's storm-tossed refugees and migrants congregated before making the final leg of the journey to the UK.\n\nI was driving to Calais when I got a call from a colleague telling me to stop at the nearest service station to watch TV, and see what was unfolding.\n\nWe didn't know what would happen next - or where we would end up. One year into the optimism of a new millennium, there was a narrative and it wasn't a happy one - the war on terror, a clash of civilisations, call it what you will. At the time the two stories could not have been more different, but a lot of the bedraggled people we met on the roads around Calais were from Afghanistan fleeing Taliban rule.\n\nIt's worth remembering why the US, UK and others went into Afghanistan. The Taliban had - in effect - become a finishing school for Islamist terrorists wanting to wage jihad against the west. Al-Qaeda wannabes were going into the country to train for holy war. The 9/11 terrorists had honed their skills and hatched their plot there. Removing the Taliban and tackling al-Qaeda became critical for global security.\n\nWithin a few weeks of 9/11, I was in northern Afghanistan, travelling via Delhi and then Dushanbe in Tajikistan to get there. We were moving with the US and UK-backed Northern Alliance troops as they pushed the Taliban out.\n\nOusting the Taliban was considered a global priority 20 years ago, writes the author (right)\n\nOur first day was spent travelling from Khoja Bahauddin, then the Northern Alliance HQ along a road where the Taliban had killed a number of journalists in an ambush two days earlier. After one night we ended up in a town called Taleqan. It had fallen the night before we arrived. One of the iconic shots was of a girls-school classroom that had become a weapons dump for Taliban rockets that in their hasty retreat they had left behind.\n\nThe stubborn last stronghold was Kunduz - a vital communication corridor sitting between Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif and then further north to the border with Uzbekistan.\n\nNow both Taleqan and Kunduz have come back under Taliban control, with a third of the country's regional capitals now under their control.\n\nAnd that raises a super-uncomfortable question for Joe Biden and his \"if not now, then when\" policy.\n\nTwenty years on and so many lives lost, and so many billions of dollars spent, what was it for? What's been achieved? What do you say to the families of all those servicemen killed by the Taliban now that the US is giving up? What's to stop terror groups from re-establishing their jihad training camps? At the UN Security Council hearing last Friday it was reported that up to 20 different terror groups, involving thousands of foreign fighters were already fighting with Taliban forces.\n\nThe regions where Jon travelled are now back under Taliban control\n\nI'm sure as I am writing this more families will be packing up their possessions fearful of what Taliban control will mean, perhaps heading to Calais and then the UK. Will the girls' schools return to become weapons storage facilities again?\n\nThe scars of 9/11 are clear everywhere - thousands of servicemen have come back with prosthetic limbs and disturbed minds. Suicide rates have been rising. Families have lost loved ones. On America's streets are men with red plastic beer cups begging for loose change, many of them with signs saying they are veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.\n\nUS-led forces toppled the Taliban: In 2001 US-led forces overthrew Afghanistan's Taliban rulers after the 9/11 attacks masterminded by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was based there.\n\nTwenty years of occupation and military operations followed: The US and allies oversaw elections and built up Afghan security forces, but the Taliban continued to launch attacks.\n\nEventually the US made a deal with the Taliban: They would pull out if the militants agreed not to host terrorist groups. But talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government failed. US-led forces withdrew this year and the Taliban have now retaken most of the country.\n\nThe desire to stay at home and shut yourself away from a troubling world is completely understandable. There is no surprise that \"America First\" as a slogan had such resonance. George W Bush was not advocating that back in 2001 - but there were no US troops in Afghanistan or Iraq then. And that didn't keep America safe when early that morning, across those gin-clear blue skies passenger aeroplanes were hijacked and became al-Qaeda-guided missiles, flying into their targets killing thousands of people doing nothing more provocative than going about their daily lives.\n\nThere's also a difference between enforcing your will as the world's policeman, and being a peacekeeper. Thousands of American troops are still stationed in South Korea - even though the Korean war was 70 years ago. The calculation of successive US presidents has been that a tense peace is better than a hot war or a destabilised region.\n\nJoe Biden was hoping his decision would result in headlines like \"Afghan War Ends\" or \"America's longest war is over\". But 20 years on, and the Taliban now re-establishing control with all that could flow from that, might historians in future judge that the 20th anniversary marked the start of the second Afghan war?", "Humanitarian organisations warn that women and children will be badly affected\n\nWith violence surging in Afghanistan, and the Taliban taking new territories in the north, thousands of people are fleeing their homes to seek safety in the capital Kabul.\n\nWhen they get there, many of these people face sleeping in abandoned warehouses or on the streets. They're struggling to find food, shelter and other basic necessities, such as medicine and sanitary items.\n\nBut they feel they have little choice - it is either hardship in Kabul, or potential death in their home region.\n\nNow, thousands have gathered in makeshift camps on scrubland on the city's outskirts.\n\nAsadullah, a 35-year-old street vendor from Kunduz province, travelled to the capital with his wife and two young daughters earlier this week after the Taliban set fire to his home.\n\n\"I was a street worker, I sold food and spices... but when the Taliban attacked we came to Kabul,\" he tells the BBC.\n\n\"Now we have no money to buy bread, or get some medicine for my child.\"\n\nAsadullah was a street worker in Kunduz province, selling food and spices\n\nAsadullah, his two daughters (pictured) and wife slept on the streets after arriving in Kabul\n\nAsadullah and his young family spent the night on the streets.\n\n\"All of our home and belongings caught fire, so we came to Kabul and pray to God to help us. Rockets and mortars hit our home... there were heavy clashes in the past seven days, we had no bread to eat and all the bakeries, shops and bazaars were closed.\"\n\nA woman, who didn't give her name, told the BBC she fled her home in the northern city of Pul-e-Khumri with her husband and children. Her husband, she says, was wounded in the war.\n\n\"We had a good life, but because of the bomb blasts we lost our home and came here,\" she says. \"We left our home with only one dress and no money.\"\n\nThis woman said her family had a good life in Pul-e-Khumri, but they've now lost everything\n\nHumanitarian organisations have been warning of a rise in internally displaced persons in Afghanistan since US-led forces began withdrawing from the country earlier this year, following 20 years of military operations.\n\nThe campaign began in 2001 following the 9/11 attacks on American soil. Now, most of the foreign troops have pulled out.\n\nSince then, clashes between the Taliban and government forces have escalated. The Taliban have taken at least eight of the country's 34 provincial capitals, and are threatening to seize more.\n\nThe Washington Post has also cited unnamed US officials saying that even Kabul could fall to the Taliban within the next 90 days, based on US military assessments.\n\nThis unrest has caused a rise in people fleeing their homes for the capital. In July the UN warned that around 270,000 more people were internally displaced in the country after troops started to leave - this number is estimated to have surged in just the last few days.\n\nAmid all of this more than 1,000 civilians have been killed, according to the UN.\n\nThousands of people are camped in scrubland on the outskirts of Kabul\n\nNGOs say that this mass displacement will hit women and children particularly hard.\n\n\"We're seeing a lot of increased reporting around health protection needs, gender-based violence, sexual exploitation and abuse and trafficking,\" Jared Rowell, Country Director of the Danish Refugee Council in Afghanistan, tells the BBC.\n\n\"Early marriage will become a larger problem too as girls and young women are sold off in order to get cash to provide for their families. Those types of issues, which have always been a problem, are going to get more and more severe.\"\n\nAs well as food, shelter and health and sanitary items, Mr Rowell says, displaced people in Kabul are in desperate need of cash.\n\n\"It's really important people have access to multi-purpose cash,\" he says. \"Meaning an agency like DRC would give them a cash distribution that they have the autonomy to determine what they spend that money on in order to best support their needs.\n\n\"Cash is also particularly important at this point in time, especially when they're relocating to a large city like Kabul with high food prices and markets with fluctuating prices due to the current instability.\"\n\nFor Asadullah, his main hope now is that his family can one day return to their normal life in Kunduz.\n\n\"We want to go back and continue our lives there,\" he says. \"We hope that one day peace will come to Afghanistan, and our country will be free.\"", "Poland has many memorials to Polish Jews killed by the Nazis during World War Two\n\nPoland's president Andrzej Duda has approved a law that will make it harder for Jewish people to recover property lost during and after World War Two.\n\nThe move has triggered a diplomatic crisis, with Israel recalling its ambassador to Poland and branding the law \"anti-Semitic\".\n\nThe legislation relates to claims on property stolen by Nazi Germany, then seized by Poland's communist regime.\n\nThe law sets a 30-year limit on challenges to such confiscations.\n\nAs most happened soon after the war, many outstanding claims will now be blocked.\n\nThe Polish government says the change will end a period of legal chaos, but Israel condemned it forcibly.\n\n\"Poland today approved - not for the first time - an immoral, anti-Semitic law,\" Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said in a statement.\n\nMr Lapid also said he was recommending Poland's ambassador to Israel, Marek Magierowski, remain on his summer holiday in Poland.\n\n\"He should use the time available to him to explain to the Poles what the Holocaust means to the citizens of Israel and how much we will not tolerate contempt for the memory of the victims and the memory of the Holocaust,\" he tweeted.\n\nOn Monday Poland's foreign ministry said Mr Magierowski had been recalled until further notice, citing Israel's \"recent unjustified actions\".\n\nEarlier Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he would arrange for the ambassador's children to be brought home.\n\nIn a statement, the prime minister rejected Israel's accusations of anti-Semitism and said its rhetoric would \"increase hatred towards Poland\".\n\nMr Duda said signing the bill into law ends an era of legal chaos in the process of handing back confiscated properties.\n\nIn recent decades property restitution has become deeply mired in corruption, with title claims being bought and sold, and tenants suddenly finding themselves thrown out of their apartments from one day to the next. Jewish claims account for just a minority of total claims, most of which have been made by Poles.\n\nAs a result, the law received the backing of Poland's opposition as well as the government.\n\nIsraeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett branded the law \"shameful\". He said it showed \"disgraceful contempt for the Holocaust's memory\".\n\nAbout six million Jews died in the Holocaust, half of them Polish. About 90% of Poland's pre-war Jewish community were killed.\n\nIsrael's opposition to the legislation was supported by the US, and Mr Lapid said further courses of action would be discussed with Washington.\n\nThe Polish government has previously said the new law has nothing to do with Israeli and US fears.\n\nWhen World War Two ended, Poland's communist authorities nationalised many properties that had been left empty because their owners had fled or been killed.\n\nThe new law covers both Jewish and non-Jewish claimants, but critics say Jewish owners were often late in lodging claims after the war and will be disproportionately affected.", "A powerful earthquake has struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti, killing at least 304 people and injuring more than 1,800.\n\nThe 7.2-magnitude quake hit the west of the country on Saturday morning, toppling and damaging buildings including churches and hotels.\n\nPrime minister Ariel Henry said there was \"extensive damage\" in parts of the country, and he was declaring a month-long state of emergency.\n\nHaiti is still recovering from a devastating 2010 earthquake.", "Almost 2,000 people have backed a petition to name Cardiff's new bus station road: \"Cheers Drive\"\n\nCalls to name a road leading to Cardiff's new bus station \"Cheers Drive\" have been backed by the leader of the city council.\n\nThe phrase is synonymous with the city and surrounding areas, as it's used to say thanks at the end of a journey.\n\nCardiff leader Huw Thomas said it was a \"great idea - let's do it!\".\n\nThe name was conjured up by city brand campaigners I Loves the 'Diff, who said on Twitter that the city would have \"missed a trick\" without the name.\n\nAnother councillor, Jayne Cowan, had started a petition in support of the name.\n\nThis 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 Huw Thomas 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.\n\nBy Saturday, it had already climbed to well over 1,500 signatures - with no sign of slowing.\n\nMs Cowan said: \"If the council leader said 'Yes' then it is going to happen.\"\n\nShe intends to present a formal plan for the name to city hall in September.\n\n\"I remember my grandfather and father always said it on the bus,\" she said.\n\n\"It's one of those expressions like 'Have a great day'.\n\n\"It's just associated with the Welsh and with Cardiff.\n\n\"People like American tourists would go and have their photos taken by the sign.\"\n\nCouncil leader Huw Thomas has given the idea the thumbs up\n\nMs Cowan hoped the idea would also be taken as a \"thank you\" to bus drivers for their work during the pandemic.\n\n\"We thank the NHS and care workers for getting us through the pandemic, but we often forget the shop workers and bus drivers who took people to work,\" she said.\n\n\"They do not get that recognition\".\n\nFellow councillor Jayne Cowan started a petition in favour of the naming\n\nBBC presenter Alex Jones previously wore a \"Cheers Drive\" T-shirt, while giving a bus tour of Cardiff for The One Show.\n\nIt would not be the first time a tongue-in-cheek street name has made it on to maps.\n\nIn Sheffield, the home of South Yorkshire Police is on Letsby Avenue - while in Northern Ireland, the computer data and memory firm Seagate Technology has its HQ on Disc Drive.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Residents have been rescued as torrential rain threatens homes\n\nNearly two million people have been urged to evacuate their homes amid heavy rainfall in parts of Japan.\n\nHighest-level rain warnings have been issued in a number of prefectures, including Fukuoka and Hiroshima.\n\nOne woman has died and her husband and daughter are missing after a landslide destroyed two homes in Nagasaki prefecture.\n\nMore than 150 troops, police and firefighters have been sent to help with rescue operations in the area.\n\n\"They are carefully searching for the missing residents, while watching out for further mudslides as the heavy rain continues,\" a local official told the AFP news agency.\n\nThe west of the country is worst affected but heavy downpours are expected across the country in coming days.\n\nIn Saga prefecture, a hospital evacuated patients to its upper floors on Saturday after the nearby Rokkaku river overflowed and flooded the building, Kyodo News agency reported, citing local authorities.\n\nIn total, non-compulsory evacuation warnings are now in place for more than 1.8 million people across seven prefectures, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK.\n\nYushi Adachi, from Japan's meteorological agency, described the current rainfall as \"unprecedented\".\n\n\"It's highly likely that some kind of disaster has already occurred,\" he said.\n\nStreets in Fukuoka prefecture were photographed flooding on Saturday\n\nExperts warn the rain is forecast to continue throughout the week\n\nLocal television footage showed submerged roads. Rivers in Saga and Fukuoka have overflowed with water levels still rising, local media reports said.\n\nAn official in Kumamoto, south-western Japan, said a 76-year-old man was missing after trying to secure his fishing boat.\n\nThe flooding comes just weeks after heavy rain caused landslides and prompted rivers to burst their banks, killing dozens.", "The child and serving officer are named as three-year-old Harrison Louden and his father, David Louden, 39\n\nA police officer found dead with a three-year-old child were father and son, his West Mercia force colleagues have confirmed.\n\nPolice named the pair, discovered at a property in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, on Friday, as David Louden, 39, and his boy Harrison.\n\nIn a statement from Mr Louden's family, the officer was described as \"a kind, loving, considerate, amazing\" father.\n\nThe deaths are being treated as unexplained, police said.\n\nAn investigation into the circumstances is under way.\n\nOn Saturday, the area's police and crime commissioner, John Campion, said there was not a \"wider concern to the public\".\n\nThe statement issued by police and attributed to Mr Louden's wife and wider family said: \"David was a kind, loving, considerate, amazing father, husband, son, brother, uncle, friend and colleague.\n\n\"They will both be forever missed and loved.\"\n\nThe West Mercia force did not state Mr Louden's rank.\n\nTheir bodies were discovered at a house on Cairndhu Drive, Kidderminster, on Friday morning.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The remains of Esther Dingley, an experienced hiker, were found by Mr Colegate on Monday\n\nThe partner of a British hiker who went missing in the Pyrenees has paid tribute to French and Spanish police teams involved in the search for her.\n\nDaniel Colegate found Esther Dingley's remains on Monday, more than eight months after she disappeared.\n\nInvestigators have said Ms Dingley's injuries suggested a fall, though the cause was unclear.\n\nIn a statement on the couple's Facebook page, Mr Colegate said those looking for Ms Dingley were \"heroes\".\n\n\"Having experienced first hand how hard it was to find answers, I honestly don't think they could have done more,\" he said.\n\n\"The only difference between me and them was that I only had a single task, while they continued to rescue others as well.\"\n\nDaniel Colegate walked hundreds of miles in the search for his missing partner Esther Dingley\n\nThe couple met at Oxford University and lived in Durham before setting off to travel around Europe in a campervan six years ago.\n\nMs Dingley, who was an experienced hiker, had been trekking solo when she last communicated with her partner from the top of Pic de Sauvegarde at about 16:00 on 22 November.\n\nMr Colegate said he did not \"have the vocabulary to fully express how challenging these past months have been\".\n\n\"But I am certain that without the support, courage and determination of the individuals assigned to lead this case and their team members, those difficulties would have been significantly increased,\" he said.\n\nInvestigators said the cause of Ms Dingley's accident was not clear\n\nThe BBC's Chris Bockman in Toulouse said an autopsy and an examination of Ms Dingley's rucksack had been carried out by forensic teams.\n\nHe said it was \"unclear\" how the accident had happened but police believe the hiking shoes she was wearing several thousand metres up a mountain \"did not have the grip necessary for the icy conditions at the time and she probably slipped and fell\".\n\nHe also said French officers had confirmed Mr Colegate, who was 100 miles away in France when Ms Dingley, 37, disappeared, was not a suspect.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Two women intervened after the American bulldog turned on a child at a home in Hoylake Crescent, Bilborough\n\nA woman who was attacked by her American bulldog has been left with life-changing injuries.\n\nNottinghamshire Police said the dog turned on a child at a home in Hoylake Crescent, Bilborough, on Saturday evening.\n\nTwo women at the property intervened and were repeatedly bitten on the face, arms and stomach by the animal.\n\nThe dog was eventually stabbed by another occupant, and secured in the garden before they called 999.\n\nBoth women were taken to hospital for treatment and police were called to the property at 00:10 BST on Sunday.\n\nAn emergency vet was called but was left with no option but to put down the animal.\n\nDet Insp Jon Kerry said: \"It's devastating that a woman has suffered such serious injuries caused by her own pet, but we can only be grateful that it didn't result in far worse consequences had the animal been able to attack the child.\n\n\"Although we don't believe that the animal was a banned breed, this is a stark reminder to all pet owners not to take any chances with animals around children, particularly if they have ever displayed violent tendencies.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Haiti became the world's first black-led republic and the first independent Caribbean state when it threw off French colonial control and slavery in the early 19th Century.\n\nBut independence came at a crippling cost. It had to pay reparations to France, which demanded compensation for former slave owners. The 19th Century \"independence debt\" was not paid off until 1947. There have been recent calls for France to repay the money.\n\nChronic instability, dictatorships and natural disasters in recent decades have left it as the poorest nation in the Americas.\n\nAn earthquake in 2010 killed more than 200,000 people and caused extensive damage to infrastructure and the economy.\n\nA UN peacekeeping force was put in place in 2004 to help stabilize the country, and only withdrew in 2017.\n\nIn July 2021, President Jovenel Moïse was assasinated by unidentified gunmen in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Amid political stalemate, the country continues to be wracked by unrest and gang violence.\n\nFollowing the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021 by unidentified gunmen, the interim prime minister Claude Joseph assumed control as acting president but then yielded the presidency and prime ministership to prime minister-designate Ariel Henry.\n\nOn 21 December 2022, Henry along with representatives of political parties, civil society organizations and private sector signed an agreement to hold the general elections in 2023, with the new government taking office in February 2024.\n\nCritics have accused him of involvement with Joseph Felix Badio, one of the main suspects in the assassination of President Moïse. He has dismissed the allegations of his involvement in the killing of Moïse as \"fake news\".\n\nHenry has stated that he was willing to hand over suspects to the United States, and stated that he supported appointing a judge from another country to oversee the case independently in Haiti.\n\nNumerous local radio stations, such as this one, were destroyed in the 2010 quake\n\nRadio is Haiti's leading news medium and there are hundreds of local, privately-owned stations.\n\nThe media reflect a range of views but the work of journalists is hampered by threats and violence, press watchdogs say.\n\nHaiti is the most populous country in the Caribbean\n\n1492 - Christopher Columbus lands and names the island Hispaniola, or Little Spain.\n\n1496 - Spain establishes first European settlement in western hemisphere at Santo Domingo, now capital of Dominican Republic.\n\n1697 - Spain cedes western part of Hispaniola to France, and this becomes Haiti.\n\n1801 - A former black slave who became a guerrilla leader, Toussaint Louverture, conquers Haiti, abolishing slavery and proclaiming himself governor-general of an autonomous government over all Hispaniola.\n\n1804 - General Jean Jacques Dessalines proclaims the independent black republic of Haiti after rebel slaves defeat French troops dispatched by Napoleon Bonaparte. Haiti is the first nation ever to successfully gain independence through a slave revolt.\n\n1915 - US invades following unrest that it thought endangered its property and investments in the country.\n\n1934 - US withdraws troops from Haiti, but maintains fiscal control until 1947.\n\n1957 - Francois \"Papa Doc\" Duvalier wins elections. He eventually turned his administration into a brutal dictatorship.\n\n'Papa Doc' Duvalier's reign of terror was characterised by torture and killings\n\n1971 - Papa Doc dies and is replaced by his son Jean-Claude \"Baby Doc\" Duvalier.\n\n1986 - President Duvalier is forced into exile by an uprising, ending a 29-year family dictatorship.\n\n1990 - Populist priest Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide is the landslide winner in a presidential election, Haiti's first free and peaceful polls.\n\n1991 - President Aristide is overthrown by the military.\n\n2004 - President Aristide leaves Haiti again amid a rebellion. US Marines land to restore order. A UN stabilisation force is put in place.\n\n2010 - More than 200,000 people are killed when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hits the capital Port-au-Prince and its wider region - the worst in Haiti for 200 years.\n\n2016 - Hurricane Matthew, the strongest to hit the region in a decade, kills hundreds in Haiti and destroys thousands of homes.\n\n2021 - Unidentified gunmen attack the home of President Jovenel Moïse in the capital, Port-au-Prince, killing him.\n\nPeople protesting against high levels of crime in Port-au-Prince, October 2022\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Roads out of the Afghan capital have been choked with traffic as people fearful of a Taliban takeover try to flee.\n\nThe Taliban say their fighters have now entered Kabul to prevent any looting, but that they want a peaceful transfer of power. The Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has left the country for an unknown destination.\n\nFarzana Elham, and MP in Kabul, told the BBC that residents were scared and were either trying to leave the city or hiding in their homes.", "Work days for midwife Nooria Haya regularly included meetings and discussions with male doctors. They decided on treatments for locals and the priorities for the public clinic she works in. It's in Ishkamish, a rural district with sparse amenities, in Takhar province on Afghanistan's north-eastern border with Tajikistan.\n\nBut recently, the 29-year-old found out that meetings between male and female staff were prohibited. It was the first order the Taliban gave them when the group took control of the region, she says. She could only ask herself how else her life would change.\n\nIshkamish sits in the Hindu Kush mountain range. It's a key border area that the Taliban, emboldened by Nato's withdrawal of nearly 10,000 troops at the start of May, has taken.\n\nIgniting intense fighting with seemingly unprepared government forces in southern Helmand by the middle of the month, the fundamentalist Islamist group then took the northern Burka district at the mountains' foothills.\n\nAround the same time, US forces left Kandahar airbase - one of the largest in the nation, in a province containing the country's second largest city, Kandahar. Locals were acutely aware of the Taliban's progress.\n\n\"Every individual was frightened,\" says Jan Agha, 54, in Arghistan district, on the border with Pakistan, and a windy two-hour drive east of Kandahar city.\n\nPeople locked themselves in their homes. But the Taliban took up positions in almost every village. Locals can't escape them.\n\nArmed fighters walk through the streets. In the morning and evening, they knock on people's doors to collect food, which they're given for fear of worse consequences.\n\n\"Each house now keeps three or four breads or dishes for them,\" Jan, a fruit seller, says, no matter how poor the residents, in a chronically poor country. If the fighters want to stay in their homes too, they do.\n\nThrough June, the Taliban claimed the capture of several provinces in the north, including Takhar, Faryab and Badakhshan. They forced the army to strategically retreat, and with it democratic institutions. Most of the 2,500 US troops had left by this time, although a handful remain in the capital Kabul, as does its Air Force.\n\nAfghans have criticised the international withdrawal as too hasty. Some argue that peace talks over the last two years between the Americans and the Taliban only enhanced the latter's perceived legitimacy, recruitment and ambition.\n\nAn end to the conflict - which had been ongoing since the US-led invasion ended half a decade of Taliban rule almost 20 years ago - had never been close.\n\nAs the Taliban reasserted itself in June, fighters sequestered more than food and lodging. Social and economic rights fought for with limited success over the last two decades were immediately withdrawn. Their privations on women descended on Nooria for the first time in her life.\n\n\"There are a lot of restrictions now. When I go out, I have to wear a burka as the Taliban orders us, and a male has to accompany me,\" she says.\n\nTravelling as a midwife across the district is especially difficult. Men are not allowed to shave their beards - the Taliban says this is against Islam. Barbers are prohibited from giving purportedly foreign-style short back and sides haircuts.\n\nA group within the Taliban, called the Amri bil Marof (literally: order the good), particularly enforces the social rules. Its punishments brought the most terror to Afghans in the 1990s. Now, again, it's imposing a two-strike rule. First a warning, second a punishment - public humiliations, prison, beatings, lashes.\n\n\"Suddenly most freedoms have been taken away from us,\" Nooria says. \"It is so hard. But we have no other option. They are brutal. We have to do whatever they say. They are using Islam for their own purposes. We are Muslims ourselves, but their beliefs are different.\"\n\nDifference has also arrived with some increased security from criminality, and from war - where the conflict has been pushed to other areas. Locals welcome such nuanced calm, as they would if the government were in control - even if they doubt its durability.\n\nBut other things have been driven away too. Afghans used to visit Takhar, famous among the country's 34 provinces for its clean, crisp mountain air that blankets snowy mountains, green and verdant fields, and clear river waters.\n\nIn Farkhar district, taxi driver Asif Ahadi says he used to make 900 Afghanis ($11; £8) a day. But as the Taliban continued their march, tourists stopped their travels.\n\n\"Those visitors were my customers,\" Asif, 35, says. \"The money they paid me I used to feed my family. Now my best day will only earn me 150 Afghanis. It's not even enough to cover the cost of my fuel, which has more than doubled now.\"\n\nAnd there's been a deadening impact on social life. \"People used to have parties every Friday night - listen to music and dance - have fun. All of these are completely banned now,\" Asif says.\n\n\"Every business has suffered the same.\"\n\nBy 4 July, two days after US and Nato troops left Afghanistan's biggest airbase at Bagram, the linchpin for all US-led operations for the last two decades, the Taliban seized Panjwai district, in Kandahar province - their birthplace and former bastion.\n\nLess than a week later, they said they controlled the country's biggest border crossing and trade route with Iran and major port, Islam Qala. By the third week of the month, the insurgency had already claimed to command 90% of Afghanistan's borders and 85% of the country. The government disputed the figures - and they are impossible to independently verify - and it still held more populated urban areas.\n\nAs the Taliban solidified their control, people started to come out of hiding at home, Asif says. Some had never seen the Taliban's rapid dispensing of justice and methods of governing before.\n\n\"They make decisions very quickly on issues and matters like crime,\" Asif says. \"There's no bureaucracy, no red tape - every sort of problem can be solved in days - and nobody can challenge any decision.\"\n\nThey also collect \"Taliban Usher\" and Zakat, usually freely-given Islamic offerings to the poor, of about 10% of people's harvest or a fraction of income, respectively. But the Taliban distorts them into essentially taxes for their own use.\n\nIt's another financial pressure, alongside prices for \"all goods that are hiked to sky\", Asif says, as external and internal trade is restricted, and the economy is squeezed. Public works have stopped.\n\n\"The people were already very poor, and there's no opportunity for work, and no investment,\" he adds.\n\nSome have seen the Taliban's system before, however.\n\n\"Their ideology and thinking are exactly as they were during their Emirate time. Nothing has changed at all,\" says Jan. \"The Taliban say they have sacrificed a lot to re-establish the Islamic Emirate, so it can't be cast aside.\"\n\nHe says the Taliban has shut all schools in his area. They've said any education should be according to their strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law. It's one of many worrying indicators for locals.\n\nDuring their last rule from 1996 to 2001, the Taliban banned education and work for women and girls, and restricted their access to healthcare. Since they were forced from power, women retook places in public life, making up a quarter of parliament.\n\nNumbers of girls in primary education went up to 50%, although by late secondary school the figure was around 20%. Women's life expectancy grew from 57 to 66 years. The figures are comparatively poor, but improvements have been made. Yet now there are only fears that they will regress.\n\nProgress is what the Taliban are making now. In August, they've attacked more urban centres - taking a third of the regional capitals, including Kunduz in the north and Taloqan in Takhar province. This week they took Herat in the west, and southern Kandahar and Lashkar Gah, strategically and symbolically important cities, where, together, well over one million people live.\n\nThe US Air Force has been supporting the Afghan military with strikes. But the last remaining foreign forces are expected to leave the country by 11 September. The date marks the 20th anniversary of al-Qaeda's 9/11 attacks in the US. They spurred the US-led invasion of Afghanistan to remove the Taliban from power for harbouring Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures.\n\nThe struggle takes its toll on human life. A thousand civilians were killed in the month up to the first week of August, the UN says. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes.\n\nControl of the country isn't yet certain. But where the Taliban now rules, the change is clear.\n\n\"You have to bow your head to live your life,\" Jan says. \"You cannot dare oppose them. You cannot say things against them at all. If they say 'yes', you have to say 'yes'. If they say 'no', you must say 'no'.\"\n\nSuch fear prevails, Nooria says. \"Although it might seem like people looked relaxed, when you speak with them, you understand the serious worries they have. We sit together, praying for God to take them away from us.\"\n\nThe names of interviewees have been changed\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Secunder Kermani reports on life in a town recently taken by the Taliban", "Feargal Logan says deferring the All-Ireland Football semi-final against Kerry for a further week could enable Tyrone to fulfil the fixture.\n\nEarlier, Tyrone GAA said they would be unable to field in next Saturday's fixture because of their Covid cases.\n\nTeam joint-manager Logan told BBC Sport NI that there had been over 20 cases with the squad and wider staff.\n\n\"We hope Croke Park might see fit in all the fairness of the situation,\" said the Tyrone joint-manager.\n\nLogan, who himself missed the Ulster Final win over Monaghan two weeks ago because of a Covid issue, revealed that one Tyrone player has been hospitalised in recent week following the outbreak in the squad although the squad member is now recovering.\n\n\"Certainly the weekend after next which was our initial request is a weekend which we anticipate that we could field,\" added Logan.\n\n\"Every day is another day on the road to return to play for elite athletes.\"\n\nOn Monday, the GAA announced that it had decided to defer the game from its original date of this Sunday until 21 August but Tyrone revealed later that day that they had asked for a two-week deferment.\n• None 'Common sense must prevail' - Canavan calls for extra week for Covid-hit Tyrone\n• None Just over 50% of Tyrone panel training - Dooher\n\n\"In an ideal world, we would love to have a period of a month to get everybody right but we're trying to balance that with Kerry with the GAA at large and with everything that's going on and the season must go on and continue,\" added Logan.\n\n\"We're not walking away from anything. We would love to play Kerry in a meaningful All-Ireland semi-final at some stage here but we're just stuck with the numbers and the return to play and the safe returns to play protocols that prevail.\"\n\nLogan revealed that Tyrone made Saturday's announcement that they would be unable to field next weekend after consulting with a Dublin-based microbiologist.\n\n\"Ultimately he studied our data and prepared a report for us yesterday. We have now received a report which confirmed our worst fears and we now have to deal with that.\n\n\"We have 17, 18…beyond 20 [cases] with the whole group which is significantly challenging, significantly difficult. It's just invaded our situation.\n\n\"Every player on our panel, his welfare is paramount to us.\"\n\nAs it stands, Kerry will receive a bye to the final against either Dublin or Mayo.\n\nThe county said it took its decision on Saturday \"with the greatest reluctance, and with deep regret\".\n\nThe Red Hands' move throws the 2021 series into disarray and leaves the GAA with an unprecedented dilemma over its premier gaelic football competition.\n\nAssociation chiefs now face a major decision over whether to offer the Ulster champions a further postponement.\n\nTyrone chairman Michael Kerr said concerns over player welfare are at the forefront of their handling of the situation, which left them with no option but to withdraw from the tie.\n\n\"This morning, the Tyrone GAA Management Committee has decided that it is not in a position to field its senior football team in the rescheduled All-Ireland football championship semi-final in Croke Park, on next Saturday,\" the county added in a statement on Saturday.\n\n\"Having received expert medical opinion on the existing, and future health and welfare of the players who contracted the Covid-19 virus during the period of this last two weeks, and following consultation with the team's management, this decision has been made with the greatest reluctance, and with deep regret.\n\n\"It is acknowledged that the decision taken will cause major disappointment and significant inconvenience for the Association, in general, the GAA fraternity of Kerry, and especially for Tyrone's patrons and supporters, but the welfare and safety of players has been the over-riding factor in all considerations of this difficult situation.\"\n\nIt is understood that some Tyrone players would still be unable to feature in the tie, even if it was put back for a further week, but that a large percentage of the squad would definitely be unavailable to play next weekend.\n\nTyrone have already been in such a position, and were without a number of players for the Ulster final two weeks ago because of Covid issues.\n\nBut they decided to go ahead with the Croke Park decider against Monaghan as they were still able to field an almost full-strength team.\n\n'I don't see this as brinkmanship' - McGinley\n\nFormer Tyrone All-Ireland winner Enda McGinley said he did not interpret his county's statement as a tactical act of brinkmanship to attempt to force Croke Park to agree to a further week's delay.\n\n\"I was looking for evidence of that, some type of indication that if they had added time that the situation could be different, but they didn't indicate any of that which I think if they were playing brinkmanship that would have been there,\" the current Antrim manager told BBC Sport Northern Ireland.\n\n\"None of us on the outside really truly know but it looked like from the statement for me that the advice that they got must have been 'no matter with the addition of a week, there's no guarantee these lads will be playable. There's no guarantee that other lads won't be down'.\n\n\"Certainly working in a hospital up here myself, the numbers are high. The numbers in the community are high so there's no guarantee that people who don't have Covid this week won't have Covid next week.\"\n\nMcGinley added that the Tyrone county board and management \"deserve lot of credit for standing up very, very strongly for their players and protecting them possibly from themselves\".\n\n\"Knowing several of the characters within that squad, if they were the boys affected they would, whatever it takes, would try to put themselves on that pitch but that's not the right thing for them.\n\n\"That must have been part of the thought process which shows a high degree of integrity.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Johnson: \"We've known for a long time this was the way things were going\"\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson has said no one wants Afghanistan to become a \"breeding ground for terror\", as the Taliban enters capital Kabul.\n\nSpeaking after a meeting of the emergency Cobra committee, he said the situation \"continues to be extremely difficult\" and will get even more so.\n\nHe called on \"like-minded\" powers to work together and not recognise any new government without agreement.\n\nThe UK Parliament is being recalled on Wednesday to discuss the situation.\n\nAfghan President Ashraf Ghani has fled the country as the militants stand on the brink of taking total control.\n\nThe situation is \"extremely difficult\" in Afghanistan and is \"getting more difficult\", said Mr Johnson.\n\n\"Our priority is to make sure we deliver on our obligations to UK nationals, to all those who have helped the British effort in Afghanistan over 20 years, and to get them out as fast as we can.\"\n\nMr Johnson said the British ambassador - who remains in Kabul - was \"working around the clock\" to do this and has been at the airport processing applications.\n\nThe prime minister said he wanted to make sure other like-minded nations did not \"prematurely\" recognise the Taliban.\n\nHe added: \"What we're dealing with now is very likely the advent of a new regime in Kabul. We don't know yet exactly what kind of regime it will be\".\n\nReports from Kabul say the Taliban have now seized the presidential palace. It comes after thousands of Afghans sought refuge in the city in recent weeks.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMr Johnson said the UK would work with the UN Security Council and other Nato countries to stop Afghanistan \"lapsing back into terror\" and called for an \"international effort\" from the West.\n\nHe admitted the US decision to pull out of the country had \"accelerated things\" in Afghanistan but said \"we've known for a long time this was the way things would go\".\n\nThe Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said the UK has reduced its diplomatic presence but that government staff \"continue to work to provide assistance to British nationals and to our Afghan staff\".\n\n\"We are doing all we can to enable remaining British nationals, who want to leave Afghanistan, to do so,\" said a spokesperson.\n\nMany people had sought refuge in Kabul in recent weeks\n\nThe Foreign Office has advised more than 4,000 British citizens thought to be in Afghanistan to leave.\n\nAbout 600 British troops sent to help with the departure of Britons, Afghan staff and interpreters have now arrived in Afghanistan.\n\nMr Johnson said the UK was \"working very fast\" on getting people out of the country, adding: \"We certainly have the means at the moment to get them out.\"\n\nUK defence forces have told the BBC most of the UK's embassy staff have already been flown out of the country on military flights. All commercial flights out of Kabul have now been suspended.\n\nWednesday could be a very uncomfortable day for the government, as MPs return to the Commons to debate the UK's response to the deepening crisis in Afghanistan.\n\nThe government will have to answer questions about why it so badly miscalculated the strength of the Taliban, and its decision to withdraw its forces in the face of impending disaster.\n\nIn what will be an emotive debate, many MPs will stress the sacrifices already made over the past 20 years, and the obligation they believe this country owes to the people of Afghanistan.\n\nThey are likely to push the government to do much more, in a bid to avert a humanitarian catastrophe, despite the claim by Defence Secretary Ben Wallace that it would be impossible for the UK to act alone.\n\nHe spoke to the Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the UN Secretary General António Guterres about the current situation in Afghanistan on Sunday.\n\nIn those talks, he called for meetings of Nato's North Atlantic Council and the UN Security Council to take place as soon as possible to enable high-level international discussions on these issues, said Downing Street.\n\nLabour leader Keir Starmer has described the situation in Afghanistan as \"shocking\", saying the priority had to be to evacuate British personnel and support staff.\n\nForeign Secretary Dominic Raab was returning to the UK today, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said, when asked to confirm he had been on holiday.\n\nMr Raab earlier spoke of his \"deep concerns about the future for Afghanistan\".\n\nLabour peer Lord Robertson of Port Ellen - the former defence secretary who was secretary general of Nato from 1999 to 2003 - said it was \"stunning that the foreign secretary would stay on holiday as our mission in Afghanistan disintegrated\".\n\n\"The horrors unfolding with every minute demand focused attention from the top,\" he said.\n\nLord Robertson added he was \"sickened by the prospect of the 20th anniversary\" of the 11 September attacks \"being marked by the Taliban back in control of Afghanistan\".\n\nMeanwhile, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has called on the UK to offer \"as much refuge for vulnerable Afghans as possible\".\n\nShe said the Scottish government is \"willing to play our full part and do all we can to help those in peril as a result of the horrifying situation currently unfolding\".", "All 16 and 17-year-olds in England are to be offered their first coronavirus vaccine dose or the chance to book one by 23 August, the government has said.\n\nThe health secretary said offering vaccines by this date would allow teenagers to get some protection before starting school or college next month.\n\nA walk-in site finder is being launched online by NHS England to help people locate their nearest vaccine centre.\n\nYoung people in this age group were first offered a jab earlier this month.\n\nBut unlike older age groups, no second dose is being scheduled.\n\nThey will be invited, by text or letter, to get vaccinated either by making an appointment through GPs or by going to a walk-in centre, the Department of Health said.\n\nInvites are also being sent out in Wales, while in Northern Ireland, walk-in centres are now open to older teenagers, and in Scotland they can register their interest online.\n\nTens of thousands of people aged 16 and 17 have already had a first vaccine. Having it done by 23 August will mean there is two weeks for them to build immunity before the new term gets under way.\n\nThose aged 12 to 15 who are clinically vulnerable or live with others at increased risk of getting seriously ill with coronavirus are also being invited for their vaccine by that date. However, some parents have told the BBC of their struggles in securing vaccines for children in this group.\n\nTeenagers who are within three months of turning 18 can book an appointment online through the National Booking Service or calling 119.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid urged people not to delay, adding: \"Get your jabs as soon as you can so we can continue to safely live with this virus and enjoy our freedoms by giving yourself, your family and your community the protection they need.\"\n\nExperts have warned that high levels of coronavirus infection and rising case rates mean the UK is \"running hot\" when it comes to managing the spread of the disease.\n\nDr Simon Clarke, associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said on Friday that while vaccines are reducing the number of hospital admissions and deaths, high case numbers \"still place an unnecessary burden on the NHS\".\n\nThe rate of new cases of the virus is currently rising in all four nations, suggesting the sharp fall in Covid-19 cases that had been under way since mid-July has now come to an end.\n\nThe National Education Union said the vaccinations of 16 and 17-year-olds would help minimise disruption to education in the next academic year, but said additional safety measures needed to continue in schools.\n\nThe union's joint general secretary, Kevin Courtney, said: \"With the autumn and winter terms coming up, the issue of crowded schools with no social distancing and inadequate ventilation remains a problem.\"\n\nThe government says vaccines have saved about 84,600 lives as well as preventing 23.4 million infections and 66,900 hospital admissions by 6 August.\n\nSunday's data showed that 47,302,445 first doses had now been given in the UK - covering about 89% of the adult population - and 40,577,198 second doses, about 77% of adults.\n\nThere were 26,750 new cases announced and 61 deaths, where the person had tested positive within the previous 28 days.\n\nDr Nikki Kanani, NHS medical director of primary care and deputy lead for the vaccination programme in England, said more than a quarter of a million under-18s had had a first jab so far.\n\n\"Now as teenagers prepare to head back to school or college or into their first full-time jobs, once again NHS staff are doing everything they can to offer young people the lifesaving vaccine as quickly as possible to protect themselves and others,\" she said.\n\nThe latest data showed that 70% of people aged 18 to 29 in England had received a first dose of vaccine up to 11 August.\n\nThose aged 16 and above do not need parental consent to get a vaccine as they are considered capable of making their own medical treatment decisions.", "Police could not find any suspects after the intruder alarm went off at the Santander bank, but a thermal imaging drone found three people on the roof\n\nThree suspected burglars who tried to hide from police on the roof of a bank were foiled by a thermal imaging drone.\n\nNottinghamshire Police attended the Santander bank in Stockwell Gate, Mansfield, at 01:10 BST after the intruder alarm was activated.\n\nOfficers could not find any suspects until the force's drone spotted three people on the roof.\n\nTwo men, aged 25 and 40, and a 31-year-old woman, were arrested on suspicion of burglary and remain in custody.\n\nPolice said Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service was also in attendance to help officers search the roof.\n\nFire crews helped police search the roof of the bank in Mansfield\n\nIt is unclear whether anything was taken from the bank.\n\nDet Sgt Lauren Morgan said: \"This is a great example of how multiple departments from the force can work together to achieve good results and I would like to thank everyone who was involved in the arrests.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Many Afghans who have fled the fighting have sought refuge in Kabul\n\nThe Taliban have moved closer to retaking full control of Afghanistan, with the capital Kabul now the only major city left in government hands.\n\nOn Sunday the militants took control of Jalalabad, a key eastern city, without a fight.\n\nIt means they now control all roads to neighbouring Pakistan.\n\nCorrespondents in the capital say there are queues at the airport with people trying to flee, and some shops and government offices have been evacuated.\n\nThe Taliban has ordered their fighters to stay at entry points to the capital, urging people to stay in the country.\n\nTalks with senior officials in President Ashraf Ghani's government on a peaceful transfer of power continued, its statement said.\n\nReports on Sunday morning said the Taliban overran the city, the capital of Nangarhar province, without a shot being fired.\n\n\"There are no clashes taking place right now in Jalalabad because the governor has surrendered to the Taliban,\" a local Afghan official told Reuters news agency.\n\n\"Allowing passage to the Taliban was the only way to save civilian lives.\"\n\nJournalist Tariq Ghazniwal tweeted images that appeared to show the provincial governor handing over control to the Taliban.\n\nThis 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 Tariq Ghazniwal 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.\n\nThe capture of Jalalabad means the Taliban have secured the roads connecting the country with Pakistan.\n\nWall Street Journal correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov in Kabul told the BBC World Service that sporadic shooting could be heard.\n\nHe says people are withdrawing money from ATMs, the Green Zone, where diplomatic missions are based, is emptying out, and flights out the country are fully booked.\n\nPart of the Taliban's tactic seemed to be to have fighters already within cities incognito.\n\n\"The Taliban is not sending in armoured columns to take Kabul, they are already in the city… ready to pop up. That's what happened in other cities like Herat, where fighting suddenly started from within the city centre,\" Trofimov said.\n\nMore than a quarter of a million people have been displaced by the fighting and many have sought refuge in the capital.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. President Ashraf Ghani: ''The reintegration of the security and defence forces is our priority''\n\nSome who had fled areas controlled by the Taliban said militants there were demanding that families hand over unmarried girls and women to become wives for their fighters.\n\nMuzhda, 35, a single woman who fled from Parwan to Kabul with her two sisters, said she would rather take her own life than let the Taliban force her to marry.\n\n\"I am crying day and night,\" she told AFP news agency.\n\nWomen from Taliban-held areas have also described being forced to wear burkas - one-piece veils that cover the face and body - and militants are reported to have beaten people for breaking social rules.\n\nOne 17-year-old, named as Abdullah, told AFP news agency that he and his family had fled the northern city of Kunduz after it was seized by the Taliban and were now sleeping under a tent in a Kabul park.\n\nHe said he and other youths in Kunduz had been forced into carrying rocket-propelled grenades and other munitions for the militants.\n\nIn a pre-recorded TV address on Saturday, President Ghani said a priority was the remobilisation of the Afghan armed forces to prevent further destruction and displacement of people.\n\nThe speech came amid speculation by some that Mr Ghani might have been about to announce his resignation.\n\nAre you in Afghanistan? How have you been affected? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nTottenham made light of the absence of unsettled Harry Kane to start the Premier League season with a win over champions Manchester City and their £100m man Jack Grealish.\n\nKane - heavily linked with a move to Manchester City - sat out this pulsating encounter but Pep Guardiola wasted no time in throwing in his British record signing from Aston Villa.\n\nIt was Son Heung-min who gave new manager Nuno Espirito Santo the perfect start to his reign with a low shot that snaked beyond Manchester City keeper Ederson 10 minutes after the break.\n\nSpurs fully deserved their win as they survived a shaky opening phase to play with real purpose, already showing signs of the Nuno trademark with fierce defensive discipline allied to pace on the break.\n\nGrealish had a quiet debut, being shown a yellow card late on, and it was actually Spurs who had the best opportunity after Son's goal, only for Steven Bergwijn to shoot wide when clean through.\n\nCity had fleeting opportunities but rarely tested Spurs keeper Hugo Lloris as they looked rusty in contrast to the sharpness of their opponents.\n\nManchester City's pursuit of England captain Kane gave this game an added edge - so how the home fans enjoyed victory against the club attempting to snatch away their main marksman.\n\nAnd Spurs delivered exactly what their supporters, finally back inside their magnificent new stadium, wanted with this opening-weekend victory - the chance to taunt Manchester City and to remind Kane what he might be leaving behind.\n\nLate on, those fans sent a chant of 'are you watching, Harry Kane?' reverberating around the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.\n\nAnd it was Son, the man who has been Kane's partner in goals for so many years, who provided the flourish befitting this high-octane Spurs performance with a typical piece of skill and ingenuity to slide the winner low past Ederson.\n\nSpurs players - and manager - Nuno rightly took the acclaim at the final whistle. The home side had heroes everywhere in match-winner Son, the outstanding defender Japhet Tanganga and the tireless Lucas Moura.\n\nIt remains to be seen how the Kane affair plays out but this will be the perfect psychological lift to Spurs that will sustain them until the saga comes to a close one way or the other.\n\nRusty Man City can have no complaints\n\nManchester City's race appeared run long before the end of this game, with the early spark of promise snuffed out by the endeavour and skill of Spurs.\n\nGrealish made some useful contributions early on but his day ended in the frustration of a yellow card and it is clear Guardiola, understandably, still has some work to do to integrate his talents into a squad already packed with creative ability.\n\nOne look at the City bench hinted at what Guardiola can introduce in the weeks ahead, even if Kane does not make the move to Manchester.\n\nKevin de Bruyne, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus were introduced in the final 20 minutes, while England's Euro 2020 pair Kyle Walker and John Stones were unused substitutes, as were Aymeric Laporte, Rodri and Bernardo Silva - a formidable array of talent.\n\nBut nothing could save this over-complicated and listless City show with Benjamin Mendy showing yet again what a flawed figure he is at left-back while Nathan Ake was also uncomfortable.\n\nAnd, significantly, City's lack of punch, with the great Sergio Aguero now gone, may just have prompted Guardiola to look even further into the acquisition of Kane, especially as Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United have already given notice that there will be very little margin for error in the title race this season.\n• None Attempt saved. Ferran Torres (Manchester City) right footed shot from a difficult angle on the right is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by João Cancelo.\n• None Attempt saved. Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Jack Grealish.\n• None João Cancelo (Manchester City) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. João Cancelo (Manchester City) header from outside the box is close, but misses the top right corner. Assisted by Kevin De Bruyne following a corner. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "Every night terrified young men and women across the city send me desperate messages begging for help. \"Pray for us,\" says one. \"The situation is critical, we are very worried,\" says another.\n\nKabul is in a state of shock and disbelief. In the past week the Taliban has swept across the country and seized more than a dozen provincial capitals. With the fall of Kandahar and Herat, the insurgents now have their sights set on the greatest prize of all - the capital.\n\nI've been reporting from Afghanistan for more than a decade. Over the years, I've spent time with journalists, female judges, female members of parliament, human rights activists and university students. Many have become good friends.\n\nThey all say the same thing - we stepped out on a limb because we were encouraged by the Americans and their allies to do so. For 20 years the West has inspired, financed and sheltered this new generation of Afghans. They have grown up with freedoms and opportunities that they fully embraced.\n\nNow they tell me they feel completely abandoned by the democratic world they thought they were part of.\n\nIn my most recent trip to Kabul, I spoke to Taliban frontline commanders and foot soldiers. They told me they are determined to re-impose their version of Sharia law, which would include stoning for adultery, amputation of limbs for theft and preventing girls from going to school beyond the age of 12.\n\nThis is not the Afghanistan and the Kabul that these young women know or want. But as the Taliban prepare to march towards the capital, there doesn't seem to be anywhere to run or hide.\n\n\"There are rumours circulating that the Taliban will take over and they will kill everyone affiliated with the government and the US. We are very scared,\" one told me.\n\nThe only response from the Americans and their Western allies to these pleas for help, for the moment, has been silence.", "The Taliban appear to be on the brink of taking total control of Afghanistan\n\n\"Thanks to God you are come,\" shouted an old man as my colleagues and I marched into Kabul on 14 November 2001, battling our way through the joyful crowds.\n\nThe anti-Taliban forces of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, which had the backing of the US and other Western countries, had halted on the city outskirts, and the Taliban had simply run for it.\n\nFive years of the most extreme religious dictatorship in recent times were over.\n\nUnder the Taliban, Afghanistan had become a black hole in which all sorts of extremism could thrive.\n\nOnly two months earlier the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington had been planned and guided by Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda movement. It simply never occurred to me then that Taliban could make a comeback.\n\nNow of course everyone is looking for reasons.\n\nThe governments of Afghanistan's two post-Taliban presidents, Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani, were democratically elected but never strong, and corruption was the system which worked best.\n\nNevertheless President Ghani would still be in his palace and the army would be driving round in its expensive Western vehicles, if Donald Trump had not decided that he needed a foreign policy success before the 2020 election.\n\nHe thought that bringing a long-running war to an end would achieve that.\n\nSeveral Afghan politicians and journalists I know were horrified by the conclusion of the US talks with the Taliban political leadership in Doha in February 2020, and doubly so when President Joe Biden made it clear he was going to stick to it.\n\nI was warned that no matter how moderate and peaceable the leaders in Doha might promise to be, the Taliban fighters on the ground would feel no compulsion to observe the fine print.\n\nDirectly after the US, British and other Western troops began pulling out, the Taliban fighters across Afghanistan made their play for power. Reports of prisoners being executed brought an atmosphere of blind panic in one town after another, until Kabul itself succumbed and officials and soldiers were battling their way to the airport to get out.\n\nAfghans wait in long lines for hours at the passport office in Kabul on Saturday\n\nPerhaps the Taliban will stick to the terms of their soothing statement promising not to take revenge on anyone, and appealing to the police, the military and the civil service to stay in place.\n\nThey may very well think it'll be safer not to provoke the West to intervene again.\n\nBut what sort of country will Taliban-controlled Afghanistan be this time?\n\nThe only guide we have is the five-year period from 1996 when (again in a matter of a few days - that's how these things go in Afghanistan) the Taliban drove out the moderate mujahideen government controlled by the redoubtable Ahmad Shah Massoud.\n\nI spent a good deal of time in Afghanistan during the Taliban's period of power, and found it deeply scary.\n\nSharia law in its fiercest forms was in operation everywhere, with public executions, stonings and whippings commonplace.\n\nGangs of vigilantes hung out on street corners, attacking men who showed their ankles or wore any form of Western clothing.\n\nWomen only ventured out if they had written permission from men, and of course had to wear the all-encompassing burka.\n\nThe Taliban minister of health, Mullah Balouch, complained to me that the International Red Cross refused his request to provide surgeons to cut off the hands and feet of convicted thieves, so he had to do the job personally; though he seemed to quite enjoy it.\n\nWorking for television was a nightmare, because taking the image of any living creature was expressly forbidden on religious grounds. Bookshops were regularly ransacked for illustrations, and any guilty bookseller was whipped.\n\nMost people fled the city if they could, and most shops were shut up.\n\nThe Taliban couldn't pay for oil imports, so the brightest lights at night-time were the candles people put in their windows, and the loudest noise was the barking of packs of marauding dogs, abandoned by their owners.\n\nFor all the failings of successive Afghan governments and their Western backers, Kabul and other cities have burst with commercial life since the Taliban were chased out.\n\nKabul has been transformed as a city in recent years\n\nLiving standards have shot up. Cars pack the once empty streets. Schools have blossomed, especially for girls; under the Taliban the education of girls was expressly forbidden. Music, banned under the Taliban, blared out everywhere.\n\nThere are new buildings everywhere. The last time I was there, I couldn't even find the place on the edge of the city where my BBC colleagues and I started our walk into town in 2001; the whole area had been built over.\n\nMost Afghans will regard the Taliban takeover as a catastrophe for themselves and their country.\n\nThe main question now is, will the Taliban follow their instincts and take Afghanistan back to the past as radically as they did before liberation day 20 years ago - or have they learned a lesson?", "Candice Roberts and her partner James Markham, who was stabbed to death on Monday\n\nThe partner of a man who was stabbed to death outside his home in north-east London has said her \"heart will never be the same\".\n\nJames Markham, 45, was killed on Monday night after confronting a group of youths who were shouting outside his home on Churchill Terrace, Chingford.\n\nA 14-year-old boy has been charged with his murder.\n\nCandice Roberts, who said she was \"devoted\" to Mr Markham for 25 years, described him as \"her world\".\n\nThe father of three had previously been described by friends as a \"man with a good heart and a good soul\".\n\nIn a statement, Ms Roberts said: \"We are so thankful to the ambulance service, the air ambulance and the police in all their efforts to save our beautiful Jamie.\n\n\"Our hearts will never be the same, he was my world. I am so overwhelmed from the love from our community and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.\"\n\nThe accused teenager appeared at Stratford Youth Court on Friday, also charged with possessing a knife in public.\n\nHe remains in youth detention and is set to appear at the Old Bailey on 17 August.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nSecond LV= Insurance Test, Lord's (day four of five)\n\nThe second Test is set for a grandstand finale after England made late inroads into the India batting on the fourth day at Lord's.\n\nEngland took three wickets for 20 runs to leave India 181-6, 154 ahead, with all four results possible on the final day.\n\nA see-saw Test continued to fluctuate on a compelling Sunday at Lord's, with England reducing India to 55-3, only for the tourists to grind it out through a partnership of 100 between Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane.\n\nWhen Pujara fell for 45 off 206 balls - a third wicket for the tireless Mark Wood - it opened the door for Moeen Ali to remove Rahane and Ravindra Jadeja.\n\nThe gathering gloom added to the sense of theatre, with England only able to bowl the spin of Moeen and Joe Root despite the second new ball being available.\n\nWhen the umpires finally decided it was too dark, with eight overs unbowled, the dangerous Rishabh Pant remained on 14 and Ishant Sharma four.\n• None England cannot rely on Root in run-chase - Moeen\n\nThis has been a wonderful Test, one in which England - without a win in six games - have responded to being second best in the drawn series opener and allowing to reach India 276-3 on the first day.\n\nIt moved through distinct phases and contained some memorable moments: England's early potency, the resistance of Pujara and Rahane, then the drama of the late wickets.\n\nBy the end, the early finish probably suited both sides. India would have wanted to escape to the safety of the dressing room, while England did not want to leak crucial runs while being forced to bowl the spinners in fading light.\n\nThe continuing presence of Pant is England's biggest concern, but they will also know they have the opportunity to run through a long India tail when the new ball is finally taken on Monday morning.\n\nWhatever they are chasing, England must contend with a pitch that is becoming increasingly uneven, particularly when the bowling is from the Pavilion End.\n\nThere is also a concern over Wood, who left the field with a shoulder injury after diving to stop the ball on the boundary.\n\nPujara had not passed 21 in his 10 previous Test innings, while Rahane possessed only one half-century in 15, yet they combined to defy England and keep India afloat.\n\nThe obdurate Pujara spent 34 balls on nought, the lively India fans - on Indian Independence Day - chanting his name when he got off the mark. He took only 12 runs from the first 100 balls he faced.\n\nThe wristy Rahane scored slightly more freely and benefitted from being dropped at point on 31 by a diving Jonny Bairstow off Moeen.\n\nEngland tried everything to split the partnership and were at the point of being blunted when Wood found extra bounce to have Pujara held at a short second slip via the glove.\n\nRahane lazily edged Moeen behind, with the off-spinner then producing a ripping delivery to beat the grope of Jadeja and take the off stump.\n\nPant, who waited to bat lying down on a couch in the India dressing room, was his usual frantic self and was in animated conversation with England captain Root as the players left the field.\n\nEngland were magnificent in the morning session, their bowling threatening, fielding dynamic and tactics astute.\n\nIndia started their second innings 27 behind and Wood was introduced in just the sixth over. After taking KL Rahul's edge with a delivery clocked at almost 94mph, he prevailed in a thrilling duel with Rohit Sharma.\n\nWith Wood haring in, Rohit was determined to take him on, snapping into a breathtaking pull for six. When England put a third fielder on the boundary, Rohit still could not resist, allowing Moeen to take a smart catch at long leg.\n\nJames Anderson's opening spell stretched to nine overs and included a verbal joust with captain Virat Kohli, who became Curran's first wicket of the series.\n\nProdding at one that was well wide of off stump, Kohli was caught behind, sending Curran on an ecstatic sprint around Lord's.\n\nIndia were rocked and England buoyant, only for Pujara and Rahane to mount their stoic rearguard that spanned almost 50 overs.\n\n'All results are possible'\n\nEngland all-rounder Moeen Ali on BBC Sport: \"They (Pujara and Rahane) played fantastically well, but the way we hung in there put us in a fantastic position to fight to win tomorrow. The scoring never really got away from us so it will be a great day.\n\n\"They have Pant, who could take the game away from us in one or two overs, so I didn't want to go out there searching for wickets. The game is beautifully poised.\"\n\nFormer England captain Michael Vaughan on BBC Test Match Special: \"We are in for a gem of a last day. We come back tomorrow with all results still possible.\n\n\"The first 30 minutes will decide the game. If they allow Pant to get in, that lead will be around 200.\n\n\"At the moment I have England as favourites but the more it goes over 200 I will be edging closer to India.\"\n\nFormer England batsman Mark Ramprakash: \"England will fancy their chances but there is still work to do. Anything around 200 will be difficult to chase.\"\n• None An expose into the drug war and cartels that operate on the Mexico/US border\n• None Can the recruits gets through these gruelling Special Forces tests?", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Buildings in Les Cayes were destroyed by the 7.2-magnitude earthquake\n\nA powerful earthquake has struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti, killing at least 304 people and injuring more than 1,800.\n\nThe 7.2-magnitude quake hit the west of the country on Saturday morning, toppling and damaging buildings including churches and hotels.\n\nThe prime minister said there was \"extensive damage\" and declared a month-long state of emergency.\n\nHaiti is still recovering from a devastating 2010 earthquake.\n\nThe epicentre of Saturday's quake was about 12km (7.5 miles) from the town of Saint-Louis du Sud, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.\n\nAt least 304 people have died and many more are injured\n\nThe tremor was felt in the densely-populated capital of Port-au-Prince, some 125km away, and in neighbouring countries.\n\n\"Lots of homes are destroyed, people are dead and some are at the hospital,\" Christella Saint Hilaire, who lives near the epicentre, told AFP news agency.\n\nPrime Minister Ariel Henry said he had mobilised a team to work on the relief effort.\n\n\"The most important thing is to recover as many survivors as possible under the rubble,\" he said. \"We have learned that the local hospitals, in particular that of Les Cayes, are overwhelmed with wounded, fractured people.\"\n\nMr Henry later revealed he had flown in a plane over the city of Cayes.\n\nThis 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 Dr Ariel Henry 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.\n\nUS President Joe Biden has authorised an \"immediate US response\" to help Haiti and said USAID would work to support efforts to \"assess the damage and assist efforts to recover those who were injured and those who must now rebuild\".\n\n\"In what is already a challenging time for the people of Haiti, I am saddened by the devastating earthquake,\" he said.\n\nThe USGS earlier warned that the earthquake could result in thousands of fatalities and injuries. It also said several aftershocks had been felt in the region, including one measuring 5.8 magnitude.\n\nBuildings were damaged and reduced to rubble in the town of Les Cayes\n\nFrantz Duval, editor-in-chief of Haiti's Le Nouvelliste newspaper, tweeted that two hotels were among the buildings destroyed in the town of Les Cayes. He said the local hospital was overwhelmed.\n\n\"Slowly, strongly and for very long seconds the earth shook in Haiti on 14 August, 2021 around 8:30 am,\" he wrote.\n\nReporters at Le Nouvelliste later said the majority of churches and hotels on the south coast had collapsed or suffered major damage.\n\nArchdeacon Abiade Lozama, head of an Episcopal church in Les Cayes, told the New York Times: \"The streets are filled with screaming. People are searching, for loved ones or resources, medical help, water.\"\n\nThe president has mobilised a team to work on relief efforts\n\nPhotos shared on social media showed damaged buildings and piles of rubble after the quake.\n\nLeila Bourahla, Haiti director of Save the Children, told the New York Times it would take days to assess the damage but \"it is clear that this is a massive humanitarian emergency\".\n\nThis 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 2 by JCOM Haïti 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.\n\nNaomi Verneus, a 34-year-old resident of the capital Port-au-Prince, told the Associated Press news agency she was woken up by the earthquake and that her bed was shaking.\n\n\"I woke up and didn't have time to put my shoes on. We lived [through] the 2010 earthquake and all I could do was run. I later remembered my two kids and my mother were still inside. My neighbour went in and told them to get out. We ran to the street,\" she said.\n\nThe 2010 earthquake in Haiti killed more than 200,000 people and caused extensive damage to infrastructure and the economy.\n\nSaturday's earthquake comes amid a political crisis in the country, following the assassination of its president last month.\n\nTennis star Naomi Osaka, who is of Japanese and Haitian descent, tweeted her solidarity with Haiti.\n\nReferring to next week's Western & Southern Open, the four-time Grand Slam winner wrote: \"I'm about to play a tournament this week and I'll give all the prize money to relief efforts for Haiti. I know our ancestors' blood is strong we'll keep rising.\"\n• None 59%percentage who live below the poverty line\n• None 2004-2017years in which a UN peacekeeping force was present\n• None 200,000number of people killed in the 2010 earthquake\n\nAre you in the area? If it is safe to do so please share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "Restrictions will get tighter in the state as cases increase\n\nThe leader of New South Wales has warned this is \"the worst situation Australia's been in\" since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nState Premier Gladys Berejiklian said rules would be tightened in Sydney, the state capital, which is in lockdown.\n\nCovid fines will also go up to AU$5,000 (US$3,685; £2,656) from AU$1,000.\n\n\"This is literally a war, and we've known we've been in a war for some time, but never to this extent,\" Ms Berejiklian told reporters.\n\nShe added that September and October would be \"very difficult\".\n\nCase numbers and deaths in the Australian state remain relatively low compared to some of the world's worst outbreaks, including in the US and UK.\n\nHowever, locally transmitted infections hit 466 on Saturday - a significant increase from the previous daily high of 390 set a day earlier.\n\nFour deaths were reported on Saturday, bringing the state's total number of deaths in this outbreak to 42.\n\nSydney has been in lockdown for nine weeks. Officials had hoped to lift the city's restrictions on 28 August, but that is now looking increasingly unlikely.\n\nFrom Monday, people will be restricted to staying within 5km of their home for shopping, exercise or outdoor recreation, with exemptions in place for social bubbles.\n\nAnd from 21 August, anyone wishing to travel from Greater Sydney to regional New South Wales will need a permit. Anyone found travelling without a permit will be fined AU$3,000.\n\nHundreds more defence personnel will also enforce lockdown measures in the city, after Australian Defence Force soldiers were first deployed last month.\n\nNSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said some people had been using excuses related to exercise, social bubbles and regional travel.\n\n\"These are some of the strongest powers we've ever had in the history of the NSW Police Force,\" he told reporters. \"It's all about getting ahead of Delta [variant of Covid-19], not chasing it.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. From June: How does Sydney feel about the Covid lockdown?", "Angus Hosking said Josephine Bridges was \"massively grateful\" to get her leg back\n\nA prosthetic leg has been retrieved from a lake after an appeal to divers for help.\n\nJosephine Bridges, from Birmingham, lost it in Windermere in Cumbria's Lake District while swimming.\n\nA post on social media by her sister was forwarded to Angus Hosking, founder of Lake District Diving, who is regularly called by people who have lost things in the water.\n\n\"She was pretty stunned for me to have found it,\" he said.\n\nMs Bridges lost her waterproof prosthetic at some point after jumping off the jetty at Millerground near Rayrigg Meadow and swimming back to dry land.\n\n\"When she got to the shore she obviously tried to stand up and couldn't, looked down, and realised her prosthetic wasn't attached to her any more,\" Mr Hosking said.\n\nThe leg was retrieved from the depths of Windermere\n\nHe eventually found it on the bottom of the lake about 5m (16ft) from the jetty.\n\nMr Hosking founded the diving group in part to clean litter from the lake.\n\nHe has recovered numerous pieces of jewellery, phones, wallets and keys but never a leg, he said.\n\n\"I love finding them for people because I really feel like I'm helping people,\" he said.\n\nMs Bridges, 31, decided to have her leg amputated in 2018 after surviving bone cancer but being left susceptible to infections and pain.\n\nShe founded the charity Positive Bones, which provides funding to people needing specialist equipment or services.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Rescue workers in Les Cayes raced to find survivors before Tropical Storm Grace hit\n\nRescue work following the deadly earthquake which struck Haiti on Saturday has been hampered by heavy rains brought by Tropical Storm Grace.\n\nTens of thousands of people left homeless by the quake had to decide whether to brave the storm under flimsy tarpaulins or risk returning into buildings damaged by the tremor.\n\nAt least 1,419 people are known to have died in the 7.2-magnitude quake.\n\nMore than 6,900 were injured, and an unknown number are still missing.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Buildings in Les Cayes were destroyed by the 7.2-magnitude earthquake\n\nRescue workers dug through rubble on Monday in a desperate attempt to find survivors before the heavy rains were able to turn the earth into cloying mud, making locating those buried even more difficult.\n\nAt 06:00 GMT Tuesday, Grace, which has been upgraded from a tropical depression to a tropical storm, was west of the city of Les Cayes and moving further westward towards Jamaica, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC).\n\nThe NHC had earlier predicted that Grace could dump up to 25cm (10 inches) of rainfall over the worst affected area. It is feared the deluge could trigger landslides.\n\nOn Twitter, Haiti's civil protection agency urged \"good neighbours whose space has not been affected\" to help shelter displaced people.\n\nThe south-west of Haiti appears to have suffered the worst of the damage from the quake, especially around the city of Les Cayes.\n\nError message: If this image does not load your device may not support this visualization\n\nError message: If this image does not load your device may not support this visualization\n\nHomes, churches and schools were among buildings flattened in the quake. Some hospitals were left overwhelmed and in need of supplies as they struggled to treat the injured.\n\nIt's hard enough to treat survivors of any natural disaster but when the hospitals themselves are under fear of collapse it makes it all the more difficult.\n\nLes Cayes Ofatma hospital is deemed too unsafe so they've brought everyone outside. People swat away flies on hospital beds placed under makeshift tents and trees. You can hear people screaming in pain.\n\nOne woman, Elsy, had only just woken up when the earthquake happened. Her son has a serious fracture to his leg.\n\nThere simply aren't the facilities needed to treat people in this remote part of the country. One doctor comes to us, angry, asking why he has no medicine.\n\nOne woman we spoke to - who has a very bad broken leg and is also pregnant - has had no pain relief for two days.\n\nThe people here need help, but at the moment not enough help is coming - and with a tropical storm close by it could become even more difficult.\n\nThe earthquake compounds problems facing the impoverished nation, which is already reeling from a political crisis following the assassination of its president last month.\n\nPrime Minister Ariel Henry, who is in power until fresh presidential election can be held, has declared a month-long state of emergency and urged the population to \"show solidarity\".\n\nHaiti has been hit by a series of natural disasters over the past years, including Hurricane Matthew in 2016.\n\nThe deadliest was the 2010 earthquake which killed more than 200,000 people and caused extensive damage to the country's infrastructure and economy.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe Taliban has claimed victory in Afghanistan after taking over the capital Kabul, bringing to a swift end almost 20 years of a US-led coalition's presence in the country.\n\nFighters have seized the presidential palace. The government has collapsed, with President Ashraf Ghani fleeing.\n\nA spokesman for the group has told news network Al Jazeera: \"The war is over.\"\n\nKabul has descended into chaos, and residents and foreign nationals have been trying to escape.\n\nAt the capital's international airport, an eyewitness told the BBC that staff had abandoned their desks and people were running to planes.\n\nThe US has moved all of its embassy staff to the airport. The US military has secured the perimeter and is in the process of taking over air traffic control to evacuate American and allied personnel from the country, said the State Department.\n\nKabul was the last major city in Afghanistan to hold out against the Taliban offensive, which began months ago but has accelerated in the space of days as they rapidly gained control of territories, shocking many observers.\n\nThe militants were able to seize control after most foreign troops pulled out.\n\nUS President Joe Biden has defended the withdrawal of American troops, saying he could not justify an \"endless American presence in the middle of another country's civil conflict\".\n\nMore than 60 countries, including the US and the UK, have issued a joint statement saying the Afghan people \"deserve to live in safety, security and dignity\", and that security and civil order should be immediately restored.\n\nThey also called on the Taliban to allow anyone who wishes to depart to do so, and to keep roads, airports and border crossings open.\n\nThe Taliban ordered their fighters to enter Kabul on Sunday, after earlier holding them back at the outskirts of the city.\n\nThey said they were going in to prevent chaos and looting after security forces left parts of the capital.\n\nThis 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 Al Jazeera English 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.\n\nThe Taliban's advance into Kabul came after President Ghani fled. Details of his whereabouts are not confirmed but Al Jazeera, citing a member of his staff, said he had flown to Tashkent in neighbouring Uzbekistan.\n\nIn a Facebook post addressed to Afghan citizens, Mr Ghani said he made the difficult decision to leave to avoid bloodshed in the capital city.\n\n\"The Taliban won victory in the judgment of sword and gun and they have responsibility to protect the honour, prosperity and self-respect of our compatriots,\" he said.\n\nThe president was criticised by other politicians for leaving.\n\n\"God will hold him accountable and the nation will also judge,\" said Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of Afghanistan's High Council for National Reconciliation.\n\nLarge queues have been forming at banks\n\nThere was panic in Kabul as the Taliban drew closer to victory. Residents headed for the airport, abandoning cars and making their way on foot in a desperate bid to get out of the country.\n\nOne 22-year-old student told the BBC that he had walked for more than five hours.\n\n\"My feet hurt, they have blisters and I'm finding it difficult to stand,\" he said.\n\n\"Now that I'm leaving, I think about my family - they don't have any way to escape. I don't see a future.\"\n\nThe US has sent military helicopters to evacuate embassy staff\n\nThe US embassy said there were reports of gunfire at Kabul's airport, and warned its citizens to take shelter as \"the security situation... is changing quickly\".\n\nIn the city centre, large queues formed at banks throughout the day as people sought to withdraw cash.\n\nLocal MP Farzana Kocha told the BBC that people did not know what to do, with some running away or hiding in houses.\n\nThere were reports of fighting and injuries in the city's Qarabagh district.\n\nSuhail Shaheen, a member of the Taliban's negotiating team in Doha, told the BBC that people in Kabul had no need to worry and that their properties and lives were safe.\n\n\"We are the servants of the people and of this country,\" he said.\n\nThe US has deployed thousands of troops to help remove its staff and the Afghans who assisted with its mission. Helicopters transporting embassy personnel could be heard over the city on Sunday, and there were reports of smoke rising near the embassy compound as important documents were destroyed.\n\nAbout 600 British troops have been deployed to assist with their own withdrawal mission.\n\nUK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said his priority was getting UK nationals and \"all those who have helped the UK effort over 20 years\" out of Afghanistan \"as fast as we can\".\n\nHe called on \"like-minded\" powers to work together and not recognise any new government without agreement.\n\nOther countries are also evacuating their nationals, scaling back their presence in Afghanistan and in some cases closing their embassies altogether.\n\nRussia is planning to convene an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.\n\nIt said it would not be closing its embassy because it has been provided with security assurances by the Taliban.\n\nAre you in Afghanistan? How have you been affected? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "Last updated on .From the section Athletics\n\nOlympic silver medallist CJ Ujah has denied wrongdoing and said he is \"shocked and devastated\" after a positive drugs test.\n\nUjah, 27, ran the first leg as Great Britain's 4x100m men's relay team narrowly missed out on gold in Tokyo.\n\nHe has been provisionally suspended after a test showed the \"presence/use\" of two prohibited substances.\n\n\"To be absolutely clear, I am not a cheat,\" said Ujah in a statement to the PA news agency on Saturday.\n\n\"I have never and would never knowingly take a banned substance.\"\n\nUjah was informed on Thursday of an \"adverse analytical finding\" - the presence/use of prohibited substances ostarine and S-23, which are selective androgen receptor modulators and help with building muscle.\n\nIf the case against him is proved, the British relay quartet - also including Zharnel Hughes, Richard Kilty and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake - are likely to be stripped of their silver medals.\n\nIn his statement, Ujah said: \"It's taken me a few days to process the information I received on Thursday, shortly before it was made public.\n\n\"I am completely shocked and devastated by this news.\n\n\"I love my sport and I know my responsibilities both as an athlete and as a team-mate.\n\n\"I am respecting the formal processes and will not be making any further comment until it is appropriate to do so.\"\n\nThe British sprinters lost out by just one hundredth of a second as they were beaten by the Italian team.\n\nUjah can request analysis of his B sample. Should that confirm the adverse analytical finding, the case will be referred to the Anti-Doping Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport.\n• None The perfect playlist from the party island to soundtrack your weekend\n• None The moment history was made at the Boston Marathon", "Team GB athletes have been given an official homecoming - and a chance to show off their medals - with a star-studded concert at Wembley.\n\nOlympic champions including Tom Daley and diving partner Matty Lee, gymnast Max Whitlock and cyclists Jason and Laura Kenny were entertained by musicians including Nile Rodgers, Laura Mvula and Anne-Marie.\n\nIt was the first time the Tokyo 2020 athletes had a chance to celebrate together, as coronavirus restrictions meant they had to fly home within two days of competing.\n\nLaura Kenny, GB's most successful female athlete who won the madison event with Katie Archibald, said: \"It's actually really nice to be home. When you're out there, you're in such a little bubble that you don't really know what the feeling is [going to be] when you get back.\"\n\nTo come back to such a homecoming was \"an incredible buzz\", she said.\n\nHer husband Jason said: \"The biggest difficulty is coming out of Olympic preparation and that bubble where everything is sorted - then all of a sudden, you get home and and you have to think about 'what are we going to have for tea?'\"\n\nHe said it had felt like \"a long time away from everyone, especially from our little boy, so it was really special to come home and be reunited\".\n\nCompetitors including Joe Fraser, Alice Kinsella and Bryony Page celebrated the team's success at the event\n\nTom Daley, Matty Lee and Max Whitlock were among those attending\n\nCharlotte Worthington, who won gold in BMX freestyle park, said she hoped her success would help inspire a new generation.\n\nShe said people had come up to her telling her their children were keen to take up the sport, adding: \"People want BMXs for Christmas now - so I really hope they're inspired.\"\n\nWeightlifter Emily Campbell, who won a silver medal, said she was also \"really happy\" about for \"what I might have done for weightlifting in the future\".\n\nAnd she said that she had been recognised in public more now, with someone calling out: \"there's a celebrity in Morrisons!\" when she was doing her groceries.\n\nWeighlifter Emily Campbell said she hoped she'd inspired others to take up weightlifting\n\nYungblud was among the performers\n\nWhitlock said it was \"amazing to be back\" and that he felt \"massively grateful\" to be at the event.\n\nHe has been enjoying spending time with his family - including daughter Willow who has already started going to gym classes herself. He said he wanted her to try \"lots of different sports so she can pick what she wants to do\".\n\nNile Rodgers performed Good Times with Laura Mvula as his special guest\n\nRower Helen Glover said being back home, it \"kind of feels like it never happened\".\n\n\"It was a big reality check going home and being mum again - but it's really nice to feel that normality,\" she said.\n\nSinger Griff got to model the Team GB cardigan knitted by Tom Daley when he was in Tokyo\n\nThere was an audience of 8,000 at the event, including athletes' relatives and key workers as well as National Lottery players who had won tickets.", "The UK's Defence Secretary Ben Wallace claimed this morning that Labour Leader Keir Starmer had supported the deal between the US and the Taliban last year.\n\nThe deal – secured by Donald Trump and signed in Doha, Qatar in February 2020 – committed to the withdrawal of US and allied (including British) troops from Afghanistan by May 2021.\n\nAfter his election, US President Joe Biden continued the plan for withdrawal but with an end date of 31 August.\n\nAt the time, Mr Wallace praised Mr Trump’s deal as a “small but important step towards the chance for Afghans to live in peace, free from terrorism\".\n\nBut in the past week, Mr Wallace has described the deal as “rotten”. He has said that just after the deal he publicly expressed that it was a “mistake”, but we have yet to find a reference to this in either Parliamentary records or news cuttings from the time.\n\nBen Wallace, the UK's defence secretary, initially said Donald Trump's deal with the Taliban was \"rotten\" Image caption: Ben Wallace, the UK's defence secretary, initially said Donald Trump's deal with the Taliban was \"rotten\"\n\nMr Wallace said today: “I never heard from a single Labour MP when that deal was done, 18 months ago… one single criticism. In fact, Keir Starmer supported it, as did all other parties in the House of Commons.”\n\nWe have found no evidence that Mr Starmer publicly supported last year’s deal in the period after it was announced. But it should be noted he was not Labour leader then, and nor was there any debate in the Commons over the terms of the deal.\n\nIn yesterday’s debate Mr Starmer focused on the lack of planning for the withdrawal rather than saying he had opposed it and said: “Nobody believes that Britain and our allies could have remained in Afghanistan indefinitely, or that Britain could have fought alone.”\n\nMr Wallace also said this morning that he had “felt uncomfortable” about the Doha deal and “made representations to the US and others at the time”.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nBayern Munich and Germany legend Gerd Muller has died at the age of 75.\n\nOne of the best strikers in history, Muller scored 68 goals in 62 appearances for West Germany, including the winning goal in the 1974 World Cup final against the Netherlands.\n\nHe also scored 547 goals in 594 competitive games during 15 years at Bundesliga giants Bayern.\n\n\"Today is a sad, black day for FC Bayern and all of its fans,\" Bayern president Herbert Hainer said.\n\n\"Gerd Muller was the greatest striker there has ever been - and a fine person, a personality in world football. We are united in deep sorrow with his wife Uschi and his family.\n\n\"Without Gerd Muller, FC Bayern would not be the club we all love today. His name and the memory of him will live on forever.\"\n\n'One of the greatest legends in history'\n\nMuller, a two times German footballer of the year, won the Golden Boot for netting 10 goals at the 1970 World Cup and also won the Ballon d'Or that year.\n\nHe helped West Germany win the European Championship two years later, scoring twice in a 3-0 win against the Soviet Union in the final.\n\n\"The news of Gerd Muller's death deeply saddens us all,\" Bayern chief executive Oliver Kahn said.\n\n\"He's one of the greatest legends in the history of FC Bayern, his achievements are unrivalled to this day and will forever be a part of the great history of FC Bayern and all of German football.\n\n\"As a player and a person, Gerd Muller stands for FC Bayern and its development into one of the biggest clubs in the world like no other. Gerd will forever be in our hearts.\"\n\nDuring his 15 years at Bayern, Muller was the Bundesliga's top scorer seven times. He also held the record for the most goals in a calendar year after scoring 85 in 1972 until Lionel Messi surpassed his total in 2012.\n\nHis record of 40 goals in a Bundesliga season - scored in 1971-72 - stood for 49 years before it was broken by Robert Lewandowski in May.\n\nIn total, Muller helped Bayern win four Bundesliga and DFB Cup titles, three European Cups, a European Cup Winners' Cup and an Intercontinental Cup.\n\nIn 2015, the club announced he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.\n\n'The Muhammad Ali of the penalty box'\n\nBorn on 3 November 1945, Muller joined Bayern in 1964. With his short stature and stocky build he was nicknamed \"short, fat Muller\" by his first coach at the club, Zlatko Cajkovski.\n\nHowever, Muller quickly developed a reputation for being a clinical striker and his goals helped Bayern win the league title four times between 1969 and 1974.\n\nHis prowess in the penalty box quickly made him one of the most feared forwards at club and international level, with another Bayern great - Karl-Heinz Rummenigge - describing Muller in 2015 as \"the best of all time, the Muhammad Ali of the penalty box\".\n\nMuller retired from international football shortly after helping West Germany win the World Cup in 1974, aged just 28, but continued to enjoy success at Bayern before leaving in 1979 to join Fort Lauderdale Strikers.\n\nHe played three seasons in the United States before announcing his retirement in 1982.\n• None With 365 goals in 427 Bundesliga matches, he is the record scorer in Bundesliga history.\n• None He scored 40 goals in 1971-72 - a Bundesliga record which was broken last season by Robert Lewandowski (41).\n• None In the 1969-70 season, he scored in 16 successive Bundesliga matches, a mark still unbroken.\n• None He was the top scorer in seven Bundesliga seasons - also a record.\n• None The \"Bomber der Nation\" (\"the nation's Bomber\") is also the best scorer in German Cup history - he scored more often (78 goals) than he played games (62).\n• None Only Miroslav Klose has scored more goals for the German national team (71) than Muller (68). However, Klose also played more than twice as many international matches (137) as Muller (62).\n• None An expose into the drug war and cartels that operate on the Mexico/US border\n• None Can the recruits gets through these gruelling Special Forces tests?", "Thousands of people in Helmand province have been displaced by fighting in recent months\n\n\"The Taliban will have no mercy on us and the government won't stop the bombing.\"\n\nThe resident of Lashkar Gah in southern Afghanistan is one of thousands trapped or fleeing for their lives as fighting for control of the city rages between militants and government forces.\n\nThe BBC is not naming some interviewees in this article for security reasons.\n\n\"There are corpses on the roads. We do not know if they are civilians or the Taliban,\" the man told the BBC Afghan service in an interview on Whatsapp. \"Dozens of families have fled their homes and settled near the Helmand river.\"\n\nOther terrified locals told the BBC they had seen bodies lying in the streets.\n\nCapturing the besieged Helmand provincial capital would be of huge symbolic value to the insurgents as they continue their rapid advance after the pullout of foreign forces. Helmand was the centrepiece of the US and British military campaign.\n\nThe United Nations and other agencies are warning of a worsening humanitarian crisis. At least 40 civilians have been killed in Lashkar Gah in the past day, the UN said on Tuesday.\n\nAfghan government forces are battling the Taliban in three key cities\n\nThe Afghan army urged civilians to leave Lashkar Gah ahead of a major offensive against the Taliban, the hardline Islamist group that was driven from power by US-led forces 20 years ago.\n\nElsewhere in the south, Taliban are trying to capture Kandahar, their former stronghold, and clashes have also intensified in Herat in the west.\n\nFighting has been continuing in Lashkar Gah for days, with the militants now reportedly in control of most districts.\n\n\"We are going through difficult days,\" a student in the city told the BBC. \"The Taliban set fire to the ground and government air forces to the skies.\"\n\nAnother man said on Sunday: \"The Taliban can be seen on the city's roads. The presence of the Taliban has astonished people here.\n\n\"Shops are closed, and government military vehicles are lying destroyed in the middle of the road. The war continues within a few metres of the governor's office and the National Security Directorate.\n\n\"The central government said recently they had deployed new commandos to Lashkar Gah, but we didn't see them.\"\n\nHundreds of Afghan reinforcements have since reportedly been deployed to the city.\n\nAt the weekend, Attaullah Afghan, the head of Helmand provincial council, admitted that fighting seemed to be \"getting out of our control\".\n\nThe Taliban have made further advances this week, despite Afghan and US warplanes targeting the insurgents.\n\nThere are reports that Taliban fighters have taken positions inside homes, shops and the bazaar - people are trapped in their homes while fighting goes on in the streets.\n\nThe militants generally warn people via loudspeaker to leave but sometimes they enter houses - locals have just minutes to flee or risk being caught in crossfire as their homes become part of the battlefield.\n\n\"The Taliban told us if we didn't leave the house in half an hour, we would be counted among the police and Afghan forces,\" said the student the BBC Afghan service spoke to.\n\nDuring their rule in the late 1990s, the Taliban publicly executed people and restricted women's access to education and employment.\n\nThe Taliban say they have changed and would no longer resort to such violence - but many Afghans are sceptical.\n\nHuman Rights Watch has documented cases of reprisal attacks by the militants against civilians deemed to have supported the government.\n\nThe UN says civilians are bearing the brunt of the conflict and is urging all parties to do more to protect civilians or the impact will be catastrophic.\n\nThe thousands who've escaped the fighting now face a lack of food, drinking water and medicines.\n\nThis 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 UNAMA News 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.\n\nAid agencies do not have access to most of the displaced, and health centres and hospitals don't have capacity to deal with the number of casualties. Some health facilities have been destroyed, while others are inactive.\n\nA doctor in Lashkar Gah, Masood Khan, said an ever-increasing flow of severely wounded patients was arriving at his hospital, and he feared that others were unable to reach it. He said medical supplies were running low.\n\n\"We are receiving a lot of war wounded… There is fighting all around,\" Dr Kahn, an intensive care specialist at a hospital run by the health charity MSF, told the BBC on Monday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. General Sami Sadat: \"The battle is very intense in Lashkar Gah\"\n\nVideos of reported Taliban atrocities are being shared on social media, deepening fears of their possible return.\n\nThe United States and Britain say the group may have committed war crimes, accusing them of massacring dozens of civilians in revenge killings in Spin Boldak, on the border with Pakistan.\n\nThere are also reports that at least 40 Hazaras of the Shia Muslim minority were targeted and killed in Malistan in eastern Ghazni province.\n\nThe Taliban have dismissed the accusations as baseless, and are posting their own grisly images of civilian casualties in Afghan and US air strikes.\n\nA view of a shuttered market in Lashkar Gah on Monday\n\nThose trapped in the worsening fighting have few options.\n\n\"We have neither bread nor water in the house, and the electricity is completely cut off,\" a local businessman in Laskhar Gah told the BBC.\n\n\"I do not know where to go, there are clashes in every corner of the city.\"\n\nAn Afghan interpreter living in the city said his life was under threat from the Taliban because he had worked for the British forces.\n\n\"I have changed address three times. My own house has been captured by the Taliban and they are living there and they were asking for me,\" he said.\n\n\"We don't know what will happen in the future but they are looking from house to house to find the people who worked for Nato.\"", "Taliban security guards in Kabul, a year on from their triumphant return to power\n\nThe Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, two decades after being removed from power by a US-led military coalition.\n\nThe hardline Islamist group advanced rapidly across the country, seizing province after province before taking the capital Kabul on 15 August last year, as the Afghan military collapsed.\n\nForeign forces, who had agreed to leave, were stunned by the speed of the advance and had to accelerate their exit. Many Western-backed Afghan government leaders fled, while thousands of their compatriots and foreigners fearing Taliban rule scrambled to find room on flights out of the country.\n\nWithin weeks, the Taliban were in control of all of Afghanistan - something they had not managed to do in their first stint in power between 1996 and 2001.\n\nThe group had struck a deal with the Americans in 2020 for US troops to withdraw, following a bloody but ultimately successful guerrilla campaign lasting many years.\n\nTaliban fighters pictured in Laghman Province last year as they began a lightning offensive to retake the country\n\nUnder the deal, the Taliban committed to national peace talks, which never took place, and to preventing al-Qaeda and other militants from operating in areas that the Taliban controlled.\n\nFollowing the group's return to power, Afghanistan's economy imploded, leaving a huge portion of the population struggling to find enough money to eat and to access other essentials.\n\nBillions of dollars in Afghan assets held abroad are frozen as the international community waits for the Taliban to honour promises still to be met on security, governance and human rights, including allowing all girls to be educated.\n\nThe Taliban, or \"students\" in the Pashto language, emerged in the early 1990s in northern Pakistan following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.\n\nIt is believed that the predominantly Pashtun movement first appeared in religious seminaries - mostly paid for by money from Saudi Arabia - which preached a hardline form of Sunni Islam.\n\nThe promise made by the Taliban - in Pashtun areas straddling Pakistan and Afghanistan - was to restore peace and security and enforce their own austere version of Sharia, or Islamic law, once in power.\n\nFrom south-western Afghanistan, the Taliban quickly extended their influence. In September 1995, they captured the province of Herat, bordering Iran.\n\nExactly one year later, they captured the Afghan capital, Kabul, overthrowing the regime of President Burhanuddin Rabbani - one of the founding fathers of the Afghan mujahideen that resisted the Soviet occupation. By 1998, the Taliban were in control of almost 90% of Afghanistan.\n\nAfghans, weary of the mujahideen's excesses and infighting after the Soviets were driven out, generally welcomed the Taliban when they first appeared on the scene.\n\nTheir early popularity was largely due to their success in stamping out corruption, curbing lawlessness and making the roads and the areas under their control safe for commerce to flourish.\n\nBut the Taliban also introduced or supported punishments in line with their strict interpretation of Sharia law - such as public executions of convicted murderers and adulterers, as well as amputations for those found guilty of theft. Men were required to grow beards and women had to wear the all-covering burka.\n\nThe Taliban also banned television, music and cinema, and disapproved of girls aged 10 and over going to school. They were accused of various human rights and cultural abuses. One notorious example was in 2001, when the Taliban went ahead with the destruction of the famous Bamiyan Buddha statues in central Afghanistan, despite international outrage.\n\nThis time round, there has been no repeat of such excesses, but the Taliban are accused of a range of well-documented abuses, including killing opponents, as well as beating and detaining journalists and Afghans protesting for their rights.\n\nWomen are no longer allowed to go on long-distance journeys without a male chaperone and, while not required to wear the burka, have been ordered to cover their faces in public. Most women are not allowed to work.\n\nPakistan has repeatedly denied that it was the architect of the Taliban enterprise, but there is little doubt that many Afghans who initially joined the movement were educated in madrassas (religious schools) in Pakistan.\n\nPakistan was also one of only three countries, along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which recognised the Taliban when they were in power the first time round in Afghanistan. It was also the last country to break diplomatic ties with the group.\n\nAt one point, a Pakistani offshoot of the Taliban threatened to destabilise Pakistan from areas it controlled in the north-west. One of the most high-profile and internationally condemned of all Pakistani Taliban attacks took place in October 2012, when schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai was shot on her way home in the town of Mingora.\n\nA major military offensive two years later following the Peshawar school massacre greatly reduced the group's influence in Pakistan, though. At least three key figures of the Pakistani Taliban had been killed in US drone strikes, including the group's leader, Hakimullah Mehsud in 2013.\n\nSchoolgirl and rights activist Malala Yousafzai was shot by Taliban gunmen in October 2012\n\nThe attention of the world was drawn to the Taliban in Afghanistan in the wake of the 11 September 2001 World Trade Center attacks in New York. The Taliban were accused of providing a sanctuary for the prime suspects, Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda movement.\n\nOn 7 October 2001, a US-led military coalition launched attacks in Afghanistan: by the first week of December, the Taliban regime had collapsed. The group's then leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, and other senior figures, including Bin Laden, evaded capture despite one of the largest manhunts in the world.\n\nMany senior Taliban leaders reportedly took refuge in the Pakistani city of Quetta, from where they guided the Taliban. But the existence of what was dubbed the \"Quetta Shura\" was denied by Islamabad.\n\nDespite ever higher numbers of foreign troops, the Taliban gradually regained and then extended their influence in Afghanistan, rendering vast tracts of the country insecure, while violence in the country returned to levels not seen since 2001.\n\nThere were numerous Taliban attacks on Kabul and in September 2012, the group carried out a high-profile raid on Nato's Camp Bastion base.\n\nPakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike in 2013\n\nHopes of a negotiated peace were raised in 2013, when the Taliban announced plans to open an office in Qatar. But mistrust on all sides remained high and the violence went on.\n\nIn August 2015, the Taliban admitted they had covered up Mullah Omar's death - reportedly from health problems at a hospital in Pakistan - for more than two years. The following month, the group said it had put aside weeks of infighting and rallied around a new leader, Mullah Mansour, who had been the deputy of Mullah Omar.\n\nAt about the same time, the Taliban seized control of a provincial capital for the first time since their defeat in 2001, taking control of the strategically important city of Kunduz.\n\nMullah Mansour was killed in a US drone strike in May 2016 and replaced by his deputy Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, who remains in control of the group.\n\nIn the year following the US-Taliban peace deal of February 2020 - which was the culmination of a long spell of direct talks - the Taliban appeared to shift their tactics from complex attacks in cities and on military outposts to a wave of targeted assassinations that terrorised Afghan civilians.\n\nThe targets - journalists, judges, peace activists, women in positions of power - suggested that the Taliban had not changed their extremist ideology, only their strategy.\n\nDespite grave concerns from Afghan officials over the government's vulnerability to the Taliban without international support, new US President Joe Biden announced in April 2021 that all American forces would leave the country by 11 September - two decades to the day since the felling of the World Trade Center.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Hibatullah Akhundzada is a religious scholar and he is former head of the Taliban courts\n\nHaving outlasted a superpower through two decades of war, the Taliban began seizing vast swathes of territory, before once again toppling a government in Kabul in the wake of a foreign power withdrawing.\n\nThey swept across Afghanistan in just 10 days, taking their first provincial capital on 6 August. By 15 August, they were at the gates of Kabul.\n\nTheir lightning advance prompted tens of thousands of people to flee their homes, many arriving in the Afghan capital, others heading for neighbouring countries.\n\nThe future for Afghans living under the Taliban's rule remains highly uncertain. While most are relieved war is over, millions are struggling to survive.\n\nNo country has recognised the Taliban government in the year since they returned to power.\n\nThe August 2022 killing in a US drone attack of al-Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul will do nothing to persuade Taliban critics that the group has turned over a new leaf.\n\nHardliners in the movement appear to have the upper hand on issues such as female employment, freedom of speech and secondary education for girls, meaning that desperately needed foreign-held funds are unlikely to be released any time soon.", "Carrie Johnson has said she is \"feeling great\" after having her second Covid jab, as she encouraged other pregnant women to get the vaccine.\n\nThe prime minister's wife said she understood people's anxieties but that the evidence was \"reassuring\".\n\nMrs Johnson said there was no increased risk of miscarriage - adding she had been \"definitely concerned\" about that.\n\nAnnouncing her pregnancy last month, she also revealed she had a miscarriage earlier this year.\n\nHer post on Instagram about getting the jab comes after England's chief midwife urged pregnant women to be vaccinated as soon as possible.\n\nWhen the UK's vaccination programme started, the original advice for pregnant women was to avoid the jab for the time being - because doctors are extremely cautious about what they recommend during pregnancy.\n\nBut when safety data became available, the advice changed to encourage pregnant women to have the vaccine, especially because contracting Covid can be dangerous for expectant mothers.\n\nThe 33-year-old, who married Boris Johnson in May and is mother to one-year-old Wilfred, wrote: \"Just had my second jab and feeling great!\n\n\"I know there are lots of pregnant women who are anxious about getting their Covid vaccine but the evidence is incredibly reassuring.\"\n\nBoris Johnson and Carrie in the garden of 10 Downing Street after their wedding earlier this year\n\nShe added: \"Most importantly, the data shows there is no increased risk of miscarriage, something I was definitely concerned about.\"\n\nMrs Johnson had a miscarriage in early 2021, which she said left her \"heartbroken\". She said she felt \"blessed to be pregnant again\" but \"felt like a bag of nerves\".\n\nIn Saturday's Instagram post, accompanied by a selfie in which she is wearing a sticker showing she has had her vaccine, Mrs Johnson said nearly 200,000 pregnant women in the UK and US had now had a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine \"without safety concerns\".\n\n\"The Royal College of Midwives has said that expectant mothers are at greater risk of serious illness if they get Covid so being vaccinated really is the best way to keep you and your baby safe,\" she wrote.\n\nCarrie, seen here with First Lady Jill Biden at the G7 summit in Cornwall, gave birth to son Wilfred in April 2020\n\nSince mid-April 2021, mothers-to-be have been offered the Pfizer or Moderna coronavirus jab, with the second dose recommended eight weeks after the first.\n\nBut figures out last month, from estimates based on GP records and Public Health England data, suggested hundreds of thousands had not had the jab.\n\nData looking at pregnant women admitted to English hospitals up to July showed that, in the previous three months, 171 pregnant women had been admitted to hospital with Covid symptoms - 98% were unvaccinated, and three of them had received a single dose of the vaccine.\n\nIf you or someone you know has been affected by miscarriage or other pregnancy-related issues, support can be found through BBC Action Line.", "The president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, has given his first national address since the Taliban intensified their nationwide military campaign.\n\nThe militants are reportedly closing in on the capital, Kabul, and have now taken half of the 34 Afghan provincial capitals.\n\nThe president said steps were being taken to boost Afghanistan's security and defence forces.", "The fall of Kabul to the Taliban dominates the front pages\n\nThe fall of Kabul dominates the front pages, with most featuring images of Taliban fighters in the presidential palace and military helicopters airlifting westerners to safety.\n\nThe Metro calls it a \"humiliating echo\" of the evacuation of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam war.\n\nThe Daily Telegraph says the \"desperate scramble\" to escape saw \"chaotic\" scenes at Kabul airport, with the British and US governments left \"shocked\" by the speed of the Taliban advance, as well as the inability of the Afghan military to repel them.\n\nAnalysts have told the Financial Times the morale of the Afghans was \"severely damaged\" by the abrupt pace of the US troop withdrawal, undermining their will to fight.\n\nAccording to the Guardian, the Taliban entered Kabul \"not as fighters, but as policemen\" after looting broke out when the surrender of government forces appeared inevitable.\n\nIt says there was \"anger\" in the capital about President Ashraf Ghani's decision to flee to Uzbekistan, just a day after he appeared on TV promising to reorganise the army.\n\nThe Daily Express warns of \"dark days\" ahead for women, noting that sales of burqas have increased in Kabul, \"with prices rising tenfold\".\n\nThe Daily Mail is scathing in its assessment of the 20-year occupation of Afghanistan by the West.\n\n\"What the hell did they all die for?\" its headline asks, alongside a photograph of the funeral of one of the 457 British service personnel killed there.\n\nMinisters now stand accused of \"presiding over the biggest foreign policy catastrophe in 65 years\", it says.\n\nWriting in the Times, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Tom Tugendhat, agrees that the UK is facing its biggest overseas disaster since Suez crisis of 1956 when the UK failed to regain control of the canal in Egypt.\n\nHe warns that Britain remains \"impotent\" in the face of US policy, and says government cuts to defence, diplomacy, aid and trade \"will look different today from how they did a week ago\".\n\nThe Sun thinks the retreat from Kabul is \"shameful\", arguing the US intelligence services committed a \"monumental error\" by failing to realise Afghan cities would fall so quickly.\n\nThe Daily Mirror accuses Downing Street of being \"asleep once again\", claiming the way Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab had to \"hurry back\" to the UK from holiday is \"symbolic\" of how Britain and the US underestimated the Taliban.\n\nThe FT acknowledges it was former US President Donald Trump who announced America would pull out of Afghanistan, but going ahead was his successor Joe Biden's choice. The paper describes the move as a \"miscalculation\" that will \"haunt the rest of his presidency\".\n\nThat view is shared by the New York Times, which says fairly or unfairly, Mr Biden will go down in history as the president who presided over a humiliating final act in the Afghan experiment.\n\n\"After seven months in which his administration seemed to exude much-needed competence\", it says, \"everything about America's last days in Afghanistan shattered the imagery\".\n\nThe Wall Street Journal is even more damning, arguing Mr Biden's statement on Saturday washing his hands of Afghanistan \"deserves to go down as one of the most shameful in history\" by a president at a moment of American retreat.\n\nFor the Washington Post, this was a \"disaster\" produced by four administrations, but there was \"nothing inevitable\" about the outcome, which will \"leave an indelible stain\" on the current commander-in-chief.", "Roger Federer says he will be sidelined for \"many months\" as he prepares to have further knee surgery.\n\nThe 40-year-old Swiss, a 20-time Grand Slam champion, had two knee operations last year.\n\nIn a video post on Instagram, Federer said he hoped the surgery would give him \"a glimmer of hope\" to return to action.\n\nHe was knocked out in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in July and then missed the Tokyo Olympics.\n\n\"I'll be on crutches for many weeks, and also out of the game for many months,\" Federer, who turned 40 a week ago, said on Sunday evening.\n\n\"It's going to be difficult in some ways but, at the same time, I know it's the right thing to do because I want to be healthy, I want to be running around later as well again.\n\n\"I also want to give myself a glimmer of hope to return to the tour in some shape or form.\n\n\"I am realistic - I know how difficult it is at this age right now to do another surgery and try it.\n\n\"But I want to be healthy. I will go through the rehab process with a goal, while I'm still active, which I think is going to help me during this long period of time.\"\n\nAfter losing to Poland's Hubert Hurkacz at Wimbledon, Federer - now ranked number nine in the world - told reporters he was unsure whether he would play at SW19 again.\n\nIn the past two years, he has seen his Grand Slam titles tally equalled twice - first by Spain's Rafael Nadal at the 2020 French Open and then by Serbia's Novak Djokovic, who won a 20th major at Wimbledon 2021.\n\nFederer had two operations on his right knee in 2020 after the Australian Open, before returning to the Tour in Doha in March.", "Last updated on .From the section Sport\n\nThe government will increase its funding of Great Britain's Olympians and Paralympians by £23.4m annually to £77.4m a year to aid preparation for the Paris Games in 2024.\n\nThe money will be provided in addition to National Lottery funds, and athletes hoping to compete at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics will also benefit.\n\nGreat Britain finished fourth in the table after winning 65 medals at the Tokyo Olympics.\n\nA statement from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said funds would also be used to \"help kick-start the search for the next generation of Olympic and Paralympic champions\".\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said: \"Team GB showed us the very best of this country in Tokyo - demonstrating sportsmanship, hard work and record-breaking performances.\n\n\"From the pool to the track to the velodrome, our Olympians gave us so many reasons to be proud, and to celebrate their extraordinary success.\n\n\"This increased funding will support Team GB to deliver their best possible performances in three years' time in Paris.\"\n\nDame Katherine Grainger, chair of UK Sport - the organisation that will receive the funding - said: \"This commitment from our government, as well as the incredible support we receive from National Lottery players, gives us greater certainty of delivering more extraordinary moments to reach, inspire and unite the nation in Beijing and Paris, and also sets us up perfectly for the 'greatest decade' of sport that we hope to deliver in the years to come.\"\n• None An expose into the drug war and cartels that operate on the Mexico/US border\n• None Can the recruits gets through these gruelling Special Forces tests?", "Emergency crews were called to Clarence Gardens in Camden after reports of gunshots on Saturday night\n\nFour people have been treated in hospital after a suspected shooting in London.\n\nPolice, including firearms officers, were deployed to Clarence Gardens, Camden, at about 22:10 BST on Saturday following reports of shots being fired.\n\nTwo women were treated by paramedics at the scene for suspected gunshot wounds before being taken to hospital.\n\nA man and a woman later attended hospital with similar injuries, police said.\n\nThere have been no arrests in connection with the incident which is not being treated as terror-related, according to Metropolitan Police.\n\nA crime scene remains in place and an investigation is continuing, the force adds.\n\nA Section 60 Order, which gives police extra stop-and-search powers, was put in place overnight for the Camden borough.\n\nAnyone who saw what happened, or who has information about the incident, has been asked to contact the Metropolitan force.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A spokesman for the Taliban has told the BBC that the militants want a \"peaceful transfer of power\" in Afghanistan the next few days.\n\nIn the wide-ranging interview, she pressed him on the Taliban's plans for the country amid concern the militants will impose strict interpretations of Sharia law, including corporal punishments and a ban on girls going to school.", "The NRF says it wants to pursue peaceful negotiations before fighting\n\nAn anti-Taliban resistance group in Afghanistan says it has thousands of people ready to fight.\n\nAli Nazary, head of foreign relations for the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF), told the BBC they want to pursue peaceful negotiations.\n\nBut, he added, \"if this fails... then we're not going to accept any sort of aggression\".\n\nMeanwhile, the Taliban say they have surrounded the group's Panjshir valley stronghold and put them under siege.\n\nResistance figures have also said the Taliban are now advancing in the region, northeast of the capital Kabul.\n\nAmrullah Saleh, who was vice-president in the government ousted by the Taliban and is now based in Panjshir, tweeted that the Taliban had massed forces near the entrance to the valley.\n\nThe Panjshir region - in particular the Panjshir Valley - is famous for having successfully fought off invasions, including from Soviet forces during the Soviet-Afghan war from 1979 to 1989, and the Taliban in the 1990s.\n\nNow, the region is still under the control of the NRF, which was founded by Ahmad Massoud - the son of Afghan resistance hero Ahmad Shah Massoud.\n\nAhmad Massoud, the son of resistance icon Ahmad Shah Massoud, founded the NRF\n\nAhmad Shah Massoud was a powerful guerrilla commander who led the resistance against the USSR, and then went on to lead the Afghan government's military wing against rival militias in the 1990s. After the Taliban gained control, he was the main opposition commander against their rule, until his assassination in 2001.\n\nMr Nazary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Panjshir had had a recent influx of local resistance forces from across the country, who have joined fighters they had already trained locally.\n\nHe said the group had \"thousands of forces ready for the resistance\" - although the BBC has not independently verified this claim.\n\n\"However, we prefer to pursue peace and negotiations before any sort of war and conflict,\" the spokesman added.\n\nThe NRF's ultimate goal is a decentralised form of governance in the country.\n\n\"The NRF believes that for lasting peace we have to address the underlying problems in Afghanistan,\" he continued. \"Afghanistan is a country made up of ethnic minorities, no one is a majority. It's a multicultural state, so it needs power sharing - a power-sharing deal where everyone sees themselves in power.\"\n\nHaving one group dominating politics will lead to \"internal warfare and the continuation of the current conflict,\" he said.\n\n\"We prefer peace, we prioritise peace and negotiations,\" Mr Nazary added. \"If this fails - if we see that the other side is not sincere, if we see that the other side is trying to force itself on the rest of the country - then we're not going to accept any sort of aggression.\n\n\"And we've proven ourselves, our track record in the past [40 years] has shown that no-one is able to conquer our region, especially the Panjshir Valley.\n\n\"The Red Army, with its might, was unable to defeat us... I don't think any force right now in Afghanistan has the might of the Red Army. And the Taliban also 25 years ago... they tried to take over the valley and they failed, they faced a crushing defeat.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Cars were swept away by the flash floods in Tennessee\n\nAt least 22 people have been killed and dozens more are missing following flash floods in the US state of Tennessee.\n\nRescue crews are still searching for dozens of people in rural Humphreys County, which is west of Nashville.\n\nThe record-breaking flooding began on Saturday, submerging entire roads and taking out telephone and power lines.\n\nEmergency workers are searching door-to-door in the worst-hit areas, with rescuers also combing through the debris of homes that were washed away.\n\nThe names of the missing have been listed on a notice board at an emergency centre in Humphreys County, with relatives left fearing the worst.\n\nOn the county's Facebook page, people have been desperately seeking any information that could help locate their missing friends and relatives.\n\n\"My niece was swept away,\" one woman wrote. \"Her family is still looking for her. They were told she was found but it wasn't her.\"\n\n\"Me and my family are looking for our 6-year-old cousin,\" another person wrote. \"Any information is appreciated.\"\n\nMany people in the town of Waverly are searching for missing friends and relatives\n\nMost of the missing are from the town of Waverly. The state's Governor Bill Lee visited on Sunday.\n\n\"The loss of life and property damage is devastating,\" he said. \"Our hearts are with the many Tennesseans experiencing loss and heartbreak.\"\n\nOne woman, Shirley Foster, discovered that a friend had died and approached Governor Lee as he walked through the town.\n\n\"I thought I was over the shock of all this,\" she told him, according to the Associated Press. \"I'm just tore up over my friend. My house is nothing, but my friend is gone.\"\n\nThousands of people in Humphreys County have been left without power, while a reunification centre has been set up at a school. People have been asked to donate items to help those displaced.\n\nEmergency officials expect the death toll to rise in the coming days.\n\n\"I would expect, given the number of fatalities, that we're going to see mostly recovery efforts at this point rather than rescue efforts,\" Tennessee Emergency Management Director Patrick Sheehan said.\n\nAt least 17 inches (43cm) of rain fell in Humphreys County in less than 24 hours Saturday, breaking Tennessee's one-day record.\n\nIt comes as another major weather event, Storm Henri, dumps heavy rain on the north-eastern US.\n\nStorm Henri has brought heavy rains to New York and other nearby states\n\nMore than 120,000 homes and businesses are without power in the region after the storm made landfall in Rhode Island late on Sunday.\n\nPresident Joe Biden, meanwhile, has approved disaster relief for the states of Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York, which have been hit by the storm.\n\nThe storm is forecast to weaken as it pushes out to the Gulf of Maine on Monday afternoon.\n\nMany factors contribute to flooding, but a warming atmosphere caused by climate change makes extreme rainfall more likely.\n\nThe world has already warmed by about 1.2C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.\n\nHow have you been affected by the extreme weather? If it is safe for you to do so, email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "Rob and Patrick faced homophobic abuse and were hit with bottles during a night out in Birmingham\n\nA man has been arrested in connection with a violent homophobic attack in Birmingham.\n\nRob and Patrick, in their 30s, were abused and attacked outside the Missing Bar in Bromsgrove Street, in the city's Gay Village on 15 August.\n\nHomophobic abuse was shouted from a car and the pair were then assaulted with bottles, West Midlands Police said.\n\nThe 31-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of wounding and remains in custody.\n\nThe couple from Bicester, Oxfordshire, told the BBC they had been at a friend's housewarming party and then decided to go dancing.\n\nPatrick was knocked unconscious in the attack and his partner suffered several deep cuts. Both needed treatment in hospital for their injuries.\n\nDetectives said they still wanted to speak to two other men - Sohail Khan, 24, and Ishaaq Ayaz, 21, both from Birmingham - about the attack.\n\nPolice said they wanted to speak to Ishaaq Ayaz (left) and Sohail Khan about the attack.\n\nPolice said they wanted to speak to Ishaaq Ayaz (left) and Sohail Khan about the attack\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "As thousands of citizens and foreign nationals attempt to flee Afghanistan, scenes outside Kabul airport have become increasingly desperate.\n\nSince the Taliban took control of the country at the weekend and closed land border crossings, the capital's airport has become the only way out of the country for many.\n\nBut the militants have said they don't want Afghans to leave the country. They have set up checkpoints on Airport Road - shown in yellow, below - the main route to Hamid Karzai International Airport, and have attacked people.\n\nThe violence has left 12 people in the area, dead - killed by gunshots or in stampedes - since Sunday, an anonymous Taliban official told Reuters news agency, meaning the journey to the airport is an increasingly treacherous one.\n\nInside the walls of the airport compound, more than 4,000 US troops are in temporary control. Outside, heavily-armed Taliban fighters now ring the perimeter, generating an atmosphere of fear.\n\nTaliban fighters have control of the exterior of the airport\n\nThe militants are reportedly preventing Afghans - including some of those with visas - from getting to the tarmac.\n\nBut even before people fleeing reach the edge of the airport, they are being attacked en route, witnesses say.\n\nA correspondent for the LA Times newspaper saw dozens of Taliban firing into the air, aiming weapons at crowds and using sticks and rope to lash civilians as they tried to make their escape. Graphic images captured by Marcus Yam show at least one woman hurt and a young child left bloodied with what appears to be a head injury.\n\nA woman was injured on her way to the airport\n\nPhotos published by SBS showed an Afghan interpreter, who appeared to have been attacked, being treated for a gunshot wound.\n\nCrowds have also been gathering along the airport's perimeter to the north of the city - seen in the map above - over the past few days, with reports of a stampede injuring 17 people on Wednesday. Many have been trying to climb over barbed wire fences and there are reports of shots being fired.\n\nPeople have been scaling the boundary wall of Hamid Karzai International Airport\n\nAmong the crowds are families with children, many of whom have not had access to food and drink for days, reporters on the ground say. Footage shared on social media showed children being passed over a wall to foreign soldiers in the hope they might be able to escape.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A child is handed over the wall at Kabul airport, as the chaos continues\n\nOne girl in a pink jacket was hoisted aloft to a soldier on a ladder.\n\nA number of children have been seen being helped over walls at Kabul airport\n\nThe chaotic conditions emerged as European governments rushed to bring home their citizens - as well as Afghan colleagues.\n\nAfghan families have been seeking sanctuary with foreign troops\n\nAlthough the Taliban have said Afghans should stay in the country they have also claimed they are facilitating a safe exit for both foreigners and locals. \"We are preventing any form of violent, verbal clash at the airport among Afghans, foreigners and Taliban members,\" an official said.\n\nThe latest reports of Taliban violence and harassment come as a confidential UN document, seen by the BBC, says the militants are intensifying their hunt for people who worked for and collaborated with Nato and US forces.\n\nThe crush of people heading for the airport can be seen in satellite images of the area, with thousands converging in vehicles as they desperately tried to escape.\n\nImages of the chaos first emerged from Kabul airport on Monday as it was overrun by Afghans terrified at the prospect of Taliban rule.", "An Afghan man who worked as an interpreter for the British army has said that he is \"in hell\" waiting to be evacuated from Afghanistan.\n\nThe man said colleagues who also worked as interpreters had already faced warnings from the Taliban.\n\nHe said the reason they were suffering is because they had worked for the British army.\n\nHe added he had been queuing at the airport with his wife and four-month-old daughter for more than 24 hours.\n\nThe interpreter is one of thousands of people said to be waiting to board flights at Kabul's international airport, just over a week after the Taliban seized the capital.\n\nThe UK is working with US forces to evacuate people before the 31 August deadline when US forces say they will withdraw.\n\n\"You are waiting 14, 15 hours without water, without food,\" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. \"You can see lots of people over here, thousands of people.\n\n\"There is no way for us to go in and ask someone. I'm actually trying to find somebody from [the] British embassy just to ask them what's happening with us.\n\n\"I'm always sending emails, tens of emails, and I asked them please help us. And they just sent me one email back, that we should wait. I don't know what to do.\"\n\nThe man, who cannot be named for security reasons, said the heat was becoming unbearable for them, with temperatures reaching 40C.\n\n\"[My daughter] is just four months old. She's just four months old,\" he said. \"She is screaming, crying, she is very uncomfortable. And what to say?\n\n\"Some of my friends have already faced many issues, like they have already got warnings from Taliban. Some people came [to the] door for us, and they asked about us.\n\n\"There's hundreds of other interpreters, their lives are in danger. And their futures are very uncertain. And I think we are in a hell.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Lyse Doucet reports from Kabul airport, where many Afghans are fleeing the Taliban regime\n\nArmed Forces minister James Heappey told BBC Breakfast that 6,631 people had been evacuated from Afghanistan in the past week, and that nine flights were planned for a 24-hour period.\n\nAfghan interpreters and others who worked for the UK government can come to the UK as part of the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP).\n\nBut the man who spoke to the BBC is one of those still waiting. Mr Heappey said more than 2,000 Afghans were still due to be evacuated under the scheme.\n\nPleading directly to the British authorities, the interpreter said: \"I was with you everywhere, I was with you in a very dangerous zone.\n\n\"I don't want food from them, I don't want a shelter from them, I just want them to take me out of this hell, please.\"", "When push comes to shove, the so-called \"special relationship\" is not so very special\n\nA couple of evenings ago with Afghanistan unravelling into chaos, I was thinking about a piece I want to do to mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11. And so I went on a trip down memory lane and listened back to George W Bush's joint address to Congress following those attacks on American soil (don't tell me I don't know how to have fun).\n\nOne particular member of the audience was singled out for huge praise and even greater applause at this sombre moment in US history - and that person was the then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Mr Blair was - is - a great believer in the special relationship.\n\nOften, he is criticised for being too slavish in the importance he attaches to it. He was deft (or supine, depending on your viewpoint) in moving from his warm embrace of liberal Bill Clinton to Christian conservative, George W Bush. And too acquiescent (or pusillanimous, depending on your viewpoint) in going along with American ventures, notably the invasion of Iraq.\n\nEven after he had left office, when Barack Obama and then Donald Trump were in the White House, if Mr Blair had criticism to deliver, it would be layered in so much code you would need the World War Two geniuses of Bletchley Park to decipher it.\n\nSo I nearly choked on my Sunday morning granola bowl when I saw that he had used the word \"imbecilic\" to describe the justification for Joe Biden's Afghanistan policy. He didn't actually call the US president an imbecile, but someone as media cute as Mr Blair would have known it would be written up as though he had. And sure enough the headlines were: \"Blair calls Biden imbecilic.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Former British PM Tony Blair: 'It's not just about the Afghan people... it's about our security'\n\nOf course, he stopped being prime minister 14 years ago, and so can say whatever he likes. But you can be sure that if he had been prime minister he would never have dared go into public prints with such a verdict. Not a chance. That's not how the special relationship works. But I bet that is what Boris Johnson would love to be able to say. Indeed, there are reports circulating - strongly denied by Downing Street (of course) - that that is pretty much what he has said about Mr Biden's handling of this shocking US-made Afghan crisis.\n\nThere are arguably many reasons to complain about the UK prime minister's handling on any number of issues, and I have read from a distance of 3,000 miles the brickbats that have been aimed at Boris Johnson over Afghanistan - but frankly, on this one, he never stood much of a chance.\n\nNow this isn't me going soft, or in any way being an apologist for Mr Johnson. But from Washington, where I am writing, it is just a statement of realpolitik. It is a statement of the reality of the \"special relationship\", which when push comes to shove - and when America is feeling cornered - isn't so very special.\n\nAmerica acted unilaterally over Afghanistan - actually maybe that should be Joe Biden acted unilaterally. The administration was not much interested in what the UK thought. Mr Biden, from what I have been told, was not much interested in the red flags being raised by his intel community and military top brass, or by the warnings delivered from London. He wanted out. The warnings of HM Government - and my understanding is they were made strenuously - fell on deaf, indifferent ears in Washington.\n\nIn those circumstances - and let me depersonalise this - what is a British prime minister to do? If the 800lb gorilla is going to leave the room, what is the much smaller primate meant to do? The idea that the British armed forces could have swarmed in to fill the vacuum left by a US withdrawal is unrealistic.\n\nUS troops guard a control checkpoint at the perimeter of Kabul airport, Afghanistan\n\nThe Ministry of Defence (MoD) with the number of British servicemen and women in situ would have little option but to withdraw - or face heavy casualties that would have in all probability failed to stem the Taliban advance. In American football terms, the US had called the play; there was little for the British to do but fall into line.\n\nAnd as I say, this isn't about the current incumbent of Downing Street, it's about any occupant of that famous address. Isn't it just a bit hubristic, vainglorious, to think that a British prime minister is going to stop a determined American president in his tracks? What was Boris Johnson meant to say? \"I'm sorry Joe, I simply refuse to let you do this.\"\n\nIt has also been suggested in some sections of the British press that this would never have happened during the supposed acme of the \"special relationship\" when Ronald Reagan was in the White House and Margaret Thatcher was at Number 10. Are you kidding me? Does anyone remember what happened in the Caribbean island of Grenada, in 1983?\n\nUS President Ronald Reagan with UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1981\n\nThen, the Cold War was at its height, the \"domino theory\" was still in place, and in America's backyard - there'd been a bit of a coup. Marxist plotters had captured and killed the prime minister. This required a response and the full force of US military might was unleashed in Operation Urgent Fury.\n\nIn Downing Street there was also urgent fury, and it was coming from Mrs Thatcher, ready to give a hand-bagging to anyone who got in her way. Ronald Reagan had not bothered to give her any kind of warning, even though Grenada was a Commonwealth country. It was humiliating for Britain and the Crown, and it gave the Labour opposition a field day. And the Americans were not much bothered.\n\nIt brought the memorable dig from the shadow Foreign Secretary, Denis Healey, in the Commons to Sir Geoffrey Howe (then the foreign secretary): \"When America says jump, he says 'How high?'\" The reality is that there is a deeper truth to that jibe.\n\nBritain can be a restraining force, a moderating force, but rather like the complex constitutional relationship between the - elected - House of Commons and the - unelected - House of Lords, it is probably for the best to understand the junior partner power relationship between the mighty United States, and the far less mighty British.\n\nAnd since World War Two there are endless examples: the Lend-Lease Act of 1941 skewed massively in America's favour when Churchill (and Britain) paid a heavy price for buying clapped out US warships; the Suez crisis, when the US - in effect - threatened to bankrupt Britain if it carried on with the military adventure with France and Israel in Egypt.\n\nI could list countless other examples where America has ridden roughshod over British sensibilities. In the seven years I have been in Washington I have watched it up close - and it doesn't matter whether the president in the White House is Republican or Democrat: how much the British spend on defence as a proportion of GDP, whether we buy technology from Chinese telecommunications firms, what the Trump administration is going to do about Iran - and on and on.\n\nActually, because I am a saddo (as if you didn't know) and spend too much time reading diplomatic communiqués, I thought it noteworthy in the Downing Street read out of the call between Mr Biden and Mr Johnson last Tuesday evening, there was an implied rebuke of the US president, with a paragraph stressing that the progress of the past 20 years must not be lost. Mild to the point of insipid, I hear you say.\n\nAnd you are right - not exactly a message from the British that is going to have Washington quaking in its boots. But what is?", "Antibody tests are to be widely offered to the UK public for the first time in a new programme that aims to find out more about how much natural protection people have after getting coronavirus.\n\nThe government scheme will offer tests to thousands of adults each day.\n\nAnyone over 18 will be able to opt in when having a PCR test from Tuesday - of those who test positive, up to 8,000 will be sent two home antibody tests.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid said it would be quick and easy to take part.\n\nThe first of the finger-prick tests would have to be done as soon as possible after the positive result, so the body would not have time to generate a detectable antibody response to the infection.\n\nThe second would be taken 28 days later and measure antibodies generated in response to the infection.\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency is to run the programme and will work alongside NHS test and trace services in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to use results to monitor levels of antibodies in positive cases.\n\nIts chief executive Dr Jenny Harries said the scheme would help the UK gain \"vital insight\" into the impact of the vaccination programme and immune responses to different variants.\n\nMr Javid said it would build on the \"massive wall of defence\" that was the vaccination programme and getting involved would help \"strengthen our understanding of Covid-19 as we cautiously return to a more normal life\".\n\nThe Department of Health said as well as helping it improve understanding about antibody protection, the scheme could give information about any groups of people who did not develop an immune response after getting coronavirus.\n\nScotland's Health Secretary Humza Yousaf welcomed news of the study, saying: \"It is vital that we have the fullest understanding possible of vaccine effectiveness and the immune response of the broader population.\n\n\"The rollout of this antibody testing study will help us achieve this and could play an important role in the battle to keep the virus under control.\"\n\nAntibody tests have been used previously in the UK during the pandemic but in limited numbers, largely on people involved in studies or surveys.\n\nOn Sunday, the UK reported 32,253 new cases and 49 deaths of people who had tested positive within the previous 28 days.", "US and UK forces are working together to evacuate people from Kabul\n\nThe UK prime minister is expected to ask US President Joe Biden to keep American forces in Afghanistan beyond 31 August in order to allow evacuation flights to continue.\n\nBoris Johnson will make the request at an emergency meeting of world leaders from the G7 countries on Tuesday.\n\nMany thousands of people are crowded outside Kabul airport, desperate to leave after the Taliban swept to power.\n\nThe US intends to pull all troops out by the end of the month.\n\nMr Biden said discussions were taking place about extending the deadline, but that \"our hope is we will not have to\".\n\nHe said US troops had expanded the perimeter around Hamid Karzai International Airport as part of efforts to speed up evacuation efforts, and the Taliban had cooperated with the move.\n\nWhile UK government officials have said there is \"no fixed date\" for UK withdrawal, it is feared that without US troops on the ground the remaining allied forces will be unable to secure the area.\n\nThe UK has more than 1,000 Armed Forces personnel deployed in Kabul.\n\nThe talks between the G7 group of countries, of which the UK is currently the chair, will take place virtually and it is understood the main focus will be the long-term future of Afghanistan.\n\nBut the ongoing evacuation will also be discussed.\n\nAt least 20 people have died outside the airport, a Nato official told Reuters news agency, and there are reports that some people were crushed to death.\n\nThe UK is also exploring how hubs could be set up in countries bordering Afghanistan to help those who have worked for British forces to reach the UK once flights out of Kabul are no longer possible.\n\nMr Johnson has said it is vital the international community works together to ensure safe evacuations, prevent a humanitarian crisis and support the Afghan people to \"secure the gains of the last 20 years\".\n\nCaught out and wrong footed by the speed of the Taliban's capture of Afghanistan a week ago, Western powers have been grappling to salvage what they can ever since.\n\nThe limitations of this are obvious for all to see.\n\nSince the Taliban took Kabul, there has been a flurry of diplomacy; phone calls and video meetings.\n\nGovernment ministers in the UK are candid about the predicament they are in - they're not in control.\n\nThey want President Biden to keep his troops in Kabul a little longer - every extra day allows for hundreds more to be evacuated by air.\n\nBut there is an acceptance time is short and some will miss out.\n\nIt is why the government is also exploring how hubs can be set up in neighbouring countries, to help Afghans reach the UK once the airport in the Afghan capital is no longer any use.\n\nForeign Office minister James Cleverly told the BBC the government would continue to lobby the US to extend the exit deadline, saying: \"Obviously the more time that we've got, the more people we can evacuate and that's what we're pushing for.\"\n\nThe British ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Laurie Bristow, said UK efforts to evacuate Britons and eligible Afghans were gathering pace, with nearly 6,000 people flown out on UK flights since 13 August.\n\nThe US is to use commercial planes will be used to help with the evacuation.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Lyse Doucet reports from Kabul airport, where many Afghan families are queuing for flights", "The anti-clockwise carriageway of the M25 was closed between junctions 26 and 27\n\nThree people have died in a collision involving multiple vehicles on the M25.\n\nEssex Police said the crash involved a lorry, a minibus and a car between junctions 26 for Waltham Abbey and 27 for the M11 at about 18:15 BST on Monday.\n\nA fourth person is in hospital with life-threatening injuries.\n\nTwo people have been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and serious injury by dangerous driving.\n\nPolice appealed to anyone with information or dash-cam footage to contact them.\n\nDet Sgt Steve Holmes described the crash scene as \"incredibly challenging\".\n\n\"We are continuing to work as quickly as we can to piece together exactly what led to this tragic incident,\" he said.\n\n\"My thoughts, and those of all officers on scene, are with the families of those who lost their lives.\"\n\nThe carriageway was closed for about 11 hours while officers gathered evidence.\n\nNine ambulances, two air ambulances and four fire engines attended the scene.\n\nEast of England Ambulance Service said it had treated a number of people.\n\nThis 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 Jonny Ashton 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.\n\nAdam Pipe, head of roads policing at Essex Police, said it was a \"complex investigation\".\n\nHe said officers worked as fast as they could to gather evidence at the scene in order to reopen the carriageway.\n\n\"We do apologise for what happened last night,\" he said.\n\n\"We have a duty to the families and friends of those that have been lost to manage that situation and to investigate it properly.\"\n\nHe urged people who travel on motorways to consider taking supplies with them to help if they did become delayed.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion please email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Kabul airport has become the epicentre of the crisis in Afghanistan, with many thousands seeking to flee the country after the Taliban swept to power last week.\n\nThe BBC's chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet witnesses the atmosphere on the tarmac as men, women and children are evacuated from their homeland.", "Thousands of Afghans are trying to fly out of Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover\n\nPresident Joe Biden says efforts to evacuate people from Kabul airport are accelerating, with US troops expanding the perimeter around the site.\n\nMany thousands of Afghans have been queuing at the gates in desperate attempts to flee the country after the Taliban swept to power on 15 August.\n\nMr Biden said on Sunday that the US had flown nearly 28,000 people out of the airport in the past week.\n\nHe faces pressure to extend a deadline for evacuations beyond 31 August.\n\nThe president said discussions were taking place with leaders of other countries about pushing back the deadline, but that \"our hope is we will not have to\".\n\n\"There is no way to evacuate this many people without pain and the heart-breaking images you see,\" Mr Biden told reporters at the White House.\n\n\"We have made changes, including extending the access area around the airport - the safe zone,\" he said, adding: \"We have a long way to go and a lot can still go wrong.\"\n\nOn Monday, Vice-President Kamala Harris said the US would carry out \"a robust analysis of what has happened\" in Afghanistan in recent weeks.\n\n\"But right now there is no question that our focus has to be on evacuating American citizens [and] Afghans\" she said during a visit to Singapore.\n\nUS forces have evacuated nearly 28,000 people from Kabul in the past week\n\nEarlier, the Pentagon said in a statement that 18 commercial planes would be used to help transfer evacuees to third countries from safe sites outside Afghanistan.\n\nAt least 20 people have died as thousands queue outside Kabul airport, a Nato official told Reuters news agency, amid reports that some were being crushed to death.\n\nUK Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said the Taliban were co-operating and marshalling people into queues at Hamid Karzai International Airport, making the process faster for those hoping to leave.\n\nThe UK has evacuated 5,725 people since 13 August, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said late on Sunday.\n\nThe UK has more than 1,000 Armed Forces personnel deployed in Kabul.\n\nOn Sunday, the US Department of Defense announced the activation of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) to help with the evacuation.\n\nThis allows the US to mobilise civilian airlines to help in an emergency. It was last used ahead of, and during, the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the Gulf War of 1990-1991.\n\nAccording to the statement, the level one activation is for 18 planes: four from United Airlines; three each from American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Air Lines and Omni Air; and two from Hawaiian Airlines.\n\nActivating the CRAF will help military aircraft to focus on operations in and out of Kabul, the statement added.\n\n\"These civil reserve flights will help facilitate the safe transport [of evacuees] to third countries,\" Mr Biden said on Sunday. \"None will be landing in Kabul.\"\n\nThe president said a series of \"processing stations\" had been established in more than two dozen countries, where evacuees would be screened and cleared.\n\n\"We will welcome these Afghans who have helped America to their new homes - because that's who we are,\" Mr Biden added.\n\nThe news comes as White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan announced there were still several thousand US citizens thought to be in Afghanistan.\n\nSpeaking to CNN's State of the Union programme on Sunday, Mr Sullivan said he could not give a precise number, but noted that work was continuing to evacuate them.\n\nMr Sullivan also described the threat of attacks by the Islamic State group against the airport as \"real\" and \"acute\".\n\nThe civilian aircraft will help the US military with their evacuations\n\nTaliban official Amir Khan Mutaqi meanwhile has blamed the US for the \"evacuation drama\" at the airport.\n\nOn Sunday, Mr Mutaqi also addressed potential dissatisfaction within Taliban ranks, arguing that \"certain decisions are made in the long-term interest\" of the movement and its role in Afghanistan.\n\nHe said that the Taliban were in talks with \"all factions\" to reach an agreement on a future government.\n\nThe Taliban's swift takeover of Afghanistan has shocked its people and the world.\n\nUK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called an urgent meeting for Tuesday of the leaders of the G7 - the world's seven largest so-called advanced economies.\n\n\"It is vital that the international community works together to ensure safe evacuations, prevent a humanitarian crisis and support the Afghan people to secure the gains of the last 20 years,\" he tweeted.\n\nMr Johnson is expected to urge Mr Biden to keep American forces in Afghanistan beyond 31 August in order to allow evacuation flights to continue.\n\nFormer UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, meanwhile, has harshly criticised the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.\n\n\"You look round the world and the only people really cheering this decision are the people hostile to Western interests,\" he said.\n\nThe US plans a full withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan on 31 August.\n\nSeveral allied nations - including the UK - are calling for this deadline to be extended amid the ongoing evacuation, as US soldiers are currently controlling the airport.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Former PM Tony Blair: 'It's not just about the Afghan people... it's about our security'", "Katie Price was taken to hospital after Essex Police was called to Little Canfield\n\nA man has been arrested on suspicion of assaulting former model and TV personality Katie Price.\n\nMs Price, 43, was taken to hospital after sustaining a facial injury, Essex Police said.\n\nThe force said it was called by the ambulance service shortly after 01:30 BST to reports of an assault in Little Canfield, near Stansted Airport.\n\nA 32-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of assault and remained in custody, police said.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Fans clashed with police and stewards after hundreds of people tried to storm the ground before the match\n\nA Wembley steward who tried to sell security wristbands and lanyards to ticketless fans for the Euro 2020 final has been sentenced.\n\nYusaf Amin, of Clifford Road, Newham, posted screenshots on Facebook Marketplace offering two passes, uniforms and wristbands for £4,500.\n\nThe 18-year-old was arrested after a woman saw the post and called police.\n\nHe was handed a six-month sentence in a young offenders' institute, suspended for 12 months.\n\nClashes occurred between fans and members of security when hundreds of the people tried to the storm the ground for the match between England and Italy on 11 July.\n\nHours before kick-off, Amin, who previously pleaded guilty to theft, wrote on Facebook: \"Steward pass available x2 with uniform and pass and I'm outside Wembley. Anyone wans (sic) to get in I have two passes and two uniforms and wristbands for you to go in and watch the game.\n\n\"Looking for serious people only. Detailed brief available. Guaranteed entry or money back.\"\n\nSentencing the 18-year-old, District Judge Denis Brennan said Amin \"would have been aware of the concerns about fans getting in the ground.\n\n\"Yet there you were offering out hi-vis jackets, accreditation passes and wristbands... putting at risk the security and the safety of other fans within the ground.\"\n\nHe added that he accepted Amin had been trying to raise the money for his mother but he should have known the \"risks caused\" by his actions.\n\nPraising the woman who called police, the judge said: \"Without people like her acting in such a publicly spirited way, I don't know the guilt you would have felt if someone had gotten into the ground and had behaved badly.\"\n\nDalha Mohamad was also accused of theft but pleaded not guilty and is due to go on trial in December\n\nAs well as his suspended sentence, Amin was ordered to pay £213 in legal costs, carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and go to an attendance centre.\n\nAnother man, Dalha Mohamad, 18, of Anglian Road, Waltham Forest, was charged with similar offences but pleaded not guilty. He is due to go on trial on 17 December.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Arthur had an emotional reunion with his nan\n\nA boy who walked 150 miles to visit the grandparents he had not seen for 18 months said he was not expecting such a big reaction at the finish line.\n\nArthur Mortimer, 15, from Rugby, walked to Llanhilleth in Wales to see family from whom lockdowns had kept him apart.\n\nInspired by Capt Sir Tom Moore, Arthur used the journey to raise more than £4,500 for the Help for Heroes charity.\n\n\"It's amazing, it made me feel really happy and proud of myself,\" he said on completing the feat.\n\nAs for the reception at the end, he added: \"I wasn't expecting it to be that big - we're walking down the road to [my grandparents] and everyone is just there clapping and cheering.\n\n\"We've got the Help for Heroes banner across the road, so we had to walk through that and then my nan and granddad were waiting on the other side of the banner... we went over and gave them a big, big hug.\"\n\nFamily and friends gathered as Arthur crossed the finish line\n\nThe teenager said it was emotional seeing some of his family and extended family for the first time since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nTo make the reunion happen, he set off with his father Kevin on 14 August and reached the destination a week later, arriving on Saturday afternoon.\n\nArthur was joined by his dad Kevin on the walk\n\nThe trek was not without difficulties after Arthur twisted his ankle, having only just stopped using crutches due to ankle ligament damage suffered in a skateboard fall.\n\nSpeaking to BBC CWR, Kevin Mortimer said: \"The fact that he is so young to have such an idea and commitment to make the journey inspired quite a lot of people, and the fact that he wanted to see his grandparents, it makes it just as poignant.\"\n\nHe said he had an \"amazing sense of pride\" for his son, whom, he added, had \"a beautiful soul\".\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Lyse Doucet reports from Kabul airport, where many Afghans are fleeing the Taliban regime\n\nIt hits you like a brick as soon as you put your foot on the tarmac at Kabul international airport.\n\nThe intensity, the urgency, the darkness of this hour. In every direction, there are the huge grey military transport planes from the US and many other countries. Military helicopters are in the sky.\n\nHeading towards every single plane are long queues of Afghans. The lines don't seem to end. They have been told they can only bring one suitcase and the clothes they are wearing, as they leave their country behind - the country now controlled by the Taliban.\n\nBut it's not just the country they are leaving. They are leaving behind the life they lived, and for the young educated generation, the life they built up, the dreams they cherished over 20 years.\n\nThere are said to be 14,000 people inside this airfield, controlled by US military, waiting to board.\n\nFreelance journalist Bilal Sarwary was among those who made it onto the airfield, having left behind everything he had worked so hard to build, save for a few pairs of clothes and his young family.\n\nThis 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 BILAL SARWARY 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.\n\nSarwary, a former BBC journalist, had planned to raise his daughter - named Sola, meaning \"peace\" - in his home country, the place he has spent 20 years covering, starting as a fixer and translator in 2001.\n\nInstead, he is hoping she will one day understand the decision he has made to leave.\n\n\"Today's the day that a generation of Afghans have buried their dreams and aspirations and our lives,\" he said.\n\n\"This city to us is our home, despite its contradictions we called it home, we're raised from here. We hope the Taliban can learn from the lessons of the past… and we can prove that we can move away from the tanks and bullets, towards a road where everyone can see themselves.\"\n\nAbout 17,000 people have left Afghanistan via Kabul airport in the last week, according to the US. It is not known how many were Afghan citizens given visas for their work with international governments and organisations amid fears they may be targeted by the Taliban.\n\nMany are professionals and graduates, and Sarwary fears what this \"brain drain\" will mean for Afghanistan. Afghanistan, he said, was \"a country where good people, they don't grow on trees\".\n\nOutside the airport gates, there are another 10,000 or more hoping to get onto the airfield - a crush of people wanting to leave however they can.\n\nThe longer it has taken, the more desperate the crowd has become. Reporters at the scene describe Saturday as one of the worst days, with several women known to have lost their lives as the people surged forward.\n\nAccording to Nato, they are among the at least 20 people who have died in and around the airport since the Taliban entered the city a week ago.\n\nSunday was reported to be calmer at the gates, although witnesses report Taliban fighters firing into the air and using batons in order to keep people in line, according to news agency Reuters.\n\nInternationally, concerns continue to grow that countries will not be able to get their people - nationals and the Afghans who have worked alongside them - out before the end of the month, at which point the US has said it will pull out.\n\nOn Saturday the European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned that it was \"mathematically impossible\" to evacuate so many in the next nine days.\n\nAs for Bilal Sarwary, he was adamant that just because he was leaving, it did not mean he was ready to give up.\n\n\"Our affair with Afghanistan is the affair of fatal love, no matter what happens we will never give up on it,\" he said.\n\nHave you been affected by this story? Do you have an experience to share around the evacuations from Afghanistan? Please do email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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. Former PM Tony Blair: 'It's not just about the Afghan people... it's about our security'\n\nThe US withdrawal from Afghanistan was wrong and based on an \"imbecilic\" slogan, former PM Tony Blair has said.\n\nHe described the decision to withdraw troops from the country as \"tragic, dangerous and unnecessary\".\n\nMr Blair, who sent troops into Afghanistan 20 years ago, said UK involvement in Afghanistan was not a \"hopeless endeavour\" despite the Taliban takeover.\n\nAnd the sacrifice made by British troops \"was not in vain\", he added.\n\nMr Blair said achievements in the country over the past 20 years - including a generation growing up without Taliban rule - was a \"good cause\" that \"matters today\".\n\nSpeaking to broadcasters, the former Labour leader shared concerns, not only for the Afghan people who he said stood to lose out, but also for the security of Western countries.\n\nHe said the Taliban \"will give protection and succour to Al Qaeda - you've got Isis trying to operate in the country at the same time\".\n\n\"You look round the world and the only people really cheering this decision are the people hostile to Western interests,\" he added.\n\nIn his online article, his first statement since Kabul fell to the Taliban last week, Mr Blair said the decision to withdraw was made \"in obedience to an imbecilic political slogan about ending 'the forever wars'\".\n\nMr Blair said Britain had a \"moral obligation\" to stay in Afghanistan until \"all those who need to be are evacuated\".\n\nHe wrote on his website: \"We must evacuate and give sanctuary to those to whom we have responsibility - those Afghans who helped us and stood by us and have a right to demand we stand by them.\"\n\nThis should not be done \"grudgingly but out of a deep sense of humanity and responsibility\", he added.\n\nOn Sunday the Ministry of Defence said seven Afghan civilians had died in the chaotic crowds outside the city's international airport.\n\nThe US has a planned deadline of 31 August for withdrawal - but President Biden has said troops may stay past this date to help with evacuations.\n\nTony Blair with British forces in Helmand province in 2006\n\nMr Blair admitted mistakes had been made over Afghanistan, but \"the reaction to our mistakes has been, unfortunately, further mistakes\". He said while \"imperfect\", the \"real gains over the past 20 years\" were now likely to be lost.\n\nHe said the Afghan economy was now three times larger than when the UK invaded the country alongside the US in 2001 and some 200,000 Afghans went to university this year - including 50,000 women.\n\nThe withdrawal would have \"every jihadist group around the world cheering\", he said.\n\nRussia, China and Iran will take advantage, he said, adding: \"Anyone given commitments by Western leaders will understandably regard them as unstable currency.\"\n\nPeter Galbraith, former UN deputy special representative for Afghanistan, said all the coalition partners bore responsibility for the chaos unfolding.\n\n\"In terms of what was imbecilic, frankly it was the strategy that was followed for 20 years, which was to try to build a highly centralised state in a country that was as diverse - geographically and ethnically - as Afghanistan, and to engage in a counterinsurgency strategy without a local partner and the local partner was corrupt, ineffective, illegitimate,\" he said.\n\nHe added that coalition partners \"never seriously tried to address the corruption that was prevalent from the top\", acquiescing in \"fraudulent\" Afghan elections, and trying to fit facts into a predetermined strategy, \"rather than having a strategy that was based on the facts\".\n\nPresident Biden has vowed that \"any American who wants to come home, we will get you home\", but has described the evacuation as one of the \"most difficult airlifts in history\".\n\nMr Blair's intervention comes as shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy has urged her government counterpart Dominic Raab to step up efforts to get British and eligible Afghans to the UK.\n\nShe said she had heard of people being beaten, shot at or raped while trying to get documentation in Kabul.\n\nThe Foreign Office said it was trying to get people out as fast as possible, with more than 3,000 people having been evacuated from the country since last Sunday.\n\nIn an article in the Mail on Sunday, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the West's exit from Afghanistan was \"unedifying\" and would have \"consequences for us all for years to come\".\n\nHe praised the British soldiers working at Kabul's airport for dealing with \"unimaginable challenges - public order, overcrowding, searing heat and desperate people\".\n\n\"Soldiers trained for war are instead holding babies and co-ordinating crowds,\" he wrote.\n\nMr Wallace said there was \"no time to lose\" to get people out of the country but added the US would have his complete support if it chose to push back the deadline for leaving.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Long Covid means brushing my hair can be \"emotionally traumatising\", says Megan Higgins\n\nYoung people have shared stories of the debilitating effects of long Covid as they urge others to get jabbed.\n\nA new NHS video features the experiences of three previously healthy people as part of a drive to encourage vaccine uptake.\n\nQuincy Dwamena, 31, said he delayed his jab and \"ended up being hospitalised and thought I was going to die\".\n\nIt comes as the government says it has met its target of offering all 16 and 17-year-olds in England a Covid jab.\n\nMore than 360,000 people in this age group in England have now been given a first dose of the vaccine.\n\nThey are being invited to book an appointment with their GP or visit a walk-in centre.\n\nIn the video to encourage young people to get vaccinated, Mr Dwamena, from East London, described himself as a \"healthy young guy\" who \"went to the gym often\" and delayed getting the vaccine and became seriously ill.\n\nHe said: \"My advice is to get the vaccine: don't put yourself and others at risk, I wish I'd got mine as soon as it was offered.\"\n\nMegan Higgins, 25, and Ella Harwood, 23, were both previously healthy and active but are now suffering with extreme fatigue due to long Covid.\n\nMs Higgins, a special needs tutor from London, said that eight months on she still \"can't even walk around the shops without getting exhausted\".\n\nShe told BBC Breakfast on bad days she experiences all over joint pain and \"that feeling of being absolutely exhausted from when you wake up to when you go to sleep\".\n\n\"One of the things I really notice is my emotional resilience… when you're that tired everything hits you so much harder,\" she said.\n\n\"I had a knot at the end of my hair and trying to comb it out I remember getting so upset because I couldn't keep my hands above my head long enough to pick at the knot.\n\n\"I remember getting so frustrated that I wasn't strong enough to do it. I wasn't aware enough or awake enough. Something as silly as brushing your hair out can be emotionally really quite traumatising.\"\n\nShe said it was \"definitely worth getting the coronavirus vaccine... because the long-term effects can be more devastating than the actual short-term virus for some people.\"\n\n\"For about seven months solid I genuinely thought I might die that year,\" says Ella Harwood\n\nMs Harwood, an illustrator from London, said she was bed-bound for seven months and fears she will \"never be the same again\".\n\nShe said: \"I was fit and healthy I had literally no conditions. I was doing exercise and for about seven months solid and I genuinely though I might die that year.\"\n\nShe added: \"My advice to anyone really, young and old, would be to get the vaccine because it's a naive way of thinking that you're invincible just because you're fit and healthy and you eat the right stuff.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. It’s been more than a year, will I ever recover? - BBC reporter Lucy Adams explored long Covid in a Panorama film\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said more than a million letters and texts were sent out in the three weeks since the age group became eligible for a jab.\n\nAll those aged 12 to 15 and considered at-risk in England have also been invited for a vaccination, the government said.\n\nLetters have been sent to all 16 and 17 year olds in Wales inviting them for their jab. In Scotland, everyone aged 16 and over can register to get the vaccine on the NHS inform website or by calling 0800 030 8013.\n\nIn Northern Ireland, older teenagers can book online or call 0300 200 7813. Walk-in centres are also open.\n\nAccording to the latest figures, more than 47.6 million people in the UK - about 87% of over-16s - have now received at least one vaccine, with more than 41.6 million - 76% - having had both jabs.\n\nOn Sunday 32,253 new Covid cases were reported across the UK, as well as a further 49 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.\n\nWhile the younger a person is the lower their overall risk from coronavirus, young adults can still get long Covid - which is when symptoms of the disease persist for an extended period.\n\nThe latest figures for England show people aged 18 to 34 now make up more than a fifth of those admitted to hospital with the virus, four times higher than at the peak last winter, and most of those are unvaccinated.\n\nHaving two doses of the vaccine approximately halves the risk of experiencing symptoms which last more than 28 days after becoming infected, according to research from King's College London.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid said: \"Regardless of whether you're young, fit and healthy, these harrowing stories really show that Covid-19 can affect anyone.\n\n\"I encourage everyone to come forward for both their jabs as quickly as possible as vaccines are the best way to protect yourself and your loved ones from serious illness.\"\n\nThe government has been pushing to increase vaccine uptake among young people, with companies such as Asda and Deliveroo offering incentives to those who get a jab.\n\nMeanwhile, pop-up vaccine sites have been opened across the country at sites such as London-based nightclub Heaven, as well as football stadiums and festivals.", "So we know that another 35m Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are on order, on top of the 100m that have already been used or are on the way already - but who are they earmarked for?\n\nBecause Prizer was the first vaccine to become available for use in the UK, that is what was given to the elderly and most vulnerable who were prioritised when the vaccine rollout started last December.\n\nOxford-AstraZeneca was the second to be approved and because it was quickly available in particularly large numbers, it became the predominant vaccine as the UK rollout started to work down the age groups.\n\nBut when rare instances of blood clots in younger people were linked to the AstraZeneca jab, under-30s were told they wouild be offered Pfizer or Moderna vaccines rather than the AstraZeneca one. Since then the AstraZeneca vaccine has been largely used for the second vaccines of those people who were given that first time around.\n\nThe UK regulator has now approved the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in children aged 12-15 and the UK's vaccines committee will now decide whether children should get the jab.\n\nThe UK's booster programme is due to start next month but no decision has been announced on whether this third jab must match someone's first or second jab. If that is what is decided, then Pfizer will be used to boost the immunity of the elderly and vulnerable groups who were first to receive it at the end of 2020 and start of this year.", "Robin Swann attended the closure of the vaccination centre at the SSE Arena in Belfast on Sunday\n\nMore than 12,000 first doses of a Covid-19 vaccine were administered in Northern Ireland over the weekend, the Department of Health has said.\n\nThe department said provisional returns showed 12,194 people received their first dose during the Big Jab Weekend.\n\nNorthern Ireland has the lowest vaccination rate in the UK.\n\nEarlier the health minister said the time is not right to re-impose tighter restrictions despite concern over the recent rise in Covid-19 cases.\n\nRobin Swann welcomed the weekend increase in the number of people vaccinated and said restrictions would continue to be monitored.\n\n\"I don't think we are at that point yet about putting more restrictions back in,\" he told BBC News NI.\n\n\"The executive meets again in the first week in September in regards to what's still in place and what we'll look at in regards to the next steps, and that's where that decision will be made.\"\n\nNine more coronavirus-related deaths and another 1,320 cases were reported on Monday.\n\nDanielle McElroy was the last person to receive a vaccine at the centre inside the SSE arena in Belfast\n\nDr Patricia Donnelly, who leads the vaccination programme in Northern Ireland, called the weekend's vaccination effort \"a significant achievement\".\n\nSpeaking on BBC News NI's Good Morning Ulster, she said: \"I do want to make sure we thank all those involved in delivering this enormous effort.\n\n\"But also, I want to congratulate all those who came forward for their first dose. They've taken an important step towards protecting themselves, their family, their friends and the community.\"\n\nDr Patricia Donnelly said the next step was to focus on 16 and 17 years old in further and higher education.\n\nDr Donnelly said she felt that awareness among young people had risen, prompting more to come forward.\n\n\"I do think, for a lot of younger people, they don't feel as at risk from the virus,\" she said.\n\n\"The chief medical officer has said that is not the case.\n\n\"I think they felt that probably the vaccination centres would go on forever and once they become aware these centres close... once people realise that they think they might have missed it, they want to step forward.\"\n\nShe stressed that there are still vaccination clinics and community pharmacies offering the vaccine.\n\nDr Donnelly said the next step was to focus on 16 and 17 years old in further and higher education.\n\nOn Sunday evening, the final Covid-19 vaccine was administered at Belfast's largest vaccination centre, the SSE Arena.\n\nTeenager Danielle McElroy, 17, from Bangor was given the last jab.\n\nShe said afterwards: \"I just want to get back to normality and I think this is a great step to do that, and it keeps everybody safe as well.\"\n\nAs the vaccination centre shut down, a piper led a procession of medical staff out of the arena.\n\nThis 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 South Eastern Trust 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.\n\nIn the coming weeks, it will be converted back into an entertainment complex for pop concerts and ice hockey matches.\n\nA vaccination clinic for second doses will be set up in a car park at the arena.\n\nSpeaking at the SSE Arena on Sunday, the health minister said the vaccination drive will continue.\n\n\"The Big Jab Weekend has proven that there is still a strong demand for vaccination. Our aim will be to bring forward a series of further opportunities at community level.\n\n\"There will also be a big focus on further and higher education in September, as well as other take-up promotions.\n\n\"The number of participating pharmacies offering vaccination appointments will also be expanding.\"\n\nOther mass vaccination centres are set to wind down operations soon, but walk-in pop-up clinics will continue to offer vaccination services to over-16s.\n\nVaccination by appointment is also available at about 50 participating pharmacies.", "Angela Merkel sought to reassure Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky over the Russian-led Nord Stream 2 project\n\nGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel has said further sanctions may be imposed on Russia if it uses a controversial gas pipeline against Ukraine.\n\nMrs Merkel, on her final visit to Kyiv before leaving office, told Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky she understood his concerns over the Nord Stream 2 project.\n\nMr Zelensky opposes the pipeline, which he says threatens Ukraine's security.\n\nIt will run under the Baltic Sea and double Russian gas exports to Germany.\n\nUkraine fears that the Russian-led Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline will tighten Moscow's grip over the region's energy supply and strengthen its influence.\n\nDuring a joint press conference on Sunday, Mr Zelensky described the project as a \"geopolitical weapon of the Kremlin\", which he said would be \"dangerous for all of Europe\".\n\nBut Mrs Merkel, who is standing down as Germany's chancellor this autumn after 16 years in office, said Berlin agreed with Washington that Nord Stream 2 should not be used against Ukraine.\n\nShe said sanctions could be used against Moscow under an agreement between Germany and the US, if gas was \"used as a weapon\".\n\nMr Zelensky said he was concerned about what would happen in three years when the contract to deliver Russian gas through Ukrainian pipelines runs out. The loss of billions of dollars in transit fees would hit Ukraine's economy hard.\n\nMrs Merkel, who held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, promised to provide more than a billion dollars to help expand Ukraine's renewable energy sector.\n\nRussia already supplies about 40% of the EU's gas - just ahead of Norway, which is not in the EU but takes part in its single market. The new pipeline will increase the amount of gas going under the Baltic to 55 billion cubic metres per year.\n\nMrs Merkel has tried to assure Central and Eastern European states that the pipeline would not make Germany reliant on Russia for energy.", "Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada is a political and religious leader who is the third Supreme Commander of the Taliban\n\nThe Taliban took many by surprise as they swept across Afghanistan in just 10 days in August, quickly taking control of towns and cities.\n\nThe militant group has announced an interim government, declaring the country an \"Islamic Emirate\".\n\nThe cabinet will be led by Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, one of the movement's founders.\n\nSo, here's what is known about who is leading the Taliban today.\n\nHibatullah Akhundzada became the supreme commander of the Taliban in May 2016, and is now leader of the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.\n\nIn the 1980s, he participated in the Islamist resistance against the Soviet military campaign in Afghanistan, but his reputation is more that of a religious leader than a military commander.\n\nAkhundzada worked as head of the Sharia Courts in the 1990s.\n\nAfter first seizing power in the 1990s, the Taliban introduced and supported punishments according to their strict interpretation of Islamic law: they publicly executed murderers and adulterers and amputated thieves' limbs.\n\nUnder the leadership of the reclusive Mullah Mohammed Omar (who is thought to have died in 2013), the Taliban also banned television, music, movies, make-up, and stopped girls aged 10 and over from attending school.\n\nVery few images exist of former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, who died in 2013\n\nAkhundzada is believed to be in his 60s and has lived most of his life in Afghanistan.\n\nHowever, according to experts, he maintains close ties with the so-called \"Quetta Shura\" - the Afghan Taliban leaders said to be based in the Pakistani city of Quetta.\n\nAs the group's supreme commander, Akhundzada is in charge of political, military and religious affairs.\n\nMullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund is one of the four men who founded the Taliban in Afghanistan in 1994.\n\nHe is a longtime head the Taliban's powerful leadership council, or Rehbari Shura.\n\nHe served as foreign minister and deputy prime minister during the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan in 1996-2001.\n\nHe is under UN sanctions for his role in the government during that period.\n\nSirajuddin Haqqani is another of the group's top figures, who is on an FBI most wanted list.\n\nAfter the death of his father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, he became the new leader of the Haqqani network, which has been credited with some of the most violent attacks that have occurred in Afghanistan against Afghan forces and their Western allies in recent years.\n\nThe Haqqani network is currently one of the region's most powerful and feared militant groups. Some say it is even more influential than the Islamic State group in Afghanistan.\n\nThe Haqqani network is currently one of the most powerful and feared militant groups in the country\n\nThe group, designated by the US as a terrorist organisation, oversees the Taliban's financial and military assets along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.\n\nHaqqani is believed to be around 45.\n\nIn an opinion piece in the New York Times last year before the signing of the Doha agreement, Haqqani wrote: \"For more than four decades, precious Afghan lives have been lost every day. Everyone has lost somebody they loved. Everyone is tired of war. I am convinced that the killing and the maiming must stop.\"\n\nHe became a lynchpin of the insurgency after the militants were toppled by the US-led invasion in 2001.\n\nBut he was captured in a joint US-Pakistani operation in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi in February 2010.\n\nHe remained in prison for eight years, until he was released as part of a plan to facilitate the peace process. He has been the head of their political office in Qatar since January 2019.\n\nIn 2020, Baradar became the first Taliban leader to communicate directly with a US president after having a telephone conversation with Donald Trump. Before that, Baradar signed the Doha agreement on the withdrawal of US troops on behalf of the Taliban.\n\nThen US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Abdul Ghani Baradar met in September 2020 in Doha\n\nMohammad Yaqoob is the son of the founder of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammed Omar.\n\nHe is believed to be little more than 30 years old and is currently the leader of the group's military operations.\n\nFollowing the death of former Taliban leader Akhtar Mansour in 2016, some militants wanted to appoint Yaqoob as the group's new supreme commander, but others felt that he was young and lacking in experience.\n\nAs the Taliban advanced through the country, Yaqoob urged Taliban fighters not to harm members of the Afghan military or government and to stay out of abandoned homes of government and security officials who had fled, according to the Associated Press news agency.", "Mary (left) and Marina have been fan favourites on Gogglebox since joining in 2016\n\nGogglebox star Mary Cook, known for her appearances with friend Marina Wingrove, has died at the age of 92, Channel 4 has said.\n\nThe cheeky Bristolian pair were among the most popular members of the TV review show's line-up.\n\nA statement issued by Channel 4 and producers Studio Lambert on behalf of her family said they were \"extremely saddened\" to share the news.\n\nShe died in hospital at the weekend with her family by her side, it said.\n\n\"Beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and dear friend to many, Mary, who worked in the hospitality trade, had been married and widowed twice.\"\n\nThe pair \"became instant fan favourites due to their brilliantly witty and often cheeky moments\", the statement added.\n\n\"Mary will be sorely missed by the entire Gogglebox family, cast and crew.\n\n\"Our love and thoughts are with Mary's family, friends, and Marina. The family have asked for privacy at this sad time.\"\n\nThis 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 C4 Gogglebox 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.\n\nIn an interview posted on the website of their retirement home in 2017, the year after they made their debuts, Cook said: \"We're just talking to each other and having a laugh, aren't we?\n\n\"We do say some cheeky things, but they don't always put them on the show.\"\n\nThe pair often left viewers in hysterics with their racy comments, quick repartee and attempts to make sense of the modern world.\n\nIn a 2018 interview, Cook said the programme had given them \"a new lease of life\".\n\nShe said: \"We always watch ourselves on Googlebox. I like to watch it to see if I have made a fool of myself... My family love me being on it. If I am bit naughty, they always tell me not to worry.\"\n\nShe added: \"I think people like us because we are old ladies and people relate to us as grandmothers and we are a bit cheeky.\"\n\nFellow Gogglebox star Sophie Sandiford wrote \"Rest in Peace Mary\" on Instagram, while the show's Jenny and Lee described her as \"such a warm colourful character\".\n\nThis 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 2 by Joe Sims 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.\n\nThis 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 3 by Tilly Pearce 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.\n\nThe friends were inducted into Bristol Live'sBristol Cool Hall of Famelast year.\n\nThey were absent for most of the last regular series because of Covid restrictions, with producers saying they \"didn't want them put at any risk\".\n\nIn January,they were pictured getting their coronavirus vaccines together.\n\nCook and Wingrove joined the show, which features members of the public reacting the week's TV highlights, in 2016 after Wingrove was approached by a researcher outside an Asda supermarket.\n\n\"Then she said, 'Have you got a friend?' And like that, Mary came round the corner on her scooter.\"\n\nCook added: \"They came up to Marina's flat, held cards up of different famous people and we had to talk about them.\"", "Tens of thousands have been evacuated but others remain crammed in or around Kabul airport\n\nThe US aims to complete evacuations from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan by a 31 August withdrawal deadline - as calls grow from allies to extend it.\n\nThe Pentagon said it was not yet at the point to seek a change, though the UK, France and Germany will step up pressure at a virtual G7 summit.\n\nThe Taliban told the BBC that any extension would violate an agreed deal.\n\nTens of thousands have been evacuated, but others seeking to flee remain crammed in or near Kabul airport.\n\nUS President Joe Biden is expected to decide within the next 24 hours on whether to extend the timeline for withdrawal, Reuters news agency reports.\n\nAn unnamed official told the agency the decision would be made in order to give the Pentagon time to prepare.\n\nAt Kabul airport on Monday, dozens crowded around the BBC's Secunder Kermani, desperately flashing documents to try to get on to flights they had not been given permission to board.\n\nThe crush makes it difficult for those who have received emails telling them to turn up at the airport to gain access, he says.\n\nOne Canadian official told Reuters the crowds were \"intense, violence is becoming more common\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told the BBC that foreign troops staying past 31 August would be \"a clear violation\"\n\nAccording to the White House, about 10,900 people were evacuated from Kabul between 11:30 and 23:30 local time (07:00 - 19:00 GMT) on Monday.\n\nThe US has evacuated, and facilitated the evacuation of, approximately 48,000 people since an intense airlift started on 14 August, the White House said.\n\nThe airlift began as the Taliban moved into Kabul following a lightning campaign that has seen them take over almost all of the country in the wake of the US decision to withdraw forces.\n\nThe sole remaining area holding out appears to be the Panjshir region north-east of Kabul, a stronghold of anti-Taliban opponents who says thousands of people are ready to carry on the fight.\n\nWhite House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the US was in daily talks with the Taliban through political and security channels, although Mr Biden was not considering direct talks at this time.\n\nHe said the US believed all Americans who wanted to leave Afghanistan could be evacuated by the deadline, but that Mr Biden would also take a \"day-by-day\" approach on whether to extend it.\n\nEarlier, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said: \"Our focus is on getting this done by the end of the month.\"\n\nIf commanders on the ground said an extension was needed it would be passed to President Biden, he said, but added: \"We just aren't there right now.\"\n\nHe added: \"We've seen the public statements by the Taliban spokesman about their views on the 31st of August. I think we all understand that view.\"\n\nMr Kirby was reluctant to give the specific number of Americans evacuated so far, saying it was in the \"thousands\".\n\nHe also said there were no plans at present to add to the 5,800 troops securing the airport and overseeing evacuations.\n\nIt appears unlikely British soldiers could remain if the Americans decided to keep to the deadline\n\nMr Kirby said that, on at least one occasion, the US had used a helicopter to bring people to the airport.\n\nFormer state department official James Steinberg told the BBC there was a good chance Joe Biden would extend the evacuation deadline in order to protect the remaining Americans - and the president would probably not give the Taliban \"an option to veto\" it.\n\nThe UK, France and Germany have all indicated evacuations will have to continue beyond the deadline.\n\nMr Biden and UK PM Boris Johnson spoke by telephone about the G7 summit taking place on Tuesday. The main point of debate will be whether foreign troops will remain to oversee evacuations or whether they can continue via a civilian operation.\n\nGermany's Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has said that talks are taking place with allies - and with the Taliban - on civilian operations.\n\nThe UK has said that any foreign military presence at Kabul airport would not be able to continue without the US troops.\n\nMr Kirby said it was \"conceivable, even without a US military footprint, that people will be able to get out of Kabul\".\n\nTaliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen had earlier told the BBC that people would still be able to leave on commercial flights after the deadline.\n\nHe said: \"We are not putting hurdles in their way if they have a passport issued - they can go on commercial flights at any time. We want them to stay in the country but if they intend to go, they can.\"\n\nHowever, many Afghans, particularly those who worked with foreign forces, live in fear of reprisals from a group that imposed a harsh version of Islamic law when in power from 1996 to 2001.\n\nThe Taliban were ousted by US and allied troops following al-Qaeda's 11 September 2001 attacks. A 20-year conflict ensued.\n\nMr Shaheen tried to paint a conciliatory picture for those Afghans who stay, asking them to help rebuild the country.\n\nBut he stressed there would be \"consequences\" if the foreign forces stayed beyond 31 August. He did not elaborate on what this would mean, saying only that the Taliban leadership would decide.", "The pictures were taken by a US architect in the 1970s\n\nHoliday snaps discovered on eBay have given conservation experts new insight into the history of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's domestic masterpiece.\n\nThe images of Hill House in Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute, taken in the 1970s, include views of the interior and exterior of the property.\n\nTaylah Egbers stumbled across the 30 slides while doing research online.\n\nThe pictures, bought from a seller in the US, were taken by an architect on a visit to Scotland.\n\nThe Hill House was designed and built by Mackintosh for publisher Walter Blackie between 1902 and 1904\n\nConservationists said the images will help them create a visual timeline of decorative alterations made by previous owners, such as the ceiling in the drawing room, which was plum-coloured for several decades.\n\nMs Egbers, visitor services supervisor at the National Trust for Scotland property, said: \"I stumbled across the slides online and thought 'those are brilliant'.\n\n\"From the advert I saw they were not really images that I'd seen before and I thought those will be great for the house to have and also for the conservation project.\"\n\nThe seller had bought the slides from an architect's estate sale.\n\nHis wife had told the seller that in the 1970s her husband, who enjoyed photography, spent lots of time travelling around famous places, including Hill House.\n\nThe slides show the fire in the drawing room was still in use and the ceiling was a dark plum colour\n\nMs Egbers added: \"We are so lucky he took the photos. It's not very often that you get a set of 30 slides and it's nice because they are so personal, you do get a completely different view of the property than you would if it had been a professional, because they are just somebody's holiday snaps of the property.\n\nMs Egberts said it was \"very exciting\" to find the slides, which were bought for around £30 in the eBay sale.\n\nThe Hill House was designed and built by Mackintosh for publisher Walter Blackie between 1902 and 1904.\n\nIt is the famous architect's most complete example of a domestic home, with Mackintosh having had a hand in the design of every aspect of the building and its fittings.\n\nThe slides show how one alteration brought in by the Blackie family in 1912 was still in place in the mid-1970s.\n\nIn 1912 the Blackie family asked Mackintosh to return to the property to alter the drawing room ceiling from white to dark plum.\n\nIt remained that colour until NTS took over the care of the property in 1982 and restored the rooms to how they looked in 1904.\n\nMs Egbers said the photos showed that fireplaces in the house were still being used.\n\nShe said: \"I thought it was quite beautiful to see the drawing room with the dark ceiling, which is also quite unusual to see, along with the fireplace being on.\n\n\"I thought that was really, really interesting, I'd not seen a photo with the fireplace on before so that was my favourite one.\"\n\nThe house was sold to Thomas Campbell Lawson in 1953 and was then cared for by the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland from 1971 until NTS took it over.\n\nThere are also slides of rooms such as the white bedroom, showing how little it has changed over the years, the library and hallway as well as several exterior shots.\n\nMs Egbers said the slides will be scanned and uploaded to the archive to help piece together more about the story of the house.\n\nThe house is currently protected by a giant \"box\" built to protect its saturated walls from further damage from the elements.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nRomelu Lukaku scored his first ever Chelsea goal - almost a decade after his debut - as Thomas Tuchel's team deservedly beat Arsenal.\n\nLukaku, who was at Chelsea as a teenager, started at the Emirates after his £97.5m signing from Inter Milan and looks to have given the Blues an ominous new dimension.\n\nHis hold-up and link-up play caused Arsenal problems all day - and the Belgian duly gave them the lead.\n\nLukaku was involved in the build-up and then finished the move from close range into an empty net from Reece James' pass.\n\nJames got the second himself as he slammed the ball into the roof of the net from Mason Mount's pass to make it two wins from two in the league.\n\nLukaku almost made it 3-0 but his header was tipped onto the bar by Bernd Leno.\n\nArsenal, missing centre-back Ben White through Covid, have now lost more London derbies in the Premier League this season than last - after just two games.\n\nIt is only the third time Arsenal have lost their opening two Premier League matches in a season.\n• None Follow reaction to the game here\n• None Everything you need to know about Arsenal, all in one place\n• None Everything you need to know about Chelsea, all in one place\n\nEuropean champions Chelsea were already being tipped as major title contenders, having been one of the best teams around since Tuchel's arrival in January.\n\nThe one thing they lacked last season was a prolific goalscorer - but they now have that in Lukaku.\n\nFive days short of a decade after his Chelsea debut, this was his 16th appearance for the club - having been at West Brom, Everton, Manchester United and Inter Milan in the interim.\n\nAnd he gives the Blues a focal point up top and the clinical finisher that they have missed.\n\nThe 28-year-old opened the scoring when he held the ball up before playing it to Kovacic and then leaving Pablo Mari on the turf as he raced into the six-yard box to finish from James' cross.\n\nHe was also tackled by Granit Xhaka in the build-up to the second goal.\n\nChelsea could have had more goals - with Lukaku having eight of their 22 efforts himself - including the one Leno tipped onto the woodwork.\n\nKai Havertz went close to a third as well from Lukaku's pass but Leno stopped his shot with his legs.\n\nThe worry for Chelsea's title rivals will be in trying to find any weaknesses.\n\nTheir defence is almost unbreachable at times, midfielders N'Golo Kante - who was a second-half substitute - and Jorginho are two-thirds of the shortlist for the Uefa player of the year award, and Mount and Kai Havertz support Lukaku up front.\n\nNext up will be their biggest test of the season yet, away to Liverpool - who are also on six points - on Saturday.\n\nArsenal had never opened a league campaign with two defeats and no goals in their previous 117 seasons of existence - until now.\n\nThe Gunners, who lost 2-0 to Brentford in the season opener, started the game well in front of their biggest home crowd in almost 18 months.\n\nBukayo Saka laid the ball off for Emile Smith Rowe, whose 25-yard shot was saved early on.\n\nThe fans were on their feet cheering a good Nicolas Pepe run, but it eventually led to nothing - and they looked beaten from the moment Lukaku scored.\n\nTheir left side was exposed by James for both goals.\n\nJames was involved at the other end too - Arsenal felt they should have had a penalty when he shoved over England team-mate Saka. After a long video assistant referee review, the referee's decision not to give the penalty stood.\n\nIf Rob Holding had scored with a header from eight yards out in the second half, that could have sparked a comeback but he headed wide.\n\nArsenal have injury and illness problems - with £50m centre-back White out with Covid, Alexandre Lacazette recovering from the illness and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang only fit for the bench after catching the virus too.\n\nBut all signs are already pointing to another season of struggle. After two eighth-placed finishes in a row, could it get even worse?\n\nAugust 1992 was the first month of the Premier League. That was the last time before now Arsenal were in the relegation zone at the end of a day with more than one game played.\n\nMikel Arteta's side play West Brom in the EFL Cup on Wednesday, and their next league game is at champions Manchester City next Sunday.\n• None Attempt missed. Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Marcos Alonso.\n• None Attempt blocked. Hakim Ziyech (Chelsea) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Jorginho.\n• None Attempt saved. Kai Havertz (Chelsea) right footed shot from the right side of the six yard box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Romelu Lukaku.\n• None Attempt blocked. Reece James (Chelsea) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked.\n• None Substitution, Arsenal. Folarin Balogun replaces Gabriel Martinelli because of an injury.\n• None Attempt saved. Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea) header from the centre of the box is saved in the top right corner. Assisted by Mason Mount. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "Jack Thorne has won five Bafta TV Awards for shows like National Treasure and The Fades\n\nHis Dark Materials and Enola Holmes screenwriter Jack Thorne has accused the TV industry of \"utterly and totally\" failing disabled people.\n\nThorne described disability as the \"forgotten diversity\" and called for new quotas to improve representation.\n\n\"The TV world is stacked against the telling of disabled stories with disabled talent,\" he said in the Edinburgh TV Festival's keynote speech.\n\nThorne's TV credits also include Kiri, The Virtues and National Treasure.\n\nHis theatre work includes writing the hugely successful play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, for which he won an Olivier Award in 2017.\n\nIn the MacTaggart Lecture - one of the most high-profile speeches in the media calendar - Thorne explained that he had developed a condition called cholinergic urticaria at the age of 20.\n\n\"I was allergic to outside heat, I was allergic to artificial heat, and I was allergic to my body movement,\" he said. \"Every time I moved, I would develop welts, and was in pain.\n\n\"My condition was invisible. I didn't experience prejudice... and as such, I have had opportunities that my disabled family have not.\"\n\nThorne reflected on the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on those with underlying health conditions before outlining improvements the TV industry could make for employees with disabilities.\n\n\"TV has failed disabled people. Utterly and totally,\" he said. \"Disability is the forgotten diversity, the one everyone leaves out of speeches.\n\n\"Gender, race, sexuality, all rightly get discussed at length. Disability gets relegated out. In conversations about representation, in action plans, and new era planning, disability is confined to the corner, it remains an afterthought.\"\n\nThorne wrote the Harry Potter play based on a story by John Tiffany and JK Rowling\n\nHe took particular issue with non-disabled actors being cast in disabled roles\n\n\"Actors - actors I admire - have taken roles they shouldn't have,\" he said. \"I've been complicit in some of those decisions.\"\n\nHe referred to the 2020 US film Come As You Are, about three disabled friends going on a road trip to lose their virginities, as an example of where casting could have been more representative. \"None of these three characters were played by disabled actors. Something as sensitive as disability and sex - really sensitive - and they couldn't find disabled actors to play the roles?\"\n\nThorne also highlighted the large number of Oscar winners who had won for portraying disabled characters.\n\nThorne praised Channel 4's The Last Leg as a good example\n\nThorne went on to highlight the disabled talent already working in the TV industry, and called for them to be offered more high-profile drama roles.\n\n\"Mat Fraser did a demon Richard III for Northern Broadsides theatre company. Give him that same villain role on television,\" he said. \"Cherylee Houston rips up Corrie [Coronation Street] every time she appears on it. Make her the next Sarah Lancashire.\n\n\"And someone is going to build a show around Ruth Madeley, and when they do they'll realise she is one of the talents of our time.\"\n\nThorne said that, while many networks had made positive noises about improving representation, setting targets was required to bring about true change.\n\n\"In order to get this diversity, disability needs quotas. Desperately needs quotas,\" he said. \"There is an intention to change, but that intention is not backed up by impositions on the makers to change their ways.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Disability Sport\n\nCoverage: Follow on Radio 5 Live and on the BBC Sport website\n\nSwimmer Ellie Simmonds and archer John Stubbs will carry the Great Britain flag at Tuesday's Tokyo Paralympics opening ceremony.\n\nBoth athletes will be competing in their fourth Games in Japan.\n\nSimmonds, 26, will be the first woman to carry the flag for GB at a summer Games since fellow swimmer Maggie McEleny in 2000.\n\nStubbs, 56, is the oldest member of the GB team and will be the first archer to fulfil the role in recent history.\n\n\"I'm hugely honoured to carry the flag on behalf of all the athletes, support staff and for the entire nation back home,\" said Simmonds, who has won eight Paralympic medals, including four golds, since making her debut at Beijing 2008 aged 13.\n\n\"To go the Paralympic Games and be given the opportunity to do that is just amazing.\n\n\"This will be my first opening ceremony. Just to be here in Tokyo is amazing but to carry the flag is the icing on the cake and I can't wait for the competition to start.\"\n\nStubbs, who won gold in the individual compound event at Beijing 2008 and silver in the mixed team compound eight years later in Rio, described his nomination as \"incredibly emotional\".\n\n\"It's an absolute honour to be representing ParalympicsGB as flag bearer alongside Ellie,\" he said.\n\n\"For any elite athlete to go to the Games and be bestowed this honour is a privilege. Words can't describe what it means to me.\n\n\"It's been a torrid year - unfortunately I lost my Dad in January. He was my biggest fan, and hopefully if he's looking down on me, he's there saying, 'do it for the Stubbs family John, you've earned it and you deserve it'. I know my family will be as proud as punch.\"\n\nThe British team's chef de mission Penny Briscoe paid tribute to both Simmonds and Stubbs.\n\n\"Both Ellie and John exemplify what it means to be a ParalympicsGB athlete. Their excellence on the field of play as well as their integrity, leadership and commitment to the team is something very special,\" she said.\n\n\"I have no doubt that by their example they will inspire the whole of the team to achieve great things over the coming 12 days of competition.\"\n• None Challenges to keep your child or teenager busy this summer\n• None Which food has the same carbon footprint as five miles in an SUV?: The carbon cost of what we eat", "The US managed to evacuate 823 Afghans on board a single C-17 flight\n\nOn 15 August, as the Taliban entered the Afghan capital, Kabul, a US Air Force plane safely evacuated 823 Afghan citizens - including 183 children.\n\nThe number was a record for the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III - the four-engined transport plane that has been at the centre of the airlift from Hamid Karzai International Airport.\n\nDeveloped in the 1980s and first flown in the 1990s, it is now used by countries around the world to shuttle troops, cargo and sometimes people in danger.\n\nOne Afghan woman even gave birth to a baby girl on a C-17 on Sunday. She went into labour as the flight was en route to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, and medical personnel helped deliver the child in the plane's cargo hold once it had landed.\n\nMany nations including the UK use the C-17\n\nThe rear of the plane opens up to allow people and cargo to board\n\nAfghans in their thousands have boarded C-17 flights in the past week\n\nAccording to the US Air Force's fact sheet about the plane, it is designed to carry up to 77,519kg (170,900lb) worth of cargo.\n\nArmoured vehicles, lorries and even the M1 Abrams battle tank can all go aboard the craft.\n\nThe crew of three - two pilots and a loadmaster - fill up the plane via a cargo ramp at the rear.\n\nGulf states have made air bases available for the US and other nations to fly evacuees.\n\nWestern nations are flying evacuees to countries in the Gulf like the UAE for processing\n\nOfficials are trying to speed up the evacuations from Kabul\n\nThe US had to briefly pause its evacuation flights on Friday when its processing facilities in Qatar's capital Doha were overwhelmed by people.\n\nThe UK has pledged to take some 20,000 Afghan refugees over the long term, with Canada announcing plans to take the same number.\n\nHowever many countries - including the US and Germany - have not specified how many refugees they will take.\n\nOfficials are trying to step up the evacuations. A Pentagon statement on Sunday said the government would use 18 commercial aircraft to help transport people out of the country.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Lyse Doucet reports from Kabul airport, where many Afghans are fleeing the Taliban regime\n• None How many Afghan refugees are fleeing?", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The shadow work and pensions secretary says people in low paid jobs would keep more of their earnings under Labour's plan\n\nLow income workers on universal credit would be allowed to to keep more of their pay under a Labour government, the party says.\n\nLabour's Jonathan Reynolds unveiled plans to overhaul the system, which he said was \"fatally flawed\".\n\nHe said Labour would reduce the taper rate, which currently means that for every £1 earned over the work allowance, payment is reduced by 63p.\n\nUniversal credit is claimed by more than 5.5 million households in the UK.\n\nThe payment, which combines six benefits for working-age people, currently pays a minimum standard allowance of £344 a month.\n\nMr Reynolds, Labour's shadow work and pensions secretary, said almost 40% of claimants were in work but for too many people the benefit meant \"food banks, housing arrears, sanctions and stigma\".\n\nHe said the taper rate reduced the incentive to work more hours, with people on low incomes paying a marginal rate of tax far higher than the prime minister.\n\nIn a speech in Manchester, he said Labour would reduce the taper rate so people could keep more of what they earned.\n\nHe said the changes were part of a new deal for working people, adding: \"Reducing the taper rate, increasing the minimum wage immediately to £10 a hour, sick pay for everyone, protection against unfair dismissal, and the right to flexible working for all workers are all part of our plans to make work pay.\"\n\nAsked by how much the rate would be reduced, Mr Reynolds told BBC News: \"We're not putting a specific figure on it today because we'll need to know before an election what the claimant count was in order to make those calculations around cost properly.\"\n\nUniversal credit was increased by £20 a week in April 2020 in response to the pandemic, but that top-up is due to be removed this autumn.\n\nMr Reynolds said the cut would increase poverty and weaken the economy.\n\n\"Cutting the budgets of the very families who need it most is unforgiveable,\" he added.\n\nHe said Labour would fight the cut \"with every tool at our disposal\" but he did not say whether a Labour government would restore it.\n\nChancellor Rishi Sunak said in July that the £20 increase \"was always intended to be a temporary measure\" but six former Conservative work and pensions secretaries have signed a letter urging him to make it permanent.\n\nThe Department for Work and Pensions said claims, which reached a peak in March 2020, are now at similar levels to before the pandemic.\n\nA DWP spokesperson said: \"Universal credit is working - it has provided a vital safety net for six million people during the pandemic and continues to help people into work.\n\n\"More generous than the legacy benefits system, universal credit's taper rate incentivises finding employment and already makes work pay.\"", "Clinton Ashmore and Sharon Pickles were fatally stabbed within hours of each other\n\nTwo people stabbed to death in Westminster have been named by police, who have launched a manhunt for 49-year-old Lee Peacock.\n\nSharon Pickles, 45, was pronounced dead at a home in Ashbridge Street at 21:30 BST on Thursday.\n\nIn the early hours of Friday, Clinton Ashmore, 59, was found stabbed at a property in nearby Jerome Crescent.\n\nPolice have released CCTV images of Mr Peacock at North Wembley Station on Thursday as part of their search.\n\nLee Peacock was captured on CCTV at North Wembley Station on Thursday evening\n\nBoth Ms Pickles and Mr Ashmore were stabbed in the neck.\n\nThe Met believe the two killings are linked and that Mr Peacock knew the victims.\n\nMs Pickles's body was found in a property in Ashbridge Street\n\nDet Supt Luke Marks, from the Met's Specialist Crime Command, said officers \"urgently\" need to speak to Mr Peacock who they believe \"could have important information about the deaths\".\n\n\"At this early stage we are retaining an open mind concerning motive, but we are treating these crimes as linked,\" he said.\n\nHe added that a £20,000 reward had been offered for information leading to the conviction of the person responsible for the killings.\n\nAnyone who sees Mr Peacock has been asked to call 999.\n\n\"I would urge members of the public not to approach him, but instead to call police as soon as possible,\" Det Supt Marks said.\n\nPolice are looking for Lee Peacock in connection with the deaths\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "New Zealand is grappling with dozens of infections\n\nThe arrival of the highly infectious Delta variant \"does raise some big questions\" about New Zealand's pandemic response, a minister has said.\n\nCovid-19 response minister Chris Hipkins said the variant \"changes the game considerably\" and makes existing protections \"look less adequate\".\n\nIt comes as the country announced a further 21 confirmed cases in the latest outbreak of the virus.\n\nNew Zealand had quashed earlier Covid outbreaks with rapid, strict lockdowns.\n\nThe country was praised for its efforts, which effectively stopped the spread of the virus. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has repeatedly referred to New Zealand as \"our team of five million\".\n\nAccording to Johns Hopkins University data, there have been 3,016 total confirmed cases in the country, and 26 reported deaths.\n\nBut authorities recently announced a snap lockdown after one man tested positive in Auckland with the Delta variant.\n\nThere are now 72 active cases. Seven schools in the city have reported positive cases among students, and the country has also announced six infections in the capital, Wellington.\n\nOfficials are now warning that they will probably extend the Auckland lockdown, which is set to expire on Tuesday.\n\nSpeaking to the media on Sunday, Mr Hipkins said eliminating the virus inside New Zealand was still the government's aim.\n\n\"The reality though is that a virus that can be infectious within 24 hours of someone getting it - that changes the game considerably,\" he told the televised Q+A political talk show on Sunday.\n\n\"It does mean that all of our existing protections... start to look less adequate and less robust,\" he said, adding that it raises \"some pretty big questions about what the long-term future of our plans are\".\n\n\"At some point we will have to start to be more open in the future.\"\n\nAccording to the New Zealand ministry of health website, as of Thursday more than 960,000 people were double vaccinated, and nearly 1.7 million had received a first dose, in a population of just under five million.\n\nBut critics have questioned the speed of the vaccine rollout. New Zealand has one of the lowest number of fully vaccinated people among the OECD - an international group of countries that are among the world's most prosperous economies.\n\nEarlier this month Prime Minister Ardern announced that national borders would remain closed until the end of this year. The aim was to vaccinate the population by then, she said.\n\nAfter that the country would move to a new individual risk-based model for quarantine-free travel.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jacinda Ardern: 'We cannot keep NZ border restrictions forever'", "A week after the Taliban takeover of the country, many Afghans are uncertain of what it will mean for their lives and their safety. Here, a young female student shares her fears about her future. The BBC is not identifying her to protect her safety.\n\n\"It is the seventh day since the country collapsed, the president escaped, and the Taliban, once again, came to power.\n\nFear has taken over my whole being, and as the days pass, I can feel how hope fades away from within me. It gets replaced with frustration. All I can see is darkness, uncertainty, and a not so bright future.\n\nI will be killed certainly. I have reasons to be...\n\nThis is how it feels when the ones you are afraid of occupy the country.\n\nImagine being on a long road, with no end, with hazy weather; alone.\n\nI have witnessed so many hurdles in my life, many that no other girl would be able to tolerate. I could manage to overcome them, but this...\n\nHey world, do you care what happens here? Do we matter to you? Do you see us? Do you?\n\nFor those who are listening, for those who care, I am writing this. I am saying this.\n\nWe are suffering here, we are being left behind.\n\nLiving with fear is no less than death. It is worse.\n\nIf you are listening to us, help us. Help us survive, and once again believe in light and rise; stronger than before.\n\nWe want our country back. Want our people to live the way they want, the way they deserve.\n\nTell your countries to stop war - war is ugly, it has a dirty face, it has no winner. The heart is too tiny to bear war, to bear its consequences.\n\nWe are the fruit of war, some young girls drown in uncertainties, in fear, in doubts... looking for somebody to help us survive. Looking at our families and crying for being unable to do anything.\n\nLooking at the sky and asking from him: do you see us, will you help us? Shall I have hope, that little hope!\n\nHey world, hey people living out there, lucky you! I envy the life you live.\n\nLook at us. I was the one with so many big dreams, dreams of helping others and now I am seeking help.\n\nThis is war. Will I be able to ever say: We did it? We could make it? Will I?\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How Afghanistan's media is changing under Taliban rule", "Abattoirs, butchers and meat processors are set to employ prisoners and ex-inmates to help plug labour shortages.\n\nMeat industry leaders held talks with the government on Monday to discuss options of how businesses could link up with prisons to fill vacancies.\n\nThe Association of Independent Meat Suppliers told the BBC the industry had about 14,000 job vacancies currently.\n\nIt said Covid, Brexit and perceptions over career paths had caused a looming \"recruitment crisis\".\n\nThe industry body said businesses would seek to link up with prisons that contain prisoners who are part of the Release On Temporary Licence (ROTL) programme.\n\nROTL is a risk-assessed temporary release programme that inmates in open prisons use to gain work experience to help them in their transition back into the community.\n\nTony Goodger, of the Association of Independent Meat Suppliers, said the industry body would contact members who required staff and work with the Ministry of Justice to put them in contact with prison services, in a bid to recruit people about to leave prison or current inmates.\n\nMr Goodger said some members already employed inmates on ROTL, and had found them to be \"well behaved, hard-working, and willing to learn\".\n\n\"It's down to the members [who they employ],\" he said. \"They [prisons] have got offenders and prison-leavers, we have got members who need labour. It seems sensible to bring the two together.\"\n\nTurkey processing giant Bernard Matthews has previously formed links with HMP Norwich and regularly visits the prison as part of its recruitment cycle, to assess candidates and offer inmates contracts to start upon release.\n\nMr Goodger said that many prisons taught inmates food safety skills, which would aid them in finding work in the industry.\n\n\"We have suggested that they look at some of the other free training available such as the FSA's Allergen training and Vacuum Packing training, in order that offenders can leave prisons 'job ready',\" he added.\n\nThe food manufacturing industry has also looked to employ former armed service personnel. However, the number of people taking up jobs has been low.\n\nThe Covid pandemic and Brexit have both contributed to current worker shortages, with furloughed workers finding new jobs and EU nationals returning to their home countries.\n\nThe British Meat Processors Association said the current level of vacancies represented about 15% of the industry's workforce.\n\nThe industry body said its members were \"trying absolutely every avenue\" to recruit workers.\n\nThe government recently announced the expansion of a kitchen training scheme across jails in England and Wales.\n\nThe Clink Kitchens Scheme sees prisoners train in professionally run prison kitchens for up to 35 hours a week while working towards professional qualifications to help them find employment on the outside.\n\nHowever, the food industry is not the only sector to witness a shortage of workers. A lack about 90,000 HGV drivers \"is placing increasingly unsustainable pressure on retailers and their supply chains\", according to lobby groups.\n\nIn a letter to Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and freight trade group Logistics UK have warned that consumers will suffer unless the government intervenes.\n\nA Ministry of Justice spokesman said it would support \"all industries with skills shortages where possible\".\n\n\"Helping prisoners find jobs during their sentence and after release makes it much less likely they will reoffend,\" he added.", "The RMT said seven toilets on four trains were found to have \"actionable traces\" of legionella bacteria\n\nA rail union has said it will consider strike action over the threat of \"potentially lethal\" legionella bacteria found on Thameslink trains.\n\nTrace amounts of legionella were found in seven toilets on four trains.\n\nThameslink said the toilets had been drained and bleached but the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union said this was \"half-hearted and inadequate\".\n\nThe train operator said there was \"no recorded case of anyone, ever, contracting legionella from a train\".\n\nThe union said there were seven toilets on four trains that had \"actionable traces\" of the bacteria, which can cause Legionnaires' disease.\n\nLeft untreated Legionnaires' disease - a lung infection caused by legionella bacteria - can be fatal.\n\nInitial symptoms are flulike and include a high fever and muscle pain. The disease is treated with intravenous antibiotics.\n\nLegionella bacteria are commonly found in sources of water, such as rivers and lakes, and sometimes find their way into manmade water supply systems. The bacteria are also linked to a milder flulike illness called Pontiac fever.\n\nThe union has called for an urgent meeting of Thameslink's Joint Safety Committee.\n\nRMT general secretary Mick Lynch said the union had been \"raising concerns for weeks now\".\n\n\"The latest cavalier approach from the company is pitifully inadequate and is an outright gamble with passenger and staff health.\n\n\"We have now declared a dispute. Be in no doubt, if we don't get serious action we will ballot our members and do whatever is required to end this reckless approach to a potentially lethal situation on these increasingly busy trains.\"\n\nThameslink said no other parts of its trains were affected by legionella, including its air-conditioning systems which do not use water, and the fact that its toilets were \"gravity fed\" further lowered any risk of spreading the bacteria.\n\nThe company added that all its trains were being tested but there were none in service known to have traces of legionella.\n\nTrain services director Rob Mullen said: \"A very low level of legionella was found to be present during testing in a small number of our Thameslink Class 700 train toilets.\n\n\"While it is extremely unlikely this would cause any harm to passengers or colleagues, the toilets affected were immediately locked out of use.\n\n\"The trains were taken out of service and these toilets have now been drained, bleached and had their tanks completely refilled.\"\n\nThe 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. \"I am very excited to get started\" - from investment banker to trainee doctor\n\nA new medical school at Ulster University's (UU) Magee campus in Londonderry has opened for 70 students.\n\nThe post-graduate students will begin training as doctors, taking a four-year medical qualification.\n\nFirst Minister Paul Givan said the school's opening was a \"historic occasion for the campus at Magee and for the University of Ulster\".\n\nThe medical school in Derry has opened after a number of delays and funding problems.\n\nFinance Minister Conor Murphy said the north west has \"suffered for many decades in terms of economic growth\" and that the medical school was \"a marker on the road to much greater economic investment\".\n\nIt is hoped that the new school will eventually help to address a relative shortage of doctors in Northern Ireland.\n\n\"It helps us achieve ultimately an increase in the medical profession which is what we need particularly in the north west and the west of the province,\" Mr Givan told BBC Radio Foyle.\n\n\"Over the next number of years, we will be getting people trained, this will have a very positive impact on in terms of the health and the care that's provided to the people of Northern Ireland\".\n\nThe medical school at Magee had been due to open in 2019\n\nA review previously commissioned by the Department of Health (DoH) said that Northern Ireland needed at least 100 more medical students a year to meet the increasing demand for doctors.\n\nWritten prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, that review found there was \"a shortage of doctors working in permanent positions\" as GPs, non-consultant doctors and consultants.\n\nIt also said that 1,000 more consultants would need to be in place in Northern Ireland by 2033.\n\nUp until now, the only medical school in Northern Ireland has been at Queen's University in Belfast (QUB).\n\nIt admits about 270 medical students each year, with the majority of places for students funded directly by the Department of Health.\n\nThe graduate medical school at Ulster University was originally planned to open for students in 2019.\n\nHowever, that was delayed by two years due to disputes over how the school would be funded.\n\nQueen's University Belfast will remain the largest medical school in Northern Ireland\n\nAgreement was finally reached by the executive on funding to allow the school to open to its first group of 70 students in 2021.\n\nHowever, a long-term business case for the school is still being worked on.\n\nThat is according to a response by Economy Minister Gordon Lyons to an assembly question from Sinn Féin MLA Nicola Brogan in late June.\n\nMr Lyons said that a \"phase one\" business case would ensure \"that all costs covering the six-year period are identified in relation to the first intake of 70 students becoming fully qualified as doctors\".\n\n\"The business case for further phases will be developed by UU building on the costs identified in phase one and would consider the longer-term requirements of the medical school including any potential phased increase in student numbers and construction requirements,\" he added.\n\nUlster University is also moving its undergraduate healthcare degrees to its Magee campus in 2022.\n\nThe new graduate medical school in Derry offers a four-year Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree programme.\n\nStudents will also undertake clinical placements in general practice, and other medical and surgical specialities.\n\nProf Louise Dubras was appointed to oversee the delivery of the medical school\n\nThe 70 students who begin training on Monday have already completed undergraduate degrees in a range of subjects.\n\nSome have previously graduated in medical courses but others have taken non-medical qualifications.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio Foyle, Prof Louise Dubras, the foundation dean of the school, said it was \"with immense pride \" that she welcomed students on Monday.\n\n\"The slightly abstract concept I arrived here three years ago to deliver is now absolutely real. These guys are going to be doctors in four years.\"\n\nMedical director of the Western Trust, Dr Catherine McDonnell, said the opening of the school is \"a landmark occasion\".\n\n\"It is going to do many things. The first thing is the stabilisation of the medical workforce, critical to delivering best care and treatment to patients both in hospital facilities and in primary care.\n\n\"It puts us in a strong partnership with an academic institution which really helps develop that culture of excellence. It allows us to build on our education facilities and research networks and connections,\" she said.\n\nFoyle MP Colum Eastwood said the arrival of the first trainee doctors was a \"positive day for Derry\".\n\n\"After a long fight, we are finally opening the doors of our medical school which will give young people from the north west the opportunity to study, live and set down roots in our communities.\n\n\"This school will, I hope, also allow us to fortify health provision here with a good supply of well educated doctors keen to serve in the local area.\"\n\nDawn McLaughlin, Londonderry Chamber president, said the expansion of the Magee campus is \"an important economic driver\" for Derry.\n\n\"We want this to be the catalyst for change,\" she said.", "Jagtar Singh Johal, from Dumbarton, is being held under India's anti-terror law\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon has called on the UK's foreign secretary to meet the family of a man held in an Indian prison for almost four years.\n\nJagtar Singh Johal, from Dumbarton, is being held under India's anti-terror laws, accused of conspiring to murder a number of right-wing Hindu leaders.\n\nMr Johal has previously said via his lawyer he had been \"falsely implicated\" and tortured into making a confession.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she was concerned about his detention without trial.\n\nIn her letter to Dominic Raab, she also said she was \"deeply concerned\" about allegations of torture and mistreatment of Mr Johal while in custody.\n\nThe Indian authorities strongly deny the allegations and have said \"there is no evidence of mistreatment or torture as alleged\".\n\nMr Johal travelled to India from Scotland in October 2017 for his wedding.\n\nVideos of the occasion show the new groom jumping enthusiastically to Bhangra music as he celebrated.\n\nJagtar got married in India in 2017\n\nBut a fortnight later, while on a shopping trip with his new bride in the North Indian state of Punjab, Mr Johal was taken away by police and has been in detention ever since.\n\nHis brother Gurpreet, who lives in Scotland, says Mr Johal was a peaceful activist and is convinced he was arrested because he had written about historical human rights violations against Sikhs in India.\n\nGurpreet Singh Johal met Ms Sturgeon earlier this month to ask for her support.\n\nThe first minister's letter to Mr Raab said Gurpreet was disappointed with the support from the Foreign Office and that he could not get a meeting with the foreign secretary.\n\nUK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has raised the case with his Indian counterpart\n\nMs Sturgeon asked Mr Raab to \"personally\" meet the family of Mr Johal to hear their concerns and provide assurances of adequate assistance.\n\nShe also asked him to raise the allegations of torture and the importance of a fair trial with the Indian authorities.\n\nGurpreet Singh Johal said he last spoke to his brother, who is being held in Delhi's maximum security Tihar jail, about three weeks ago.\n\nHe said Mr Johal was in \"good spirits\" but was concerned at the delays to his case.\n\nGurpreet Johal said he was grateful to finally meet Ms Sturgeon after his brother had been detained for almost four years.\n\nOf the UK government, he said: \"It is disappointing that a British national is being detained in an Indian jail for 1,380 days and they have still not called for his release.\"\n\nCharge-sheets from the Indian authorities outline the case against Mr Johal and a group of men whom they believe were involved in a \"series of killings\" of right wing Hindu leaders.\n\nIt is claimed Mr Johal was a member of Khalistan Liberation Front (KLF), described in the documents as an international \"terrorist gang\".\n\nHe is accused of paying £3,000 to the former head of the KLF to help fund the crimes. The documents claim he \"actively participated and had complete knowledge of the conspiracy\".\n\n\"There are very serious charges against him including murder and abetment of terrorism,\" an Indian government official told the BBC.\n\n\"The seriousness of charges against him have been shared with the British authorities,\" they added.\n\nMr Johal has been represented by the human rights organisation Reprieve since last year.\n\nHundreds of people have protested outside the Foreign Office\n\nIts Deputy Director Harriet McCulloch told the BBC he had been \"failed\" by the UK government.\n\nShe said: \"He's arbitrarily detained and he's facing the death penalty in relation to charges that have been brought on the basis of a torture confession.\n\n\"The UK government has a stated domestic policy of calling for the release of people like Jagtar who are being arbitrarily detained or held on no legal basis so it's the UK government's obligation to call for his release.\"\n\n\"The UK [government] has so far failed to get any results for Jagtar and his family.\"\n\nMs McCulloch also criticised Prime Minister Boris Johnson for not raising Mr Johal's case at a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this year.\n\nA spokesman for the Foreign Office said: \"We have consistently raised our concerns about Mr Johal's case with the government of India, including his allegations of torture and mistreatment and his right to a fair trial.\n\n\"In-person consular visits in India are currently suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, consular staff have regular telephone calls with Mr Johal in lieu of visits.\"", "Thousands of people have been evacuated from Kabul in the past week (file photo)\n\nA person from Afghanistan on the UK's no-fly watch list was flown into Birmingham as part of the evacuation of Kabul, government officials confirmed.\n\nThe individual, who was identified as being on the list on arrival in the UK, was later not deemed a person of interest after investigation.\n\nThe no-fly watch list is used to stop people coming to the UK who are thought to be a security threat.\n\nThe Home Office said the person was flagged in a \"rigorous checks process\".\n\nSomeone can be placed on the no-fly watch list due to previous serious criminal conduct as well as terrorism.\n\nLabour's shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said: \"An organised exit strategy would have ensured the necessary checks were in place, so this kind of lapse couldn't happen.\"\n\nThe UK's \"no-fly\" watch list is designed to keep people out of the country who are considered to pose a terrorism security risk, or some other kind of risk - such as involvement in serious criminality or stirring up unrest.\n\nIn normal circumstances the list should stop people getting visas to the UK or getting on to a plane.\n\nBut even then there is a backstop - Border Force staff at UK airports.\n\nIn the cauldron of chaos that is Kabul airport it is perhaps unsurprising that a mistake was made, and ministers say we should be reassured that the error was corrected on arrival at Birmingham Airport.\n\nIn this case it turns out that the concerns about the individual were out of date anyway.\n\nBut with multiple planes packed with people heading to the UK taking off from Kabul every day, ministers and officials know it is important to cut down on the mistakes.\n\nNot least of all because of a threat to the aircraft and passengers themselves. But also because in the current circumstances there is no chance of deporting anyone considered a risk back to Afghanistan.\n\nAfghanistan is on the Covid travel red list, meaning arrivals into England must quarantine in a government-approved hotel for 10 days.\n\nThe UK is one of a number of Western countries processing people eligible for evacuation out of Afghanistan after the Taliban seized control of Kabul.\n\nA team at Kabul airport led by the British ambassador Sir Laurie Bristow is under huge pressure to process as many people as possible ahead of a 31 August deadline.\n\nThe UK has evacuated 8,458 people from Afghanistan since 13 August, according to the Ministry of Defence.\n\nThose evacuated include British nationals, diplomatic staff, and Afghans eligible for relocation because they worked for the UK government in frontline roles or are otherwise considered to be at risk under a Taliban administration.", "Lydon objected to the Sex Pistols' music being used in a Danny Boyle-directed TV drama\n\nJohn Lydon has lost a High Court battle to stop the Sex Pistols music from being used in a new TV drama.\n\nFormer drummer Paul Cook and guitarist Steve Jones had sued Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, after he tried to veto the use of the punk group's songs in a show directed by Danny Boyle.\n\nThe pair argued that the group had an agreement that such decisions could be taken on a \"majority rule basis\".\n\nIn court, Lydon said he rejected that deal, likening it to \"slave labour\".\n\nThe singer said the band member agreement (BMA) had never been adhered to and that requests for licences had previously been subject to individual members' vetoes.\n\nHowever, a judge ruled on Monday that the contract was valid and active, and that the majority of the band could overrule any individual member's veto.\n\nThe judge, Sir Anthony Mann, also noted that Mr Lydon \"had actually signed away his power to control the use of music rights\" to publishing and music companies such as Warner Chappell Music and BMG.\n\nLydon retained \"only qualified rights of approval which could be overridden if he was being unreasonable\", the judge said.\n\n\"It may be that those companies, for their own reasons, chose to seek his permission from time to time, but ultimately they could act as they saw fit.\"\n\nIn a joint statement after the ruling, Jones and Cook told the Press Association: \"We welcome the court's ruling in this case. It brings clarity to our decision-making and upholds the band members' agreement on collective decision-making.\n\n\"It has not been a pleasant experience, but we believe it was necessary to allow us to move forward and hopefully work together in the future with better relations.\"\n\nThe Sex Pistols L-R: Steve Jones John Lydon, Glen Matlock and Paul Cook, pictured in 2002\n\nThe TV drama, simply called Pistol, began filming in March. It is described as a six-part series based on Jones's 2016 memoir, Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol.\n\nIt is being directed by Slumdog Millionaire's Danny Boyle who, according to court documents, previously persuaded Lydon to let him use the Sex Pistols' music in the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics.\n\nHowever, Lydon's lawyer claimed the show, which is being made by Disney for its FX channel, would portray the singer in \"a hostile and unflattering light\".\n\nAddressing the court last month, Lydon said: \"I care very much about this band and its reputation and its quality control and I will always have a say if I think anything is being done to harm or damage [it].\"\n\nLawyers for Mr Cook and Mr Jones argued there should not be any dispute about whether the agreement allows licensing decisions to be made \"by a majority\" and said Mr Lydon was in breach of the BMA by refusing to provide his consent.\n\nThe Sex Pistols formed in 1975, releasing singles such as Anarchy In The UK and Pretty Vacant, before splitting up in 1978. But they have performed live shows together a number of times since then, most recently in 2008.\n\nIn his written judgement, handed down remotely on Monday, Mr Justice Mann noted that: \"Relationships between band members have always been strained, even going back to the days when the band was performing.\n\n\"Mr Lydon has not shrunk from describing his difficult relationships with the other members... and that has persisted even through their comeback tours in the 1990s and 2000s. It persists today.\"", "UB40 saxophonist and co-songwriter Brian Travers, one of the founding members of the chart-topping reggae group, has died at the age of 62.\n\nHis bandmates said they were \"devastated\" by the news about \"our comrade, brother, founding UB40 member and musical legend\".\n\nThey said he had endured a \"long and heroic battle with cancer\".\n\nHe had surgery to remove two brain tumours in 2019 and reportedly had another operation earlier this year.\n\nTravers was a key part of the UB40 line-up as a saxophone player, arranger and lyricist.\n\nThe group, from Birmingham, found success in 1980 with Food For Thought, their first UK top 10 single, before having hits with I Think It's Going to Rain Today, One in Ten and covers of Red Red Wine and I Got You Babe.\n\nIn total, they have recorded 39 UK top 40 singles and 28 top 40 albums, and sold 100 million albums worldwide.\n\nThis 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 UB40 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.\n\nTravers formed the band with a group of school friends in the late 1970s, and the lack of jobs in the city led them to borrow the name of the official Unemployment Benefit Form 40, used by people signing on the dole.\n\n\"We had just signed on and somebody said 'UB40' and we all instantly knew that was the name of the band,\" Travers told The Telegraph in 2010.\n\n\"Thank God for the dole. We got fed, it paid the rent and it enabled us to concentrate on developing our careers. We commandeered a cellar and started rehearsing every day, nine till five.\n\n\"Our first experiences of playing an instrument started together, and we'd humiliate each other over mistakes. But we were very serious about our music.\"\n\nThe band made their breakthrough in 1980\n\nDebut album Signing Off, which captured both their love of reggae and anger at the global injustices of the time, reached number two.\n\nIn 2010, Travers said it \"still has relevance\". He added: \"But it's naïve. We thought we could change everything with a pop song and we learnt it changes nothing.\"\n\nThe group enjoyed success around the world, including the US, where Red Red Wine went to number one, as did another cover, (I Can't Help) Falling in Love with You, which spent seven weeks at number one in 1993.\n\nThey were nominated for four Grammy Awards, and were nominated for the Brit Award for best British group in 1984.\n\nHowever there was acrimony after singer Ali Campbell left the band in 2008 and was replaced by his brother Duncan.", "Don and Phil Everly, seen here backstage on Top of the Pops, had hits including All I Have To Do Is Dream\n\nDon Everly, the surviving member of the rock 'n' roll duo The Everly Brothers, has died at the age of 84.\n\nA family spokesperson confirmed Everly's death to the Los Angeles Times, but did not disclose the cause.\n\nEverly and his brother, Phil, had hits worldwide in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including Bye Bye Love and All I Have To Do Is Dream.\n\nThey were known for their close harmonies, and influenced groups like The Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel.\n\nThe pair had an onstage breakup in 1973 that led to a decade-long estrangement, but Phil later told Time magazine that the brothers' relationship had survived this.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Don Everly: Looking back at the band that inspired the Beatles\n\nEverly died on Saturday at his home in Nashville, according to the family spokesperson.\n\n\"Don lived by what he felt in his heart. Don expressed his appreciation for the ability to live his dreams... with his soulmate and wife, Adela, and sharing the music that made him an Everly Brother,\" a statement said.\n\nThe Everly brothers were the children of country and western singers and performed on the family radio show while growing up.\n\nIn their heyday, between 1957 and 1962, they had 15 US top 10 hits. These included Bye Bye Love and Cathy's Clown.\n\nThe duo called it quits during a performance in California in 1973, in which Phil smashed his guitar and walked off stage.\n\nDuring their time apart, both pursued solo careers with limited success.\n\nThey reunited a decade later with a concert in London, followed by a comeback album.\n\nIn a 1986 interview with the Associated Press news agency, Don Everly said the two were successful because \"we never followed trends\".\n\n\"We did what we liked and followed our instincts. Rock 'n' roll did survive, and we were right about that. Country did survive, and we were right about that. You can mix the two but people said we couldn't,\" he said.\n\nThe Everly Brothers were elected to the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in its first year, 1986, and they were given a lifetime achievement award at the Grammys in 1997.\n\nRolling Stone magazine has described them as \"the most important vocal duo in rock\".\n• None Looking back at the band that inspired the Beatles. Video, 00:01:47Looking back at the band that inspired the Beatles", "Pinnock (left) and Edwards (right) with baby bumps and bandmate Jade Thirlwall at the Brit Awards, in May\n\nLittle Mix bandmates Perrie Edwards and Leigh-Anne Pinnock have become mothers for the first time - just days apart.\n\nOn Saturday, Edwards, 28, had a baby with her footballer partner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by leighannepinnock This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram 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.\n\nThen, on Monday, Pinnock, 29, announced she and her footballer fiance, Andre Gray, had had twins a week earlier.\n\n\"We asked for a miracle, we were given two,\" she posted on Instagram. To which Edwards replied: \"Two bundles of absolute joy. I love you my Lee Lee.\"\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post 2 by perrieedwards This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram 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.\n\nLiverpool midfielder Oxlade-Chamberlain wrote on his own page: \"Anyone got any advice on how to change nappies?\n\n\"So grateful and excited to become a dad - bring on the sleepless nights.\"\n\nPinnock and Edwards now make up two-thirds of the chart-topping girl group following the departure of Jesy Nelson, in December.\n\nNelson will release her debut solo single this autumn.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Striking video has been captured of lightning hitting the One World Trade Center in New York City, as Storm Henri approached the north-east of the US.\n\nHeavy rain caused by the storm has caused damage across several states.\n\nMillions of people have been told to prepare for flooding, as well as downed trees and power lines.", "Who will receive a third booster dose of a Covid vaccine this autumn has not been confirmed\n\nThe UK has ordered 35 million more doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which will be delivered in the second half of 2022.\n\nThe government said it was preparing for a programme of Covid boosters to protect the most vulnerable this year.\n\nHealth and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said the move was intended \"to future-proof our vaccine programme\".\n\nThe UK has now ordered more than 540 million doses of eight different Covid vaccines.\n\nFour have so far been approved for use in the UK.\n\nThe deal with Pfizer means the UK has ordered more doses of that Covid vaccine - 135 million - than any other.\n\nThe NHS was given the green light to start planning third booster doses for the over-50s, after interim advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) in early July, and Mr Javid recently said the programme would start in September.\n\nHowever, the UK's vaccine committee is still to give its final advice on whether a booster programme ahead of this winter should proceed and who should be included.\n\nThe JCVI is thought to be waiting for better data on how long protection from the first two doses of the vaccines lasts.\n\nIt's likely people who are immunosuppressed, with weakened immune systems, will receive a booster jab even if all over-50s - around 30 million people - do not.\n\nMr Javid said the UK's vaccination programme was protecting tens of millions of people from Covid-19 and saving thousands of lives.\n\n\"While we continue to build this wall of defence from Covid-19, it's also vital we do everything we can to protect the country for the future too - whether that's from the virus as we know it or new variants,\" he said.\n\n\"I am pleased we've reached this agreement with Pfizer for more doses as part of our robust preparations to future-proof our vaccine programme, ensuring we have plans in place to keep the nation safe for years to come.\"\n\nBut some scientists, including Prof Andrew Pollard, who helped develop the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, have warned that booster doses should be used to protect unvaccinated people in other countries, where they will have the greatest impact.\n\nThe UK has announced it will donate 100 million vaccine doses to developing countries, through Covax, within the next year.\n\nThe first nine million doses were donated last month.", "Mark Frerichs, left, was taken by the Taliban in 2020\n\nCharlene Cakora, 57, spent a frantic week in Washington DC trying to convey a message to President Joe Biden: rescue her brother from Taliban captivity.\n\nMrs Cakora's brother, Mark Frerichs, was kidnapped by the group over a year ago. He is one of two remaining Americans thought to have been kidnapped by the Taliban during the US war in Afghanistan who is still unaccounted for.\n\nAmid the Afghan government's collapse, the fall of Kabul and chaotic scenes of thousands scrambling to flee the country being broadcast around the globe, his family said they were increasingly desperate for his return, and frustrated by the lack of progress from the government.\n\n\"We have been at war with the Taliban for 20 years. President Biden declared the war over on 31 August,\" Mrs Cakora told the BBC. \"When a war ends, each side get to have their prisoners come home. That is all we are asking for Mark.\"\n\nThe family had \"waited patiently\" through both the Trump and Biden administrations, she said.\n\n\"[We] were told that efforts were underway to get my brother home,\" she added. \"Well, they were not.\"\n\nAt least seven US civilians have been taken captive or gone missing during the war in Afghanistan. Of the total, one was reportedly killed, one escaped, and three were rescued or released. An eighth captive, Bowe Bergdahl, was a US soldier captured after deserting his post in 2009. He was released in 2014.\n\nMr Frerichs, 59, had been living and working in Kabul as a civil engineer for 10 years when he was kidnapped.\n\nA \"journeyman contractor\" who went from project to project, motivated by a desire to help people in need, he had found \"a good fit for himself in Afghanistan,\" Mrs Cakora said. \"Three days before he was kidnapped, he told me that he had just finished a municipal water project. He was so proud of it.\"\n\nThe US Navy veteran was lured to a meeting to discuss a potential project and taken against his will to Khost Province, a former national security official told the BBC.\n\nMr Frerichs and an Afghan colleague examine a project they worked on together\n\nIn Khost, the official said, he was handed over to the Haqqani Network, one of the region's most powerful and feared militant groups. The network's leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is one of the Taliban's top deputy leaders.\n\nAdvocates working to secure Mr Frerichs' release say that the \"only\" thing that the Taliban have mentioned when US officials have pressed for his return is the release of Bashir Noorzai, a Taliban-affiliated drug lord who has been imprisoned in the US for the last 16 years.\n\nNoorzai, who was arrested in 2005, was sentenced to life in prison in 2009 on charges that he imported over $50m (£36m) worth of heroin from Afghanistan and Pakistan into the US and other countries. He fought alongside the now-deceased Taliban founder Mullah Mohammed Omar against Soviet occupation in the 1980s, and is believed to have supplied the group with financial backing, weapons, ammunition and as many as 400 fighters.\n\nResponding to BBC queries, a state department spokesperson said that the US Special Representative for Afghanistan has pressed the Taliban for Mr Frerichs' release and raised the issue with Taliban representatives in Qatar and Pakistan.\n\n\"We place a high priority on Marks Frerichs' safety and will not stop working until he is safely returned to his family,\" the spokesperson said.\n\nSpokespeople at the Taliban's representative office in Qatar did not respond to BBC requests for comment.\n\nMrs Cakora said that while the family understands that an exchange of Noorzai for Mr Frerichs is a \"hard trade\" and that it would mean making concessions to kidnappers, they believe it is the only viable option.\n\nWhen asked what she would tell the White House about her case, Mrs Cakora directed a plea at President Biden.\n\n\"Please treat my brother like he was your son and act to bring him home quickly,\" she said.\n\nShe also had a message for Taliban political leader Abdul Ghani Baradar.\n\n\"We know that this war is ending, and you want your prisoners back as much as we want my brother,\" she said. \"Please treat him well and work with US officials to arrange a prisoner swap that gets you Bashir Noorzai and returns Mark home safely to us. Let that be the one thing that both sides can see as a win.\"\n\nBesides Mr Frerichs, only one other American suspected to have been abducted in Afghanistan, author Paul Overby Jr, remains unaccounted for. Mr Overby was last heard from in May 2014, when he vanished in Khost while traveling to interview Sirajuddin Haqqani. The Taliban have denied any involvement.\n\nWith the situation in Afghanistan growing more dangerous by the day, Mrs Cakora expressed hope that her brother's release may provide a small positive outcome.\n\n\"President Biden has the power to make it happen,\" she said. \"The story on our exit from Afghanistan is horrible. Can't we get one glimmer of good news by having my brother come home?\"", "A US flag is seen posted in the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York, two days after the attack there Image caption: A US flag is seen posted in the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York, two days after the attack there\n\nThe BBC is covering the 20th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US, which led to the 20-year conflict in Afghanistan.\n\nThis is the story of Chris Cruz, who explains in an interview to BBC's OS programme why he decided to join the US army.\n\n\"My mother was heading to work on a normal 11 September day. As soon as she exited the subway, she was told to start running as the buildings were coming down. She literally saw them coming down and described people jumping out of the windows,\" says Chris.\n\n\"When she finally made it home, I - as an 11-year-old boy at the time - had to tell her that she had burn marks and blood spots on the back of her legs. She was in a state of shock.\n\n\"As I grew up, I realised... I had the ability to be part of an organisation that could defend and prevent these atrocities for all Americans.\n\n\"9/11 played a role, but not in a way of revenge. I didn't want to join out of bloodlust. I served two tours in Afghanistan. Both of those times I volunteered to go.\n\n\"I don't think our mission would have succeeded without our Afghan partners. I agree we couldn't be there forever, but we made a promise to keep our partners safe and that we wouldn't turn our backs on them, and that's exactly what we've done.\"\n\nChris adds: \"I do think the way we pulled out, the way we left it, was completely wrong. There needed to be a better exit strategy.\"", "Enrique Tarrio has led the far-right group since 2018\n\nThe leader of the far-right Proud Boys group has been given nearly six months in jail for burning a stolen Black Lives Matter flag and a weapons crime.\n\nEnrique Tarrio, 37, pleaded guilty to destruction of property and attempted possession of a large-capacity ammunition feeding device.\n\nAppearing through video in court on Monday, Tarrio apologised and said there was \"no excuse\" for his actions.\n\nHe will report to jail on 6 September to begin his 155 day sentence.\n\nProsecutors said that Tarrio and other members of the Proud Boys removed the banner from the historically black Asbury United Methodist Church in Washington DC on 12 December and set it ablaze.\n\nThe incident was a part of a pro-Trump demonstration in protest of Joe Biden's election win.\n\nSeveral days later, Tarrio admitted to participating in the banner's burning in an interview with the Washington Post.\n\nWhile Tarrio acknowledged his actions were \"wrong\" in Monday's hearing, DC Superior Court Judge Harold Cushenberry said his remorse was \"wholly unconvincing\".\n\nMr Cushenberry added that he believes Tarrio \"clearly, intentionally and proudly crossed the line from peaceful protest and assembly to potentially violent conduct\".\n\nThe mostly peaceful demonstrations in December ended in isolated scuffles after counter-protests began. Police said that more than three dozen people were arrested and four churches were vandalised.\n\nLocal police took Tarrio into custody on 4 January, just two days before the Capitol Hill riot on 6 January. Police found weapon magazines in his car during a traffic stop - which led to the second charge.\n\nAhead of the riot, Tarrio said on the now-defunct social media app Parler that the Proud Boys were planning to \"turn out in record numbers on Jan 6\" and called its members \"the most notorious group of extraordinary gentlemen\".\n\nFounded in 2016 by Canadian-British right-wing activist Gavin McInnes, the Proud Boys is a far-right, anti-immigrant, all male group with a history of street violence against left-wing groups. Tarrio became a national leader in 2018.\n\nOn Sunday, members of the group were reportedly involved in a violent demonstration in Portland, Oregon, that ended with a gunfight. Nobody was reported injured during the incident.", "The festival was held at Watergate Bay in Cornwall and was headlined by Gorillaz, Jorja Smith and Foals\n\nMore than 4,000 Covid cases could have links to a music and surfing festival, with more expected in the coming days.\n\nCornwall Council said 4,700 cases may be linked to the Boardmasters event between 11 and 15 August.\n\nAbout 50,000 people attended the festival in and around Newquay, which now has the three neighbourhoods with the highest infection rates in England.\n\nCornwall's public health team said: \"We won't know the complete picture for another few days.\"\n\nAbout 800 of those positive cases are people who live in Cornwall.\n\nThe figure comes after the Swansea Bay health board in Wales said on Friday about 50 cases there had been linked to the festival.\n\nRuth Goldstein, deputy director of public health for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, said: \"At the moment, there are currently about 4,700 which could be linked to Boardmasters.\n\n\"These are people who have noted when they have had a PCR test, they have been associated to Boardmasters.\n\n\"We don't know whether they have been camping, or to events on the beach, or to parties in the town put on by Boardmasters.\n\n\"Of those people, three-quarters of them are aged between 16 and 21, which is exactly the profile of the people who we know attend the festival.\"\n\nAndy Virr - Cornwall Council portfolio holder for adults, and an emergency doctor - said cases were expected but he was \"reassured\" they were not \"translating into a serious life-threatening illness\".\n\nHe added there were \"benefits\" from holding the event, although the possibility of cancelling it was discussed by the council.\n\nHe told a press briefing: \"Covid will have lots of impacts ongoing, and one of them is around loneliness and isolation and mental health problems.\n\n\"That festival brought a lot of joy to people. And, yes, there are some things we are having to deal with, but that was part of the judgement.\n\n\"I think, at the moment, there are no regrets - we were expecting to have this wash-up to deal with.\"\n\nThree parts of Newquay now have the three highest Covid infection rates in England for the seven days up to 18 August:\n\nThe national average of neighbourhood areas within English local authorities is 308.\n\nFestival organisers said they \"went above and beyond what was asked of us\".\n\nA spokesperson said: \"Because of these measures, over 450 people who would otherwise have been at risk of passing on the virus did not attend or left the festival early.\"\n\nThey added: \"We look forward to sharing our experience of running the festival in the current circumstances with other large events so we can all continue to provide much needed economic benefit to our wider communities and entertainment to our loyal audience.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "British ambassador to Afghanistan Laurie Bristow (left) speaking to a member of the UK armed forces at Kabul airport\n\nEfforts to evacuate Britons and eligible Afghans from Kabul are gathering pace, the British ambassador says, with nearly 6,000 flown out on UK flights since 13 August.\n\nSir Laurie Bristow, who remains in the Afghan capital, said 1,000 people had departed in a 14-hour period alone.\n\nIt comes after the government said seven Afghan civilians died in chaotic crowds outside the airport on Saturday.\n\nThe US is under pressure to extend evacuations beyond the end of August.\n\nThe Ministry of Defence said the total figure stands at 5,725 people - 3,100 of whom are Afghan nationals and their families.\n\nSir Laurie, speaking from the evacuation handling centre in Kabul, praised the efforts of all those helping - including soldiers, diplomats and Border Force staff - but added \"there is still a huge amount of work to do\". He said he was \"so proud of what our people are doing\".\n\nEarlier, armed forces minister James Heappey said the Taliban were now marshalling queues at the airport, speeding up the process.\n\n\"Today the queue is flowing better,\" Mr Heappey said on Sunday, adding that the Taliban were overseeing separate UK and US evacuation queues, which was \"making a big difference\".\n\nHe urged more people to come forward if they had been told to do so.\n\nThis 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 Laurie Bristow 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.\n\nUntil now a lot of people had been put off going to Baron Hotel in Kabul, where many British nationals have been told to travel for processing, because of reports of violence and chaotic scenes, he said.\n\nLeaders of the G7, including US President Biden, are meeting virtually this week to discuss the situation.\n\nUK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was \"vital that the international community works together to ensure safe evacuations, prevent a humanitarian crisis and support the Afghan people to secure the gains of the last 20 years\".\n\nThe UK, which holds the leadership of the group at the moment, had called for Tuesday's meeting.\n\nMr Johnson spoke to ruling emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani on Sunday, Downing Street said. The pair agreed it was vital that Afghan people continue to be supported, and that the international community fully funds the aid response, it said.\n\nMeanwhile, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has urged Mr Johnson for more details on what he has done to extend the evacuation period. In a letter to the prime minister, he said there were \"too many unanswered questions\" about the mission, adding: \"Proper planning for the coming days will ensure that no-one to whom we owe so much will be left behind.\"\n\nThe US has a planned deadline of 31 August for withdrawal from Afghanistan - but President Biden has said troops may stay past this date to help with evacuations.\n\nArmed forces minister Mr Heappey reiterated previous comments from ministers that the UK could not say with confidence it would get all British nationals out, but he said more capacity was becoming available with each day and other nations were joining the UK effort.\n\nWriting in the Mail on Sunday, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the US would have his complete support if it chose to push back the deadline for leaving but there was \"no time to lose\" to get people out of the country.\n\nMr Heappey said if the US did stay longer that would give the UK the opportunity to continue flying people out.\n\nBut he also gave some reassurance that even if the deadline was not extended, people would still be able to access the UK resettlement programme through other routes, such as handling centres in refugee camps or embassies.\n\nGeneral Lord Richards, who was Chief of the Defence Staff and commanded international forces in Afghanistan in 2006, told the BBC there was \"no doubt\" lives would be saved if troops could stay beyond 31 August.\n\nA UN multilateral humanitarian intervention operation needed to be implemented quickly, he told Radio 4's Broadcasting House.\n\nFormer UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who sent British troops into Afghanistan 20 years ago, said the UK had a \"moral obligation\" to stay in the country until \"all those who need to be are evacuated\".\n\nThe exit of allied troops would have every Jihadist group around the world cheering, he wrote on his website, and called the US withdrawal \"tragic, dangerous, and unnecessary\".\n\nCalls are being made for troops to stay in Afghanistan beyond August to help with the evacuation\n\nMr Heappey was asked for his reaction to reports that the prime minister gave Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab permission to stay on his summer holiday as Afghanistan collapsed into chaos.\n\nHe responded saying everyone who should have been at the emergency Cobra meetings was there and it was \"simply not the case there was any delay in enacting this longstanding plan because of where in the world people were at the time\".\n\nMr Heappey was also asked about the defence secretary's suggestion in his article that the UK could still retain a presence in Afghanistan after the military had gone.\n\n\"It's something we would hope for because that takes away from the urgency of this week but the Taliban have a vote in that,\" he said.\n\n\"That might be a presence that emerges in six months, a year, two years' time,\" he said, adding that it would depend on how the international community wanted to recognise the Taliban and whether the Taliban were willing to have an international presence in the country.\n\n\"I certainly don't think we should rush to recognise the Taliban,\" he said.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nGreat Britain's Ben Whittaker will compete for Olympic gold after \"a masterclass\" win over Imam Khataev saw him into the 81kg final at Tokyo 2020.\n\nThe 24-year-old lost the first round of his semi-final but boxed stylishly to beat the Russian by a split decision.\n\nAnd moments after Whittaker's success, super-heavyweight Frazer Clarke ensured he will win at least a bronze medal.\n\nBriton Clarke reached the semi-finals when Mourad Aliev was disqualified for repeated use of the head.\n\nIn a controversial +91kg bout, Clarke lost the opening round and as round two neared its conclusion, he was cut over both eyes after head clashes.\n\nAliev had been warned about the use of his head but upon being disqualified with seconds of the round remaining, the Frenchman kicked out at the floor and remonstrated with both Clarke and the officials in protest.\n\nThe 26-year-old later sat on the ring apron and refused to leave the arena for around 30 minutes.\n\nClarke, who will now face Bakhodir Jalolov of Uzbekistan, played down concerns over his cuts going into his next bout, saying: \"I'm an Olympic medallist. These are little cuts. This is my job and what I do. I'm a tough man, a proud man. It will take more than a little cut to stop me.\"\n\nBut BBC Radio 5 Live analyst Steve Bunce said: \"Clarke has two gashes. Both would rule him out of any professional fight, no matter where you are. They have got to do some serious work behind the scenes.\"\n\nMuch has been made of Clarke as a talismanic figure in the GB Boxing set-up, given the decade he has spent in and around the team.\n\nThe captain of the boxing team assembled in Tokyo entered the ring moments after Whittaker had danced away from the power-punching of the Russian Olympic Committee's Khataev to land the biggest win of his career and a place in the light-heavyweight gold-medal match.\n\n\"I've had so much social media saying 'the Russian lad will knock you out',\" Whittaker told BBC Sport.\n\n\"Nobody was beating me today and we don't stop here.\n\n\"I think I put on a masterclass and on to the next one.\"\n\nArlen Lopez of Cuba or Loren Berto Alfonso Dominguez of Azerbaijan await Whittaker in the final on Wednesday, 4 August.\n\nWins for Whittaker and Clarke follow on from Great Britain's recent success in Tokyo, with Pat McCormack also set for an Olympic final, while Karriss Artingstall has secured bronze, and a number of other athletes remain in with a chance of a medal in their respective weight categories.\n\nGreat Britain are therefore guaranteed to pass their haul of three boxing medals - won by Joe Joyce, Joshua Buatsi and Nicola Adams - from the 2016 Rio Olympics.\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explore how even death couldn't stop you winning", "Watch the dramatic closing stages of the BMX freestyle final as Britain's Charlotte Worthington narrowly beats USA's Hannah Roberts to gold at Tokyo 2020.\n\nWatch live coverage of Tokyo 2020 on BBC One, BBC Two, the BBC Sport website, app and BBC iPlayer\n\nCOVERAGE DETAILS: Tokyo Olympics: Day-by-day guide to the key events, big stars and British medal hopes\n\nAvailable to UK users only.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The 300ft (90m) high structures were demolished as part of a plan to redevelop the site\n\nFour of eight huge cooling towers have been demolished at a former coal-fired power station in North Yorkshire.\n\nThe 300ft (90m) high structures in Eggborough, near Selby, were brought down shortly after 08:00 BST as part of a plan to redevelop the site.\n\nIt stood for 50 years in an area where all four Yorkshire counties - North, South, East and West - meet.\n\nThe Yorkshire Day demolition was watched by spectators who were dotted in fields around the rural site.\n\nPolice had closed roads and 40 security guards patrolled a 350m exclusion zone while contractor DSM carried out the work during drizzly conditions.\n\nBilly Young, a technical director at the company, thanked members of the community for their patience and said it had been \"a successful demolition\".\n\n\"We appreciate that a large number of Eggborough residents and businesses could have been disrupted by the work, but we have worked hard to communicate with them behind the scenes and by correspondence to minimise this in as much as practicably possible,\" he said.\n\nAll eight towers each contained around 11,000 tonnes of reinforced concrete\n\nThe 2,000-megawatt power station was decommissioned in 2018 because it was no longer financially viable.\n\nIt started generating electricity in 1967 and produced enough to power the equivalent of Leeds and Sheffield combined.\n\nA year after its closure, the site was acquired by the St Francis Group, which is planning an industrial and distribution park on the site after the remaining structures are demolished, including a 200m (660ft) high chimney.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Ice Arena Wales - also known as the Viola Arena - was given the go ahead to open in July\n\nOne of Wales' two ice rinks is set to reopen on Monday, almost 17 months after closing its doors.\n\nThe Welsh government gave the go-ahead for ice rinks to reopen on 17 July, but work to prepare Ice Arena Wales in Cardiff Bay had not been finished.\n\nWales' other rink, the Deeside Leisure Centre, remains closed while it is used as a mass Covid vaccination centre.\n\nIce rinks were one of the final sectors to be allowed to reopen, with the Welsh government citing high infection risks.\n\nTodd Kelman, managing director of the Cardiff Devils ice hockey team, which also manages operations for the arena, said it was \"great\" to be able to reopen after a \"frustrating\" year-and-a-half.\n\nHe said: \"It's great to finally get the news we were waiting a long, long time for.\n\n\"We could've used it probably four weeks sooner so we could've had more time to prepare.\"\n\nWork to reopen the ice rink has taken about six weeks\n\nMr Kelman said he was disappointed ice rinks had not been allowed to open in Wales at all since March 2020, while facilities in England have mostly been able to open throughout the past year.\n\nHe said: \"From the arena standpoint, we've had parents emailing me every week saying 'why aren't you open?'\n\n\"It's a shame for kids that are figure skaters or hockey players. They've had to bear the expense of travelling around the UK - it's not like they couldn't train or skate in Coventry, Swindon, Guildford or Sheffield.\n\n\"It would've been easier to swallow if the whole of the UK was like that. That's where my frustration was with the regulations.\"\n\nHe added: \"The staff have done a tremendous job and I hope people coming through the doors realise how hard everyone has worked to get everything as it is.\"\n\nIce rinks were one of the last sectors to be given the go-ahead to reopen in Wales\n\nThe Welsh government said its decision to keep ice rinks closed was based on evidence and advice from its Technical Advisory Group.\n\nIt said: \"The risk of infection is higher in cooler, noisy and humid environments.\n\n\"Coronavirus is likely to survive on the ice itself for a considerable [amount of] time and there is a further contamination risk from the walls, hand supports and changing areas.\"\n\nAs skaters in Cardiff prepare to return to the ice, Wales' only other ice rink, at Deeside Leisure Centre in Flintshire, will remain closed.\n\nThe leisure centre is being used as a mass Covid vaccination centre by Betsi Cadwaladr health board until March 2022.\n\nJake Forster, from the Deeside Dragons Ice Hockey Club, said young people had travelled to Widnes, Cheshire, and Altrincham in Greater Manchester, to skate, which he fears could have a long-term impact on winter sports in the area.\n\nHe said: \"The junior system in Deeside is decimated, it's going to take years to to build that back up.\n\n\"All these kids that grew up around here, that started to skate on this rink, have gone to Widnes or Altrincham... it's unlikely they'll come back.\"\n\nThe Deeside Dragons will not take part in their upcoming season as the rink is unavailable\n\nMr Forster added it was \"frustrating\" the ice rink is set to be out of action for two years, despite the importance of the mass vaccination clinic.\n\n\"For kind of the good of the entirety of north Wales, I think it's a shame that they had to pick this one building when there are so many there were so many other options,\" he said.\n\n\"As we start to go back to normality, it's that it feels a little bit like we've been forgotten about.\"\n\nGill Harris, of Betsi Cadwaladr health board, said the site was \"conveniently placed\" for people in the area and allows the health board to \"safely and efficiently vaccinate a large number of people every day\".\n\nShe added: \"The site also has the facilities to accommodate the amount of required parking and allows us to manage the flow of people in and out of the building in a safe and socially distanced way.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nThe same city, the same distance, but a different script.\n\nThirty years ago, Tokyo saw perhaps the greatest 100m race of all time.\n\nUnder the lights, in front of a capacity crowd, the globe stopped spinning for slightly less than 10 seconds as American great Carl Lewis won the world title in a world record time.\n\nBehind him, a tenth of a second covered a top six who hailed from three different continents. It was a finish-line crowd scene with a character for everyone.\n\nA month ago, it seemed the women's race at this Tokyo Games might match it.\n\nIn one corner, the brash 21-year-old American newcomer Sha'Carri Richardson. In the other, the eternal golden oldie Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.\n\nThe great British hope Dina Asher-Smith, the injury-ravaged defending champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, the wildcard 400m convert Shericka Jackson, the in-form Nigerian Blessing Okagbare.\n\nA tangle of storylines and a blizzard of sub 11-second times.\n\nIn the end, we got our drama. Just not the one we expected.\n\nAs Thompson-Herah lay on her back and her shrieks of delight rang around the empty Olympic Stadium stand, it was the final twist in a slimmed-down two-hander. The sprawling epic never emerged. It turned out personal, rather than global.\n\nThe cast list had begun to be whittled down long before the final destination of the finish line.\n\nRichardson's threat was blunted a month ago by a positive test for cannabis. A day before the final, Okagbare was removed for failing a test for human-growth hormone. A couple of hours before, Asher-Smith revealed a hamstring problem had nobbled her chances.\n\nAnd five seconds into the final, it was down to two.\n\nThompson-Herah's golden locks flying in her wake, Fraser-Pryce's tequila sunrise dye-job streaking through the humid air and clear daylight back to the rest of the field.\n\nGold hung in the balance. But only for a moment. Thompson-Herah's shoulders stayed loose and her stride stayed long. Fraser-Pryce's frame tensed and her chance of a third Olympic 100m title slipped over the horizon.\n\nFraser-Pryce's time of 10.74 would have won all but two previous Olympics finals, but it was never going to be enough in Tokyo.\n\nThompson-Herah was comfortable enough in the final few strides to point to the clock, showing a time matching the second-fastest in history, and salute the finish-line photographers.\n\nHer celebrations were socially distanced. Fraser-Pryce and Jackson completed a Jamaican clean sweep, but seemed in no hurry to congratulate their compatriot.\n\nTensions that have simmered on the domestic scene were laid open for an international audience. Fraser-Pryce split from long-term coach Stephen Francis last year, taking up with Reynaldo Walcott. Thompson-Herah stayed with Francis, turning from stable-mate into rival.\n\nThompson-Herah's post-race comments were heavy with that history.\n\n\"I see all the bad comments, I take all of my losses, all of my defeats and I use them as my motivation,\" she said.\n\nThe two will likely renew their rivalry down the same stretch of track in Tuesday's 200m final. They will attempt to put it all to one side when relay medals are up for grabs on Friday.\n\nThat event may be Fraser-Pryce's last hurrah at a major championship. She turns 35 later this year. Her son Zyon turns four. She has a foundation to run. A degree to put to use.\n\nBut into the void, comes a new generation. Asher-Smith claims, before injury, she was in a shape to beat the fastest in the world.\n\nRichardson, banned for just a month, has been tweeting trash from the sidelines. Jackson is 27, but in only her first year concentrating on the 100m.\n\nAll, along with 29-year-old Thompson-Herah, will be back for more. In the World Championships in Oregon in a year's time. In Paris, for another Olympics, in three.\n\nThe rivalries will match Tokyo 1991. Thompson-Herah suggested, like Lewis, she could yet break the world record.\n\n\"I'm still working on it. It's a work in progress. Anything is possible,\" she said of the prospect of claiming Florence Griffith-Joyner's 33-year-old mark of 10.49 seconds.\n\nAnd maybe in the super-spike era it is.\n\nMaybe this event could even be the one to drag athletics back towards the golden age it enjoyed in the early 1990s. That really would be something.\n• None Five new sports at Tokyo 2020: Everything you need to know about the events\n• None The fight for our attention: How can sport broadcasters make themselves the most attractive option?", "A 39-year-old man, a 30-year-old woman and a 13-year-old boy have been arrested on suspicion of Logan's murder\n\nA five-year-old boy who was found dead in a river has been named by police as Logan Mwangi.\n\nLogan's body was found in the Ogmore River in Bridgend county in the early hours of Saturday morning.\n\nSouth Wales Police said a 39-year-old man, a 30-year-old woman and 13-year-old boy had been arrested on suspicion of murder and remain in custody.\n\nTributes have been paid to the \"kind, funny, polite, handsome and clever\" boy, from Sarn.\n\nThe police said they were \"not looking for anyone else in relation to this incident\".\n\nLogan's body was discovered near Pandy Park following reports of concerns for a missing five-year-old in the Sarn area of Bridgend at 05:45 BST on Saturday.\n\nLogan - who was also known as Logan Williamson - was found in the river and taken to Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend where it was confirmed he had died.\n\nToys, floral tributes and a photo of Logan have been placed at the scene\n\nLogan has been described as \"kind, funny, polite, handsome and clever\"\n\nPeople living nearby have spoken of their shock at Logan's death.\n\n\"It's just devastating,\" said Jasmine Tapner, clutching a baby in her arms.\n\n\"I only live up the road and it's so close to home. It made me never want to let my children out of my sight because I just didn't want anything to happen to them.\n\n\"Everyone is in mourning.\"\n\nShe said Logan was a \"loving boy, always chatty, smiley when you walked past the house\".\n\nIan Tapner added: \"It's such a sad loss of a young lad - he had a bright future ahead of him. Such a loving lad, a kind lad. The community's in shock.\"\n\nA police cordon is in place at a bridge over the River Ogmore\n\nCh Insp Geraint White said: \"This is a tragic incident in which a young child has sadly lost their life.\n\n\"We are appealing for anyone who may have witnessed this incident, or who has any information, to get in touch.\n\n\"We would ask the public not to speculate about this incident on social media as this is an active investigation.\n\n\"If you have any information that can help, please report this to us.\n\n\"Our thoughts are with the family and we are supporting them in every way we can.\"\n\nPolice are appealing for anyone with information about Logan's death to come forward\n\nThere are lots of tributes near the Ogmore River where Logan's body was found\n\nHe added \"regular contact\" had been made with the boy's family, who were being supported by specialist trained officers.\n\n\"The local neighbourhood police team will continue to support and speak to residents in the area, and I encourage people to talk to them if they have any concerns.\n\n\"We recognise there are a lot of people in the local community who would like answers about what happened to him.\"\n\nHuw David, leader of Bridgend council, said: \"People throughout Bridgend county borough have been devastated by this shocking news.\n\n\"The tragic death of this young child has saddened us all, but Sarn remains a very close, tight-knit community and residents are looking out for one another even as they offer South Wales Police full support in their ongoing investigations.\"\n\nCuddly toys have been left at the scene by members of the public\n\nThis is very much a community in shock.\n\nIt is very quiet here, there are just a few dog walkers about.\n\nI'm [standing] by a police cordon by a bridge over the River Ogmore and the bridge is cordoned off on both sides.\n\nThere are a number of teddies, candles and flowers which are placed nearby, and handwritten messages with words like \"RIP angel\" and \"fly high, little man\" written on them.\n\nHandwritten messages have been attached to some of the bears left in tribute to Logan", "Alpine's Esteban Ocon took a maiden Formula 1 victory in an extraordinary and madcap Hungarian Grand Prix.\n\nLewis Hamilton regained the World Championship lead for the first time since May after fighting back to finish third having been last five laps into the race.\n\nHis title rival Max Verstappen was a victim of an incident-strewn wet start but managed to salvage a point for 10th place in a badly damaged Red Bull.\n\nA race featuring an opening first few laps among the most remarkable in Formula 1 history left Hamilton with a six-point lead over Verstappen as the sport goes into its three-week summer break.\n\nHamilton finished a close third behind Ocon and Sebastian Vettel's Aston Martin, but the German was later disqualified for a fuel irregularity. He was left in second in the final results, pending an appeal by his team against the verdict.\n\nA pile-up at the first corner on a slippery track left Hamilton briefly leading Ocon and Vettel on the first lap before the race was red-flagged to clear up the mess strewn over the track.\n\nExtraordinarily, when the race restarted, Hamilton was the only car on the grid for a second start as every other driver made pit stops for dry-weather slick tyres because the sun had come out and the track was almost dry.\n\nHamilton had to stop at the end of the next lap, dropping to the tail of the field, leaving Ocon to fend off Vettel for the rest of the race.\n\nVettel tried to pass a number of times, but Ocon - a former Mercedes young driver - held on for the entire 70 laps to take a superb first win.\n\nOcon's team-mate Fernando Alonso played an important role in securing the win for the Frenchman, defending valiantly against Hamilton for 10 laps in the closing stages.\n\nHamilton, having fought his way back up to fourth from last, made a pit stop with 23 laps to go to fit fresh tyres and make a bold bid for victory.\n\nThe Mercedes driver had the pace to make it happen and might have done, had Alonso not held him off for lap after lap with a display of tough racecraft, a couple of times just on the edge of acceptability.\n\nAfter Hamilton finally got past Alonso with five laps to go, he passed Ferrari's Carlos Sainz two laps later and charged up to the front two, finishing just 0.8secs behind Vettel, with Sainz fourth and Alonso fifth.\n\nAfter the race, Hamilton went to see the Mercedes doctor because he was suffering from fatigue and dizziness. He said in the news conference later that he had been struggling with his fitness all year after contracting Covid-19 last December.\n\nWhat happened at the start?\n\nA race that will go down as one of the most remarkable ever seen was gripping from start to finish, and the action was caused by rain which started about half an hour before the race.\n\nAt the start on a wet track, Hamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas misjudged his braking point and cannoned into McLaren's Lando Norris, who was pushed into Verstappen. Bottas also then took out the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez.\n\nThe Finn has been given a five-place grid penalty at the next race in Belgium on the last weekend in August.\n\nFerrari's Charles Leclerc was briefly looking at second place behind Hamilton, only for Aston Martin's Lance Stroll to make a mistake, brake too late, slide onto the grass and smash into the Ferrari, which then tipped McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo into a spin.\n\nWith debris all over the track, the red flag was thrown and the cars returned to the pits, where Red Bull set about trying to repair Verstappen's car.\n\nThe damage was extensive, with chunks missing from the floor and his entire right-hand barge-board gone, causing significant amounts of lost downforce.\n\nVerstappen took the restart in 13th place and was faced with a long afternoon battling a car with no balance and lacking a lot of grip. But he fought valiantly and managed to separate Ricciardo from the final points place in the closing stages.\n\nHow did Hamilton end up last from the lead?\n\nBy the time the race restarted, the rain had stopped and the sun was out, but all the drivers were on intermediate tyres when they set off on the formation lap for another standing start.\n\nHamilton was telling his team the track was ready for slicks but he did not come in - whereas everyone else did. That created the surreal - and unprecedented - sight of just one car on the grid for the start of the race.\n\nThe extra pace the slick tyres gave the rest of the field meant when Hamilton pitted for his own slicks next time around, he was shunted to the back in 14th place after six cars had retired. The question became how much ground he could recover on a track on which overtaking is notoriously difficult.\n\nHe had made three places when he pitted on lap 19 for fresh tyres, the idea being to run in clear air and then make up places on those on older tyres in front of him.\n\nBy lap 46, Hamilton was up to fourth place behind Ocon, Vettel and Sainz when he pitted again for fresh tyres.\n\nThe move dropped him a further place behind Alonso, but the hope was he could pass all the cars in front to take an unlikely win.\n\nBut Alonso, who was showing strong pace himself and had closed up to the back of Sainz, had other ideas, and in one of the greatest displays of defensive driving for years held off the much faster Mercedes for 10 nail-biting laps, before he ran a little too deep into Turn One with five laps to go, giving Hamilton the chance to pass into Turn Two.\n\nWhat about the winner?\n\nOcon led the race from Hamilton's first stop and he and Vettel were able to make a break at the front, building a 15-second lead, as the rest of the field were held up by Williams' Nicholas Latifi in third place for the first 22 laps.\n\nVettel had more pace, but Ocon drove with great maturity to fend off the German for the entire race.\n\nA slow pit stop by Vettel and Aston Martin mid-race gave Ocon breathing space to come in next time around without too much pressure and retain the lead.\n\nIn the remaining laps, Vettel got close on a couple of occasions but Ocon was always just out of reach and held on for his first win.\n\nIt was the team's first victory in its new guise of Alpine and the first since Kimi Raikkonen won the 2013 Australian Grand Prix, when they were known as Lotus.\n\nFurther down the order, Latifi and Briton George Russell scored their first points for the Williams team in eighth and ninth places, which became seventh and eighth with Vettel's disqualification.\n\nWhat happens next?\n\nA three-week break before the season reconvenes at the magnificent Spa-Francorchamps circuit for the Belgian Grand Prix.\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Belarusian sprinter Krystina Timanovskaya asked the International Olympic Committee for help\n\nA Belarusian sprinter voiced fears for her safety as she refused an order to fly home early from the Olympics for criticising her coaches.\n\nKrystsina Tsimanouskaya says she was forced to pack before being taken to the airport in Tokyo against her will.\n\nThe 24-year-old says she sought police protection at the terminal so she would not have to board the flight.\n\n\"I think I am safe. I am with the police,\" she was heard saying, as she was pictured surrounded by officers.\n\nThe sprinter, who was due to compete in the women's 200m event on Monday, had complained on social media about being entered into another race at short notice.\n\nShe says she was \"put under pressure\" by team officials to return home and asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for help.\n\n\"They are trying to get me out of the country without my permission,\" she said in a video posted on the Telegram channel of the Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation (BSSF), a group that supports athletes jailed or sidelined for their political views.\n\nThe IOC said it was seeking clarification from Belarussian officials - who earlier said she was taken off the team because of her \"emotional and psychological condition\".\n\nIn a later message, the IOC said it had spoken to Ms Tsimanouskaya. \"She has told us she feels safe,\" it said.\n\nThe flight took off without Ms Tsimanouskaya on board. She is now \"safe\" and in police protection, the BSSF's Anatol Kotau told the BBC.\n\nEarlier Ms Tsimanouskaya told radio station European Radio for Belarus (ERB) she was afraid to return to her country.\n\nThe athlete sought police protection at the airport terminal\n\nShe had previously alleged in a video posted online that she was entered into this Thursday's 400m relay event at short notice by Belarusian officials, after some teammates were found to be ineligible to compete.\n\nState media criticised her after she posted the video, with one television channel saying she lacked \"team spirit\".\n\nOn Sunday, she claims officials came to her room and gave her an hour to pack her bags before being escorted to Tokyo's Haneda airport.\n\nShe said she had been removed from the team due \"to the fact that I spoke on my Instagram about the negligence of our coaches\".\n\nThe BSSF was set up in August 2020 to support athletes during protests against President Alexander Lukashenko, re-elected last year in a disputed presidential vote.\n\nGovernment forces brutally cracked down after hundreds of thousands protested about the election. Some of those who took part were also national-level athletes, who were stripped of funding, cut from national teams and detained for demonstrating.\n\nMs Tsimanouskaya is now said to be considering seeking asylum in Europe.\n\nSeveral countries, including the Czech Republic and Poland, have said they are ready to offer her a visa and protection.\n\nBut the sprinter remains \"frightened\" about her family's safety, Mr Kotau of the BSSF told the BBC.\n\n\"She's afraid of repression on her family in Belarus - this is the main concern for her right now,\" he said.\n• None Belarus athlete: 'I ask the IOC for help' Video, 00:00:12Belarus athlete: 'I ask the IOC for help'", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nAmerican gymnast Simone Biles has withdrawn from Monday's floor final at the Tokyo Olympics but is yet to make a decision on whether she will compete in the beam final on Tuesday.\n\nThe four-time Olympic champion, 24, had already withdrawn from the women's team final and individual all-around final to focus on her mental health.\n\nShe also withdrew from Sunday's vault and uneven bars finals.\n\nA tweet from USA Gymnastics said: \"We're all behind you, Simone.\"\n\nIt means Great Britain's Jennifer Gadirova enters the floor final having been first reserve.\n\nBiles had her lowest Olympic vault score in the opening rotation before withdrawing from the team final on 26 July.\n\nShe left the arena but returned to support her team-mates as the defending champions claimed silver behind the Russian Olympic Committee.\n\nTeam silver in Tokyo was Biles' sixth Olympic medal and took her tally of Olympic and World Championship medals to 30.\n\nAfterwards, Biles said: \"After the performance I did, I just didn't want to go on. I have to focus on my mental health. I just think mental health is more prevalent in sports right now.\n\n\"We have to protect our minds and our bodies and not just go out and do what the world wants us to do.\n\n\"I don't trust myself as much any more. Maybe it's getting older. There were a couple of days when everybody tweets you and you feel the weight of the world.\n\n\"We're not just athletes. We're people at the end of the day and sometimes you just have to step back.\"\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nTwo Georgian silver medallists were told to leave the Olympic Games for taking a sightseeing trip in Tokyo.\n\nLeaving the athletes' village for non-Games purposes is against measures designed to protect against Covid-19.\n\nJapan has extended a state of emergency in the city following a surge in cases.\n\n\"We took away accreditation as we believe going out of the athletes' village for sightseeing is something that should not happen,\" said Tokyo 2020 spokesman Masanori Takaya.\n\nTakaya told a briefing on Saturday that an unnamed person or people had had their accreditation revoked, but did not give further details.\n\nHowever, the Georgian Olympic Committee later confirmed that two of its athletes - both judoka - were no longer allowed on Olympic premises.\n\nThey added the pair had already left Japan after finishing their events, in line with rules which state athletes must leave the country within 48 hours of competing.\n\nA Georgian official told AFP news agency that silver medallists Vazha Margvelashvili, 27 and Lasha Shavdatuashvili, 29, had left the compound to meet \"one of their good acquaintances\" who lives in Japan.\n\n\"No-one stopped them at the exit, so they thought that they could go outside. They wanted just to have a bit of open air, to relax after a tough day of competition, after a tough lockdown period.\"\n\nThe medals won by the pair were among four for Georgia's judoka at the Games, including another silver and a gold.\n\nEarlier this week, Japanese media reported that two Georgian athletes had been spotted taking photographs at Tokyo Tower.\n• None Five new sports at Tokyo 2020: Everything you need to know about the events\n• None The fight for our attention: How can sport broadcasters make themselves the most attractive option?", "Tokyo Olympics: Who are the contenders for Usain Bolt's 100m crown? Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app. After more than a decade of dominance the era of Usain Bolt is over and someone other than the Jamaican great will be crowned men's 100m champion at the Tokyo Olympics. Bolt will go down as one of the greatest athletes of all time having stormed to 100m victory at the Beijing, London and Rio Games, adding three successive 200m golds for good measure. But the world record holder retired from athletics in 2017, finally giving someone else a chance of glory. With time having also caught up with 2004 gold medallist Justin Gatlin, and world champion Christian Coleman serving an 18-month anti-doping ban, this feels very much like the start of a new era in the Olympics' traditional blue riband event. The semi-finals take place on Sunday (starting at 11:15 BST) before the final at 13:50. Who is ready to write their name in the history books? Here are some of the contenders. Trayvon Bromell won the men's 100m in 9.98 seconds at British Grand Prix Diamond League event in Gateshead this month Once considered a potential heir to Bolt's throne, Trayvon Bromell endured three injury-ravaged years that included tearing his achilles tendon during the 4x100m relay at Rio in 2016. However, the 26-year-old is back and heads to Tokyo as the fastest man in 2021, posting a time of 9.77 seconds in June. He went on to win the US trials in a similarly rapid 9.80. After leaving the track at the previous Olympics in a wheelchair, a coronation in Tokyo would feel like a moment of redemption. Fred Kerley won 400m bronze at the 2019 World Championships and says his long-term plan is to race at that distance A former US champion at 400m, Fred Kerley raised eyebrows when he chose to race at 100m and 200m, but showed he is more than capable over shorter distances by setting a personal best of 9.86 to come third in the 100m at the US Olympic trials. A personal best of 19.90 seconds in the 200m makes him only the third man to break the 10, 20 and 44-second barriers over 100m, 200m and 400m. A man of many talents, he cannot be discounted here. Ronnie Baker's only defeats this season have been in the semi-final and final of the US Olympic trials Ronnie Baker is another athlete who looks to have put his injury problems behind him. The 27-year-old's best year to date came in 2018 when he earned world indoor 60m bronze and set personal bests over that distance and 100m. Persistent injuries then hampered him throughout 2019 and he missed out on a place at the World Championships. However, he shaved 0.02 off his lifetime best when finishing second at this year's Olympic trials in 9.85 seconds - one of just two defeats this season, which has included Diamond League wins in Stockholm and Monaco. Andre de Grasse heads to Tokyo with an impressive track record. He won the 100m bronze, 200m silver and sprint relay bronze in Rio, following that up with bronze in the 100m and silver in 200m at the 2019 World Championships. Injury and illness have hampered his progress since then, although he ran a season's best 9.92 in Jacksonville in May. If he can win gold he would follow in the footsteps of Donavan Bailey, who won the 100m title for Canada at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. Simbine is bidding to become the first African Olympic 100m champion since 1908 Akani Simbine is aiming to become the first African to win the Olympic 100m title since South Africa's Reggie Walker at the 1908 London Games. He is another sprinter with decent pedigree, having finished fourth at the 2019 World Championships, and fifth at the 2017 Worlds and the 2016 Rio Olympics. He is also the reigning Commonwealth champion and has run sub-10 seconds in seven successive years. The 27-year-old set an African record of 9.84 seconds in Hungary in July, shaving 0.01 off the previous mark set in 2006. It also bettered the national record of 9.89 he had set at the same meeting five years ago. Could the 100m gold stay in Jamaica? Yohan Blake has long been tipped as a potential successor to Bolt, with his personal best of 9.69 only bettered by his more celebrated compatriot. He won 100m gold at the 2011 World Championships and is a 2012 double Olympic silver medallist. However, he hasn't dipped below 9.90 seconds since those heady days and it is nine years since he won an individual major medal, with his season's best 9.98 in the Jamaican Championship semi-finals. What about the Brits? The last British athlete to win the men's Olympic 100m was Linford Christie at Barcelona in 1992 Zharnel Hughes has the fastest personal best of the three British contenders for the 100m - with his 9.91 in Jamaica in 2018 putting him second on the British all-time list alongside James Dasaolu and behind 1992 Olympic champion Linford Christie's 9.87. The 26-year-old is also the reigning European champion and reached the final at the 2019 World Championships. Reece Prescod took silver behind Hughes at the 2018 European Championships. He won the British title in 2017 and 2018 and has a personal best of 9.94 seconds. CJ Ujah is the reigning British champion and in 2014 at the age of 19 became the youngest Briton to break the 10-second barrier, and just the fifth to do so, clocking 9.96 seconds, a time he matched in 2015. He failed to make the 100m final in Rio by just 0.01 seconds.\n• None Five new sports at Tokyo 2020: Everything you need to know about the events\n• None The fight for our attention: How can sport broadcasters make themselves the most attractive option?", "One in five firms plan on letting staff go in response to Sunday's furlough policy change, which will see employers contribute more, a survey has found.\n\nThe British Chamber of Commerce said extra training was needed to deal with thousands of redundancies predicted.\n\nFrom Sunday, government payments reduce to 60% towards salaries, with employers paying 20%.\n\nThe government said the approach was \"right\" and meant \"we can focus support elsewhere\" as the economy recovers.\n\nAccording to the most recent figures up to 30 June, about 1.9m workers were on furlough, down from a peak of 5.1m in January.\n\nThe government said 11.6 million jobs have been supported since the Job Retention Scheme launched in April 2020.\n\nThe scheme is due to close at the end of September.\n\nIt meant that staff whose jobs were put on hold during the coronavirus pandemic were guaranteed 80% of their salaries - to a limit - from the government.\n\nAs the scheme winds down, the support is slowly being made less generous. Since 1 July, employers have been asked to contribute 10% towards the wages of furloughed workers for hours their staff do not work.\n\nThat amount has now risen to 20% during August and September.\n\nThe British Chamber of Commerce surveyed 250 businesses, with 18% telling the chamber they were likely to make staff redundant in response to the change to furlough.\n\nA quarter said they would aim to reduce hours or move staff to part-time working patterns.\n\nJane Gratton, head of people policy at the chamber, said the change \"will likely result in many thousands of people being released back into the labour market, as employers who are still struggling to recover from the recession are forced to make redundancies and cuts to working hours\".\n\nShe said it was \"crucial\" that employers and the government give returning furloughed workers the support and training they need \"to be re-engaged and productive\".\n\nHannah Slaughter, an economist from the Resolution Foundation, told the BBC that over the majority of the pandemic, the highest rates of furlough was among the under 25s, but the most recent data it was the over 60s who were more likely to be furloughed.\n\n\"That's concerning because we are likely to see a rise in unemployment when the Job Retention Scheme ends in the autumn and any workers who are left on furlough are more likely to become unemployed,\" she said.\n\nShe said older people were more likely to leave the workforce when they lose their jobs and those who return in a new job were \"more likely to face a pay penalty\" relative to younger workers.\n\nThe government said its employment programmes were working and had supported workers' livelihoods through the pandemic.\n\n\"We've always been clear that it's not possible to save every job, but our Plan for Jobs is helping people of all ages find the skills they need to get back into work,\" a spokesman said.", "Craig Murray was refused permission to appeal to the UK Supreme Court over his sentence\n\nA former diplomat sentenced to eight months in jail over blogs he wrote about the trial of Alex Salmond has handed himself in to police.\n\nCraig Murray, 62, went to a police station in Edinburgh on Sunday morning.\n\nA judge had previously refused the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan permission to appeal to the UK Supreme Court.\n\nMurray posted a series of articles online about the former first minister's High Court trial in 2020.\n\nProsecutors raised concerns that complainers could be identified via his writing, breaching a court order.\n\nWhen sentencing Murray in May, judge Lady Dorrian said his actions had struck \"at the heart of the fair administration of justice\" and created a real risk that complainers would be reluctant to come forward in future cases, particularly high-profile ones.\n\nMurray, a former rector at Dundee University, had attended two days of the former first minister's High Court trial last March over sexual assault allegations, and wrote a series of blogs about it.\n\nMr Salmond was cleared of all 13 charges, including sexual assault and attempted rape, in March last year.\n\nThe judge had made an order during the trial to prohibit the identity of the women involved - or any information which could lead to them being identified - from being disclosed.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nMax Whitlock retained his Olympic pommel horse title and Charlotte Worthington won a thrilling women's BMX park freestyle final to take Great Britain's gold medal tally to 10 in Tokyo on Sunday.\n\nTeam GB also made history in the pool, clinching the men's 4x100m medley relay silver for their eighth swimming medal of the Games.\n\nDuncan Scott was part of a quartet including Adam Peaty, Luke Greenbank and James Guy who were pipped to the title by the USA.\n\nThe 24-year-old, who signs off with a gold and three silvers, has now won more medals at a single Olympics than any other British competitor.\n\nIn a dramatic BMX final, Worthington fell on her first run but landed a ground-breaking 360-degree backflip on her second to score 97.50.\n\nDeclan Brooks then took bronze in the men's event to claim GB's fourth BMX medal.\n\nBritish boxer Ben Whittaker also guaranteed himself at least a silver medal by beating Imam Khataev, of the Russian Olympic Committee, to reach Tuesday's 81kg final.\n\nPat McCormack will also fight for gold in the men's welterweight division after Ireland's Aidan Walsh pulled out of their semi-final with an ankle injury, while Frazer Clarke reached the super-heavyweight final after France's Mourad Aliev was disqualified.\n\nGB's sailing team have guaranteed two more medals to add to the bronze they have already won.\n\nJohn Gimson and Anna Burnet are second overall in the mixed Nacra 17 class with one race to go, while defending champion Giles Scott leads the men's Finn class and cannot now drop lower than third.\n\nShowing the confidence that makes him the world's best, Whitlock went out first and delivered a near-perfect routine that earned him a score of 15.583.\n\nIt was then a nervous wait for the the 28-year-old, but he had done enough to deliver his third career Olympic gold and second in the pommel horse.\n\nThat, alongside two World Championship titles, makes him the all-time most successful gymnast in the event.\n\nHe also becomes the seventh British competitor to win at least six Olympic medals, after Scott also achieved the feat in the pool earlier on Sunday.\n\nThey pull level with Steve Redgrave and Charlotte Dujardin, while only Bradley Wiggins (eight) and Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny (both seven) have more.\n\n\"I feel absolutely lost for words, I can't even describe the feeling and I feel completely overwhelmed - it feels surreal,\" said Whitlock.\n\n\"Team GB have been doing absolutely incredibly. The gold medals have been flowing in and I just wanted to do the same thing.\n\n\"To come out here and get my own, I feel very proud.\"\n\nWorthington said she was trying to find a \"big banger trick\" to deliver Olympic gold but an unprecedented 360-degree backflip left her on the floor during run one.\n\nUndeterred, the 25-year-old went on to execute the move in her second run, becoming the first woman to land it in competition, and registering a score of 97.50.\n\n\"It was incredible,\" said Worthington, who watched on as four rivals - including hotly tipped American Hannah Roberts - failed to usurp her mark.\n\n\"I've not been doing that trick for so long but we've been trying to find that big banger trick and when we did we thought, 'this is the one'. If it wasn't for Hannah Roberts, we wouldn't be doing these tricks or be this far.\"\n\nIt was the culmination of years of hard work for Worthington, who was a late convert to BMX and had been working as a chef \"sweating it out in the kitchen for over 40 hours a week\" before concentrating on the sport.\n\n\"It's a lot of hard work paid off. On the bike, yes, it's physical hard work but I feel like the work on myself has paid off,\" she added.\n\nHaving watched that drama unfold, Brooks added Britain's fourth BMX medal - after Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte in the racing - to cap an incredible Games.\n\n\"I've just cried for the last couple of minutes,\" 25-year-old Brooks told BBC Sport after his bronze was confirmed.\n\nRegular visits to the podium at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre this Games have seen Britain establish themselves as one of swimming's powerhouses in Japan.\n\nThey may still be a distant third on the medal table to the USA and Australia, but an eighth trip to the podium marks the nation's most successful Olympics in the sport.\n\nThe American team needed a world record time of three minutes 26.78 seconds to beat the British quartet to the men's 4x100m medley relay title.\n\nBut a silver medal rounded off a superb Games in the pool for Britain, who finish with four swimming golds, three silvers and a bronze - having earned a solitary gold at Rio five years ago.\n\nIt also capped a record-breaking Olympics for Scott, whose four medals are record haul for a Briton at a single Games and take him to six overall.\n\n\"I have a lot of good team-mates,\" Scott told BBC Sport. \"I'm very fortunate to be part of some excellent relay teams.\"\n\nThe US victory means American superstar Caeleb Dressel joins compatriots Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi, as well as East Germany's Kristin Otto, as the only swimmers to win five golds at a single Olympics.\n\nMeanwhile, Australia's Emma McKeon made history as the first female swimmer to win seven medals at an Olympics, claiming four golds and three bronze.\n\nThere was no shortage of drama at the Olympic Stadium on a night to remember for Italy.\n\nIt started in the men's high jump, which saw Qatar's Mutaz Essa Barshim and Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi share the gold medal.\n\nAfter an exhausting two-hour competition, the pair couldn't be split, having recorded best clearances of 2.37m. They were offered an opportunity to take part in a jump-off, but in a moment of sportsmanship, they agreed to share the title.\n\nSoon after, Lamont Marcell Jacobs claimed a shock gold in the 100m final to make it two Olympic athletics titles in quick succession for Italy.\n\nJacobs, who only switched away from long jump in 2018, streaked clear to win in 9.80 seconds, 0.04 clear of American Fred Kerley with Canada's Andre de Grasse taking bronze.\n\nEarlier, Venezuela's Yulimar Rojas smashed the women's triple jump world record, which had stood since August 1995 - two months before she was born.\n\nWith her final jump, and with gold already secured, she leapt 15.67m to smash the previous best by 17cm.\n\n\"I'm lost for words, I can't describe this feeling and this moment,\" said the 25-year-old. \"Gold medal winner, with an Olympic record, and a world record - wow. It is a fantastic night.\"\n\nBritain's eventers are well placed for team and individual success after impressive cross-country displays, with world number one Oliver Townend, Laura Collett and Tom McEwen leading the team event ahead of Australia and France.\n\nTownend tops the individual standings with Collett third and McEwen sixth.\n\nOne round of showjumping at 09:45 BST on Monday will decide team medals, followed by the leading individual contenders jumping again at 12:45.\n\nMeanwhile, American Xander Schauffele won the men's golf gold medal on a dramatic final day that saw Slovakia's Rory Sabbatini take silver and Taiwanese golfer CT Pan earn bronze in a seven-way play-off.\n\nIreland's Rory McIlroy, Great Britain's Paul Casey and Japan's Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama made the shootout before Pan won it on the fourth play-off hole from American Collin Morikawa.\n• None 'I've never tried so hard in my life to finish third' - McIlroy\n\nIn the men's tennis, Alexander Zverev won gold to become the first German player to win an Olympic title in the singles since Steffi Graf in 1988.\n\nHe defeated Karen Khachanov of the Russian Olympic Committee 6-3 6-1.\n\nBut it was heartbreak for Britain's men's hockey players, as they lost 3-1 to India in the quarter-finals.\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "Planning reforms to convert shops and restaurants into homes could lead to more people suffering from potentially deadly heatwaves, claims a report.\n\nFrom 1 August, firms will be allowed to redevelop a wider range of commercial property into flats.\n\nIt is hoped the move will regenerate City centres that have struggled during the pandemic.\n\nBut Zurich UK warns it risks creating more poor quality homes vulnerable to overheating in the summer.\n\nAt present, disused office space can be converted into residences without having to apply for planning permission.\n\nFrom August, so-called permitted development rights will be expanded to allow vacant retailers, restaurants and gyms to be changed into homes.\n\nBut Zurich UK, the insurance group, said: \"A rush to redevelop shops and offices left empty by the pandemic could create a swathe of sub-standard homes that are vulnerable to climate change.\"\n\nZurich said that small self-contained bedsits and studio flats could potentially become uninhabitable during increasingly hot summers.\n\nIt warned that many properties in built-up areas were affected by the \"urban heat island\" effect, where temperatures are hotter than outlying areas. It added these properties were also at risk from flash floods caused by heavy downpours on concrete surfaces.\n\n\"The post-Covid city may need to quickly adapt to new modes of behaviour, which could see many building types adapted for purposes not originally intended,\" said Tony Mulhall, associate director of the land professional group at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.\n\nAlready one in five homes in the UK overheats, according to the Climate Change Committee (CCC), the independent body which advises the government. The death toll from heatwaves is expected to triple by 2050 as temperatures continue to climb.\n\nA government spokeswoman for Housing, Communities and Local Government said homes delivered through permitted development rights continued to make an important contribution to housing delivery.\n\nShe added that Zurich's \"claims are based on unfounded assumptions\".\n\n\"Our reforms will transform unused buildings into much-needed new homes, and all new homes must be of high quality and meet national space standards and building regulations, including ventilation requirements,\" she said.\n\nLast summer, heatwaves in England caused 2,556 deaths, with the CCC predicting numbers could triple from an average of 2,000 to 7,000 each year by 2050.\n\nMr Mulhall said following the change in permitted development rights: \"A generation of hermetically sealed commercial buildings may now fall into this category to be repurposed for housing, needing to satisfy a completely different set of standards.\"\n\nHe added that while energy poverty - where residents cannot afford to heat their homes during the winter - was a recognised problem: \"The other increasing concern is residential buildings which, due to increased natural temperatures, are tending to overheat.\n\n\"Some buildings when reconfigured as apartments with a single aspect may not allow for through ventilation as part of a natural cooling strategy.\"\n\nAccording to Zurich UK's research, more than 64,700 flats have been created from disused offices in the last five years.\n\nBetween January and March this year, applications for office-to-residential conversions in England rose 28% to a three-year high \"as developers snap up blocks left vacant by an exodus of workers from city centres\".\n\nConverted flats typically have big windows, but no air conditioning, and if all the windows face south, it can be impossible to escape sweltering heat.\n\nThe problem is exaggerated in flats fashioned from offices with a big square floorplate. The resulting apartments often face in only one direction - and this means they can't get a cooling through-draught.\n\nAlready one in five homes in the UK overheats, according to the Climate Change Committee, with heatwave death tolls expected to triple by 2050 as the UK warms.\n\nEddie Tuttle, director for policy, research and public affairs at the Chartered Institute of Building, said: \"While we agree with the principle of permitted development rights to rejuvenate town centres, there is clear evidence that homes built using permitted development rights have led to spaces detrimental to the health, well-being and quality of life of future occupants.\"\n\nZurich wants ministers to think ahead to look at ways to climate-proof buildings.\n\nIt said developers could be required to improve cooling by fitting heat-reflecting windows, installing shutters and sunshades and using reflective surfaces and ceiling fans.\n\nIt added that developers should install leak detection and suppression devices.\n\n\"If fitted during the conversion, costs can be relatively modest and avoid huge disruption for residents,\" it said.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nGreat Britain's Charlotte Worthington recovered from a fall on her first run to win a thrilling gold in the women's BMX park freestyle Olympic final. The 25-year-old, who gave up work as a chef to focus on the sport in 2017, delivered an action-packed score of 97.50 to snatch gold on her second run. The gripping action set the stage for Declan Brooks to seal bronze in the men's event, Britain's fourth BMX medal of a remarkable week. The 25-year-old watched on as riders failed to surpass his mark of 90.80, with Australia's Martin Logan taking gold on 93.30. Brooks' medal followed shortly after Worthington's superb victory. With no score of significance on the board after her fall, she simply had to deliver on run two and did so by becoming the first woman to land a 360-degree backflip in competition - the same trick that left her on the floor during run one. She celebrated her score wildly and then watched as four rivals - including favourite Hannah Roberts - failed to usurp her mark. \"It was incredible,\" said Worthington when asked about the key backflip. \"I've not been doing that trick for so long but we've been trying to find that big banger trick and when we did we thought, 'this is the one'. If it wasn't for Hannah Roberts, we wouldn't be doing these tricks. \"It's a lot of hard work paid off.\"\n• None The trick no woman had done before - how a 360 backflip won gold for GB Worthington's team celebrated wildly when her score of 97.50 was read out Riders were ranked on their best score from their two runs and Worthington's 97.50 transferred all of the pressure to American Roberts, who appeared to be cruising to the title after she put up 96.10 on run one. The 19-year-old - who had thrown her bike in the emotion of completing her first run - could not finish her second 60-second stint on the Tokyo course and, as the last rider to compete, her concession confirmed Worthington's champion status. Roberts, the winner of all three World Cup events in BMX freestyle's last complete season in 2019 - looked shocked at the turnaround. \"There was definitely a lot going on,\" said Roberts, who beat Switzerland's Nikita Ducarroz into bronze. \"My first run was good and I know there were places I could improve. I slipped up and hurt my ankle. \"I'm honoured to take second place to Charlotte. It's definitely an exciting time for our sport.\" Medals for Worthington and Brooks follow gold and silver respectively for Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte in BMX racing at the Games. Worthington, a late convert to BMX, opted to give her role up as a chef in 2017 and told BBC Sport she had been \"sweating it out in the kitchen for over 40 hours a week and barely had any time or energy to ride\". The move came with what she called a \"lifestyle change\" and she was keen to point out how personal development in her life away from the bike had laid the framework for her to sharpen her skills on it. Worthington has said that the delay to Tokyo 2020 gave her more time to develop the tricks she would need on the big stage. She has now won British, European and Olympic titles. Brooks, who almost missed out on the Games after knocking himself out during the World Championships in June, improved his first-run score to 90.80 and then watched on patiently as six riders followed him in the second run. Only one, Venezuela's Daniel Dhers, managed to beat it, with Logan's score from his first run enough to secure gold. Visibly emotional, Brooks told BBC Sport: \"I've just cried for the last couple of minutes. \"It's an unbelievable journey I've had on the way here. I am just so stoked. I don't think it will sink in for a while. For Charlotte to do her things today and put a score and tricks up there that we had never seen before, it was even harder focusing. \"I knew the run I wanted to pull, I still missed a few bits out but, to be honest, I think that is all I had.\"\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "A 15-year-old girl has died after an incident at Ty Mawr Holiday Park, near Abergele, on Saturday\n\nA 15-year-old girl has died following a \"domestic disturbance\" at a holiday park.\n\nNorth Wales Police said a 19-year-old man had been arrested following a \"serious\" incident at Ty Mawr Holiday Park, near Abergele, on Saturday.\n\nDet Supt Mark Pierce said it was a \"tragic but isolated incident\".\n\n\"Our thoughts are with the family who are being supported by specially trained officers at this time,\" he said.\n\nOn Saturday, bosses at the park in Conwy county said they were \"shocked and saddened by this tragic incident\" that took place inside a caravan \"which is now a crime scene\".\n\nDet Supt Pierce added: \"We would like to thank the staff and management of Ty Mawr, and members of the public both locally and those holidaying, for their support whilst we carry out our investigations.\n\n\"Our thoughts are with the family who are being supported by specially trained officers at this time.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union\n\nMakazole Mapimpi's try gave South Africa a lead they never relinquished The British and Irish Lions' series with South Africa will go to a decider after the Springboks won a fiery second Test 27-9 at Cape Town Stadium. The Lions led after a cagey first half as Dan Biggar's three penalties trumped Handre Pollard's two, while a player from each side went to the sin-bin. But a stylish Makazole Mapimpi try gave the world champions a narrow two-point lead at the start of the second half. The hosts continued to dominate and Lukhanyo Am's score sealed victory. Pollard scored three more penalties to further put the Lions in their place after the tourists won the first Test 22-17. Both sides will have to raise their level once again in what promises to be a thrilling series decider on Saturday, 7 August.\n• None Rugby Union Weekly: Second Test verdict with Dawson, Skinstad and Hook\n• None Final Test will be 'like a cup final' - Gatland Referee Ben O'Keeffe spoke to both captains as tensions rose between the two sides South Africa director of rugby Rassie Erasmus had made himself the centre of attention during the week by posting an unprecedented hour-long video monologue critiquing referee Nic Berry's work in the Lions' opening win. Erasmus' act also threw the spotlight on Ben O'Keeffe, who took charge of the second Test. The New Zealander was put through his paces by two emotionally charged sides, with 40 minutes of first-half playing time taking 62 minutes to complete because of stoppages needed for officiating decisions. Tensions boiled over after just two minutes as Alun Wyn Jones and Eben Etzebeth stared each other down and players from both sides faced off around them. Pollard and Biggar exchanged penalties, before an uncharacteristic miss by the South Africa 10 as the Lions took a 6-3 lead. Then the story became as much about the players leaving the field as those still on it. First 2019 world player of the year Pieter-Steph du Toit exited with a shoulder injury, replaced by the much less experienced Kwagga Smith. The Lions were dealt a bigger blow when Duhan Van der Merwe was given a yellow card for his trip on Cheslin Kolbe. But Kolbe followed two minutes later after he took Conor Murray out in the air - an action that prompted players from both sides to pile into another scrap and a telling off for both captains from O'Keeffe, who promised more yellow cards if the behaviour continued. Pollard levelled things with an impressive 54m kick, before the Lions had a try ruled out as Siya Kolisi held the ball up when Robbie Henshaw tried to get it to ground after taking a chip ahead. The tourists were brought back for an earlier penalty and Biggar slotted his third to give the Lions a three-point advantage at the break. Tensions boiled over with players from both sides piling into scuffles The Lions were hoping to go 2-0 up in a series for the first time since 1997 - the year the tourists last claimed a series win in South Africa. Warren Gatland's side had turned a 12-3 deficit into victory in the opening Test but the tables were turned this time around. Pollard began the game-changing move as he faked a long pass then pulled back and chipped the ball across to Mapimpi, who sliced inside the cover to score. The fly-half's missed conversion could have proved costly when Biggar got another shot on goal, but the Lions 10's effort hit the left post and bounced backwards. Biggar tested the Springboks with high balls but they were up for the challenge and when Faf de Klerk sent a few back, it was the Lions who faltered. The Sale scrum-half chipped a ball through for Am and the centre's grounding was perhaps O'Keeffe's most contentious decision. Am managed to reach the ball before it went dead and South African television match official Marius Jonker brought up replays of the Springbok touching the ball down with his forearm. O'Keeffe deemed it to be a controlled grounding and any hope the Lions had of getting back into the game was further extinguished by nine points from Pollard's boot. Lions captain Alun Wyn Jones gathered his players into a huddle at full-time for what was undoubtedly a rousing speech as they turn their attention to a high-stakes decider. Wing Makazole Mapimpi scored the try that put South Africa out of England's reach in the 2019 World Cup final and he did the same against the Lions, holding his nerve to perform when it counted most.\n• None Five new sports at Tokyo 2020: Everything you need to know about the events\n• None The fight for our attention: How can sport broadcasters make themselves the most attractive option?", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app. Elaine Thompson-Herah became the second-fastest woman in history as she beat fellow Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce to retain her Olympic 100m title. The 29-year-old ran 10.61 seconds, a new Olympic record and just 0.12secs short of the world record set by the US' Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988. Shericka Jackson completed a Jamaican one-two-three in Tokyo with a time of 10.76, 0.02 behind Fraser-Pryce. \"I have been struggling with my injury back and forth,\" Thompson-Herah told BBC Sport after victory. \"I see all the bad comments. I take all of my losses, all of my defeats and I use them as my motivation.\" Neita's GB team-mate Dina Asher-Smith failed to qualify for the final and then withdrew from the 200m after revealing she tore her hamstring earlier this month.\n• None Thompson-Herah the last woman standing as 100m royal rumble became personal duel Elaine Thompson-Herah celebrated several metres before the line Fraser-Pryce, who qualified fastest for the final, found herself under pressure almost immediately from the gun as her usual whip-smart start did not fire as expected. With the long-striding Thompson-Herah on her shoulder, Fraser-Pryce tensed up over the final 30 metres. Thompson-Herah's lead was comfortable enough for her to salute the clock and photographers as she crossed the line in a time that matches Griffith-Joyner's second-fastest time. It also sets a new Olympic record. Thompson-Herah, who came third in the Jamaican trials earlier this year, relished her victory over her domestic rivals, with silver little consolation to a grim-faced Fraser-Pryce. \"It wasn't the best 30 metres because I had a stumble at about the third step and I never recovered from it,\" said 34-year-old Fraser-Pryce, who was aiming to be become the first woman to win three Olympic 100m titles. \"I am excited because, as a mother and at my fourth Olympics, to be able to stand again on the podium is just a tremendous honour. \"But, you know, my emotions are still very raw right now. I am sure I will go home and there will be some tears.\" Thompson-Herah has been suffering with an Achilles tendon injury for almost five years. It forced her to withdraw from Doha 2019, where she had hoped to win her first individual world crown. Instead, she watched from home as Fraser-Pryce claimed her fifth. She came close to pulling out of last month's Jamaican trials because of a recurring bout of pain from the injury. But she managed to make the start line and qualify in the 100m and 200m, ensuring she will have a chance to repeat her sprint double from Rio. Of course, Tuesday's 200m final will also give Fraser-Pryce a chance of revenge. Great Britain will have three athletes in the women's 800m final for the first time, with Keely Hodgkinson providing the standout performance. The 19-year-old timed her finish to perfection to win her semi-final on the line in one minute 59.12 seconds. Jemma Reekie was second in her semi-final in 1:59.77, while Alex Bell (1:58.83) qualified for Tuesday's final as one of the two fastest losers. \"It's a dream come true. I did not expect to be on this journey,\" said Bell. \"Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be an Olympic finalist.\" GB will have three men in Sunday's 100m semi-finals, with Zharnel Hughes running a season's best of 10.04 seconds, while CJ Ujah (10.08) also qualified automatically. A season's best by Reece Prescod (10.12) sent him through as one of the three fastest losers, with Canadian 2016 bronze medallist Andre de Grasse (9.91) the fastest qualifier from Saturday's heats.\n• None Five new sports at Tokyo 2020: Everything you need to know about the events\n• None The fight for our attention: How can sport broadcasters make themselves the most attractive option?", "The boy's body was discovered in Ogmore River, near Pandy Park\n\nThe body of a five-year-old boy has been found in a river in Bridgend.\n\nSouth Wales Police said it was called to a report of a missing child at Sarn at 05:45 BST.\n\nOfficers found the boy in the Ogmore River near Pandy Park.\n\nHe was taken to Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend where it was confirmed he had died. His family is being supported by specially trained officers.\n\nThe scene has been closed off by police\n\nAn investigation is under way and police are keen to hear from anyone who was in the area at about 05:45 on Saturday.\n\nCh Insp Geraint White said: \"This is a tragic incident in which a young child has sadly lost their life.\n\n\"Our thoughts are with the family and we are supporting them in every way we can.\"\n\nHe added: \"We would ask the public not to speculate about this incident on social media as this is an active investigation.\"\n\nPolice are appealing for anyone with information about the boy's death\n• None Upstream along the Ogmore River in Tondu © Jaggery -- Geograph Britain and Ireland The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nTeam GB's Pat McCormack is guaranteed at least a silver medal in the men's welterweight competition after Ireland's Aidan Walsh pulled out of their semi-final with an ankle injury.\n\nThey were due to fight on Sunday but McCormack goes into Tuesday's final.\n\nA Team Ireland statement said Walsh sustained the injury during his quarter-final win over Mervin Clair.\n\nWalsh's bronze medal is Ireland's 17th in boxing, more than 50% of all Olympics medals won by Team Ireland.\n\nThe statement added: \"Walsh had initially hoped to compete and waited to give himself every opportunity to do so. However subsequent scans and medical reviews have now ruled out this possibility.\"\n\nMcCormack had beaten the Walsh in the semi-finals of the European qualifiers in June and has also enjoyed high profile wins against him in the first round of the 2019 World Championships and the final of the 2018 Commonwealth Games.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jacinda Ardern: \"We convey to you our deepest and sincerest apology\"\n\nNew Zealand's Prime Minister has formally apologised for an immigration crackdown in the 1970s against Pacific Islanders.\n\nThe Dawn Raids targeted people who overstayed their visas, deporting them to their countries of origin.\n\nThey disproportionately affected Pacific Islanders, despite most visa overstayers being from the UK, Australia and South Africa.\n\nJacinda Ardern has now issued a \"formal and unreserved apology\".\n\nPacific Islander communities in New Zealand still \"suffer and carry the scars\" from the policy, she said, adding that she hoped the apology \"has brought some much-needed closure\".\n\nMs Ardern spoke at a gathering of affected families, Pacific Island dignitaries and government officials in Auckland.\n\nAccording to news site Stuff, Princess Mele Sui'ilikutapu of Tonga welcomed the New Zealand government's attempt to address the \"inhumane and unjust\" treatment of her people. She called the apology \"a dawn for my community\".\n\nBeginning in the early 1970s, the Dawn Raids saw government forces launch early morning operations in the homes and workplaces of people who had overstayed their visas.\n\nNew Zealand had welcomed thousands of migrants from Pacific Islands after the end of World War Two, needing workers for its booming economy. By 1976, the government says there were more than 50,000 Pacific Islanders in the country.\n\nBut an economic crisis in the early 1970s caused unemployment to rise. Some politicians and in the press began to attack migrants.\n\nRaids began in 1974 and continued through the decade. The policy spawned mounting criticism from religious, political and civil groups until it was eventually halted by the start of the 1980s.\n\nNew Zealand's minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio, was himself a victim of the operation.\n\nBorn in Samoa before moving to New Zealand, he has said that the day of the raid was \"etched into my memory\".\n\n\"To have someone knocking on the door in the early hours, flashlight in your face, disrespecting the owner of the home, with an Alsatian dog frothing at the mouth wanting to come in... It is quite traumatising,\" he said when Ms Ardern announced the apology in June.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nGreat Britain's eventers are well placed for team and individual success after impressive cross-country displays in Tokyo.\n\nWorld number one Oliver Townend, Laura Collett and Tom McEwen lead the team event ahead of Australia and France.\n\nTownend tops the individual standings, with Collett third and McEwen sixth.\n\nOne round of showjumping at 09:45 BST on Monday will decide team medals, before the leading individual contenders jump again at 12:45.\n\nBritain last won eventing team gold 49 years ago in Munich, while only two riders - Richard Meade (1972) and Leslie Law (2004) - have tasted individual glory.\n\nTownend and his horse Ballaghmor Class set the tone, negotiating the course at Sea Forest Park five seconds inside the optimum time to remain on 23.60 penalties and he leads Germany's Julia Krajewski by 2.0.\n\n\"We know he is a special horse. He is tough and digs deep,\" said Townend of his 2017 Burghley winner, who also triumphed at Kentucky's five-star event earlier this year.\n\n\"It's his mentality, more than anything. He is quirky, but he is tough, and the bottom line is he wants to do his job more than most horses.\"\n\nCollett, who lost most of her sight in one eye and suffered multiple fractures following a cross-country fall eight years ago, proved in equally blistering form aboard London 52 while McEwen also impressed on Toledo De Kerser to leave Britain on 78.30 - 17.9 clear of their rivals.\n\nDuring the event, a horse from the Swiss team suffered an \"irreparable ligament rupture in the lower right limb\" and had to be put down.\n\nA statement from the International Federation for Equestrian Sports said: \"It is with great sadness that we announce that the Swiss horse Jet Set, ridden by Robin Godel, has had to be euthanised after pulling up extremely lame.\"\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "Last updated on .From the section Boxing\n\nBritain's Leigh Wood claimed the WBA 'Regular' featherweight title with a shock 12th-round stoppage of China's Xu Can.\n\nWood, 32, was only drafted into the fight at six weeks' notice but dominated his rival to seal the biggest victory of his career.\n\nThe Nottingham-born fighter finally sent Xu to the canvas with a right hook to the chin in the final round.\n\nXu got back up but Wood responded with a flurry of shots and the referee stopped the fight moments later.\n\nWood's victory gives him one version of the WBA's world title - the sanctioning body also has a 'super champion' belt, held by Mexico's Leo Santa Cruz.\n\nThe fight headlined the opening week of Matchroom Boxing's Fight Camp series in Brentwood, Essex.\n\nConor Benn's defence of the WBA continental welterweight title against Adrian Granados was due to top the bill but the fight was postponed earlier this week after Benn tested positive for Covid-19.\n\nOn the undercard, Chris Billam-Smith added the British and European Cruiserweight titles to his Commonwealth belt with a split-decision victory over Tommy McCarthy.\n\nAnthony Fowler beat Rico Mueller with an eighth-round stoppage to set up a meeting with fellow Merseysider Liam Smith in Liverpool on 9 October.\n\nCampbell Hatton made it 3-0 as a professional boxer with a points victory against Poland's Jakub Laskowski, while Jack Cullen won the IBF international super-middleweight title with an unanimous decision victory over Avni Yildirim.\n\nSaturday night's card was the first of four to be broadcast live across BBC Radio 5 live and Sports Extra over the next six weeks, with Kid Galahad v Jazza Dickens and Joshua Buatsi v Ricards Bolotniks coming up over the next two weekends, before Josh Warrington's rematch with Mauricio Lara on 4 September.", "Teenagers with certain health conditions will be vaccinated before schools return from the summer break, according to the Scottish government.\n\nJabs will be offered to around 4,000 young people aged between 12 and 17 before 16 August.\n\nIt will include those with Down's Syndrome and learning difficulties, as well as children with low immunity.\n\nThe move follows a shift in guidance from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf said the government's vaccination programme \"has always offered jabs to groups where the benefits far outweigh the risks\".\n\nHe added: \"The research and evidence shows that is the case for young people in these groups and they should now be called forward for a Covid-19 vaccine.\n\n\"These children and young people will be able to get the vaccine in the most appropriate setting for their situation.\n\n\"This may be in their own home or a care setting, or at a clinic, depending on their care or health needs.\"\n\nParents and carers of children included in the programme will be contacted directly by their health board from next week.", "Tokyo Olympics: Day-by-day guide to the key events and British medal hopes\n\nLast updated on .From the section Olympics", "Ministers are no longer considering making it compulsory for university students to be fully vaccinated against Covid to attend lectures in England, the BBC has been told.\n\nThe foreign secretary previously said students would get \"advance warning\" if they needed to be double jabbed.\n\nThe government plans to require two jabs to go to nightclubs and other crowded venues from September.\n\nMore than 72% of UK adults have had two doses so far, while 88.5% have had one.\n\nThe idea of making vaccines compulsory for university students - either to attend lectures or to live in halls of residence - was not ruled out by either education minister Vicky Ford or Downing Street when asked about it earlier this week.\n\nAnd asked whether vaccination would be mandatory for students returning to halls of residence, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said a decision would be taken in September.\n\n\"We will certainly make sure university students have advance warning, of course we're going to be mindful of this,\" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday.\n\nBut now the idea of requiring students in England to show proof of vaccination to attend lectures or stay in halls of residence has been shelved, the BBC has been told.\n\nBBC political correspondent Peter Saull said he believed there were two key reasons why the government had rowed back on this.\n\n\"The first is logistics - how on earth could universities police this? And there were potentially some legal questions too because when you get an offer of a university place, that is considered to be legally binding,\" our correspondent said.\n\n\"But also I think ministers are keenly aware that unease is growing in the Conservative backbenches about this wider issue of vaccine passports.\"\n\nThe governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are in charge of their own coronavirus rules and education policy.\n\nUnions have been critical of making vaccines mandatory for university students.\n\nThe University and College Union previously said this would be wrong and \"hugely discriminatory against those who are unable to be vaccinated\" as well as for international students.\n\nAnd the National Union of Students had called the idea \"appalling\", accusing the government of \"lining students up as scapegoats\".\n\nBoth Labour and leading universities have called for vaccination centres to be set up on campuses so that students are jabbed before the winter.\n\nThe Russell Group - made up of the UK's top universities - has offered its own spaces and facilities to be used as pop-up centres.\n\nAll over-18s in the UK have now been offered a first dose of a Covid vaccine - and people can get their second dose eight weeks later.\n\nThis means the government expects all adults to have had the opportunity to have both jabs by the end of September.\n\nHowever, 32% of 18 to 29-year-olds in England had not had their first dose by 25 July, according to the latest data from NHS England.\n\nFrom the end of September, ministers have said people will need proof of full vaccination to attend nightclubs and other crowded venues in England.\n\nThe full details of the plan are yet to be seen but an NHS Covid Pass - which you can obtain electronically or as a letter - will be used as proof.\n\nMeanwhile, a letter sent to GPs last week by NHS England said those who were three months away from turning 18 could get their first jab immediately.\n\nBut families have criticised the guidance, which also warns doctors not to begin vaccinating some clinically vulnerable children against Covid-19 - because they may not be covered by insurance.\n\nSome GPs have said it has created mixed messages and confusion.\n\nThe document said more information would be provided soon.\n\nEarlier this month, the government's vaccine advisers recommended offering the Pfizer jab to children in England, which includes about 150,000 12-15 year olds most at risk.\n\nIn response, the NHS said there was \"no delay\" to vaccinating children in this age group and they would be offered a first dose before the start of the school year. It said the letter to GPs made clear a national indemnity contract will be set out shortly.\n\nElsewhere, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission has warned companies that rules requiring staff to be fully vaccinated must not be disproportionate and discriminatory.\n\nThe rights watchdog said it understood that firms will want to protect their staff and customers by requiring employees to be vaccinated but advised that they consider other factors.\n\nTransport Secretary Grant Shapps has previously suggested it is a good idea for people to be double-jabbed before returning to the office, but legislation would not require it.\n\nGuidance from the CIPD, the trade body for human resources professionals, says that while employers do have a duty of care to employees they cannot force them to have the vaccine.\n\nA further 26,144 coronavirus cases have been recorded in the UK and another 71 deaths within 28 days of a positive test, according to Saturday's government figures.", "YouTube has barred Sky News Australia from uploading new content for a week, saying it had breached rules on spreading Covid-19 misinformation.\n\nIt issued a \"strike\" under its three-strike policy, the last of which means permanent removal.\n\nYouTube did not point to specific items but said it opposed material that \"could cause real-world harm\".\n\nThe TV channel's digital editor said the decision was a disturbing attack on the ability to think freely.\n\nSky News Australia is owned by a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and has 1.85 million YouTube subscribers. The ban could affect its revenue stream from Google.\n\nA YouTube statement said it had \"clear and established Covid-19 medical misinformation policies based on local and global health authority guidance\".\n\nA spokesperson told the Guardian it \"did not allow content that denies the existence of Covid-19\" or which encouraged people \"to use hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin to treat or prevent the virus\". Neither has been proven to be effective against Covid.\n\nThe videos in question \"did not provide sufficient countervailing context\", the spokesperson said.\n\nSky News Australia said it had found old videos that did not comply with YouTube's policies and took its \"commitment to meeting editorial and community expectations seriously\".\n\nBut it denied any of its hosts had ever denied the existence of Covid-19.\n\nMillions of Australians are currently in lockdown to prevent the spread of the contagious Delta variant, while fewer than 15% of the population are fully vaccinated.\n\nComments by veteran Sky presenter Alan Jones have triggered debate in Australia.\n\nIn one 12 July broadcast with MP Craig Kelly, both men claimed Delta was not as dangerous as the original and vaccines would not help.\n\nSydney radio host Ray Hadley said Jones's performances had \"allowed conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxers... to gain support from a minority who think the virus is nothing more than a dose of flu\".\n\nAustralia's Daily Telegraph last week ended the column Jones wrote for it.\n\nIn an article on the Sky News Australia website, digital editor Jack Houghton said that if conversation about Australia's Covid-19 policies were stifled \"our political leaders will be free to act with immunity, without justification and lacking any sufficient scrutiny from the public\".\n\nYouTube has issued dozens of bans over the past two years, several over Covid but most for hate speech.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nGreat Britain's Max Whitlock retained his Olympic title with a sublime performance in Tokyo to win gold in the men's pommel horse.\n\nThe 28-year-old was first up in the event and immediately put the pressure on his rivals with a near-perfect routine that earned him a score of 15.583.\n\nThree-time world champion Whitlock then watched on as the remaining seven gymnasts were unable to beat his score before his third career Olympic gold - and Britain's 10th of the Games - was confirmed.\n\nLee Chih-kai of Chinese Taipei was the only competitor to give Whitlock an anxious moment but his score of 15.400 was only good enough for silver. Japan's Kazuma Kaya took the bronze medal.\n\nIreland's Rhys McClenaghan had finished joint top of the qualifying standings but came off the apparatus early in his routine and finished seventh.\n\n'I had to go all out'\n\nWhitlock trained in an empty gym back home to try to recreate the sense of competing at an Olympics without any spectators.\n\nHe was not at his best during qualifying, admitting afterwards that nerves played a part, but he put it all together when it counted to win his sixth Olympic medal at his third Games.\n\n\"I feel lost for words,\" Whitlock told BBC Sport. \"I am completely overwhelmed and it feels kind of surreal. I had seen the other sports, gold medals flowing in and I wanted to do the same here. Incredible journey.\"\n\nWhitlock admitted the pressure of being the defending champion weighed heavily in the build-up to the Olympics.\n\n\"It is a million times harder,\" he added. \"The pressure was there and I could feel it. Experience pays a lot in situations like this.\n\n\"Being first up meant I had to go all out. I couldn't watch the scores. I had to go all out. That was the biggest routine I had been training for. I couldn't have done any more.\"\n\nElsewhere, Team USA's MyKayla Skinner made the most of the chance given to her as a replacement for Simone Biles by taking silver in the women's vault.\n\nFour-time Olympic champion Biles withdrew from the vault, and four other gymnastics events, to focus on her mental health.\n\nThat led to Skinner, who had been preparing to head home, getting the opportunity to realise her dream of winning an Olympic medal.\n\nShe grasped it with both hands, scoring 14.916 to finish behind Brazilian gold medallist Rebeca Andrade, with Yeo Seo-jeong of South Korea taking the bronze.\n\nMeanwhile, Artem Dolgopyat won Israel's first Olympics gymnastics title by taking gold in the men's floor exercise.\n\nRayderley Zapata of Spain finished second and China's Xiao Ruoteng took the bronze.\n\nRussian Nikita Nagornyy opened the final with his new triple back pike, but stumbled out of bounds and in the end finished with the seventh best score.\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "In Wales, 75% of young people offered a vaccine have taken it\n\nYoung people in Wales will not be offered incentives to get a Covid vaccine, the Welsh government has said.\n\nThe UK government announced on Sunday that young people in England would be offered travel and takeaway discounts in order to increase uptake.\n\nBut the Welsh government said that in Wales, 75% of 18 to 29-year-olds had already taken up the offer of a jab.\n\n\"We are not considering offering such incentives in Wales,\" a spokesperson said.\n\n\"We'd like to encourage anyone who is yet to take up the offer to please book an appointment as soon as possible.\"\n\nIn England, more than 68% of 18 to 29-year-olds have had a first jab.\n\nThe incentives in England will be offered by brands including Uber and Deliveroo.\n\nThe Department of Health said other incentives could include \"vouchers or discount codes for people attending pop-up vaccine sites and booking through the NHS, social media competitions and promotional offers for restaurants\".\n\nIt is not clear at this stage what age group the incentives will be available to and whether those who have already had the jab will be eligible.\n\nAs of 29 July, uptake amongst those aged 18 to 29 in Wales was highest in Monmouthshire and Powys (83.4% and 80.8% respectively) for first doses whilst Ceredigion (64.1%), Carmarthenshire (70.7%) and Gwynedd (71.8%) had the lowest.\n\nWrexham and Denbighshire, which have been showing high case rates in recent weeks - have also reached just over 72% of 18 to 29s.", "Watch highlights as Lamont Marcell Jacobs claims gold in the men's 100m final after Great Britain's Zharnel Hughes is disqualified for a false start at the Tokyo Olympics.\n\nWatch live coverage of Tokyo 2020 on BBC One, BBC Two, the BBC Sport website, app and BBC iPlayer\n\nCOVERAGE DETAILS: Tokyo Olympics: Day-by-day guide to the key events, big stars and British medal hopes", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nAn incredible Olympic high jump final ended with both Qatar's Mutaz Essa Barshim and Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi taking gold medals.\n\nAfter an exhausting two-hour competition, the pair couldn't be split, having recorded best clearances of 2.37 metres.\n\nThe athletes were offered an opportunity to take part in a jump-off.\n\nBut in a moment of sportsmanship, they agreed to share the title, sparking huge celebrations.\n\nBoth had three failures as they attempted to match the Olympic record of 2.39m and, with error-free records on countback, could have fought for sole possession of the title.\n\nInstead, they made history - it was the first joint Olympic podium in athletics since 1912.\n\nMaksim Nedasekau of Belarus took bronze, having also jumped at 2.37m, but having more failed attempts across the competition.\n\nTamberi and Barshim embraced before running to celebrate with their coaches and team-mates, hoisting their nation's flags above their heads.\n\nBarshim can add the gold medal to his back to back world titles, and is the winner of Qatar's second-ever Olympic gold medal, after weightlifter Fares Elbakh won the first on Saturday in the men's 96kg event.\n\nTamberi was still celebrating on the track when his compatriot Lamont Marcell Jacobs ran into his arms, following his surprise win in the men's 100m final.\n\nBoth athletes have had to overcome tough injuries in their careers, but Barshim says the sacrifices were worth it.\n\n\"It is amazing. This is a dream I don't want to wake up from,\" he said.\n\n\"I have been through a lot. It's been five years that I have been waiting, with injuries and a lot of setbacks. But we are here today sharing this moment and all the sacrifices. It's really worth it now in this moment.\"\n\nTamberi had to take time out to recover from a career-threatening injury that ruled him out of Rio 2016.\n\n\"After my injuries, I just wanted to come back, but now I have this gold, it's incredible. I dreamed of this so many times,\" said the Italian.\n\n\"I was told in 2016 just before Rio there was a risk I wouldn't be able to compete any more. It's been a long journey.\"\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "Cleaners, porters, catering assistants, security guards and other health staff employed by private companies should receive the same pay rise as NHS staff, union leaders have said.\n\nThe government has announced a 3% pay rise for most NHS workers in England.\n\nBut Unison said those working in the NHS but employed by private contractors were at risk of missing out.\n\nIt is calling for companies running health contracts to offer their staff the same increase.\n\nThe union said private firms and subsidiary companies owned by individual NHS trusts should increase hourly pay to at least match new NHS rates.\n\nUnison has written to the largest private employers in the health service saying their staff \"have worked hard and under incredibly challenging circumstances across the NHS throughout the pandemic\".\n\nGeneral secretary Christina McAnea said: \"NHS staff have the benefit of a national pay system, but those not directly employed are missing out, often because of complex contracting arrangements, penny-pinching practices and the hard-nosed pursuit of profit.\n\n\"Staff in the NHS work on one site as one team, from maintaining clean and safe wards to ensuring patients are fed and cared for. No-one delivering NHS services should be paid less than their directly-employed colleagues.\"\n\nOne cleaner, who works at an NHS hospital in Bedfordshire, told the BBC she was previously directly employed by the NHS and her income had gone down since the contract was handed over to a private firm.\n\nThere was deliberate obfuscation over payment terms \"to make you confused\", she said, adding: \"There is nowhere to go and complain. You can do nothing.\"\n\nThe woman said that she and fellow colleagues \"don't know where we stand\" with regard to the 3% pay rise being offered by government.\n\n\"Some say we are going to get it, some say we won't. For me, I don't believe it - I will wait until I see the money.\"\n\nLast month, the government offered NHS workers in England, including nurses, paramedics, consultants, dentists, salaried GPs, porters and cleaners, a 3% pay rise.\n\nThe level of the increase was criticised by unions, who said it did not reflect the sacrifices made by staff.\n\nNHS staff in Wales have also been offered a 3% increase and in Scotland most have been offered a 4% pay rise.", "Rapper DaBaby was due to appear at Chicago's Lollapalooza music festival\n\nUS music festival Lollapalooza has dropped rapper DaBaby from its Sunday line-up over comments he made about people with HIV and Aids.\n\nThe Chicago festival tweeted that \"Lollapalooza was founded on diversity, inclusivity, respect, and love.\n\n\"With that in mind, DaBaby will no longer be performing at Grant Park tonight.\"\n\nThe rapper has been widely condemned for homophobic and derogatory comments he made about HIV and gay men.\n\nWhile performing at Rolling Loud festival in Miami on 25 July, he urged the audience to \"put your cell phone light up\", apart from those who were HIV-positive or were gay men who had sex in car parks.\n\nHe also wrongly claimed that HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases would \"make you die in two or three weeks\".\n\nMedication helping those with HIV to live long, healthy lives has been available for decades.\n\nLollapalooza said rapper Young Thug would fill DaBaby's slot on Sunday night.\n\nThis 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 Lollapalooza 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.\n\nEarlier this week, DaBaby was dropped from a benefit concert for the Working Families Party, a US political party that says it wants \"freedom and equality for all\".\n\n\"We have to hold people accountable and live to our values, which is why there is a change in our line-up,\" the Working Families Party stated.\n\nDaBaby has also parted ways with online fashion retailer Boohoo, with whom he had a clothing deal.\n\nSeveral musicians have spoken out against the rapper's remarks, among them Sir Elton John, who founded his Aids Foundation charity in 1992.\n\n\"We must break down the stigma around HIV and not spread it. As musicians, it's our job to bring people together,\" Sir Elton wrote on Instagram.\n\nDaBaby ultimately tweeted an apology, saying he had been \"insensitive\" and \"anybody who done ever been effected by AIDS/HIV y'all got the right to be upset.\"\n\nThis 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 2 by DaBaby 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.\n\nBut on his Instagram story, he doubled down on the insults by calling people with Aids \"nasty\" and \"junkies on the street\".", "Cori Bush said she managed only an hour of sleep in a chair last night\n\nCongresswoman Cori Bush has spent a night on the steps of the US Capitol to protest against the end of a Covid-related moratorium on evictions.\n\nThe House Democrat said shortly before the freeze expired at midnight Saturday that seven million people would be \"at risk for evictions\" over unpaid rent.\n\nThe freeze was imposed 11 months ago in part to halt the spread of infections through crowding in shelters.\n\nMs Bush, who was once homeless, wants the measure to be extended.\n\nIn a tweet early on Saturday, she wrote: \"Good morning. The eviction moratorium expires tonight at midnight. We could have extended it yesterday, but some Democrats went on vacation instead.\n\n\"We slept at the Capitol last night to ask them to come back and do their jobs. Today's their last chance. We're still here.\"\n\nThe Democrat-majority House of Representatives adjourned for a seven-week recess on Friday without renewing the moratorium.\n\nExtension opponents say many landlords are struggling with their mortgage repayments without regular rent money.\n\nMs Bush, 45, said that despite managing only an hour of sleep in a chair, she was now preparing to spend another night outside the Capitol in Washington DC.\n\nOn Saturday, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren and Jim McGovern, a House Republican, briefly joined Ms Bush to voice their full support for her action.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nThe Olympics makes medal table obsessives out of all of us. Who will get the most golds? Where will Team GB finish?\n\nBut as the Tokyo Games reaches its halfway stage, there's a few other trends and quirky stats that you might not have spotted.\n\nSimon Gleave, head of sports analysis at data company Nielsen Gracenote, picks out the interesting data:\n\nHosts with the most\n\nStaging the Games is pretty much guaranteed to improve your medal position.\n\nCurrent hosts Japan are a case in point - finishing down in 12th at Rio 2016 but now occupying second place, having already won 30 medals, including more gold medals (17) than they have ever done.\n\nJudo has been particularly fruitful for Japan with a record nine gold medals in the bag. No other country has ever won more than three judo golds at a single Olympics.\n\nGracenote predicted Japan would win 60 medals by the end of the Games, a 46% improvement on the 41 from Rio 2016, and they look like meeting those expectations.\n\nFourth place is often recognised as the \"worst position to finish\" with the tiniest of margins enough to separate ecstasy and heartache.\n\nAt Rio 2016, Team GB finished fourth on 16 occasions, involuntarily 'beating' their post-war record of 15 set at Seoul 1988.\n\nAnd GB are at it again - in the first eight days of medal events in Tokyo, they are second in the unofficial 'fourth place table' with 12, surpassed only by the United States with 13.\n\nThis is one table Team GB won't want to finish top of...\n\nRussia, but not as we know it\n\nThey might have no anthem, flag or proper name because of doping sanctions that mean they are having to compete as the Russian Olympic Committee team, but the medals are racking up for 'Russia' and their rivals aren't happy about it.\n\nBefore the Games Gracenote predicted the ROC would win 66 medals including 21 gold in Tokyo. This would have been a comparable performance to Russia's at the 2012 Games, and 10 medals more than Russia won five years ago in Rio.\n\nBut while they are currently outperforming their total medal prediction - 37 medals vs 34 predicted - they have actually won two fewer golds than expected at this stage.\n\nWith that number of gold medals, ROC and Great Britain will probably be fighting it out for fourth place on the medal table, behind the United States, China and host nation Japan.\n\nWhile all 12 of Canada's medals have been won by women, only 36% of Team GB's haul has come from female competitors.\n\nSo far, 230 medals have been won by women (72 gold, 72 silver and 86 bronze) - 47% of the total medal haul of 491.\n\nChina lead the way in gold medals won by women with 11, followed by the United States with nine and Australia and Japan with eight apiece, although the US have the most overall with 28, 61% of their entire medal tally.\n\nGreat Britain, however, are 12th in the standings with one gold, three silver and six bronze in women's events.\n\nWhen Australia hosted the Sydney Olympics 21 years ago, there was clear water in the medal table between the Aussies and their old sporting rivals, the Brits.\n\nFor two consecutive Games in 2000 and 2004, the gap was six places before GB began the turnaround that secured a top-four position at three successive editions.\n\nAt Tokyo, the positions - so far - have been reversed.\n\nAustralia clinched at least 40 medals at four successive Games between 1996 and 2008, only to drop to 35 in 2012 before dipping once more, to 29, in Rio.\n\nTheir tumble down the medal charts was partially due to underwhelming performances in the pool. After winning 20 swimming medals at Beijing, they accrued 10 apiece at the last two Games.\n\nBut the Aussies have rediscovered their golden touch at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre with 18 medals - seven of which are gold - with five events to go, bettered only by the United States who have ruled the pool with 26 medals (eight gold, nine silver, nine bronze).\n\nOnly Melbourne 1956 has produced more golds for their swimming team.\n\nBut while Australia is ahead of Great Britain in the medal table at the moment because of their two extra gold medals, that is likely to change before the end of the competition.\n\nAccording to Gracenote's virtual medal table, Britain are currently forecast to win a total of 16 golds, whereas Australia are only forecast 13. In terms of total medals, the British team is likely to end the Olympics about 20-25 medals ahead of their Australian rivals.", "Doctors say there have been millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses given, with \"few significant side effects\"\n\n\"Get the jab, grab a poke\". It was a catchy slogan with a serious message about getting a Covid-19 vaccination, with a free ice-cream afterwards.\n\nBut despite such incentives and pleas for younger people to get the jab, figures show the number of young people being vaccinated remains relatively low.\n\nLatest figures show about 59% of those aged 18-29 have received a vaccine, whereas uptake in other age groups is significantly higher.\n\nGovernment advice states that vaccinated people are less likely to spread the infection by becoming ill.\n\nBut one young man, who spoke to BBC News NI, said he did not see the need for a jab.\n\n\"I couldn't be any fitter or healthier so why would I go and inject something into me to stop me getting something that would have zero effect on me,\" he told Good Morning Ulster last week.\n\n\"It's not that I'm dead against it - if I have to get one to fly I probably will - but if you get the double vaccine you still get the virus and you still pass it on anyway, so what's the point in it?\"\n\nEllie-Jo Taylor believes the majority of young people are in favour of being vaccinated\n\nEllie-Jo Taylor, a secondary school student from Londonderry, disagrees with this viewpoint.\n\nShe believes the majority of young people are in favour of being vaccinated.\n\n\"We're in a situation where we can't afford not to be,\" she said.\n\n\"If we don't, we could potentially enter the third year of our education being hugely impacted.\"\n\nEllie-Jo said she knows many students are \"incredibly unnerved\" by the prospect of further isolation, particularly with exams on the horizon.\n\nShe also said some young people feel like vaccination is the only way to reclaim their youth.\n\n\"I entered the pandemic when I was 15 - I'm 17 now. I don't want to be 17 and come out with no experience of a teenage life,\" she said.\n\n\"Young people are entitled to much better things than self-isolation and social isolation. Let's take the steps to get them.\"\n\n\"The only place I've seen anti-vax comments have been on the sides of buildings,\" said one teenager\n\nLast week, the Covid-19 vaccination programme in the Republic of Ireland was extended to include 12 to 15-year-olds.\n\n\"I'm entirely jealous, Ellie-Jo said. \"I wish it was me and I think all my friends feel the same.\"\n\nMost people she knows do not take anti-vaccine messaging too seriously.\n\n\"The only place I've seen anti-Covid, anti-vax comments have been on the sides of buildings or on forums like Facebook, which predominantly aren't used by young people,\" she said.\n\nPeople attending Belsonic festival will have to show proof of Covid antibodies, vaccination or a negative test\n\nNow, many people are being asked to prove their Covid status to attend future events.\n\nPeople attending Féile an Phobail in Falls Park in west Belfast next month will have to show proof of Covid-19 antibodies, vaccination or a negative test.\n\nThe organisers of the Custom House Square and Belsonic music events in Belfast have announced similar requirements.\n\nPromoter Joe Dougan said the plans had prompted some adverse feedback on social media.\n\n\"It is understandable because this is a new message to be put out there,\" he said.\n\n\"This might not have been the best commercial decision for us, but safety is important and if you don't have a vaccination there are other options.\"\n\nHowever, there are real concerns that vaccine hesitancy among young people could have a serious long-term implications.\n\nWhile younger people are less likely to die from Covid-19, a study found those who end up in hospital are almost as likely as other age groups to suffer from complications with kidneys, lungs and other organs.\n\nDr Laurence Dorman, chair of the Royal College of GPs in Northern Ireland, said some concerns expressed by young people were understandable.\n\n\"Some have a phobia of needles, some people are worried about this being a new vaccine,\" he said.\n\nHe said there had been millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses given, with \"very few significant side effects\".\n\n\"More importantly, it is working and we recommend it,\" he added.\n\nHe acknowledged young people were also worried about conspiracy theories.\n\n\"Various patients will tell us stories of things they have heard on social media and online but our advice is always the same - we accept the evidence that the vaccine is safe and works.\"\n\nSome people have a fear of needles which can lead to them delaying a vaccine appointment\n\nDr Dorman said GPs have first-hand experience with young people who are suffering from Covid-19, adding that the under 30s should \"grab all opportunities to get the vaccine\" to help defeat the virus.\n\nEmma, 27, recently decided to get the jab when she became worried she would be denied access to gigs, nightclubs or be forbidden from travelling.\n\nShe was apprehensive about the vaccine and delayed making an appointment due to a fear of needles.\n\n\"When it first came out people were freaking out because it came out so quickly and young women were worried about fertility and stuff like that,\" she said.\n\n\"That was the main fear for young girls, especially.\"\n\nMedical experts have said claims on social media that the Covid vaccine could affect female fertility are unfounded.\n\nThe Secondary Student's Union of Northern Ireland (SSUNI), which represent up to 35,000 pupils, has called for vaccines to be rolled out for students on school premises.\n\n\"It's not that young people are against vaccines, more the hassle of getting it,\" SSUNI President Morgan Shuttleworth said.\n\n\"School halls have been used for vaccinations for years now.\n\n\"That would be a lot less hassle for an 18-year-old who, instead of having to get a bus from Carrickfergus to the Odyssey, could just walk into their school hall at lunch.\"\n\nThe SSUNI has also written to the Joint Committee on Vaccine and Immunisation (JCVI) calling for it to consider vaccinating all school year groups due to take exams over the coming year.\n\nAt present, health officials are not recommending routine universal vaccination of people under 18.\n\nHowever, some children over 12 with specific underlying health conditions and who are at risk of serious illness from the virus are eligible for a jab.\n\nAt Stormont's health committee on Thursday, the chief scientific officer Prof Ian Young appealed to people to get the jab.\n\n\"There has been a concern that the willingness of the Northern Ireland population to come forward for vaccination, for whatever reason, seems less than that in other parts of the UK,\" he said.\n\n\"And that will lead to a larger susceptible population in Northern Ireland and therefore the potential for a more severe wave than on this occasion.\"\n\nChief Medical Officer Sir Michael McBride admitted that young people can have a \"feeling of invincibility, almost that this is something which isn't necessarily going to affect you\".\n\n\"Covid is not the flu, Covid is a very nasty virus which kills, and has killed, a lot of people,\" he added.\n\n\"Extreme tiredness, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, chest pain or tightness, problems with your memory and your concentration, changes to your taste and smell, joint pain, depression - as a young person is that what you really want?\"", "Mortgage lenders \"wouldn't touch\" her flat under the current situation, says Emma Lee\n\nThe government's latest attempts to unlock parts of the property market paralysed by the cladding crisis have stalled, according to campaign groups.\n\nAn agreement between the High Street's biggest banks and the Ministry of Housing was supposed to pave the way for mortgages to be offered again on more than 800,000 flats in low and medium rise buildings that have been left unsellable after the Grenfell Tragedy in 2017.\n\nLast month, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said buildings under 18 metres in height would no longer need an EWS1 fire safety form and should be presumed safe by lenders.\n\nBut the BBC has learnt that banks are unlikely to change their policies until the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), which advises property valuers, updates its specialist guidance.\n\nAlex Dickin said many people remain stuck in a financially perilous situation.\n\nHowever, in turn RICS has said it can't alter its position on the issue until the government changes its official fire safety advice; that could take until November according to those familiar with the process.\n\nAlex Dickin, from campaign group Ipswich Cladiators, warns that many people remain stuck in a financially perilous situation.\n\n\"The government announcement has once again made no difference to the millions of leaseholders trapped in unsellable and mortgageable homes. We've yet to see any significant move from lenders,\" Mr Dickin, who's 28, told the BBC.\n\nThis is a problem of the government's own making. Previously, EWS1 survey forms were only required on the tallest tower blocks. Ministers inadvertently expanded the scope of the cladding crisis in January 2020 when they said residential blocks of any height should be checked for fire risks.\n\nMortgage lenders then began demanding fire surveys - known as EWS1 forms - from a much wider range of sellers.\n\nEmma Lee's home, in south London, is one of an estimated 3.2 million flats that has been left unsellable as a result.\n\nThe mother of two bought 50% of her one bed flat under shared ownership in 2008. Her block has four floors. A survey revealed problems with timber cladding and missing fire breaks; Ms Lee fears she will be left with a massive bill for work that may not be necessary.\n\n\"The genie is out of the bottle. What the government is now saying won't make any difference. No one wants to buy these flats with these problems, a lender won't touch us at the moment,\" said Ms Lee.\n\nResearch by a group of independent experts, commissioned by the government, concluded last month that there was no systematic fire risk in buildings below 18 metres.\n\nThe expert panel said that in most mid and low-rise blocks expensive repair work was unnecessary; instead the fire risk could be managed by installing alarm systems or sprinklers.\n\nThat brings little comfort to Ms Lee, who said 'extensive remediation works' are still planned for her block with residents facing 'devastating bills on the way and a real possibility of homelessness.'\n\nShe believes she has become a victim of the zero-risk approach from lenders.\n\nFor Jelena and Igor Solovjova the problem isn't the cladding on their building in Ipswich, but the insulation and plywood beneath it. When the couple tried to sell their property it was valued at nothing because it didn't have an ESW1 form.\n\nJelena and Igor Solovjova have lost trust in the government\n\nFixing the faults could run into tens of thousands of pounds. Mr Solovjova, 45, has multiple sclerosis and can only work part time. While his wife, Jelena, who is 35, is working three jobs to cover the increasing costs.\n\n\"This is stressful for us,\" she said. \"We are disappointed with the current situation. Our trust in government has been shaken, we are confused as to why the government compounds things by not achieving anything and doesn't appear to understand the crisis, our emotions are mixed.\"\n\nThe housing secretary told parliament last month that major lenders had agreed to swiftly change their rules; the Solovjovas are now hoping their building, which is under 18 metres, will now be reassessed.\n\nBut while banks, including HSBC, Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group, have welcomed the announcement from the Mr Jenrick, the BBC understands it will not change their policies in the short term.\n\nUK Finance, which represents the banking industry, said until RICS guidance and the government's official advice is updated \"lenders will continue to be guided by surveyors' expert opinions when a EWS1 form is required for medium and low-rise blocks of flats\".\n\nThat's left leaseholders like Georgie Hulme, who lives on the third floor of a low-rise block in south Manchester, feeling angry and trapped. Inspections of her building after the Grenfell Tower tragedy revealed problems including dangerous cladding.\n\nMs Hulme doubts a change to fire safety guidance will make any difference to her and thousands of others who have already been dragged into this crisis.\n\n\"All these issues have now been flagged up, how can they all now just be ignored and buildings under 18 metres be deemed as safe?\" she said.\n\n\"If you wanted to sell, who would buy any of these flats? I can't see a huge demand. It is impossible to know between the government, manufacturers, developers, managing agents, who can be trusted in this horrendous situation?\"\n\nMs Hulme, 42, who has disabilities and can't work, now fears bankruptcy. Her building is not eligible for any government funding to make it safe.\n\n\"For someone like myself who's disabled and on benefits, even if this means that technically I could borrow on the value of my property, the reality is not the case, as nobody would lend to someone in my situation,\" she told the BBC.\n\nThe Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government said in a statement: \"We are committed to correcting the present market failure and supporting leaseholders to sell their properties should they wish to do so.\"\n\n\"The view from the independent experts is that there is no evidence of a systemic risk of fire in blocks of flats, but excessive industry caution is leaving many leaseholders in lower risk buildings unable to sell, or facing bills for work which is often not necessary.\n\n\"This must stop and, in line with the expert advice, we've set out that EWS1 forms should not be requested for buildings below 18 metres.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nGreat Britain kicked off a golden Saturday by winning two of the new mixed relay events but there was disappointment for world champion sprinter Dina Asher-Smith.\n\nAsher-Smith failed to reach the 100m final and later said she would drop out of the 200m because of an injury.\n\nAnd their swimmers followed that up by winning the 4x100m mixed medley relay in a world-record time.\n\nEmma Wilson then added a sailing bronze medal in the women's RS:X windsurfing and boxer Karriss Artingstall collected featherweight bronze after losing her semi-final against Japan's Sena Irie.\n\nIt takes GB's total medal haul in Tokyo to 28, with eight gold medals, four of those coming in swimming - the first time they have won that many in the pool in 113 years.\n\nDouble world medallist Asher-Smith was eliminated from the 100m after finishing third in the semi-final - and 10th fastest overall.\n\nThe 25-year-old spoke afterwards about her lack of preparation for the Games after suffering a hamstring tear and, in an emotional interview, said she would not compete in the 200m, an event in which she is the reigning world champion.\n\n\"It broke my heart because I am a competitor. It is the Olympics but there are plenty other championships for me to come and kill,\" she told BBC Sport.\n\nGB's Daryll Neita edged through to her first major individual final by one one-thousandth of a second, but finished eighth as Elaine Thompson-Herah took gold in a Jamaican clean sweep.\n\nAnd there will be three British women in an Olympics 800m final for the first time as Keely Hodgkinson, Alex Bell and Jemma Reekie all progressed to race for a medal on Tuesday, while Zarnel Hughes, Chijindu Ujah and Reece Prescod reached Sunday's men's 100m semi-finals.\n\nIn the boxing ring, Lauren Price guaranteed herself a podium place by reaching the middleweight semi-finals.\n\nBut Great Britain's women's rugby sevens team missed out on a medal, losing 26-19 to France in the semi-finals and later beaten 21-12 by Fiji in the bronze-medal match.\n\nMeanwhile, US Gymnastics has announced four-time Olympic champion Simone Biles will not compete in Sunday's vault and uneven bars gymnastics finals.\n\nThe 24-year-old withdrew from the women's team final and the individual all-around final earlier this week saying she needed to focus on her mental health.\n\nA statement from the governing body said it was \"in awe\" of Biles, who is yet to decide if she will compete in the floor final on Monday and the balance beam final on Tuesday, and that she \"continues to handle this situation with courage and grace\".\n\nThe first gold came early on Saturday as Jessica Learmonth, Jonny Brownlee, Georgia Taylor-Brown and Alex Yee won the first-ever Olympic triathlon mixed relay.\n\nLearmonth set the platform, Brownlee broke away from the pack and Taylor-Brown and Yee maintained the advantage to secure Britain's third triathlon medal of the week.\n\n\"The Olympics? I've completed it,\" said 31-year-old Brownlee, who claimed bronze at London 2012 and silver at Rio 2016.\n\n\"It feels absolutely amazing. It's my third Olympics and I finally walk away with gold.\"\n\nBritain finished 14 seconds ahead of the United States while France claimed the bronze medal.\n\n\"I can't believe it. I was slightly nervous being in a team of Olympic medallists and I'm just so glad we executed a brilliant race,\" said 33-year-old Learmonth.\n\nMore success followed in the pool in another event introduced for the Tokyo Olympics, with GB taking a thrilling 4x100m mixed medley relay victory in world-record time.\n\nIt was Britain's fourth swimming gold in Tokyo - their best total since 1908.\n\nA quartet of Kathleen Dawson, Adam Peaty, James Guy and Anna Hopkin won in three minutes 37.58 seconds, with China taking silver and Australia bronze.\n\n\"One word has changed the whole British team - belief,\" said Peaty, who also won gold in the 100m breaststroke.\n\n\"We believe we can win, we believe we can get world records. If you have belief, you can build everything around that and we showed that here.\"\n\nGuy was also in the 4x200m freestyle relay team that won gold earlier in the week, and Tom Dean earned the other in the men's 200m freestyle.\n\nCaeleb Dressel was part of a USA team that finished fifth in the 4x100m mixed medley relay but earlier claimed his third gold at the Games and set a new 100m butterfly world record in the process.\n\nWhat are the new mixed events?\n\nChanges to the schedule at Tokyo are the result of the International Olympic Committee pledging to make this the \"most gender equal\" Games and its president Thomas Bach saying they would be \"more youthful, more urban and include more women\".\n\nIt means as well as introducing events such as skateboarding, sport climbing and BMX freestyle, nine new mixed-gender disciplines were added to seven current Olympic sports.\n\nThe British team were hoping to add to the gold medals in triathlon and swimming in the final of the 4x400m mixed relay on the track, but they could only manage sixth as Poland stormed to victory in the inaugural event. They finished ahead of the Dominican Republic in second and the USA in third.\n\nOther mixed-gender events have been introduced in archery, judo, table tennis and shooting, where San Marino won a first-ever silver medal and Spain took gold.\n\nYou can expect to see similar at next year's Beijing Winter Olympics, with mixed snowboarding, freestyle skiing, short track speed skating and ski jumping in the line up.\n\nWilson keeps it in the family\n\nWilson was guaranteed a medal heading into the final race of the women's windsurfing event and took bronze on her Olympic debut after a tense final leg.\n\n\"It's amazing. I tried so hard in that race - I just kept going and going,\" said the 22-year-old, whose mother Penny was world windsurfing champion in 1986, 1990 and 1991 and represented Britain at the 1992 and 1996 Olympics.\n\n\"I just want to win, but any medal is amazing. I'm super happy and I just gave it everything I had.\"\n\nChina's Lu Yunxiu took the gold medal and Rio 2016 champion Charline Picon of France won the final race to earn silver.\n\nIn tennis, Serbian top seed Djokovic missed out on a medal, letting his frustration boil over as he lost the men's singles bronze-medal match to Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta 6-4 6-7 (6-8) 6-3.\n\nDjokovic, 34, then pulled out of his mixed doubles bronze-medal match with an injury to leave Tokyo empty-handed.\n\nLater in the day, Belinda Bencic beat Czech Marketa Vondrousova 7-5 2-6 6-3 to become the first female Olympic tennis champion from Switzerland.\n• None Gold for Bencic but no medal for racquet-smashing Djokovic\n\nIn football, Brazil's men moved within two wins of back-to-back Olympic golds by beating Egypt 1-0.\n\nA first-half strike from Matheus Cunha put the defending champions through to the semi-finals, where they will face Mexico on Tuesday.\n\nJapan will meet Spain in the other last-four match.\n• None Five new sports at Tokyo 2020: Everything you need to know about the events\n• None The fight for our attention: How can sport broadcasters make themselves the most attractive option?", "The blaze happened in a private flat above Cardiff's Park Plaza Hotel\n\nThree children and an adult had to be rescued during a seventh-storey flat fire in Cardiff.\n\nThe blaze happened in a residential apartment above the Park Plaza Hotel, but the rest of the building had to be evacuated.\n\nTen fire engines and specialist appliances went to the scene after the callout shortly after 01:00 BST.\n\nThose rescued were taken to hospital but were not seriously hurt, the Welsh Ambulance Service said.\n\nTen fire engines and specialist appliances were sent to the scene\n\nThe cause of the fire, in Greyfriars Road, is under investigation.\n\nSouth Wales Fire and Rescue Service said the blaze was contained within the flat, which has been severely damaged.\n\nIt is understood the hotel occupies the first four floors of the building, with flats on floors five to seven.\n\nSouth Wales Police said local residents were moved to safety and officers asked the public to avoid the area during the incident.\n\nThe fire service said the incident was declared over just after 05:00.\n\nThis 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 Brad Harrington 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.\n\nThe ambulance service said the four casualties were taken to the city's University Hospital of Wales at about 02:30.\n\nPark Plaza general manager Margaret Waters praised emergency service personnel, who did a \"wonderful job\", along with staff who evacuated all guests.\n\n\"Unfortunately, it has impacted on Park Plaza because of the sheer amount of water that was required,\" she said.\n\n\"Our team did a great job, and we were greatly assisted by our colleagues at the Hilton Hotel who let us host our guests.\"\n\nThe fire service said it received a stop message just after 05:05 on Sunday\n\nIn a statement, South Wales Fire and Rescue Service said it was \"grateful to the public and partners, for assisting in bringing the incident to a successful conclusion\".\n\n\"We also want to praise the work of control room staff, and the initial attending operational crews, in carrying out the rescue,\" it added.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nItaly's Lamont Marcell Jacobs claimed a shock gold in the Olympic 100m final, after Great Britain's Zharnel Hughes was disqualified for a false start.\n\nJacobs, who only switched away from long jump in 2018, streaked clear to win in 9.80 seconds, 0.04 clear of American Fred Kerley.\n\nCanada's Andre de Grasse won a second successive Olympic bronze in third.\n\nWorld champion Christian Coleman and Trayvon Bromell, the world's fastest in 2021, were both absent from the final.\n\nColeman, banned for whereabouts failures after missing three drugs tests, and Bromell, eliminated in the semi-finals, were joined on the sidelines by the long-retired defending champion Usain Bolt.\n\nFew would have picked Jacobs, who was born in Texas to an American father but moved to his mother's Italian homeland before his first birthday, as the Jamaican great's successor.\n\nJacobs only broke the 10-second barrier for the first time in May.\n\nBut the European indoor 60m champion carried the momentum from his fast start all the way to the line to register a time faster than Bolt's winning mark in Rio.\n\nHe was greeted by compatriot Gianmarco Tamberi, who had won a joint high-jump gold just minutes before and wrapped him in the Italian flag and an embrace.\n\n\"I don't know, it's a dream, a dream, it is fantastic,\" said Jacobs.\n\n\"Maybe tomorrow I can imagine what they are saying, but today it is incredible.\"\n\nSecond-placed Kerley admitted Jacobs was a new name to him.\n\n\"I really didn't know anything about him. It was my first time racing him at the Monaco Diamond League [where Jacobs finished third in 9.99 seconds],\" he said. \"He did a fantastic job.\"\n\nHughes will be left to wonder what might have been in a final stripped of its usual stars and big names.\n\nHis clear false start brought back memories of defending champion Linford Christie's disqualification at Atlanta 1996 and denied him a shot of joining the most prestigious honour roll in athletics.\n\nHughes, who made the same mistake at last month's British Championships, said it was the result of a sudden cramp in his calf.\n\nThe 100m final was almost overshadowed by an undercard of superb field events.\n\nVenezuela's Yulimar Rojas added Olympic gold to her world triple-jump titles, finally claiming the world record she has threatened all season.\n\nThe 25-year-old already had victory wrapped up when she approached her final attempt, with no-one able to get close to her opening-round leap of 15.41m.\n\nDespite a sub-par step phase, she still soared out to 15.67m to beat the previous 15.50m world record set two months before her birth by Inessa Kravets of Ukraine.\n\n\"Wow. It is a fantastic night,\" said Rojas.\n\n\"I knew we had that distance in my legs to get it today. I was failing a bit in the technical aspect, but the last jump was one to give everything, and it was like that.\"\n\nPortugal's Patricia Mamona took silver with a personal best 15.01m, but Colombian defending champion Caterine Ibarguen could only finish 10th.\n\nThere was drama of a different kind in the men's high jump.\n\nQatar's double world champion Mutaz Essa Barshim and Italy's Tamberi opted to share gold rather than take part in a jump-off.\n\nBoth had three failures as they attempted to match the Olympic record of 2.39m and, with error-free records on countback, they could have fought for sole possession of the title.\n\nHowever, the friends decided to end the contest and split the title, sparking ecstatic celebrations from Tamberi who has competed with a plaster cast at the end of his run-up as a souvenir of an Achilles injury that ruled him out of Rio 2016 and almost ended his career.\n\nSisters Tiffany Porter and Cindy Sember were unable to make Tuesday's 100m hurdles final for Great Britain.\n\nPuerto Rico's Jasmine Camacho-Quinn threw down the gauntlet to the rest of the field as she qualified in a new Olympic record of 12.26, just 0.06secs outside the world record of American rival Kendra Harrison, who also progressed.\n\nNeither Daniel Rowden or Elliot Giles could make Wednesday's 800m final, with Rowden missing out on a fastest loser spot by just five thousandths of a second after getting boxed in around the final bend.\n\n\"I'm very disappointed,\" said Rowden. \"I went for a gap coming into the home straight and the gap closed as soon as I went through it, I lost my stride and that was it.\n\n\"In 800m running, if there's no space, it probably means that you've put yourself in the wrong position and it's disappointing because I knew my potential was to win a medal and it's disappointing that I couldn't make that a reality.\"\n\nNijel Amos, London 2012 silver medallist and the fastest man in the world this year, briefly appeared to have been eliminated after falling in his semi-final.\n\nHowever the meeting referee judged that he had been impeded by American Isaiah Jewett, who also fell, and advanced the Botswanan to the final, expanding the field to nine athletes.\n\nJazmin Sawyers and Abigail Irozuru both made the long jump final during the morning session.", "A minute's silence was held on the track before racing started on Sunday\n\nA volunteer marshal has died in an accident during a race at Brands Hatch motor racing circuit.\n\nA racing car crashed, hitting two people on the track at about 15:00 BST on Saturday, Kent Police said.\n\nA man in his 60s, from Surrey, died at the scene. The second person and the car's driver were taken to hospital for treatment.\n\nOn social media Lewis Hamilton said he was \"devastated\" to hear of the marshal's death.\n\nHe posted on Instagram: \"Devastated to hear of the passing of a marshal at the Brands Hatch Circuit.\n\n\"These volunteer marshals are what makes racing possible, they are heroes.\n\n\"My heart is with his family.\"\n\nA minute's silence was held on Sunday morning, with a crowd gathering on the track to pay their respects.\n\nAn investigation into the accident at the track in West Kingsdown has begun.\n\nRacing driver Alan Greenhalgh said his win was a \"hollow victory\"\n\nThe rest of Saturday's racing activity was cancelled, but it resumed on Sunday.\n\nOne of the drivers, Alan Greenhalgh, said after a Sunday win at the track: \"We're so desperately upset about yesterday, and it's a bit of a hollow victory really.\n\n\"Without the marshals we wouldn't be racing at all.\n\n\"Condolences, and our thoughts are with the family.\"\n\nIn a statement the British Automobile Racing Club (BARC) said: \"On behalf of everyone connected with the BARC, we are devastated by [the] loss of one of the amazing volunteer marshal community who do so much to enable the sport to take place.\n\n\"Our thoughts and best wishes are with the family and friends of all those involved.\"\n\nPolice said there were no suspicious circumstances and officers were working with motorsport authorities to compile a report for the coroner.\n\nMotorsport UK said: \"The thoughts of everyone at Motorsport UK are with the marshal's family, the event organisers, and other members of the motorsport community present.\"\n\nAmong the races scheduled for the weekend were events for the Britcar Endurance Championship, Classic Touring Car Racing Club, Kumho BMW Championship and Junior Saloon Car Championship.\n\nLast week British superbike rider Brad Jones was placed in an induced coma after crashing at Brands Hatch.", "The prosecutor of some of the UK's most notorious sex offenders has told of how he quit as a defence lawyer after not wanting to represent an alleged rapist.\n\nNazir Afzal went on to become the chief crown prosecutor in the Rochdale grooming gang cases in 2012.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, he said he had never celebrated a successful case as \"nobody should be harmed in the first place\".\n\nHe said those guilty were mostly men who wanted to restrict women's choices.\n\nMr Afzal started his career as a defence lawyer but told BBC presenter Lauren Laverne of the moment he realised he \"just couldn't do it\".\n\nHe was advising a rape suspect before a police interview and had given his client a copy of the victim's statement.\n\nHe could see the man was getting pleasure from \"re-hearing and rehearsing what he had done allegedly to that woman\", Mr Afzal explained.\n\n\"And his reaction to reading what she had said just was the icing on the cake in my mind.\n\n\"I couldn't say to him 'plead guilty' because he wasn't going to. He was going to drag her through the courtroom... and that's his right absolutely, but why should I be party to that? I wasn't going to be party to that.\n\n\"So I walked out the door, literally, and I handed my notice in almost immediately afterwards. I'm not doing this anymore. I can't do this. Good for people who can and we do need people who can do that, but it wasn't for me.\"\n\nMr Afzal joined the Crown Prosecution Service in 1991 and went on to become director of prosecutions for London where he brought perpetrators of so-called honour-based violence to justice.\n\nIn 2011, as chief crown prosecutor for north-west England, he began investigating sex grooming gangs in Rochdale, overturning a previous CPS decision not to bring charges against suspects.\n\nHe brought prosecutions against nine men who were convicted and jailed in 2012 for the sexual exploitation of 47 young girls.\n\nBBC drama The Three Girls was based on the Rochdale abuse scandal\n\nMr Afzal also prosecuted Stuart Hall, the former television presenter who in 2014 was convicted of multiple sex offences against children.\n\nIn a wide-ranging interview, he told Lauren Laverne there was \"nobody more important in his life than the victims and survivors\" that he kept in touch with.\n\nHe spoke of visiting one alleged victim of Hall whose case did not lead to a conviction.\n\n\"I went to see her and I said, 'I'm really sorry that I couldn't give you closure'. She looked me in the eyes and said, 'You gave me closure the moment that you believed me. My recovery started the moment you believed me.'\n\n\"That has never left me.\"\n\nChoosing the track Women in Chains by Tears For Fears, he said: \"People can read whatever they want into it but for me it's the fact that women have been put in chains that we men - and it's men all the time sadly - that want to restrict the choices that women make.\"\n\nMr Afzal said his quest for justice was in part shaped by the racist bullying he experienced as the child of Pakistani parents growing up in Birmingham.\n\n\"I was beaten so often, on one occasion I was beaten by three guys who used my head as a football,\" he said.\n\nBut his father did not call the police, instead telling the then 13-year-old: \"There's no justice. Nobody is prepared to listen to us.\"\n\nHe said: \"And so I was taken by what he wanted to do which was to provide a voice to those who were unheard, and in many respects that's how I built my career doing the same thing.\"\n\nMr Afzal retired from the Crown Prosecution Service in 2015. He currently chairs the Catholic Church's new safeguarding body and advises the Welsh government on issues of gender-based violence.\n\nHe also told of how aged eight he cradled the body of his seven-year-old cousin Yasmin after she died of dehydration while travelling back from Pakistan.\n\nIt was during the 30-day journey in a Transit van across Asia and Europe that Yasmin fell ill as they reached Germany, he said.\n\n\"We didn't know and my father was desperate for us to get home, he had his whole family in this van and she got so ill that a day or so later, just coming into Belgium she died.\n\n\"[She died of] dehydration, which these days, a couple of pills [would have helped], but you couldn't Google that back then could you?\"\n\nHe added: \"We are going on a ferry to get back to England and my mother hands me my cousin and puts her in my arms and says look after her, she's sleeping.\n\n\"And I'm carrying her body without knowing that - across the channel and arriving in Dover until the authorities take her.\n\n\"I looked at her face, I stroked her hair. Lauren, nobody is going to die on my watch again, that's the way I felt and that's the way I've always felt.\"\n\nGuests share the soundtrack of their lives on Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 on Sundays at 11:00 BST and it is also available on BBC Sounds.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app. American Xander Schauffele clinched the Olympic men's golf gold medal on a nail-biting final day that ended with a seven-way play-off for the bronze medal. CT Pan of Chinese Taipei finally claimed it on the fourth knockout hole, with Ireland's Rory McIlroy and Great Britain's Paul Casey eliminated earlier. Schauffele's overnight lead was wiped out on Sunday before he birdied the 17th to win by one stroke on 18 under par at Kasumigaseki Country Club. Slovakia's Rory Sabbatini closed with an Olympic record 10-under round of 61 to finish in silver at 17 under. The drama continued as Pan pipped Open champion Collin Morikawa to bronze in a play-off that also included McIlroy, Casey, Japan's Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama, Chile's Mito Pereira and Colombian Sebastian Munoz.\n• None I've never tried so hard to finish third, says McIlroy Schauffele led by one shot heading into the final day and stretched that advantage to three strokes with a birdie-birdie start, adding two more before the turn. But a flying finish from Sabbatini and a bogey for the American at 14 saw his lead wiped out as he approached the final stretch. Schauffele took a penalty drop on that hole after leaking a drive into the bushes and then caught a branch on his downswing, escaping with just the one dropped shot as he went on to complete a final round of 67. The 27-year-old spoke before the Games about how his father and swing coach, Stefan, was a former German decathlete whose own ambitions of competing at an Olympics were ended when he was left blind in one eye after a car accident. Schauffele responded to slipping into a tie for the lead by making a birdie on the 17th to move clear once more and looked set to realise his father's Olympic dreams. There was a nervy, errant drive on the final hole but the world number five held his nerve to sink a gold medal-clinching par putt. \"I really wanted to win for my dad. I am sure he is crying somewhere right now. I kind of wanted this one more than any other,\" said Schauffele, whose grandparents live in Tokyo. \"You are trying to represent your country to the best of your ability and then you add family stuff on top of that. I'm probably going to have a nice call with my grandparents tonight. \"Everyone is back home watching. I was feeling the love from San Diego and Las Vegas this whole time. I'm a little speechless right now, quite honestly.\" The most dramatic of finishes A seven-way play-off is extremely rare at the highest level of golf and unprecedented to decide who finishes third. But that is the drama a scramble for medals provides and a shootout was necessary with seven of the world's best tied at 15 under par after four rounds. Britain's Casey was the first to drop out after failing to recover from a wayward drive, with home favourite Matsuyama also falling at the first hurdle. The five remaining hopefuls could then not be separated on the par-three 10th as all made par. American Morikawa pitched his approach on the 11th to within two feet but Pan followed him down for birdie. World number 118 Pereira saw his putt lip out and McIlroy also burned the edge of the cup, while Munoz bogeyed to leave just two players in it. The final pair headed back to the 18th but when Morikawa found a bunker it opened up for Pan and the world number 208 made his par to take bronze. Justin Rose won gold for Britain in Rio five years ago and Casey was in contention for a medal all week before his hopes ended in the play-off. \"The overwhelming thing is pride. Great emotions, but frustration at the same time,\" said Casey. \"It's highlighted to us how much the Olympics means to everybody.\" GB team-mate Tommy Fleetwood posted a fourth successive under-par round of 70 that included an eagle, four birdies and five bogeys to finish tied 16th at 11 under. Northern Irishman McIlroy, who was eligible to play for Team GB but represented Ireland at amateur level, was sceptical heading to Japan but enjoyed his Olympic experience. \"I've never tried so hard in my life to finish third. It's not a position that I find myself in very often,\" he told BBC Radio 5 Live. \"The nice consolation is it's not going to be my last chance, I'll be back in Paris in three years' time and will give it my all. \"This isn't just another golf tournament, it's much bigger than that, and I didn't realise that until I got here.\"\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "Afghan security forces appear to have made the situation in Herat more stable\n\nFighting is raging around three major cities in south and west Afghanistan, as Taliban militants seek to seize them from government forces.\n\nHerat, Lashkar Gah and Kandahar saw continued clashes on Sunday.\n\nThe Taliban have made rapid rural gains since it was announced almost all foreign troops would go by September.\n\nBut the fate of these key cities could be crucial amid fears of a humanitarian crisis and how long government forces will be able to hold out.\n\nThe fundamentalist Islamist militia is already thought to have captured up to half of all Afghanistan's territory, including lucrative border crossings with Iran and Pakistan, but it has yet to take a provincial capital.\n\nIn Lashkar Gah, heavy fighting continued inside the city on Sunday.\n\nInsurgents were reportedly only a few hundred metres from the governor's office on Saturday - but had been pushed back by nightfall.\n\nAfghan and US air strikes have reportedly targeted Taliban positions and government forces say they have killed dozens of militants.\n\nOne resident, Halim Karimi, told Agence France-Presse: \"Neither the Taliban will have mercy on us, nor will the government stop bombing.\"\n\nThe Taliban's firm focus is now on Afghanistan's cities. The situation is fluid but Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province where many US and British soldiers lost their lives, looks the most vulnerable right now. Pro-Taliban social media accounts have uploaded videos of their fighters in the heart of the city.\n\nAfghan special forces are being sent in to help push them back, but one local resident told us even if that does end up happening, the Taliban's advance is a powerful assertion of their strength.\n\nThe militants are understood to have taken up some positions in the homes of ordinary families, which will make it harder to dislodge them. More lengthy and bloody fighting looks to be ahead.\n\nFlights at Kandahar airport were suspended on Sunday after Taliban rockets struck the complex before dawn, causing some damage to the runway.\n\nOne Kandahar MP told the BBC on Saturday the city was at serious risk of falling to the Taliban, with tens of thousands of people already displaced and a humanitarian disaster looming.\n\nGul Ahmad Kamin said the situation was getting worse hour by hour, and the fighting within the city was the most severe in 20 years.\n\nHe said the Taliban now saw Kandahar as a major focal point, a city they want to make their temporary capital. If it fell, then five or six other provinces in the region would also be lost, Mr Kamin said.\n\nThousands have been displaced in Kandahar, amid fighting between the army and the Taliban\n\nHe said the Taliban fighters were on several sides of the city and because of the large civilian population government forces would not be able to use heavy weaponry if the militants got fully inside.\n\nAfghan special forces have been deployed in the economically important city of Herat, and the situation appeared more stable on Sunday.\n\nAfghan troops are fighting alongside the veteran warlord and anti-Taliban commander, Ismail Khan, who has mobilised citizens to take on the militants.\n\nAir strikes have also been carried out on Taliban positions outside the city.\n\nA guard outside a UN compound near the airport was killed on Friday in what the UN described as a deliberate Taliban attack.\n\nThe EU's special envoy for Afghanistan, Tomas Niklasson, said he believed the war was set to get much worse.\n\nHe said he feared the Taliban way of thinking now was \"something they had in the past - re-establishing... their Islamic emirate\".\n\nAnd the former head of the British Armed Forces, Gen David Richards, warned the international withdrawal could result in the collapse of the Afghan army's morale, leading to Taliban control and possibly a renewed international terrorist threat.\n\nHumanitarian organisations have also warned of a major crisis in coming months as the Taliban continue their offensive - with a lack of food, water and services, and overcrowding in camps for the displaced.\n\nUS troops and their Nato and regional allies forced the Taliban from power in November 2001.\n\nThe group had been harbouring Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures linked to the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US.\n\nBut despite a continued international presence, billions of dollars of support and training for the Afghan government forces, the Taliban regrouped and gradually regained strength.\n\nIn February 2020, then-US President Donald Trump and allies agreed to formulate a deal with the Taliban on the withdrawal of international combat forces.\n\nThis year, President Joe Biden announced the withdrawal would take place by September.", "Young people will be offered discounted takeaways and car travel to get their Covid jabs in a bid to boost vaccine uptake, the government has said.\n\nFood delivery and ride-hailing firms including Uber, Bolt and Deliveroo will offer incentives to people to get vaccinated.\n\nMore than 68% of 18 to 29-year-olds in England have had a first jab, while 88.6% of all UK adults have had one.\n\nIn total, over 85 million doses have now been administered across the UK.\n\nMore than 72.5% of UK adults have received two doses so far.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid described delivering 85 million doses as a \"phenomenal achievement\", while vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi urged people to get both jabs \"so we can carry on doing the things we've missed\".\n\nOn Sunday the UK reported 24,470 new Covid cases as well as a further 65 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.\n\nRide-hailing firm Uber will send reminders to all users in August urging them to get vaccinated - and will offer discounted rides and meals on its Uber Eats platform for young people who have the vaccine.\n\nDeliveroo will also offer vouchers, while Bolt, another taxi app firm, will offer \"free ride credit\" to vaccination centres.\n\nThe Department of Health said details on more partnerships would be released \"in due course\".\n\nSome local councils and charities have already been offering free taxis to help people get to vaccination centres.\n\nThe Department of Health said other incentives could include \"vouchers or discount codes for people attending pop-up vaccine sites and booking through the NHS, social media competitions and promotional offers for restaurants\".\n\nIt added that firms would not request or store any health data for the incentive scheme.\n\nIt is not clear at this stage what age group the incentives will be available to and whether those who have already had the jab will be eligible.\n\nThe government said discussions were ongoing with companies and further details would be published in due course.\n\nMr Javid thanked companies for \"stepping up\" to help the vaccine drive, and urged people to \"take advantage of the discounts\".\n\nA pop up vaccination centre was opened in the Big Top of Circus Extreme in Shibden Park, Halifax\n\nThe announcement of the latest initiative in the government's vaccine drive comes after a string of pop-up vaccine centres opened across England this weekend - with sites including Burnley FC's Turf Moor ground, Goodwood Racecourse near Chichester, and the Summer of Love Festival in west London's Holland Park.\n\nA four-day festival with live music and free food, and walk-in vaccine clinics, is taking place in Poplar, in east London, until Monday.\n\nEveryone over 18 has been able to sign up for a Covid jab in England since mid-June.\n\nSo far, two-thirds of 18 to 29-year-olds have come forward.\n\nThat's much lower than the population as a whole and ministers are desperate to increase uptake before the end of summer.\n\nWe've already seen the stick; the prime minister warning Covid passports could stop the unvaccinated getting into nightclubs and other venues.\n\nNow for the carrot; giving people discounts and other incentives to get a jab.\n\nDowning Street hasn't said exactly what the incentives will be.\n\nBut ministers are in talks with other firms - and discounts in cafes, restaurants and cinemas could follow soon.\n\nThe latest plans come weeks after the government said that people attending nightclubs and other crowded venues in England would need to be fully vaccinated from the end of September.\n\nThe announcement was met with some criticism, with Kate Nicholls, the boss of UK Hospitality calling the announcement \"a hammer blow\" for a struggling industry trying to rebuild.\n\nMark Harper, who chairs the Covid Recovery Group of Conservative backbenchers, said the government was \"effectively moving to compulsory vaccination\".\n\nIn an interview with LBC, fellow Tory MP Andrew Bridgen called for Parliament to be recalled if ministers were \"serious\" about people being asked to show proof of their vaccine status to gain access to domestic venues and events.\n\nHe described such a move as a \"very serious infringement on people's liberties\".\n\nThe BBC understands that ministers are no longer considering making it compulsory for university students to be fully vaccinated to attend lectures or stay in halls of residence in England - after the foreign secretary previously said students would get \"advance warning\" if they needed to be double jabbed.", "Subject to planning permission, the site in Broxbourne turned into a film, TV and digital production centre\n\nPlans for a £700m \"world-class\" film and TV studios facility in the UK have been announced by a Hollywood studio.\n\nThe owners of Sunset Studios in Los Angeles and an investment firm have bought a 91-acre site in Hertfordshire for £120m.\n\nSubject to planning permission, the production centre would be built in Waltham Cross.\n\nThe government said it was \"supporting\" the development of such stage spaces across the UK.\n\nOliver Dowden, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, said: \"This new studio is yet another vote of confidence in the UK's booming film and TV industry.\n\n\"Through the British Film Commission, we're supporting the development of stage spaces like this across the UK - boosting the local economy and backing our world-class creatives to make the next Bond blockbuster or bingeworthy box set.\"\n\nMr Dowden is also the Conservative MP for the neighbouring Hertsmere constituency, which includes Elstree Studios,\n\nLos Angeles-based studio owner and operator Hudson Pacific has joined with investment company Blackstone and they hoped to transform the site into a hub for UK and international productions.\n\nThe companies anticipated it would \"contribute £300m annually to the local economy\" and could create up to 4,500 jobs.\n\nJames Seppala, head of Blackstone Real Estate Europe, said the development would \"deliver a world-class studio facility that will help ensure that the UK continues to be a premiere destination for content production globally\".\n\nThe owners of Sunset Studios said they were \"thrilled\" to be expanding into the UK\n\nIt would be the first expansion of the Sunset Studios brand outside the United States, which was home to film productions such as When Harry Met Sally, Zoolander and La La Land.\n\nVictor Coleman, chairman and chief executive of Hudson Pacific, said he was looking forward to \"working with Broxbourne Council to ensure the project has a meaningful and positive impact on the local community\".\n\nLewis Cocking, leader of Broxbourne Borough Council, said it was a \"fantastic opportunity\" for the area.\n\n\"Creative industries are of strategic importance to us and the creation of 4,500 permanent new jobs and the associated boost to the local economy is just what we need following the pandemic,\" he said.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Flames illuminate the sky as people are forced to flee coastal resorts\n\nTourists have been evacuated from beaches in south-western Turkey, where raging wildfires are now threatening hotels and homes.\n\nTurkish Coastguard vessels - assisted by private boats and yachts - were deployed to bring holidaymakers to safety, according to local media.\n\nIn the city of Bodrum, three five-star hotels were reportedly evacuated.\n\nThe fires, which have been burning since Wednesday, have left six people dead.\n\nTwo more fatalities were confirmed on Saturday. They were among the thousands of people who have been battling almost 100 separate blazes in resorts and villages on Turkey's Mediterranean and Aegean coasts - a major tourist region.\n\nOfficials say all but 10 of the fires have now been brought under control.\n\nImages shared by Bodrum's mayor on Twitter show fires still burning into the early hours of Sunday morning.\n\nLocal media have also shared dramatic footage showing people with their belongings fleeing the area as a fire was fast approaching the city from a forested mountain. It is unclear exactly when it was filmed.\n\nThis 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 EHA News 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.\n\nInvestigators are trying to establish whether some of the fires were started deliberately, amid reports that one suspected arsonist has been detained.\n\nPresident Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday visited the town of Manavgat, were five fire-related deaths have been confirmed.\n\nA helicopter is deployed against a fire near Marmaris in south-western Turkey\n\nMr Erdogan vowed that the government would do everything to help hundreds of people affected by the disaster to rebuild their lives.\n\nThe president has been heavily criticised for the shortage of firefighting aircraft in the country. But he said that \"the main reason for these issues with planes is that the Turkish Aeronautical Association has not been able to update its fleet and technology\".\n\nHe added that more aircraft from Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia and Ukraine were now involved in the massive firefighting operation.", "Boris Johnson and Carrie in the garden of 10 Downing Street after their wedding earlier this year\n\nCarrie and Boris Johnson are expecting a second child, months after a miscarriage that left her \"heartbroken\".\n\nThe prime minister's wife, 33, announced the news on Instagram, saying she was hoping for a \"rainbow baby\" this Christmas.\n\nShe wrote that, while she felt \"blessed to be pregnant again\", she had also \"felt like a bag of nerves\".\n\nMrs Johnson gave birth to the couple's son Wilfred in April 2020.\n\nThe term \"rainbow baby\" is used for a child born after a miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal death.\n\nIn a post on Instagram, Mrs Johnson wrote: \"At the beginning of the year, I had a miscarriage which left me heartbroken.\n\n\"I feel incredibly blessed to be pregnant again but I've also felt like a bag of nerves.\n\n\"Fertility issues can be really hard for many people, particularly when on platforms like Instagram it can look like everything is only ever going well.\n\n\"I found it a real comfort to hear from people who had also experienced loss so I hope that in some very small way sharing this might help others too.\"\n\nAlongside the post she shared a picture of a blue buggy Christmas decoration.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer congratulated the couple on Twitter and also said he was sorry to hear of Mrs Johnson's earlier miscarriage, adding that he was sure her speaking out would comfort others.\n\n\"Every best wish to both of them,\" he said.\n\nThe couple married at a small wedding ceremony at Westminster Cathedral in May this year - making Mr Johnson the first prime minister to marry while in office for nearly 200 years.\n\nIt was Mr Johnson's third marriage, with the prime minister having previously been married to Marina Wheeler with whom he had four children.\n\nHe did not have any children with his first wife Allegra Mostyn-Owen.\n\nIn recent years, several children have been born to prime ministers while in office.\n\nTony Blair and his wife, Cherie, welcomed their fourth child Leo in 2000, three years after the Labour leader's landslide victory.\n\nA baby daughter, Florence, was born to David Cameron and his wife Samantha in 2010.\n\nIf you or someone you know has been affected by miscarriage or other pregnancy-related issues, support can be found through BBC Action Line.", "Serbia's Novak Djokovic displays his frustrations during his bronze medal match against Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta, throwing a racquet into the empty stands and then smashing another against a net post.\n\nWatch live coverage of Tokyo 2020 on BBC One, BBC Two, the BBC Sport website, app and BBC iPlayer\n\nAvailable to UK users only.", "The Mercer Street was attacked off the coast of Oman, and two on board were killed\n\nThe UK and US believe Iran was behind a tanker attack that killed two people, and have vowed to respond, calling it a violation of international law.\n\nThe MV Mercer Street, operated by an Israeli-owned firm, was attacked off Oman on Thursday.\n\nThe statements came after Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said there was \"evidence\" that its longstanding foe Iran was responsible.\n\nMr Bennett warned that \"we know how to send a message to Iran in our own way\", while Tehran rejected what it called the \"baseless accusations\".\n\nOn Monday, Iran warned the UK, US and Israel that any actions in response to the drone attack on the tanker \"will be met with a severe and decisive answer\".\n\nThe attack on the MV Mercer Street appears to be the latest escalation in an undeclared \"shadow war\" between Israel and Iran.\n\nFor months there have been several attacks on both Israeli and Iranian-operated vessels, which are seen as tit-for-tat incidents, though casualties are rare.\n\nIran has also accused Israel of targeting its nuclear sites and scientists.\n\nIn a statement on Sunday, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said London believed Iran had used one or more drones against the MV Mercer Street, calling it \"deliberate, targeted, and a clear violation of international law\".\n\n\"Iran must end such attacks, and vessels must be allowed to navigate freely,\" he added.\n\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington was also \"confident that Iran conducted this\", and that an \"appropriate response\" would follow.\n\nIsrael's Prime Minister said he expected the international community to make clear to Iran that it had made a serious mistake.\n\nNaftali Bennett raised speculation about retaliation, saying \"we know how to send a message to Iran in our own way\"\n\nIran's foreign ministry spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, told reporters that \"the Zionist regime (Israel) has created insecurity, terror and violence\".\n\nHe said Israel \"must stop such baseless accusations\", warning: \"Whoever sows the wind reaps the whirlwind.\"\n\nThe escalation comes against the backdrop of thorny talks between Iran and world powers in Vienna to try to revive a frayed 2015 deal curbing Iran's nuclear programme.\n\nWestern countries suspect Iran might be seeking to build nuclear weapons in violation of conventions - something Iran strongly denies.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "French boxer Mourad Aliev said he staged a remarkable protest after defeat by Frazer Clarke because of the \"injustice\" of his disqualification.\n\nThe 26-year-old Frenchman was disqualified in round two of his +91kg quarter-final against Britain's Clarke for excessive use of his head.\n\nAliev spent 30 minutes sitting on the ring apron after the fight and left the arena, only to return to the same spot.\n\n\"I sat down to protest against the unfairness for me,\" said Aliev.\n\n\"I prepared for these Games for four years. I really wanted to fight against the injustice, so that was my way to show that I don't agree with that decision.\"\n\nAliev kicked the canvas and remonstrated angrily upon hearing of his disqualification, behaviour he said was \"natural\" because he has \"prepared my whole life for this event\".\n\nHead clashes had caused cuts above each of Clarke's eyes and the British boxer - who is now guaranteed a medal - had his cuts checked over twice by a ringside doctor.\n\nAliev insists he was not warned about his use of his head by the referee, adding: \"I was just stopped without any warning and they just told me that 'you lost' - just like that. So I think it was an act of sabotage.\"\n\nClarke believes his cuts will not pose a threat to his participation in the semi-finals.\n\n\"I'm not going to stand here and say he did it on purpose because I'm sure he wouldn't have wanted his Olympics to end in the way they have,\" Clarke said.\n\n\"I told him to calm down because I've been in those situations before. The last thing I want him to do is damage his reputation or be rude to the judges and officials, because they are only doing their job.\"\n\nThe longest known protest in a boxing ring at the Games saw South Korean bantamweight Byun Jong-il sit in the centre of the ring for 67 minutes after losing a bout at the 1988 Olympics, delaying the rest of the competition for more than an hour.\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explore how even death couldn't stop you winning", "Toys and floral tributes have been placed next to a police cordon\n\nPolice say they are \"keeping an open mind\" as an investigation continues into the death of a five-year-old boy whose body was discovered in a river.\n\nHe was found near Pandy Park, Sarn, Bridgend, on Saturday morning.\n\nCh Insp Geraint White said police were \"working hard to establish the full circumstances of his death so that we can provide answers to his family\".\n\nHe said there were a \"lot of people in the local community who would like answers about what happened\".\n\n\"This is an extensive and sensitive investigation and many people have been affected by this death,\" he said.\n\nPolice are appealing for anyone with information about the boy's death to come forward\n\nSouth Wales Police was called to a report of a missing child at Sarn at 05:45 BST on Saturday.\n\nThe boy was found in the river and taken to Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend where it was confirmed he had died.\n\nHis family was being supported by specially trained officers, police said.\n\n\"We would request that respect is extended to all those involved, and that people do not speculate about this incident on social media as this is an active investigation,\" Mr White added.\n\nThe boy's body was discovered in Ogmore River, near Pandy Park\n• None Five-year-old boy dies after being found in river\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nGreat Britain won a record eighth swimming medal at Tokyo 2020 as Duncan Scott's silver in the men's 4x100m medley relay set a new landmark for medals won by a Briton at a single Games.\n\nThe quartet of Scott, Adam Peaty, Luke Greenbank and James Guy finished 0.73 seconds behind gold-medal winners USA.\n\nItaly finished third to take bronze.\n\nThe silver was Scott's fourth medal in Tokyo as Britain signed off their most successful Olympics in the pool.\n\nThe USA needed a world record time of three minutes 26.78 seconds to beat Great Britain to gold in the final event of the swimming.\n\nThe win also meant a fifth gold medal in Tokyo for American superstar Caeleb Dressel. He joins compatriots Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi, as well as East Germany's Kristin Otto, as the only swimmers to win as many as five golds at a single Olympics.\n• None The lion king and the new generation - how GB swimmers roared their way to record success\n\nBritish swimmers sign off in the pool after a hugely successful Olympics\n\nGreat Britain's swimmers sign off the Tokyo Olympics in the pool with an impressive medal haul of four golds, three silvers and one bronze to complete an incredible turnaround in fortunes.\n\nLess than a decade ago they finished London 2012 with just three medals - one silver and two bronze - and even at the last Olympics in Rio they returned home with just the solitary gold medal.\n\nNow they leave Tokyo with eight medals - by far the most picked up in any sport by Great Britain at these Games.\n\nScott's three silvers and one gold also means he has six Olympic medals overall - only Bradley Wiggins, Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny have won more.\n\n\"I have a lot of good team-mates,\" Scott told BBC Sport. \"I'm very fortunate to be part of some excellent relay teams.\"\n\nPeaty, who got Britain's first gold medal of the Games when he won the men's 100m breaststroke, leaves with three medals - two of those golds.\n\nBut to underline just how much progress Great Britain has made in swimming, the quartet were disappointed they did not sign off with a final gold, rather than celebrating a record-breaking medal tally.\n\n\"That is the standard we are at now,\" Peaty said.\n\n\"We are not looking at bronzes or silvers we are looking how to get gold. That is my mindset.\"\n\nBefore helping the USA to gold in the relay, Dressel took an individual gold with a dominant win the men's 50m freestyle.\n\nThe 24-year-old won with an Olympic record time of 21.07 seconds to add to his 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 4x100m freestyle relay titles in Tokyo.\n\nBritain's Ben Proud finished fifth in the race as France's Florent Manaudou took the silver and Bruno Fratus of Brazil the bronze.\n\nDressel's team-mate Bobby Finke added to USA's swimming medals collection by winning gold in the men's 1500m freestyle. Ukraine's Mykhailo Romanchuk won the silver while Florian Wellbrock of Germany took the bronze as Britain's Dan Jervis finished fifth.\n\nEmma McKeonwon the women's 50m freestyle to secure her 10th Olympic medal - more than any other Australian athlete in history.\n\nThe 27-year-old touched home in an Olympic record time of 23.81 seconds to claim her third gold medal at the Games and her sixth overall in Tokyo. Her 10 Olympic medals moves her ahead of Australian swimming legend Ian Thorpe.\n\nSwedish world record-holder Sarah Sjostrom finished second with Denmark's Pernille Blume in third.\n\nFinally, Australia won gold in the women's 4x100m medley relay as USA won the silver and Canada took the bronze.\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "Last updated on .From the section Newcastle\n\nNewcastle have agreed a fee with Arsenal in excess of £20m to sign midfielder Joe Willock.\n\nMagpies boss Steve Bruce has made no secret of his desire to sign the 21-year-old on a permanent deal after a successful loan spell last season.\n\nWillock scored in seven consecutive Premier League games to help steer the club away from relegation after joining in January.\n\nIt is understood personal terms are yet to be agreed.\n\nArsenal manager Mikel Arteta refused to confirm why Willock was missing from his squad in the Gunners' friendly defeat by Tottenham on Sunday.\n\nThe England under-21 international made only seven league appearances for the Gunners last season.\n\nArsenal have been linked with Leicester midfielder James Maddison as a potential replacement, but on Thursday Foxes boss Brendan Rodgers said he thought the England international would stay.\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "The advert is an example of \"premeditated racist stereotyping\", according to restaurant critic and presenter Jay Rayner\n\nA restaurant has apologised for a \"culturally insensitive\" ad campaign.\n\nThe Ivy Asia in Chelsea, west London, posted a video on social media which featured women dressed as geishas being pulled in a rickshaw to the restaurant.\n\nFood writer Jay Rayner was among the advert's many critics, describing it as \"premeditated racist stereotyping\". The video has since been deleted.\n\nThe Ivy chain, best known for its original restaurant in Soho, said it was conducting an internal review.\n\nIn the advert, women dressed as geishas struggle to get into a rickshaw being pulled by an elderly Asian man. It tips over and they are saved by a martial arts-type figure labelled \"the hero\", who uses superhuman strength to propel them to the restaurant.\n\nOnce there they struggle to get through the doors with bags of shopping. They then fall through the doors and are stared at by other customers.\n\nThis 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 Jay Rayner 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.\n\nThe video was described by one social media user as being like a sketch from comedy show Little Britain - some of the material for which creators Matt Lucas and David Walliams have since apologised.\n\nIn a statement posted on Instagram, the Ivy Asia said: \"We would like to sincerely apologise for the offence caused by our marketing video. It was wrong. It was done naively and it was totally inappropriate and culturally insensitive.\n\n\"We had a complete ignorance of understanding.\"\n• None What high fashion is doing about cultural appropriation", "Offices like this might become a thing of the past after Covid-19\n\nDespite most Covid rules ending in Wales, many staff will not be back in the office on Monday - and will never return full-time in some companies.\n\nPrincipality and Admiral - who between them employ about 8,000 people - are developing \"hybrid\" working models, with many workers to stay at home permanently until 2022.\n\nWales entered alert level zero on Saturday and social distancing ended.\n\nIt means staff can return to the office after a risk assessment is carried out.\n\nHowever, Wales TUC general secretary Shavanah Taj said she was \"alarmed\" to find in a poll of workers that 25% of bosses were not complying with rules in place before the changes, and called for strong enforcement action of the new regulations.\n\nWhile First Minister Mark Drakeford said the country was entering the \"final lap\" of the pandemic, he warned the relaxation of rules should not be seen as a \"free-for-all\".\n\nThe advice to businesses remains to let staff work from home wherever possible - and it is where most of the Principality Building Society's 800 employees will stay for at least five more months, with risk assessments being carried out at its sites.\n\n\"We are currently upgrading our head office to develop and deliver a hybrid approach to home and office working and the majority of our colleagues will remain working from home until next year,\" said chief executive Julie-Ann Haines.\n\n\"There has been a fundamental shift in expectations and colleagues have told us they have seen the benefits of being able to work from home, including trading their daily commute time for increased time at home, for exercise or for personal development.\"\n\nWill more people be working from home rather than in city centres such as Cardiff?\n\nThe company had surveyed its staff, Ms Haines said.\n\n\"The majority of colleagues answered that they would prefer a hybrid approach, where they can choose how many and what days of the week they work from home or the office.\n\n\"Colleagues want to be able to have the benefits that home working brings, as well as the social, training and collaboration benefits of working in the office.\"\n\nInsurance group Admiral - which employs 7,000 people in Cardiff, Swansea and Newport - is also being \"cautious\" and is only bringing a \"proportion\" of staff back into the office on Monday.\n\nThe company is another looking to embrace a hybrid model in the future, with a spokesman adding: \"We have a unique culture at Admiral and will ensure that continues to thrive, encouraging our people to spend time with their teams to work collaboratively, communicate openly and have fun.\"\n\nAdmiral has offices in Newport, Cardiff and Swansea\n\nDespite the end of most Covid rules, a \"small but significant\" number of legal requirements remain - with obligations on businesses, including carrying out risk assessments before staff return.\n\nAnyone who has tested positive must self-isolate for 10 days, as well as close contacts who have not been fully vaccinated.\n\nThe rules also include ensuring good hygiene practices, that premises are well ventilated, using barriers and screens, limiting the numbers on site and controlling the use of stairs and lifts.\n\n\"When we last polled workers, we were alarmed that only around a quarter of bosses were fully complying with the coronavirus risk assessment law by consulting staff,\" said Ms Taj.\n\n\"Refreshed guidance for employers is welcome, but enforcement is key.\"\n\nBen Francis, policy chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses Wales, said it was \"incredibly important\" the Welsh government ran \"a strong communication campaign\" so businesses were able to \"adapt to an evolving environment\".\n\nHe said the return to the office was \"the very beginning of Wales' economic recovery\", adding: \"There will still be much work to do in order to shore up businesses and help them get back on track so that they can both regain ground that was lost but also continue to push forwards, pursue growth and meet their ambitions.\"\n\nThe country is entering a new phase of \"living with virus\", according to Ian Price, director of employers' organisation CBI Wales.\n\nIt represents thousands of businesses in Wales and Mr Price believes instilling a sense of confidence in the reopening process is crucial.\n\n\"Whether through the use of measures like face masks and risk assessments or the many processes businesses have implemented themselves to become more Covid-secure, ensuring staff and customers feel comfortable entering businesses premises is crucial to getting the Welsh economy firing again,\" he said.\n\nSome businesses have already changed working patterns for good - Cardiff-based IT company Zipporah moved from its large office earlier in the pandemic.\n\nIts new base in St Mellons can host about 15 of its 20 staff, but typically sees about five people working there each day.\n\nThe 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. Laura Nuttall says she felt \"honoured\" that Peter Kay would help her fundraise\n\nA cancer patient who inspired comedian Peter Kay's return to the stage has said she feels \"really honoured\" by the \"amazing\" comic.\n\nThe Bolton star played his first gigs in four years to raise money for Laura Nuttall's treatment for brain cancer.\n\nThousands of fans gave him a standing ovation at the two charity shows at the Manchester Apollo on Saturday.\n\n\"I've never in my life had a standing ovation when I came on,\" he joked. \"I'm going to go away for four more years.\"\n\nHe was hosting two Q&A sessions, called Doing it for Laura, at the 3,500-capacity venue.\n\nLaura Nuttall with her mother Nicola and father Mark before Saturday's shows\n\nMs Nuttall, 20, of Barrowford in Lancashire, said Kay used to work with her father at Granada Television and got in touch after seeing her story on BBC North West Tonight.\n\n\"He phoned up my dad and said what can I do to help. I think my dad was surprised,\" she said.\n\n\"I mean you don't expect that, do you? It happened so quick. He said he would ring the Apollo.\n\n\"I feel really honoured that he chose to dedicate his first comeback performance to me.\"\n\nPeter Kay is one of the UK's most popular entertainers\n\nThe shows, which sold out within 30 minutes last week, marked a rare public appearance for one of the nation's best-loved comedians.\n\nKay described getting back on stage as like \"getting in a hot bath\".\n\nIn late 2017, the Phoenix Nights star cancelled a tour and all future work projects due to \"unforeseen family circumstances\".\n\nMs Nuttall said the show had been \"hilarious and it was just amazing to see all these people turn out and have a laugh\".\n\n\"He has such natural talent. It is just amazing to be around him,\" she added.\n\nLaura and her sister Gracie appeared on BBC Breakfast to talk about the Manchester gig\n\nThe University of Manchester student was diagnosed with having an aggressive form of brain cancer in October 2018, during her first term at King's College London.\n\nSince then, Ms Nuttall, who was in the audience on Saturday, has been undergoing immunotherapy in Germany as one of the few avenues of treatment available, alongside a costly complex cell vaccination programme, with each jab costing £27,000.\n\nShe told BBC Breakfast she was 18 \"when I was told I maybe had another 18 months to live\".\n\n\"When you are that young and you are told that news, you have to resort to positivity and laughter because sometimes that is all you have.\"\n\nPeter Kay pictured arriving at the Manchester Apollo on Saturday\n\nAt the Apollo, her sister Gracie introduced Kay and told the audience their family was \"eternally grateful\" to them for \"potentially saving my sister's life\".\n\n\"It has been really hard. It is a really bizarre concept to know that the person who you really love most in the world might not be there at some point,\" Gracie said.\n\n\"But, as we say, laughter is the best medicine and you have to keep going.\"\n\nNicola Nuttall said her daughter was \"an exceptional person and she deserves to have a long life\", adding: \"She deserves just to get old.\"\n\nFunds raised from the event will go mostly towards Ms Nuttall's treatment, with some cash going to the Brain Tumour Charity.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Two casualties were rescued from the shaft, with one being seriously injured\n\nTwo people were rescued from a disused mine shaft after falling down it and becoming trapped.\n\nOne person was airlifted to hospital after suffering \"serious injuries\" in the fall down the unused mine shaft in Porth Ysgo, on the Llŷn Peninsula.\n\nThe North Wales Cave Rescue Team was flown in on Sunday afternoon to help the Aberglaslyn Mountain Rescue Team evacuate the two casualties.\n\nThey were joined by coastguard rescue teams and the Welsh Ambulance.\n\nThe seriously injured person was airlifted to Ysbyty Gwynedd by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service - EMRTS Wales (Wales Air Ambulance).\n\nAberdaron, Abersoch and Criccieth Coastguard Rescue Teams and the North Wales Cave Rescue Organisation were involved", "Mr Lebus the chief of Ofqual, the exams regulator in England\n\nStudents getting results this week can feel satisfied that their grades are fair, the head of the exams watchdog has said.\n\nSimon Lebus from Ofqual - which oversees exams in England - strongly defended the system for deciding A-level and GCSE results this year.\n\nHe said teacher assessments give a \"much more accurate reflection\" of what students can achieve.\n\nBut he said while pupils can appeal a teacher's judgement, the bar is high.\n\nStudents will get their A-level and confirmation of their Scottish Higher and Nationals results on Tuesday, and GCSE results on Thursday. Grades have been decided by teachers' estimates, by looking at various pieces of work and mock exams over the past year.\n\nIt is different to last year's controversial system, which caused chaos by using an algorithm and was eventually scrapped.\n\nMr Lebus, whose job it is ensure there is not a repeat of last year's fiasco, told the BBC that this system gives a better overall view of students' ability.\n\n\"Exams are a bit like a snapshot, a photograph - you capture an instant,\" he said.\n\n\"Whereas teacher assessment allows teachers to observe student performance over a much longer period, taking into account lots of different pieces of work and arriving at a holistic judgement.\"\n\nHe said Ofqual wanted a system where every student has a fair chance to show what they can do, and \"I'm very confident that when they get their grades on Tuesday and Thursday this week they'll be able to feel satisfied that that's happened.\"\n\nHe reassured students that there have been three stages of checks, including Ofqual checking the policies that schools have for awarding grades and exam boards looking over the grades.\n\nEach teacher's grades have also been checked by another teacher as well as the school principal, Mr Lebus added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Education correspondent Branwen Jefferys explains how A-Level and GCSE results are calculated this year\n\nStudents who are unhappy with their grades are able to appeal on two grounds - either because of administrative problems for example work being lost, or disputing a teacher's judgement.\n\nBut Mr Lebus said the bar for proving a teacher gave an unfair grade is \"substantial\". \"They'll have to have very solid grounds for thinking something's gone wrong,\" he said.\n\nThere will also be the opportunity to take exams in the autumn.\n\nThe Ofqual chief added that he understood young people were anxious, but \"they should feel proud of the fact that they reflect the reality of what they've achieved in remarkably difficult circumstances\".\n\nA-level students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will get their results on 10 August, while those in Scotland will receive their Scottish Higher and Nationals results.\n\nGCSE results will be give to students in England, Wales and NI on 12 August. Results day for the equivalent exams in Scotland is 10 August - although students were told their provisional results in June.\n\nBTec students will also get their results on 10 and 12 August.\n\nWhat questions do you have about this year's results?\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf 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 send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "A man is rescued from recent floods in central China\n\nA new study shows that the percentage of the global population at risk from flooding has risen by almost a quarter since the year 2000.\n\nSatellite images were used to document the rise, which is far greater than had been predicted by computer models.\n\nThe analysis shows that migration and a growing number of flood events are behind the rapid increase.\n\nBy 2030, millions more will experience increased flooding due to climate and demographic change, the authors say.\n\nFlooding is the environmental disaster that impacts more people than any other, say researchers.\n\nThat view has echoed around the world in recent weeks, with huge inundations destroying lives and property.\n\nThousands of people had to evacuate in China as floods rose following storms and heavy rain\n\nIn Germany and China, record downpours overwhelmed defences, amid arguments about levels of preparation.\n\nOne of the challenges with flooding, according to researchers, is that most maps of where the waters will likely penetrate are based on models.\n\nThese simulate floods based on information such as elevation, rainfall and data from ground sensors.\n\nBut they have significant limitations: they fail to consider population or infrastructure changes and are unable to predict random events such as dam breaches.\n\nSo when Hurricane Harvey hit Texas in 2017, around 80,000 homes were flooded that were not on government risk maps.\n\nIn this new study, researchers looked at daily satellite imagery to estimate both the extent of flooding and the number of people exposed to over 900 large flood events between 2000 and 2018.\n\nFlooding in Germany appeared to take the authorities by surprise\n\nThey found that between 255 and 290 million people were directly affected - and between 2000 and 2015, the number of people living in these flooded locations increased by 58-86 million.\n\nThis represents an increase of 20-24% in the proportion of the world population exposed to floods, some 10 times higher than previous estimates.\n\nThe increase was not evenly spread throughout the world. Countries with increased flood exposure were mainly in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.\n\nIn European and North American nations, the risk was stable or decreasing.\n\nYour device does not support this visualisation\n\nAround 90% of the flood events observed by the scientists were in South and Southeast Asia, around the basins of major rivers including the Indus, Ganges-Brahmaputra and the Mekong.\n\n\"We were able to capture a lot of floods in Southeast Asia more than other places, because they're so slow-moving and so the clouds move, and we're able to get a really clear image of the flood,\" explained lead author Dr Beth Tellman from the University of Arizona and chief science officer at Cloud to Street, a global flood-tracking platform.\n\n\"But there was also just a lot of flooding, really high impactful flooding in southern Asia and Southeast Asia. There's also a large human population that settled near rivers for really important reasons [such as] agriculture,\" Dr Tellman explained. But she added that this \"also, unfortunately exposes people to a lot of flooding events\".\n\nA dam collapse in Michigan last year - breaches only accounted for 2% of floods in the study\n\nOne of the puzzling aspects of the research is why people in many countries are moving into flood prone areas rather than away from them.\n\nWhile the global population grew by over 18% between 2000 and 2015, in areas of observed flooding, the population increased by 34%.\n\nDr Tellman says that one aspect of this growth is related to climate change, which is changing the locations of flood plains to encompass more people. But economics also plays an important role.\n\n\"Places that have flooded tend to be really cheap land for informal development, so in Guwahati, India, and Dhaka in Bangladesh, we see people moving in, and so flooded areas then become settled,\" she said.\n\n\"It may not be people's choice to live in those areas because they might not have a lot of agency. If there were really good public housing programmes or other options, I think people probably wouldn't choose to settle in a hazardous area.\"\n\nThe authors say that the key drivers of flooding are heavy rainfall, tropical storms or surges and snow and ice melt. Dam breaks represented less than 2% of floods but had the highest increased incidence in terms of population exposed.\n\nLooking to the future, the authors say they expect the numbers at risk of flooding to continue to rise.\n\nThey estimate that by 2030, there will be an extra 25 countries experiencing increasing floods in addition to the 32 being impacted at present.\n\n\"We estimate that an additional new 179.2 million people will be exposed to floods by 2030 in 100-year zones and most of that is due to demographic change,\" said Dr Tellman.\n\n\"Around 50 million people extra people will be exposed to inundation, we think, due directly to climate change explicitly.\"\n\nThe flooding database behind the research, said to be the largest and most accurate yet compiled, will be openly hosted here.\n\nThe study has been published in the journal Nature.", "Fewer people have been working and spending money in Cardiff during the pandemic, research suggests\n\nThe number of people working in Cardiff city centre is 50% lower than before the pandemic, according to research.\n\nA study by the The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) found the city had a lower share of workers back in the office than four other major UK cities.\n\nIt found some £400m less had been spent in the city centre since March 2020.\n\nThe Welsh government said it recognised the \"big impact\" of Covid and was working closely with sectors affected.\n\nA review conducted for Cardiff council found the shift to home-working has had \"a radical impact\" for cities, but added many suggestions about the longer-term had been \"premature and shallow\".\n\nThe CEBR research concluded spending in shops and food and drink establishments would be about £6.3m less per month than at the start of the pandemic, if workers in Cardiff worked from offices for an average of two days per week.\n\nHowever, the financial impact on Cardiff was found to be lower than London, Manchester, Glasgow and Newcastle, the other cities featured in the study.\n\nZipporah, a Cardiff-based IT company which provides resource management software, decided to move from a large site on an industrial unit to a smaller office space last year after finding home working was more useful to its employees.\n\nSome businesses, such as Zipporah, are deciding against moving to the city centre\n\nScott Burton, Zipporah's technical director, said: \"We found it was improving things to make a better environment for the team.\n\n\"In about August we started looking for new premises. We wanted to get a smaller space.\"\n\nMr Burton said the company initially looked to the city centre, so the employees could be closer to shops and hospitality, but this \"wasn't going to stack up financially\".\n\nInstead, the company moved to a small office in St Mellons, a suburb of Cardiff, and now has an office which can host about 15 of its 20 staff, but typically sees about five people working there each day.\n\nZiporrah technical director Scott Burton says moving to a suburb of Cardiff had worked well for the company and its staff\n\nAlthough the staff are still a reasonable distance from the city centre, he said the number of shops and food options close to the new work site has improved things for the workers and the local economy.\n\nMr Burton said: \"There's literally nothing around [the previous office] whereas now there's a coffee van, there's a lot not far away.\n\n\"At lunchtime you would spend 20 minutes trying to get to the nearest Tesco so there was never any time to actually do anything.\n\n\"We wanted to move to the city centre to get more amenities around us but it wasn't going to stack up financially, but you come to somewhere like [St Mellons] and it's got all sorts around it. Now we're a solid line of business to the coffee van.\"\n\nRory Fleming, manager of the Morgan Quarter arcades in the city centre, says the environment in Cardiff has \"completely changed\" since 2019, making it hard to compare to the present day.\n\n\"In 2019, offices were fully staffed, people had a lot of confidence using public transport to come in. Whereas in 2021, up until last month, hospitality wasn't allowed to open indoors,\" he said.\n\nMr Fleming said that while trading figures were down from 2019, since 12 April to last week, there was a \"steady growth\" in figures.\n\n\"It's down on 2019, but if we can maintain that upward trend from now to the end of the year, that will be a success for us,\" he said.\n\n\"People will no doubt be anxious about coming back to the city centre and all we can do is to create an environment to make people feel safe.\"\n\nHe also said their creative quarter, made up of 35 office spaces above St Mary Street, had increased to 80% occupancy \"in some shape or form,\" with more people coming in to work for part of the week.\n\nMr Fleming added there is growing confidence of office workers returning because \"people need some human interaction\".\n\nCardiff council pointed to the issues and steps identified in its review of how to take the city forward after the pandemic.\n\nIts report said it was not clear how radical the impact of the shift to home-working would be, nor whether widespread vaccination would restore office occupancy in city centres.\n\nIt said the shift to home working had been \"substantive\" and predicted much of it would \"stick\", but this would create opportunities, such as attracting companies and workers who might previously have worked all week in larger cities, including London.\n\nA Welsh government spokesperson said: \"We fully recognise the Covid pandemic has had a big impact on high streets across Wales, which is why we are working closely with the retail and hospitality sectors to respond to the challenges they face in the short, medium and long term.\n\n\"Since the beginning of the pandemic, we've committed more than £2.5bn to businesses across Wales in addition to our business as usual support through Business Wales.\n\n\"In addition, our Transforming Towns programme is providing nearly £110m to help support the economic and social recovery of our town and city centres.\n\n\"We also have ambitious plans to help people work smart and remotely in Wales. We are trialling a series of community-based remote working hubs, encouraging people to work closer to home and driving footfall back into town centres.\"", "Melissa DeRosa has resigned from her post as secretary to Governor Andrew Cuomo\n\nA top aide to New York state's Governor Andrew Cuomo has resigned amid a sexual harassment scandal involving her boss.\n\nMelissa DeRosa, secretary to Mr Cuomo, announced her resignation on Sunday. She said working for the people of New York \"has been the greatest honour of my life\".\n\nMr Cuomo denies any wrongdoing and has vowed to stay in office but he could soon face impeachment.\n\nThe report by the state's Attorney General Letitia James found that Mr Cuomo had sexually harassed multiple women and violated state and federal law.\n\nMs DeRosa was mentioned in the report 187 times in the 168-page report. It accused her of efforts to cover up the governor's actions and retaliating against one of his accusers.\n\nHer statement on Sunday did not address the allegations.\n\n\"Personally, the past two years have been emotionally and mentally trying. I am forever grateful for the opportunity to have worked with such talented colleagues on behalf of our state,\" she said.\n\nInvestigators spent five months speaking to nearly 200 people, including staff members and some of those who made complaints against him. Tens of thousands of documents, texts and pictures were reviewed as part of the inquiry.\n\nAfter its release, President Joe Biden called for Mr Cuomo to resign.\n\nOn Monday, the New York State Assembly/s Judiciary Committee is set to meet to address potential impeachment proceedings.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Covid rules for travelling to the UK will be relaxed for thousands of delegates attending the UN COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November.\n\nUp to 25,000 government representatives, media and campaigners from around the world are expected.\n\nThey will not be required to be fully vaccinated but officials said it would be strongly encouraged.\n\nVaccines have been offered to registered delegates unable to get a jab by other means.\n\nUnder the regulations specifically for COP26, delegates from red list countries will only have to quarantine in hotels for five days if they have been fully vaccinated.\n\nThose who have not received their jabs will have to isolate for 10 days.\n\nThere will be no requirement for COP26 attendees coming from amber or green list countries to isolate on arrival to the UK whether vaccinated or not, officials said.\n\nMost people are expected to travel to the conference via London.\n\nUnder current rules, people cannot travel to England from red list countries unless they are British or Irish citizens or have the right to live in the UK, with the same rules applying to Scotland with some other limited exceptions.\n\nThose who do arrive from red list countries have to quarantine for 10 days in quarantine hotels, even if they are double jabbed.\n\nThere are also requirements to self isolate for 10 days for those coming from amber countries who are not fully vaccinated via approved programmes in the UK, US or Europe.\n\nThe red list can change but it currently includes dozens of countries, all of whom are expected to send delegates to COP26, and some of which are among the most vulnerable to climate change.\n\nA UK government spokesperson said COP26 was a necessary event, as the science was clear for the need to take immediate and far-reaching action to have any chance of avoiding the devastating impacts of rising temperatures.\n\nThey added: \"We know that achieving the ambitious global action needed to tackle climate change requires everyone sitting around the same table. To achieve this, we have been working tirelessly to make arrangements for an in-person event.\n\n\"Hosting it safely is of the utmost importance to the UK. Like many recent international events, COP26 will have to adapt in line with Covid.\"\n\nCOP26 will be held at the Scottish Events Campus in Glasgow\n\nThe spokesperson said details of how the summit would run were progressing after close collaboration with all partners, including public health officials in Scotland and England, the Scottish government, Glasgow City Council and the UN's climate body, the UNFCCC.\n\n\"We believe these arrangements strike a balance between allowing critical climate talks at this exceptional event to continue with representation from around the globe, while continuing to have measures in place to protect public health,\" they said.\n\nDelegates will also be subject to a strict testing regime and they will have to sign a charter agreeing to abide by the protocols for the summit.\n\nThe UK is recognising all Covid-19 vaccinations as valid for the event, but officials also said they would not prevent people attending who had not been vaccinated.\n\nThe issue of who pays for the regime, including testing and quarantine hotels, has yet to be finalised. Isolation protocols during the event for those who test positive for the virus are also being finalised.\n\nThe rules have been signed off by the UK and Scottish governments, but Covid-19 protection measures for the summit could still change, officials said.\n\nA Scottish Government spokesperson said: \"COP26 represents the world's best chance - and possibly one of our last chances - to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.\n\n\"The circumstances make this a unique event and exceptional arrangements will be needed to ensure it can be delivered safely and successfully.\n\n\"Following close discussions with the UK government and other delivery partners, we are pleased to have agreed measures that will support the full and active participation of international delegates and protect public health.\"\n• None What was agreed at COP26?", "Ocado Group is the firm that provides the online grocer's technology platform\n\nStaff at Ocado Group, the tech firm behind the online grocer, can now work abroad remotely for one month a year.\n\nThe move comes as firms rethink workplace policies after the pandemic.\n\nThe firm's chief people officer, Claire Ainscough, told the Times newspaper that its employees were still being encouraged to return to the office.\n\nBusiness Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng told the BBC that flexible working was \"here to stay\", but he would be urging his team to come in more.\n\nGovernment employees have been asked to make a \"gradual return\" to Whitehall, but Mr Kwarteng is calling for them to work from the office two to three days a week.\n\nUnder the Ocado Group scheme, staff who worked from home during the pandemic will be able to do their jobs remotely, subject to certain restrictions, from locations including outside the UK.\n\nThe scheme does not apply to Ocado Retail, the online supermarket, which is jointly owned by Ocado Group and Marks & Spencer.\n\nMs Ainscough said this answered a \"top question\" from staff, particularly those who had families abroad and did not want to use up their leave by spending time with them.\n\nOcado Group said it wanted to offer \"a balance and choice\" in response to requests from staff.\n\nMeanwhile, government departments have seen just a few people go back to the office, despite a recommendation that they should make a \"gradual return\" over the summer.\n\nAsked about home working, Mr Kwarteng told the BBC: \"I think flexible working is something that is here to stay, but I've always said that I think it's up to employers and employees to come to their own arrangements, depending on the needs of the company and the needs of the business.\n\n\"I don't think it makes sense to have a government diktat telling people exactly how many hours they're going to spend in the office and exactly how many hours they're going to spend at home.\n\nI'll be encouraging [civil servants] to come in, but of course again there'll be a degree of flexibility and that's what we're working to achieve.\"\n\nOne unnamed Cabinet minister told the Daily Mail that civil servants who refused to return to their offices should have their pay cut.\n\nBut Mr Kwarteng rejected the idea, saying it would set colleagues against each other.\n\nA number of other companies have announced policies on what has become known as \"hybrid working\" - allowing staff to work partly from home and partly in the office.\n\nSupermarket giant Asda has said it will allow staff at its head offices to \"select the best location to do their job\", including home, head office or even a store or depot.\n\nHowever, not all companies plan to embrace a hybrid approach. Investment bank Goldman Sachs has said it wants people to come back into the office once restrictions have ended.\n\nAt the same time, there is evidence that companies are facing challenges in recruiting new staff as pandemic restrictions continue to ease.\n\nStephen Ingham, chief executive of recruitment firm Page Group, told the BBC that in some cases, companies were now outbidding each other for staff.\n\n\"Talking to a lot of our clients, right the way through their businesses, from the top to the bottom, they are finding it very difficult to hire people and I think there are a lot of vacancies out there,\" he said.\n\nMr Ingham added that companies were also \"doing their best to keep existing staff\", so that existing salaries were being \"elevated to try to persuade staff to stay where they are\".\n\n\"We are now starting to see wage inflation,\" he said.", "Many of the biggest government departments are based in the Whitehall area of London\n\nBusiness Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has rejected the idea that civil servants should be paid less if they continue working from home.\n\nIt comes after an unnamed cabinet minister told the Daily Mail it was unfair for those returning to the office not to be paid more.\n\nBut Mr Kwarteng said this would set colleagues against each other.\n\nAnd he added that flexible working - with people working from home some of the time - was \"here to stay\".\n\nThe government says it is aiming to \"gradually and cautiously\" increase the number of officials in its offices, as Covid restrictions are relaxed.\n\nHowever, it is up to individual government departments to set their own timetables and policies for increasing staff in the workplace.\n\nLike many private sector workers, thousands of civil servants have been working either entirely or mostly from home during the pandemic.\n\nBut the government is no longer advising employees in England to work from home where possible, instead leaving it up to employers to decide.\n\nThe Times has reported ministers are keen to increase the number of officials in the office, citing concerns over accountability and morale.\n\nThe Mail quoted an unnamed minister saying: \"People who have been working from home aren't paying their commuting costs so they have had a de facto pay rise, so that is unfair on those who are going into work\".\n\n\"If people aren't going into work, they don't deserve the terms and conditions they get if they are going into work,\" they told the newspaper.\n\nBut asked on Times Radio whether such a policy made sense, Mr Kwarteng replied: \"No, I don't think it does.\n\n\"We shouldn't really be setting people who are working from home two or three days a week against other colleagues,\" he added.\n\nMr Kwarteng added that \"nearly everybody\" at his department was currently coming into the office \"two to three days a week\".\n\nAsked whether home-workers would find it harder to get promoted, he said office-based staff \"may have an advantage\" when it comes to forming workplace relationships.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said he would be encouraging officials to return, but with a \"degree of flexibility\".\n\n\"I think flexible working is here to stay,\" he added, when asked whether the government wanted workers back in offices.\n\nAsked about the suggestion that civil servants at home would be paid less, Downing Street said: \"We have no plans for that approach.\"\n\nThe PM's spokesman added departments would aim to increase office working gradually, in line with \"latest government guidance\".\n\nIn September 2020, the government ordered Whitehall bosses to get 80% of staff to go into the office at least once a week, saying that they should set an example to the private sector.\n\nBut the government discarded its plans after two weeks, as coronavirus infections started soaring for a second time.\n\nMany office workers have turned their homes into workplaces during the pandemic\n\nThe exact scale of current office-working within the civil service is unclear, both at a departmental level and across the service as a whole.\n\nGovernment departments, which are in charge of their own policies, are not publishing information on where their employees work.\n\nSkills Minister Gillian Keegan recently said \"probably 20-25%\" of officials at the Department for Education are in the office on any given day.\n\nThe Guardian has reported the Department of Health and Social Care recently scrapped plans for all officials to return between once and twice a week from September.\n\nThe FDA union, which represents senior civil servants, said a mixture of office-based and remote working \"provides greater work-life balance for employees and reduced office costs for employers\".\n\nIts general secretary Dave Penman said anonymous briefings to newspapers from ministers were \"out of touch with their own government's priorities\".\n\n\"What should matter to ministers is whether public services are being delivered effectively, not where individual civil servants are sitting on a particular day or concocting a phoney war on hybrid working to a grab a cheap headline,\" he added.\n\nThe PCS union, which represents lower-and-middle ranking officials, said it was holding discussions with the Cabinet Office on \"how we can embrace the post-pandemic world with hybrid working\".\n\nA spokesman added that any attempt to \"dock pay for civil servants for any reason\" would be \"met with a swift industrial response, potentially including strike action.\"", "While these are impressive figures on the vaccination front, the Uk has faced another accusation that it is \"hoarding\" Covid vaccines.\n\nThe Global Justice Now campaign group says the UK's unused doses of vaccine could cover the 10 least-vaccinated countries in the world, which includes Syria, Yemen and South Sudan.\n\nThe group says low and middle income countries are left \"fighting for scraps\".\n\nThe UK has ordered more than 500 million doses of seven of the most promising vaccines, including the four so far approved for use.\n\nThere would be millions of doses to spare even if all over-16s were jabbed and third doses were given to high-risk groups, Global Justice Now says, citing data from life science analytics company Airfinity.\n\nNick Dearden, director of the campaign group, says: \"It's an insult to the thousands dying each day from Covid-19.\"\n\nChina and India have administered the highest number of vaccine doses, with almost 1.8 billion and more than 500 million respectively. The US ranks third, with around 350 million.\n\nWhile countries in Europe and the Americas are progressing well with their vaccination campaigns, many states in Africa have experienced supply issues.\n\nRead more: How fast is progress around the world?", "Amman was jailed for 40 months in 2018 for preparing and engaging in acts of terrorism\n\nA police operation which resulted in a terrorist being killed could not have been more effective given the circumstances, an inquest has heard.\n\nSudesh Amman, 20, was killed by armed surveillance officers after he stabbed two people on Streatham High Road, south London, on 2 February 2020.\n\nThe strategic firearms commander that day told Amman's inquest the tactics used against him were the correct ones.\n\n\"I don't see how we could have achieved a more effective result,\" he said.\n\nThe inquest at the Royal Courts of Justice was previously told there had been concerns about the 20-year-old's imminent release from HMP Belmarsh, which happened on 23 January 2020, part-way through a 40-month sentence for preparing and engaging in acts of terrorism. Jurors have also heard that both the police and MI5 decided against arresting Amman two days before the Streatham attack, in which a man and a woman were injured.\n\nThe superintendent responsible for the firearms strategy on the day Amman struck, known only as BX88 to protect his identity, told the inquest: \"In the context of an armed operation, one person lost his life and others were injured.\n\n\"I have reflected a great deal and I have to say, I have been back through this in my mind from a personal perspective, I don't see how we could have achieved a more effective result with the circumstances presented to us.\n\n\"I know that sounds harsh because Amman lost his life. We were responding to his actions, and his actions were attempting to kill people.\"\n\nThe witness added: \"I think the mitigation measures in place were incredibly successful to manage that risk. We don't work in a risk-free environment.\"\n\nAmman was captured on CCTV during the attack\n\nThe inquest also heard that the operation's tactical firearms commander (TFC) had not been told Amman had left his probation hostel and been spotted carrying a white JD Sports bag shortly before the attack.\n\nJonathan Hough QC, counsel to the inquest, told jurors that logs from the day showed an officer tried to contact the TFC after the 20-year-old left his hostel, but could not get through so left a voicemail.\n\nThe commander, known as DS51, said she was likely to have been on a call to officers about an unrelated operation at the time but she \"never had a missed call or a voicemail\".\n\nDS51 added that she was in \"total disbelief\" when she learnt what had happened to Amman.\n\n\"I was shocked that he had stabbed members of public and had subsequently been shot by police,\" she said.\n\nThe 20-year-old was shot dead on Streatham High Road\n\nLast week, the senior officer investigating Amman at the time of the attack denied suggestions from the lawyer of the 20-year-old's family that the undercover operation had been a \"massive failure\".\n\nThe officer, known as HA6, said: \"The professionalism and the bravery of those officers and what they prevented... it could have been far, far worse.\"\n\nWhile in prison Amman had apparently signalled his intent to strike once back in the community, the inquest jury has heard.\n\nPolice were so concerned about Amman's unrepentant behaviour in Belmarsh that they asked the prison governor not to release him. However, the request was turned down because the nature of Amman's conviction meant he was legally entitled to be released from prison.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "\n• Everyone travelling to Spain (including children) must submit an online Health Control Form (in English), no more than 48 hours before departure. This will generate a QR code which needs to be presented (either digitally or as a hard copy) at the Spanish border. All travellers aged 12 and over must be able to prove they've been fully vaccinated (with both doses of a two-dose vaccine or one dose of a one-dose vaccine) at least 14 days before arrival. Proof of a negative test or recovery from Covid is not accepted. From 23:00 GMT on 13 February children aged 12-17 do not need to be double-jabbed to enter the country. Instead, they must present a negative PCR test taken no more than 72 hours before arrival. You must have received your final vaccine dose no earlier than 270 days (about nine months) before travelling. If it was earlier than this, you must be able to show proof of having received a booster jab. There is no requirement for 14 days to have passed between receiving your booster and entering Spain. Spain (like all EU countries) will accept as proof the NHS Covid Pass, Scotland's NHS Covid Status Pass or Northern Ireland's COVIDCert NI app - these can be presented either in digital form on a phone, or printed (as long as it's dated after 1 November 2021). Fully vaccinated children aged 12 to 15 can now also use the NHS app to show their Covid status, or they can request an NHS Covid Pass letter for international travel. Children under the age of 12 do not need to show proof of vaccination. If you have not been fully vaccinated, you can only enter Spain if your journey is classed as \"essential\" by the Spanish Ministry of Health. If your journey qualifies, you will need to present either a negative PCR test taken within the previous 72 hours, or a negative antigen test/LFT taken within the previous 24 hours, or else a medical certificate to say that you have recovered from Covid in the previous six months. If you're travelling via Gibraltar, check the latest Foreign Office travel advice.\n• Wherever you are in Spain, you must observe social distancing of 1.5m (5ft). Everyone aged six and over must also wear a face mask in the following places (unless they have a medical exemption):\n• any enclosed space open to the public (eg shops, restaurants, hotels or hospitals)\n• any indoor space where people from different households mix\n• any outdoor space where it is not possible to observe social distancing (e.g. crowded streets, public demonstrations etc.)\n• all forms of public transport and all transport stations, platforms and airports Some regions may have additional restrictive measures, including:\n• restrictions on meeting people from other households indoors\n• capacity restrictions at beaches or other public areas (eg booking systems) You should check with local and regional authorities for more details. The Foreign Office has specific healthcare guidance for UK nationals visiting Spain. For more details about travelling in Spain, go to the UK Foreign Office travel advice for Spain\n• Everyone aged 12 and over travelling to the UK must fill in an online passenger locator form before they depart. Adults can complete the form for under-18s travelling with them. If you qualify as fully vaccinated, you do not need to take any tests either before or after you arrive in the UK, nor is there any need to quarantine. The same rules apply for travellers under the age of 18. If you are 18 or over, and not fully vaccinated:\n• you will need to show proof of a negative Covid-19 test, taken in the two days before you travel to the UK\n• you will need to book and pay for a PCR test, to be taken within two days of arrival in the UK. This must be booked with a private provider before you travel\n• you do not have to quarantine unless your PCR test is positive", "We need to talk about that scary dotted line in the IPCC's sea-level projections - the one that says a global ocean rise approaching two metres by the end of the century can't be ruled out.\n\nThis outcome is considered a low probability but it would have major impact if it happened.\n\nThe line has been included because there are processes that can affect the melting and break-up of ice sheets which scientists still don’t yet fully understand. One of these is something called Marine Ice Cliff Instability, or MICI (pron: Mickey).\n\nThis is a scenario in which ice sheets could crumble away very quickly if the retreating edges of, say, Antarctica exposed extremely tall cliffs of ice. We know from the physics of ice that such structures cannot support their own weight and will slump.\n\nThe question is: how likely is MICI to take hold in Antarctica and how fast could it progress?\n\nRight now, scientists can't answer this. They see some evidence for the process having occurred in the Earth's history; and think if it did happen, it's a possibility only under the most pessimistic warming futures.\n\nDr Rob Larter, a marine geophysicist with the British Antarctic Survey, commented: \"With the present state of knowledge I agree with the description of runaway MICI as a low probability. However, I think it would be negligent to ignore it.\"\n\nOne final word. Don't lose sight of the sea-level rises that this report considers very likely. Remember, every additional centimetre increase in the height of the oceans puts more people at risk of coastal flooding.", "Level zero ended in Scotland at midnight with almost all remaining restrictions now removed.\n\nCovid restrictions in Scotland have been lifted at the \"right moment\", according to the first minister.\n\nNicola Sturgeon admitted to feeling \"nervousness\" at the move, but said the vaccine was now giving \"significant protection\".\n\nLevel zero ended at midnight with almost all of the remaining anti-Covid measures now removed.\n\nThe legal requirement for physical distancing ends in most places and hospitality can open at full capacity.\n\nLarge outdoor gatherings can go ahead and nightclubs are allowed to open.\n\nMany clubs in Scotland opened their doors overnight for the first time since March 2020, with hundreds queuing up for the midnight reopening.\n\nOne clubber at the Buff Club in Glasgow told BBC Scotland: \"We are so excited for tonight. This is Freedom Day - we're ready.\"\n\nScotland has been under varying levels of Covid restrictions for almost 18 months.\n\nMs Sturgeon said in an interview with ITV's Good Morning Britain: \"I think there's always going to be nervousness when we lift restrictions after such a long period.\n\n\"I have to be honest that there's some butterflies in my stomach about it today, but I think it's the right moment to do this.\"\n\nNightclubs were able to open their doors for the first time since March 2020\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney said care was still required when dealing with the virus, but added it was the \"right moment to act\".\n\n\"We've seen a sustained fall in the number of cases that we've been experiencing of Covid,\" he told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland.\n\n\"We have very high levels of vaccination as a consequence of the supremely successful vaccination programme that has been put in place, so we have a significant amount of protection.\n\n\"And we have the benefit that we are still in the summer period and there is an opportunity for people to be spending more time out of doors.\"\n\nLarge outdoor gigs will be allowed to go ahead - with permission - with no physical distancing\n\nHowever, Mr Swinney, the Scottish government's minister for Covid recovery, warned that face coverings were likely to a \"significant\" part of life in Scotland \"at least through the winter\".\n\n\"When I've travelled in Asia there is a common use of face coverings by individuals... and it becomes part of the cultural activity of particular countries,\" he said.\n\n\"I don't know if that will happen here, but I think some people will feel safer as a consequence of wearing face coverings.\"\n\nResponding to Mr Swinney's comments, Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said the threat of Covid rules lasting until 2022 would \"dismay\" people across Scotland.\n\n\"Nicola Sturgeon seems determined to cling on to control, even when the public health data does not support all of the government's decisions,\" he said.\n\n\"For instance, they have provided no evidence to explain why 12 year olds need to keep wearing face masks but 11 year olds do not.\n\n\"It's vital that the rules are straightforward, logical and communicated clearly. That no longer appears to be the case.\"\n\nThe new rules also signal the return of outdoor events of more than 5,000 people and indoor events of more than 2,000 - but they must apply for permission from local authorities and the government to go ahead.\n\nOn Friday it was also announced that children under 12 would no longer have to wear face coverings.\n\nThere are also new rules on self-isolation for close contacts of positive cases.\n\nDouble-vaccinated adults and all children can now avoid self-isolation if identified as a close contact so long as they are symptomless and provide a negative PCR test.\n\nWhole classes in schools will no longer have to stay at home if an infection is discovered, although children and adults who are higher-risk close contacts will be told to isolate.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon: \"We should feel positive about where we are... and should act with appropriate caution\"\n\nIn an interview with BBC Breakfast, Nicola Sturgeon said the policy of wearing face coverings in schools will be reviewed after six weeks but she doesn't know how long the requirement will be kept in place in other settings.\n\nThe first minister said people should be cautious, but should also \"feel positive about where we are right now\".\n\nEdinburgh University public health expert Prof Linda Bauld, also said caution was still needed as the Office of National Statistics infection survey showed there remained a \"reasonable amount\" of infections in the community.\n\n\"There are still a large number of people who are very anxious about going through this next phase. They may be clinically vulnerable and we need to think about them in our own behaviour,\" she told BBC Scotland.\n\n\"The virus has not gone away.\"\n\nHowever, Prof Bauld added she was \"really optimistic\" that Scotland was \"getting on top of the pandemic\".", "Philip Morris sells more than a tenth of cigarettes worldwide\n\nTobacco giant Philip Morris has raised its bid to buy respiratory drugmaker Vectura to more than £1bn.\n\nVectura makes inhaled medicines and devices to treat respiratory illnesses such as asthma, and counts Novartis and GSK among its customers.\n\nThe Marlboro cigarette maker increased its offer to £1.65 ($2.29) per share after US private equity firm Carlyle offered £958m ($1.3bn) on Friday.\n\nVectura has not yet responded to requests for comment on the new bid.\n\nIt previously said it was backing Carlyle's offer and withdrawing its recommendation for Philip Morris' earlier bid.\n\nThe London-listed company said on Friday that it believed it could better positioned under Carlyle's ownership, noting the \"reported uncertainties relating to the impact on Vectura's wider stakeholders arising as a result of the possibility of the company being owned by PMI (Philip Morris)\".\n\nVectura has also agreed to develop a potential inhaled treatment for Covid-19 with Inspira, a UK-based pharmaceuticals company which focuses on developing therapies for respiratory and infectious diseases.\n\nIn a statement, Philip Morris said: \"The PMI (Philip Morris International) increased offer values the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of Vectura at approximately £1.02bn ($1.41bn).\"\n\n\"PMI intends to operate Vectura as an autonomous business unit that will form the backbone of its inhaled therapeutics business,\" the tobacco company added.\n\nThe latest offer represents a premium of 10p per share to the rival offer of £1.55 a share by Carlyle Group.\n\nThe fresh bid comes after Philip Morris said it could stop selling cigarettes in the UK in 10 years' time as it focuses on alternatives, such as heated tobacco.\n\nThe firm indicated it would welcome a government ban on cigarettes and said \"strong regulation\" was needed to \"help solve the problem of cigarette smoking once and for all\".\n\nHowever, health charity Ash said it was hard to take such claims seriously from the firm responsible for selling over a tenth of cigarettes globally.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe family of the first Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldier murdered in the Troubles have said they feel betrayed by the government's legacy proposals.\n\nWinston Donnell was manning a checkpoint at Clady outside Strabane when he was shot dead on 9 August 1971.\n\nIRA gunmen opened fire on the 22-year-old from a passing car.\n\nHis family now fear his killers will be granted an amnesty under government proposals that would see an end to Troubles-related prosecutions.\n\nThe proposals would apply to former members of the security forces and to former paramilitaries, as well as marking an end to future inquests and civil actions.\n\nMr Donnell, from Urney, County Tyrone, was killed as he took part in an operation launched after the introduction of internment - imprisonment without trial for those suspected of being involved in violence during the Troubles.\n\nOn the 50th anniversary of his killing his family have now spoken for the first time about what happened.\n\nWinston Donnell was manning a checkpoint at Clady outside Strabane when he was shot dead\n\nAudrey Robinson said her younger brother's actions that night saved his colleagues.\n\n\"The car reversed into the patrol with the back window out and Winston knew what was happening and jumped into the middle of the road and they just fired into him,\" she said.\n\n\"With his actions that night he saved the rest of the patrol.\"\n\nNo-one was convicted of the killing and the Donnell family say they feel let down by the government.\n\n\"We always had a very slim hope of getting justice but what the government is doing now with this amnesty has let us and other families down - our government has let us down badly,\" said Mrs Robinson.\n\n\"It is clear it is all signed and sealed because the government has announced it.\"\n\nThe family has appealed to Prime Minister Boris Johnson to pull back and to allow relatives to pursue justice for their loved ones.\n\nTony Brown has questioned the government's commitment to releasing information about Troubles killings\n\nThe family of Londonderry teenager Paul Whitters, who was killed after being hit with a plastic bullet fired by a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officer in 1981 has accused the government of \"insulting\" victims' families.\n\nFifteen-year-old Paul was fatally injured after a day of rioting in the city during the hunger strikes.\n\nHis uncle Tony Brown has questioned the government's commitment to releasing information about Troubles' killings after the family was denied access to files for reasons of of national security.\n\n\"We have been told that files relating to Paul's death will remain closed until 2059,\" he said.\n\n\"The government say they want to draw a line under the past but yet our family have to wait until 2059 - when I won't be around to get the files opened.\n\n\"What is the point in drawing a line if the government are determined to keep some matters secret?\"\n\nHe also challenged Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis, who announced the legacy plans in a statement to the House of Commons.\n\n\"Don't insult the families, don't insult our intelligence and don't talk about transparency when you are using that to hide a lack of integrity,\" said Mr Brown.", "The health secretary has asked the competition watchdog to investigate \"excessive\" pricing and \"exploitative practices\" among PCR Covid test firms.\n\nIn a letter to the Competition and Markets Authority, Sajid Javid said it was time for a \"rapid high-level\" review to protect consumers.\n\nHolidaymakers have complained of huge prices and poor service from many of the 400-plus firms offering PCR tests.\n\nTests cost about £75 per person on average but prices can reach hundreds.\n\nMr Javid wrote in his letter to CMA chief executive Andrea Coscelli: \"I know that for too many people the cost of PCR testing can act as a barrier, especially for families who want to travel together.\n\n\"We have all experienced enormous disruption to our lives over this pandemic but it is not right if some families experience yet further disruption unnecessarily because of potentially unfair practices in the market for private travel tests.\"\n\nRather than wait for a long competition investigation, Mr Javid has requested immediate advice from the CMA on how to \"stamp out any exploitative behaviour in this market\".\n\nThe government publishes a list of companies and clinics offering testing but there have been reports that many have not got full accreditation.\n\nThere are reports of PCR tests being offered for as little as £20, and more than £500. In addition to complaints about high charges, consumers have also reported not receiving test results or of being sent damaged PCR kits.\n\nAvi Lasarow, chief executive of Covid testing company Prenetics, said the decision to investigate excessive pricing was \"long overdue\".\n\n\"Companies on the government list must be responsible in their pricing strategies,\" he said.\n\n\"The list has been exploited by some testing providers luring in consumers with misleading prices and then offering tests that are up to nine times more expensive.\"\n\nMr Lasarow said the \"easiest way\" to make tests cheaper would be for the government to axe VAT on holiday Covid tests.\n\n\"If VAT was removed, a family of four flying from London to Majorca could save £166 - which would pay for the cost of the flights,\" he said.\n\nA spokesperson for the CMA said that as formal investigations can take a long time, in this instance it will provide advice to Mr Javid with a view to taking swift action.\n\n\"We are aware of concerns about the evolving markets for Covid-19 tests for international travellers. We look forward to providing the Secretary of State with advice on how best to ensure that travellers have access to tests that are affordable and reliable,\" the CMA said.\n\nThe government has been under pressure from the travel industry and its own MPs to ditch the costly PCR tests.\n\nWillie Walsh, former boss of British Airways and now director general of the International Air Travel Association, has accused PCR firms of \"profiteering\".\n\nAnd last week, Conservative MP Huw Merriman, chairman of the Transport Select Committee, tweeted: \"Passengers are being ripped off with expensive PCR tests.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Golf\n\nEver had that sinking feeling that it's just not your day?\n\nWhen Kim Si-woo hit five straight shots into the water on the 11th at the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational, he would certainly have been asking the question.\n\nAnd it's not one he is going to be allowed to forget anytime soon, as his score of 13 goes down as the highest on a par three on the PGA Tour - outside of the four majors - since 1983.\n\nIt saw him slip from five over par to 15 over and tumble to the back of the field in one horror 155-yard hole.\n\nHis disastrous bid to find terra firma saw Kim send his tee shot right of the island green.\n\nThe South Korean, who has won three PGA Tour events, then went to a drop zone 96 yards from the hole.\n\nFrom there, it became a recurring golfing nightmare as he plonked his next four shots into the water before finally finding the rough with his 11th shot.\n\nKim then chipped to within a foot of the cup before tapping in for an unenviable 13.\n\nAnd how does one respond to such a showing?\n\nWell, it was a mixed bag from Kim who last week finished in a share of 32nd in the men's golf competition at the Tokyo Olympics.\n\nHe birdied the next hole, then had more trouble on the par-three 14th where he sent another tee shot into the water and double-bogeyed before following up with three birdies.\n\nWhile it was a significant recovery, it was not enough to avoid finishing last in the field of 65 that completed all four rounds at TPC Southwind in Memphis.\n\nKim finished 30 shots adrift of the trio of Abraham Ancer, Sam Burns and Hideki Matsuyama who finished 16 under par to go to a three-way play-off.\n\nAncer eventually prevailed on the second play-off hole with a birdie to clinch his first Tour victory and become just the fourth Mexico-born player to win a title.\n\nThe 30-year-old had started the day four strokes adrift of overnight leader Harris English, but produced a solid final round 68 to find his way into the play-off.\n\nEnglish looked to be closing in on a wire-to-wire victory going onto the final nine holes of the event, but doubles bogeys on the 11th and 14th and a bogey on the 16th saw him fall one stroke short of the play-off trio.\n• None Find out these athletes favourite One Hit Wonders\n• None How it all started for Blossoms and why they are still true to Stockport", "In California, firefighters are fighting the state's largest wildfire from atop a moving train. Wildfires continue to rage throughout the western US and Canada and even cities on the east coast are feeling the effects.\n\nThis video has been optimised for mobile viewing on the BBC News app. The BBC News app is available from the Apple App Store for iPhone and Google Play Store for Android.", "Apple has responded to critics of its new anti-child abuse measures\n\nApple has defended its new system that scans users' phones for child sexual abuse material (CSAM), after a backlash from customers and privacy advocates.\n\nThe technology searches for matches of known abuse material before the image is uploaded to its iCloud storage.\n\nCritics warned it could be a \"backdoor\" to spy on people, and more than 5,000 people and organisations have signed an open letter against the technology.\n\nAs a result, Apple has pledged not to \"expand\" the system for any reason.\n\nDigital privacy campaigners warned last week that authoritarian governments could use the technology to bolster anti-LGBT regimes, or crack down on political dissidents in countries where protests are deemed illegal.\n\nBut Apple said it would \"will not accede to any government's request to expand\" the system.\n\nIt published a question-and-answer document, saying it had numerous safeguards in place to stop its systems from being used for anything other than the detection of child abuse imagery.\n\n\"We have faced demands to build and deploy government-mandated changes that degrade the privacy of users before, and have steadfastly refused those demands. We will continue to refuse them in the future,\" it said.\n\nHowever, Apple has made some concessions in the past in order to keep operating in countries around the world.\n\nLast New Year's Eve, the tech giant removed 39,000 apps from its Chinese App Store amid a crackdown on unlicensed games by authorities in the country.\n\nApple also said its anti-CSAM tool will not allow the company to see or scan a user's photo album. It will only scan photos that are shared on iCloud.\n\nThe system will look for matches, securely on the device, based on a database of hashes of known CSAM images provided by child safety organisations.\n\nApple also claims it is nearly impossible to falsely flag innocent people to police. \"The likelihood that the system would incorrectly flag any given account is less than one in one trillion per year,\" it said. There is also a human review of positive matches.\n\nPrivacy advocates, however, have argued that the only thing preventing that technology being turned to other uses is Apple's promise that it will not be.\n\nDigital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, for example, said that \"all it would take... is an expansion of the machine learning parameters to look for additional types of content\".\n\n\"That's not a slippery slope; that's a fully-built system just waiting for external pressure to make the slightest change,\" it warned.\n\nApple also provided reassurances regarding another new feature that will warn children and their parents using linked family accounts, when sexually explicit photos are sent or received.\n\nThe company says its two new features do not use the same technology, and says it will \"never\" gain access to users' private communications.\n\nWhile there was a backlash regarding Apple's announcement from privacy advocates, some politicians welcomed the new technology.\n\nUK Health Secretary Sajid Javid said it was time for others, especially Facebook, to follow suit.", "David Cameron made about $10m (£7m) from Greensill Capital before the finance company collapsed, documents obtained by BBC Panorama suggest.\n\nThe documents indicate the former prime minister received $4.5m after cashing in Greensill shares in 2019.\n\nGreensill, which made its money by lending to businesses, went into administration in March, leaving investors facing billions in losses.\n\nMr Cameron's spokesman said his remuneration was a private matter.\n\nGreensill collapsed after its insurer refused to renew cover for the loans it was making.\n\nBefore its collapse, Mr Cameron unsuccessfully tried to persuade ministers to invest taxpayers' money in Greensill loans.\n\nHe has since been cleared of breaking any lobbying rules, but MPs said the former prime minister showed a \"significant lack of judgement\".\n\nThe details about Mr Cameron's shares were revealed in a letter from Greensill Capital to the former prime minister.\n\nAccording to the letter, Mr Cameron was going to be paid $4,569,851.60 (about £3.3m) after tax for a tranche of his Greensill shares.\n\nPanorama has not seen Mr Cameron's signed acceptance of the offer, but the letter records that he had already agreed to the deal.\n\nAs well as the shares, Mr Cameron received a salary of $1m (£720,000) a year as a part-time adviser.\n\nThe programme also understands that the former prime minister was paid a bonus of $700,000 (£504,000) in 2019 on top of his salary.\n\nIn total, it looks like he made around $10m before tax for two-and-a-half years' part-time work.\n\nMr Cameron's spokesman said: \"He acted in good faith at all times and there was no wrongdoing in any of the actions he took.\"\n\nPanorama: David Cameron and the Missing Billions is on BBC One at 19:35 BST on Monday or later on iPlayer\n\nPanorama has discovered how the company Mr Cameron promoted has left investors and UK taxpayers facing huge losses.\n\nGreensill Capital lent around $5bn (£3.6bn) to GFG Alliance - a group of companies controlled by the steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta.\n\nGFG employs 35,000 people around the world, including more than 4,000 at steel mills in the UK.\n\nInternal documents reveal that Greensill Capital knew GFG was in financial trouble by the start of 2020 because it was unable to make payments on Greensill loans.\n\nBut Greensill used its own cash to cover repayments GFG could not afford - leaving investors unaware of the problems.\n\nAn email sent by a Greensill finance officer to a senior manager in April 2020 said that the unusual payments had been going on for four months.\n\nIt said: \"We are constantly plugging holes that GFG cannot afford to repay... It is not even robbing Peter to pay Paul, it is just recirculation of Greensill funds.\"\n\nA second email sent at the start of May suggests an insolvency practitioner should be sent in to review Mr Gupta's businesses. It said: \"It may well be that administration is required.\"\n\nInstead of raising the alarm about GFG's inability to make loan payments, Greensill Capital looked for a new investor.\n\nIt turned to the UK government - and David Cameron was sent in to try to make it happen.\n\nMr Cameron sent 56 messages lobbying ministers and senior civil servants. He wanted the Bank of England to invest more than £10bn of taxpayers' money in Greensill's loans.\n\nThe Bank of England turned Greensill down, but in June 2020 Greensill was approved as a lender under a government scheme designed to get emergency cash to companies affected by the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThe Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan (CLBIL) scheme run by the government-owned British Business Bank allowed Greensill to make loans backed by an 80% taxpayer guarantee.\n\nGreensill was only supposed to lend a maximum of £50m to a single borrower or group of companies under the CLBIL scheme.\n\nBut Greensill Capital lent Mr Gupta's GFG Alliance £350m by making seven taxpayer-backed loans of £50m to seven of his companies.\n\nGreensill also made an eighth loan of £50m to another company closely associated with Mr Gupta.\n\nThe companies have all failed to make repayments on the taxpayer-backed loans.\n\nThe government guarantee has been suspended while the loans are investigated - but that is being challenged and the taxpayer could still lose £320m.\n\nMr Gupta's company, GFG Alliance, and its financing arrangements with Greensill Capital, are now being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office.\n\nGFG Alliance said it takes the investigation seriously and that all allegations of improper conduct are denied in the strongest terms.\n\nThe company said it has been working tirelessly to stabilise the businesses affected by the collapse of Greensill and deliver refinancing.\n\nGFG said: \"We remain fully committed to UK industry and to a solution that will enable GFG to repay creditors and create a sustainable future for its UK businesses.\"\n\nLex Greensill, the founder of Greensill Capital, said the government guarantee on the loans should not be withdrawn.\n\n\"Our access to any government-backed schemes with respect to funding our clients has always drawn upon robust advice from leading law firms to ensure Greensill complied with relevant rules,\" he said.\n\nHe also said he was not aware his staff had recommended sending in an insolvency practitioner to GFG.\n\nMr Cameron's spokesman said he was not involved in lending decisions and had no knowledge of GFG's financial situation.\n\n\"He was a part-time adviser to the company - one of several - and had no Executive or Board responsibilities whatsoever,\" he said.\n\n\"He made the representations he did to the UK government not just because he thought it would benefit the company, but because he sincerely believed there would be a material benefit for UK businesses at a challenging time.\"\n\nPanorama has also discovered how investors were misled about Greensill Capital's investments.\n\nGreensill made money through supply chain finance - which involves making loans to companies that are waiting for invoices to be paid by their customers.\n\nWhen the invoices were paid, the cash would be there to pay investors back, with interest.\n\nTo fund the loans, it teamed up with Swiss bank Credit Suisse, which raised $10bn from investors.\n\nIt was the Swiss bank's job to market and sell the Greensill investments, and to inform investors about potential risks.\n\nInvestors thought their cash was safe, because it was supposed to be secured against the unpaid invoices.\n\nBut this year it was revealed that some of the invoices simply did not exist.\n\nUS court papers show how between 2018 and 2021, Greensill lent $850m of investors' cash to a US coal company called Bluestone Resources.\n\nOnly $70m of that money was secured against real invoices for coal that Bluestone had actually sold.\n\nInvestors did not know it, but the remaining $780m was only backed by predicted coal sales that may or may not happen in the future.\n\nLex Greensill told Panorama that this type of financing was commonplace in the financial services industry.\n\nHe said the predicted Bluestone business was all \"based upon future trade that is likely to occur with current customers\".\n\nPanorama discovered that was not true.\n\nThe programme obtained the names of the companies that Lex Greensill said were current customers of Bluestone.\n\nSix of the companies said they were not Bluestone customers and they weren't planning to buy its coal in the future.\n\nLex Greensill later told Panorama the coal buyers did not have to be current customers. Bluestone only had to state it expected to make the sales at some future point and Greensill was not obliged to make checks, he said.\n\nMr Greensill denied misleading investors. He said his company made all the appropriate disclosures to Credit Suisse and the Swiss Bank was \"solely responsible for making any disclosures to their investors\".\n\nHe said the loans were always secured against assets and personal guarantees, and were backed up by insurance that would pay 100% of any shortfall.\n\nCredit Suisse says its focus is on returning cash to investors and that 59% has been returned so far.\n\nPanorama: David Cameron and the Missing Billions is on BBC One at 19:35 BST on Monday or later on iPlayer", "Covid vaccines are now open to most of the UK population, but some people - particularly young black people - are still reluctant to get a jab.\n\nBlack adults are the most likely to be hesitant and people aged 18-21 are least likely to have a jab, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).\n\nBBC Radio 1Xtra's If You Don't Know podcast spoke to some people who said the reason for this was the spread of misinformation.\n\nYouTube has removed more than 900,000 videos related to dangerous or misleading information about Covid since February 2020, according to statistics given to the podcast.\n\nOne person who was initially reluctant to have the vaccine because of rumours online is Grace.\n\nGrace, a mental health nurse, was hesitant to have a jab because of things she'd heard online\n\nShe's a mental health nurse for the NHS, which means she was offered the vaccine right at the start of the rollout.\n\n\"I didn't want it for the longest time,\" the 25-year-old from Milton Keynes tells the podcast.\n\n\"Social media was just moving so mad, telling me all the black people are going to be infertile, they're trying to kill us all off.\"\n\nNot only is there no evidence that vaccines cause fertility problems in men or women, but experts say there's no realistic way they could.\n\nClaims to the contrary on social media are false.\n\nDespite being \"really shocked\" by those claims, Grace soon realised that a return to normal life wouldn't happen without having the vaccine - so she agreed to take it.\n\nSharnie has concerns around the speed of vaccine development\n\nSharnie Crooks is a student from London and has decided against booking a Covid jab in for the moment, \"simply because it hasn't been around for long enough\".\n\nThe 19-year-old is worried the speed that vaccines have been developed means we don't yet know about any potential long-term side effects of taking it.\n\n\"I personally feel as though the nation has been very much rushed into taking it and I'd like to wait for more research to just be carried out.\"\n\nSpeaking on the podcast, Dr Tosin Sotubo, a black doctor, says she's \"had all kinds of conversations\" about the vaccine and has heard concerns like Sharnie's.\n\n\"People are nervous that the vaccine is coming around too fast, wondering if we're experimenting with it, if we know the real side effects, and some have religious concerns.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nDr Tosin admits having to \"pause and think\" about the speed of vaccine development herself.\n\nBut she says people should realise \"the research and foundation of the vaccine was in the works for many years\" and governments around the world pumped money into developing a Covid jab, to help speed up the process.\n\n\"The vaccine didn't skip any steps, it had to pass the same safety regulations all other vaccines pass.\"\n\nChecks continue to happen after approval to make sure there are no further side effects or long-term risks.\n\nAnother factor around hesitancy, she says, is the long-term differences in healthcare between white people and ethnic minorities, in things like maternal mortality rates.\n\nBlack women in the UK are much more likely to die from complications surrounding pregnancy and childbirth than white women, according to a 2019 report.\n\n\"When you see those disparities and black people are more affected in some cases, compared to their white counterparts, you have to question if we're doing enough,\" Dr Tosin says.\n\n\"We need to talk to the black community and educate them around the facts.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nShe says at times it feels like \"misinformation spreads faster than the virus\", adding: \"It's crazy how one message can go completely viral and that message becomes the 'truth'.\"\n\nBut she encourages people to take the jab: \"You're taking the vaccine for everyone globally.\"\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nTeam GB was unofficially set a target of between 45 and 70 medals by UK Sport, although the funding body's chief executive Sally Munday said it was taking a more \"holistic\" approach given the lack of competition for athletes during the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nBritain finished Tokyo 2020 with 65 medals, equalling their total as hosts in London nine years ago and making Tokyo their second-most successful overseas Olympics after Rio 2016.\n\nTeam GB chef de mission Mark England called the medal haul as \"the greatest achievement in British Olympic history\".\n\nHe said: \"Not only has the team made history but it has probably made history on the back of the most complex and most challenging and difficult environment that we will face certainly in my lifetime.\n\n\"It has been against all the odds and I think it is the greatest achievement in British Olympic history. It has been the miracle of Tokyo and it has been wonderful to be here.\"\n\nHere we take a look at how each sport fared in Tokyo relative to its funding.\n• None The Sports Desk podcast: Has Biles changed the game on mental health?\n\nTeam GB have not won an Olympic medal in archery since 2004, and that run continued at Tokyo 2020.\n\nArchery was one of several sports to lose its funding after the Rio Games five years ago, before UK Sport U-turned in 2018 and decided to reinstate financial support.\n\nIt has had its funding hugely increased for the Paris 2024 Olympic cycle, however, to more than £2.1m.\n\nAthletics funding was cut from £26,824,206 after the 2016 Games, at which GB won two golds, one silver and four bronzes.\n\nKeely Hodgkinson and Laura Muir both broke British records as they claimed silver in the women's 800m and 1500m respectively, while the quartet of CJ Ujah, Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, Richard Kilty and Zharnel Hughes missed out on the 4x100m title by just a hundredth of a second.\n\nThere were bronze medals for Josh Kerr in the men's 1500m, Holly Bradshaw in the women's pole vault, and in the women's 4x100m for Asha Philip, Imani-Lara Lansiquot, Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita.\n\nThe funding is set to be cut again, with the athletics squad receiving £22,175,520 for the next Olympic cycle.\n\nTeam GB's badminton squad were unable to bring home any medals from Tokyo, capping a difficult five years for the sport since Chris Langridge and Marcus Ellis' men's doubles bronze at Rio 2016.\n\nBadminton lost all its UK Sport funding after Rio despite that medal, before a 2018 reprieve. Its funding for the Paris 2024 cycle has been massively increased to £3.2m.\n\nA seven-strong squad competed in Tokyo, with Ellis and Lauren Smith reaching the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles and Toby Penty making the last 16 of the men's singles, showing promise for Paris in three years' time.\n\nTokyo 2020 is Britain's most successful Olympics in the boxing ring since 1920, with six medals.\n\nLauren Price won middleweight gold, a day after Galal Yafai became Olympic flyweight champion. There were silver medals for Ben Whittaker (light-heavyweight) and Pat McCormack (welterweight), while Karriss Artingstall (featherweight) and team captain Frazer Clarke (super-heavyweight) claimed bronzes.\n\nThe team doubled their medal total from Rio, despite a funding cut of £1,680,001.\n\nIt is set to lose a further £688,929 before Paris.\n\nLiam Heath became Britain's most successful Olympic canoeist with K1 200m bronze - his fourth Olympic medal - while Mallory Franklin won women's canoe slalom silver.\n\nThe total of two medals was half what the sport won at the London and Rio Games, and the fewest medals won since the Sydney 2000 Olympics.\n\nCanoeing faces a huge funding cut for the Paris 2024 cycle, however, from £16.3m to £12.2m - more than 25%.\n\nTeam GB's cycling team had their funding cut by a huge £5,708,510 before Tokyo, but still won an impressive 12 medals across track cycling, mountain biking and BMX.\n\nTom Pidcock kicked things off with mountain bike cross-country gold, before Bethany Shriever won gold in the women's BMX racing final, moments after team-mate Kye Whyte claimed the nation's first Olympic medal in the event with silver in the men's.\n\nThere was another gold for Charlotte Worthington in the BMX freestyle, where team-mate Declan Brooks took bronze in the men's event.\n\nIn the velodrome, Great Britain won seven medals - more than any other nation in Tokyo.\n\nJason Kenny won his seventh Olympic gold with a spectacular defence of his men's keirin title. Two days earlier, his wife Laura became the first British woman to win gold at three Olympic Games, winning the madison alongside Katie Archibald.\n\nIt was an Olympic debut to remember for Matt Walls, who was crowned champion with a dominant performance in the omnium.\n\nThere were silvers for GB in the men's team sprint, the men's madison and the women's team pursuit, while Jack Carlin won an impressive bronze medal in the men's individual sprint.\n\nCycling will receive £3,042,378 more in funding for Paris 2024.\n\nTeam GB had their diving funding cut from £7,467,860 to £7,223,280 for Tokyo, but won the same number of medals as five years ago.\n\nAfter winning one gold, one silver and one bronze in Rio, GB won a gold and two bronzes in Japan.\n\nTom Daley ended his long wait for an Olympic title with a sublime display alongside Matty Lee in the men's synchronised 10m then went on to win bronze in the individual event.\n\nThere was another medal on the men's 3m springboard, where Jack Laugher won bronze.\n• None Tears on the podium for a dream come true - the story of Tom Daley\n\nEquestrian lost £5,451,405 in funding before Tokyo 2020, but the team delivered more medals than they did in Rio five years ago.\n\nBen Maher won individual showjumping gold on Explosion W, after Oliver Townend, Laura Collett and Tom McEwen won team eventing gold.\n\nMcEwen also won a silver in the individual event, and Charlotte Dujardin won her sixth Olympic medal with dressage bronze.\n\nA day earlier, Dujardin claimed bronze in the team dressage event alongside Carl Hester and Charlotte Fry.\n\nThe equestrian team's funding will be reduced again for Paris, to £11,085,964.\n\nTeam GB won seven gymnastics medals in Rio five years ago, but with a vastly different squad brought home only three from Tokyo.\n\nMax Whitlock and Bryony Page - the only members of the squad to compete in both Rio and Tokyo - were among the medals, Whitlock retaining his pommel horse title and Page winning bronze on the trampoline to add to the bronze the women's artistic gymnasts won in the team all-around competition.\n\nThat bronze was GB's first medal in the women's team event for 93 years, while Whitlock's gold saw him become the most successful gymnast of all time on the pommel horse.\n\nGymnastics will receive slightly less - £12.5m - for the Paris 2024 cycle.\n\nGreat Britain's women's hockey team entered the Tokyo Games as defending Olympic champions, but the five years since Rio have been difficult with captain Hollie Pearne-Webb saying it had been far from a rollercoaster because \"there haven't been too many highs\".\n\nJust seven of the gold medal-winning squad from Rio competed in Tokyo, but they were able to put the difficulties of the last cycle behind them to win bronze - marking it the third Olympics in a row at which they have won a medal.\n\n\"For the girls it means a hell of a lot,\" said head coach Mark Hager. \"It's so rewarding for the group. Four months ago, if you asked me if we could get a medal I'd probably have said no. We had belief so it's very pleasing.\"\n\nThe men's team were knocked out in the quarter-finals.\n\nChelsie Giles claimed Great Britain's first medal of the Tokyo Olympics with bronze in the women's -52kg event.\n\nJudo will lose £1,117,530 in funding for Paris.\n\nKate French's Olympic gold was Great Britain's first since Steph Cook's victory at Sydney 2000, with two silvers and a bronze won across the Athens, Beijing and London Games.\n\nJoe Choong added a second gold in the men's event after finishing 10th in Rio five years ago.\n\nPentathlon GB faces a 20% cut to its funding for the Paris cycle.\n\nRowing has historically been one of Team GB's most successful sports, and as such received the most funding for the Tokyo cycle, but took home just a silver and bronze from Japan.\n\nTheir two medals - in the men's quadruple sculls and men's eight respectively - is the team's lowest haul since Atlanta 1996, and the first time GB has failed to win a gold medal since 1980.\n\nIn December, it was announced rowing's funding had been reduced by about 10% to £22.2m for the Paris 2024 cycle.\n\nBritish Rowing performance director Brendan Purcell said GB's performance in Tokyo was \"heartbreaking\" and \"frustrating\" but added: \"We're really confident we're on the track to lift up and deliver in Paris.\"\n• None Two medals, no gold - what has gone wrong with GB rowing?\n\nSailing was one of the success stories for Team GB in Tokyo, as they finished as the top sailing nation for the fifth time in six Olympics.\n\nHannah Mills became the most successful female Olympic sailor of all time with her 470 gold alongside Eilidh McIntyre, adding to Giles Scott's Finn gold, Dylan Fletcher and Stuart Bithell's 49er gold, John Gimson and Anna Burnet's Nacra 17 silver and Emma Wilson's windsurfing bronze.\n\nAfter winning his second successive Finn title, Scott said British sailing was \"in a good place\" but much will change going into Paris, with the Finn class being dropped and the 470 changing to a mixed event.\n\nTeam GB had their shooting funding boosted from £3,950,888 to £6,008,790 for Tokyo 2020.\n\nMatthew Coward-Holley was going for gold, but had to settle for bronze in the men's trap shooting final.\n\nBritish medal hope Amber Hill, the world number one, withdrew from the women's skeet competition on the eve of the Olympics after testing positive for Covid-19.\n\nFunding is set to be reduced to £5,802,749 for Paris.\n\nShauna Coxsey was Team GB's sole hope as sport climbing made its Olympic debut but Coxsey, set to retire after the Games, failed to reach the women's final.\n\nClimbing is one of seven sports that will receive 'progression' funding during the Paris 2024 cycle, \"marking the start of a programme of support in the long-term medal potential\". It has been awarded £1,562,811.\n\nBritish swimming's remarkable Tokyo 2020 campaign will not be forgotten in a hurry, such was the success in the pool.\n\nEight medals, four of them gold, made it GB's greatest ever Olympic performance in the pool and the first time in 113 years that GB had won four swimming golds at one Games.\n\nIt was kick-started by Adam Peaty winning the 100m breaststroke to become the first British swimmer to retain an Olympic title, before Duncan Scott claimed four medals - the most by a Briton at a single Games.\n\n\"I really do think this squad is going to go from strength to strength heading to Paris,\" said four-time Olympic medallist Rebecca Adlington.\n\n\"None of our top swimmers will be stopping and there are loads of talented female and male swimmers who aren't even in Tokyo who will be bursting through soon, so it's looking very bright for the future.\"\n• None The lion king and the new generation - how GB swimmers roared their way to record success\n• None The wonder of Adam Peaty\n\nBritain's taekwondo hopes were dealt a blow early on when two-time defending champion Jade Jones suffered a shock defeat in the first round.\n\nBut up stepped Bradly Sinden and Lauren Williams, who won silvers in their respective events, before Bianca Walkden added a second bronze medal to her collection.\n\nIt meant GB Taekwondo equalled its record haul from Rio 2016, despite missing out on gold for the first time since 2008.\n\nBritish athletes are a common sight on the Olympic triathlon podium and Tokyo 2020 was no different, with three medals.\n\nAlex Yee kicked off the success, winning men's silver on his Olympic debut, before Georgia Taylor-Brown added another silver in the women's event.\n\nBut better was to come as Yee and Taylor-Brown teamed up with Jonny Brownlee and Jess Learmonth to win gold in the mixed relay event, ensuring Brownlee would bid farewell to the Olympics with a complete set of medals.\n\nBritish Triathlon will receive a slight reduction in funding for Paris but with young athletes like Yee taking over the mantle from the Brownlees, the future looks bright.\n\nSkateboarding received just £197,725 from UK Sport but Sky Brown's bronze medal at the age of 13 means more Olympic success could be on the agenda at future Games.\n\nLike sport climbing, skateboarding, basketball, fencing, surfing, table tennis and weightlifting will all receive 'progression' funding from UK Sport for the Paris cycle.\n\nIn weightlifting, Emily Campbell became the first British woman to win an Olympic medal with her +87kg silver - Great Britain's first Olympic weightlifting medal since 1984.\n\nThat came despite the sport losing its UK Sport funding after Rio 2016.\n• None Find out these athletes' favourite One Hit Wonders\n• None How it all started for Blossoms and why they are still true to Stockport", "London's Tower Bridge has reopened to traffic after becoming stuck for almost 12 hours.\n\nThe famous crossing was scheduled to lift on Monday to allow a large wooden tall ship through, but it appeared to become jammed in place.\n\nCity of London Police said the 127-year-old landmark was closed \"due to technical failure\".\n\nThe bridge reopened to traffic at 01:45 BST on Tuesday.\n\nDrivers - and pedestrians - had previously been warned to avoid the area.\n\nCity of London Police said the bridge had suffered a technical failure\n\nThe crossing connects the Square Mile financial district to Southwark.\n\nApproach roads to the bridge were shut while repairs were carried out.\n\nThe two sides of the crossing became stuck at about 14:30 BST on Monday.\n\nTransport for London (TfL) reported that traffic had been slow moving on both sides of the river during the afternoon.\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis 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 2 by BBC Radio London Travel 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.\n\nThe bridge, which took eight years to build and opened in 1894, normally opens about 800 times every year.\n\nIt was previously jammed in August last year when a mechanical fault meant it remained lifted for more than an hour.\n\nFire crews were called to the scene\n\nA spokesperson for the City of London Corporation, which manages the bridge, said investigations into the failure were taking place but the source of the fault was currently unknown.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "In our monthly feature, Then and Now, we reveal some of the ways that planet Earth has been changing against the backdrop of a warming world. In recent years, the devastating impact of wildfires has been dominating headlines around the world. Although fires have long been part of natural history, scientists are voicing concern that recent fires are becoming more frequent, more intense and more widespread.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nIn recent years, the widespread devastation of wildfires has dominated headlines around the world, as millions of acres were destroyed and thousands of people left homeless.\n\nFires in the western US and Australia have been among the most deadly.\n\nIn the first few hours of the new year in 2020, a devastating bushfire arrived in the New South Wales village of Cobargo. Within hours, the fire had ripped through the main street, leaving little but smoky, charred ruins in its wake.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Helicopter footage showed some the bushfire's trail of destruction\n\nThe destroyed village became one of the defining symbols of what is now being referred to as Australia's Black Summer, which killed at least 34 people, an estimated three billion animals, and scorched 46 million acres (186,000 square kilometres).\n\nAlthough wildfires have long been part of the landscape, they are becoming more frequent, more widespread, and more intense.\n\nWildlife struggled to find food and shelter after the fires\n\nEach summer, parts of the world are gripped by these natural infernos, with flames travelling at speeds similar to the bulls rampaging through the Spanish streets of Pamplona.\n\nAt these speeds, it becomes almost impossible for firefighters to stop and control the spreading fire, and to protect homes and properties in its path.\n\nHowever, it is worth noting that wildfires have long been part of the natural cycle in many habitats. Without these natural fires, we would not have many of the species that thrive in these environments.\n\nThere are trees that actually need fire in order to germinate and produce the forests of the future.\n\nFor example, a species of gum (eucalyptus) tree has seeds that are coated in a resin requiring them to be exposed to fire in order to melt the resin and expose the seed within. There are other trees with thick barks which act as heat shields to protect the vital sapwood that transports nutrients and water throughout the tree.\n\nWithout fire, many of the trees that depend on, or have adapted to, this \"fire ecology\" would struggle to reproduce, changing the habitat. This would make life difficult for the species that depend upon them to survive.\n\nHowever, there is real concern that the fires that once were the saviour of these landscapes are now becoming too frequent and too intense.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA 2017 report by the US Global Change Research Program recorded a \"profound increase in forest fire activity\" in recent decades.\n\nIt cited warmer, drier conditions, increased drought, and a longer fire season as reasons for boosting the wildfire risk.\n\nAnother factor is the emergence of new pests and diseases that cause widespread dieback of plants and trees.\n\nFor example, the emerald ash borer has killed millions of trees throughout the US.\n\nThis results in a vast volume of dead wood remaining in the landscape, which - in turn - acts as a fuel to feed any wildfires that do break out.\n\nIn its fourth assessment report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said: \"Disturbances such as wildfire and insect outbreaks are increasing and are likely to intensify in a warmer future with drier soils and longer growing seasons.\"\n\nIt added: \"Warmer summer temperatures are expected to extend the annual window of high fire ignition risk by 10-30%.\"\n\nWhile some wildfires are caused by lightning strikes, the vast majority are believed to be started by people - either accidentally or intentionally.\n\nScientists say it is necessary to develop measures to help local communities to become more resilient to the increased risk of wildfires - primarily through land management of areas surrounding settlements, and through an education programme of how to reduce the risks of fires being started in the first place.\n\nOur Planet Then and Now will continue each month up to the UN climate summit in Glasgow, which is scheduled to start in November 2021", "Tokyo Olympics: Team GB match London 2012 with 65 medals won as Kenny and Price take gold Last updated on .From the section Olympics", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Torrential downpours and thunderstorms cause flooding across Scotland\n\nHeavy showers and thunderstorms are causing severe flooding and travel disruption across Scotland.\n\nA Met Office yellow weather warning covering Central, Tayside and Fife, Grampian, South West Scotland, Lothian, Borders and Strathclyde runs to 23:00.\n\nRail services have been affected by the torrential downpours and road users are being urged to exercise care.\n\nFootage on social media captured the impact of the extreme weather in Glasgow and Edinburgh.\n\nThe Scottish Environment Protection Agency currently has nine flood alerts in place.\n\nShoppers were caught in the downpour on Glasgow's Sauchiehall Street\n\nMet Office spokesman Oli Claydon described the thunderstorms as \"quite variable\" and added: \"Not everywhere within those warning areas will see those heavy thundery downpours.\n\n\"Where the thunderstorms do fall, the rain could be quite intense and quite heavy.\"\n\nShoppers in Glasgow city centre were among those caught up in the extreme weather, which caused extensive flooding in a TK Maxx store after a ceiling collapsed.\n\nSkateboarding was one mode of transport not held up by the torrential rain in Glasgow\n\nMeanwhile, in Edinburgh, footage shared on social media captured flooding at Cameron Toll and on Meadow Place Road, Corstorphine.\n\nScotRail said the heavy rain had flooded the railway at Dalmuir in West Dunbartonshire for the second time in three days, forcing the closure of the line via Yoker.\n\nAs a result, services from Motherwell, Whifflet, Larkhall and Cumbernauld will be affected while trains from Helensburgh to Edinburgh will be diverted via Singer.\n\nThe rail line at Dalmuir, West Dunbartonshire, was submerged under water\n\nSeparately, flooding between Hillfoot and Bearsden meant services were unable to operate to and from Milngavie.\n\nEarlier on Monday, train speed restrictions were in place in Edinburgh, between Aberdeen and Inverness and between Dunkeld/Birnam and Blair Atholl.\n\nThe Met Office said parts of Scotland could see 15-30mm of rainfall in a short space of time, or as much as 50-70mm over several hours.\n\nIt follows a weekend of downpours in which the worst washouts were in southern Scotland and northern England.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Countries like the Maldives are among the most vulnerable to climate change\n\nNations vulnerable to climate change have warned they are on the \"edge of extinction\" if action is not taken.\n\nThe warning by a group of developing countries comes after a landmark UN report argued that global warming could make parts of the world uninhabitable.\n\nWorld leaders including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson have called the report a \"wake-up call to the world\".\n\nBut some of the strongest reaction to its findings has come from countries that are set to be the worst hit.\n\n\"We are paying with our lives for the carbon someone else emitted,\" said Mohamed Nasheed, a former Maldives president who represents almost 50 countries that are vulnerable to the effects of climate change.\n\nThe Maldives is the world's lowest-lying country and Mr Nasheed said the projections by UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) would be \"devastating\" for the nation, putting it on the \"edge of extinction\".\n\nAccording to the latest IPCC report, heatwaves, heavy rainfall and droughts will become more common and extreme. The UN's chief has labelled it a \"code red for humanity\".\n\nThe report says there is \"unequivocal\" evidence that humans are to blame for increasing temperatures. Within the next two decades, temperatures are likely to rise 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, it adds.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. In Kenya, rising water levels in lakes along the Great Rift Valley have forced thousands of people from their homes.\n\nThat could lead to sea levels rising by half a metre, but a rise of 2m by the end of the century cannot be ruled out.\n\nThat could have a devastating impact on low-lying coastal countries, said Diann Black-Layne, ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda, and lead climate negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States.\n\n\"That is our very future, right there,\" Ms Black-Layne said.\n\nThe report comes less than three months before a key climate summit in Glasgow known as COP26.\n\nBoris Johnson, who is hosting the conference, said the report showed help was needed for countries bearing the brunt of climate change.\n\n\"Today's report makes for sobering reading, and it is clear that the next decade is going to be pivotal to securing the future of our planet,\" he said.\n\n\"We know what must be done to limit global warming - consign coal to history and shift to clean energy sources, protect nature and provide climate finance for countries on the frontline.\"\n\nUnder the 2015 Paris Agreement, more than 190 governments agreed the world should limit global warming to 2C or ideally 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.\n\nBut the new report says that under all scenarios, both targets will be broken this century unless huge cuts in carbon take place.\n\nUS Climate Envoy John Kerry said that to reach the targets, countries urgently needed to change their economies.\n\n\"This is the critical decade for action, and COP26 in Glasgow must be a turning point in this crisis,\" Mr Kerry said.\n\nClimate activist Greta Thunberg, who confirmed on Monday that she will attend the COP26 talks, said the report \"confirms what we already know... that we are in an emergency\".\n\n\"We can still avoid the worst consequences, but not if we continue like today, and not without treating the crisis like a crisis,\" she said on Twitter.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lukashenko: \"You can choke on your sanctions... you are American lapdogs\"\n\nBelarus's president has denied claims that his security services were involved in the death of dissident Vitaly Shishov, who was found hanged in neighbouring Ukraine last week.\n\n\"Who was he for me and for Belarus? For us he was simply a nobody,\" President Alexander Lukashenko told reporters.\n\nVitaly Shishov was organising help for Belarusians who fled to Ukraine from Mr Lukashenko's post-election crackdown.\n\nThe UK and US are tightening sanctions on Belarus, hitting economic sectors.\n\nThey include potash and petroleum products - key sources of income for Mr Lukashenko's regime - as well as financial services and transport. He and his top aides are already under Western sanctions.\n\nWhen asked by the BBC about the latest British measures he said: \"You can go choke on your sanctions... You are American lapdogs!\"\n\nThere were anti-Lukashenko rallies after the disputed vote a year ago. The weeks of mass protests were the biggest challenge yet to Mr Lukashenko's 27-year rule as president.\n\nLast year police detained thousands of anti-Lukashenko protesters as they broke up the demonstrations, using batons and tear gas. The opposition says more than 600 political prisoners are still in jail.\n\nMonday's news conference, televised live, was his first such appearance during the political crisis - an event officially named \"the big conversation\".\n\nBelarus opposition activists demonstrated in London and other cities on Sunday\n\nSupport from Russian President Vladimir Putin has proven a lifeline for the embattled president. But Western governments, like the Belarusian opposition, denounced the vote as fraudulent and tightened sanctions.\n\nBelarusian opposition leaders are either in jail or were forced into exile. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who claimed victory in the election, is based in Lithuania.\n\nUkrainian police probing Shishov's death are investigating whether it was suicide or a murder made to look like suicide. He was found hanged in a park near his home in the capital Kyiv.\n\nColleagues in his organisation, Belarusian Home in Ukraine, suspect that Lukashenko agents were involved, and say Shishov had been under surveillance.\n\nHis partner Bazhena Zholudzh told the BBC: \"Lukashenko won't be here forever, and this will all be over and they will have to answer for what they have done.\"\n\nThe case of Belarusian Olympic sprinter Krystina Timanovskaya also grabbed world attention last week. She flew to Poland - not home to Belarus - after a row with Belarusian team coaches.\n\nMr Lukashenko mocked her, saying \"she took 36th place in her discipline - say no more!\" \"Why did we include her? The IOC [International Olympic Committee] recommended her!\"\n\nIn Tokyo she said there was an attempt to force her onto a flight back to Belarus - a claim denied by Mr Lukashenko, who said there was \"not a single\" KGB agent at the Olympics.\n\nLooking back to the election, Mr Lukashenko said: \"This was not an easy year for us\", adding that Belarus had \"passed a serious test of national unity\".\n\nHe said that last year \"some were preparing for fair and honest elections, while others were calling for a coup\".\n\nBefore the latest Western sanctions were announced he warned that he could withdraw co-operation on preventing the smuggling of radioactive materials. \"This is the issue of issues for the Americans... but I have warned them - if you cross the red line too far, we'll stop talking to them on this subject.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. In 2020 a BBC team filmed riot police attacking and forcibly arresting university students in Minsk", "A new model appeared at Merrivale Model Village in Great Yarmouth on Sunday morning\n\nAnother piece of street art possibly created by secretive graffiti artist Banksy has appeared in East Anglia.\n\nA new model of a miniature stable, which appears to have been signed by the artist, was found at Merrivale Model Village in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, on Sunday morning.\n\nBanksy-style art also appeared on Friday in Admiralty Road in the town, in Gorleston and in Oulton Broad and Lowestoft in Suffolk.\n\nNone has yet been authenticated.\n\nThe thatched-style miniature stable appears to have been signed by the secretive graffiti artist\n\nFirst spotted by a visitor, the new work is a model of a thatched stable depicting a small rodent that appears to be standing on a wooden wheel placed by the building. It is captioned \"Go big or go home\".\n\nA post on the attraction's Facebook page said \"a model we had never seen before was sitting amongst our little cottages\" and \"looked as though vandals had been decorating it\".\n\n\"Upon closer inspection it was adorned with a familiar name to the street art scene....,\" the post said.\n\nOwner Frank Newsome told the BBC: \"It's not one of our cottages. Someone has brought it in.\n\n\"I'm a layman but we've Googled it and it does look genuine so we're now trying to ascertain via the Banksy website whether it is or it isn't.\"\n\nHe said the stable would be kept on display for visitors to the model village, but removed and stored safely elsewhere at night.\n\nMerrivale Model Village said a model it \"had never seen before\" was sitting amongst its little cottages\n\nIt would not be the first time Banksy has added his own work to an existing attraction.\n\nIt also carries on the theme of rats causing disruption. The animals, a long-time favourite of Banksy's, were captured messing up his bathroom during lockdown and spreading germs on the London Underground last summer.\n\nAnother artwork spotted in Great Yarmouth depicts people dancing on a bus shelter while an amusement arcade-style toy-grabbing crane appeared in Gorleston.\n\nOne artwork has appeared on Admiralty Road, Great Yarmouth\n\nThe piece in Gorleston depicts the type of crane you would see in an amusement arcade\n\nPart of a piece in Nicholas Everitt Park, Oulton Broad, near Lowestoft, was removed on Sunday over flooding fears. It depicted three children, who appeared to be standing in a small boat placed under the painting.\n\nAnother artwork was spotted on a wall outside the former Lowestoft Electrical shop on London Road North, which appears to show a child next to a sandcastle.\n\nA large painting of a seagull appearing to scavenge from a skip has also appeared in Lowestoft, along with a picture of a rat reclining in a deckchair, drinking a cocktail.\n\nThe appearance of the artwork comes after Great Yarmouth, Gorleston and Lowestoft submitted a joint bid to become the next UK City of Culture in 2025.\n\nFurther along the coast in Cromer, another mural depicts a group of hermit crabs near some empty shells. One of the creatures, who has already secured a shell, holds a sign saying: \"Luxury rentals only\".\n\nThe artwork in Nicholas Everitt Park, Oulton Broad, appeared around the same time as several others on the east coast\n\nAnother piece in Lowestoft depicts a child near a dug-up pavement\n\nBanksy's distinctive rats were seen wreaking havoc in his bathroom during lockdown\n\nThe BBC has attempted to contact representatives of Banksy, whose recent work includes a hula-hooping girl and an escaping prisoner.\n\nHe typically claims responsibility for pieces of street art via posts on his Instagram account and website.\n\nBanksy expert Prof Paul Gough, principal and vice chancellor of Arts University Bournemouth, said he was \"pretty sure\" the works were by Banksy or \"very good fakes\" and that the artist \"has clearly been enjoying an East Anglian staycation\".\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nThe Tokyo Olympics, postponed and played out behind closed doors because of the Covid pandemic, concluded with an upbeat ceremony in Japan's capital.\n\nThe Games took place without spectators and athletes were barred from venturing outside the Olympic village.\n\nTheir staging has faced local opposition and around 30 protestors jostled with police at the National Stadium before the closing ceremony.\n\nHowever, other locals have braved heat and warnings to watch events from afar.\n• None The Sports Desk podcast: Has Biles changed the game on mental health?\n\nFans took in outdoor events, such as triathlon and BMX, from overpasses and other vantage points despite temperatures that reached 35C, the hottest ever recorded at an Olympics.\n\nThe Games' official sign-off, featuring ska bands, football freestylers, breakdancers and BMX riders, created more made-for-TV memories, culminating in athletes thanking the people of Japan by making a heart gesture with their hands.\n\nA scaled-down parade of flagbearers, missing 62 of the competing nations, started proceedings in Tokyo before an air display team painted the French tricolore across the sky in Paris, the host city for 2024.\n\nTokyo 2020 president Seiko Hashimoto, who appeared at seven Games as a speed skater and then a track cyclist, told the athletes: \"There are no words to describe what you have achieved.\n\n\"You have accepted what seemed unimaginable, understood what had to be done, and through hard work and perseverance overcome unbelievable challenges.\"\n\nShe added: \"This has made you true Olympians.\"\n\nAthletes had daily swabs to test for coronavirus and wore face masks when not eating, training or competing. After they had finished competing, they had 48 hours to leave the athletes' village.\n\nThe Games were postponed a year from their original 2020 date and, as the global pandemic raged, Japanese support wavered, with unfavourable opinion polls in the months before and even the country's Emperor Naruhito expressing concerns about their staging.\n\nThe banning of spectators from most venues denied the Japanese public a chance to watch a summer Games close up for the first time since Tokyo 1964 and the climax of an eight-year wait after winning the hosting rights in Buenos Aires in 2013.\n• None How closely have you been paying attention to Tokyo 2020?\n\nAs ever, the Games produced a shower of stars. American swimmer Caeleb Dressel won five golds in the pool. Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah won another three on the track. Gymnast Daiki Hashimoto won two for the home nation in gymnastics.\n\nBut, equally inevitably, there were moments that no-one could have expected.\n\nItaly's Gianmarco Tamberi and Qatar's Mutaz Barshim deciding to share high-jump gold rather than contest the title.\n\nNorwegian Lotte Miller consoling Belgian rival Claire Michel after she came in last in the triathlon.\n\nSimone Biles, predicted to collect a clutch of golds, instead highlighting athletes' mental health as she protected herself by withdrawing from five of her six events.\n\nThe next Olympics begin in just 180 days time with the Winter Games opening in Beijing on 4 February. The next Summer Olympics are just three years away, with Paris hosting in 2024, before Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032.\n\nDespite a build-up blighted by lockdowns, Great Britain surpassed the 51 medals won in Beijing 2008, matched the 65 won in London 2012 and ended just two short of their Rio 2016 total.\n\nTrack cyclist Jason Kenny became the first Briton to win seven gold medals as he retained his keirin title, while Laura Kenny became the most successful female cyclist in history as she took her tally of golds to five with madison success alongside Katie Archibald.\n\nThere were new stars as well. Twenty-one-year-old Tom Dean won a pair of golds in the pool, Bethany Shriever and Charlotte Worthington took BMX titles, and Keely Hodgkinson, 19, won a superb 800m silver on the track. Emily Campbell won Britain's first female weightlifting medal.\n\nSky Brown became Britain's youngest ever summer Games medallist in one of the Games' newest sports with a skateboarding bronze.\n\n\"Not only has the team made history but it has probably made history on the back of the most complex and most challenging and difficult environment that we will face certainly in my lifetime,\" said Team GB's chef de mission Mark England.\n\n\"It has been against all the odds and I think it is the greatest achievement in British Olympic history.\n\n\"This is a very, very young team and a very talented team, and a team I'm absolutely confident that will go to Paris in less than three years and do exceptionally well.\"\n• None Find out these athletes' favourite One Hit Wonders\n• None How it all started for Blossoms and why they are still true to Stockport", "The Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan, almost 20 years after being ousted by a US-led military coalition.\n\nEmboldened by the withdrawal of US troops, they now control all key cities in the country, including Kabul.\n\nThe Taliban took some areas from government by force. In other areas, the Afghan National Army withdrew without a shot being fired.\n\nAlthough renewed clashes had been going on for several weeks, from 6 August the Taliban made a more rapid advance across the country, as they took control of provincial cities.\n\nThe maps below start in early July and show the 400 or so government districts as they fell to the Taliban.\n\nUS forces based outside Afghanistan had launched air strikes against Taliban positions earlier last week, but they failed to slow the advance of the insurgents.\n\nAlthough most US troops left in July, several thousand returned to Kabul at the weekend to help evacuate American and allied personnel from the capital.\n\nThe airport in the capital was the only official route out of the country after the Taliban took control of all the major border crossings.\n\nCustoms duty on goods entering the country via crossings they control is now collected by the Taliban - although exact amounts are unclear as the volume of trade has fallen as a result of the fighting.\n\nBut, Islam Qala on the border with Iran was, for example, capable of generating more than $20 million per month.\n\nDisruption to the flow of imports and exports has affected prices of essential goods in the markets - fuel and foodstuffs in particular.\n\nUS troops and their Nato and regional allies forced the Taliban from power in November 2001. The group had been harbouring Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures linked to the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US.\n\nBut despite a continued international presence in the region, billions of dollars of support and training for the Afghan government forces, the Taliban regrouped and gradually regained strength in more remote areas.\n\nA BBC study in 2017 showed the Taliban were in full control of a number of districts. But the research also showed they were active in many other parts of the country, mounting weekly or monthly attacks in some areas, suggesting significantly higher strength than previous estimates.\n\nIn 2017 about 15 million people - half the population - were reported to be living in areas either controlled by the Taliban or where the Taliban were openly present.", "This week marks one month since the fire first broke out\n\nFirefighters are continuing to tackle a wildfire in northern California which has become the second largest in state history.\n\nThe Dixie Fire has already destroyed nearly all of the historic Gold Rush town of Greenville and authorities warn it could take weeks to contain.\n\nThere are currently 11 major wildfires burning in the state.\n\nRescue workers are bracing for higher temperatures of 38C (100F) in the coming days.\n\nThe Dixie Fire started on 13 July and has since ravaged more than 489,000 acres (198,000 hectares). Just 21% of the blaze is contained, according to officials.\n\nIt is second in size only to last year's August Complex fire, which burned through more than 1m acres, and is currently around 2.5 times the size of New York City.\n\nFour people are missing and thousands have been evacuated, some of those now residing in tents. About 39% of Pumas County is under an evacuation order.\n\nThousands of people have been evacuated\n\n\"We're seeing fire activity that even veteran firefighters haven't seen in their career,\" Edwin Zuniga, a spokesman for Cal Fire told the Washington Post.\n\n\"So we're just in really uncharted territory,\" he said.\n\nMore than 5,000 firefighters are currently tackling the Dixie Fire.\n\nAfter ravaging through Greenville last Wednesday, the fire is now threatening the small town of Crescent Mills, three miles (five kilometres) southeast of Greenville.\n\nAuthorities have warned that low moisture levels have made the area vulnerable to fast-spreading fires.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nIn a video briefing on Sunday, a California fire official said that living trees in the area now contain less moisture than a plank of wood bought at a lumberyard.\n\n\"It's that dry, so it doesn't take much for any sort of embers, sparks or small flaming front to get that going,\" said California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection section chief Mark Brunton.\n\nAccording to the National Interagency Fire Center, there are wildfires across 15 states in the country. There are about 107 large blazes that have burned through more than two million acres.\n\nIt warned of a \"high potential for severe wildfire activity throughout the western United States through the rest of summer and into the fall\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOn Saturday, California's Governor Gavin Newsom said that \"we need to acknowledge just straight up these are climate-induced wildfires\".\n\nClimate change increases the risk of the hot, dry weather that is likely to fuel wildfires.\n\nThe world has already warmed by about 1.2C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.", "Tributes to the little girl are left outside the house in Dungannon\n\nDetectives investigating the death of two-year-old girl Ali Maguire in County Tyrone have arrested a woman.\n\nThe 24-year-old is being held on suspicion of perverting the course of justice, causing or permitting the death of a child and child cruelty.\n\nThe girl died in hospital after the ambulance service was called to a house in Park Avenue, Dungannon, on Friday.\n\nEarlier, police were given extra time to question a 32-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder.\n\nThe girl died in hospital after the ambulance service was called to a house in Park Avenue on Friday afternoon\n\nAn additional 36 hours was given to detectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland's (PSNI) major investigation team.\n\nIt was reported the girl had suffered a serious head injury.\n\nA post-mortem examination is to be carried out to establish the cause of her death.\n\nThe MP for the area, Sinn Féin's Michelle Gildernew, said on Saturday that the community was in \"shock at the news\".", "The Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire is one of Britain's two remaining coal-fired power stations\n\nCoal needs to be consigned to history to limit global warming, says PM Boris Johnson, describing a UN report on climate change as \"sobering\".\n\nHe said the world must shift to clean energy and provide finance to help countries at risk from changing climates.\n\nThe landmark study found it was \"unequivocal\" that human activity was responsible for global warming.\n\nGreen campaigners said the UK must halt planned new fossil fuel projects.\n\nDespite the call to end the use of coal, the UK is considering plans for a new coking coal mine in Cumbria, as well as proposals to tap a new oil field near Shetland.\n\nThe report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - the UN group on the science of climate change - said climate change was already here and causing chaos in some places.\n\nIts authors said some of the changes, including rising sea levels, would not be reversed for hundreds or maybe thousands of years.\n\nThe publication comes less than three months before the UK hosts a key climate summit, known as COP26, in Glasgow.\n\nMr Johnson said: \"Today's report makes for sobering reading, and it is clear that the next decade is going to be pivotal to securing the future of our planet.\n\n\"We know what must be done to limit global warming - consign coal to history and shift to clean energy sources, protect nature and provide climate finance for countries on the frontline.\"\n\nThe UK government, which has adopted a 2035 deadline for a 78% emissions cut, is due to publish its strategy on cutting UK emissions to zero overall by 2050 this autumn.\n\nNet zero means cutting carbon emissions as far as possible then balancing out any remaining releases, for example by tree planting.\n\n\"The UK is leading the way, decarbonising our economy faster than any country in the G20 over the last two decades,\" the prime minister said.\n\n\"I hope today's IPCC report will be a wake-up call for the world to take action now, before we meet in Glasgow in November for the critical COP26 summit.\"\n\nThe UK has already drastically reduced the use of coal, with consumption falling from 61 million tonnes in 2013 to eight million tonnes last year. But the country remains dependent on other fossil fuels such as natural gas, which provides most home heating and about 40% of electricity.\n\nThe Climate Change Committee, the UK's independent adviser on tackling global warming, says the UK has adequate policies for only two of 21 key areas in eliminating carbon emissions.\n\nThe government faces challenges both on the international stage and closer to home.\n\nThe biggest will be to persuade the international community to sign up to meaningful measures in Glasgow at COP26.\n\nSome 70% of the world's economy has signed up to a net zero target - ministers want that to be higher. They are looking at the G20 in particular to drive change.\n\nAt home, an increasing number of Tory MPs are worried about the cost of the UK's own targets.\n\nWill the infrastructure be in place to support the mass use of electric cars? Who will pay for more expensive boilers in homes?\n\nAnswering some of those concerns won't be easy.\n\nThe Treasury is said to be aware of the need to avoid \"extortionate costs\" for low-income families.\n\nMinisters want to bring costs down through investment, incentives and mass production.\n\nBut the specifics will matter to our pockets and our politics.\n\nThe report said the world would reach or exceed temperature rises of 1.5C - seen as a threshold beyond which the worst impacts of global warming will be felt - over the next two decades.\n\nAlmost every nation on Earth signed up to the goals of the Paris climate agreement in 2015, which aims to keep the rise in global temperatures well below 2C this century and to pursue efforts to keep it under 1.5C.\n\nAlok Sharma, COP26 president, said one of the key messages of the report was that \"the future is not yet written\" and 1.5C was still an achievable goal, although retreating fast.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Alok Sharma says \"we need far more in terms of action\"\n\nHe said based on the conversations he had had, there was \"a clear desire\" among governments to \"keep the 1.5C within reach\".\n\nBut he said far more was needed in terms of action, adding \"the cost of inaction on climate change is far greater than the cost of action\".\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the report confirmed that the extreme weather events in recent months were \"only going to become more frequent\" and urgent action was needed.\n\n\"The biggest threat we now face is not climate denial but climate delay,\" he said. \"Those who, like our prime minister, acknowledge there is a problem, but simply don't have the scale of ambition required to match the moment.\n\n\"Our communities and planet can no longer afford the inaction of this government, who are failing to treat the crisis with the seriousness it deserves.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sir Keir Starmer calls for a \"coalition of countries\" ahead of COP26 to tackle climate change.\n\nLabour wants to see a £30bn investment in low-carbon industry to support 400,000 jobs.\n\nScotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told ITV's Good Morning Britain she would be writing to the prime minister to encourage more co-operation between the devolved UK governments in light of the IPCC publication, which she described as \"a grim wake-up call\".\n\nBut climate campaigners, Scottish Greens and Scottish Labour have called on her to oppose plans to extract more fossil fuels from the Cambo oil field near Shetland, which they said would result in the release of an estimated 135 million extra tonnes of carbon in its lifetime.\n\nThe SNP has maintained that the issue is solely a matter for the UK government.\n\nThe UK government also faced criticism after initially opting not to intervene in a company's plans for a new coking coal mine in Cumbria. It later reversed the decision and a minister will have the final say on the project, after a public inquiry is held next month.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC Reality Check explains how to cut your carbon footprint\n\nFriends of the Earth climate campaigner Tony Bosworth said the prime minister's pledge to consign coal to history \"should mean all coal\" and the prime minister must make clear the mine will not be allowed.\n\nLib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said that as hosts of COP26, the UK needs to lead the world in tackling the climate crisis but \"Boris Johnson's dither and delay is costing us time we cannot afford, with drastic consequences\".\n\nGreen Party Deputy Leader Amelia Womack said \"this must be the moment the government finally realises we are in an emergency\", urging the introduction of a global carbon tax as \"the most powerful way of rapidly eliminating fossil fuels\".\n\nClimate scientist Dr Michael Byrne, a contributing author to the report, said the study was \"particularly significant\" as it was the first to link extreme weather events to human activities.\n\n\"That evidence was inconclusive back in 2013, at the time of the previous IPCC report; now it's irrefutable.\"\n\nHe said to slow and stop global warming, emissions of greenhouse gases needed to be \"rapidly reduced\" to net zero, but he added: \"The UK and Scottish targets of net zero by 2050 and 2045 are not fast enough, we have to be more ambitious.\n\n\"Let's hope our political leaders, as they gear up to COP26 in Glasgow this November, take heed.\"", "Groupon, the online discounter, has been ordered by the UK's competition watchdog to improve the way it treats its customers or face legal action.\n\nThe Competition and Markets Authority said it has evidence that Groupon does not always provide customers with refunds or replacement items.\n\nIn some cases, shoppers are offered Groupon \"credits\" instead of the goods and services they paid for.\n\nGroupon said it continues to \"cooperate fully with the CMA\".\n\nThe watchdog said Groupon must make \"swift\" changes to how it deals with customers to \"ensure that it is complying with consumer protection law\".\n\nA spokeswoman for Groupon said: \"We take the outcome of the investigation very seriously and will be carefully reviewing the CMA's findings.\"\n\nThe CMA launched a new investigation into the coupon platform in April and found instances there the company was \"potentially breaking consumer protection law\".\n\nIt said: \"The CMA has found evidence that Groupon does not always provide customers with the refunds and other forms of redress, such as replacement items, to which the CMA considers they are legally entitled.\n\n\"In cases where customers have not been provided with the goods or services that they paid for, they are sometimes only offered Groupon credits instead of refunds.\"\n\nThe CMA is also concerned that Groupon is failing to:\n\n\"More people than ever are shopping online, especially over the last year, \" said the CMA's chief executive Andrea Coscelli. \"It is therefore essential that online businesses treat customers fairly and refund them money where due under consumer law.\n\n\"Groupon must swiftly step up and do right by its customers if it wants to avoid court action.\"\n\nThe watchdog also said Groupon could be in breach of formal commitments it had made to the CMA's predecessor, the Office of Fair Trading, in 2012.\n\nGroupon had pledged to ensure information on its website were not misleading and to comply with customers' legal cancellation and refund rights.\n\nIn the UK, Groupon is registered as MyCityDeal Limited.\n\nThe watchdog said it had written to the firm, as well as other connected businesses it felt may have breached consumer law, including Groupon Goods Global GmbH - registered in Switzerland - and Groupon Inc in the US.", "The waterfall at Ao Yon is popular with tourists\n\nThai police have charged a 27-year-old man in connection with the death of a Swiss woman who was found near a waterfall on the resort island of Phuket last week.\n\nPolice found her face down in the water covered by a black sheet, with her phone, shorts and trainers nearby.\n\nTheerawut Tortip told reporters at a police press conference that he killed the woman and stole from her.\n\n\"I would like to apologise to the family of the tourist and plead for all Thais to forgive me,\" he said.\n\nHe was detained after nearby CCTV footage showed him travelling to the waterfall around the same time Ms Sauvain-Weisskopf went there, police said. The waterfall at Ao Yon is not far from the coast and a popular tourist spot in Phuket's Wichit area.\n\nHer death came just weeks after Thailand launched its so-called \"Phuket Sandbox\" scheme. She reportedly arrived in Thailand on 13 July.\n\nUnder the programme, vaccinated tourists can come to the island without the need to quarantine, but cannot travel to the mainland within 14 days.\n\nMs Sauvain-Weisskopf's death has prompted local officials to step up security on the island amid concerns that it is a huge setback to the sandbox scheme.\n\nGovernor Narong Woonciew said officials would survey unsafe areas in each community and put them under surveillance.\n\nA spokesman for Thailand's foreign minister Don Pramudwinai said on Twitter he had sent his condolences to the Swiss ambassador for the \"murder of a Swiss woman in Phuket\".\n\nAnd government spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri said that Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha had ordered police \"to expedite the investigation to identify and arrest the culprit\".\n\nHe also ordered officials to increase security in Phuket.\n\nSwitzerland's foreign ministry meanwhile released a statement on Thursday saying Thai authorities had contacted them about the death of an \"apparent Swiss citizen\" but gave no more details, citing privacy concerns.\n\nLocal reports have said she was a Swiss diplomat, although officials have not yet commented on her job.\n\nBefore the pandemic, tourism accounted for about one-fifth of the Thai economy.\n\nYou may also be interested in...\n\nYoung Thais in Phuket share their hopes and fears about future employment in the country's tourist industry.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Vodafone has become the second UK mobile company to reintroduce roaming charges for users travelling in Europe.\n\nFrom January, new and upgrading customers will be charged at least £1 a day to use their mobile phone in EU destinations, on several tariffs.\n\nIt follows similar plans from rival EE, announced in June.\n\nInitially, all operators said they would not reintroduce a roaming charge after Brexit, despite having the option to.\n\nVodafone's approach is to limit those that include roaming in Europe to \"selected plans\", including its more expensive options .\n\nThe rules will change for new and upgrading customers from Wednesday, 11 August, though the charges will not apply until January.\n\n\"Existing customers will not be impacted by these changes while they remain on their current price plan, and roaming in the Republic of Ireland will still be included for all customers,\" Vodafone said.\n\nAfter January, affected customers can pay £2 a day to use their allowance in Europe - £1 if bought in an eight or 15-day bundle.\n\nFair-usage limits also apply at 25GB of roaming data a month.\n\nSince 2017, UK consumers have, within reason, been able to use their mobile-phone tariffs - calls, texts and data - as freely in the EU as at home.\n\nBut when the EU trade deal was signed in December 2020, it opened the door to users being charged when travelling in Europe.\n\nWhile the agreement encouraged operators to have \"transparent and reasonable rates\", it did not ban the charges outright.\n\nEE was the first to break ranks, with its £2 daily charge to 47 European destinations, which will also kick in from January.\n\nIts customers will also not be charged to use their phones in the Republic of Ireland.\n\nCurrently, O2 allows a roaming limit of 25GB, with any data used over that charged at £3.50 per gigabyte.\n\nThree has cut its fair-use data limit from 20GB a month to 12GB when in Europe.\n\nIt charges £3 per gigabyte above that.\n\nUswitch mobile analyst Ernest Doku, said: \"In the aftermath of Brexit, the UK's biggest mobile providers all said that they had no immediate plans to change their charging models for consumers roaming within the EU.\n\n\"It's disappointing for consumers to see that the situation looks to be shifting, with a risk that roaming at no additional cost could soon be a distant memory for UK residents.\"\n\nTravellers should check the small print if they were due an upgrade in coming months, Mr Doku said.\n\n\"Always use hotel and cafe wi-fi when on holiday, where possible,\" he added.\n\nBut Paolo Pescatore, an analyst at PP Foresight, said the price changes were a \"harsh reality\" of Brexit.\n\n\"Wholesale roaming rates will change given UK's exit, and this in turn will inevitably drive higher prices without EU protection. It's a pretty easy decision for UK telcos,\" he said.\n\nAll the operators \"are struggling with margins being squeezed, and are seeking ways of increasing revenue while investing billions in costly next generation fixed and mobile networks\", he added.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Adam spent hours in a vaccine clinic on his second attempt to get Covid jab\n\nAdam really wants to get vaccinated against Covid-19, but an extreme fear of needles is holding him back.\n\nThe 23-year-old from Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, says it's not the pain he's afraid of. For him, it's the thought of the injection itself - and the needle piercing his skin.\n\n\"It feels like the world is ending in that moment,\" Adam says.\n\n\"It feels like you have no way out, you can't do anything, your heart rate's pushing 200, you can't focus on anything.\n\n\"It's about a pathological fear of needles.\"\n\nIn total, over 85 million doses of the Covid vaccine have been administered across the UK.\n\nBut a recent Oxford University survey of more than 15,000 adults in the UK suggests needle phobia accounts for about 10% of Covid vaccine hesitancy.\n\nMore than 68% of 18 to 29-year-olds in England have had a first jab, while 88.6% of all UK adults have had one.\n\nThe survey suggests reluctance to get the Covid jab is generally a bit higher in younger people and some ethnic minority groups.\n\nAdam has severe anxiety - and he thinks his needle phobia developed after he had his ear pierced when he was eight.\n\nIt took weeks for him to get himself to a vaccine centre to even attempt to get a Covid jab. But when he saw his local hospital's vaccine centre put a message out on Facebook offering support to anyone nervous about the jab, Adam decided to take the plunge.\n\nAt his appointment, he was given a side room with a nurse where he could discuss his fears.\n\nHe tells BBC News that after hours of \"severe panic\", he felt he'd made some progress, but still wasn't ready to have the jab.\n\nThree days later, Adam spent three more hours in a private room with nurses. They used techniques such as slow breathing and distraction to help him overcome his fears.\n\nAdam said he came close to having the jab this time, but flinched at the last moment so the needle didn't inject the dose.\n\nAround one in 10 people who are hesitant to have the Covid-19 jab have needle phobia, a study suggests\n\nNeedle phobia is a fear of medical procedures that involve needles or injections. It affects about one in 10 people, according to the NHS.\n\nThe fear is often the result of bad memories of needles in younger life.\n\n\"It's possible that seeing others reacting [badly] to an injection means you learn that response from them,\" says psychologist and phobia specialist, Robert Edelman.\n\n\"Needles are also associated with blood and for a lot of people that triggers an anxiety response - an increase and then a decrease in heart rate results in fainting.\"\n\nThere are lots of ways to help people overcome needle phobia, such as cognitive behavioural therapy.\n\nTreatment can include someone getting gradual exposure to needles and injections, by being shown pictures and videos to begin with.\n\nAnd there are methods to help stop people fainting in fear, such as teaching them to recognise early signs of a dip in blood pressure.\n\nOther tips from experts we've spoken to include:\n\nPsychiatrist Andrew Iles says it's good to remember that it's natural to find it unpleasant to get a jab.\n\n\"Jabs are uncomfortable and strange so it's absolutely fine to be fearful of needles, but it's really important not to let that put you off getting the vaccine.\"\n\nDespite Adam's failed attempts, he's feeling optimistic about trying again - and has booked in at the same vaccine clinic next week.\n\n\"Game on! Hopefully I'll grab it and get it out of the way.\"\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Brittany Commisso tells CBS This Morning: \"He groped me, he touched me\"\n\nAn executive assistant to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has broken her anonymity and called for accountability over his alleged sexual harassment.\n\nBrittany Commisso's claims were first detailed in a report which found Mr Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women.\n\n\"What he did to me was a crime,\" Ms Commisso, 32, said about alleged instances of groping while she worked under the governor.\n\nMr Cuomo, 63, denies any wrongdoing and has so far resisted calls to resign.\n\nAn inquiry by Attorney General Letitia James's office last week found that Mr Cuomo's alleged behaviour against women had violated state and federal law.\n\nThe investigation took months and involved interviews with almost 200 people, including staff members making complaints against him.\n\nMs Commisso, referred to in the report as Executive Assistant #1, told investigators that the governor made increasingly suggestive comments about her appearance and relationship status after she began working with him.\n\nShe said he had inappropriately hugged her - and once kissed her on the lips without her consent.\n\nShe also accused the governor of touching her bottom while the pair took a photograph together and alleged that on another occasion put his hand up her blouse and grabbed her breast.\n\nSpeaking about her experience in the interview to be aired on Monday, Ms Commisso said she had not spoken out at the time because she had not thought she would believed.\n\n\"I was afraid that if I had come forward, and revealed my name, that the governor and his 'enablers' [as] I like to call them would viciously attack me, would smear my name as I had seen and heard them do before to people,\" she said.\n\nAlbany County Sheriff Craig Apple previously confirmed that a criminal investigation has been opened against Mr Cuomo, with Ms Commisso identifying herself as the complainant.\n\nMr Cuomo has so far resisted calls to resign over the allegations, including from President Joe Biden, but may soon face impeachment by state lawmakers.\n\nHe denied specific allegations to investigators and said in a statement last week that he had \"never touched anyone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances\".\n\nOn Sunday his top aide, Melissa DeRosa, announced her resignation.\n\nLawyer Roberta Kaplan, chair of gender equality group Time's Up, also resigned her post due to ties to Mr Cuomo on Monday.\n\n\"Unfortunately, recent events have made it clear that even our apparent allies in the fight to advance women can turn out to be abusers,\" she wrote in her letter, reported by the New York Times.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Tackling climate change is a big task and can feel impossible to do alone. But there are clear ways of cutting your contribution to carbon emissions, also known as your carbon footprint.\n\nBBC Reality Check's Chris Morris explains how changing three aspects of how you live can make a difference.", "The public should be consulted on whether crime victims should be barred from getting compensation if they have an unspent conviction, judges say.\n\nThe High Court ruling against the justice secretary follows a legal challenge by a woman who was sexually abused aged eight but denied damages.\n\nKim Mitchell, who committed a minor public order offence 30 years later, waived her anonymity and said the rule was unfair and needed to be changed.\n\nMinisters are considering the ruling.\n\nMs Mitchell was sexually assaulted by a teacher when she was eight. Her abuser was convicted 27 years later.\n\nBy the time she applied to the Criminal Injuries and Compensation Authority Ms Mitchell was told she was no longer eligible because of her own conviction.\n\nThe rule, which bars crime victims from compensation if they have an unspent conviction, was introduced in 2012.\n\nSome victims' organisations argue it disproportionately affects victims of child sex abuse.\n\nIn 2018, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA) recommended the rule be revised.\n\nThe government said it would consult on the IICSA recommendations but then said an internal review had been conducted and the rule would not be changed.\n\nMs Mitchell challenged the justice secretary's decision and High Court judge Mrs Justice Lang on Monday ordered Robert Buckland to conduct a public consultation.\n\nThe Criminal Injuries and Compensation Authority oversees compensation awards in England, Wales and Scotland.\n\nMs Mitchell said: \"It shouldn't take a court case to make the government do what it has promised.\n\n\"But I'm pleased this decision means victims of child abuse like me can now tell policy makers directly how the rule affects us.\n\n\"The rule is unfair and must be changed. I hope this win allows others to feel empowered to speak out.\"\n\nA government spokesperson said: \"We have noted this judgment and will consider our next steps.\"", "Parts of northern Libya have been hit by devastating flooding after extreme rainfall caused two dams to collapse\n\nExtreme weather is becoming more frequent and more intense in many places around the world because of climate change.\n\nScientists say this will continue whilst humans keep releasing planet-warming greenhouse gases.\n\nHere are four ways climate change is linked to extreme weather.\n\nThis is because the whole distribution of daily temperatures shifts to warmer levels, making hotter days more likely and more extreme.\n\nScientists use computer simulations to assess whether extreme weather events have been made more likely by warming caused by humans.\n\nFor example, the intense heatwaves that hit southern Europe and the southern US and Mexico in July 2023 would have been \"virtually impossible\" without human-caused climate change, according to the World Weather Attribution network (WWA).\n\nBut these events are no longer rare. If global warming reaches 2C above the pre-industrial period - before humans started burning fossil fuels at scale - these events are expected to happen every 2-5 years, the WWA warns.\n\nIn the UK, temperatures topped 40C for the first time on record in July 2022. This would have been \"extremely unlikely\" without climate change, the WWA says.\n\nAs well as happening more frequently, heatwaves are becoming longer and more intense in many places, including the UK, where 2022 was the warmest year on record.\n\nThis can happen as a result of \"heat domes\" - an area of high pressure where hot air is pushed down and trapped in place, causing temperatures to soar over large areas.\n\nLinking climate change with specific individual droughts can be difficult. The availability of water depends on more than just temperature and rainfall.\n\nBut longer and more intense heatwaves can worsen droughts by drying out soils. This makes the air above warm up more quickly, leading to more intense heat.\n\nIncreased demand for water from humans and farmers in hot weather puts even more stress on the water supply.\n\nIn parts of East Africa, there were five failed rainy seasons in a row between 2020 and 2022, as the region suffered its worst drought for 40 years.\n\nClimate change has made droughts like this at least 100 times more likely, according to the WWA.\n\nThe East African drought hit agriculture and food security hard, displacing nearly 1.2 million people in Somalia alone, according to the World Meteorological Organisation.\n\nFires happen naturally in many parts of the world. It's difficult to know if climate change has caused a specific wildfire to spread because other factors are also relevant, such as changing land use.\n\nBut climate change is making the weather conditions needed for wildfires to spread more likely, according to the UN's climate body, the IPCC.\n\nExtreme and long-lasting heat draws more and more moisture out of the ground and vegetation.\n\nThese tinder-dry conditions provide fuel for fires, which can spread at an incredible speed, particularly if winds are strong.\n\nCanada is experiencing its worst wildfire season on record, with 176,000 sq km (43.5 million acres) already burnt.\n\nClimate change more than doubled the likelihood of the extreme \"fire weather\" conditions in eastern Canada that allowed the fires to spread, according to the WWA.\n\nThere have also been severe wildfires in Greece, Chile and Australia in 2023.\n\nGlobal fire trends are complicated because of the significance of changing land use, but many regions have seen increases in the area burnt by extreme wildfires in recent decades, including the western US and Canada.\n\nWildfires are projected to become more frequent and intense in future across the globe due to the the combined effects of shifting land use and climate change, according to a recent report by the UN Environment Programme.\n\nIt suggested that the number of the most extreme fires may increase by up to 50% by 2100.\n\nFor every 1C rise in average temperature, the atmosphere can hold about 7% more moisture.\n\nThis can result in more droplets and heavier rainfall, sometimes in a shorter space of time and over a smaller area.\n\nRecently, parts of northern Libya have been hit by devastating floods as a result of extreme rainfall and two major dam collapses. The heavy rainfall was made up to 50 times more likely by human-caused climate change, according to the WWA.\n\nThe destruction was exacerbated by social and political instability in the country, which hampered efforts to adequately prepare for and respond to such storms - for example dam maintenance.\n\nNot all extreme rainfall events can be attributed to climate change, as other factors including changes to land use can play a role. For example, the WWA says that climate change only had a \"limited\" role in the heavy rainfall that hit northern Italy in May 2023.\n\nBut globally, the frequency and intensity of heavy rainfall events has increased over most land regions due to human activity, according to the IPCC.\n\nAnd heavy precipitation will generally become more frequent and intense with further warming, the IPCC says.", "The Dixie Fire - the largest active blaze in the US - has destroyed homes, historic buildings, and even warped the street lights in Greenville, California.", "Afghan security forces have faced a major blow with the loss of Kunduz\n\nThe Taliban have captured three regional capitals in Afghanistan as they continue to make sweeping territorial gains in the country.\n\nThey seized control of the key northern city of Kunduz on Sunday, as well as Sar-e-Pul and Taloqan.\n\nIt means five regional capitals have fallen to the militants since Friday, with Kunduz being their most important gain this year.\n\nThe Taliban said there is no agreement on a ceasefire with the government.\n\nA spokesman for the group warned against further US intervention in Afghanistan while speaking to Al Jazeera TV on Sunday.\n\nViolence has escalated across Afghanistan after US and other international forces began to withdraw their troops from the country, following 20 years of military operations.\n\nTaliban militants have made rapid advances in recent weeks. Having captured large swathes of the countryside, they are now targeting key towns and cities.\n\nThe three northern cities fell to Taliban control within hours of each other on Sunday, with one resident in Kunduz describing the situation as \"total chaos\".\n\nThe Afghan government, meanwhile, said its forces were fighting to retake key installations.\n\nHeavy fighting has also been reported in Herat in the west, and in the southern cities of Kandahar and Lashkar Gah.\n\nThousands of civilians have been displaced this year. Families, including babies and young children, have been sheltering in a school in the north-eastern city of Asadabad.\n\n\"Many bombs were dropped on our village. The Taliban came and destroyed everything. We were helpless and had to leave our houses. Our children and ourselves are sleeping on the ground in dire conditions\", Gul Naaz told AFP.\n\n\"There was firing, one of my seven-year-old daughters went out during that fighting and disappeared. I don't know if she is alive or dead,\" another displaced resident said.\n\nDisplaced children take refuge at a school in Asadabad, Kunar province near the Pakistan border\n\nThe US has intensified its air strikes on Taliban positions, with Afghan military officials saying militants have been killed. But the Taliban say the air strikes hit two hospitals and a school in the city of Lashkar Gah. Neither claim has been independently verified.\n\nThe US embassy in Afghanistan condemned the Taliban's \"violent new offensive against Afghan cities\", saying the group's actions to \"forcibly impose its rule are unacceptable\".\n\n\"They demonstrate wanton disregard for the welfare and rights of civilians and will worsen this country's humanitarian crisis,\" it said in a statement.\n\nThis attack on a number of strategic cities and their fall to the Taliban was unprecedented. But as the deadline for the full withdrawal of foreign forces approached, a big change on the battlefield was expected.\n\nNow it is time for the Afghan government to prove that its well-equipped forces, 350,000 strong, are able to retake the lost areas.\n\nIt would be difficult for the Taliban to hold Kunduz, but for several weeks the group has kept control of commercial centres important for trade with Iran and Pakistan.\n\nThe populations in cities taken by the Taliban are paying the price of war, having lost loved ones or property. They are having to leave their homes, fearing the launch of a government operation to retake the cities.\n\nPeace talks with the Taliban in Doha are deadlocked. If the process resumes, from now on both sides will be trying to control the larger area to justify a greater share of power, if they agree on a transitional government.\n\nThe seizure of Kunduz is the most significant gain for the Taliban since they launched their offensive in May. The city, home to 270,000 people, is considered a gateway to the country's mineral-rich northern provinces.\n\nAnd its location makes it strategically important as there are highways connecting Kunduz to other major cities, including Kabul, and the province shares a border with Tajikistan.\n\nThat border is used for the smuggling of Afghan opium and heroin to Central Asia, which then finds its way to Europe. Controlling Kunduz means controlling one of the most important drug smuggling routes in the region.\n\nIt also holds symbolic significance for the Taliban because it was a key northern stronghold before 2001. The militants captured the city in 2015 and again in 2016 but have never been able to hold it for long.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Yogita Limaye travelled to Afghanistan's Kunduz province, most of which has fallen to the Taliban\n\nFormer British Gen Sir Richard Barrons says there is a danger of Afghanistan feeling \"friendless\", in the wake of recent battlefield defeats and the possible withdrawal of diplomats and contractors from Kabul if things get worse.\n\nIt is much too early to speculate about a Saigon-style withdrawal from the capital, echoing the way the Americans hastily left Vietnam in the final act of the war there, in 1975.\n\nBut in recent days, British and American calls for their nationals to leave the country threaten to create a dangerous narrative.\n\nIt is something that western military planners have been worried about for some time, following US President Joe Biden's decision, in April, to withdraw American forces by 11 September.\n\nIn June, classified UK Ministry of Defence documents were found at a Canterbury bus stop by a member of the public. One of them voiced just this concern, speaking about the need to counter an \"abandonment narrative\" in Afghanistan.\n\n\"Precise language may be needed,\" it said, \"to avoid misunderstandings about 'retrograde to zero' vs normal diplomatic (including military) representation.\"\n\n\"Retrograde to zero\" is the peculiar euphemism used to describe the withdrawal process now in its final weeks. In other words, planners were only too aware of creating the dangerous impression that Afghanistan might indeed be left \"friendless\".\n\nThat is not yet the case. American air strikes are still being used in an attempt to halt the Taliban's advances. Britain and the US will doubtless have hidden assets on the ground, working feverishly to stem the tide of the war.", "Siemens Gamesa's current blade factory will be doubled in size\n\nA wind turbine blade factory in Hull is to be doubled in size after the government confirmed it would provide financial support for the expansion.\n\nSiemens Gamesa said the £186m upgrade to its Alexandra Dock site, the UK's largest offshore wind manufacturing facility, would create 200 jobs.\n\nThe scheme, first outlined in February, is set to be complete by 2023.\n\nIt will receive a grant from a £160m fund but the government has not yet revealed the exact amount.\n\nThe Hull plant, which has manufactured more than 1,500 offshore wind turbine blades since it opened in 2016, currently employs about 1,000 people.\n\nThe giant turbines are used in wind farms being constructed in the North Sea, as well as exported around the world.\n\nThey are currently being supplied to the 1.4-gigawatt Hornsea Two project off the Yorkshire coast which will be the world's largest offshore wind power plant, powering the equivalent of 1.3 million homes.\n\nThe expansion will help Siemens Gamesa prepare for the next generation of wind turbine blades\n\nHull City Council leader Daren Hale said the decision was \"fantastic news\" for the city, which he said was at the \"forefront of the green economy revolution\".\n\n\"This additional £186m investment will create hundreds more jobs, and the expansion will support the recovery of the city post-Covid,\" he added.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson, who has previously pledged to power every home in the UK via offshore farms, said: \"The Humber region embodies the UK's green industrial revolution, with new investment into developing the next generation of wind turbines set to create new jobs, export opportunities and clean power across the country.\n\n\"With less than 100 days to go until the climate summit Cop26, we need to see more countries embracing new technologies, building green industries and phasing out coal power for a sustainable future.\"\n\nClark MacFarlane, Siemens Gamesa's UK managing director, said: \"Our investment in our existing offshore blade factory, logistics, and harbour facilities in Hull has been a key driver of the growth of the UK's world-leading offshore wind industry.\"\n\nMeanwhile, it was announced that a further £78m will be invested by GRI Renewable Industries (GRI) to build a wind turbine tower factory at the Able Marine Energy Park, at Killinghome, North Lincolnshire.\n\nThe company said it would create 260 jobs at the site which lies on the other side of the Humber estuary.\n\nRob Waltham, leader of North Lincolnshire Council, said he was delighted the company had chosen Killinghome as its base.\n\n\"This latest development will create even more well-paid sustainable jobs - helping to create a more prosperous future,\" he said.\n\nGRI is the second company to commit to the planned energy park at Killinghome\n\nBusiness Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the Humber region was \"vitally important\" for the growth of the UK's offshore wind industry.\n\n\"Our announcement backed by private investment will give a boost to this important industrial heartland, creating and supporting thousands of good quality jobs across the region while ensuring it is on the frontline of developing the next generation of offshore wind turbines.\"\n\nThe announcement comes as the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) publishes the first of a series of reports on climate change.\n\nIt says humanity's damaging impact on the climate is a \"statement of fact\" and action is urgently needed to cut emissions to avert a \"climate catastrophe\".\n\nFollow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.", "David Cameron showed a \"significant lack of judgement\" in the way he lobbied the government on behalf of Greensill Capital, a report has found.\n\nThe Treasury committee also questioned the former prime minister's judgement on the financial health of the now-collapsed lending firm.\n\nThe report comes after Mr Cameron was found to have lobbied for Greensill by sending texts to the chancellor.\n\nMr Cameron said he acted in good faith but there were \"lessons to be learnt\".\n\nThe Treasury committee said that while Mr Cameron did not break the rules over lobbying by former ministers, there was a \"good case for strengthening them\", with the current ones offering \"insufficient strength\".\n\nThe committee concluded Mr Cameron's \"less formal means\" to lobby the government to help Greensill, where he was an advisor, were \"aided by his previous position of prime minister\".\n\nThey added had he \"taken a broader and more enquiring assessment of the business\", there were \"signals available\" which might have led him to take a \"more restrained approach\" when asking the government to help the firm.\n\nMel Stride, chair of the Treasury committee, said the Treasury \"should have encouraged\" Mr Cameron into \"more formal lines of communication as soon as it had identified his personal financial incentives\".\n\nHe added: \"However, the Treasury took the right decision to reject the objectives of his lobbying, and the committee found that Treasury ministers and officials behaved with complete and absolute integrity.\"\n\nAt the start of the coronavirus pandemic the government said it would back loans to large companies struggling in lockdown.\n\nGreensill Capital, which has since collapsed, made seven loans totalling £350m to companies owned by Sanjeev Gupta's business empire, GFG Alliance, which included Liberty Steel, the UK's third-largest steel manufacturer which employs 3,000 people.\n\nIt was revealed in March, that when advising Greensill, the former prime minister texted Conservative ministers within the Treasury to appeal for access to emergency loans for the finance firm, but the requests were rejected.\n\nMr Cameron has been cleared of breaking any rules over his lobbying, however critics have continued to question his access to ministers.\n\nThe Treasury committee said the \"central argument\" for Greensill's attempt to gain access to government support was \"more of a sales pitch than a reality\".\n\nThe committee acknowledged Treasury officials and ministers behaved properly in their handling of Mr Cameron's lobbying, and \"took the right decision\" in preventing Greensill from accessing the Covid Corporate Financing Facility.\n\nHowever, they added members were \"very surprised\" by the Treasury's claim that Mr Cameron's former position had no meaningful effect on how Greensill's application for access to the CCFF was dealt with.\n\n\"Mr Cameron was an ex-prime minister, who had worked with those he was lobbying and had access to their mobile phone numbers,\" the committee said.\n\n\"The committee believes that the Treasury's unwillingness to accept that it could have made any better choices in how it engaged in this case is a missed opportunity for reflection.\"\n\nIn response to the report, Mr Cameron said: \"While I am pleased that the report confirms I broke no rules, I very much take on board its wider points.\n\n\"I always acted in good faith, and had no idea until the end of last year that Greensill Capital was in danger of failure.\n\n\"However, I have been clear all along that there are lessons to be learnt. As I said to the committee, I accept that communications of this nature should be done in future through only the most formal of channels.\n\n\"I agree that the guidance on how former ministers engage with government could be updated and was pleased to provide some suggestions on this to the committee.\"\n\nA Treasury spokesman said: \"This report is clear that the Treasury was right to consider Greensill's proposals, right to ultimately reject their proposals, and concludes that the Treasury behaved with absolute integrity throughout the process.\"\n\nDeputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said Mr Cameron being cleared of breaking any rules \"proves that the rules that are supposed to regulate lobbying are completely unfit for purpose\".", "Human activity is changing the climate in unprecedented and sometimes irreversible ways, a major UN scientific report has said.\n\nThe landmark study warns of increasingly extreme heatwaves, droughts and flooding, and a key temperature limit being broken in just over a decade.\n\nThe report \"is a code red for humanity\", says the UN chief.\n\nBut scientists say a catastrophe can be avoided if the world acts fast.\n\nThere is hope that deep cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases could stabilise rising temperatures.\n\nEchoing the scientists' findings, UN Secretary General António Guterres said: \"If we combine forces now, we can avert climate catastrophe. But, as today's report makes clear, there is no time for delay and no room for excuses. I count on government leaders and all stakeholders to ensure COP26 is a success.\"\n\nThe sober assessment of our planet's future has been delivered by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group of scientists whose findings are endorsed by the world's governments.\n\nTheir report is the first major review of the science of climate change since 2013. Its release comes less than three months before a key climate summit in Glasgow known as COP26.\n\nIn strong, confident tones, the IPCC's document says \"it is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, oceans and land\".\n\nAccording to Prof Ed Hawkins, from the University of Reading, UK, and one of the report's authors, the scientists cannot be any clearer on this point.\n\n\"It is a statement of fact, we cannot be any more certain; it is unequivocal and indisputable that humans are warming the planet.\"\n\nPetteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, said: \"By using sports terms, one could say the atmosphere has been exposed to doping, which means we have begun observing extremes more often than before.\"\n\nThe authors say that since 1970, global surface temperatures have risen faster than in any other 50-year period over the past 2,000 years.\n\nThis warming is \"already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe\".\n\nWhether it's heatwaves like the ones recently experienced in Greece and western North America, or floods like those in Germany and China, \"their attribution to human influence has strengthened\" over the past decade.\n\nThe new report also makes clear that the warming we've experienced to date has made changes to many of our planetary support systems that are irreversible on timescales of centuries to millennia.\n\nThe oceans will continue to warm and become more acidic. Mountain and polar glaciers will continue melting for decades or centuries.\n\n\"The consequences will continue to get worse for every bit of warming,\" said Prof Hawkins.\n\n\"And for many of these consequences, there's no going back.\"\n\nDrought in California has seen water levels in Lake Oroville drop to record lows\n\nWhen it comes to sea level rise, the scientists have modelled a likely range for different levels of emissions.\n\nHowever, a rise of around 2m by the end of this century cannot be ruled out - and neither can a 5m rise by 2150.\n\nSuch outcomes, while unlikely, would threaten many millions more people in coastal areas with flooding by 2100.\n\nOne key aspect of the report is the expected rate of temperature rise and what it means for the safety of humanity.\n\nProtesters urge action by politicians as the clock counts down to November's COP26 climate summit in Glasgow\n\nAlmost every nation on Earth signed up to the goals of the Paris climate agreement in 2015.\n\nThis pact aims to keep the rise in global temperatures well below 2C this century and to pursue efforts to keep it under 1.5C.\n\nThis new report says that under all the emissions scenarios considered by the scientists, both targets will be broken this century unless huge cuts in carbon take place.\n\nCan temperature rise be kept below 1.5°C?\n• None 500bn tonnesmore would leave only a 50-50 chance of staying under 1.5°C\n\nThe authors believe that 1.5C will be reached by 2040 in all scenarios. If emissions aren't slashed in the next few years, this will happen even earlier.\n\nThis was predicted in the IPCC's special report on 1.5C in 2018 and this new study now confirms it.\n\n\"We will hit one-and-a-half degrees in individual years much earlier. We already hit it in two months during the El Niño in 2016,\" said Prof Malte Meinshausen, an IPCC author from the University of Melbourne in Australia.\n\n\"The new report's best estimate is the middle of 2034, but the uncertainty is huge and ranges between now and never.\"\n\nThe consequences of going past 1.5C over a period of years would be unwelcome in a world that has already experienced a rapid uptick in extreme events with a temperature rise since pre-industrial times of 1.1C.\n\n\"We will see even more intense and more frequent heatwaves,\" said Dr Friederike Otto, from the University of Oxford, UK, and one of the IPCC report's authors.\n\n\"And we will also see an increase in heavy rainfall events on a global scale, and also increases in some types of droughts in some regions of the world.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sea levels will continue to rise for centuries, warns climate scientist Prof Ed Hawkins.\n\nProf Carolina Vera, vice-chair of the working group that produced the document, said: \"The report clearly shows that we are already living the consequences of climate change everywhere. But we will experience further and concurrent changes that increase with every additional beat of warming.\"\n\nWhile this report is more clear and confident about the downsides to warming, the scientists are more hopeful that if we can cut global emissions in half by 2030 and reach net zero by the middle of this century, we can halt and possibly reverse the rise in temperatures.\n\nReaching net zero involves reducing greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible using clean technology, then burying any remaining releases using carbon capture and storage, or absorbing them by planting trees.\n\n\"The thought before was that we could get increasing temperatures even after net zero,\" said another co-author, Prof Piers Forster from the University of Leeds, UK.\n\n\"But we now expect nature to be kind to us and if we are able to achieve net zero, we hopefully won't get any further temperature increase; and if we are able to achieve net zero greenhouse gases, we should eventually be able to reverse some of that temperature increase and get some cooling.\"\n\nWhile the future projections of warming are clearer than ever in this report, and many impacts simply cannot be avoided, the authors caution against fatalism.\n\n\"Lowering global warming really minimises the likelihood of hitting these tipping points,\" said Dr Otto. \"We are not doomed.\"\n\nA tipping point refers to when part of the Earth's climate system undergoes an abrupt change in response to continued warming.\n\nFor political leaders, the report is another in a long line of wake-up calls, but since it comes so close to November's COP26 global climate summit, it carries extra weight.", "Engineers are trying to work out what went wrong when the US space agency's Perseverance rover tried to gather its first rock core on Mars.\n\nThe robot's mechanisms seemed to work perfectly but when a metal tube expected to hold the sample was examined, it was found to be empty.\n\nThe mission team think the particular properties of the target rock may have been to blame.\n\nMore images and telemetry pulled down from Mars should solve the puzzle.\n\n\"The initial thinking is that the empty tube is more likely a result of the rock target not reacting the way we expected during coring, and less likely a hardware issue with the sampling and caching system,\" said Jennifer Trosper, project manager for Perseverance at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.\n\n\"Over the next few days, the team will be spending more time analysing the data we have, and also acquiring some additional diagnostic data to support understanding the root cause for the empty tube.\"\n\n...but when the camera looked inside the tube, there was nothing\n\nPerseverance has a drilling and coring system on the end of its 2m-long robotic arm.\n\nThis is capable of cutting and retrieving finger-sized samples of rock. These are then passed to a processing unit inside the rover's belly that packages and seals them in titanium cylinders.\n\nBut before sealing, a camera and probe are used to assess the amount of material recovered, and when this was done for Friday's coring attempt it became obvious the sample was missing.\n\nThe corer is on the end of the 2m-long robotic arm\n\nThis would not be the first time the Red Planet's surface has played hard-to-get with robots' analytical tools.\n\nNasa's 2007 Phoenix lander found the local soils in Mars' \"Arctic\" region to have a sticky consistency that made it difficult to get a sample into the robot's onboard laboratory. And the agency's 2018 InSight lander struggled, and ultimately failed, to drive a temperature instrument into the ground. The sub-surface was unexpectedly resistant.\n\nPerseverance landed on Mars in February, in a 45km-wide (30 miles) crater called Jezero. Its mission is to try to determine whether life exists, or has ever existed, on the planet.\n\nOne of the ways it hopes to do this is by collecting a range of rock samples for later return to Earth.\n\nThe initial attempt at getting a core was targeted at a rock that is suspected to represent the base material of Jezero. Scientists hope that if such a sample could be accurately dated, it would give them a timeline for everything that subsequently happened in the crater.\n\nJezero looks, from satellite pictures, to have hosted a lake many billions of years ago. It's the kind of environment that might have been favourable to micro-organisms.\n\nThomas Zurbuchen, Nasa's science director, said he had no doubt engineers would soon work out why the sample is missing.\n\n\"I’m confident we have the right team working (on) this, and we will persevere toward a solution to ensure future success,\" he added.\n\nTelescopic view: There look to be river and lake-deposited sediments in Jezero", "The UN has condemned the practice of child marriage\n\nPolice in Zimbabwe are investigating the death of a 14-year-old girl during childbirth, a case that sparked outrage among citizens and rights activists.\n\nMemory Machaya is reported to have died last month at a church shrine in the eastern region of Marange.\n\nThe case has exposed the exploitation of minors, as she was reportedly forced to abandon school to get married.\n\nThe United Nations urged the government to recognise child marriage as a crime and bring an end to the practice.\n\nThe organisation said it \"notes with deep concern\" and \"condemns strongly\" reports into the circumstances surrounding the death.\n\n\"The current trend of unresolved cases of violence against women and girls in Zimbabwe, including marriages of minors, cannot continue with impunity,\" the UN said in a statement on Saturday.\n\nThe girl's death on 15 July has put the spotlight on the practice of child marriage within Zimbabwe's Apostolic Church, which often rejects medicine and hospital treatment.\n\nHer family has said that the baby survived the birth and was doing well, local media report.\n\nThe circumstances that led to the death and subsequent burial are under investigation by the police and the country's state gender commission.\n\nAn online petition calling for \"justice for Memory Machaya\" has so far received more than 57,000 signatures.\n\nZimbabwean feminist activist Everjoice Win said it was time for people to pressure those \"with the power to uphold the law, or make new laws\".\n\nWomen and girls were \"not seen as fully human, with individual rights... to control our own bodies\" she wrote on Twitter.\n\nBy law, Zimbabwean girls are allowed to get married at the age of 18, while 16 is the age of sexual consent.\n\nBut some families believe child marriage can provide financial benefits.\n\nMany child brides hope marriage will provide the opportunity to go to school. However, young girls typically end up falling pregnant soon after, or being kept at home to carry out household chores.", "Former Business Secretary Alok Sharma is now leading COP26, the climate summit in Glasgow in November\n\nThe world is \"dangerously close\" to running out of time to stop a climate change catastrophe, the UK government's climate chief Alok Sharma has said.\n\nMr Sharma - who is leading COP26, the climate summit hosted by the UK this year - said the effects were already clear with floods, fires and heatwaves.\n\n\"We can't afford to wait two years, five years, 10 years - this is the moment,\" he told the Observer.\n\nBut he did not condemn the government for allowing more fossil fuel projects.\n\nAnd he defended his decision to travel to more than 30 countries in seven months.\n\nMr Sharma's interview with the Observer comes ahead of a major report being released on Monday from the United Nations' climate change researchers.\n\nThe report is set to be the strongest statement yet from the UN group on the science of climate change - and will likely give details about how the world's oceans, ice caps and land will change in the next decades.\n\nThe summary has been approved in a process involving scientists and representatives of 195 governments, which - having signed off on the findings - will be under pressure to take more action at COP26 in November.\n\nDoug Parr, chief scientist with Greenpeace UK, said \"world leaders have done a terrible job of listening\" to warnings about climate change.\n\n\"This year, this has to change. We don't need more pledges, commitments and targets - we need real action right here right now.\"\n\nWildfires are currently raging in Greece, forcing thousands to evacuate their homes - and fires have also been burning in Turkey and California in the US. This summer, western Europe also saw its worst flooding in decades, which killed dozens of people.\n\nMr Sharma said if urgent action was not taken, the consequences would be \"catastrophic\".\n\n\"I don't think there's any other word for it,\" he said. \"You're seeing on a daily basis what is happening across the world. Last year was the hottest on record, the last decade the hottest decade on record.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHe added: \"We're seeing the impacts across the world - in the UK or the terrible flooding we've seen across Europe and China, or forest fires, the record temperatures that we've seen in North America. Every day you will see a new high being recorded in one way or another across the world.\"\n\nMr Sharma said the report released on Monday is \"going to be the starkest warning yet that human behaviour is alarmingly accelerating global warming\".\n\n\"I don't think we're out of time but I think we're getting dangerously close to when we might be out of time. We will see [from the IPCC] a very, very clear warning that unless we act now, we will unfortunately be out of time.\"\n\n\"Africa has been waiting for the rest of the world to catch up and act on climate change for years,\" Fredrick Njehu, Christian Aid's senior climate change and energy adviser for Africa, highlighting the \"changing rainfall patterns or overbearing heat\" endured by the continent in recent years.\n\nHe added: \"The important thing now is that rich world governments make up for lost time and act quickly to reduce emissions and deliver promised financial support for the vulnerable.\"\n\nGlasgow is set to host the COP26 summit in November - which is the UN climate change conference.\n\nThe summit is seen as vital if climate change is to be brought under control, and leaders from 196 countries will meet to try and agree action.\n\nBut campaigners have accused the UK of hypocrisy, as there are plans to tap a new oil field off Shetland. The government has also said more oil and gas wells can be drilled in the North Sea, and there are plans for a new coal mine in Cumbria.\n\nEarlier this year, the global energy watchdog the International Energy Agency said there cannot be any new investment in oil, gas or coal projects if we want to limit global warming to 1.5C. Experts say the impacts of climate change are far more severe when the increase is greater than 1.5C.\n\nMr Sharma refused to criticise the government's plan for the projects, saying: \"Future [fossil fuel] licences are going to have to adhere to the fact we have committed to go to net zero by 2050 in legislation.\n\n\"There will be a climate check on any licences.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Climate change: How 1.5C could change the world\n\nMr Sharma's interview comes after he was criticised for flying abroad for meetings - and visiting more than 30 countries in seven months.\n\nHowever, since then some environmental campaigners including Greenpeace have defended him, saying face-to-face meetings are important to persuade other nations to tackle climate change.\n\nMr Sharma told the Observer that in-person meetings were \"incredibly vital and actually impactful\".\n\n\"It makes a vital difference, to build those personal relationships which are going to be incredibly important as we look to build consensus,\" he said.\n\nIt also emerged in the Sunday Mirror that Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab did not self-isolate after returning from France, which was on the amber plus list meaning all arrivals must quarantine.\n\nA government spokesman said it was Mr Raab's job to represent the UK abroad and he followed Covid guidelines on return.\n\nThere is an exemption for ministers to avoid quarantine when returning from abroad.", "It was all smiles in Paris in 2015 but have countries fulfilled their climate promises?\n\nAgreed by 196 parties in the French capital in December 2015, the Paris climate deal aims to keep the rise in global temperatures this century \"well below 2C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5C.\" We look at five key countries and how well they have kept their promises.\n\nEvery one of the signatories to the Paris climate agreement has had to lodge a climate action plan with the UN to spell out what steps they are taking to curb carbon.\n\nOverall, according to a new assessment from global consultancy Systemiq, low-carbon solutions have been more successful in this period than many people realise.\n\nThe growth in coal for energy outside of China has declined significantly.\n\n\"We have to translate what we can do into what we will do,\" said Lord Nicholas Stern, from the London School of Economics (LSE).\n\n\"But a big part of that is understanding what is happening and that's why I think this report is important. It will change people's perspectives of what is possible and translate that into action.\"\n\nSo the big picture might be improving, but what about individual nations? We looked at how five key countries have lived up to their promises under the pact.\n\nAs well as being the world's fifth largest economy, the UK is the incoming president of the Conference of the Parties or COP, the main UN climate negotiating forum, which will take place in Glasgow in November 2021.\n\nThis global gathering of world leaders will try and work out how to improve the collective effort to tackle climate change, and take the next steps. COP26 in Glasgow will be the most important meeting since the Paris climate agreement was signed five years ago.\n\nThe president of the meeting is a key influence on the success or failure of the event.\n\nExpanding offshore wind energy is a key policy for the UK's future climate targets\n\nIn Paris in 2015, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius was seen as a hugely effective, impartial leader who gained the trust of nations rich and poor.\n\nUK Business Secretary Alok Sharma has already been tasked with the job by Boris Johnson, but already there are worries that he has too much on his plate.\n\nHas the UK lived up to its promises?\n\nThe answer to this is mostly yes.\n\nSince 2008, the UK government has had to set five-year greenhouse gas targets by law, based on advice from the independent Climate Change Committee (CCC).\n\nTargets set under the first three carbon budgets have been met.\n\nWhile it was part of the EU, the UK's target for 2020 was a reduction of 16% on 2005 emissions.\n\nThe UK easily achieved this. In fact, right now, Britain's total output of warming gases has gone down by around 45% from 1990 levels.\n\nAs a result of leaving the EU, the UK has to register its own standalone plan to cut carbon with the UN.\n\nThis is known as a \"nationally determined contribution\" or NDC.\n\nIt focuses on targets for 2030, which are meant to show the pathway to net zero emissions by 2050.\n\nReaching net zero requires that any carbon emissions are balanced by absorbing an equivalent amount from the atmosphere by, for example, planting trees.\n\nThe new 2030 plan, released on 3 December, won plaudits for its ambition. But critics said there were major hurdles ahead.\n\nUnder the NDC, around 87% of UK electricity would need to come from low carbon sources by the end of this decade, up from over 50% now.\n\nAlmost half the cars on the road would need to be electric, up from around 6% at present.\n\nAs well as making major changes to transport, energy and food emissions, the UK will have to take a tough stand internationally so that it doesn't simply substitute carbon cuts at home with emissions-laden products from abroad.\n\n\"It's what you do at home, but it's also what you invest in internationally,\" Dr Alison Doig, from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), told BBC News.\n\n\"The UK needs to ensure with our export finance credits and with our Brexit deals, that we are strongly signalling overseas, what we're doing domestically.\"\n\nNevertheless, in April 2021, the government announced that it would speed up its emissions-cutting plan. Boris Johnson said carbon releases would be reduced by 78% by 2035 - taking the country more than three quarters of the way to net zero.\n\nAustralia matters because not only is it one of the biggest sources of fossil fuels, it is also a country highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.\n\nThe nation is now the world's largest exporter of coal and gas, according to a recent study.\n\nWildfires in Australia were made worse by long running drought\n\nEmissions of greenhouse gases from Australian exports are responsible for 3.6% of global emissions according to research.\n\nOn a per capita basis, and including exports, Australians are responsible for four times as much CO2 as people living in the US.\n\nPolitically, Australia is also very important in climate change terms as well.\n\nOver the past five years, it has moved further away from the majority of nations in the UN, which have been urging rapid cuts in carbon. Prime minister Scott Morrison was criticised by other politicians for downplaying the role of climate change after recent, devastating wildfires.\n\nHas Australia lived up to its promises?\n\nWhile it is set to hit a rather low 2020 target set under a previous global agreement, its actions under the Paris climate agreement are not measuring up, according to experts.\n\nAustralia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been criticised for not not taking climate change seriously\n\nAustralia set a target for 2030 of making a 26-28% reduction in its emissions compared with 2005 levels.\n\nProjections published at the end of 2019 suggested Australian emissions will be only 16% lower than 2005 levels in 2030.\n\nThis year's UN Emissions Gap report says that, right now Australia is projected to fall short on what should be a very easy target.\n\n\"That 26% reduction needs to be at least double that to be in the Paris Agreement pathway,\" says Dr Bill Hare, who's part of the Climate Action Tracker group of scientists who have rated Australia's plans as \"insufficient\".\n\n\"There's very little going on whether you're talking about electric vehicles, motor vehicle standards, it's alone in the OECD in not having fuel efficiency standards, it has virtually nothing on energy efficiency, and virtually nothing on building efficiency.\"\n\n\"It is really an embarrassment actually.\"\n\nThere's a lot of focus on Australia now because of changing world politics.\n\nA dispute with China has threatened its exports of coal, while the result of the recent US election has taken away a climate ally of the Australian government.\n\nThere's even been some talk in recent weeks that the country might soon set a long-term net-zero emissions goal.\n\nAnd according to newspaper reports, Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison is set to announce that the country will no longer use carbon credits carried over from a previous international climate agreement.\n\nAustralia had planned to use these questionable credits as a way of making up the shortfall in its 2030 target.\n\n\"I think if Trump had won the election then Australia would see themselves as part of a gang with Brazil and Saudi Arabia and a few others,\" said Dr Alison Doig, from the ECIU.\n\nBut with the dawn of the Biden era, \"they know are in a position that's becoming more outcast. So that might be why there's some softening on local language and the rhetoric\".\n\nWhile action at the federal level in Australia might be slow, lower down there's a good deal of movement.\n\n\"Our energy market operator has said that for the power sector in Australia, we're looking at the fastest transition in the world,\" said Dr Bill Hare.\n\n\"Everyone knows that we're famous for our sunshine, our wind and our space. And that means that renewables are cheap, they are rapidly outcompeting coal and gas, and those technologies are going to be replaced very quickly.\"\n\nThe EU represents about a fifth of the world's economy - and was responsible for around 9% of the global share of CO2 emissions in 2019, the third largest emitter.\n\nClimate change is seen as a key issue for Europe, because it's an international problem where acting together makes sense to many citizens.\n\nEurope's political leaders also see tackling climate as important in showing the global relevance of the Union.\n\nDuring the Trump administration, the EU stepped into a leadership role, attempting to build bridges with China on how to tackle the challenge.\n\nThe EU is well-regarded generally among developing countries and small island states because they are seen as wanting to push for greater ambition in terms of cutting carbon.\n\nIn terms of building a global alliance of rich and poor countries the EU is key.\n\nHas the EU lived up to its targets?\n\nBut back in 2007, EU leaders set a goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 20% of their 1990 levels by 2020.\n\nBy 2018, the collective efforts had cut warming gases by 23.2%.\n\nThis over-achievement caused many to think that the initial targets had been set far too low.\n\nThe EU subsequently announced a target of 40% for 2030, but this too came to be viewed as too easy to meet.\n\nThe bloc has now adopted the aim of having a carbon-neutral economy by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement.\n\nAnd in the European Green Deal, announced in September 2020, the European Commission proposed a new target for cuts of around 55% by 2030.\n\nIn April 2021, ahead of President Biden's climate leaders' summit, the EU adopted the goal.\n\nThe European Parliament and many environmentalists had wanted them to go further and aim for a 60% cut.\n\nBut the proposal ran into trouble with Eastern European member states who argued this was too much, too soon.\n\nChina is key to solving the global problem with climate change, because it is the world's biggest contributor to the root cause, CO2 emissions.\n\nAs China's economy rapidly expanded over the past two decades, using coal as their main energy source, their emissions have overtaken the US and now comprise around 28% of the global CO2 output.\n\nBut China is also the reason for a recent burst of optimism that has spread through the international community since September, when China's President Xi Jinping told the UN that his country would reach carbon neutrality by 2060.\n\nHas China lived up to its promises?\n\nThe answer is mostly, yes, but with some caveats.\n\nSeeing itself as a developing country, China has always been reluctant to take on targets to cut carbon, arguing that the West should go first and farthest to rein in CO2.\n\nInstead, China has focussed on carbon intensity rather than cuts. This means limiting the amount of CO2 used per unit of economic activity.\n\nThis is easier to achieve than outright emissions reductions but the downside is that as GDP increases so does the overall total of carbon used.\n\nBefore the Copenhagen conference of the parties meeting (COP) in 2009, China pledged to cut its carbon intensity by 40-45%, compared to 2005 levels.\n\nAt the end of 2017, China had cut carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 46% from the 2005 level.\n\nIn the Paris Agreement, China promised to cut carbon intensity by 60-65%, and to peak its emissions by 2030.\n\nThe country remains on course to meet these goals. In fact, according to some research, it could meet them years ahead of schedule.\n\n\"I think China took the conservative approach to the Paris Agreement, they only proposed something that they were very sure that they could meet,\" says Niklas Höhne from the Climate Action Tracker.\n\n\"It was also clear that at, the moment when they proposed their 2030 target, that they would over-achieve it. And that doesn't mean that that it's a bad target, per se, but that's their way of approaching it.\"\n\nWhen President Xi Jinping told the UN in September that China would reach net-zero in 2060 and peak its emissions well before 2030, the statement was welcomed all over the world.\n\nBut observers said targets contained in the country's five-year plan, released in March 2021, could lead to emissions continuing to increase.\n\nA new Chinese national commitment is to be submitted to the UN in the run up to the Glasgow COP26 meeting.\n\nBut there are significant challenges.\n\n\"The nature of the peaking in the 2030 target can be only measured in a 100% certain way after the fact,\" said Dr Shuwei Zhang, from the Draworld Environment Research Centre in Beijing.\n\n\"The 2060 neutrality goal is theoretically possible, but could become unfeasible in reality, if action is continuously delayed.\"\n\n\"From now, there is no leeway to accommodate coal any longer.\"\n\nChina will have to limit coal for energy, not just inside the country but outside as well.\n\nThe financing of overseas coal power plants will have to wind down.\n\nRight now, the country's emissions have rebounded in the wake of the pandemic, as coal continues to burn brightly.\n\nBut many remain optimistic that, if China says it can do something, then it will get there.\n\nThe Philippines is one of the countries suffering the most from the impacts of climate change.\n\nThe Philippines has suffered serious impacts from storms and typhoons\n\nLike many other developing economies, the country is very keen to use energy to bring people out of poverty and raise living standards.\n\nIn the past, the Philippines has looked to significantly increase investment in coal to foster development.\n\nBut its current approach seeks to move away from coal, and experts say the country could be a role model for many developing nations in similar situations.\n\nHas the Philippines lived up to its promises?\n\nUp until the Paris Agreement, the Philippines had not had any international requirements to curb its carbon.\n\nBut in the Paris pact, it committed to cut its emissions by 70% below \"business as usual\" by 2030. According to the Climate Action Tracker analysis, its actions to date are compatible with keeping warming well below 2C this century.\n\nIn 2019, around half the country's electricity came from coal - and plans in the pipeline would have more than doubled the country's coal fired capacity.\n\nBut in October 2020, the government announced a moratorium on new coal plants, preferring instead to pursue a more mixed energy strategy.\n\nAccording to the Climate Action Tracker, this could curb emissions from the Philippines by 35% on top of their current policy projections by 2030.\n\n\"I think that one of the most critical factors is that the market has been very important in the power sector,\" said Dr Bill Hare.\n\n\"In other countries in Southeast Asia, we have what's called political economy, vested interests dominate in places such as Vietnam or Indonesia.\"\n\n\"But in the Philippines, the market has been really important in determining investments for quite some time. And I think that's what we're seeing unfolding, multiplied by a government predisposition now towards renewables, and a realisation that, as a very vulnerable country, they really need to be getting their act together.\"\n\nThe expectation of observers is that with funding from the UN's Green Climate Fund and more focus on sustainability from international banks, the move away from fossil fuels in the Philippines in the longer term will likely speed up.\n\nThe Philippines has not yet set a long-term goal, but it says it is committed to submitting a new national climate plan with enhanced targets.\n\nThe country will also likely push for further action on a concept known as \"loss and damage\" within the UN negotiation process.\n\nFor developing nations, this means financial recompense for the impacts of climate change that cannot be avoided or adapted to.\n\nBut richer countries are strongly resistant, believing that because they contributed the most to carbon emissions, they will be on the hook for compensation for centuries to come.", "Nightclubs and other venues across the UK are offering vaccine shots in an effort to get more people immunised.\n\nAt some events, free food and drink are being offered as incentives. But there are still some young people who are hesitant to take the vaccine.", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Monday evening. We'll have another update for you tomorrow morning.\n\nThere were cheers in Glasgow as the clock struck midnight to mark the reopening of Scotland's nightclubs. It was the moment clubbers were finally able to hit the dancefloor after 16 months of Covid restrictions. Among those in Glasgow was 19-year-old Luke Dunsmuir who predicted the next few weeks would be \"busy, busy\". New rules say that face coverings can be removed while dancing, drinking and dining. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said it was the \"right moment\" to lift restrictions.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nightclubs have been able to open for the first time since the pandemic began\n\nBusiness Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has rejected the idea civil servants should be paid less if they continue working from home after an unnamed cabinet minister told a newspaper it was unfair for those returning to the office not to be paid more. Mr Kwarteng said this would set colleagues against each other, adding flexible working was \"here to stay\". It comes as online grocer Ocado said staff could work remotely from abroad for one month of the year.\n\nOne of the biggest providers of PCR Covid test kits has said it will increase the number of drop boxes and frequency of collections after pictures of boxes overflowing with coronavirus samples were shared online. At least one PCR test is required for all arrivals from international destinations within two days of landing in the UK. Randox, the firm which makes the kits, said all the pictured tests would be processed and it was expanding and improving its capacity and logistics network to meet \"rapidly growing demand\".\n\nPupils across England are preparing to collect their A-level results and some may be wondering what awaits them if they choose to go to university. Three siblings from Swindon have shared their experiences of university life during the pandemic. For Danielle Herbert, 22, the pandemic meant a cancelled graduation and \"massive gaps\" in learning. Older sister Jess, 24, says the pandemic \"stripped away\" her independence. But for their brother Ryan, 21, learning online during the pandemic gave him the \"ability to openly ask questions\" and \"learn in my own time\".\n\nSiblings (left to right) Ryan, Danielle and Jess Herbert from Swindon, all studied university degrees during the Covid-19 pandemic\n\nMusicians including Annie Lennox, Ed Sheeran and Sir Mick Jagger will join with Bollywood stars to raise funds for Covid relief work in India. A virtual fundraising event, called We For India: Saving Lives, will take place on Sunday, in both London and Mumbai. The event, which will be livestreamed over Facebook, will feature more than 80 Indian performers including composer AR Rahman. Nile Rodgers, Sister Sledge, and Nancy Ajram will also take part in the event, hosted by Rajkummar Rao, star of Oscar-nominated film The White Tiger.\n\nWith A-level results day coming up in England here is a guide to all you need to know before the big day.\n\nFind more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf 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 send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Gemma and Kate Fox welcomed their son Nye in May\n\nA same-sex couple who recently had their first child are calling for official forms to be more inclusive.\n\nKate and Gemma Fox, from Exeter, have encountered numerous forms they cannot fill in because they only offer space for the names of a mother and a father.\n\nThey include on Devon County Council's website, at their GP surgery and in the red book - the personal child health record given to all new parents.\n\nSince being contacted by the BBC, all three have said they will make changes.\n\nKate Fox, a lecturer at Plymouth Marjon University, said: \"It's basically everywhere.\n\n\"I don't think we've come across a single thing so far that has not been super heteronormative.\"\n\nHeteronormative is defined by Oxford English Dictionary as designating, or based on a world view which regards gender roles as fixed to biological sex and heterosexuality as the normal and preferred sexual orientation.\n\nDevon County Council changed its online form after being contacted by the BBC and a spokesman said he was \"grateful to the couple for alerting us to this matter\"\n\nAfter their son Nye was born, the couple tried to make an appointment to register his birth using Devon County Council's website but could not.\n\nThe council said the form had since been changed and other documentation checked to ensure this did not happen again.\n\nA spokesman said: \"We apologise profusely for this oversight and are grateful to the couple for alerting us to this matter.\"\n\nThe red book, which is given to all new parents, only has space for the name of a mother and a father\n\nThe couple were also frustrated when they received their red book as it only offers space for the names of a mother and father.\n\nThe Department for Health and Social Care said: \"The red book would be updated as part of our commitment to ensuring any disparities experienced by those in the wider LGBT community are acknowledged and their needs are considered throughout the health system.\"\n\nThe red book is currently being updated and digitised by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the new version is due to be made available from 2023.\n\nDr Fox said they took a sheet of paper to hospital with them explaining who they were to avoid having to deal with assumptions\n\nDr Fox said: \"The attempt to have a child is often a battle for same-sex couples... and then when you've had a baby and it's super celebratory and then the first pieces of paper you are given say 'mother and father' and it's just, you're almost worn out by the time you have had a baby.\n\n\"We certainly were exhausted with the whole thing and then you think I just don't want every little piece of official paper to have to be a battle.\"\n\nIn July, the couple attempted to register Nye at their local GP surgery, St Thomas Health Centre in Exeter.\n\nThe online form for registration only had boxes for mother and father and when they called to point this out, Dr Fox said they were told it could be sorted when they brought their son in.\n\nKate Fox said the forms at her GP surgery do not represent all families\n\nDr Fox said the paper form had the same wording and they were told to cross out father and write mother.\n\nShe said more shockingly, they were handed another form to register a child at the surgery and that form asked for ethnicity but only offered white ethnicities as an option and under religion, only Christian religions.\n\n\"I think that's what we are saying... [is] if your form does not accept or represent our family then your form doesn't work,\" she said.\n\n\"It's not that we're being difficult it's that your form is wrong.\"\n\nKayleah Logan, co-founder of the Queer Parenting Partnership, said that every month they see couples expressing their \"upset at being invalidated as a parent\".\n\n\"It's not just representation, it's almost erasure of LGBT families,\" Ms Logan added.\n\nNye, whose full name is Aneirin, was born in May\n\nDr Alice Godwin, GP partner at St Thomas Medical Group, said the forms were a \"serious oversight\" and added: \"We wholeheartedly agree that official forms should be fully inclusive, and we are very sorry for the distress this caused to Kate and Gemma.\"\n\nShe said: \"The paper version of the form they were mistakenly given was an old version, which should have been destroyed when it was updated.\n\n\"We have made sure that no other copies remain and are reviewing all our documentation to make sure it is inclusive.\"\n\nDr Godwin said the online form had also been changed and added: \"We pride ourselves on being an open and inclusive practice and these mistakes are simply not acceptable.\"\n\nJo Turl, from NHS Devon Clinical Commissioning Group, said it would be contacting all GP practices in Devon to ask them to review their documentation.\n\nShe said: \"Addressing inequalities is a priority for us so we take this matter very seriously.\"\n\nDr Fox called on anyone who wants to be an LGBT ally to take action by finding out what the forms at their surgery say.\n\nShe added: \"Don't let it be the next same-sex couple or gender non-conforming person or whoever who comes into contact with these documents who has to be the one who has the fight.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.", "Tokyo's spectacular early evening skies, as the light fades and the energy-sapping heat and humidity of the day starts to ease, is one of the things that many visitors to the city this summer will miss most.\n\nBut as the sun sets on a Games like no other, and the Olympic family prepares to pack up and leave town, thoughts will now turn to how one of the most controversial sports events in modern history will be remembered in years to come.\n\nEvery Games is different of course. But Tokyo 2020 was truly unprecedented. Regardless of the undoubted sporting drama that has unfolded here over the last 17 days, it will always be the Covid Olympics. The first such event to be staged since the start of the pandemic, the first to take place amid a state of emergency, and the only one to be stripped of spectators.\n\nGiven those challenges, the fact this event was completed at all, and provided so many special moments, will be viewed by some as a minor miracle. By others, as a powerful symbol of sport's defiance and the hosts' resilience. A gamble that has paid off.\n\nBut at the same time, rarely before has the judgement and motives of the organisers been under such scrutiny. These Games raised major questions for the International Olympic Committee in particular, and it will be some time before the wisdom of its decision to press on with the Olympics can be properly evaluated.\n• None The Sports Desk podcast: Has Biles changed the game on mental health?\n\nReporting on the opening ceremony - traditionally one of the world's great shared experiences - in Tokyo's stunning but empty National Stadium, with the athletes' parade depleted, sponsors missing, a noisy protest by campaigners outside, and local people locked out of their own £12bn party, was among the saddest and most surreal experiences I can recall.\n\nIt will be hard to find a more potent image of the pandemic age.\n\nBut in what was effectively a made-for-TV event, the contrast between the experiences of those of us on the ground here, and viewers watching on from afar has rarely felt so stark. Having experienced the vibrant, joyous atmospheres at London 2012 and Rio 2016, and more recently the crowds allowed at the Euros earlier this summer, covering an Olympics without spectators made for a very strange experience.\n\nEach visit to a venue without fans was inevitably accompanied by questions over what might have been, and where else the billions lavished on these Games could have been spent. The endless rules, restrictions and daily testing, along with the constant fear of being 'pinged' and sent away for two weeks' isolation ensured a highly anxious and stressful Games, for athletes, officials, and the media.\n\nBut just as Rio emerged as an iconic Games despite the many challenges it faced, the sense is that, once again, the athletes have come to the rescue of Tokyo 2020. In Britain, despite the unhelpful time difference, fears of images of empty venues, and a troubled build-up to the event, many have loved watching it, and will remember these Olympics as a classic.\n\nMorning after morning, the country woke up to spellbinding stories of Team GB medals, a new generation of stars, an array of inspiring performances, and innovative new sports and mixed gender formats that captured the imagination.\n\nAs with the Euros earlier this summer, the Games have felt more needed and appreciated than ever by a Covid-weary nation desperately in need of something to distract and inspire.\n\nWho could fail to be struck by the historic achievements of British Olympians such as Jason and Laura Kenny and Duncan Scott? Of Hannah Mills and Charlotte Dujardin? But also the emergence of lesser known, but no less inspirational names, such as Emily Campbell, Galal Yafai, Alex Yee, Charlotte Worthington and Bethany Shriever?\n\nWho was not moved by the tears of joy of Tom Daley and James Guy, and those of Dina Asher-Smith, borne out of frustration after her hopes of sprint glory were dashed? Or impressed by the overall excellence of Britain's swimming, boxing and sailing teams?\n\nWho could have seen the excitement, joy and passion of swimmer Tom Dean's friends and family, watching on from Maidenhead as he took gold in the pool, and not smiled at this outpouring of pride, such a heart-warming symbol of the years of sacrifice and belief, finally fulfilled? Every parent and coach who gives up their time to support a young athlete would have understood what those jubilant scenes represented.\n\nWorld records, shock results and iconic sportsmanship all helped to define a Games that delivered no shortage of compelling storylines.\n• None How closely have you been paying attention to Tokyo 2020?\n\nIndeed for every athlete here, Tokyo 2020 stands as a triumph of resilience, despite the challenges that a delayed Games and lockdowns presented.\n\nThe IOC maintains the decision to press on with the postponed Games, despite opposition from most of a largely unvaccinated Japanese public and local medical experts, was done with the blessing of the World Health Organisation, and with the interests of these athletes at heart.\n\nAnd most competitors (as well as the those who enjoyed watching) will undoubtedly be grateful that years of training did not go to waste, especially those for whom this will have been their only chance to be an Olympian.\n\nThe success of Japan in the medal table also seems to have helped mellow some of the anger towards the event. On Friday night the protesters were still outside the athletics stadium, but it was a noticeably smaller, less vocal group.\n\nBut many critics insist it was the multi-billion dollar broadcast contracts that the Olympic movement relies on that were the real reason for its refusal to countenance another delay or cancellation, and some believe this will mean more scrutiny of the IOC going forward. Perhaps it will also make it harder to attract bidders, even if the next three hosts of the summer Games are now secured up to 2032.\n\nWith much of Tokyo society carrying on as normal despite the state of emergency, at times it was hard to understand the need for spectators to be banned, especially from the large, outdoor venues.\n\nOrganisers however can point to the fact that there has only been 438 positive cases from people affiliated with the Games, despite tens of thousands of visitors from overseas. The sports industry will now hope this shows that with strict protocols, the virus can be kept at bay, even at an event as complicated and sprawling as this.\n\nEqually, while some highly unfortunate athletes have been prevented from competing, fears of a major outbreak in the athletes village, with competitions ruined, have proved unfounded.\n\nAnd yet, outside of the Olympic bubble, the reality is that since officials and athletes started arriving in Tokyo last month, positive cases in Tokyo have surged from around a thousand a day to a record high of more than five thousand on Thursday.\n\nOrganisers insist there is no evidence linking this to the Games, but others believe the fact the event was on has led to people relaxing and being less disciplined in their precautions.\n\nWith the Japan government asking Covid patients with moderate symptoms to isolate at home instead of the increasingly over-stretched hospitals, the decision to continue with the Games could still come back to haunt the country if cases continue to surge over the coming weeks.\n\nTokyo 2020 meant scrutiny of the IOC for other reasons too.\n\nThe issue of athlete welfare was raised by the extreme heat that competitors were expected to contend with. The plight of Belarusian sprinter Krystina Timanovskaya, whose coaches allegedly attempted to force her to leave the Games in Tokyo, highlighted the treatment of athletes in Belarus, and whether the IOC should do more to stand up for them.\n\nThe participation of weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, the first openly transgender athlete to compete in a different gender category to that which they were born at an Olympics, was another milestone in one of sport's most contentious issues, intensifying debate over the IOC's transgender policy.\n\nAnd whether it was Simone Biles raising awareness of mental health and the pressure that some athletes struggle to cope with, Holly Bradshaw talking about body-shaming, Hannah Mills about climate change, US shot-putter Raven Saunders, whose cross-wristed gesture on the podium supported racial and social justice, or Ross Greenbank, who raised concerns over Russian doping, the sense was that the importance of these Games went way beyond medals.\n\nThis was the first summer Olympics to be held since Russia's ban for its great state-sponsored doping scandal. And yet you would have hardly noticed. While the team, flag and anthem were officially barred, more than 330 athletes represented the 'ROC', and performed better than Russia did at either the 2012 or 2016 Olympics.\n\nFor many critics, a top five finish in the medal table makes a mockery of the punishment, and taints the legacy of Tokyo 2020, proving the inherent weakness of authorities charged with protecting clean sport. Given the restrictions on anti-doping officials during the pandemic, it would also be little surprise if, as with other recent Games, a number of results end up being changed, and medals re-awarded in the years to come, thanks to retrospective testing.\n\nGiven the spate of athlete welfare scandals in recent years, a new emphasis on winning 'in the right way', and expectations that the Team GB medal tally would suffer a 'correction' after the remarkable second-place finish at Rio, the haul achieved in Tokyo will be seen as a major triumph.\n\nThe failure of traditional powerhouse rowing will see funding agency UK Sport come under pressure to redistribute some of the millions it receives, but any disappointment has been balanced by the success of other disciplines, especially those like BMX and skateboarding, which have the potential to attract new and younger audiences.\n\nTo have won as many medals as in London, and in more sports than any other nation is a significant achievement, and many will now desperately hope that this translates to a new emphasis by policy-makers on community and school sport, after the damage lockdowns have done to participation rates and grassroots facilities.\n\nMany thought a new focus on duty of care would mean less medal success, but perhaps Tokyo proves it need not be 'either or'.\n\nEight years ago I was in Buenos Aires to see Tokyo awarded the 2020 Games. Just as the city's first Olympics in 1964 was about re-emerging from the impact of World War Two, the promise to use its second to symbolise the country's recovery after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster was a compelling one.\n\nInstead of course, it was another huge crisis that has come to define this event.\n\nBut ultimately, even something as monumental as the pandemic could not deny the Games. Many will be relieved. Others dismayed. And whether it was right that the Olympics happened at all will always be a matter for debate. But what seems certain is that, as ever, the athletes proved an uplifting and irrepressible force, even in these times of doubt.\n• None Find out these athletes' favourite One Hit Wonders\n• None How it all started for Blossoms and why they are still true to Stockport", "The number of people waiting for heart surgery in England could rise by more than 40% by next spring, a charity has warned.\n\nThe British Heart Foundation said more government money was needed - or it will take up to five years for cardiac services to return to pre-Covid levels.\n\n\"Even before the pandemic began, waiting lists for vital heart care were far too long,\" said the BHF.\n\nThe government said it had invested £1bn this year to reduce waiting lists.\n\nThe charity's warning about heart care comes just a day after new analysis suggested nearly 14 million people could be on NHS waiting lists in England by next autumn.\n\nA backlog is predicted as patients who did not come forward during the pandemic now seek treatment and join waiting lists for routine operations.\n\nThe BHF said the number waiting for heart surgery - such as a heart bypass or transplant - in England is predicted to rise from 11,000 to more than 15,000 by February.\n\nThe number waiting for more general heart care - for example diagnostic scans and treatment such as stents - could reach 500,000 by early 2024, it said. This would be double the levels seen before the pandemic in February 2020.\n\nThe BHF said it had carried out modelling for its worst case scenario - and estimated that cardiology waiting lists might not return to early 2020 levels until the end of 2026.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAround 7.6 million people live with heart and circulatory diseases in the UK, the BHF said.\n\n\"Delay in diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases is not just about improving symptoms, however important that is - it is about saving lives,\" Prof Sir Nilesh Samani, medical director at the BHF, said.\n\n\"Tragically, we have already seen thousands of extra deaths from heart and circulatory diseases during the pandemic, and delays to care have likely contributed to this terrible toll.\"\n\nThe charity said it wanted to see an above-inflation rise in health spending and a plan to recruit more heart specialists.\n\n\"At this critical moment, the government must act now to avoid more lives lost to treatable heart conditions. Addressing the growing heart care backlog is only the start,\" said Prof Samani.\n\n\"We must also see a clear plan, alongside significant and ongoing investment, to build capacity back into the NHS and address the pandemic's impact on health workers. Getting this right would avoid preventable heartbreak for many families.\"\n\nThe government pointed to data from May this year that showed services were already recovering - and the number of new referrals for cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery had returned to similar levels seen prior to the pandemic.\n\n\"The NHS has faced huge challenges over the past year due to Covid-19 and we continue to support our incredible health and care staff who have kept services open for thousands of patients,\" a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said.\n\n\"This includes dedicated investment of £1bn this year to tackle the backlog and reduce waiting lists.\"", "A 54-year-old man has died 16 days after he was left with life-threatening injuries following an attack in a park.\n\nDr Gary Jenkins had been in hospital since the attack in Bute Park, Cardiff, during the early hours of 20 July.\n\nDr Jenkins, a father of two from Cardiff, lived his life \"happily with love, music, creativity and dedication to his profession\", his family said.\n\nThree people have been charged with attempted murder, but police are now treating the case as murder.\n\nJason Edwards, 25, of the Riverside area of Cardiff, and Lee William Strickland, 36, of no fixed abode, and a 16-year-old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, are in custody and will appear before Cardiff Crown Court on 23 August.\n\nDetectives are not currently looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.\n\nTwo men have already appeared in court over the attack in Bute Park\n\nSouth Wales Police Det Ch Insp Stuart Wales said: \"We are liaising with both the Crown Prosecution Service and HM Coroner in respect of his death, and this matter will now be progressed as a murder investigation.\"\n\nHe added: \"We'd like to hear from anyone who was in Bute Park during the very early hours of Tuesday, 20 July.\n\n\"Specifically we want to speak to anyone who was near the Millennium footbridge, which links Bute Park to Sophia Gardens, between midnight and 01:20 BST.\"\n\nIn a statement released by the family, they said: \"We are distraught to announce the untimely death of Dr Gary Jenkins, who was a loving father of two wonderful daughters.\n\n\"He lived his life happily with love, music, creativity and dedication to his profession.\"\n\nStaff at the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, where he worked, and who cared for Dr Jenkins before his death, have also paid tribute to him.\n\nA spokesman said their \"thoughts are with the family, friends and colleagues\" of the doctor at this \"extremely sad and difficult time\".\n\nHe added: \"We would also like to extend a thank you to our ITU (intensive therapy unit) staff that have cared for Gary while he has been in hospital.\"", "Mr Dunn died in hospital after his motorbike was involved in a crash outside RAF Croughton\n\nThe suspect in the death of Harry Dunn may have been \"distracted by her mobile phone\" before the fatal crash, his family's lawyers claimed.\n\nThe 19-year-old died near RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire in August 2019 when a car driven by Anne Sacoolas hit his motorcycle.\n\nShe later left the country for the US, claiming diplomatic immunity.\n\nCourt documents said Mrs Sacoolas has been \"evasive, non-responsive and inconsistent\" about her phone usage.\n\nThe 43-year-old's car struck Mr Dunn's motorbike moments after she left the RAF base where her husband Jonathan worked for a US intelligence agency.\n\nThe Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) authorised Northamptonshire Police to charge her with causing the teenager's death by dangerous driving, but an extradition request was rejected by the US government.\n\nFamily spokesman Radd Seiger (left) and Harry Dunn's parents Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn flew to the US last month for the damages claim in a Virginian court\n\nMr Dunn's parents have since filed a claim for damages against Mrs Sacoolas in the US.\n\nCourt documents were submitted by the Dunn family's legal representatives in opposition to a motion to suppress the employment details of Mrs and Mr Sacoolas at the time of the crash.\n\nThey said no calls or texts were found on her SIM card on the day of the crash, but call records were found for the day before and day after.\n\nThe documents said this \"raises the possibility that Ms Sacoolas was distracted by her mobile telephone... and establishes that relevant phone data was deleted\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How the death of teenager Harry Dunn became a diplomatic struggle between the UK and US\n\nCharlotte Charles and Tim Dunn, Mr Dunn's parents, gave legal testimony last month in the damages claim against Mr and Mrs Sacoolas.\n\nMrs Sacoolas' and her husband's deposition in the case is due later this month.\n\nThe Dunn family's spokesman Radd Seiger said: \"As our lawyers have made clear consistently, we have no wish to lay bare [the US government's] national security secrets.\n\n\"We just want to get to the bottom of things and that is just what we intend to do.\"\n\nLegal representatives of Mrs Sacoolas have been contacted for comment.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n• None Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Former Prime Minister David Cameron has been cleared by a watchdog looking at whether he engaged in lobbying for which he should have been registered.\n\nThe Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists investigated after reports he had contacted officials on behalf of financial firm Greensill Capital.\n\nIt concluded that Mr Cameron's activities had not fallen within the criteria that required registration.\n\nThe contact is said to have taken place after Mr Cameron was prime minister.\n\nOn Wednesday, a source close to him said he was exempt from the register as he had been an in-house employee for Greensill.\n\nThe company, which collapsed earlier this month, was a key backer of UK giant Liberty Steel.\n\nLast week, Labour called for an investigation into claims Mr Cameron had met Treasury officials to lobby on behalf of Greensill, a role he took up after leaving the job of prime minister.\n\nThe Financial Times reported that Mr Cameron had tried to increase the specialist bank's access to government-backed Covid-19 emergency loan schemes.\n\nThe Treasury said it had had a meeting but decided not to take things further.\n\nThe office which runs the lobbying register was set up following the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014, when Mr Cameron was prime minister.", "Withdrawing troops from Afghanistan is a strategic mistake that risks a resurgence of terrorism, a former top UK general has said.\n\nGen Sir Richard Barrons, who was head of UK Joint Forces Command, told the BBC the UK and Western allies have \"sold the future of Afghanistan\".\n\nMost British troops left last month and the Taliban have captured five cities in three days.\n\nFighting in Afghanistan intensified in recent weeks after President Joe Biden ordered the withdrawal of US forces, followed by allies such as the UK.\n\nTwo decades after they were removed from power by the US over their support for Osama Bin Laden in the wake of the 11 September attacks, Taliban militants are advancing across the country and have seized five regional capitals since Friday.\n\nGen Barrons told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend: \"The withdrawal now is a strategic mistake. I don't believe it's in our own interest.\"\n\nHe said the decision had \"sold the future of Afghanistan into a very difficult place\" and sent a \"really unfortunate message\" to allies in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.\n\nIt suggests \"we don't have the stomach to see these things through, and we would rather leave than ensure that a humanitarian or political crisis doesn't occur\", Gen Barrons said.\n\n\"We will run the risk of terrorist entities re-establishing in Afghanistan, to bring harm in Europe and elsewhere,\" he said. \"I think this is a very poor strategic outcome.\"\n\nThe UK government advised all British citizens to leave this week because of the worsening security situation.\n\nBut Gen Barrons said an exodus of the international community \"as fair weather friends\", followed by the Afghan elite, could undermine the government and its military, accelerating the crisis.\n\nHe said he feared the country could split in two or be plunged into a decades-long civil war unless political discussions could resume.\n\nTory MP Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the House of Commons Defence Committee, wrote in the Mail on Sunday that the UK was making a \"shabby withdrawal\" and \"abandoning the country to the very insurgency that drew us there in the first place\".\n\n\"Unless we wake up to the reality of what is taking place, Afghanistan might once again become a terror state. This, remember, is the country that brought us 9/11,\" he said.\n\nThe UK and its allies should retain an assistance force of 5,000 troops to give ground, air and intelligence support to the Afghan army in their fight against the Taliban, Mr Ellwood said.\n\nBy withdrawing, the UK was also giving up a \"strategically crucial space to an expansionist China\", he said.\n\nBut Gen Barrons suggested China would be key to any political resolution, because of its influence on Pakistan - which was one of the few countries to recognise the Taliban when it last held power.\n\nHe said because China shared a border with Afghanistan it would want to avoid any instability that could mean refugees - or militants - flowing over the border.\n\nA UK Government spokeswoman said: \"We recognise that the security situation in Afghanistan is serious, and reports of the escalating violence are extremely disturbing.\n\n\"We do not believe there is any military solution to Afghanistan's conflict, and call on the Taliban to end their campaign of violence and engage in meaningful dialogue with the Afghan government.\n\n\"There needs to be a negotiated solution to ensure a lasting peace.\"", "Environmentalist Greta Thunberg called for a \"system change\" in the fashion industry\n\nSwedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has condemned the fashion industry over its \"huge\" contribution to climate change, in a magazine interview.\n\nMs Thunberg told Vogue Scandinavia that fashion brands needed to take responsibility for the environmental impact of their products.\n\nIn a tweet, she accused some companies of \"greenwash\" ad campaigns designed to make their clothes appear sustainable.\n\nVogue Scandinavia featured Ms Thunberg, 18, on the cover of its first issue.\n\nIn the interview, Ms Thunberg said she last bought a new item of clothing three years ago and \"it was second-hand\".\n\n\"I just borrow things from people I know,\" Ms Thunberg said.\n\nOn Sunday she tweeted a picture of Vogue Scandinavia's front cover, which showed her wearing an oversized trench coat while petting a horse in a forest.\n\nThis 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 Greta Thunberg 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.\n\nIn the tweet Ms Thunberg - one of the world's best-known climate campaigners - criticised \"fast fashion that many treat as disposables\".\n\nThe term \"fast fashion\" is used to describe the rapid, low-cost production of clothing to service demand for seasonal trends.\n\nCalling for a \"system change\", Ms Thunberg said fashion could not be mass produced and consumed \"sustainably as the world is shaped today\".\n\nThe United Nations says the fashion industry is \"widely believed to be the second-most polluting industry in the world\".\n\nIt accounts for more than 20% of wastewater globally, the UN says. About 93bn cubic metres of water - enough for five million people to survive - is used by the fashion industry every year.\n\nAs for carbon emissions, the industry is responsible for about 8% of the total worldwide. That's more than all international flights and shipping combined, the UN says.\n\nIn response to this, fashion brands have started to take action to reduce their environmental footprint.\n\nBut environmental campaigners like Ms Thunberg say many of these brands are promoting solutions that only appear to address the problem.\n\nThese companies are often accused of greenwashing, which is a form of marketing spin designed to mislead consumers about the environmental merits of a product.\n\nKnown for her impassioned speeches, Ms Thunberg has become a figurehead for the global climate change movement.\n\nHer solo protest outside Sweden's parliament in 2018 inspired millions of young people to join her school climate strike campaign, Fridays for Future.\n\nSince then, she has received Nobel Peace Prize nominations and travelled across the Atlantic on a yacht to attend a UN climate conference in New York.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Greta Thunberg: How long do you believe you'll get away with it?", "CO2 - or carbon dioxide - is at the heart of the world's changing climate. Reality Check's Chris Morris explains why.", "Environment Minister Zac Goldsmith has urged Conservative MPs to back the government's net zero carbon target following the publication of the UN report on climate change.\n\nLord Goldsmith has said today's report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) \"makes appalling reading\".\n\nIts release comes less than three months before a key global climate summit in Glasgow known as COP26.\n\nBut a small group of rebel Tory MPs, led by Craig McKinlay, say they fear the costs of tackling climate change will harm poor families.\n\nThe environment minister told the BBC the IPCC report \"adds to the urgency and importance of making this COP a turning point.\n\n\"The alarm bells couldn't be clearer or louder. We really need to get behind it,\" Lord Goldsmith said.\n\nThe government has consistently stated that poorer households will be helped to get low-carbon, cosy homes.\n\nBut it hasn't yet come up with a plan to make that happen, with its Buildings Strategy delayed until the autumn.\n\nThe target of net zero emissions by 2050 was in the Conservative's 2019 general election manifesto.\n\nBut former cabinet minister Esther McVey is one of the Tory MPs worried about the cost of changing boilers and insulating homes.\n\nShe said: “What I would never want to do is bankrupt the country. We don't go green and go red as a country at the same time.\"\n\nLord Lawson, former Conservative chancellor and long-term climate change “sceptic” told the prime minister: “The [advisory] Committee on Climate Change has shown you some extraordinary estimates of the cost of decarbonising the economy – extraordinary in the sense of being highly implausible.”\n\nLast week four articles authored by Conservatives appeared in newspapers on the same day, suggesting a co-ordinated, albeit small, anti-green initiative.\n\nLord Goldsmith re-tweeted an accusation by the head of Natural England, Tony Juniper, that a campaign is underway to sabotage COP26.\n\nBoris Johnson at an event in February to launch the COP26 climate summit.\n\nSam Hall, director of the Conservative Environment Network, which says it has the support of 105 Tory MPs, said the UK has a \"huge opportunity\" to lead the world with its net zero commitment.\n\n\"Net zero is expected to be a net job creator overall, a way to level up Britain's industrial heartlands, and a major export opportunity for UK businesses.\n\n\"Investing in new industries and infrastructure to deliver net zero will be significantly cheaper than dealing with the economic damage from unchecked climate change.\n\n\"By supporting the next set of clean technologies, we can create economies of scale, encourage further innovation, and bring down their costs for households.\"\n\nSo what is the price of going green?\n\nThe Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has estimated the total cost of reaching net zero by 2050 could reach £1.4 trillion.\n\nLord Lawson, says the true cost could be twice this.\n\nBut the OBR added that climate targets will cost the government less over the next 30 years than the price of battling the Covid-19 pandemic - if it acts quickly.\n\nWhat’s more, it said, the costs of tackling climate change will be less than the costs of paying for damages from climate change.\n\nRichard Hughes, the OBR chair, said: “Our modelling of the dynamics of climate change suggests that early decisive action to tackle carbon emissions could halve the overall fiscal cost of getting to net zero.”\n\nTackling climate change requires high up-front costs in all sorts of infrastructure, including heat pumps and home insulation.\n\nMany of the investments will save cash in the long run – and reduce reliance on Russian gas – but the question is who will pay for the great transition.\n\nAlthough government sources insist they have no intention of hitting poor families, crucially ministers haven’t yet agreed the details of their Heat and Buildings Strategy or their net zero Treasury strategy.\n\nUntil they produce policies to show how to finance the shift to net zero, they will remain vulnerable to attack.\n\nThere are still also questions about the scale of the costs.\n\nThe cost of heat pumps, for instance, should come down when they are installed at scale – as the costs of wind power have tumbled.\n\nThe Climate Change Committee (CCC) predicts that by 2050 the ultimate cost to the economy would be probably less than 1% of GDP.\n\nMembers admit, though, that there are inevitably major uncertainties in forecasting the size of the economy by then – or indeed, the cost of technology.\n\nThe CCC has been told by the Information Tribunal to show its workings by next month.\n\nIf backbench Conservatives attack the findings it will heap pressure on Boris Johnson as he prepares for the climate summit.\n\nHe aims to show the world that the UK can decarbonise at an acceptable cost.\n\nStark warnings from the new report from the IPCC of the costs of inaction will strengthen his case.\n• None What was agreed at COP26?", "Taliban security guards in Kabul, a year on from their triumphant return to power\n\nThe Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, two decades after being removed from power by a US-led military coalition.\n\nThe hardline Islamist group advanced rapidly across the country, seizing province after province before taking the capital Kabul on 15 August last year, as the Afghan military collapsed.\n\nForeign forces, who had agreed to leave, were stunned by the speed of the advance and had to accelerate their exit. Many Western-backed Afghan government leaders fled, while thousands of their compatriots and foreigners fearing Taliban rule scrambled to find room on flights out of the country.\n\nWithin weeks, the Taliban were in control of all of Afghanistan - something they had not managed to do in their first stint in power between 1996 and 2001.\n\nThe group had struck a deal with the Americans in 2020 for US troops to withdraw, following a bloody but ultimately successful guerrilla campaign lasting many years.\n\nTaliban fighters pictured in Laghman Province last year as they began a lightning offensive to retake the country\n\nUnder the deal, the Taliban committed to national peace talks, which never took place, and to preventing al-Qaeda and other militants from operating in areas that the Taliban controlled.\n\nFollowing the group's return to power, Afghanistan's economy imploded, leaving a huge portion of the population struggling to find enough money to eat and to access other essentials.\n\nBillions of dollars in Afghan assets held abroad are frozen as the international community waits for the Taliban to honour promises still to be met on security, governance and human rights, including allowing all girls to be educated.\n\nThe Taliban, or \"students\" in the Pashto language, emerged in the early 1990s in northern Pakistan following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.\n\nIt is believed that the predominantly Pashtun movement first appeared in religious seminaries - mostly paid for by money from Saudi Arabia - which preached a hardline form of Sunni Islam.\n\nThe promise made by the Taliban - in Pashtun areas straddling Pakistan and Afghanistan - was to restore peace and security and enforce their own austere version of Sharia, or Islamic law, once in power.\n\nFrom south-western Afghanistan, the Taliban quickly extended their influence. In September 1995, they captured the province of Herat, bordering Iran.\n\nExactly one year later, they captured the Afghan capital, Kabul, overthrowing the regime of President Burhanuddin Rabbani - one of the founding fathers of the Afghan mujahideen that resisted the Soviet occupation. By 1998, the Taliban were in control of almost 90% of Afghanistan.\n\nAfghans, weary of the mujahideen's excesses and infighting after the Soviets were driven out, generally welcomed the Taliban when they first appeared on the scene.\n\nTheir early popularity was largely due to their success in stamping out corruption, curbing lawlessness and making the roads and the areas under their control safe for commerce to flourish.\n\nBut the Taliban also introduced or supported punishments in line with their strict interpretation of Sharia law - such as public executions of convicted murderers and adulterers, as well as amputations for those found guilty of theft. Men were required to grow beards and women had to wear the all-covering burka.\n\nThe Taliban also banned television, music and cinema, and disapproved of girls aged 10 and over going to school. They were accused of various human rights and cultural abuses. One notorious example was in 2001, when the Taliban went ahead with the destruction of the famous Bamiyan Buddha statues in central Afghanistan, despite international outrage.\n\nThis time round, there has been no repeat of such excesses, but the Taliban are accused of a range of well-documented abuses, including killing opponents, as well as beating and detaining journalists and Afghans protesting for their rights.\n\nWomen are no longer allowed to go on long-distance journeys without a male chaperone and, while not required to wear the burka, have been ordered to cover their faces in public. Most women are not allowed to work.\n\nPakistan has repeatedly denied that it was the architect of the Taliban enterprise, but there is little doubt that many Afghans who initially joined the movement were educated in madrassas (religious schools) in Pakistan.\n\nPakistan was also one of only three countries, along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which recognised the Taliban when they were in power the first time round in Afghanistan. It was also the last country to break diplomatic ties with the group.\n\nAt one point, a Pakistani offshoot of the Taliban threatened to destabilise Pakistan from areas it controlled in the north-west. One of the most high-profile and internationally condemned of all Pakistani Taliban attacks took place in October 2012, when schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai was shot on her way home in the town of Mingora.\n\nA major military offensive two years later following the Peshawar school massacre greatly reduced the group's influence in Pakistan, though. At least three key figures of the Pakistani Taliban had been killed in US drone strikes, including the group's leader, Hakimullah Mehsud in 2013.\n\nSchoolgirl and rights activist Malala Yousafzai was shot by Taliban gunmen in October 2012\n\nThe attention of the world was drawn to the Taliban in Afghanistan in the wake of the 11 September 2001 World Trade Center attacks in New York. The Taliban were accused of providing a sanctuary for the prime suspects, Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda movement.\n\nOn 7 October 2001, a US-led military coalition launched attacks in Afghanistan: by the first week of December, the Taliban regime had collapsed. The group's then leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, and other senior figures, including Bin Laden, evaded capture despite one of the largest manhunts in the world.\n\nMany senior Taliban leaders reportedly took refuge in the Pakistani city of Quetta, from where they guided the Taliban. But the existence of what was dubbed the \"Quetta Shura\" was denied by Islamabad.\n\nDespite ever higher numbers of foreign troops, the Taliban gradually regained and then extended their influence in Afghanistan, rendering vast tracts of the country insecure, while violence in the country returned to levels not seen since 2001.\n\nThere were numerous Taliban attacks on Kabul and in September 2012, the group carried out a high-profile raid on Nato's Camp Bastion base.\n\nPakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike in 2013\n\nHopes of a negotiated peace were raised in 2013, when the Taliban announced plans to open an office in Qatar. But mistrust on all sides remained high and the violence went on.\n\nIn August 2015, the Taliban admitted they had covered up Mullah Omar's death - reportedly from health problems at a hospital in Pakistan - for more than two years. The following month, the group said it had put aside weeks of infighting and rallied around a new leader, Mullah Mansour, who had been the deputy of Mullah Omar.\n\nAt about the same time, the Taliban seized control of a provincial capital for the first time since their defeat in 2001, taking control of the strategically important city of Kunduz.\n\nMullah Mansour was killed in a US drone strike in May 2016 and replaced by his deputy Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, who remains in control of the group.\n\nIn the year following the US-Taliban peace deal of February 2020 - which was the culmination of a long spell of direct talks - the Taliban appeared to shift their tactics from complex attacks in cities and on military outposts to a wave of targeted assassinations that terrorised Afghan civilians.\n\nThe targets - journalists, judges, peace activists, women in positions of power - suggested that the Taliban had not changed their extremist ideology, only their strategy.\n\nDespite grave concerns from Afghan officials over the government's vulnerability to the Taliban without international support, new US President Joe Biden announced in April 2021 that all American forces would leave the country by 11 September - two decades to the day since the felling of the World Trade Center.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Hibatullah Akhundzada is a religious scholar and he is former head of the Taliban courts\n\nHaving outlasted a superpower through two decades of war, the Taliban began seizing vast swathes of territory, before once again toppling a government in Kabul in the wake of a foreign power withdrawing.\n\nThey swept across Afghanistan in just 10 days, taking their first provincial capital on 6 August. By 15 August, they were at the gates of Kabul.\n\nTheir lightning advance prompted tens of thousands of people to flee their homes, many arriving in the Afghan capital, others heading for neighbouring countries.\n\nThe future for Afghans living under the Taliban's rule remains highly uncertain. While most are relieved war is over, millions are struggling to survive.\n\nNo country has recognised the Taliban government in the year since they returned to power.\n\nThe August 2022 killing in a US drone attack of al-Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul will do nothing to persuade Taliban critics that the group has turned over a new leaf.\n\nHardliners in the movement appear to have the upper hand on issues such as female employment, freedom of speech and secondary education for girls, meaning that desperately needed foreign-held funds are unlikely to be released any time soon.", "Art of Zero Living store owner Vita Viskackaite fills a jar with organic rice from a dispenser\n\nIn 2017, National Trust colleagues Stacey Fordham, 43, and Lidia Rueda Losada, 37, had a casual chat about how they wished everything they bought wasn't packaged in so much plastic.\n\nThe conversation spurred an idea to open a shop selling food and household items entirely without packaging, and in March 2018 they took the plunge.\n\nThey opened Zero Green, believed to be the second store in the country and first in Bristol.\n\nZero Green sells more than 1,000 product lines: including pasta, grains and pulses in dispensers; frozen vegan pasties; eco-cleaning products; cosmetics and sustainable non-plastic toiletries.\n\nConsumers are encouraged to bring their own containers or use recycled jars and packaging to take their shopping home.\n\n\"We put in just over £30,000 to start from our own savings,\" says Ms Fordham, who also previously worked for Sainsbury's.\n\nLidia Rueda Losada and Stacey Fordham met while working at the National Trust's head office in Swindon\n\n\"You have to really believe in what you're doing in order to do this, otherwise it's very hard.\"\n\nThe UK's first organic zero-waste shop was Earth.Food.Love in Totnes, set up by former Manchester United footballer Richard Eckersley and his wife Nicola in 2017.\n\nThe pioneering couple are credited by the zero-waste community with sharing how they established their business, offering full supplier lists, business plans and pricing lists for free, online.\n\nMs Fordham and Ms Rueda Losada used their tips. But there was a lot of trial and error, they say, plus additional challenges as they were determined to live by their green principles.\n\n\"It was really important for us to not buy virgin wood or racking off a shelf - everything we used in the shop was upcycled.\n\n\"We went to electrical companies and got big cable drums, upcycled pallets and salvaged scaffolding boards,\" says Ms Fordham.\n\nThey were \"really lucky\", she adds, as within six months Zero Green had broken even and eventually moved to a retail space four times bigger.\n\nZero Green's owners say they have followed their principles in their business, including using recycled materials for shop fixtures\n\n\"The popularity of it all was more than we expected... demand was so high we physically couldn't fit people into the shop.\"\n\nBefore the pandemic, the store was taking in £12,000 a week in sales, but now revenues have fallen by two thirds and they have had to lay off half their staff.\n\nThe online community of zero-waste shop owners estimates there are now roughly 320 zero-waste shops in the UK, but this also includes community interest companies (CICs) and organic wholefood shops.\n\nAccording to consumer expert Kate Hardcastle, it is difficult to collect official data because many shops go bust and fail. However, the community is growing steadily online and free advice is given to new entrepreneurs on a popular Facebook group.\n\nVita Viskackaite, 43, opened the Art of Zero Living store in Greenwich, London, in April.\n\nShe left a successful career in logistics with restaurant chain Itsu to run the shop, while her partner Justas pays the bills with his earnings. They have invested £55,000 from savings.\n\nVita Viskackaite: \"My husband said 'why don't you open your own shop?'\"\n\n\"Two years ago, I read a book called Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson and it captured me, as it wasn't just about saving the environment - it was also about saving money and improving your life,\" she says.\n\nInspired, Ms Viskackaite got rid of 30% of everything she owned and began shopping at a zero-waste shop in north London, but she had to take two buses each way to do her weekly shopping.\n\n\"Then coronavirus came and I was very sad because I didn't have anyone locally to buy from,\" she says.\n\n\"So, my husband said to me, 'If you feel so strongly about this, why don't you open your own shop?'\"\n\nIn June, the couple made £10,000 in sales. After paying £9,000 in overheads including stock and rent, they have a £1,000 profit.\n\n\"I hope that one day, there will be many more people who join the zero-waste lifestyle and avoid buying products using single-use plastic just because it's convenient,\" stresses Ms Viskackaite.\n\n\"We were never planning to become rich out of this, we just wanted to have peace of mind.\"\n\nResearch from environmental consultancy, Eunomia, shows mean annual turnover for EU zero-waste shops is around €170,000 (£144,000) based on a sample size of 268 packaging-free shops in 10 EU countries. And there is evidence shop turnover has increased over the past three years.\n\nBurgess Hill mayor Anne Eves and council leader Robert Eggleston are trying to encourage more green businesses\n\n\"Covid has jolted social consciousness, a retailer told me,\" says Ms Hardcastle. \"In our survey of 140 people, 85% of people said they care more about the environment than they did 12 months ago.\"\n\nIn Sussex, Burgess Hill mayor Anne Eves and council leader Robert Eggleston say there is definitely a movement to rejuvenate high streets with green businesses, like zero-waste shops and eco-fashion retailers.\n\nSince being elected in 2019, they have negotiated rent reductions with commercial landlords and divided up large empty retail units. Start-ups pay lower rents and some avoid business rates altogether.\n\n\"We want to nurture these businesses. At some point they will spread their wings and fly, and we want to support them so they have a chance,\" says Mr Eggleston.\n\nMs Eves, a Green councillor, says sustainability matters a lot to her constituents. She set up a monthly repair cafe to help people fix their electronic gadgets, clothes and bedding that has been very popular, and thinks every High Street should have one.\n\n\"We are gradually changing things... we'd like to see this town thriving as it was 20 years ago.\"\n\nArchitecture graduate Lydia Wilson, 26, started Waste Not Want Not in Bridport, Dorset, three years ago.\n\n\"I wanted something which enabled people to live waste-free but also [to] start a conversation on a much wider scale on ethics and organic living,\" she says.\n\nWaste Not Want Not Lydia Wilson says she has learned a lot from her community and it has given her crucial support\n\nMs Wilson took out £45,000 in personal loans to start her business. She offers more than 700 products and her biggest customer base is in the 35-50s age group.\n\nIt took 18 months for her to break even. Prior to Covid she took £12,000 a year in salary, but now everything is being ploughed back into the store.\n\nShe says the journey has been really hard, running the business all by herself, and is thankful that her customers have rallied round.\n\n\"I know now that I've got a community of people who really want the shop to be here, and would do what they could to make sure the shop stays.\n\n\"That's something I might call upon - it's a limited company but I want to transition it into a community benefit society or a co-operative.\"\n\nMs Fordham and Ms Viskackaite both agree that their communities are crucial.\n\nWaste Not Want Not Lydia Wilson says providing a space for her customers to be heard and exchange ideas is crucial\n\n\"I've learned it's OK to ask for help and be honest and open with your customers and staff,\" says Ms Fordham.\n\n\"Coming from the big bad business world you never admitted those things, but it's lovely to get advice and help.\"\n\nHowever, there are not yet enough such businesses to enable consumers to \"shop economically\" in the UK and many consumers lack information about them, stresses Ms Hardcastle.\n\nYet she still thinks zero-waste shops have an edge on supermarkets, some of which are now trialling similar ideas.\n\n\"The community is incredibly important to the success of zero waste shops and difficult to replicate,\" she says.\n\n\"Is it a sustainable business model? Yes because interest is beginning to grow but it has to be run by people who are committed to the cause.\"", "Baroness Harding recently applied for the role of chief executive of NHS England\n\nBaroness Dido Harding, who ran the government's Covid-19 test-and-trace programme in England, will step down from her NHS role in October.\n\nThe Conservative peer recently applied to be the new boss of NHS England, but the job went to Amanda Pritchard.\n\nThe testing and contact tracing scheme has been criticised repeatedly during the pandemic.\n\nBut the government has always defended the system, saying it helped curb the spread of the virus.\n\nBaroness Harding became chair of NHS Improvement in October 2017, before being chosen to head up Test and Trace - a role she stepped back from in April.\n\nAt the time, Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised a \"world-beating\" system, but a BBC investigation found it was failing in areas which had some of the worst infection rates, and was beset with IT problems.\n\nA report from the Commons Public Accounts Committee in March said there was \"no clear evidence\" the £22bn venture contributed to a reduction in coronavirus infection levels.\n\nAnd in June, the National Audit Office found there were still significant weaknesses in the performance of Test and Trace, particularly around slow turnaround times for test results.\n\nBefore being employed by the NHS, Baroness Harding was chief executive of TalkTalk and had held senior roles for Sainsbury's and Tesco.", "The priest's body was found in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sevres, a small village in western France\n\nA Rwandan man has been arrested on suspicion of killing a Roman Catholic priest in western France.\n\nThe body of Olivier Maire was found in the village of Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre in the Vendée area on Monday morning.\n\nThe unnamed suspect, a failed asylum seeker housed by the priest, turned himself in and confessed, reports say.\n\nThe 40-year-old man is also suspected of starting a fire that seriously damaged the cathedral in nearby Nantes in July last year.\n\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron praised the \"generosity\" of Fr Maire and said his thoughts were with all Catholics in France.\n\nThis 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 Emmanuel Macron 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.\n\nInterior Minister Gérald Darmanin echoed those sentiments and visited the area later in the day.\n\nThe killing has sparked political debate about why the suspect was still in France.\n\nOn Twitter Mr Darmanin criticised a post by far-right politician Marine Le Pen, who asked why the man suspected over the Nantes fire had not been deported.\n\nMr Darmanin said that although the asylum request had been rejected, the suspect could not be expelled while being investigated on charges of arson.\n\nFrench reports say the suspect was involved in the fire at Nantes cathedral in July 2020\n\nThe suspect, who worked as a volunteer warden at the cathedral, was charged after reportedly admitting to starting the fire.\n\nHe was detained until May this year and later transferred to a psychiatric hospital. Fr Maire, 60, had been welcoming the man into his church for several months, French media say.\n\nSister Dorothee Harushinana told Reuters news agency that the priest \"close to the people. You could always call on him.\"\n\nLast year's fire destroyed stained glass windows and the grand organ in the cathedral. It came months after the devastating 2019 fire at the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The blaze destroyed stained glass windows and the grand organ", "There were reports of a crowd struggling amid rising water levels at the Falls of Falloch\n\nEleven people have been rescued from the water at a beauty spot near Loch Lomond during a major operation.\n\nThe Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said crews were called to the Falls of Falloch, near Crianlarich, at about 17:30.\n\nThe group had waded out to a rock and then become stranded when the water level rose quickly.\n\nSpecialist water rescue crews were sent from Tyndrum and Killin, as well as members of Killin Mountain Rescue Team.\n\nThe rescue team said the group had been caught by rapidly rising water levels following heavy rain showers higher up the mountain.\n\n\"The fire service asked us to assist them with people in difficulty at Falls of Falloch,\" a spokesman added.\n\n\"Members of the team helped bring the group back to safety\".\n\nA Scottish Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said: \"Operations control mobilised a number of resources to the scene, where firefighters assisted 11 people across a gorge to safety.\"\n\nThere were no reports of any injuries and emergency crews have been stood down.", "Mr Woodhouse declined to comment on the investigation\n\nA major investigation has been launched into property developer entrepreneur Gavin Woodhouse.\n\nIt will focus on investments he offered in care homes and hotels, some of which were in Wales, between 2013 and 2019.\n\nThe Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said it is investigating \"suspected fraud and money laundering\" relating to him, as well as associated individuals and firms.\n\nMr Woodhouse declined to comment on the investigation.\n\nUK-based investors into the suspected fraudulent schemes were being urged to complete an SFO questionnaire.\n\nIt said this would \"help us to establish the circumstances of the investments offered, to identify and pursue new information, and to progress the investigation as quickly as possible\".\n\nMore than 1,000 people, including many overseas investors, have thought to have invested about £80 million in companies owned by Mr Woodhouse.\n\nThose taking part in the schemes handed over cash for hotel rooms, \"off-plan\" care home rooms and unbuilt lodges on the proposed Afan Valley Adventure Resort in south Wales.\n\nNeath Port Talbot Council said Mr Woodhouse was \"no longer involved\" in the Afan Valley project, and the new applicant hoped to \"drive this development forward\".\n\nDerrick Towlson invested in the Fourcroft Hotel in Tenby, Pembrokeshire\n\nDerrick Towlson, from Llysfaen in Conwy, invested in a room at the Fourcroft Hotel in Tenby in 2017 after selling his business.\n\nHis £75,000 was supposed to fund the hotel's renovation and in return he would be paid an annual rental.\n\nHe was told he could then sell his room back after 10 years at 25% profit.\n\n\"I've worked hard since the age of 15 and never had a day out of work so that I could retire early, now we've lost almost everything,\" he told BBC Wales.\n\n\"For the first time in our lives we've had to go on universal credit because our savings are depleted.\n\n\"We had nowhere to live so we moved in with my 90-year-old mother. It's been really hard.\"\n\nGary Thomas, who invested in two rooms at the Queen's Hotel in Llandudno, welcomed the SFO's investigation.\n\nThe retired financial advisor from Flintshire did receive a return on his investments for a couple of years, but these dried up in 2018 and he said he was about £75,000 out of pocket.\n\n\"I'm pleased the Serious Fraud Office are investigating this,\" Mr Thomas said.\n\nAn artist's impression of what the resort could have looked like\n\n\"The Queen's is up for sale and we're waiting to see what will happen if it sells, whether they buy the rooms from us or offer us an income.\n\n\"I just want out, really. I want to draw a line under this and move on.\"\n\nConcerns were raised about unfinished projects and the finances of Mr Woodhouse's Northern Powerhouse Developments (NPD) companies.\n\nIn 2019, a High Court judge put Northern Powerhouse Developments Ltd into administration, ruling that Mr Woodhouse's business model appeared to be \"thoroughly dishonest\" and a \"shameful abuse of the privileges of limited liability trading\".\n\nBBC Wales revealed in November 2019 that a number of Welsh hotels were being offered for sale following the collapse of the NPD schemes to try to get some money back for investors, many of whom were told that the Land Registry documents relating to their purchases were likely to be worthless.\n\nLaw firm Penningtons Manches Cooper are pursuing professional negligence claims against a number of solicitors who advised investors in the NPD schemes.\n\nPenningtons partner David Niven said the firm was representing \"hundreds of clients\" in respect of investments totalling about £20m, including some who invested in Welsh hotels and the Afan Valley Adventure Resort scheme as well as hotels and care homes in England.\n\nThe SFO would not comment further on its investigation but said its core purpose were to \"deliver justice for victims\".\n\nIt added: \"If we obtain convictions and compensation is appropriate and possible, we will seek to return monies to victims.\"", "Black Widow was one of the biggest summer hits, but its takings were hit by the pandemic\n\nUK cinema box office takings in the month since all Covid restrictions were lifted in England were half of their pre-pandemic level.\n\nBox office tracker Comscore said £65.7m was spent on seeing films like Black Widow and Fast & Furious 9 in the four weeks after \"freedom day\" on 19 July.\n\nThe figure for the corresponding weeks in 2019 was £129m.\n\nCinemas said they were \"very pleased\" with the figures and \"pretty confident\" they will get back to previous levels.\n\nIt's a similar picture in the US, where takings for the last four weekends have been 51% of the equivalent 2019 figures.\n\nMany major movies that were delayed by Covid in 2020 have finally been released in cinemas this summer, but have not enticed the numbers they would have previously expected.\n\nContinuing uncertainty in the US, where the Delta variant has recently led to rising cases, has disrupted release schedules again.\n\nIn recent weeks, Clifford the Big Red Dog, the Venom sequel and Hotel Transylvania 4 have either been pushed back or moved to streaming.\n\nThere has been speculation that the next James Bond outing No Time To Die - which is due out in late September in the UK after being delayed three times - could be postponed yet again. However, on Wednesday The Hollywood Reporter suggested that's unlikely to happen.\n\n\"The conditions remain challenging, there's no doubt about that,\" said Phil Clapp, chief executive of the UK Cinema Association.\n\n\"It's clear that there is still some reluctance among certain audience segments to return, and that's particularly true among older audiences,\" Mr Clapp said. \"There's a continuing need to offer reassurance and to ensure that there's the right film content for those older audiences.\n\n\"But broadly I think people [in the industry] are very pleased with the response of the public to the reopening of cinemas. The film slate is strengthening. We're now seeing a major title released, if not quite every weekend, then every other weekend.\"\n\nThe UK industry lost £2bn during the pandemic and no-one expected things to bounce back immediately, Mr Clapp said. \"Everyone knew that we would need to have to work hard over the initial weeks and months. Everyone's broadly where they expected to be.\"\n\nAmar Bilas, 34, from Greater Manchester, met his wife while working in a cinema, and before Covid they would go to see a film at least every couple of months.\n\n\"It's kind of ingrained. Ever since we've been teenagers we've been going to the cinema and even worked in one. So it's been our go-to thing,\" he said.\n\n\"But it's been nearly two years since we've been. The main thing is, nobody is wearing face masks, and Covid is still about. I know we're not going to die, but we just can't be bothered getting ill. That's the main thing.\n\n\"If we do get it, we don't know who we're going to pass it on to. My mum and dad are elderly. Being in a confined space, you don't know who you're going to be sat next to and you don't know if they're being careful.\n\n\"The other thing is, a lot of the films have come on to a streaming platform. So you think, well, I can watch it from the comfort of your home. You're getting a peace of mind so I don't mind paying £20.\n\n\"It still doesn't replace the atmosphere and the feeling of going to the cinema. You queue up, you get your tickets, get your food, get drinks, go in. I miss that feeling.\"\n\nA cinema in London told passers-by in May \"I assure you we're open\"\n\nCharles Gant, box office analyst for industry outlet Screen Daily, said the current figures may be sharply down on 2019, but they are much better than summer 2020.\n\n\"I honestly think the primary emotion will be relief rather than despair because what happened last year after lockdown ended was pretty grim for everybody,\" he said.\n\nThe continual postponement of releases led to a \"death cycle that no one seemed to be able to find a way out of\", he said.\n\n\"So when I look at the numbers now, I'm just thinking, this is great. It's easy to forget that, actually, those numbers are still significantly down 2019.\"\n\nTwo years ago, 13 films grossed more than £20m in the UK, he said. This year, there have been none, despite some major blockbusters having made it onto the big screen.\n\nAround the world, the biggest-budget releases have not reached the peaks they would have normally expected, according to Jeff Bock from US analysts Exhibitor Relations.\n\nNathalie Emmanuel and Vin Diesel in a scene from Fast & Furious 9\n\n\"Only one film [F9] has grossed over $400m worldwide this summer, and only a handful have even topped $100m domestic [in North America],\" he said.\n\n\"The industry is used to having at least a few films boast $1bn worldwide, which is a number we might not see for quite some time now.\n\nHe added that the horror genre has held up better than others.\n\n\"Creativity is the name of the release game right now if you're a studio, which is why Disney and Warner Bros have been so aggressive in the streaming world.\"\n\nDisney has put films like Black Widow and Cruella on streaming platform Disney+ at the same time as they hit cinemas - for a premium price.\n\nBut it is saving other releases for the big screen.\n\nThe company's boss Bob Chapek said putting the forthcoming Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in cinemas for 45 days before joining Disney+ was \"an experiment\".\n\nWarner Bros, meanwhile is putting all its 2021 releases on HBO Max in the US, but has pledged to give cinemas a 45-day head start next year.\n\nThat's a much shorter window than before the pandemic. In the UK, there was traditionally around a four-month wait to watch films at home. Now, even if a film isn't on streaming platform straight away, fans know they will not have a long wait.\n\n\"It's apparent that the industry may have been changed forever by these events, as studios are in the eye of the hurricane,\" Mr Bock said.\n\n\"Everything is swirling around them and no-one really knows when and where things will land.\"", "People who have had Covid-19 gain even more antibodies when fully vaccinated\n\nHaving two doses of Covid vaccine remains the best way to protect against the Delta variant, first identified in India and now dominant in the UK.\n\nThe Oxford-AstraZeneca jab, though initially less effective, offers the same high protection as the Pfizer-BioNTech after four to five months, the largest study of its kind suggests.\n\nBut neither is as effective as it is against the Alpha variant, responsible for most UK infections last winter.\n\nThere is insufficient data for Moderna.\n\nBut researchers believe it \"almost certainly at least as good as the others\".\n\nThey analysed two and a half million tests results from 743,526 participants in the UK's Covid-19 household-infection survey - led by Oxford University and the Office for National Statistics.\n\nThe Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine had 93% effectiveness against symptomatic infection two weeks after the second dose, compared with Oxford-AstraZeneca's 71%.\n\nOver time, however, the Pfizer-BioNTech's effectiveness dropped while the Oxford-AstraZeneca's remained largely the same.\n\nBut there was no cause for alarm, Prof Sarah Walker, at the University of Oxford, said because \"when you start very very high, you've got a long way to go\".\n\n\"The World Health Organization set the bar at 50% and we're way above that,\" she said.\n\n\"Both of these vaccines are still doing very well against Delta.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOther key points from the research include:\n\nThe study also echoes previous research showing fully vaccinated people who do become infected with the Delta variant have similar levels of the virus to those unvaccinated.\n\nWith the Alpha variant, in contrast, their viral loads were much lower.\n\n''We don't yet know how much transmission can happen from people who get Covid-19 after being vaccinated,\" Prof Walker said.\n\n\"For example, they may have high levels of virus for shorter periods of time.\n\n\"They definitely have the potential to transmit as much.\n\n\"But the fact that they can have high levels of virus suggests that people who aren't yet vaccinated may not be as protected from the Delta variant as we hoped.\n\n\"This means it is essential for as many people as possible to get vaccinated - both in the UK and worldwide.\"", "As thousands of citizens and foreign nationals attempt to flee Afghanistan, scenes outside Kabul airport have become increasingly desperate.\n\nSince the Taliban took control of the country at the weekend and closed land border crossings, the capital's airport has become the only way out of the country for many.\n\nBut the militants have said they don't want Afghans to leave the country. They have set up checkpoints on Airport Road - shown in yellow, below - the main route to Hamid Karzai International Airport, and have attacked people.\n\nThe violence has left 12 people in the area, dead - killed by gunshots or in stampedes - since Sunday, an anonymous Taliban official told Reuters news agency, meaning the journey to the airport is an increasingly treacherous one.\n\nInside the walls of the airport compound, more than 4,000 US troops are in temporary control. Outside, heavily-armed Taliban fighters now ring the perimeter, generating an atmosphere of fear.\n\nTaliban fighters have control of the exterior of the airport\n\nThe militants are reportedly preventing Afghans - including some of those with visas - from getting to the tarmac.\n\nBut even before people fleeing reach the edge of the airport, they are being attacked en route, witnesses say.\n\nA correspondent for the LA Times newspaper saw dozens of Taliban firing into the air, aiming weapons at crowds and using sticks and rope to lash civilians as they tried to make their escape. Graphic images captured by Marcus Yam show at least one woman hurt and a young child left bloodied with what appears to be a head injury.\n\nA woman was injured on her way to the airport\n\nPhotos published by SBS showed an Afghan interpreter, who appeared to have been attacked, being treated for a gunshot wound.\n\nCrowds have also been gathering along the airport's perimeter to the north of the city - seen in the map above - over the past few days, with reports of a stampede injuring 17 people on Wednesday. Many have been trying to climb over barbed wire fences and there are reports of shots being fired.\n\nPeople have been scaling the boundary wall of Hamid Karzai International Airport\n\nAmong the crowds are families with children, many of whom have not had access to food and drink for days, reporters on the ground say. Footage shared on social media showed children being passed over a wall to foreign soldiers in the hope they might be able to escape.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A child is handed over the wall at Kabul airport, as the chaos continues\n\nOne girl in a pink jacket was hoisted aloft to a soldier on a ladder.\n\nA number of children have been seen being helped over walls at Kabul airport\n\nThe chaotic conditions emerged as European governments rushed to bring home their citizens - as well as Afghan colleagues.\n\nAfghan families have been seeking sanctuary with foreign troops\n\nAlthough the Taliban have said Afghans should stay in the country they have also claimed they are facilitating a safe exit for both foreigners and locals. \"We are preventing any form of violent, verbal clash at the airport among Afghans, foreigners and Taliban members,\" an official said.\n\nThe latest reports of Taliban violence and harassment come as a confidential UN document, seen by the BBC, says the militants are intensifying their hunt for people who worked for and collaborated with Nato and US forces.\n\nThe crush of people heading for the airport can be seen in satellite images of the area, with thousands converging in vehicles as they desperately tried to escape.\n\nImages of the chaos first emerged from Kabul airport on Monday as it was overrun by Afghans terrified at the prospect of Taliban rule.", "From Portugal to France to Montenegro, a look at some of the fires spreading across Europe - and the rest of the globe.", "At least 15 countries have sent military planes to the Afghan capital\n\nChaotic scenes have been reported outside Kabul international airport as governments rush to bring home their citizens as well as Afghan colleagues.\n\nTaliban militants controlling access to the airport have fired shots into the air to disperse approaching crowds.\n\nSome 5,000 people have been evacuated in the last 24 hours through the airport, which is being run by specially deployed US troops.\n\nIt comes three days after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.\n\n\"It's absolutely hectic and chaos out there,\" one Western official told the Reuters news agency, as thousands of people remain desperate to leave, including Afghans who helped the US-led mission in the country over the past 20 years.\n\nTaliban fighters deployed around the airport are reportedly not permitting Afghans without documents to enter. They are, however, allowing entry to people with American passports, according to US officials.\n\nThe hardline Islamist group's dramatic takeover of Kabul on Sunday took many Western governments by surprise.\n\nStaff at the Dutch embassy have faced criticism after saying they did not have time tell Afghan colleagues they were going.\n\nThe former president of the Dutch military union feared there was little time left to evacuate interpreters and local staff: \"If we don't succeed in the next 48 to 72 hours it'll be too late,\" Anne-Marie Snels told the BBC.\n\nThe first of Germany's evacuees arrived at Frankfurt airport on Tuesday evening\n\nDozens of planes from around 15 countries have reportedly been sent to Kabul to assist with the evacuations. American, French, Dutch, German, Spanish and British aircraft have all left in recent hours.\n\nThe US military, which is planning to evacuate more than 30,000 people by the end of the month, is guarding the runways and has taken over air traffic control.\n\nIts troops fired shots overnight as part of crowd-control efforts but no-one was injured, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday.\n\nHe said 4,500 US troops were currently at the airport, but hundreds more were set to arrive in the coming hours.\n\n\"We have an obligation to get as many people out of Afghanistan as we can,\" Mr Kirby said, adding that the US was aiming to increase its evacuation capacity to more than 5,000 people a day.\n\nAbout 11,000 US citizens remain in the country, AFP news agency reports. Two thousand people have been evacuated by the US in the past 24 hours, including 325 Americans.\n\nFrance, Germany, Spain, Poland and the Czech Republic all said they had successfully evacuated some of their citizens as well as Afghans.\n\nSome 700 British nationals and Afghans were airlifted out on Tuesday and the UK was \"trying to scale up the speed and pace over the next couple of days\", UK Ambassador Laurie Bristow said.\n\nOne British aid worker told the BBC that she felt lucky to escape. \"The runways were crowded with hundreds of Afghan families hoping to get out somehow,\" Kitty Chevallier told the PA news agency,\n\nShe added that she was aware of how \"immensely lucky\" she was to have been helped out, when others, including friends and colleagues, remained stranded.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Everybody got very emotional\": Hassina Syed describes getting out of Afghanistan on a British military plane\n\nElsewhere, one woman who left Afghanistan on a German evacuation plane spoke of her fear before boarding.\n\n\"We had to force our way through and my little son fell over and we were scared but we made it,\" she told Reuters. \"An American guy showed goodwill and realised we were totally exhausted.\"\n\n\"He said 'all good, you may go in'. Others behind cried and lay on the ground. It was scary,\" she said.\n\nThe unfolding crisis has prompted wider calls for Western countries to resettle Afghan refugees.\n\n\"We cannot abandon [Afghan colleagues] and we are doing everything we can to offer them shelter,\" the European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said on Wednesday.\n\nGerman Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, however, was among a number of European leaders to warn of an influx of refugees from Afghanistan, suggesting between 300,000 and five million people could head to Europe.\n\nThe UK has said it will settle 20,000 Afghan refugees over the next few years, while Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said on Wednesday that \"the aim must be to keep the bulk of people in the region\".\n\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron has come under fire from opponents for saying Europe should put together a \"robust initiative to thwart illegal migration\". He accused critics of twisting his comments and said \"France does and will continue to do its duty to protect those who are in the most danger\".", "The number of alerts sent by the NHS COVID-19 app in England and Wales has fallen to its lowest number since the week ending 23 June.\n\nA total of 261,453 alerts were sent in the week to August 11, down 18% on the previous week.\n\nThe figures cover the first full week since changes were made to the app so that it notified fewer close contacts.\n\nVenue check-ins also fell, dropping nearly 480,000 to 1,305,356.\n\nAt its peak in July, the number of self-isolation alerts sent in England and Wales in one week was just under 700,000.\n\nLatest government figures show that between 12 August 2021 and 18 August 2021, 211,238 people had a confirmed positive test result, an increase of 7.6% compared with the previous week.\n\nOn Monday in England and Northern Ireland rules were changed so that fully vaccinated adults and under-18s no longer had to self isolate if they were identified as a close contact of someone with Covid (as long as they had no symptoms).\n\nInstead of having to quarantine for 10 days, they are now advised to take a PCR test - but this is not compulsory.\n\nThey are also advised to wear a face covering in enclosed spaces and to limit contact with others, especially the clinically vulnerable.\n\nThe guidance applies to under-18s too.\n\nThe changes to self-isolation rules have already been implemented in Scotland and Wales.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid said the changes to self-isolation guidance were part of a cautious \"step back towards normality\", as a result of the vaccine rollout.\n\nThe latest statistics on vaccination show 40,987,846 people had been given a second dose by the end of 17 August 2021.", "Supermarket group Morrisons has accepted an improved £7bn takeover bid from US private equity group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R).\n\nMorrisons had previously recommended investors accept a £6.7bn offer from a consortium led by another US-based investment group, Fortress.\n\nFortress said it was \"considering its options\", amid signs shareholders think the battle is not over.\n\nMorrisons shares opened up on Friday, a signal investors expect another bid.\n\nThe retailer, which has almost 500 shops and more than 110,000 staff, has been at the centre of a takeover battle for weeks.\n\nFortress has urged Morrisons' shareholders to \"take no action\" on CD&R's agreed bid, which will require their approval at a meeting in October.\n\nIn July Morrisons turned down an offer worth £5.5bn from CD&R, saying it significantly undervalued the business.\n\nBut the grocer's board unanimously accepted the new offer, which represents a 60% premium to Morrisons' share price before takeover interest emerged in mid June.\n\nMorrison shares rose 4.4% following the announcement to 291.4p per share.\n\nNicholas Hyett, Equity Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said that although the new offer has the backing of Morrisions' management, \"this might not be the end of the story\".\n\nHe said: Rival bidder Fortress has urged investors to hold fire on accepting the deal and are expected to make a further statement in due course. With the shares currently trading above the new and improved offer price, the market clearly thinks a better offer is a distinct possibility.\"\n\nMorrisons was founded in Bradford in 1899 - where it still has its headquarters. The founder William Morrison's son, the late Sir Ken Morrison, ran the business for fifty years.\n\nCD&R said it recognises the \"legacy of Sir Ken Morrison, Morrisons' history and culture, and considers that this strong heritage is core to Morrisons and its approach to grocery retailing\".\n\nThe private equity firm said it would help Morrisons to build on its strengths, including its close relationships with suppliers and property portfolio.\n\nMorrisons chairman Andrew Higginson said the offer \"represents good value for shareholders while at the same time protecting the fundamental character of Morrisons for all stakeholders\".\n\nOver the last 10 years, CD&R has been advised by Sir Terry Leahy, who was the boss of Tesco at the time when Mr Higginson worked for him as chief financial officer.\n\nMorrisons' chief operating officer, Trevor Strain, also previously worked with Sir Terry at Tesco.\n\nSir Terry also advised CD&R on its acquisition of discount retailer B&M, which netted the private equity firm an estimated profit of £1bn when it sold it on.\n\nThe future of the UK's fourth largest supermarket has taken a new twist.\n\nMorrisons is one of a slew of UK companies that have been targeted by overseas investors. Defence contractors Meggit and Ultra are also the subject of bidding wars. The numbers are startling.\n\nEven before you count Morrisons, Meggit and Ultra - foreign, private buyers have spent more buying UK listed companies in the last eight months than they have in the last five years combined.\n\nUK companies look cheap to foreign buyers. The UK economy was one of the hardest hit by the pandemic - and the value of the pound has never quite recovered its pre-Brexit value which reduces the price of UK businesses for non-UK investors.\n\nSome say that these bids highlight the value of - and confidence in - UK plc. But others are concerned that private buyouts increase debt levels, reduce transparency and mean that key decisions about the future of UK companies like Morrisons could be taken in New York rather than Bradford.\n\nThe UK government has already asked the Competition and Markets Authority to review the bid for submarine technology specialist Ultra on grounds of National Security and it may yet intervene in the takeover bid for aerospace specialist Meggitt.\n\nThere is also legislation planned to expand its powers to intervene and increase the scrutiny of privately held companies but for now there is a rush to the checkout for important chunks of UK PLC.", "The subscription site OnlyFans, known for its adult content, has announced it will block sexually explicit photos and videos from 1 October.\n\nPeople will still be able to post nude content on the site.\n\nBut this will need to be consistent with OnlyFans' policies.\n\nThe announcement comes after BBC News had approached the company for a response to leaked documents concerning accounts which posted illegal content.\n\nOnlyFans said the change had come after pressure from banking partners.\n\nThe site has grown during the pandemic and says it has 130 million users.\n\n\"In order to ensure the long-term sustainability of our platform, and continue to host an inclusive community of creators and fans, we must evolve our content guidelines,\" OnlyFans said in a statement.\n\nThe London-based social media site enables its creators to post nude videos and photos and charge subscribers for tips or a monthly fee.\n\nCreators can post a range of content from cooking to fitness videos, but it is best known for pornography.\n\nIn return for hosting the material, OnlyFans takes a 20% share of all payments.\n\nThe documents - described as \"compliance manuals\" - show that although illegal content itself is removed, OnlyFans lets moderators give creators multiple warnings before closing accounts.\n\nModeration specialists and child protection experts say this shows OnlyFans has some \"tolerance\" for accounts posting illegal content.\n\nIn response to the BBC's investigation, OnlyFans said the documents are not manuals or \"official guidance\", it does not tolerate violations of its terms of service, and its systems and age verification go far beyond \"all relevant global safety standards and regulations\".\n\nThe site, founded in 2016 by Essex businessman Tim Stokely, has come under fire in the past after a BBC News investigation found under-18s had used fake identification to set up accounts on the site. In June, BBC News found that under-18s sold explicit videos on the site, despite it being illegal for people to share indecent images of children.\n\nAfter the BBC investigation, the children's commissioner for England said OnlyFans needed to do more to stop underage users. In response to the investigation, OnlyFans said it had closed the accounts flagged and refunded all active subscriptions.\n\nIn July, the company's first monthly transparency report said that it deactivated 15 OnlyFans accounts after finding indecent images of children on those accounts.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A child is handed over the wall at Kabul airport, as the chaos continues\n\nThe Taliban have stepped up their search for people who worked for Nato forces or the previous Afghan government, a report has warned.\n\nIt said the militants have been going door-to-door to find targets and threaten their family members.\n\nThe hardline Islamist group has tried to reassure Afghans since seizing power in a lightning offensive, promising there would be \"no revenge\".\n\nBut there are growing fears of a gap between what they say and what they do.\n\nThe warning the group were targeting \"collaborators\" came in a confidential document by the RHIPTO Norwegian Center for Global Analyses, which provides intelligence to the UN.\n\n\"There are a high number of individuals that are currently being targeted by the Taliban and the threat is crystal clear,\" Christian Nellemann, who heads the group behind the report, told the BBC.\n\n\"It is in writing that, unless they give themselves in, the Taliban will arrest and prosecute, interrogate and punish family members on behalf of those individuals.\"\n\nHe warned that anyone on the Taliban's blacklist was in severe danger, and that there could be mass executions.\n\nForeign powers are continuing efforts to get their nationals out of Afghanistan. A Nato official said on Friday that more than 18,000 people have been evacuated in the last five days from Kabul airport.\n\nSome 6,000 more, among them former interpreters for foreign armed forces, are on standby to be flown out late on Thursday or early Friday.\n\nThe aim is to double evacuation efforts over the weekend, the official said.\n\nOutside the airport the situation remains chaotic. The Taliban have been blocking Afghans trying to flee, with one video showing a child being handed to a US soldier.\n\nPresident Joe Biden, who has come under scathing criticism over what his opponents say is a \"shambolic\" US withdrawal, is expected to speak on Friday about the evacuation effort.\n\nThe Taliban captured Kabul on Sunday, having swept across the country as foreign forces withdrew.\n\nTheir victory returns the group to power 20 years on from when they were toppled in a US-led invasion.\n\nThe group's previous stint in power saw widespread abuses, including public executions and banning women from the workplace.\n\nBut in their first news conference since retaking control of Afghanistan, the group presented a conciliatory tone, promising women's rights would be respected \"within the framework of Islamic law\".\n\nThe Taliban have reportedly pledged not to force women to wear the burka - a one-piece veil that covers the face and body. Instead, the hijab - or a headscarf - will be compulsory.\n\nThe warning comes despite the Taliban saying they would not carry out revenge on Afghans\n\nThey also said they did not want \"any internal or external enemies\" and that there would be an amnesty for former members of the security forces and those who worked with foreign powers.\n\nThe UN chief Antonio Guterres said the only leverage the body had over the Taliban was the militant's desire for international recognition.\n\nAsked in an interview if he thought the Taliban had changed, President Biden said no, adding the group faced an \"existential\" choice about whether they want to be recognised.\n\nAre you in Afghanistan and affected by this? Please tell us your story by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nScotland and Manchester United legend Denis Law has been diagnosed with dementia.\n\nLaw, 81, who says he has Alzheimer's and vascular dementia, is the latest former player to reveal he is suffering from the degenerative brain disease.\n\nHis former United team-mate Sir Bobby Charlton was diagnosed with the condition last year.\n\n\"This will not be an easy journey especially for the people who love you the most,\" Law said.\n\n\"I know the road ahead will be hard, demanding, painful and ever changing and so ask for understanding and patience.\n\n\"I recognise how my brain is deteriorating and how my memory evades me when I don't want it to and how this causes me distress in situations that are beyond my control.\n\n\"I do understand what is happening and that is why I want to address my situation now whilst I am able, because I know there will be days when I don't understand and I hate the thought of that right now.\"\n\n'Trying to be positive'\n\nLaw, a Ballon d'Or winner in 1964, won 55 caps for Scotland and scored 30 international goals to distinguish himself as one of the country's greatest ever players.\n\nAlongside Sir Bobby Charlton and George Best at Old Trafford, the striker formed what was hailed the United Trinity.\n\nLaw - who started his career with Huddersfield Town, had two spells at Manchester City and played in Italy for Torino - won the European Cup, two English titles and the FA Cup in his 11 years at Old Trafford.\n\n\"Denis Law will always be one of this club's greatest legends and everybody at Manchester United sends our love and best wishes to him and his family,\" the club said.\n\n\"We know our fans around the world will also rally behind him. We applaud Denis's brave words and will continue to offer whatever support we can as he adapts to this challenging condition.\"\n\nHe says he is \"determined to continue\" watching the Premier League side and will remain involved in the community trust in his name as he is \"trying to be positive\".\n\n\"I have good days and bad days and aim to take each day as it comes adjusting my lifestyle accordingly,\" he said.\n\nLaw and his family are also fundraising for the Alzheimer's Society, who have offered the former footballer support.\n\n\"The charity is also doing amazing work with the sports industry, with its Sport United Against Dementia campaign, which I fully support,\" Law said.\n\n\"This really could make the biggest difference to former players, players, and fans alike.\"\n\nA study in 2019 found that professional footballers are three and a half times more likely to die from dementia than people of the same age range in the general population.\n\nSir Bobby was the fifth member of England's 1966 World Cup-winning side to be diagnosed with dementia.\n• None Dementia: Does heading a football cause the disease?\n• None Heading in football: Campaigner Dawn Astle welcomes new limit for professionals in England\n\nHis brother, Jack, and Nobby Stiles, both died last year after suffering from brain functioning diseases believed to be linked closely to heading footballs, while both Martin Peters and Ray Wilson - who died in 2019 and 2018 respectively - also had the condition.\n\nStiles, Peters and Wilson were diagnosed with it while still in their sixties. In a BBC documentary screened in 2017, Stiles' son John told former England captain Alan Shearer he was \"utterly convinced\" heading a football was responsible for his father's dementia.\n\nIn 2014, a neuropathologist said that the death of former England and West Brom striker Jeff Astle was due to a brain condition caused by heading footballs.\n\nNew guidelines limiting professional players in England to 10 \"higher force headers\" a week in training have been introduced this season.\n\nAstle's daughter Dawn has long pushed for research into a link between football and brain injuries, and worked with the Professional Footballers' Association on an advisory basis to help \"shape the longer-term neurodegenerative care provision for former members and their families\".\n\nAlzheimer's Society chief executive Kate Lee said she hoped Law's \"bravery in coming forward will encourage many others to seek the help they need\".\n\n\"It's never been more important to fund crucial research and our vital support services and ensure that right now, past and present players, as well as fans, know our services are here and can get the dedicated dementia support they deserve,\" Lee continued.\n\nThe Denis Law Legacy Trust said it was \"saddened\" by the news.\n\n\"As a player, his grit and determination took him from the streets of Aberdeen to the pinnacle of world football and everyone at the Trust knows he will use that same strength now to take on this illness,\" said the Trust's chief operating officer, Mark Williams.\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "The longest waits included 54,394 people due for orthopaedic or trauma treatment\n\nThe numbers on waiting lists for non-urgent hospital treatment in Wales have again hit record levels.\n\nThere were 624,909 people waiting in June, with the list climbing steadily each month and up by 41% since the early days of the Covid pandemic.\n\nThose waiting the longest, more than nine months, rose again to 233,210.\n\nA&E waiting time performance was the worst on record and Conservatives called the figures \"catastrophic\".\n\nEmergency departments and the Welsh ambulance service both had their busiest months since the pandemic began.\n\nA&E waiting times were the worst for a second month in a row - with only 69.8% of patients spending less than four hours waiting to be dealt with.\n\nThe headline figure for the number of patients waiting for non-urgent hospital treatment has been growing since the pandemic began, not helped by surgery being postponed during the first Covid wave.\n\nThere were another 17,869 people added to the list in the past month and numbers waiting more than nine months grew by 5,457.\n\nA Welsh government spokesperson said: \"Waiting times for treatment continue to grow.\n\n\"However, it is encouraging to see progress being made with the number of patients waiting over 52 weeks falling for the third month in a row.\n\n\"We also saw the largest number of specialist consultations completed and treatments started in any month since the start of the pandemic.\"\n\nIt comes as Wales' health minister pledged £551m to help health and social services recover from the pandemic.\n\nEluned Morgan said Covid had had a \"massive impact\" on the NHS and social services in Wales and was still facing significant costs in dealing with it.\n\nThe figures also show the Welsh Ambulance Trust received more calls in July than in any month since the pandemic began - with the highest proportion of \"red\" calls, those immediately life-threatening emergencies, on record.\n\nThere were also the highest attendances at A&E departments since the pandemic began and waiting time performance was the worst on record.\n\nThe target is that 95% of patients should be seen within four hours but that fell to 69.8% in July.\n\nThis dropped as low as 44.7% at Glan Clwyd Hospital in Denbighshire and 43.8% at the new Grange University Hospital in Torfaen.\n\nThe Grange, which opened in the middle of the pandemic last November, had nearly 8,000 people through the doors of its emergency department in July.\n\nThe monthly performance was the second-lowest ever for a Welsh A&E unit, after Wrexham Maelor Hospital in February last year.\n\nOverall in Wales more than 7,000 patients waited more than 12 hours in A&E - one in 10 patients and another record high - with the target that no-one should wait that long.\n\nSenior consultants said there was a \"severely challenging situation,\" with \"unrelenting pressure\" on staff and fears the NHS would not be able to cope, with added winter pressures looming.\n\n\"Staff are already facing burnout, exhaustion, stress and moral injury,\" said Dr Suresh Pillai, vice president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Wales.\n\n\"The health service and its workforce need the assurance that there is a robust and comprehensive plan to manage this likely increase in demand and provide adequate resources for staff and departments.\"\n\nThere were 94,176 attendances to emergency units over the month.\n\nFor the ambulance service, only 57.8% of more than 3,580 red calls arrived within eight minutes compared with the target of 65%. This was down from 60.6% in the previous month.\n\nBut more people started treatment for cancer in the latest month than in the previous month.\n\nThe total number of patients starting their first cancer treatment and the number of patients starting their treatment within the target time were the second highest since the current records began.\n\nThe Conservatives called the figures \"catastrophic\", saying Wales should be seeing improvements after it moved from the peak of the pandemic.\n\nHealth spokesman Russell George said: \"To record the worst ever A&E waiting times and the longest NHS treatment waiting list in the same month shows a complete lack of leadership.\"\n\nPlaid Cymru said the figures painted a bleak picture and called for a long-term plan.\n\n\"We cannot be trapped in an endless cycle where waiting times are getting increasingly worse and the only solution the government can come up with is to provide short-term fixes which change very little in the long run,\" said health spokesman Rhun ap Iorwerth.", "A freight train driver has been injured in a collision with a tractor at a level crossing.\n\nIt happened between Whittlesey and March in Cambridgeshire at 09:10 BST.\n\nNetwork Rail said three of the train's wagons derailed and the driver received minor injuries, while the tractor driver was unhurt.\n\nHead of safety Richard Tew said: \"We are on site with the emergency services and working with all parties to fully understand the circumstances.\"\n\nIt happened on the line between Whittlesey and March railway stations in Cambridgeshire\n\nPassenger services between Ely and Peterborough are expected to be disrupted for the rest of the day.\n\nBritish Transport Police said: \"The driver of the train and tractor were checked over by paramedics at the scene for minor injuries.\n\n\"Thankfully no-one has sustained any serious injuries.\"\n\nEast of England Ambulance Service said an ambulance officer and air ambulance were sent to the scene but nobody needed to be taken to hospital.\n\nCambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service said it sent three crews, who were able to leave by 11:00 BST after making the area safe and handing over to Network Rail.\n\nRail minister Chris Heaton-Harris wrote on Twitter that he was \"in close contact\" with Network Rail, Greater Anglia and others about the incident and warned passengers to expect disruption.\n\nThis 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 Chris Heaton-Harris MP 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.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The bosses of Britain's biggest companies earned 86 times the average full-time wage last year.\n\nThe median pay of a chief executive of a FTSE-100 firm - the UK's blue chip company index - was £2.69m in 2020, according to the High Pay Centre.\n\nThat was down 17% from £3.25m in 2019, before the pandemic hit.\n\n\"These are still very generous rewards,\" said High Pay Centre director Luke Hildyard.\n\nThe think tank's research revealed average bonus size fell from £1.1m in 2019 to £828,000 last year.\n\nMeanwhile the average long term incentive plan payment fell from £2.4m to £1.38m.\n\n\"CEO pay packages are designed to reflect the experience of shareholders, employees and other stakeholders so in one sense the lower pay levels this year show the system working as intended,\" Mr Hildyard said.\n\nBut he pointed out that most chief executives have already made millions of pounds over the course of their careers and the still high rewards come \"at a time when, in general, government support for the economy has probably been more important to the survival and success of the UK's biggest companies than the decisions of their executives.\"\n\nThe research also showed that average chief executive earnings at the nine FTSE-100 companies that used the furlough scheme to pay their employees, was £2.39m.\n\nMr Hildyard said the UK's high chief executive pay reflected a wider gap between rich and poor in Britain than in most other European countries.\n\nPascal Soriot of drugs giant AstraZeneca was the highest-earning chief executive, making £15.45m last year.\n\nHe was considerably ahead of Brian Cassin of credit reference agency Experian who made £10.3m, according to the think tank's figures.\n\nIn third spot was Albert Manifold of building materials company CRH who received £9.92m.\n\nLaxman Narasimhan of consumer goods firm Reckitt Benckiser was fourth with £9.24m, while the fifth highest-paid FTSE boss in 2020 was Rob Perrins of housebuilder Berkeley, who made £8.03m.\n\nChief executive pay has fallen when their roles have never been more valuable, reckons Matthew Lesh, head of research at the Adam Smith Institute.\n\n\"Amid a historic global crisis the captains of industry have played a key role in keeping us fed, entertained and connected,\" he said.\n\nGenerous compensation is necessary to attract top talent that delivers innovative products, creates jobs and boosts company value, Mr Lesh added.\n\n\"Investors are known to react viciously to changing CEOs because leadership is key to business success.\"\n\nHe said that rather than obsessing about chief executive pay, \"we should embrace policies that will boost pay for all workers as the economy recovers from Covid-19.\n\n\"This means cutting taxes and red tape that holds down incomes.\"\n\nQuite apart from the reminder of the huge gap that has, over the years, opened up between the best-paid employees and the average - with chief executives on 86 times as much as the average worker - the High Pay Centre think tank's analysis is also a reminder of the weakness of the premise on which exorbitant bonuses and long-term incentive plans are based.\n\nThis is namely that the key determinant of a company's success is the shareholder value it generates. In addition, it is the notion that the key determinant of that is a talented top boss who must be attracted, retained and incentivised to do their best by the offer of big money.\n\nIt wasn't Pascal Soriot, the highest paid chief executive of a FTSE-listed company (pay: £15.45m), who led the team that came up with AstraZeneca's vaccine. That was Sarah Gilbert and Andrew Pollard of Oxford University. But the reason shareholders won't begrudge him it isn't because of what it did to AstraZeneca's profits.\n\nIn fact, by offering to distribute it at no profit (unlike Pfizer), AstraZeneca's losses due to the vaccine in the first half of 2021 were more than $50m.\n\nBut what it's done for the firm's reputation - and the benefit to public health - are incalculable. It's not just the bottom line that counts.", "Tributes have been paid to victims of the Plymouth shooting\n\nThe Plymouth gunman killed five people with a shotgun after a row with his mother, a coroner has heard.\n\nMaxine Davison, Stephen Washington and Kate Shepherd were killed in Keyham last Thursday, along with father and daughter Lee and Sophie Martyn who were walking their dog.\n\nJake Davison, 22, carried out a 12-minute attack before turning the gun on himself.\n\nMr Arrow heard evidence from senior investigating officer Det Insp Steve Hambly, who said all five victims had died from shotgun wounds.\n\nHe said Davison shot his 51-year-old mother Maxine, also known as Maxine Chapman, before killing three-year-old Sophie and her father Lee, 43.\n\nMaxine Davison was shot and killed by her son, Jake, in her home\n\nSophie Martyn, three, and her father Lee were among Davison's victims\n\nDavison then killed Mr Washington, 59, before shooting 66-year-old Mrs Shepherd, who later died at Derriford Hospital. He also shot and wounded a 33-year-old man and a 53-year-old woman before turning the gun on himself.\n\nDet Insp Hambly, from Devon and Cornwall Police's major crime investigation team, said Ms Davison, a former trawler woman by occupation, \"sustained fatal gunshot wounds\" at her home in Biddick Drive following an argument with her son.\n\nHe said Mr Martyn, a carpenter, and his daughter Sophie had died from shotgun wounds while walking the family dog in the same street.\n\nStephen Washington was a \"devoted family man, a loving husband, father, grandfather and best friend\" said his family\n\nDet Insp Hambly said Mr Washington, who was a carer for his wife, was killed on a nearby footpath while walking his dogs.\n\nHe said Mrs Shepherd was shot while walking along Henderson Place.\n\nHe added she received immediate medical attention but sadly died despite the best efforts of medics, at 20:25 BST in Derriford Hospital.\n\nThe inquest heard Kate Shepherd, 66, was an artist\n\nMr Arrow said he formally opened all five of the inquests and asked for a file to be prepared within 12 weeks.\n\nIn a separate five-minute hearing, the coroner opened and adjourned the inquest into the death of apprentice crane operator Davison.\n\nDet Insp Hambly said: \"The police are not looking for any other person in respect of this incident.\"\n\nHe said \"on present evidence the medical cause of death has been ascertained as shotgun wounds\".\n\nThe coroner adjourned all the inquests and fixed a provisional date for pre-inquest reviews on 9 December.\n\nOne of the hearts lights up the sky over Plymouth\n\nThe inquests come after five heart-shaped fireworks were set off at the British Firework Championships in the city on Wednesday to pay tribute to the victims.\n\nThe city fell silent for a minute before the fireworks, followed by a minute of applause to honour the victims.\n\nThe event went ahead after organisers had talks with the council and residents.\n\nThe competition, held in Plymouth since 1997, will continue on Thursday and see three competitors putting on a 10-minute display.\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Twenty years of conflict in Afghanistan – what happened when?\n\nFrom 9/11, to intense fighting on the ground, and now full withdrawal of US-led forces, here’s what happened.\n\nAl-Qaeda, led by Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan, carries out the largest terror attack ever conducted on US soil. The World Trade Centre is reduced to rubble Four commercial airliners are hijacked. Two are flown into the World Trade Centre in New York, which collapses. One hits the Pentagon building in Washington, and one crashes into a field in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people are killed. A US-led coalition bombs Taliban and al-Qaeda facilities in Afghanistan. Targets include Kabul, Kandahar and Jalalabad. The Taliban, who took power after a decade-long Soviet occupation was followed by civil war, refuse to hand over Bin Laden. Their air defences and small fleet of fighter aircraft are destroyed. The Northern Alliance, a group of anti-Taliban rebels backed by coalition forces, enters Kabul as the Taliban flee the city. Coalition-backed Northern Alliance fighters ride tanks into Kabul as the Taliban retreat By the 13 November 2001, all Taliban have either fled or been neutralised. Other cities quickly fall. After protracted negotiations at a “loya jirga” or grand assembly, the new Afghan constitution is signed into law. The constitution paves the way for presidential elections in October 2004. Hamid Karzai led anti-Taliban groups around Kandahar before becoming president Hamid Karzai, the leader of the Popalzai Durrani tribe, becomes the first president under the new constitution. He serves two five-year terms as president. British troops arrive in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold in the south of the country. Soldiers of the Parachute Regiment lead the first UK deployment to Helmand Their initial mission is to support reconstruction projects, but they are quickly drawn into combat operations. More than 450 British troops lose their lives in Afghanistan over the course of the conflict. US President Barack Obama approves a major increase in the number of troops sent to Afghanistan. At their peak, they number about 140,000. US troops in intense combat operations in the south of the country The so-called “surge” is modelled on US strategy in Iraq where US forces focussed on protecting the civilian population as well as killing insurgent fighters. Bin Laden is traced to a compound located less than a mile from a Pakistani military academy The leader of al-Qaeda is killed in an assault by US Navy Seals on a compound in Abbottabad in Pakistan. Bin Laden’s body is removed and buried at sea. The operation ends a 10-year hunt led by the CIA. The confirmation that Bin Laden had been living on Pakistani soil fuels accusations in the US that Pakistan is an unreliable ally in the war on terror. The founder of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammed Omar, dies. His death is kept secret for more than two years. The Taliban leader is believed to have suffered a shrapnel wound to his right eye in the 1980s According to Afghan intelligence, Mullah Omar dies of health problems at a hospital in the Pakistani city of Karachi. Pakistan denies that he was in the country. At a ceremony in Kabul, Nato ends its combat operations in Afghanistan. With the surge now over, the US withdraws thousands of troops. Most of those who remain focus on training and supporting the Afghan security forces. The Taliban launch a series of suicide attacks, car bombings and other assaults. The parliament building in Kabul, and the city of Kunduz are attacked. Islamic State militants begin operations in Afghanistan. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says more than 45,000 members of his country’s security forces have been killed since he became leader in 2014. The figure is far higher than previously thought. The US and the Taliban sign an “agreement for bringing peace” to Afghanistan, in Doha, Qatar. The US and Nato allies agree to withdraw all troops within 14 months if the militants uphold the deal. The deal lays out a timetable for full withdrawal US president Joe Biden announces that all US troops will leave Afghanistan by 11 September 2021. In just over a month, the Taliban sweep across Afghanistan, taking control of towns and cities all over the country, including Kabul. Afghan security forces collapse in the face of the Taliban advance.", "Emergency services were called to the OYO Sheffield Metropolitan Hotel on Wednesday afternoon\n\nA five-year-old Afghan refugee who fell to his death from a Sheffield hotel window has been identified by police.\n\nIt is reported Mohammed Munib Majeedi fell from a ninth-floor room where he was staying with his mother.\n\nEmergency services were called to the OYO Metropolitan Hotel in Blonk Street, Sheffield, at about 14:30 BST on Wednesday.\n\nA fellow Afghan staying in the hotel said Mohammed's family arrived in the UK 15 days ago.\n\nIt is understood they were relocated to the UK as part of the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme.\n\nThe man, who worked as an interpreter for the British Army in Afghanistan, said one of his children alerted him to the boy falling and he went outside to help.\n\nHe was later asked to accompany Mohammed's mother to hospital to translate.\n\nHe said everyone in the hotel had been left shocked by the incident.\n\n\"They are so upset, they are so unhappy,\" he said.\n\n\"Everybody, if you want to talk to them, they have no time because they are so bad, in a bad condition.\"\n\nSouth Yorkshire Police said it was not treating the death as suspicious\n\nAnother Afghan resident said he was in his room when he heard the boy fall.\n\n\"His mother was in the room with him,\" he said.\n\n\"She was screaming, 'my son, my son'. When I came here [outside] I saw the ambulance and police here.\"\n\nHe added: \"They came here to save their lives, they came for a new life here, but unfortunately...\"\n\nThe man said the eight to 10 Afghan families staying at the hotel were being moved to another hotel on Thursday afternoon.\n\nA five-year-old boy, only just been evacuated from Afghanistan with his four siblings and parents, has died after falling from a hotel window.\n\nWe understand Mohammed's father worked for the British Embassy in Afghanistan and had travelled to the UK under the government's scheme to resettle interpreters and support staff whose lives may be at risk from the Taliban.\n\nOnce in the UK however, the Home Office is struggling to find accommodation for refugees - many of whom are large families.\n\nIt's understood the Home Office was directly managing the now empty hotel at the time of the incident.\n\nThere had been concerns raised about the safety of the windows. I'm told some people had been moved out, but the Home Office denies this.\n\nThe housing group Mears was looking after the hotel until a few months ago, but safety concerns saw it withdraw to another nearby hotel.\n\nWhat has happened here, therefore, raises some serious questions about what steps were taken to ensure the hotel was safe for vulnerable families and young children and about the state of accommodation being provided to asylum seekers.\n\nThe Home Office said: \"We are extremely saddened by the tragic death of a child at a hotel in Sheffield.\n\n\"The police are providing support to the family while the investigation continues and we cannot comment further at this time.\"\n\nSouth Yorkshire Police said: \"We can confirm that the five-year-old boy who sadly lost his life is from Afghanistan.\"\n\nIt said Mohammed's death was not being treated as suspicious and his family was being supported by officers.\n\nThe force has appealed for anyone who witnessed the incident to contact them.\n\nEnver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: \"This a terrible tragedy and our thoughts are with the family who have gone through so much trauma and suffering to reach the UK.\n\n\"It is vital the Home Office carry out an urgent investigation into what has happened so steps can be taken to quickly learn lessons.\n\n\"We don't know the details of the incident but it is imperative that families who come from Afghanistan are given all the support they need and housed in appropriate accommodation. They are vulnerable and often very traumatised.\"\n\nSheffield City Council leader Terry Fox said: \"This is absolutely devastating, just so incredibly sad.\n\n\"As a council we are in close contact with the police and will provide any support that we can to the family - my heart goes out to them.\"\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A man has been arrested after making a bomb threat near the Congress building in Washington DC.\n\nThe man, identified as Floyd Ray Roseberry, 49, surrendered hours after the threat was made.\n\nUS Capitol Police had been negotiating with the driver who had parked a pick-up truck near the Library of Congress, across the street from the Capitol building and Supreme Court.\n\nHis motives remain unknown. Police are still searching the vehicle.\n\nCongress is currently in recess, but some staff are working in the Capitol. Several office buildings were evacuated.\n\nVideos purporting to be the man livestreaming from the vehicle have been shared on social media. Facebook has deactivated the livestream and removed the profile.\n\nIn the video, the man addressed US President Joe Biden directly and spoke of revolution.\n\nMr Roseberry had parked the vehicle on a pavement and told an officer who approached him that he had a bomb, while holding what appeared to be a detonator, Capitol Police Chief J Thomas Manger told a news conference.\n\nPolice communicated with Mr Roseberry via a white board and used a robot to deliver him a telephone, which he did not use, Chief Manger said. Mr Roseberry then stepped out of the vehicle and surrendered.\n\n\"He gave up and did not resist and our folks were able to take him into custody without incident,\" Chief Manger said.\n\nPolice said they discovered possible bomb-making materials in the vehicle, but no bomb. Two law enforcement sources, who requested anonymity, told the Reuters news agency that it appeared Mr Roseberry had acted alone.\n\nFederal agents raided Mr Roseberry's home in Grover, North Carolina, during the standoff.\n\nNeighbours told Reuters that Mr Roseberry is a Republican who had been seen wearing a \"MAGA\" cap to show his support for former President Donald Trump.\n\nSecurity was heightened around the Capitol after supporters of Mr Trump stormed the building on January 6. At least 535 rioters have been arrested since the attack.", "More than 50 positive Covid cases are linked to a Year 11 party at Cwrt Bleddyn hotel\n\nThe manager of a hotel at the centre of a school prom Covid spike says he was assured everyone had passed a lateral flow test before attending the event.\n\nMore than 50 positive cases have been linked to the party at the Cwrt Bleddyn hotel near Usk in Monmouthshire.\n\nManager Simon Daniel said he thought he had been dealing with Caerleon Comprehensive School in Newport over the event for 120 Year 11 pupils.\n\nHe said he now believed a parent on the prom committee had organised the party.\n\nOne member of staff at the hotel is isolating after testing positive for coronavirus, he said.\n\nMr Daniel said he believed the graduation party organiser had been under the genuine assumption that those attending had all received a negative lateral flow test result.\n\nNewport Council said the event was not organised by Caerleon Comprehensive\n\nHe said: \"We thought this was an official school prom - we thought we were dealing with the school.\n\n\"On the actual day of the prom I met up at the hotel with the main organiser that we'd dealt with, who assured me she had 120-odd negative lateral flow tests.\n\n\"If it had to be postponed, we could have postponed it.\"\n\nNewport Council said the event was not organised by Caerleon Comprehensive but staff had sent messages out to the Year 11 group urging them to get a test.\n\nMr Daniel said he was told by Newport Environmental Health officers after the event that the school had not organised the prom.\n\nHe added: \"I was there on the night - the event went off without a hitch...\n\n\"We've got protocols in place, procedures and risk assessments.\"\n\nHe said the hotel had no control over what pupils did before and after the event.\n\nJoan Watkins, a councillor who is on the school's board of governors, told BBC Radio Wales she thought people were \"making a mountain out of a molehill\" and that the hotel and organisers \"took every precaution they could possibly take\".\n\nShe added the children had been excited for their prom night after enduring a horrible year.\n\n\"They've had to cope with problems that no other students in previous years have had to cope with, so looking forward to this prom night was something that held up their spirits and that I think was something absolutely fantastic.\"\n\nOn Wednesday Newport Council said: \"There are over 50 positive confirmed cases now associated with the prom event cluster.\n\n\"Most of these cases stem directly from the event, with some cases also stemming from a number of parties held after the event.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Andy Johnson drove more than 300 miles to pick up the VHS tapes\n\nA movie buff has rescued more than 20,000 VHS tapes from landfill after travelling 300 miles to collect them.\n\nAndy Johnson, who runs what is said to be the UK's last video shop, drove from Liverpool to Dundee to pick up the mammoth haul.\n\nThe vast collection, which filled three lock-up garages, was amassed by George McInnes over decades from car boot sales.\n\nMr Johnson, who owns VideOdyssey, said: \"I've never seen anything this big.\"\n\nThe vast collection of VHS tapes filled three lock-ups\n\nThe 42-year-old fulfilled his dream of opening a video shop in the Toxteth TV venue in 2018 and described the response since then as \"phenomenal\".\n\nHe even had to expand the store after being inundated with tapes from well-wishers across the country.\n\nEarlier this year, the shop featured on a movie lovers' bucket list, compiled by Time Out Magazine, alongside Hobbiton in New Zealand and the Ghostbusters firehouse in New York.\n\nBut the Dundee donation will more than double his existing 15,000-strong collection and he is applying for funding to create a national archive.\n\nThe vast collection includes everything from action movies to romantic comedies\n\nMr Johnson made a 600-mile round trip from Liverpool to Dundee to collect the tapes\n\nMr Johnson told BBC Scotland: \"I was just absolutely amazed when I got the phone call.\n\n\"The guy who got these lock-ups told me it could be more than 20,000 so we are quite excited.\"\n\nIf he had been unable to take the tapes, they would have been destined for landfill as VHS tapes cannot be recycled.\n\nMr Johnson believes young people brought up in the age of live streaming are keen to experience movies on tape.\n\nHe said: \"VHS is starting to have a similar comeback seen with vinyl. People want that physical connection to their favourite films, rather than the cold experience of playing something from the cloud.\"\n\nHaving worked as a clerk in a video shop as a teenager, Mr Johnson now finds himself travelling across the country on his days off to gather people's collections of old gems and save films, which never came out on a digital format, from oblivion.\n\nMr Johnson's store in Toxteth, Liverpool, will more than double its collection of 15,000 VHS tapes\n\nDuring the Covid lockdowns, he even offered customers a special nostalgia pack with a player and 10 tapes.\n\nMr Johnson added: \"It's taken over my life in a short space of time. Thankfully, I have a very understanding wife.\n\n\"As we have a three-year-old boy, and they've both travelled with me to pick up VHS hauls. But nothing like the size of this collection in Dundee.\n\n\"A lot of amazing movies were never brought out digitally and they're in danger of being lost forever.\"\n• None VHS fan bids to save 20,000 tapes from being dumped\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Nicole Kidman (pictured last year) is in Hong Kong to film a new television series Image caption: Nicole Kidman (pictured last year) is in Hong Kong to film a new television series\n\nNicole Kidman has come under fire for apparently circumventing strict quarantine rules for international travellers.\n\nThe Australian actress's arrival in Hong Kong has sparked widespread anger after she was reportedly spotted out and about two days after touching down.\n\nThis is despite the region having some of the strictest rules in place, with up to 21 days' quarantine required.\n\nThere has been no direct, official comment on a possible exemption.\n\nHowever, Hong Kong's Commerce and Economic Development Bureau sent out a statement on Thursday in response to questions about \"overseas film personnel\" and quarantine, explaining restrictions are waived \"to carry out designated professional work\".\n\nKidman is in Hong Kong to film a new show about the lives of wealthy, glamorous ex-pats - already a source of tension as locals contend with increasing restrictions under the new national security law.\n\nReports of the waiver have only stoked outrage further, with comments on both Twitter and Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo overwhelmingly critical.", "Many have been paying tribute to Zaki Anwari on social media\n\nAfghan authorities have confirmed that a young footballer fell to his death after trying to stow away on a US military plane leaving Kabul airport.\n\nFurther details of when he died have not been disclosed.\n\nSince the Taliban's recapture of Afghanistan, thousands of people have scrambled to Kabul's airport as Western countries rush to evacuate their citizens and Afghan colleagues.\n\nImages emerged on Monday showing hundreds of people running alongside a US air force plane as it moved down a runway. Some people were seen clinging to its side.\n\nLocal media reports said that at least two people fell to their deaths after it took off. The US air force has also confirmed that human remains were found in the landing gear of an aircraft after it arrived in Qatar.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn a statement on Facebook, Afghanistan's General Directorate of Physical Education and Sports paid tribute to Mr Anwari.\n\n\"May he rest in heaven and pray to God for his family, friends and sports colleagues,\" the sports body said.\n\nOthers have also been sharing their respects on social media.\n\n\"His departure is a great sorrow,\" wrote one user on Instagram. \"Your memory is always dear to me\".\n\nAround 4,500 US troops are in temporary control of Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital.\n\nThe Taliban are blocking Afghans from entering the airport without travel documents - but even those with valid authorisation have struggled.\n\nAmid chaotic scenes at the airport, US President Joe Biden has defended his handling of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.\n\n\"The idea that somehow there's a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don't know how that happens,\" he told ABC News on Wednesday.\n\nMr Biden said that US troops may have to stay in Afghanistan beyond the planned 31 August deadline agreed with the Taliban, in order to help with evacuations,\n• None US troops may stay in Afghanistan past deadline", "In an exclusive interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, Joe Biden said nobody could have anticipated the speed of the Taliban's takeover.\n\nThe US president has been criticised for his handling of the withdrawal.\n\n\"The idea that somehow, there's a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don't know how that happens,\" Mr Biden told ABC News.", "There has been continuing chaos at Kabul airport as Afghans carry on with their attempts to escape from the Taliban.\n\nA child was filmed being handed over the wall to a US soldier.\n\nTaliban fighters have also fired in the air, and US soldiers have used tear gas to control the crowds of people.", "Mrs Barrott worked as a nurse at St James's Hospital in Leeds\n\nPolice searching for the husband of Eileen Barrott have made an arrest.\n\nPolice said 54-year-old Mark Barrott had been detained on suspicion of murder by Police Scotland in the Elgin area at 04:30 BST.\n\nMrs Barrott, 50, was found seriously injured in Naburn Fold, Whinmoor, Leeds, on Sunday evening, but died at the scene.\n\nPolice said Mr Barrott would be brought back to West Yorkshire for questioning in relation to his wife's death.\n\nOfficers had been trying to trace him since Sunday evening, when he was seen at Leeds railway station heading for Scotland, and had made a number of public appeals.\n\nDet Ch Insp Rolfe from West Yorkshire Police said: \"We would like to thank all the members of the public who contacted us with information, and also our colleagues in Police Scotland for their assistance and support with this investigation.\"\n\nThe couple lived at Naburn Fold, Whinmoor, for about 20 years, according to neighbours\n\nMrs Barrott worked at St James's Hospital in Leeds where bosses said her colleagues had been shocked by her death.\n\nA spokesman for Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said: \"It is with great sadness that we have heard about the sudden and unexpected passing of Eileen Barrott.\n\n\"She will be sadly missed by all her friends and colleagues across the trust.\"\n\nMrs Barrott had worked as a staff nurse in a number of departments since joining the trust in 1996.\n\nNeighbours said the family had lived in Naburn Fold for about 20 years and had two adult children - a son and a daughter.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada is a political and religious leader who is the third Supreme Commander of the Taliban\n\nThe Taliban took many by surprise as they swept across Afghanistan in just 10 days in August, quickly taking control of towns and cities.\n\nThe militant group has announced an interim government, declaring the country an \"Islamic Emirate\".\n\nThe cabinet will be led by Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, one of the movement's founders.\n\nSo, here's what is known about who is leading the Taliban today.\n\nHibatullah Akhundzada became the supreme commander of the Taliban in May 2016, and is now leader of the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.\n\nIn the 1980s, he participated in the Islamist resistance against the Soviet military campaign in Afghanistan, but his reputation is more that of a religious leader than a military commander.\n\nAkhundzada worked as head of the Sharia Courts in the 1990s.\n\nAfter first seizing power in the 1990s, the Taliban introduced and supported punishments according to their strict interpretation of Islamic law: they publicly executed murderers and adulterers and amputated thieves' limbs.\n\nUnder the leadership of the reclusive Mullah Mohammed Omar (who is thought to have died in 2013), the Taliban also banned television, music, movies, make-up, and stopped girls aged 10 and over from attending school.\n\nVery few images exist of former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, who died in 2013\n\nAkhundzada is believed to be in his 60s and has lived most of his life in Afghanistan.\n\nHowever, according to experts, he maintains close ties with the so-called \"Quetta Shura\" - the Afghan Taliban leaders said to be based in the Pakistani city of Quetta.\n\nAs the group's supreme commander, Akhundzada is in charge of political, military and religious affairs.\n\nMullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund is one of the four men who founded the Taliban in Afghanistan in 1994.\n\nHe is a longtime head the Taliban's powerful leadership council, or Rehbari Shura.\n\nHe served as foreign minister and deputy prime minister during the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan in 1996-2001.\n\nHe is under UN sanctions for his role in the government during that period.\n\nSirajuddin Haqqani is another of the group's top figures, who is on an FBI most wanted list.\n\nAfter the death of his father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, he became the new leader of the Haqqani network, which has been credited with some of the most violent attacks that have occurred in Afghanistan against Afghan forces and their Western allies in recent years.\n\nThe Haqqani network is currently one of the region's most powerful and feared militant groups. Some say it is even more influential than the Islamic State group in Afghanistan.\n\nThe Haqqani network is currently one of the most powerful and feared militant groups in the country\n\nThe group, designated by the US as a terrorist organisation, oversees the Taliban's financial and military assets along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.\n\nHaqqani is believed to be around 45.\n\nIn an opinion piece in the New York Times last year before the signing of the Doha agreement, Haqqani wrote: \"For more than four decades, precious Afghan lives have been lost every day. Everyone has lost somebody they loved. Everyone is tired of war. I am convinced that the killing and the maiming must stop.\"\n\nHe became a lynchpin of the insurgency after the militants were toppled by the US-led invasion in 2001.\n\nBut he was captured in a joint US-Pakistani operation in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi in February 2010.\n\nHe remained in prison for eight years, until he was released as part of a plan to facilitate the peace process. He has been the head of their political office in Qatar since January 2019.\n\nIn 2020, Baradar became the first Taliban leader to communicate directly with a US president after having a telephone conversation with Donald Trump. Before that, Baradar signed the Doha agreement on the withdrawal of US troops on behalf of the Taliban.\n\nThen US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Abdul Ghani Baradar met in September 2020 in Doha\n\nMohammad Yaqoob is the son of the founder of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammed Omar.\n\nHe is believed to be little more than 30 years old and is currently the leader of the group's military operations.\n\nFollowing the death of former Taliban leader Akhtar Mansour in 2016, some militants wanted to appoint Yaqoob as the group's new supreme commander, but others felt that he was young and lacking in experience.\n\nAs the Taliban advanced through the country, Yaqoob urged Taliban fighters not to harm members of the Afghan military or government and to stay out of abandoned homes of government and security officials who had fled, according to the Associated Press news agency.", "After being accused of spreading right-wing content, Facebook has revealed that its most-viewed posts include asking if sugar goes with spaghetti.\n\nIts first-ever report on the contents of people's news feeds in the United States focuses on how many people see a post rather than any other measurement.\n\nIt shows a word search promising to reveal \"your reality\" was the most popular post for three months in 2021.\n\nSimilarly frivolous question posts with giant text formed most of the top 20.\n\n\"Please settle this debate, does sugar go in spaghetti?\" placed fourth, with 58.6 million views - and 3.8 million arguments in the comments.\n\nThe most-seen Facebook post in the US between April and June was this \"personality\" word search\n\n\"I'm old but I look young challenge. Drop a pic 30 and up\" rose to a lofty second. Nearly five million people obliged.\n\nBut arguably the Facebook page \"The typical mom\" came out on top, as the only one with two posts in the top 20: \"Date yourself by naming one concert you have attended\" and \"what happens in your head when you add 28 plus 47?\"\n\nFacebook noted that \"some of the posts in the top 20 may contain lower-quality content\".\n\nThe report attempts to draw a distinction between what is seen most, detailed in this report, and what is engaged with most through likes, comments, and shares.\n\nIt serves as a counterpoint to data gathered with Crowdtangle, Facebook's engagement-measuring tool, which suggests that right-leaning political content is dominant on Facebook, an allegation which was widely reported last year.\n\nFacebook has fiercely pushed back against that idea, saying that only 6% of content seen by users is political.\n\nIn its November post on the issue, it focused on the \"reach\" of links and posts, instead of engagement, which dramatically changes what is \"most popular\".\n\nThe new report similarly focuses on most-viewed content rather than any other metric, and the resulting list is made up of harmless posts.\n\nIt looked at content between April and June, and only examined the US. It also discarded views from paid ads to \"boost\" a post, Facebook said.\n\nSo much content is posted to Facebook that, added together, the top 20 posts still only accounted for \"for less than one-tenth of a per cent of all US content views\", the social network said.\n\nTwo posts were notable for being substantially different from the rest of the top 20 - a post by Joe Biden, 100 days into his presidency, in which he wrote that \"America is getting back on track\" (number six), and a video from 5-Minute Crafts on how to build a small paddling pool (number 10).\n\nWhile most of the top posts seemed to be engagement-chasing question posts, not everything in the report pointed in that direction.\n\nFacebook has, for example, long argued that it drives substantial traffic to news organisations, despite a sometimes frosty relationship between publishers and the tech giant in recent years.\n\nWhile YouTube, Amazon, and children's charity Unicef were the top three most-seen sites though links, five major organisations - ABC News, the Daily Mail, NBC News, CNN, and CBS News - made it into the top 20 domains.\n\nThe most-seen links are more varied.\n\nThe single most-viewed one was for an obscure Green Bay Packers American football team site. Next down the list was a seller of CBD - a cannabis extract, while a Christian clothing firm and a local Virginia radio station also featured.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Afghan interpreter who worked for UK begs PM for \"pathway to safety\"\n\nAn Afghan interpreter who worked for the British army has begged the UK government to evacuate him and his family from Afghanistan.\n\nAhmed - not his real name - said he received permission to come to the UK last week, but a day later the Taliban seized control of the capital, Kabul.\n\nHe said he was now in hiding and would \"face death\" if the Taliban found him.\n\nUK troops are continuing to evacuate British nationals and Afghans who are eligible to resettle in the UK.\n\nAfghan interpreters and others who worked for the UK government can come to the UK as part of the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP).\n\nHowever, chaotic scenes have been reported outside Kabul international airport with access to it being controlled by Taliban militants, who are reportedly not permitting Afghans without documents or passports to enter.\n\nAhmed, who worked with British troops for three years, told the BBC he was initially rejected for the ARAP scheme in April. He appealed against the decision and last week received an email saying he was eligible for relocation.\n\nHe woke the next morning to find Kabul was under the Taliban flag. He said that he had been left stuck in a \"horrible\" situation.\n\n\"Life has ended for us when Kabul collapsed, we are just left behind in a dark room,\" he said.\n\nAhmed worked for three years with British troops - who he describes as \"his brothers\"\n\nThere are fears that Afghans who worked with Western authorities or groups could be at higher risk of reprisals from the Taliban. The group has denied this, but Ahmed said he did not believe them.\n\n\"Taliban are not trustable… if they find me, there will be no mercy,\" he said. \"I have done a lot of patrols, missions, shoulder to shoulder with British armies, like a family, like a brother.\n\n\"It's a major threat for me if I go out, they know me. There will be no mercy and I will face death.\"\n\nAhmed said that when he worked with UK soldiers, the Taliban used to target interpreters as they were the \"eyes and ears\" of the forces.\n\nAsked what he would say to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson about his family's situation, he said: \"I just want him to provide a pathway to safety for me and my family. I beg him.\"\n\nBritish nationals and Afghan evacuees have been arriving on RAF planes at Brize Norton\n\nHalf a dozen flights are due to arrive in the UK from Afghanistan in the next day or so, according to the Ministry of Defence. One landed at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire in the early hours of Thursday morning. No details were given about how many people were on board, or who they were.\n\nDowning Street however did not deny a report that one plane had taken off \"almost empty\" on Wednesday morning because people could not get through the airport.\n\nThe British ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Laurie Bristow, said Foreign Office personnel were hoping to get \"at least\" 1,000 people out of the country every day - but warned there were \"days, not weeks\" left to complete the mission.\n\nAbout 2,000 Afghan former staff and their families have come to the UK via ARAP this year, according to the Home Office, with a target of 5,000 by the end of 2021.\n\nThe UK government has also committed to take in up to 20,000 Afghan refugees over the next few years under a new resettlement scheme - including 5,000 this year.\n\nDowning Street said the government would be encouraging international partners to emulate \"one of the most generous asylum schemes in British history\".\n\nHowever, shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy was critical of the new scheme, telling BBC's Question Time it was \"absolutely clear that 5,000 is too small a number over the next 12 months\" and called for a \"more generous offer\" to be made.\n\nForeign Secretary Dominic Raab is due to speak on Thursday with fellow G7 ministers - which includes the US, Canada, Japan, Germany, France and Italy, along with the UK - to discuss international co-operation. The G7 leaders are also set to hold a virtual meeting next week.\n\nOn Wednesday, Mr Johnson faced a barrage of criticism from MPs across the political spectrum over the UK's role in Afghanistan, in an emergency House of Commons debate on the crisis.\n\nThe prime minister also spoke with his Italian counterpart Mario Draghi as he continued his efforts to bring the G7 together on its Afghanistan position.\n\nHave you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences and views by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "Schools have been told to space seating in classes as widely as possible and have children seated facing forward when the new term begins\n\nSchools in Northern Ireland can continue to teach some children in class bubbles when the new term begins.\n\nThat is despite the executive deciding on 12 August that schools no longer had to teach children in bubbles.\n\nBut new Department of Education (DE) guidance said schools could \"retain the use or partial use of bubbles\".\n\nIn a separate letter to school heads, the education minister said the guidance allowed schools \"flexibility\".\n\nMichelle McIlveen also said that the requirement for post-primary pupils to wear facemasks in class would be reviewed by the executive on 8 October.\n\n\"What we've tried to achieve here is a flexible system to allow school leaders who know their school environment better than us to adapt accordingly,\" she told BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme.\n\n\"We have been clear. This is about keeping our young people safe.\"\n\nThe revised guidance from the department comes just days before many staff and pupils are due to return to school.\n\nMany pupils have been taught in small group bubbles since September 2020.\n\nAs much as possible, children remained in the same class groups every day to reduce mixing with others.\n\nThe new guidance said it would be \"for each school to determine if they wish to continue to use some/all of the principles of bubbles that they will have used during the 2020-21 year\".\n\n\"Without the use of formal bubbles, schools should still seek to reduce contacts,\" the guidance said, as this would \"support the PHA's (Public Health Agency's) contact tracing by encouraging pupils to remain within a consistent group of pupils wherever possible\".\n\nSchools have also been told to space seating in classes as widely as possible and have children seated facing the front of the classroom.\n\nThey have also been asked to hold activities outdoors if they can.\n\nEducation Minister Michelle McIlveen said schools could now plan for a return to the academic year\n\nGraham Gault, of the National Association of Headteachers, said there was an \"air of disbelief\" among school leaders at the guidance.\n\n\"Only a week ago it was all over the media that bubbles would no longer be required,\" he said, adding that the guidance \"has the potential to confuse\".\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Good Morning Ulster Programme, Mr Gault said the guidance would not require any significant changes to Covid-19 mitigation measures already in place in schools.\n\n\"The advice that we are giving to school leaders across the country is the routines and mitigations that you have already set up, that your school community is already familiar with, that your teachers are already implementing are still appropriate. If it's working for you, don't change it.\"\n\nChris Logan, principal of Comber Primary School, said the changes have come too late for schools to make \"sweeping changes\" before term begins next week.\n\n\"Schools need time to prepare the curriculum and we may see time before schools are enable to enact some of the changes. It just takes time to plan and prepare,\" he told BBC News NI.\n\nThe executive had also decided that if a child was identified as a close contact of a positive Covid case, they would no longer have to self-isolate for 10 days.\n\nInstead, they should self-isolate and book a PCR test.\n\nIf the PCR test is positive they should isolate for 10 days, but if the result is negative they can end their self-isolation.\n\nHowever, the new department guidance does not provide detailed advice for schools on the new arrangements.\n\nInstead, Ms McIlveen said that the PHA was currently \"preparing guidance\" for schools on the new self-isolation arrangements.\n\nShe said that was to ensure they \"applied equally to all pupils in each year group\".\n\nHowever, she did not state when schools would receive the new PHA guidance.\n\nAll indoor and outdoor extra-curricular activities can also resume in schools when the new term begins.\n\nAccording to the department guidance, that includes \"music or singing\".\n\nSinging had been prohibited indoors in schools in the 2020/21 school year.\n\nHowever, children can sing in class and school choirs can now sing again indoors though mitigations should be in place like doors or windows being kept open.\n\nChildren are considered extremely low risk for becoming ill or dying from Covid-19.\n\nResearch also suggests that long-lasting symptoms in children are rare.\n\nMs McIlveen thanked school leaders and staff for their support and wished all pupils, teachers and staff a \"safe return to all our educational settings\".\n\nThe guidance was developed with the Department of Health and in consultation with school leaders and trade unions.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. PM Boris Johnson says British troops should be \"proud of their achievements\" in Afghanistan\n\nBoris Johnson has faced a barrage of criticism from MPs over the UK's role in Afghanistan, in an emergency House of Commons debate on the crisis.\n\nHis predecessor as PM Theresa May said it was \"incomprehensible\" the UK was not doing more to maintain a presence, while ex-minister Johnny Mercer demanded more help for veterans.\n\nBut Mr Johnson argued Nato's \"core mission\" in Afghanistan had succeeded.\n\nAddressing a packed Commons, he said the country had been largely cleared of al-Qaeda terrorists, while the population had enjoyed better education, women's rights and free elections since the 2001 invasion.\n\nBut Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, who chairs the Commons foreign affairs committee and himself served in Afghanistan, said it had been \"shameful\" of US President Joe Biden to question the willingness of the Afghan army to fight the Taliban.\n\nAnd, in an emotional speech that was heard in silence, he told of grief and rage felt by veterans at the \"abandonment\" of Afghanistan.\n\nUK troops ceased combat operations in 2014 and most of those who remained, primarily to help train the Afghan army, left last month.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Recap: Former soldiers were among the MPs who spoke in the debate\n\nThe government has agreed to resettle up to 20,000 Afghan refugees displaced by the return of the Taliban over the next few years.\n\nEfforts are also continuing to evacuate UK nationals from Kabul airport, but Downing Street did not deny a report that one plane had taken off \"almost empty\".\n\nParliament was recalled from its summer break for the seven-and-half-hour debate on the situation in Afghanistan.\n\nShe said it was \"incomprehensible and worrying\" that the UK government had not been able to put together an \"alternative alliance of countries\" to continue to support the Afghan government in the absence of US forces.\n\nAnother Conservative MP and former soldier, defence committee chairman Tobias Ellwood, argued the UK \"should never have left\" Afghanistan.\n\n\"What we require is the backbone, the courage, the leadership to step forward, yet when our moment comes such as this we are found wanting,\" he said.\n\nMr Mercer, who served in Afghanistan and who quit as veterans' minister earlier this year, accused Mr Johnson of \"consistently failing\" to support ex-soldiers.\n\nThis was the first full in-person session in the House of Commons for over a year and Boris Johnson felt the full force of it.\n\nHe had to battle through parts of his opening statement on the crisis in Afghanistan, in a noisy chamber, as MPs from all sides vied to intervene.\n\nIt was a striking contrast to the often flat proceedings that have been a hallmark of the part-virtual Parliament over the past year.\n\nNow, lined up on the front bench, Mr Johnson and his ministers not only had to hear the searing criticisms from colleagues but look them in the eye as well, whether in the chamber or in backrooms, corridors and passages.\n\nSome 457 UK personnel have died and more than 2,000 have been wounded in Afghanistan since the invasion, prompted by the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US by al-Qaeda.\n\nMr Johnson said that \"in spite of all the difficulties and challenges we knew we would face... we succeeded in that core mission\" of removing the terror group's operatives from Afghanistan.\n\n\"It would be fair to say [recent] events in Afghanistan have unfolded and the collapse [of the Afghan government] has been faster than even the Taliban themselves predicated,\" he said.\n\n\"What is not true is to say the UK government was unprepared or did not foresee this.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sir Keir Starmer: \"We face new threats to our security and an appalling humanitarian crisis\"\n\nMr Johnson said the Taliban, who have promised to observe human rights, must be judged on \"actions rather than words\".\n\n\"At this bleak turning point we must help the people of Afghanistan determine the best of all possible futures,\" he added.\n\nBut opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer accused the prime minister of \"staggering complacency\" and \"appalling\" judgement by failing to plan properly for the withdrawal of troops over the past 18 months.\n\nHe called the government's refugee repatriation target too small and claimed the 20,000 figure had been \"plucked out of the air\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Theresa May: “The politicians decided to withdraw, the politicians must be responsible for the consequences”\n\nTo jeers from Conservative MPs, he said: \"The prime minister's response to the Taliban arriving at the gates of Kabul was to go on holiday.\"\n\nMr Johnson received little backbench support during the debate, but Conservative Alicia Kearns said the government had \"called for Nato allies to help us build a new coalition in Afghanistan to prevent the Taliban recapturing it, and we were let down\".\n\nFellow Tory Caroline Nokes praised the prime minister for putting in place a scheme to \"ensure that we can prioritise women and girls\" in Afghanistan \"and bring them to safety\".\n\nBut SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford argued that the future of Afghanistan had \"never been so uncertain\" and that refugees needed more help.\n\nLiberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey branded the prime minister a \"national liability\" who could not \"escape culpability for this disaster\".", "Students due to start a university year in Spain within weeks are facing visa delays, with some unsure whether they will be able to take up their places.\n\nSpain has overtaken France as the top destination for UK students wanting a year abroad, with 4,500 going annually.\n\nBut Brexit means they now need visas. And some have waited more than a month for a visa appointment.\n\nSpanish authorities said time was needed for universities and students to adapt to the new system.\n\nThey said student visa are a priority for all Spanish Consulates.\n\nBut, Universities UK International has written to the Spanish embassy and the Foreign Office, asking if students can apply in Spain.\n\nA UK government spokesperson said visa applications were a matter for Spanish immigration authorities, but added it had raised the issue with the Spanish government.\n\nElla Perret is due to travel to Madrid next week to spend a year there as part of her law degree.\n\nBut she says: \"I haven't booked a flight or accommodation because I don't know if I'm going.\"\n\nLike most students, Ms Perret began the process in June, as the visa documents have to be issued within 90 days of departure.\n\nNow the UK is no longer in the European Union, students wanting to study in Spain have to compile a dossier of documents, including:\n\nMs Perret is due to travel to Madrid next week\n\nDocuments have to be translated and go through a legal process called a Hague apostille to verify them for international use.\n\nMs Perret says it has cost hundreds of pounds but she feels no nearer to her dream of studying in Spain.\n\n\"So many times I've been tempted to just say I'm not going,\" she says.\n\nSam Downes, an economics student with a place to study in Granada, southern Spain, has heard nothing since he asked for an appointment in June.\n\n\"I paid September's rent for my accommodation and my deposit - but it's looking unlikely that I'll be going in time,\" he says.\n\nThe university in Granada has said it cannot offer Mr Downes online learning if he does not arrive in time.\n\n\"So in the next week or two I might have to decide whether to cancel the whole year abroad,\" he says.\n\nAfter weeks of sending emails, with no replies, some students have been turning up at the consulate in London and queuing for hours in the hope of securing a firm appointment.\n\nAmong them this week was Laurie, who did not want to give his surname because he was worried it might affect his visa application.\n\nHe has a flight and accommodation in Spain booked from 6 September but does not yet know if he will have a visa in time to travel.\n\nLaurie took last year out so he could work and save up for his year studying abroad.\n\nBut the process has been exhausting and frustrating.\n\n\"Jumping through all these hoops is difficult and annoying enough but to not get a response from the consulate is dreadful,\" Laurie says.\n\nAfter speaking to staff at the Spanish consulate, he is hoping to receive email confirmation of a visa appointment soon.\n\nVivienne Stern, of Universities UK, said: \"Delays in visa processing this year are causing real anxiety among students who are due to travel to Spain soon.\"\n\nShe has written to the Spanish embassy and the Foreign Office asking them to work together to resolve the issue.\n\nOne temporary solution her letter proposed would allow students to travel on a tourist visa for the start of term and submit their paperwork in Spain.\n\nA spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain said: \"This is the first academic year that student visas are needed after Brexit; therefore, British students and universities need to get used to the new regulation and the necessity of applying for a visa, and some adaptation time is still needed.\n\n\"All Spanish Consulates are offering all the facilities in order to speed up the visa procedures.\"", "The Biden administration's rush for the exit in Afghanistan has been accompanied by a similar rush to judgement among pundits and commentators who, by and large, have castigated the US president for a decision that many see as unnecessary and a betrayal, both of those who served in Afghanistan and of the Afghan people themselves.\n\nThe heartbreaking images from the airport in Kabul only reinforce this message. And there is justifiably a good deal of emotion to go round. The West has invested a lot of blood, time and money in Afghanistan. The Afghan people, much, much, more.\n\nIt is hard to argue with the criticism of the Biden administration's precipitate departure. Afghanistan may indeed be un-salvageable, its governing structures too unrepresentative and corrupt. This though only underscores the argument that Afghanistan was not \"lost\" in the past two years but during the previous 20.\n\nNonetheless the decision to cut and run is being seen as a terrible blow to US credibility - to its reliability as a partner, and indeed to its moral standing in world affairs. How does this square with Mr Biden's clarion cry on taking office, that America was back?\n\nComparisons are being made with Vietnam - the similarities with helicopters shuttling US nationals away from a falling city being too much for the newspaper front-pages to resist. But in reality - despite the superficial similarities -there are some important differences, too.\n\nSouth Vietnam collapsed some two years after US troops left. Indeed it looks as though the Americans expected their Afghan allies to soldier on for a significant period without them. The US was humbled by Vietnam - its population deeply divided and its military morale damaged. But while Vietnam turned out to be a tragic side-show in the Cold War, the US still ultimately won that contest. Nato was not weakened. US allies around the globe did not shy away from expecting US support. The US remained the pre-eminent superpower.\n\nAfghanistan is altogether different. Internal divisions in the US over this conflict have in no way been comparable to Vietnam's. The Afghanistan mission was certainly unpopular at home but there were no mass rallies against it.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nCrucially though, today's international context is dramatically different from that of the 1970s. The US - indeed the West in general - is engaged in multiple contests, in few of which they are outright winners. The Afghan collapse is potentially a disaster in the so-called war on terror. But in the wider conflict between democracy and authoritarianism, Washington's failure can only be seen as a serious set-back.\n\nThere will be smiles in Moscow and Beijing, at least for now. The Western model of liberal interventionism - promoted as a means of spreading democracy and the rule of law - has perhaps been tested to destruction in Afghanistan. One cannot see much enthusiasm for similar undertakings in the future.\n\nThose of Washington's allies who joined in the Afghanistan project are smarting. They feel badly let down. Even British ministers, jealous of their oft touted \"special relationship\" with Washington, have been openly critical of President Biden's decision.\n\nAnd for America's European allies in general, it underscores how dependent they are upon the US and how little their views count once the White House decides to go in one particular direction.\n\nSo bad news for the West. But how long-lasting will be the smiles in Beijing, Moscow and even Islamabad? It was Pakistan that nurtured and gave safe haven to the Taliban for its own geo-strategic purposes. But if renewed Taliban rule produces a simple turning back of the clock - if international terrorism finds a renewed haven - then Pakistan may find that the growing turbulence in the region has decidedly negative consequences.\n\nChina is happy to see the US failure. Indeed, if Mr Biden's reason to pull out from Afghanistan was due to his desire to re-focus US national power to rival a rising China, then this step has simply given China an opportunity to expand its own influence in Afghanistan and beyond.\n\nChina, though, must have concern, too. Its shares a short border with Afghanistan. It is actively persecuting its own Muslim minority and must be concerned at the possibility that anti-Beijing Islamist terrorists might seek to use Afghanistan as a base. No wonder then that Chinese diplomacy over recent weeks has been so eager to court the Taliban.\n\nRussia, too, must have worries about the return of instability and terrorism. Maybe it feels a little better about itself now that the US has similarly been humbled by Afghan tribal fighters, just as the Soviet Union was in the late-1980s.\n\nBut its chief interest is the security of a large part of Central Asia, many of whose states are allies of Moscow. This summer Russia moved tanks to the Tajikistan-Afghan frontier for exercises intended to demonstrate its determination to prevent any spill-over from an Afghan collapse.\n\nSo in the short-term, the Afghan debacle certainly benefits the West's opponents. But their attitudes were not going to change anyway.\n\nWhat really matters are the ramifications among Washington's allies. What will they take away from the Afghan experience? Beyond the immediate crisis, will the NATO countries, Israel, Taiwan, South Korea or Japan see the US as a less reliable partner? If they do, then Mr Biden's decision to quit Afghanistan will prove fateful, indeed.", "A global campaign described as a \"game-changer\" has been launched to improve the lives of more than one billion disabled people by 2030.\n\nWeThe15 wants to improve inclusion, raise awareness and end discrimination of disabled people around the world.\n\nIt brings together a coalition of organisations from the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to Unesco.\n\nThe launch comes ahead of the delayed Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games which begin on 24 August.\n\nUsing the event as a springboard, the IPC and International Disability Alliance has joined forces with arts, business and human rights organisations including UN Human Rights and The Valuable 500 to \"raise awareness, change attitudes and create more opportunities\" for disabled people.\n\nThe campaign has been set-up to represent the 15% of the world's population that is disabled - about 1.2bn people, according to the World Health Organization.\n\nAs part of it, the IPC, Special Olympics, Invictus Games and International Committee of Sports for the Deaf will collaborate for the first time to ensure there will be a major sport event - and platform for the campaign - every year until 2030.\n\nOn Thursday, for the launch, 125 landmarks will turn purple - the internationally recognised colour of disability - from New York's Empire State Building to Moscow's Ostankino Tower and the London Eye.\n\nPresident of the IPC, Andrew Parsons, said: \"[The project] aims to put disability right at the heart of the inclusion agenda, alongside ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation.\n\n\"I strongly believe WeThe15 could be a real game-changer.\"\n\nHe said collaborating with big organisations would ensure a significant presence at local, grassroots, levels to help improve people's lives.\n\nSam Milne, from Leicester, has cerebral palsy and plays with a local basketball team.\n\nShe said society's general perception of disabled people could be problematic and she had faced discrimination.\n\nSam Milne plays basketball for a local club and says she often faces discrimination when she is out and about\n\nShe said people often presume she can't speak because she uses a wheelchair and that going back to basics, such as ensuring as many places as possible are accessible, would improve her life and enable her to get out into the community more easily.\n\nOne of her wishes is that more doors could be power-assisted rather than relying on strength to open them.\n\n\"I can walk a bit, but if I can't open the door how far am I going to get? This awareness needs to go down to the everyday - to the shopkeepers and the hair salons.\"\n\nBut she warned that awareness \"needs to grow\" and not disappear once the Paralympics is over.\n\nThe WeThe15 campaign plans go beyond sport and over the next 10 years it says it will focus on different \"pillars\" which need greater equality.\n\nThis year it will concentrate on access to vaccinations against Covid-19, while in the run-up to the LA Paralympics in 2028 - the home of Hollywood - it is expected to focus on disability representation in the entertainment industry, such as ensuring disabled actors play disabled characters.\n\nAccording to the IPC, 85% of disabled people around the world live in poverty, about 50% are unemployed and 75% of countries have no laws protecting them.\n\nMr Parsons said: \"We want to tackle employment, we want to tackle mobility.\n\n\"Of course it will be different country-to-country. This is why we will need the local presence there to understand the challenges and that's why it's a 10-year campaign. We're trying to cover all basis and all nations.\"\n\nWhile WeThe15 focuses on the statistic that 15% of the global population is disabled, the US government puts it much higher at 26% for its citizens while the UK government says it's 22%, but the definitions of disability often vary.\n\nIn the UK a person is considered to have a disability if they report a long-standing illness or impairment which causes substantial difficulty with day-to-day activities.\n\nFor long jumper and Paralympic medallist, Stef McLeod Reid, Tokyo 2020 will be her fourth Games.\n\nThe track athlete, who had a foot amputated as a teenager following a boating accident, hopes WeThe15 will stop people viewing disabled people as \"other\".\n\n\"When you realise that one billion people in the world live with a disability you realise this should be at the front of every single inclusion agenda.\n\n\"There is so much potential and talent sitting there left untapped because the world is designed around this very specific idea of 'normal'.\"\n\nShe said \"disability is expensive\" - from purchasing the right equipment to making buildings accessible - and that needs to be addressed.\n\n\"What we are lacking, unfortunately, in different parts of the world, is money and investment and a commitment that everybody should be able to fulfil their potential.\"\n\nShe believes success will rely on \"shifting mindsets\" to make the \"world more accessible to everyone\".\n\nFor more disability news, follow BBC Ouch on Twitter, Facebook and listen to our podcasts which also have transcripts.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "(L-R) Dhan Gurung, Pushpa Rana Ghale and Gyanraj Rai have now ended their hunger strike outside Downing Street\n\nA hunger strike outside Downing Street to protest against Gurkhas' unequal pensions has ended after the government agreed to further talks.\n\nA group had refused food for 13 days as they called for parity with other British Army veterans.\n\nMinistry of Defence officials will meet the Nepali ambassador and the group next month.\n\nA spokesperson said the department was \"happy\" the group had broken their fast and hoped to \"move forward together\".\n\nOne of the protesters, Dhan Gurung, 60, from Basingstoke, Hampshire, was taken to hospital early on Wednesday after his heart slowed but was later discharged.\n\nMr Gurung had been protesting in a wheelchair with fellow ex-soldier Gyanraj Rai, 63, and Gurkha widow Pushpa Rana Ghale, 59, who travelled from Nepal.\n\nThe Gurkha Equal Rights group confirmed on Twitter that the hunger strike had ended after both governments agreed to talks.\n\nThis 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 Gurkha Equal Rights 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.\n\nGurkhas who retired before 1997 receive a fraction of the pension British-born members of the Army are entitled to.\n\nThe trio previously said the strike was a \"last resort\" but they were \"prepared to die\" if it meant they would be treated equally.\n\nMore than 100 people marched through London in support of the group on Wednesday. Last week, Mr Gurung explained his pension in 1994 was £20 a month and said he and his family lived in poverty because of the British government's \"penny pinching\".\n\nGurkhas have served the British Army in two world wars and in the past 50 years in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Borneo, Cyprus, the Falklands, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.\n\nWednesday's march ended outside Downing Street, where the group continued their protest\n\nThose who retired before 1997, like Mr Gurung, currently receive a fraction of the pension the rest of the British Army receive because the Gurkha Pension Scheme (GPS) was based on Indian Army rates.\n\nAlan Mercel-Sanca, chief executive of the UK Nepal Fellowship Society, said the government had faced \"mounting moral pressure\".\n\nHe said: \"The British general public regards our Gurkhas than more British than the British and they've been horrified to see these veterans - over 60 all of them - driven to this.\"\n\nA Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: \"We are happy the Satyagraha group have agreed to break their fast.\n\n\"Our primary concern is always the health and welfare of our serving personnel and veterans and this strike was not a course of action we encouraged.\n\n\"We look forward to meeting with the group next month alongside the Nepali Ambassador to move forward together.\"\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Afghan people line up outside AZIZI Bank to take out cash as the bank suffers amid money crises in Kabul\n\nThe International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said Afghanistan will no longer be able to access the lender's resources.\n\nThe move follows the Taliban's takeover of the country last weekend.\n\nAn IMF spokesperson said it was due to \"lack of clarity within the international community\" over recognising a government in Afghanistan.\n\nResources of over $370m (£268m) from the IMF had been set to arrive on 23 August.\n\nThese funds were part of a global IMF response to the economic crisis.\n\nAccess to the IMF's reserves in Special Drawing Rights (SDR) assets, which can be converted to government-backed money, have also been blocked. SDRs are the IMF's unit of exchange based on sterling, dollars, euros, yen and yuan.\n\n\"As is always the case, the IMF is guided by the views of the international community,\" the spokesperson added.\n\nIt comes after an official from the Biden administration told the BBC that any central bank assets the Afghan government has in the US will not be made available to the Taliban.\n\nIn a letter to the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Congress members called for assurances that the Taliban would receive no US-backed aid.\n\n\"The potential of the SDR allocation to provide nearly half a billion dollars in unconditional liquidity to a regime with a history of supporting terrorist actions against the United States and her allies is extremely concerning,\" 17 signatories wrote.\n\nEarlier, the head of Afghanistan's central bank said the US had cut off access to its assets - around $7bn of which are held at the U.S. Federal Reserve.\n\nAjmal Ahmady, who fled the country at the weekend, tweeted that Da Afghanistan Bank's total reserves were approximately $9bn as of last week.\n\nBut he said as per international standards, most of this was held in safe, liquid assets such as US Treasury bonds and gold offshore.\n\n\"Given that the Taliban are still on international sanction lists, it is expected (confirmed?) that such assets will be frozen and not accessible to Taliban,\" Mr Ahmady tweeted.\n\n\"We can say the accessible funds to the Taliban are perhaps 0.1-0.2% of Afghanistan's total international reserves. Not much.\"\n\nMr Ahmady added that Washington's suspended shipments of physical dollars were causing Afghanistan's currency to depreciate. The Afghan currency, the Afghani, has fallen to record lows.\n\n\"I believe local banks have told customers that they cannot return their dollars — because [Da Afghanistan Bank] has not supplied banks with dollars,\" he tweeted.\n\n\"This is true. Not because funds have been stolen or being held in vault, but because all dollars are in international accounts that have been frozen.\"\n\nIn June, the IMF gave Afghanistan its latest loan instalment which was approved in November. In the same month, the UN published a report which stated that the \"primary sources of Taliban financing remain criminal activities,\" including \"drug trafficking and opium poppy production, extortion, kidnapping for ransom, mineral exploitation and revenues from tax collection in areas under Taliban control or influence.\"\n\nThe World Bank also funds many development projects in the country and has provided Afghanistan with $5.3bn since 2002. It has not yet responded to the BBC's request for comment on the current status of this funding.\n\nIndependent money transfer giant Western Union has also suspended money transfer services to Afghanistan \"until further notice\".\n\nThe IMF has taken similar steps against other regimes not recognised by a majority of its members. This happened in April 2019 when SDR access was blocked after more than 50 member countries refused to recognise President Nicolas Maduro as the legitimate leader of Venezuela. The IMF also halted payments to Myanmar after the military junta seized control.\n\nOn Monday, the IMF will complete a $650bn allocation of SDRs to its 190 member countries.\n\nThe sudden advances made by the Taliban left the IMF with an urgent decision. It is about to hand out to almost all its members a reserve asset called special drawing rights. It's an exercise that is not about Afghanistan. It's about reinforcing the global economic recovery from the pandemic related crisis. And it's happening on Monday.\n\nSo if the new regime in Kabul were to be excluded at this stage the IMF had to move quickly. And it has done so, reflecting what a spokesperson called a lack of clarity about the recognition of the government. That is what lies behind the IMF decision at this stage.\n\nIt does also raise the possibility that financial assistance might come to be used as leverage to encourage the Taliban not to allow the abuses that many fear - and that some reports say are already taking place.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Home Secretary Priti Patel says she doesn't believe the Taliban's \"PR operation\" on women's rights\n\nWomen and girls and persecuted minorities will make up the bulk of the Afghan refugees resettled in the UK, the home secretary has said.\n\nWhile the Taliban said women's rights will be respected, Priti Patel told the BBC it was hard to believe \"the PR operation that we're currently seeing\".\n\nThe UK government will work with other nations and pledged to resettle 5,000 Afghans in the UK in the first year.\n\nHowever, some MPs have criticised the scheme for not going far enough.\n\nThousands of Afghans have been trying to flee the country after the Taliban seized control of the capital Kabul.\n\nThe government has committed to resettling up to 20,000 Afghan refugees in the UK in the long term - and Ms Patel said she wanted the majority of those to be women and girls and persecuted minorities.\n\nThe Taliban have promised the rights of women in Afghanistan will be respected \"within the framework of Islamic law\".\n\nBut the home secretary said the group had a history of oppressing women and \"that's not going to change overnight\".\n\n\"I genuinely do not think that we should be at all believing the spokespeople or the PR operation that we're currently seeing,\" she told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.\n\nAppearing on BBC Breakfast, Ms Patel refused to give a timescale for how long it would take for the 20,000 Afghans to be brought to the UK.\n\nHowever, she compared the new scheme to one introduced for Syrian refugees, which saw a similar number of people resettled over a period of seven years.\n\n\"We could end up bringing many more [than 20,000] but first of all we have to have the underpinning and the infrastructure and the support to do that,\" she said.\n\nShe said a target of 5,000 in the first year was \"deliverable\", adding: \"It would be terrible quite frankly to bring people and not be able to give them the support that they would need in terms of accommodation, resettlement and giving them the opportunity to build a new life in the UK.\"\n\nDowning Street also said the 5,000 figure was \"not a hard cap\" but based on expectations of how many people would be able to leave over that time period.\n\nAsked how the UK would get vulnerable people, who may not feel safe leaving their homes, out of Afghanistan, Ms Patel said ministers would work with third party agencies, humanitarian organisations and other governments, including the US and Canada.\n\nShe added that people could also be resettled from neighbouring countries, as well as Afghanistan itself.\n\nMeanwhile, Parliament has been recalled and Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been updating MPs about the situation in Afghanistan.\n\nHe said the government would be doing everything it can to support those who have helped the UK mission in Afghanistan and to \"avert a humanitarian crisis\".\n\nMinisters have been rushing to put this scheme together in response to the situation in Afghanistan, with the final details signed off on Tuesday.\n\nInformation on how to apply is expected soon.\n\nThe scheme is loosely based on the one introduced during the Syrian war, which also saw 20,000 move to the UK from 2014 to 2021.\n\nBut ministers acknowledge the practicalities of getting people out of Afghanistan will be considerably more complicated because of the extent of Taliban control.\n\nGovernment insiders don't know the extent to which the new regime will allow people to flee if they so choose.\n\nThere will be funding for the resettlement programme - and the government will work with local councils and devolved governments on where to house Afghans who come to the UK.\n\nThe scheme has faced criticism from opposition parties and some Conservative MPs.\n\nTory MP Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Defence Select Committee, told the Daily Mirror it was a \"woefully inadequate response\", citing the government only aiming to help 5,000 refugees in the first year when \"the threat is at its greatest\".\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the target of resettling 20,000 Afghans was \"too small\" and had been \"plucked out of the air\".\n\nLib Dems foreign affairs spokeswoman Layla Moran agreed that \"20,000 should be the starting point of this scheme, not the target\".\n\nRefugee charities welcomed the announcement as a positive first step but said the timeframe was too slow and eligibility for asylum should be expanded.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Afghan interpreter: \"I'm so worried about my parents and my sisters' safety\"\n\nAmong those hoping they might get help to leave Afghanistan through the scheme is a former teacher in Kandahar.\n\nThe 21-year-old woman - who the BBC is not naming to protect her safety - fled for Kabul after the Taliban captured Kandahar but said she was now too afraid to leave the house.\n\n\"I was working with an educational organisation - the Taliban, they do not accept these things,\" she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\n\"Now I do not feel safe at all... I'm just like a prisoner in the house now.\"\n\nShe said Afghans needed help to escape now - and if she had to wait years for help it may be too late.\n\n\"We are in the situation that we cannot guarantee our lives for tomorrow,\" she said.\n\n\"Will I be alive tomorrow? We cannot guarantee that.\"\n\nAn RAF plane arrived at Brize Norton on Tuesday as part of UK efforts to evacuate people from Afghanistan\n\nThe new plan is on top of an existing scheme for interpreters and other Afghans who have worked for the UK government - the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP).\n\nSome 5,000 Afghans and their family members will come to the UK via that scheme this year. Nearly 2,000 have arrived since 22 June.\n\nThe UK has already sent about 900 troops to Afghanistan to help evacuate British nationals and Afghans who are eligible to resettle in the UK.\n\nChief of the Defence Staff General Sir Nick Carter said seven more planes were being sent to Kabul and the UK hoped to fly out 1,000 more people on Wednesday.\n\nHe told the BBC that British forces were collaborating with the Taliban, who were providing security around Kabul's airport.\n\nSir Nick said the Taliban seemed prepared to allow people to leave the country at the moment but \"we need to be clear that this is only possible if they behave in a reasonable fashion\".", "Emergency services were called to the OYO Sheffield Metropolitan Hotel at about 14:30 BST\n\nA young boy has died falling from a hotel window in Sheffield.\n\nEmergency services were called to the OYO Sheffield Metropolitan Hotel in Blonk Street at about 14:30 BST on Wednesday.\n\nThe boy, who has not been formally identified, is believed to be under 10. South Yorkshire Police said his family was being supported by its officers.\n\nA spokesperson for the force said it was not treating the incident as suspicious.\n\nThey added the NCP car park behind the 111-bed hotel had been closed and people had been advised to avoid the area.\n\nSouth Yorkshire Police said a car park behind the hotel had been closed after the incident\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A UK Covid vaccine booster scheme will take place and is likely to start next month, the health secretary has said.\n\nSajid Javid said he was uncertain of the exact start date as the government was waiting for the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation's \"final advice\" before proceeding.\n\nMr Javid added the \"most vulnerable\" would be offered the third jab first.\n\nHowever, it remains unclear whether the booster scheme will be for all adults, or just some, more vulnerable groups.\n\nInterim advice from the JCVI, released last month, suggested more than 30 million of the most vulnerable people - including all over-50s - should receive a third dose.\n\nAsked about the scheme on Thursday, Mr Javid said: \"We are going to have a booster scheme. It will start some time in September.\n\n\"I couldn't tell you exactly when because before we start it... we need to get the final advice from our group of experts, our independent scientific and medical advisers, the JCVI, and so we're waiting for their final opinion.\"\n\nEarlier in the day, Prof Adam Finn told the BBC that the JCVI, of which he is a member, would be \"imminently deciding\" that some people \"will need a third dose, particularly people who we know are very unlikely to be well protected by those first two doses\".\n\n\"But I think we do need more evidence before we can make a firm decision on a much broader booster programme,\" he added.\n\nThe health secretary says \"a\" booster campaign will take place, but the more important question is \"who\" will be boosted. We still don't know.\n\nThere are scientific and ethical arguments about a booster campaign.\n\nFor some there is a clear benefit - particularly those with weakened immune systems in whom it takes three doses to do the job of two.\n\nBut for the rest of the population, the evidence so far shows two doses are providing lasting protection from becoming seriously ill and needing hospital treatment.\n\nWhether a mass vaccination campaign is necessary or should be far more targeted is the subject of intense debate.\n\nThis comes at a time that rich countries are being accused of giving vaccines to people at little risk from Covid and that would save far more lives if they were shared with the world.\n\nAbout 70% of the entire UK population has had at least one jab. In the poorest countries that figure is about 1%.\n\nThe announcement comes after it was revealed more than 125,000 16 and 17-year-olds in England have had the vaccine in the two weeks since the NHS was given approval to offer that age group a jab.\n\nIn total, 47,460,526 first doses have now been given across the UK, while 41,157,069 people have had two doses.\n\nBut the decision to offer people in the UK a third jab is not without controversy.\n\nImmunologist Prof Peter Openshaw, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), which advises the government, said the \"question about boosters is a contentious one\".\n\nHe said studies into the effectiveness of booster schemes were still ongoing and \"everyone is very keen that if we do have surplus vaccines, that they're not necessarily used in this country, but might be sent overseas\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Immunologist Prof Peter Openshaw: \"The question of boosters is a contentious one\"\n\nAnd, earlier this month, the head of the Oxford Vaccine Group said doses needed to \"go where they can have the greatest impact\" - to protect unvaccinated people abroad.\n\nProf Sir Andrew Pollard, who led the team that created the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, said decisions on whether to give boosters \"should be scientifically driven\".\n\nAsked whether the JCVI had concerns about plans for the booster scheme, Mr Javid said: \"It's only with their expert advice that government would want to continue with their plans.\n\n\"I don't want to prejudge what they're going to say but, based on their interim advice, I think we can be confident that we will start a booster scheme next month.\"", "Lee Ryan, who appeared on Strictly Come Dancing in 2018, said he had spent his savings \"in Covid\"\n\nLee Ryan has told a court he cannot afford to pay a fine for failing to provide details about who was driving his car when it was caught speeding.\n\nThe Blue singer, 38, was charged with driving a Mercedes at 70mph in a 60mph limit in Peterborough twice last year.\n\nThe charges were dismissed, but Ryan was found guilty after a trial for two counts of failing to provide information about the driver.\n\nHe said he could not afford the £1,501 fine and costs.\n\nSpeaking via a remote link from Spain, he told Peterborough Magistrates' Court he was \"out of work due to Covid\".\n\n\"I just don't have the money,\" he said.\n\nCourt papers said he was charged with driving a Mercedes at 70mph in a 60mph limit on Fletton Parkway, Peterborough, on 8 August, and driving a Mercedes at 71mph on the same road on 22 August - both last year.\n\nBut these charges were dismissed as the prosecution offered no evidence, due to there being no means of proving who was driving.\n\nRyan went on trial for two counts of failing to give information relating to the identification of the driver when required, and was found guilty by magistrates.\n\nThe singer, who insisted during the hearing that he had sent off the required information, was told if the money was not paid he could be brought back to court and find himself in prison.\n\nMagistrate Alison Marsh gave Ryan two lots of six points against his licence, resulting in a disqualification from driving for 12 months.\n\nIn regard to the fine, she said magistrates took into account the fact the music industry had been \"severely hit\" by the coronavirus pandemic, and decided to charge him for one offence.\n\nRyan said: \"I'm not working. I mean, they've stopped the gigs. I don't have any gigs.\"\n\nIt was put to Ryan that there are shows going on in the UK.\n\n\"I've not got anything,\" he said. \"I haven't got anything.\"\n\nHe was asked if it would be unreasonable to think he may have some savings, and he said: \"No, I spent them all in Covid.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Rattlesnakes are the source of the majority of bites inflicted on humans in the US every year\n\nRattlesnakes have evolved a clever method of convincing humans that danger is closer than they think, say scientists.\n\nThe sounds of their shaking tail get louder as a person approaches, but then suddenly switches to a much higher frequency.\n\nIn tests, the rapid change in sound made participants believe the snake was much nearer than it was in reality.\n\nThe researchers say the trait evolved to help snakes avoid being trampled on.\n\nThe sibilant sound of the rattlesnake's tail has long been a movie cliché.\n\nThe tell tale rattle is made by the rapid shaking together of hard rings of keratin at the tip of the reptiles' tails.\n\nKeratin is same protein that makes up our fingernails and hair.\n\nThe hard keratin segments make up the rattle on the snake's tail\n\nThe key to the noise is the snake's ability to shake its tail muscles up to 90 times a second.\n\nThis vigorous shaking is used to warn other animals and humans of their presence.\n\nDespite this, rattlesnakes are still responsible for the majority of the 8,000 or so bites inflicted on people in the US every year.\n\nResearchers have known for decades that the rattling can change in frequency but there's been little research about the significance of the shift in sound.\n\nIn this study, scientists experimented by moving a human-like torso closer to a western diamondback rattlesnake and recording the response.\n\nAs the object got closer to the snake, the rattles increased in frequency up to around 40Hz. This was followed by a sudden leap in sound into a higher frequency range between 60-100Hz.\n\nTo figure out what the sudden change meant, the researchers carried out further work with human participants and a virtual snake.\n\nThe increasing rattling rate was perceived by participants as increasing loudness as they moved closer.\n\nThe scientists found that when the sudden change in frequency occurred at a distance of 4 metres, the people in the test believed it was far closer, around one metre away.\n\nThe authors believe the switch in sound is not just a simple warning, but an intricate, interspecies communication signal.\n\n\"The sudden switch to the high-frequency mode acts as a smart signal fooling the listener about its actual distance to the sound source,\" says senior author Boris Chagnaud from Karl-Franzens-University in Graz, Austria.\n\n\"The misinterpretation of distance by the listener creates a distance safety margin.\"\n\nThe authors believe that the snakes behaviour takes advantage of the human auditory system, which has evolved to interpret an increase in loudness as something that is moving faster and getting closer\n\n\"Evolution is a random process, and what we might interpret from today's perspective as elegant design is in fact the outcome of thousands of trials of snakes encountering large mammals,\" said Dr Chagnaud.\n\n\"The snake rattling co-evolved with mammalian auditory perception by trial and error, leaving those snakes that were best able to avoid being stepped on.\"\n\nThe study has been published in the journal Current Biology.", "British nationals and Afghan evacuees arrived on an RAF plane at Brize Norton on Tuesday evening\n\nPeople who have fled Afghanistan for the UK after the Taliban takeover have spoken of their relief to have escaped the country.\n\nUK troops are continuing to evacuate British nationals and eligible Afghans after insurgents seized control of the capital Kabul.\n\nNo 10 says 306 UK nationals and 2,052 Afghans have been evacuated so far.\n\nOne British aid worker said she felt \"lucky\" to escape, but that we \"must not forget Afghanistan\".\n\nKitty Chevallier, a 24-year-old charity worker from Basingstoke in Hampshire, left Kabul via a UK evacuation flight on Monday morning.\n\nShe said she was aware of how \"immensely lucky\" she was to have been helped out of Afghanistan, when others, including friends and colleagues, remained stranded.\n\n\"As we drove there at 04:00, the runways were crowded with hundreds of Afghan families hoping to get out somehow,\" she told the PA Media news agency.\n\n\"One of the strangest moments was getting on the plane, not knowing when we'd be able to come back or what the city would look and feel like when we did.\"\n\nMs Chevallier had worked in Kabul since last September with Afghanaid, a UK-registered charity that promotes women's rights and provides clean water and sanitation for Afghans.\n\nShe said it felt \"bizarre\" to be out of the country, but that \"the real tragedy\" was speaking to friends and colleagues \"for whom the chances of leaving the country are far, far smaller, and who have so much more to lose\".\n\n\"I've been doing what I can to help arrange their departure, where that has been possible, and I've been encouraged to see that most of them have now been given the opportunity to leave on a UN flight tomorrow,\" she added.\n\nThere have been fears that Afghans who worked with Western authorities or groups could be at higher risk of reprisals from the Taliban, though the group has denied this will happen.\n\nMs Chevallier said while the messages from the Taliban have made it sound as though there will be no \"danger\" from them, she had heard several examples of \"scared\" aid workers getting \"threatening messages, even death threats\".\n\nShe called on the UK to \"increase, not cut\" aid going to Afghanistan and said the criteria allowing people to return to the UK need to be urgently expanded \"to include aid workers and civil society activists, especially women\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn addition to those who have already been evacuated to the UK, Downing Street said a further 2,000 Afghan applications had been completed - with \"many more being processed\".\n\nThe UK government has also committed to take in up to 20,000 Afghan refugees over the next few years under a new resettlement scheme - including 5,000 this year.\n\nThe Refugee Council - a UK-based charity helping refugees - welcomed the government's new scheme as a \"positive first step\".\n\nBut the charity wants the government to go further to resettle at least 10,000 people a year, and also to expand the eligibility for families so that Afghans living in the UK can be reunited with their loved ones.\n\nThe latest plans are in addition to an existing scheme for Afghan interpreters and others who worked for the UK government - the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP).\n\nThe Home Office says 2,000 Afghan former staff and their families have already come to the UK via this scheme this year - with a target of 5,000 by the end of 2021.\n\nThe speed of the Taliban's takeover of major Afghan cities and the capital Kabul appeared to catch Western governments off guard.\n\n\"Everyone, I think, has been surprised by the scale and the pace at which the Taliban have taken over in Afghanistan, and that's a lesson that we've all got to learn from,\" Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Monday.\n\nThe PM's official spokesman said on Wednesday that UK humanitarian aid to Afghanistan had \"effectively... doubled to £286m\" as ministers sought to ensure it does not fund the Taliban.\n\nChallenged on the impact of recent cuts to overseas aid, the PM's spokesman said: \"I think people will accept that when the situation changes on the ground, we need to react accordingly, that's what we've done.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Everybody got very emotional\": Hassina Syed describes getting out of Afghanistan on a British military plane\n\nHassina Syed, an Afghan businesswoman and activist, said she felt great \"relief\" as the evacuation flight she was on took off from Afghanistan.\n\nShe said she fled the country \"quickly\" because the situation was \"very unpredictable\".\n\nAsked about the atmosphere on the flight, she told BBC Two's Newsnight: \"Everybody got very emotional, most of us began to cry a lot.\"\n\nMs Syed said UK troops gave passengers bottled water and food, and that it was \"really touching\" to see them help soothe crying children.\n\nWomen back in Afghanistan are \"worrying\" and \"want to get out\" she says, because they fear that the Taliban will \"capture them\".\n\nShe said that during the Taliban's news conference on Tuesday - their first since seizing control of Kabul - there appeared to be a \"bit of changes [sic] that make us a little bit hopeful\".\n\nJack, from Birmingham, whose name has been changed to protect his family still in Afghanistan, left the country on a UK evacuation flight this week.\n\nSpeaking to PA Media, the 27-year-old said it was \"strange and frightening\".\n\n\"(Most) of those fleeing had to sit on the plane's rough floor but overall it was worth it - I am extremely thankful,\" he said.\n\n\"Family and friends are (still) there. It was tough not being able to say goodbye.\"\n\nAn RAF plane carrying UK nationals and Afghans landed at Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on Tuesday night.\n\nHalf a dozen more flights are due to arrive in the UK in the next 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Defence.\n\nAmid continued chaos at Kabul's airport, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer on Wednesday accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of \"staggering complacency\" and \"betraying\" the Afghan people.\n\nHe also cited reports from NGOs that an evacuation plane left \"almost empty\" because people couldn't get through the airport.\n\nDowning Street did not deny the reports, and acknowledged there was a \"difficult situation\" on the ground.\n\nDozens of planes from around 15 countries have reportedly been sent to Kabul to help with evacuations of foreign citizens and Afghan colleagues - including those from the US, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and the UK.\n\nTaliban fighters controlling access to the airport are reportedly not permitting Afghans without documents or passports to enter and have fired shots into the air to disperse approaching crowds.", "David Whitfield abused his position of power, prosecutors told the court\n\nA prison officer has been jailed for six years and nine months after demanding sexual favours from 12 female inmates in return for cell privileges.\n\nDavid Whitfield, 36, of Colman Avenue in South Shields, took advantage of the women between 2011 and 2016 at HMP Low Newton in Durham.\n\nFollowing a trial at Teesside Crown Court, he was convicted of committing misconduct in a public office.\n\nHe was cleared of sexual assault on one woman.\n\nThe court heard he abused his position of power to \"extract or encourage\" the inmates to carry out sex acts.\n\nProsecutor Anne Richardson said Whitfield would enter one prisoner's cell while she was naked and brush against her.\n\nThe pair regularly engaged in sex acts although it did not progress to intercourse, the jury was told.\n\nIn return, she was given advance warning of cell searches and any confiscated items would be given back to her.\n\nWhitfield would also watch the inmates through their cell hatch and indicate he wanted them to undress and touch themselves.\n\nOn visits to one woman he told her he \"wanted a little show\", Ms Richardson said.\n\nHe also asked whether he could have sex with her on her birthday, but the woman was moved to a different wing.\n\n\"Flirtatious banter\" with another inmate progressed to Whitfield watching her getting dressed and undressed, and rubbing cream into her body, the prosecution said.\n\nOn other occasions she would \"dance provocatively\" for him as he watched.\n\nIn return for cell search warnings, she also allowed Whitfield to slap her bottom and fondle her in a cleaning cupboard, prosecutors added.\n\nSentencing him, Recorder David Gordon described many of the inmates as vulnerable after having previously suffered abuse.\n\nHe said Whitfield \"methodically, routinely and cynically took advantage\" of them when they were under his control.\n\nHe added: \"You actually undermined prison discipline by tipping the inmates off about any cell searches so they could hide drugs or tobacco.\n\n\"You have brought shame on your family, betrayed your hard-working colleagues and betrayed the trust of the public.\"\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Taliban fighters and Pakistani soldiers are now guarding the Torkham crossing side-by-side\n\nOn the surface, it almost looks normal on this part of the Pakistani-Afghan border.\n\nBut a closer look would show how much things have changed.\n\nThe tricolour flag of the Republic of Afghanistan has been replaced with the white flag of the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan, and in place of Afghan border security forces now stand gun-holding bearded Taliban militants.\n\nThey are now in control of Torkham - the busiest crossing with Pakistan.\n\nA few days back, hundreds of panicked Afghan civilians gathered here for days, desperate for a way out.\n\nThen what seemed inevitable happened: outnumbered Afghan police forces surrendered to the Taliban.\n\nPakistan, worried about a fighting spillover, had shut its side of the border prior to the Taliban's takeover. But after brief closure it was reopened for trade and restricted pedestrian movement.\n\nNormally, about 6,000-7,000 people would travel between the two countries daily - but today there are hardly 50 people standing on the Afghanistan side to enter Pakistan.\n\nIt's taking longer than usual. Pakistani security officials say that they don't want any militants to enter disguised as civilians. That's why they have made the vetting process at the border more strict.\n\nTorkham has been the main point of refugees' influx into Pakistan for decades.\n\nAn Afghan man with a baby crosses into Pakistan at Torkham\n\nNow the number of Afghans seeking refuge is much lower.\n\nThe Taliban are not letting anyone out. Only traders or those with valid travel documents are allowed to cross.\n\nBut it's not the only thing keeping Afghan refugees away.\n\nAmid increasing violence across the border in recent years, Pakistan has been fencing itself off from Afghanistan. All border crossings are now heavily manned, making it impossible for Afghan refugees to enter without government consent.\n\nJust a few metres away from the border, Ahsan Khan, 56, was busy taking out his luggage from a taxi. He was off to the Afghan city of Jalalabad.\n\n\"I have been travelling from this border since I was in school. There was a time when my father would take us directly to Jalalabad without any checks,\" Mr Khan says.\n\nSome of the few Afghans waiting to enter Pakistan, at the usually busy Torkham crossing\n\nSince June 2016, the Pakistani government has made a valid passport and visa mandatory for all Afghans wanting to cross into Pakistan.\n\n\"How can you expect Afghan refugees to come to this border when the people they are trying to flee are standing right here. And where would poor uneducated Afghans get passport and a visa in these circumstances?\" Mr Khan asks.\n\nA small market just a few kilometres away from Torkham is frequented by Afghans who had fled to Pakistan.\n\nOwaid Ali owns a small food stall. He says he hasn't seen any Afghan refugees in the market since the Taliban took over the border.\n\n\"A few days ago when the Taliban were rapidly taking control of cities, Afghans who came here told me how worried they are at the prospect of living under Taliban rule. But I don't know how will they escape that life now,\" Mr Ali says.\n\nAlmost three million Afghan refugees, half of them unregistered, have been living in Pakistan for decades.\n\nBut now the government in Islamabad says it has reached its limit and cannot accept more people from the war-torn country, despite pleas from the UN refugees' agency.", "Natalie Steele is accused of murdering her two-year-old son Reid\n\nA mother has appeared in court charged with the murder of her two-year-old son in Bridgend.\n\nNatalie Steele, 31, of Broadlands, spoke only to confirm her name via videolink at Cardiff Crown Court.\n\nReid Steele died at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, last Thursday, a day after he was found critically injured.\n\nThe court heard psychiatric reports would be needed ahead of the next hearing.\n\nReid Steele died in hospital last Thursday after being found in a critical condition the day before\n\nMs Steele, who will be expected to appear in-person at a plea and trial preparation hearing on 26 November, was remanded in custody.", "A man arrested on suspicion of the murder and indecent assault of Stuart Lubbock at the home of entertainer Michael Barrymore has been released without charge.\n\nMr Lubbock, 31, was found unconscious in the TV presenter's pool in Roydon, Essex, in March 2001 following a party.\n\nEssex Police said there was \"insufficient evidence\" to charge the unnamed suspect, who is 50.\n\nHe was arrested in March following \"significant new information\".\n\nMichael Barrymore's Essex home became the centre of inquiries into how Stuart Lubbock died\n\nDet Ch Insp Stephen Jennings said: \"We have explored all possible lines of inquiry and sometimes, regrettably, the evidence is not yet there to issue charges.\n\n\"I know that this may be of little comfort to Stuart's father and his family.\"\n\nMr Lubbock, a butcher from Harlow, was described by neighbours at the time of his death as a \"pleasant, sociable\" man.\n\nA post-mortem examination found he had suffered \"horrific\" injuries prior to his death at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, police said.\n\nAlcohol, ecstasy and cocaine were found in his bloodstream.\n\nMr Lubbock had been attending a party at the home of Mr Barrymore, who is now 69, with eight other people.\n\nHe was pronounced dead two hours after arriving at the hospital.\n\nDet Ch Insp Jennings said the investigation into the death remained open.\n\nHe said: \"All we want is to deliver justice for Mr Lubbock and his family.\n\n\"We have never given up on finding out exactly what happened to Stuart.\"\n\nStuart Lubbock's father Terry said he had been living \"to get justice\" for his son\n\nDet Ch Insp Jennings added: \"It is no secret that Stuart's father Terry is suffering extremely ill-health and his wish is to know that justice will be done.\n\n\"Now is the time to come forward with any information, if you haven't done so already, to help us finally deliver justice for Stuart and his father.\"\n\nEssex Police said the decision not to charge the 50-year-old man had been taken with the Crown Prosecution Service.\n\nHe had been arrested in Cheshire on 17 March.\n\nDet Ch Insp Jennings said: \"For the last 20 years, as we have continually stated, two things have remained consistent.\n\n\"One is the commitment of Essex Police to deliver justice for Stuart and his father Terry.\n\n\"The second is that we believe of those present on the night Stuart died, someone at the house was responsible and someone knows what happened.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The babbling bat pups appear to be practising their vocal skills\n\nScientists who systematically eavesdropped on bat roosts in Costa Rica have discovered baby-bat babbling bears a striking resemblance to that of human infants.\n\nAnd this suggests - just like in human infants - their babbling lays the foundations for communication.\n\n\"They just babble away, sunrise to sunset, practising their sounds,\" lead researcher Dr Ahana Fernandez said.\n\nDr Fernandez, based at the Museum of Natural History in Berlin, studied a particularly vocal species - the greater sac-winged bat, Saccopteryx bilineata.\n\n\"These bats actually sing like songbirds,\" she said.\n\n\"So they have very sophisticated vocal communication - a repertoire of distinct syllable types.\"\n\nDr Fernandez and her colleagues, who published their findings in the journal Science, analysed recordings of the bat pups babbling in their roosts.\n\nDr Fernandez recording babbling of wild Saccopteryx bilineata pups in their day-roost, in Costa Rica\n\nHuman speech requires very precise control over the vocal apparatus.\n\nBabbling in infants and toddlers is vital practice in gaining that control.\n\nAnd, the researchers said, the same was true of bats.\n\n\"We know all the different syllable types produced by adult bats,\" Dr Fernandez said.\n\n\"And the ones that appear in pup babbling are really reminiscent of the adult ones - so we can clearly tell.\"\n\nThe greater sac-winged bat is the only bat species known to do this so far.\n\nBut with more than 1,400 bat species in the world, Dr Fernandez \"really thinks there will be another that babbles\".\n\nAnd while this study has identified a pattern that could be important for many mammals that have to learn to communicate vocally, she also says there is a great deal left to understand about this specific species of singing bat.\n\n\"The babies really listen to each other when they're babbling,\" Dr Fernandez said.\n\n\"One starts, he babbles for 15 minutes or so, and I can clearly see the ears of the other pups moving.\n\n\"So I think they're really listening to each other - but how it influences their practising, I don't know.\"", "Nicole Kidman (pictured in January 2020) is in Hong Kong to film a new television series\n\nNicole Kidman has become the latest Hollywood star to come under fire for circumventing strict quarantine rules for international travellers.\n\nThe Australian actress's arrival in Hong Kong has sparked widespread anger after she was reportedly spotted out and about two days after touching down.\n\nThis is despite the region having some of the strictest rules in place, with up to 21 days' quarantine required.\n\nThere has been no direct, official comment on a possible exemption.\n\nHowever, Hong Kong's Commerce and Economic Development Bureau sent out a statement on Thursday in response to questions about \"overseas film personnel\" and quarantine, explaining restrictions are waived \"to carry out designated professional work\".\n\nKidman is in Hong Kong to film a new show about the lives of wealthy, glamorous ex-pats - already a source of tension as locals contend with increasing restrictions under the new national security law.\n\nReports of the waiver have only stoked outrage further, with comments on both Twitter and Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo overwhelmingly critical.\n\n\"Which department gave her the right?\" one users asks. Another asks: \"Who gave her the right to be exempt?\"\n\nSeveral people point out they have not been able to see family for months thanks to the restrictions.\n\nCitizens living in \"high risk\" countries - a list which already includes the UK and is expanding to places like the US and Spain tomorrow - are only allowed to enter if vaccinated and must still complete three weeks' quarantine.\n\nAustralia - where Kidman flew in from - is classified \"medium\", which has a minimum seven-day quarantine requirement for those who are vaccinated.\n\n\"So we have HK residents who can't come back if not vaccinated (and even then with 2-3 weeks quarantine) but Nicole Kidman can just enter like this? It's disgusting!\" a Twitter user called @WhovianBooknerd wrote.\n\n\"Why do foreigners have privileges?\" one person asks on Weibo.\n\nThe anger has made its way off social media and into the political arena, with Elizabeth Quat, a pro-Beijing lawmaker, saying she had received \"a number of complaints\" and has asked health officials to explain themselves, according to AFP news agency.\n\nThe issue of film stars travelling internationally has also caused problems in Kidman's home country, Australia, where the arrival of a host of famous faces in the last 18 months has angered those struggling to get home.\n\nYou may also be interested in:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The hotel quarantine experiences of Aaron in Hong Kong and Jane in Sydney", "The UK's Defence Secretary Ben Wallace claimed this morning that Labour Leader Keir Starmer had supported the deal between the US and the Taliban last year.\n\nThe deal – secured by Donald Trump and signed in Doha, Qatar in February 2020 – committed to the withdrawal of US and allied (including British) troops from Afghanistan by May 2021.\n\nAfter his election, US President Joe Biden continued the plan for withdrawal but with an end date of 31 August.\n\nAt the time, Mr Wallace praised Mr Trump’s deal as a “small but important step towards the chance for Afghans to live in peace, free from terrorism\".\n\nBut in the past week, Mr Wallace has described the deal as “rotten”. He has said that just after the deal he publicly expressed that it was a “mistake”, but we have yet to find a reference to this in either Parliamentary records or news cuttings from the time.\n\nBen Wallace, the UK's defence secretary, initially said Donald Trump's deal with the Taliban was \"rotten\" Image caption: Ben Wallace, the UK's defence secretary, initially said Donald Trump's deal with the Taliban was \"rotten\"\n\nMr Wallace said today: “I never heard from a single Labour MP when that deal was done, 18 months ago… one single criticism. In fact, Keir Starmer supported it, as did all other parties in the House of Commons.”\n\nWe have found no evidence that Mr Starmer publicly supported last year’s deal in the period after it was announced. But it should be noted he was not Labour leader then, and nor was there any debate in the Commons over the terms of the deal.\n\nIn yesterday’s debate Mr Starmer focused on the lack of planning for the withdrawal rather than saying he had opposed it and said: “Nobody believes that Britain and our allies could have remained in Afghanistan indefinitely, or that Britain could have fought alone.”\n\nMr Wallace also said this morning that he had “felt uncomfortable” about the Doha deal and “made representations to the US and others at the time”.", "A group which represents 200,000 Army veterans who served in Northern Ireland says it fully supports the government's controversial Troubles legacy plan.\n\nRepresentatives of the Northern Ireland Veterans Movement (NIVM) held hour-long talks in London with Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis.\n\nThe government plans to end all investigations and prosecutions related to the Troubles.\n\nThe plan is opposed by NI political parties and victims organisations.\n\nSome other military veterans have also criticised it.\n\nIf implemented, the law would apply to former members of the security forces and to ex-paramilitaries.\n\nThe plans also include an end to all legacy inquests and civil actions related to the conflict.\n\nThe NIVM said after the meeting it would bring its \"full strength to bear\" in support of the proposals.\n\nRobin Horsfall is a representative of the Northern Ireland Veterans Movement\n\nFollowing the meeting, Robin Horsfall NIVM said the group believed the proposals \"offer a way forward for those who served in Northern Ireland\".\n\nHe said the group was \"sensitive to the feelings of the innocent victims of terrorism and the hurt that a statute of limitations will cause them\", but believed \"the simple and painful truth is that no terrorists will ever be convicted\".\n\n\"That battle was lost with the Good Friday Agreement,\" he added.\n\nThe proposals are seen as a way in which the government is honouring a 2019 Conservative election manifesto pledge to protect veterans from Troubles investigations.\n\nMr Horsfall said: \"We hope to get to a situation where veterans are left alone to live the last years of their lives in relative peace without being pursued for political reasons.\"\n\nHe said NIVM would scrutinise every detail of the proposed bill and consult and lobby MPs from all parties to support the proposed legislation.\n\nAnother NIVM spokesman, Paul Young, said: \"This fulfils promises made by the government …this is the way forward.\"\n\nA statute of limitations would end all prosecutions in Troubles-related cases\n\nIt is the latest meeting in a series of discussions the government is having about the controversial proposals.\n\nAnother military veterans group has criticised the government proposals.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News NI, Ian Simpson from the Northern Ireland Veterans Association, said he did not support an equivalence between the paramilitary groups and military veterans.\n\n\"You can't do away with prosecutions and if you haven't broken the law, you have nothing the fear from the law, but this brings an amnesty to terrorists,\" he said.\n\n\"You cannot equate veterans and terrorists in the same sentence.\"\n\nSpeaking after the proposals were announced in July, Mr Lewis said it was \"the best way to help Northern Ireland move further along the road to reconciliation\".\n\n\"We know that the prospect of the end of criminal prosecutions will be difficult for some to accept, and this is not a position that we take lightly,\" he said.\n\nMr Lewis said the proposals also included a body to help families recover information on Troubles incidents and an oral history initiative.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said the legacy proposals would allow Northern Ireland to \"draw a line under the Troubles.\"", "Peymana Assad flew back to the UK on an RAF flight on Tuesday\n\nA former child refugee who has grown up to become a London councillor has described how she feared for her life as she fled Afghanistan this week.\n\nPeymana Assad came to the UK at the age of three, but was visiting family in Kabul when the Taliban takeover began.\n\nShe told BBC Radio 5 Live she was warned by one local man \"if the Taliban catch you they are going to kill you\".\n\nMs Assad said she witnessed scenes of \"chaos\" near the airport just before she left on an RAF flight on Tuesday.\n\n\"It's been a really difficult and traumatic experience for me - I think it's really changed my outlook on life and really changed me as a person,\" she said.\n\nMs Assad, 30, arrived in Afghanistan in July. By early August, as the Taliban continued to make rapid gains across the country, her relatives began to worry.\n\n\"My family started putting a lot of pressure on me and said 'you need to book a ticket and get out of here'.\"\n\nMs Assad, a Labour councillor in Harrow, north-west London - who is believed to be the first person of Afghan origin to be elected to public office in the UK - thought her family were being \"sensational\".\n\n\"I was of the belief that the Taliban could not take Kabul and the government would not fall,\" she told Radio 5 Live's Colin Murray.\n\nBut she acknowledged that \"everything completely changed\" and on 14 August the militants gathered on the outskirts of the Afghan capital.\n\nThe Taliban moved into Kabul on 15 August\n\n\"Kabul was basically surrounded and my family felt it was time for me to leave our family home.\"\n\nMs Assad said they worried the Taliban would carry out checks on vehicles and search houses and she would be prevented from leaving the country.\n\nSo on Saturday evening, Ms Assad \"quickly packed my bags\" and moved to lodgings closer to Hamid Karzai International Airport.\n\nBy now, the UK government had begun helping Britons, as well as Afghans who had worked for the UK military, leave the country.\n\n\"In the morning when I woke up.... at about 10am, the embassy called. The British embassy said we are evacuating you from Kabul,\" said Ms Assad.\n\nShe then found she had very little time to assess the situation.\n\n\"I was sitting there having some tea and the neighbour knocked on the door.\n\n\"He was in a panic - he said the Taliban have already entered Kabul and they have taken a few districts and they are approaching this district... you need to get out now.\"\n\nMs Assad said the roads in the area were blocked and she began to walk to the airport with neighbours.\n\nShe quickly grabbed her hand luggage and they took her through some back streets on to a traffic-jammed dual carriageway.\n\n\"From the back street, I saw hundreds and hundreds of people just running and walking towards the airport. People are getting out of the cars and running towards the airport.\n\n\"And so there I am running with them - there's women, there's young people, there's children...\n\n\"All the shopkeepers have come out to watch the panic and the chaos and the fear of everyone running towards the airport. And one of them, as I was running, pointed at me and he said: 'You - if the Taliban catch you they are going to kill you. You better start running faster.'.\n\n\"That kind of set a lot of fear in my heart because that might actually be true if they do catch me - so I started running a bit faster towards the airport.\"\n\nThousands of Afghans have been waiting outside Kabul airport hoping they will be offered a route out of the country\n\nMs Assad found the UK meeting point - but was told she was too late. Officials had already been there and left.\n\n\"I just stood in the street - I had 3% battery and I looked at my battery and I thought if my phone dies and I'm standing here and the embassy aren't here, then what's going to happen? And the Taliban are literally advancing on to this area, I need to get somewhere safe - I need to go inside.\n\n\"I found this Afghan family who during this commotion - all these people were out in the streets panicking - they decided to take me in. They let me go into their house and they let me charge my phone and they gave me some food.\n\n\"And they let me figure it out about where I was going and what was going to happen.\"\n\nMs Assad says she managed to call the Foreign Office and her MP in London, Gareth Thomas, and was advised to return to the meeting point at a designated time.\n\n\"The family were very kind, they put me in their car and they took me to the safe location point again and when I arrived there again I saw the British military were there,\" said Ms Assad.\n\n\"And the moment I saw them and they saw me I just felt so much safer... and kind of sighed relief that I was safe at that point.\"\n\nReferring to the UK government's response to the situation in Afghanistan, Ms Assad said: \"We don't have time, we need to get Afghans to safety now.\n\n\"We can deal with the bureaucracy later. The Taliban are conducting house to house searches and looking for anybody connected to the Afghan government, those who worked with foreign soldiers or are women in public life. Their lives are at risk. It's our responsibility to help those who've helped us.\"", "The deaths of Harrison and David Louden were initially treated as unexplained\n\nThe deaths of a police officer and his three-year-old son are being treated as a murder-suicide, police have said.\n\nDavid Louden, 39, and his son Harrison were found at their home in Kidderminster on Friday.\n\nWest Mercia Police said following post-mortem examinations it was now treating Harrison's death as murder, while its own officer was thought to have killed himself.\n\nThe force confirmed nobody else was being sought over the deaths.\n\nIt also said safeguarding reviews would be carried out and inquests would take place in due course.\n\n\"This is a dreadfully sad case and our thoughts are with David and Harrison's family and friends,\" Assistant Chief Constable Damian Barratt said.\n\nThe pair were found dead at their home on Cairndhu Drive in Kidderminster\n\nInitially their deaths were treated by police as unexplained, and a statement from the family at the weekend had described Harrison as a \"happy, well-loved little boy\".\n\nWest Mercia Police said the family had requested time to grieve and there would not be any further comments from them at this time.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "Jared O'Mara served as MP for Sheffield Hallam from June 2017 to November 2019\n\nFormer Sheffield Hallam MP Jared O'Mara has been charged with seven counts of fraud.\n\nSouth Yorkshire Police said the charges related to a number of alleged fraudulent expenses claims.\n\nMr O'Mara, 39, is charged alongside former aide Gareth Arnold, who faces six counts of fraud, and a third man, John Woodliff, who faces a single charge under the Proceeds of Crime Act.\n\nThey will appear before magistrates in Sheffield on 24 September.\n\nThe offences are said to have occurred between October 2018 and February 2020.\n\nThe force said the charges brought against Mr O'Mara, of Walker Close, Sheffield, related to expenses claims submitted to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.\n\nIn total he faces seven counts of fraud and one count of entering into an arrangement which facilitates the acquisition, retention, use or control of criminal property by another, the force said.\n\nMr Arnold, 28, of Hunter House Road, Sheffield, faces six counts of fraud while Mr Woodliff, 42, of Dunninc Terrace, Sheffield, faces one count of entering into an arrangement which facilitates the acquisition, retention, use or control of criminal property by another.\n\nRosemary Ainslie, from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said: \"The CPS has today authorised police to charge Jared O'Mara, former MP for Sheffield Hallam, with seven counts of fraud by false representation.\n\n\"The charge relates to an allegation he made fraudulent invoices to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority jointly with Gareth Arnold, who is also charged with six counts of the same offence.\n\n\"Jared O'Mara is charged jointly with John Woodliff with a Proceeds of Crime Act offence.\n\n\"The CPS made the decision that the three men should be charged after reviewing a file of evidence from South Yorkshire Police.\"\n\nMr O'Mara took the Sheffield Hallam seat for Labour from former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg in June 2017.\n\nHe later resigned from the party and stepped down as MP at the 2019 general election.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Competition and Markets Authority has told the BBC it warned government officials that consumers could face risks from the fast-growing Covid PCR testing industry in April and May.\n\nThe business and competition regulator said it provided advice and market analysis to officials from the Department of Health and Social Care.\n\nIt said the advice detailed potential market and consumer risks.\n\nIt comes after the CMA was criticised by its former chairman this week.\n\nLord Tyrie told the BBC that the situation with PCR testing for travel was a 'predictable Covid rip-off', and that the competitions watchdog hadn't done enough.\n\nThe government has said it was provided with some general market analysis from the CMA on the potential implications for the PCR testing market and that its advice informed the government's approach on the private provider list.\n\nThe CMA said it cannot disclose this information.\n\nThe revelation comes after a summer of complaints from travellers and holidaymakers who have taken a holiday or visited family who they've been cut off from because of the pandemic.\n\nThe UK government has made it a condition of any international travel that tests before travel, and on your arrival in the UK are mandatory.\n\nThe number of tests that are needed is dependent on your arrival from either a green or amber country or your vaccination status. Arrivals from red countries must still use quarantine hotel facilities.\n\nSome of the most common complaints from travellers mention tests listed on the government's list of providers that don't exist at the price advertised whilst others allege poor service.\n\nAt the start of August, the Health Secretary asked the competition watchdog to investigate \"excessive\" pricing and \"exploitative practices\" among PCR Covid test firms.\n\nIn a letter to the CMA, Sajid Javid said it was time for a \"rapid high-level\" review to protect consumers.\n\nThe BBC understands that a full CMA market study or investigation would require a formal consultation before an investigation could be launched and these investigations typically last between 6 and 18 months. Therefore, a wholesale reform of the market could be difficult because of time constraints.\n\nIt is understood that due to the time and process needed for a full review of the market, the Government was advised it is better placed to tackle immediate issues in this market.\n\nThe travel industry has been demanding action, after complaining about the 'onerous' level of testing in place, which they believe is a barrier to passenger revival.\n\nBut, given the lateness of any government intervention, and the impact on the travel sector, people in industry believe the damage has already been done.\n\nJulie Lo Bue Said, chief executive of Advantage Travel Partnership, the UK's largest group of independent leisure & business travel agent experts, said \"it feels like a PR exercise for the government to come out and say 'we're looking at this now'.\n\n\"It is far too late, when the public has had to pay for all these tests,\" she added.\n\nOn Friday, Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary announced that the price of PCR Covid tests provided by NHS Test & Trace for travel would fall, by £20 for one test to £68, and by £35 for two tests to £138.\n\nThe Government has consistently maintained that testing for travellers is in place to protect public health.", "The UAE says it has welcomed Mr Ghani and his family on humanitarian grounds\n\nAfghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani has taken refuge in the United Arab Emirates, the Gulf nation says.\n\nMr Ghani left Afghanistan as the Taliban advanced on the capital city Kabul over the weekend.\n\nThe UAE's foreign ministry said the country had welcomed Mr Ghani and his family on humanitarian grounds.\n\nIn a video address later on Wednesday, Mr Ghani denied fleeing and said he had left to prevent what he described as a \"huge disaster\".\n\n\"For now, I am in the Emirates so that bloodshed and chaos is stopped,\" he said. \"I am currently in talks to return to Afghanistan.\"\n\nMr Ghani also said rumours that he had travelled to the UAE with a large amount of money were \"completely baseless\" and \"lies\".\n\nThe 72-year-old has faced intense criticism from other Afghan politicians for leaving the country.\n\n\"God will hold him accountable and the nation will also judge,\" said Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of Afghanistan's High Council for National Reconciliation.\n\nUS President Joe Biden also criticised Afghanistan's government for fleeing in a speech on Monday.\n\nAnd later on Wednesday, the US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told reporters that Mr Ghani was \"no longer a figure in Afghanistan\".\n\nHowever, the US has continued to refer to \"President Ghani\", with the State Department saying that there has not been a formal handover of power.\n\nIn his video address, which was streamed live on Facebook, Mr Ghani said he was evacuated by his security team from the presidential palace \"in a condition where I couldn't even put on my shoes\".\n\n\"Events unfolded at a fast pace. I wanted to negotiate an inclusive government with the Taliban,\" he said, adding that he supported talks between the Taliban and former officials from his administration.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. On the streets of Kabul: 'Many here will be deeply fearful for their future'\n\nThis is not the first time the UAE has provided a safe haven for deposed or fugitive leaders from other countries. Pakistan's Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto made Dubai her new home in the 1990s before later returning to power.\n\nBut the UAE, which hosts a large population of Afghan and Pakistani guest workers, will not want to see its territory used as a political platform, the BBC's Security Correspondent Frank Gardner says.\n\nMr Ghani came into office in 2014 and was re-elected in February 2020.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC earlier this year, he dismissed fears of a Taliban military victory. \"This is not Vietnam. The government is not collapsing,\" he said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The foreign secretary gives a one word answer when asked about his future.\n\nForeign Secretary Dominic Raab has rejected calls to quit after claims he should have personally intervened to help evacuate Afghan interpreters.\n\nMr Raab was advised to phone his Afghan counterpart for urgent support - but it's understood the job was given to a junior minister.\n\nOpposition parties say this was an error of judgement that put interpreters' lives at risk.\n\nAsked in Downing Street if he would resign, Mr Raab replied: \"No\".\n\nEarlier this week, newspaper reports suggested the foreign secretary was seen relaxing on a beach on the Greek island of Crete on Sunday - the day Taliban militants entered Kabul, Afghanistan's capital.\n\nMr Raab said that while he was away he had been directing his team and engaging with international partners.\n\nAs originally reported by the Daily Mail, Mr Raab was advised by senior Foreign Office officials on Friday he should make contact with Afghan Foreign Minister Hanif Atmar to get urgent assistance in rescuing Afghan interpreters who had worked for the British military.\n\nOfficials said it was important the call was made by him rather than a junior minister - but they were told Mr Raab was unavailable.\n\nLabour's shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said: \"How can Boris Johnson allow the foreign secretary to continue in his role after yet another catastrophic failure of judgement?\n\n\"If Dominic Raab doesn't have the decency to resign, the prime minister must show a shred of leadership and sack him.\"\n\nSNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford said Mr Raab had made \"a massive error of judgement\". He tweeted: \"His position is completely untenable and he must resign, or be sacked.\"\n\nLiberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey also said on Twitter: \"Raab must go\".\n\nBut Health Secretary Sajid Javid said his cabinet colleague was \"one of the most professional and most effective ministers I've ever worked with\".\n\nHe added: \"Instead of playing games, people should focus on the issue at hand which is what can we be doing as a country, as a government to support those people in Afghanistan whether they are British nationals or Afghan refugees.\"\n\nMinisters, like many of us, go on holiday in August.\n\nBut this is both a further illustration of the extent to which the government had little idea how fast things were changing in Afghanistan and, perhaps, that some in the Foreign Office are less than impressed with Mr Raab's focus, or lack of it, on the job -- and so decided to tell the Daily Mail about it.\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace has suggested that phone call wouldn't have made any difference, given the Afghan government was crumbling.\n\nBut if the speed of its crumbling - and the takeover by the Taliban - was known within government last Friday, why was the foreign secretary still on holiday, as a huge plank of UK foreign policy was disintegrating?\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace told BBC Breakfast \"the only thing that mattered\" last Friday was whether Kabul airport would continue to allow people to get out.\n\n\"No amount of phone calls to an Afghan government at that time would have made any difference,\" he added.\n\nResponding to a report in the Times that the permanent secretaries - the top civil servants - at the Home Office, Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence are currently on holiday, a government spokesperson said that \"departments across Whitehall have been working intensively\" on the situation in Afghanistan.\n\nThe BBC has been told that the civil servants in question are continuing to work while on holiday, and that the Ministry of Defence and Home Office have two permanent secretaries each, which ensures one is at work when the other is on leave.\n\nThe Foreign Office has a designated acting permanent secretary to cover periods of leave.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. An Afghan refugee, who has resettled in Glasgow, feared he would be \"tortured and beheaded\" by the Taliban for working as an interpreter for the British army\n\nMPs on all sides criticised the government's response to events in Afghanistan in the House of Commons on Wednesday.\n\nOn Wednesday night, Mr Raab said he had spoken to the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss both countries' response to the situation in Afghanistan.", "The UK defence secretary rejected reports that some flights from Kabul contained only a few people. He also said that the UK would continue to stay in Afghanistan as long as the US ran Kabul airport.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nBritish cyclist Matt Walls was crowned Olympic champion on his debut with a dominant performance in the omnium.\n\nThe 23-year-old finished on a total of 153 points, 24 more than silver medallist Campbell Stewart of New Zealand, while Italy's defending champion Elia Viviani took bronze.\n\nHis victory earns Team GB's first track cycling gold medal at the Tokyo Games.\n\nWalls adds an Olympic medal to his world championship bronze and European title in the event.\n\n\"I managed to get a good lead coming into the end. It's been a hard day but I came into that points race with a bit of a lead and breathing room,\" he told BBC Sport.\n\n\"Thank you to all my family and friends. I wouldn't be here without them, especially my parents.\"\n\nWalls' medal was Team GB's 50th of the Tokyo Olympics, and the 16th gold.\n\nOldham's Walls is Great Britain's first male Olympic champion in the omnium, after Mark Cavendish's silver at Rio 2016 and Ed Clancy's bronze at London 2012 - when the event was first included on the Olympic programme.\n\nLaura Kenny is the two-time defending champion in the women's event, which takes place on Sunday.\n\nElsewhere on Wednesday, Jack Carlin reached the sprint semi-finals but two-time defending champion Jason Kenny is out.\n\nKenny was beaten in the quarter-finals by Dutch world champion Harrie Lavreysen, ending his nine-year reign.\n\nKaty Marchant saw her keirin campaign cut short in the quarter-finals after she was caught up in a crash.\n\nWalls got his campaign at the Izu Velodrome off to the perfect start when won the opening scratch race, before placing third in the tempo race.\n\nSecond place followed in the elimination race, ensuring he would top the overall standings going into the 100-lap points race.\n\nHe was one of several riders to gain a lap early on, earning 20 points, and won two of the sprints.\n\nStewart earned two laps to catapult him on to the podium, having been in seventh after three of the four disciplines.\n\nWalls had tested positive for Covid-19 in March, disrupting his road season with his team Bora-Hansgrohe, before returning to competitive action in June.\n\nBritain's track cyclists have now won three medals at Tokyo 2020, following silvers in the women's team pursuit and men's team sprint.\n\nAfter Wednesday's early rounds in the men's sprint, Kenny - an eight-time Olympic medallist - said his younger team-mate Carlin was Team GB's best chance of a medal in the event.\n\nKenny, 33, said he was \"struggling a bit\" after his efforts to win team sprint silver alongside Carlin and Ryan Owens earlier in the week.\n\nThat fatigue was evident on Thursday as he was beaten by Denis Dmitriev of the Russian Olympic Committee in the 1/8 finals, and was forced to go through the repechage to reach the last eight.\n\nThat extra race counted against him as he faced 24-year-old Lavreysen, the two-time sprint world champion winning over two legs.\n\n\"It isn't [a disappointing result],\" said Kenny, who will look to retain his keirin title over the weekend. \"I don't expect to be the best in the world all the time. It is really hard to win, at the end of the day.\n\n\"I gave it my best shot, and I just wasn't good enough.\n\n\"For whatever reason, I wasn't as good as I wanted to be physically, and these boys are just better.\"\n\nBut there was no such issue for 24-year-old Scot Carlin, who continued his impressive form into a second day after breaking the Olympic record in qualifying - though it was then broken by Lavreysen and Dutch team-mate Jeffrey Hoogland.\n\nCarlin comfortably defeated Germany's three-time Olympic medallist Maximilian Levy in the quarters, to set up a last-four race with Lavreysen.\n\n\"Another day in the bag, we'll see what happens tomorrow,\" Carlin told BBC Sport. \"The legs are feeling good.\"\n\nOn team-mate Kenny, he added: \"Jason was struggling - fatigue kicked in from the team sprint but he still went out and gave it his all and that's what Olympic champions do.\"\n\nMarchant had looked in promising form in the women's keirin but her hopes of a medal were ended prematurely.\n\nDutch rider Laurine van Riessen appeared to clip a wheel and lost control of her bike, ploughing into Marchant's wheel and bringing them both down.\n\nMarchant was able to get up quickly but Van Riessen - also a Winter Olympic medal-winning speed skater - was taken to hospital.\n\n\"I think that's just bike racing - wrong place, wrong time,\" Marchant, 28, told BBC Sport.\n\n\"I hope everyone's all right that was in the crash. I think I'm all right, just a bit battered and bruised.\"\n\nMarchant will return to the track on Friday in the individual sprint, the event in which she won bronze at Rio 2016.\n• None The music that makes The Hundred: Check out the best new music from your teams region\n• None Could a DNA test find you the perfect diet? How people are using the findings for nutrition advice", "Many Australians have struggled to return due to tough border policies\n\nAustralians living overseas could be \"trapped\" in Australia if they return, after the nation's government tightened its border rules without notice.\n\nSince March last year, the country has banned its citizens from leaving the country as part of its Covid strategy.\n\nThat restriction has not previously applied to Australians who usually live in other countries.\n\nBut they will now need to apply for an exemption for outbound travel - in line with rules for other Australians.\n\nAustralia's tough border rules have been controversial. Critics say this change - in effect from 11 August - will further punish families and deter citizens from returning.\n\nThe government said the measure aimed to reduce the risk of Covid cases entering the country, as it grapples with its worst outbreaks in a year.\n\nAustralia already has a weekly limit on incoming travellers and bans foreigners from entry unless they have an exemption. Its policies are among the strictest globally.\n\nLast month, it halved the number of permitted arrivals due to Delta variant outbreaks.\n\nMany Australians have expressed outrage at the latest move, branded by some as barbaric.\n\nAlexandra Phelan, who lives in the US, tweeted she was \"waking up to news that I'm effectively exiled from my country\".\n\nWhile the closed-border policy has been mostly supported in Australia, many have also criticised its impact on citizens.\n\nThe BBC has been told of cases in the past year where Australians have been unable to leave to care for sick or dying loved ones, or to retrieve their children from relatives.\n\nLegal experts have questioned whether Australia's rules breach constitutional rights by effectively preventing some citizens from being able to return.\n\nThe government has said Australia will not re-open until at least 80% of its population is vaccinated, likely to be sometime next year. The current total is 19%.\n\nMore than half of Australia's 26 million people are currently in lockdown, due to Delta outbreaks in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.\n\nSydney - the worst-hit city - has recorded over 4,300 cases in its outbreak.\n\nOn Friday, New South Wales state reported 291 new cases - its highest daily number in the pandemic so far.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Sam Gould (left) died in September 2018 and her twin sister Chris died a few months later\n\nPolice forces have been given new guidance on dealing with crime victims following the suicides of twin sisters.\n\nSam and Chris Gould, from Fulbourn, Cambridgeshire, took their own lives aged 16 and 17 having both said they were abused from the age of five.\n\nAt their inquests a coroner raised concerns about national police guidance after he heard about the investigation into the alleged abuse.\n\nThe National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) said it had identified a \"gap\".\n\nTheir mother Jane Cannon said: \"The gap was that once the girls had been initially reluctant to give evidence, nobody checked back with them; nobody said 'Are you ready to try and get justice now?'\"\n\nHowever, she was pleased to see the NPCC had identified the same issue as the coroner and had dealt with it.\n\nShe added the police guidance that alleged victims of sexual abuse must not discuss it with anyone else, including therapists, still stood, \"whether that's the best thing for the victim and the victim's family\".\n\n\"Their [the police's] consideration [is] 'Is there anything that could jeopardise a prosecution?' and we can understand that because the burden of proof for child abuse cases is so ridiculously high,\" she said.\n\nA College of Policing spokesman said: \"Support from family, friends, professional or therapeutic/counselling services is very much encouraged in our advice for forces.\"\n\nIn May 2016, aged 14, Chris disclosed she and Sam had been sexually abused into their teenage years, and named their alleged abuser.\n\nHampshire Police investigated the case but, at the time the girls were struggling with their mental health and did not wish to give video evidence.\n\nOfficers closed the case in late 2016, having never interviewed the alleged abuser.\n\nSam and Chris, pictured on holiday in Turkey with parents Jane and Ian\n\nSam died in 2018, while Chris took her own life four months later.\n\nAfter their deaths Ms Cannon told the BBC: \"Every single professional that dealt with the girls said the same - their death was caused by their [mental health] illness and their illness was caused by the sexual abuse.\"\n\nThe parents added Chris and Sam felt \"invalidated and not believed\" after police dropped the investigation.\n\nIn June, the force said it had closed the case because there was insufficient evidence to provide any realistic prospect of conviction, and that its decision \"took account of the wishes of the victims and the wider concerns of the family at the time\".\n\nBut it said it had since changed the way it handled such cases.\n\nFollowing their inquests, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough assistant coroner Nicholas Moss QC raised concerns that there had been \"no follow-up\" by police to Sam and Chris while they were still alive, to keep open the option of providing an account at a later stage, to be used as evidence.\n\nHe also said there was no guidance on what should be communicated to alleged child sex abuse victims \"both suffering from mental-ill health and initially unwilling to provide an evidential account\".\n\nChris and Sam's parents are now fighting for change following their daughters' deaths\n\nIn response, Merseyside Police's Deputy Chief Constable Ian Critchley, the NPCC lead for child protection, abuse and investigation, agreed it was \"evident that the inquests have identified a gap\" in national guidance - the College of Policing's Authorised Professional Practice (APP) - that applied to all UK forces.\n\nHe said there had been an \"immediate addition\" to the APP, focused on victims and witnesses reluctant to attend an interview or provide a statement.\n\nThe guidance states investigators \"should sensitively try to establish why they are reluctant and, where possible, take steps to mitigate these reasons and provide reassurance\".\n\nIt also states that victims and witnesses should be offered the opportunity to reconsider their decision \"where appropriate\".\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe 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. Kaylee-Jayde Priest: CCTV shows last time she was seen before her death\n\nA mother and her boyfriend have been jailed for killing her three-year-old daughter after the girl's cries interrupted sex.\n\nNicola Priest, 23, was sentenced to 15 years over the death of Kaylee-Jayde Priest who was found dead last year at the Solihull flat where they lived.\n\nPriest and then lover Callum Redfern, 22, who was jailed for 14 years, were found guilty of manslaughter.\n\nThey lost their tempers and there was a \"severe beating\", the judge said.\n\nNicola Priest and Callum Redfern pointed the finger of blame at each other during their trial\n\nMr Justice Foxton QC said Kaylee-Jayde had been put to bed at about 19:00 BST while the couple then went to have sex in Priest's bedroom.\n\n\"But like many children her age, Kaylee did not want to go to bed, but to stay up and play,\" he said.\n\nHe said there was no direct evidence as to what happened next, but that Kaylee-Jayde subsequently vomited repeatedly, later dying of her injuries overnight.\n\n\"The vomiting was the result of the severe beating you were both responsible for inflicting on her.\n\n\"No doubt irritated by Kaylee crying, asking to be let out, it interrupted the two of you when you wanted to have sex.\n\n\"You lost your tempers and were parties to the assault which cost Kaylee her life.\n\n\"A prompt call for medical assistance by one or the other of you would have saved Kaylee's life.\"\n\nThe youngster, whose body was discovered on 9 August, died from serious chest and abdominal injuries.\n\nExperts likened her wounds to those of a child hit by a car at 40mph, or from falling three floors on to a concrete floor.\n\nThe child's mother phoned 999 but a jury convicted Priest after hearing the youngster had been dead before the call was made.\n\nMedical examinations showed Kaylee-Jayde had also suffered historical injuries including broken ribs, lower leg fractures and a broken sternum.\n\nPriest, of Poplar Avenue, Edgbaston, Birmingham, and Redfern, of Temple Street, Dudley, West Midlands, were cleared of murder.\n\nIn a text message exchange on 24 July last year, days before the youngster's death, Priest told Redfern: \"I'm gonna kill her... because she keeps leaving the living room or going in the kitchen, so I've paled [hit] her one and smacked her for [dirtying] her nappy.\"\n\nOn one occasion, neighbours in a flat below at Kingshurst House recalled hearing a bang above and then Kaylee-Jayde crying, before allegedly hearing Priest say: \"I'll just say she fell off the bed.\"\n\nThe youngster was described in court as a \"lively and happy child\"\n\nIn his police interview, asked how the girl's death had affected him, Redfern replied: \"It's not my child... it's not really affected me.\"\n\nAt their trial, Priest and Redfern, who the judge said was the \"dominant\" partner in the relationship, each blamed the other.\n\nWest Midlands Police said it was unclear who delivered the fatal blows or whether they both played a part.\n\nSenior investigating officer Det Insp Adam Jobson, from the force's homicide unit, said police believed \"the level of discipline she was subjected to became increasingly forceful and violent during Priest and Redfern's relationship\".\n\nThe mother was also found guilty of cruelty to a child, relating to the youngster's previous injuries, though Redfern was cleared of that charge.\n\nPriest, who was also jailed for three years to be served concurrently for the child cruelty offence, and Redfern must both serve two-thirds of their jail terms before they can be considered for release.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Ed Sheeran has been named in the squad list for Ipswich Town for their upcoming season.\n\nThe singer, who lives in Suffolk and is a Tractor Boys fan, is already sponsoring the shirts of the men's and women's first-teams this campaign.\n\nThe chart-topping artist has now been given the number 17 shirt for the official squad list for 2021-2022.\n\n\"When Ipswich told me I thought they were joking but I love the idea,\" Sheeran said.\n\n\"I think this is going be a great season and I'm honoured to be a part of it. I just hope this squad number is only ceremonial because I want to see us promoted and that's not going to happen if I'm playing.\"\n\nIpswich Town start their third successive season in the third tier of English football on Saturday, against Morecambe.\n\nEd Sheeran, pictured with his wife Cherry, has been a regular visitor to Portman Road\n\nSheeran, from Framlingham, played a live-streamed, no-audience gig at the club's Portman Road ground in June.\n\nIpswich Town chief executive Mark Ashton, said the club saw him wearing the number 17 when he performed that concert so he and manager Paul Cook \"spoke about it and we agreed to offer Ed the chance of that squad number\".\n\nHe added: \"It's our way of thanking him for his support and we look forward to welcoming him to Portman Road this season.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "The attack on the tanker as it sailed past the Omani island of Masirah killed two people\n\nThe US military's Central Command has announced the results of its forensic investigation into last week's fatal drone attack on a merchant tanker off Oman.\n\nIt says explosives experts concluded that the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was produced in Iran.\n\nThe evidence has been shared with explosives experts in Britain and Israel who concurred with the findings.\n\nThe attack on the MT Mercer Street killed two people.\n\nThe vessel is managed by the London-based Zodiac Maritime, a company owned by Israeli shipping magnate Eyal Ofer.\n\nA British security guard, Adrian Underwood, and the ship's Romanian captain lost their lives as the ship sailed past the Omani island of Masirah.\n\nBritain, the US, Israel and Romania, were quick to blame Iran which has denied any involvement. It said if there was any proof then it should be made public.\n\nNow a statement from Centcom has shed some light on what it says its investigation has revealed.\n\nThroughout the past week an explosive investigations team from the US Navy's aircraft carrier the USS Ronald Reagan has been examining the evidence left behind by the drone attack.\n\nAfter interviewing the survivors and studying the explosive residue they have concluded that the ship was targeted by three drones in all.\n\nThe first two, launched at the ship on the evening of Thursday 29 July, missed their target. But the third drone, launched early on Friday 30 July and loaded with a military grade explosive, hit the pilot house and exploded, killing the two men and leaving a 2-metre diameter hole.\n\nInvestigators say explosive chemical tests had identified the residue as RDX, a nitrate-based explosive, indicating that the UAV was rigged to cause injury and destruction.\n\nThe investigators also recovered part of the drone's wing and after further testing they concluded that the drone was produced in Iran. A joint statement issued by all the G7 nations on Friday condemned Iran's actions and said its actions threatened peace and stability.\n\nAn explosive investigations team from the US Navy's aircraft carrier the USS Ronald Reagan has examined evidence left behind\n\nIran and Israel have been engaged in an undeclared and so-called \"shadow war\" for some time now.\n\nIsrael is widely assumed to be behind a series of sabotage acts on Iran's nuclear programme, including the assassination of key scientists. It has also attacked Iranian ships suspected of carrying oil to Syria that is destined for Iran's militia ally in Lebanon, Hezbullah.\n\nIran has been targeting Israeli-linked shipping with limpet mines, something which the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps train intensively for. But last week's deadly drone attack marked a major escalation, killing some of those onboard and dragging in a major western power.\n\nDays later there was a second attack on shipping with armed men briefly seizing control of another merchant tanker, the MV Asphalt Princess, before leaving it to go on its way.\n\nThe incidents come at a time of heightened tension in the region as the new, hardline President Ebrahim Raisi takes power in Iran and talks aimed at reviving the moribund deal to curb Iran's suspect nuclear programme falter in Vienna.", "How are GB doing?\n\nGreat Britain have ended the penultimate day of Tokyo 2020 with 63 medals, one more than at this stage at London 2012 and three fewer than Rio 2016 after 15 days. The 20 gold medals are seven behind Rio and eight behind London. The final day in Rio delivered Joseph Joyce's boxing silver medal. In London, Anthony Joshua won boxing gold on the last day amongst three medals.\n\nThis year though, there are track cycling events on the last day with Jack Carlin and Laura Kenny as strongest potential medallists. In addition, Team GB have a guaranteed 64th medal from Lauren Price and Callum Hawkins amongst the best marathon runners.\n\nAs expected, ROC won three gold medals to overtake Great Britain on the medal table on day 15. Both have 20 gold medals but ROC have won five more silvers. On Sunday, ROC have two opportunities to win golds - in rhythmic gymnastics and handball. Russia won both of these events at the last Olympic Games and are favourites to win both again. To finish fourth on the medal table, Great Britain probably need to win two gold medals on Sunday and hope that ROC do not win both of these events.\n• None Britwatch: A daily guide on how Team GB are doing in Tokyo\n• None Find out these athletes' favourite One Hit Wonders\n• None How it all started for Blossoms and why they are still true to Stockport", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nTeam GB moved past 50 medals at the Tokyo Olympics as cyclist Matt Walls secured gold in the omnium, while Holly Bradshaw and Liam Heath secured bronze in the pole vault and kayak events respectively.\n\nThe trio served up eye-catching moments as Team GB reached 51 medals on day 13 of the Games, equalling the number won at Beijing 2008 with three days of competition to go.\n\nBoxer Galal Yafai, who like team-mate Lauren Price had already guaranteed himself a medal, won a thrilling semi-final to reach the gold-medal match in the 52kg flyweight division.\n\nDina Asher-Smith made a return to the track as Britain's 4x100m relay team secured a place in the final, but the relay story was not so positive for the US men's 4x100m team, who were deemed an \"embarrassment\" by American sprint legends Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson after being eliminated in their heat.\n\nElsewhere, 18-year-old Keegan Palmer put on a gripping display to win park skateboarding gold for Australia, who now sit fourth in the medal table, with Great Britain sixth.\n• None Relive all the action from day 13\n\nTokyo 2020 is now Great Britain's fourth best Olympics and second best outside the UK, after Rio 2016. The 51 medals are seven ahead of the number our pre-Olympic forecast had at this stage. Galal Yafai is also guaranteed gold or silver so we have adjusted our projected British medal total upwards to 60, including 18 gold medals as the number of golds is now four ahead of schedule.\n\nOnly London 1908 (146 medals), London 2012 (65) and Rio 2016 (67) have produced more medals for Great Britain than Tokyo 2020.\n\nCompared to London and Rio at this stage, Tokyo has not produced as many medals with 52 in London and 55 in Rio by this point.\n\nThe 16 golds won so far fall well short of London's 25 and Rio's 22 at this stage.\n• None How did GB athletes do on day 13?\n\nWalls, 23, improved on the omnium results of Ed Clancy, who won bronze in 2012, and Mark Cavendish, who took silver in 2016, to win Great Britain's first track cycling gold of the Games.\n\nHe ended the event on 153 points, 24 more than silver medallist Campbell Stewart of New Zealand, while Italy's defending champion Elia Viviani took bronze.\n\nBBC Sport's 1992 Olympic gold medallist Chris Boardman said: \"It was a dominant performance from start to finish. He didn't put a foot wrong anywhere. Tactically and physically he was class.\"\n\nWalls, who tested positive for Covid-19 in March, sealed Team GB's 50th medal in Tokyo and the 16th gold.\n\n\"It's been a hard day but I came into that points race with a bit of a lead and breathing room,\" said Walls.\n\n\"Thank you to all my family and friends, I wouldn't be here without them, especially my parents.\"\n\nTwo-time defending champion Jason Kenny's nine-year reign as men's sprint champion ended when he was beaten in the quarter-finals by Dutch world champion Harrie Lavreysen, while Katy Marchant saw her keirin campaign cut short in the quarter-finals after she was caught up in a crash.\n\nBradshaw sought to gain about 5kg in muscle during the Covid-19 lockdowns, and the performance benefits were on show in the lead-up to the Games.\n\nIn claiming bronze she secured Britain's first medal in pole vault at an Olympic Games, and the first global outdoor medal of her career.\n\nThe 29-year-old, who came sixth at London 2012 and fifth at Rio 2016, cleared 4.85m to finish behind Russian athlete Anzhelika Sidorova and American Katie Nageotte in what BBC Radio 5 Live's Allison Curbishley said was \"a phenomenal final\".\n\n\"This is what I have wanted my whole career,\" said Bradshaw. \"I am almost emotionless as I don't know what emotion it is I'm feeling.\n\n\"I knew I could get it one day and I can't express how grateful I am to be involved in this sport and to get an Olympic medal.\"\n\nHeath - the Olympic champion in 2016 - initially looked like he may come up short after a poor start to his men's kayak single 200m, only to find a surge that earned him a nail-biting photo finish for the bronze medal.\n\n\"I was maybe a bit hesitant off the start and didn't reach my potential in terms of peak speed,\" said Heath, who clocked 35.20 seconds behind Hungarian winner Sandor Totka on 35.03.\n\n\"I am still happy with the performance.\"\n\nOn winning another medal, he said: \"It is hard to put into words. It is what you work towards to be at your best for these events.\"\n\nHeath, who has previously said retirement after the Games was likely, added: \"It has been a roller coaster, over such a long period of time in the extended Olympic cycle. So many highs and lows, so many tests and lessons. I am feeling really good, to be honest.\"\n\nFrom factory to fighting for gold\n\nYafai also found himself lost for words after progressing to the Olympic final, where he will walk away with at least a silver medal.\n\nThe Birmingham fighter started at pace against Kazakhstan's Saken Bibossinov, scoring a standing count in round one before the contest developed into a thrilling back-and-forth affair.\n\nYafai hugged a visibly distraught Bibossinov as his narrowest of victories was read. He will now face Carlo Paalam of the Philippines in Saturday's 52kg flyweight final.\n\nYafai, 28, is a former car factory worker, and said: \"I was doing the rubbish, picking up boxes, delivering parts. Just a skivvy job really. But now I'm on the verge of becoming Olympic champion.\n\n\"I can't believe it. It's ridiculous, it's a dream. It's the Olympic gold isn't it, man? Olympic gold is crazy. Just imagine being the Olympic champion.\"\n\nAnd BBC Radio 5 Live boxing analyst Steve Bunce remarked: \"He just wouldn't be denied. We'll get a gold from him on Saturday.\"\n\nElsewhere on Thursday, heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson said she would be taking time to \"heal my body and spirit\" after injury forced her out of the Games.\n\nBig-name injuries have blighted Britain's medal hunt on the track, including Asher-Smith, who withdrew from the 200m because of a hamstring complaint but chose to compete in the 4x100m relay on Thursday.\n\nAsher-Smith ran leg three and along with Asha Philip, Imani Lansiquot and Daryll Neita set a new British record of 41.55 seconds.\n\n\"There was never any doubt in my mind that I'd be lining up here today because the relay's really important, we got a bronze medal in Rio,\" Asher-Smith told BBC Sport.\n\nBut Team USA's efforts in the men's really were not enough as they finished sixth in a heat featuring some poor baton exchanges.\n\nThe US team won the event at the 2019 World Championships but have not won a 4x100m Olympic gold since 2000.\n\n\"Trying to get two people running full speed to exchange a baton within a 20m zone requires practice! Especially when you haven't won this event since Sydney 2000 due to drops and zone violations!Embarrassing and ridiculous.\"\n\nNine-time Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis added: \"The USA team did everything wrong in the men's relay. The passing system is wrong, athletes running the wrong legs, and it was clear that there was no leadership. It was a total embarrassment, and completely unacceptable.\"\n\nWhat else happened on day 13?\n• None An outside medal chance disappeared for Team GB when Andrew Pozzi placed seventh in the men's 110m hurdles final, clocking 13.3 seconds as Jamaica's Hansle Parchment took gold in 13.04.\n• None to win gold, launching 23.30m with his final effort of the day.\n• None The US basketball team were buoyed by Kevin Durant and Devin Booker as they came from behind to beat Australia and set up a final against France or Slovenia.\n• None American Nelly Korda shot a superb nine-under 62 to take a four-stroke lead at the halfway mark in the\n• None for the 1500m final as Jake Wightman, Josh Kerr and Jake Heyward all got through their semi-finals.\n• None Steven Gardiner of the Bahamas won gold over , beating Colombia's Anthony Zambrano into silver and London 2012 champion Kirani James into bronze.\n• None In the absence of Britain's injured world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Belgium's Nafi Thiam retained her heptathlon crown, while Canadian Damian Warner triumphed in the decathlon.\n• None A teenage battle played out in the women's 10m platform diving as China's 14-year-old Quan Hongchan Chen Yuxi, 15, to take gold. Great Britain's Andrea Spendolini-Siriex and Lois Toulson placed seventh and ninth respectively.\n• None Callum Wilkinson finished 10th for Great Britain in the men's 20km walk, while Tom Bosworth was 25th.\n• None Great Britain's Hector Pardoe said he thought he had after being elbowed in the men's marathon swim and consequently pulled out of the race.\n• None The music that makes The Hundred: Check out the best new music from your teams region\n• None Could a DNA test find you the perfect diet? How people are using the findings for nutrition advice", "Early signs suggest a year of high A-level grades, says a university's head of admissions\n\nA-level results next week in England, Wales and Northern Ireland could see high levels of top grades, according to an annual analysis of exam trends.\n\nProf Alan Smithers, at the University of Buckingham, is predicting a \"bumper crop\" of A* and A grades, in results for exams cancelled by the pandemic.\n\nBut he warns against allowing \"grade inflation\" to become the norm.\n\nThe University of East Anglia (UEA) is also reporting early signs that it could be a \"record year for grades\".\n\nThere have been suggestions that if more pupils receive high grades - which are being submitted by teachers for a second year in a row - there will be a crush for places at the most sought-after universities and courses.\n\nThere is also pressure from record numbers applying, with more than 680,000 seeking university places.\n\nProf Smithers said some universities could consider introducing their own exams to help them choose between students.\n\nThere have already been reports of oversubscribed medicine courses trying to get applicants to defer for a year - such as at the University of Exeter, where students were offered £10,000 to delay.\n\nBut Richard Harvey, director of admissions at UEA, reassured students that even if grades are higher than last year's record high levels, there is capacity in the university system.\n\n\"Of course that will cause pressure in certain subjects, mostly medical ones, and in certain universities. At UEA, medicine and related subjects look a bit pressured, but in other subjects I do hope we can continue to welcome people, so I'd encourage people to get in touch,\" he said.\n\nUniversities get an advance sight of whether applicants have achieved their required grades, and will be going through their admission decisions ahead of the official release of results next week.\n\nThere is expected to be particular pressure on places for medical and dentistry courses - with a 20% increase in applications and more students expected to get the required grades this year.\n\nThe Department for Education says it will create more places and flexibility - allowing \"over 9,000 places\" - but with no fixed numbers for an increase. Last year, there was an intake of almost 9,300 for these medicine and dentistry courses.\n\nNick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it was much harder to create more places for medicine because of the high cost of training doctors, the length of the course and the need for hospital placements.\n\nMr Hillman said he was \"a little bit uncomfortable\" with the suggestion that students could be asked if they wanted to shift to other medical schools with more capacity.\n\n\"If you've had your sights set on one particular medical school from the moment you applied or even the moment you started your A-levels, it's quite a big mental jump to decide you're going to go somewhere else,\" he said.\n\nThis will be the second year in which results will be decided without pupils taking the usual set of exam papers.\n\nSchools submitted grades for pupils, based on a range of evidence, including mini-exams, mock exams and coursework, and next week will see the final results issued by exam boards.\n\nLast year saw huge controversy after an initial downgrading of many pupils' grades - which was then reversed in a U-turn which saw the highest-ever proportion of A* and A grades.\n\nAlmost two in five A-levels, 38.5%, were awarded an A* or A last year after the U-turn, up from 25.5% for pupils in 2019.\n\nProf Smithers, in his annual pre-results report, suggests results are once again going to be very high, or even higher, to compensate for the disruption facing pupils.\n\n\"While logically there is no reason why A-level standards should not be restored to what they were in 2019, my fear is that the various pressures will cause the government to allow what they became in 2020 to stand,\" he said.\n\nHe warned that issuing so many top grades makes it hard for universities to distinguish between students.\n\n\"Leading universities could be forced to set their own tests to help them distinguish between the many prospective students awarded straight As,\" said Prof Smithers.\n\nBut Prof Graham Galbraith, vice chancellor of the University of Portsmouth, rejected the focus on grade inflation.\n\n\"These young people have had a very difficult time since March 2020. How their grades compare with other years is of secondary importance. We should prioritise this year's students and treat this year as the extreme exception it obviously is,\" he said.\n\nTom Middlehurst, of the ASCL head teachers' union, said speculation about grades was \"unhelpful\" and said that if grades were higher this year \"it would be a reflection of the system devised by the government and [regulator] Ofqual\" rather than a decision by teachers.\n\nEducation Secretary Gavin Williamson, promising extra places for medical courses, said: \"Students have worked incredibly hard over the past 18 months and we have continued to put their best interests first to ensure they can progress on to the next stage of their education training or career.\"\n\nAre you waiting for your A-level results and hoping to get into medical school? Share your stories. Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "Last updated on .From the section Tottenham\n\nTottenham striker Harry Kane says he has \"never refused to train\" and will return to the club on Saturday as planned.\n\nKane, who has been on an extended holiday after Euro 2020, did not turn up as scheduled on Monday for his coronavirus tests.\n\nManchester City are keen to sign the England captain.\n\nThe 28-year-old believes he has a gentleman's agreement with chairman Daniel Levy to leave Spurs this summer.\n\nHe says that he has been \"hurt\" by comments this week that questioned his professionalism.\n\n\"While I won't go into the specifics of the situation, I want to clarify that I would never, and have never, refused to train. I will be returning to the club tomorrow as planned,\" he wrote on Twitter.\n\n\"I wouldn't do anything to jeopardise the relationship I have with the fans who have given me such unwavering support during my time with the club. This has always been the case as it is today.\"\n\nManchester City boss Pep Guardiola has confirmed the club's interest in Kane, but they are not thought to be willing to meet Spurs' £160m valuation.\n\nNew Tottenham manager Nuno Espirito Santo says he has yet to speak to the striker since his arrival at the club last month.\n\nKane, who joined Tottenham at the age of 11, has three years remaining on the six-year deal he signed in 2018.\n\nHe scored 23 top-flight goals last season to claim the Premier League Golden Boot for a third time, having previously won the award in 2015-16 and 2016-17.\n\nHe also has 221 Tottenham goals to his name, which puts him second on their all-time goalscorers' list behind Jimmy Greaves, who scored 266 times for the club between 1961 and 1970.\n\nTottenham open their Premier League campaign with a home game against Manchester City on Sunday, 15 August.\n• None Get news and features about your favourite team direct to your phone with the BBC Sport App's Premier League club news notifications, along with line-ups, latest scores and results. Download the App here:\n• None Notifications, Live Guide, social media and more with BBC Sport", "Boris Johnson has been urged to apologise for \"offensive\" comments about Margaret Thatcher helping the environment by closing coal mines.\n\nThe PM said the closures gave the UK \"a big early start\" in the fight against climate change.\n\nHe was speaking on a visit to an offshore wind farm in the Moray Firth.\n\nScotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the remarks were \"crass and deeply insensitive\" to mining communities.\n\nShe tweeted: \"Lives and communities in Scotland were utterly devastated by Thatcher's destruction of the coal industry (which had zero to do with any concern she had for the planet).\"\n\nLabour said he should apologise for the \"shameful\" comments.\n\nThe party's Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"The damage done to Welsh coal mining areas 30 years ago was incalculable and here we are 30 years later the Tories are still celebrating what they did.\"\n\nOn Thursday, during a two-day visit to Scotland, Mr Johnson was quizzed about preparations for the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November.\n\nPushed on whether he would set a deadline for ending the extraction of fossil fuels, he said the UK had already transitioned away from coal in his lifetime, and he suggested Mrs Thatcher had inadvertently got the ball rolling.\n\nHe said: \"Thanks to Margaret Thatcher, who closed so many coal mines across the country, we had a big early start and we're now moving rapidly away from coal altogether.\"\n\nHe is reported to have laughed and told reporters: \"I thought that would get you going.\"\n\nBoris Johnson may be ill-advised to summon the ghost of Lady T to support his climate policies - but he has a point.\n\nIn 1989, the Iron Lady riveted the United Nations by warning that greenhouse gases were \"changing the environment of our planet in damaging and dangerous ways\".\n\nShe continued: \"The result is that change in future is likely to be more fundamental and more widespread than anything we have known hitherto.\"\n\nHer pit closures were not part of a green policy, but they did fortuitously show the UK could prosper without coal.\n\nThis made Britain a global leader on climate change. But it crushed communities.\n\nPoliticians don't want to repeat the mistake, so they aim to create jobs in the environment sector.\n\nBut so far, the PM's climate advisors say his policies on green jobs are running behind his rhetoric.\n\nMr Johnson said there was a \"massive opportunity\" to increase the use of more environmentally friendly technologies.\n\nBut he also stressed that there needed to be a \"smooth and sensible\" transition from oil and gas to greener forms of power.\n\nIn 1984, there were 170 working collieries in Britain, employing more than 190,000 people - but by 2015, they had all closed.\n\nMrs Thatcher's announcement that she planned to close 20 of them, led to the year-long miners' dispute.\n\nMillions of people protested against pit closures and throughout the summer of 1984 there were violent clashes between striking miners and police, whose numbers often ran into several hundred at each confrontation.\n\nViolence led to widespread use of the breach of the peace charge.\n\nIn October, it was announced that miners convicted during the strike would be pardoned by the Scottish government following an independent review.\n\nPolice restrain picketers outside a pit during the miners' strike in the 1980s\n\nResponding to Mr Johnson's comments, SNP Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, tweeted that Mrs Thatcher had \"devastated communities across Scotland\".\n\nHe wrote: \"Many still bear the scars of brutal Tory cuts.\"\n\nBBC Political Correspondent, Nick Eardley, tweeted on Thursday that \"a few Scottish Tories have their head in their hands tonight after what they thought had been a decent first trip to Scotland since January\".\n\nHe added they had described the comments as an \"unforced error\", \"not helpful\" and \"crass\".\n\nLabour is opposed to the opening of new coal mines, saying they are not compatible with the UK wanting to be a world leader in reducing carbon emissions.\n\nBut Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, tweeted that Mr Johnson's comments were \"shameful\".\n\nHe wrote: \"Brushing off the devastating impact on those communities with a laugh, shows just how out of touch he is with working people\".\n\nAnd in a statement, shadow foreign secretary, Lisa Nandy, said the prime minister should apologise.\n\nShe said the remarks \"reveal the Conservative party's utter disregard for the communities still scarred by Thatcher's closure of the mines and failure to deliver good jobs in their place\".\n\n\"It is vital that a green transition is a fair transition\" she added.", "The prime minister visited a police college during his two-day visit to Scotland\n\nDowning Street says Boris Johnson will not self-isolate, after a member of his staff tested positive for Covid during a trip to Scotland.\n\nNo 10 said the visit was carried out in line with Covid protocols, and the prime minister has not been in close contact with a positive case.\n\nBut one source told the BBC that Mr Johnson had been close to the person who tested positive.\n\nLabour accused the PM of \"cooking up a reason to be above the rules\".\n\nMr Johnson visited Scotland on Wednesday and Thursday, travelling to the central belt and the north east.\n\nIt's understood the member of staff accompanied him on a visit to the Police College in Fife on Wednesday.\n\nIt's also understood the person travelled with the prime minister on a plane on the same day.\n\nThe source told the BBC the prime minister and staff member were \"side-by-side\" at points during the visit to Scotland.\n\nAnyone traced as close contact of a positive case currently have to self-isolate at home for 10 days under government rules.\n\nA Number 10 spokesperson said: \"The Prime Minister regularly visits communities across the UK and all aspects of visits are carried out in line with Covid guidance.\n\n\"The Prime Minister has not come into close contact with anyone who has tested positive.\"\n\nGovernment guidance says someone \"can be\" a close contact if they have had a face-to-face conversation within one metre with someone testing positive.\n\nOr, they can have been within one metre for one minute without face-to-face contact, or within two metres of the person for longer than 15 minutes.\n\nThe 15-minute period can count as a single contact, or multiple contacts over the course of one day.\n\nThe guidance says someone \"may also\" be a close contact if they have travelled in the same vehicle or plane as the person testing positive.\n\nThe prime minister and Chancellor Rishi Sunak have both isolated recently\n\nLabour party chair Anneliese Dodds said: \"It's clear the prime minister hasn't learned anything from what happened last time he tried to cook up a reason to be above the rules everyone else has to follow.\"\n\n\"Senior Conservatives are really taking the public for fools. This is yet another example of one rule for them and another for everyone else.\"\n\nMr Johnson recently left a period of self-isolation, when he was identified as a contact of Health Secretary Sajid Javid, after he tested positive last month.\n\nAlong with Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who was also identified as a contact, the PM initially tried to avoid quarantine through a workplace daily testing pilot Downing Street is taking part in.\n\nHowever, in a rapid U-turn, both Mr Johnson and his chancellor decided to enter isolation after their plans to take part in the scheme prompted a furious political backlash.\n• None What to do if you have Covid", "Supermarket chain Morrisons says it has agreed to a revised takeover offer worth £6.7bn, up from £6.3bn, from a private equity consortium led by Fortress Investment Group.\n\nThe increased offer, worth 272p a share, comes after some key investors rejected a previous 254p a share offer.\n\nTheir approval is also needed for this fresh offer.\n\nMorrisons, the UK's fourth-largest grocer, has almost 500 shops and more than 110,000 staff.\n\nIt said in a statement: \"Morrisons directors believe that the increased Fortress offer is in the best interests of Morrisons shareholders as a whole, and accordingly unanimously recommend that Morrisons shareholders vote in favour of the resolutions required to implement the increased Fortress offer.\"\n\nThe retailer agreed to the takeover early in July after it turned down an offer worth £5.5bn from another firm, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CDR), saying it significantly undervalued the business.\n\nHowever, there have been reports CDR was planning its own new higher offer.\n\nMorrisons' shares were at 269p before news of the offer began circulating. They then rose more than 2% to 278p in lunchtime trading, higher than the new Fortress offer and a sign that some investors think the bidding war might not be over.\n\nUnder the UK's takeover rules, CDR has until 9 August to table any new offer.\n\nMajor Morrisons shareholders include Silchester, which has more than 15%, as well as money managers M&G and JO Hambro.\n\nAll shareholders in Morrisons are due to vote on the Fortress bid on 16 August. It needs at least 75% approval to pass.\n\nIf shareholders agree, it will be the second major UK supermarket to change ownership this year.\n\nIn June, regulators approved the takeover of Leeds-based Asda from US retail giant Walmart for £6.8bn by the billionaire Issa Brothers, who were backed by private equity firm TDR Capital.\n\nMorrisons started life as a market stall in Bradford in 1899, but it was not until 1961 that the first supermarket store opened under the name.\n\nIn 2004, the group bought rival grocer Safeway for £3bn, giving it a bigger slice of the market in southern England.", "Energy prices will rise for millions of people across the UK in April, at a time when finances are squeezed.\n\nRegulator Ofgem said the price cap for default domestic energy deals would be raised to cover suppliers' extra costs.\n\nThe typical gas and electricity customer is likely to see their bill go up by £96 to £1,138 a year.\n\nCharities say the timing is a \"double whammy\", coming at a time when the government's Covid-related support schemes are due to be wound down.\n\nOfgem said rising wholesale costs were behind the increase, adding that the existence of the price cap meant households saved £100 a year, and they could also switch to a better deal.\n\nJonathan Brearley, chief executive of the regulator, said: \"Energy bill increases are never welcome, especially as many households are struggling with the impact of the pandemic. We have carefully scrutinised these changes to ensure that customers only pay a fair price for their energy.\n\n\"As the UK still faces challenges around Covid-19, during this exceptional time I expect suppliers to set their prices competitively, treat all customers fairly and ensure that any household in financial distress is given access to the support they need.\"\n\nHe said a rise in spring, when less energy was used, was better than waiting until the autumn.\n\nPeter Earl, head of energy at price comparison website Comparethemarket.com, said: \"Raising energy costs for millions of households by an average of £96 is an extraordinary move in the current environment.\n\n\"It calls into question the whole point of a price cap which was designed to protect the most vulnerable households.\"\n\nThe price cap, set twice a year by the regulator, affects 11 million households in England, Wales and Scotland who have never switched suppliers or whose discounted deals have expired. Northern Ireland sets its own cap.\n\nThat accounts for about half of all UK households. The remainder are on so-called fixed deals, which will not be affected.\n\nThe cap for prepayment meter customers will go up by £87 to £1,156, affecting another four million customers.\n\nThe caps set the prices that suppliers can charge for each unit of energy, but that does not mean there is a limit to how much people can pay. The more gas and electricity you use, the higher the bill.\n\nLyn Clark says she has put on extra layers\n\nLockdown life means Lyn Clark, like so many others, has been spending a lot more time at home. Her energy bills have been rising as a result.\n\n\"I'm trying not to switch on heaters in the rooms that are not being used,\" she said.\n\nWhile prices are capped on default tariffs, the amount people pay in total is likely to have risen during more time at home.\n\nMrs Clark said she had been doing her best to keep the costs down.\n\n\"I find myself putting on extra layers,\" she said. \"I also go for a walk each lunchtime to make sure I'm warmer.\"\n\nIn October, Ofgem lowered the price cap by £84, but it has now more than reversed that with the rise scheduled for April.\n\nThe extra allowance for suppliers to raise prices is the result of greater costs on the wholesale markets.\n\nIt also includes an allowance to charge an extra £23 a year to cover bills that have not been paid. Ofgem said a further delay in recouping these costs would only create greater costs next winter.\n\nCharities point out that raising prices for everyone on these tariffs is likely to increase the number of people unable to pay.\n\nCitizens Advice said its research in December indicated that 2.1 million households were behind on their energy bills, a rise of 600,000 compared with before the pandemic.\n\nIt was concerned that the planned removing of assistance for recipients of universal credit, as well as other government financial support schemes being wound down, meant there were serious worries over debt.\n\nAlistair Cromwell, acting chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: \"This increase will be a heavy blow to a lot of households. For many people on universal credit it will come at the same time as the £20 a week increase to the benefit is set to end.\n\n\"With a tough jobs market and essential bills rising, now is not the time for the government to cut this vital lifeline\".\n\nAdam Scorer, of National Energy Action, which has also warned of financial pressures on households, said: \"People on the lowest incomes and in the worst housing are always hit hardest.\n\n\"Heating a poorly insulated home costs around £50 a month more than a decent home. If bills rise by £96, millions of households have two stark choices; stay cold or fall further into debt.\"\n\nHe argued that prepayment meter customers should not have been included in the cap as they found it difficult to switch.\n\nEven if households do switch, the cost of so-called fixed-rate deals has also been rising. The cheapest on the market rose by more than £50 in the last three months of the year to £851.\n\nEmma Pinchbeck, the chief executive of Energy UK, a trade body for energy suppliers, said the price cap was set to be fair to customers and suppliers.\n\n\"Today's rise reflects that the cost of buying energy - by far the biggest part of the bill - has risen significantly over the last few months,\" she said.\n\n\"It also includes a greater allowance for debt given the difficulties many customers are facing in paying bills at present.\"", "The fall of Zaranj will be seen as a heavy blow to Afghan government forces (pictured)\n\nA city in southwestern Afghanistan has become the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban since the militants launched a sweeping offensive earlier this year.\n\nLocal officials said the Taliban had captured Zaranj, in Nimroz province, in a major blow to government forces.\n\nThe insurgents continue to make rapid advances across the country as foreign troops withdraw.\n\nThey have taken swathes of countryside and are now targeting key cities.\n\nOther provincial capitals under pressure include Herat in the west, and the southern cities of Kandahar and Lashkar Gah.\n\nThe UN's special envoy for Afghanistan, Deborah Lyons, on Friday said the war there had entered a \"new, deadlier, and more destructive phase\", with more than 1,000 civilians killed in the past month.\n\nShe warned that the country was heading for \"catastrophe\", and called on the UN Security Council to issue an \"unambiguous statement that attacks against cities must stop now\".\n\nLater on Friday, the UK government advised all its citizens in Afghanistan to leave because of the worsening security situation.\n\nTaliban insurgents claimed victory in Zaranj - a major trading hub near the Iranian border - in a post shared on Twitter.\n\n\"This is the beginning, and see how other provinces fall in our hands very soon,\" a Taliban commander told Reuters news agency.\n\nPictures posted on social media showed civilians looting items from government buildings. Taliban insurgents were photographed inside the local airport and posing at the entrance to the city.\n\nThe militants made a sustained bid to seize the city after capturing surrounding districts.\n\nBut Nimroz's Deputy Governor Roh Gul Khairzad told reporters that Zaranj had fallen \"without a fight\".\n\nShe and other local officials complained of a lack of reinforcements from the Afghan government.\n\n\"The city was under threat for a while, but no one from the central government listened to us,\" Ms Khairzad said.\n\nThe last time the Taliban captured a provincial capital was in 2016, when they briefly held the northern city of Kunduz.\n\nThe militants launched a major military campaign in May, to coincide with the phased withdrawal of US and Nato forces after 20 years of military operations. The capture of Zaranj will add to their momentum, analysts say.\n\nOvernight, US and Afghan forces launched air strikes on the group's positions in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province.\n\nGovernment troops have vowed not to lose the strategically significant city, and fighting there has been fierce. Officials have urged civilians to evacuate, with thousands trapped or fleeing for their lives.\n\nIn Herat, people have also been fleeing their homes in anticipation of a government offensive against Taliban positions.\n\n\"We have nothing left and we do not know where to go,\" one resident told AFP news agency.\n\nEarlier on Friday, the director of Afghanistan's government media centre was assassinated by Taliban militants in the capital, Kabul. Dawa Khan Menapal was shot dead as he left a mosque in his car.\n\nThe Taliban said he had been \"punished for his deeds\".\n\nAfghan government colleagues condemned the killing as shocking and cowardly.\n\nUS Chargé d'Affaires to Afghanistan Ross Wilson tweeted that he was \"saddened and disgusted\" by the killing, adding: \"These murders are an affront to Afghans' human rights and freedom of speech.\"\n\nDays earlier, an attack on the Afghan defence minister's house in Kabul left at least eight people dead. The minister, Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, was not at home at the time.\n\nAt a UN Security Council meeting on Friday, representatives voiced concerns over the growing bloodshed.\n\nAfghanistan's envoy Ghulam Isaczai called on the Security Council to take action to pressure the militants to halt their attacks and take part in meaningful peace talks.\n\n\"It is our collective responsibility to stop them from destroying Afghanistan and threatening the world community,\" he said.\n\nMeanwhile, the chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission told the BBC that countries within the region in particular needed to tell the Taliban that coming to power through violence would mean that their government would not be recognised.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Shaharzad Akbar: The immediate future seems really bleak", "Covid conspiracy theories are worrying medics trying to vaccinate the population\n\nFake news websites about the pandemic need to be shut down, according to a woman who says her parents have been sucked into conspiracy theories.\n\nShe said her parents initially thought Covid-19 was no worse than the flu, but they soon moved on to more extreme theories.\n\nThe woman from Cardiff, who is worried about her parents' mental health, has spoken to Newyddion S4C anonymously.\n\nOne Welsh GP said the anti-vaccination movement was a \"big problem\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'We need to talk about misleading anti-vax claims'\n\nThe woman said her parents had found a \"huge community on Twitter and all sorts of other different websites\" to feed their belief in conspiracy theories.\n\nThe theories include those \"about why Covid exists... that it's either here to control the population or that it's completely fake,\" she said.\n\n\"One of the conspiracy theories is that the blue disposable masks that people wear has asbestos in them.\n\n\"They have theories on every aspect of what's been going on over the past year... and that wasn't part of their life before.\"\n\nAnd while the woman has tried to do everything to persuade her parents, she says they still believe false theories about the vaccine.\n\n\"It was a shock because it was so unexpected,\" she added.\n\n\"They were aware that we didn't share the same attitude so they tried to hide it from us until it went too far. They had convinced themselves that they knew the truth and that we had been brainwashed.\n\n\"Their version of reality now is that everyone who gets the vaccine will die in the autumn or if we don't die... at best, we will all have auto-immune diseases.\n\n\"Obviously as parents they don't want that to be true but that's what they believe.\"\n\nThe woman said her parents have not understood how \"cunning\" some people on the internet can be when sharing these lies.\n\nShe has called for more to be done to close the fake news websites and emphasise the facts in such uncertain times.\n\nGP Eilir Hughes says anti-vaxxers are very dismissive when he tries to tell them the facts\n\nGP Eilir Hughes, from Nefyn, Gwynedd, who has treated Covid patients throughout the pandemic, is becoming more concerned about the anti-vaccination movement.\n\n\"It is a big problem because when we come across these people to try and offer the vaccine to them… and try and give them the other side - that it's the truth that the vaccine is very useful in preventing serious illness, death and hospital care, they don't want to know,\" he said.\n\n\"And very often they can get quite unreasonable in their response. Misinformation is going viral. The information gets to them very often, from other countries, from professional platforms.\"", "Logan was found dead in the River Ogmore on Saturday\n\nThe mother and step-father of a five-year-old boy who was found dead in a river have appeared in court.\n\nLogan Mwangi, also known as Logan Williamson, was discovered in the River Ogmore, Bridgend county, on Saturday.\n\nLogan's step-father John Cole, 39, has been charged with murder and appeared at Newport Crown Court.\n\nHe and Logan's mother, Angharad Williamson, 30, both from Sarn, have been charged with perverting the course of justice. She appeared by video link.\n\nA 13-year-old boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, also appeared in court charged with perverting the course of justice.\n\nCharges allege that Mr Cole murdered Logan between 28 July and 1 August.\n\nAngharad Williamson and John Cole have both been charged over the death of Logan\n\nMr Cole, Ms Williamson and the boy are alleged to have perverted the course of justice between the same dates.\n\nAll three defendants are expected to enter pleas on 12 November and a provisional trial date of 31 January 2022 was set.\n\nThe 13-year-old was remanded into local authority care.\n\nLogan's body was found at about 05:45 BST on Saturday after reports of concerns for a missing five-year-old.\n\nHe was taken to Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend, where it was confirmed he had died.\n• None Mum and step-dad in court over death of boy, five", "Sarah says government pressure to get vaccinated 'tends to put me off more' Image caption: Sarah says government pressure to get vaccinated 'tends to put me off more'\n\nSarah Cooper, 27, has not taken up her offer of the Covid vaccine. She says she is not against the vaccine - it's just \"not for me\".\n\nShe tells BBC Scotland News her grandmother - who has the respiratory disease COPD - was gravely ill with Covid, and she understands how severe it can be, but says nothing could persuade her to get the jab.\n\nThe mother-of-one, from Paisley, says: \"If I was older I might have had a different view: I don't get the flu jab every year. I have been lucky enough not to have Covid but other family members have.\n\n\"My partner and all my family have had the vaccine. But I have given it a lot of thought and feel the government is putting a lot of pressure on getting it - and that tends to put me off more.\"\n\nShe adds: \"I don't think there is any amount of evidence or trials that could persuade me. Everybody's body reacts differently. It's more my fears of something I could get. And they might never reverse any damage it does to my body.\n\n\"It's my body and my choice. I just want people to know I have experienced coronavirus,\n\n\"I don't believe I am being selfish. I do believe the vaccination will help people, but I just believe it is not right for me.\"\n\nYesterday, the new chief executive of NHS England urged young people to get vaccinated, warning those who have not been jabbed could become seriously ill.\n\nAmanda Pritchard said the level of young adults being admitted to hospital in England was four times higher than the peak last winter.", "UK music festivals and other live events are to be protected by a government-backed insurance scheme if they have to cancel because of Covid.\n\nIt will begin next month with a £750m budget to cover cancellation costs if events are legally unable to happen due to government Covid restrictions.\n\nThe live events industry, which has repeatedly called for such a plan, broadly welcomed the announcement.\n\nMore than half of all music festivals have been cancelled this summer.\n\nAnd several events, including the Boomtown and Womad festivals, have cited an inability to obtain cancellation insurance as a factor in their decision.\n\nThe new scheme will see insurance companies provide cover for live events, with the government agreeing to act as a reinsurer - guaranteeing that any pay-outs will be funded.\n\nJulian Knight MP, who chairs the House of Commons culture select committee, said: \"Though it is a shame that it has come too late for some this summer, this scheme will provide the confidence the sector needs to plan and invest in future events.\"\n\nPromoter Live Nation UK called it a \"vital intervention\" that would give the sector \"certainty\".\n\nHowever, there are concerns that it will just pay out if events are banned by another lockdown. The Musicians' Union said \"the major problem\" with the scheme is that it does not cover events that would become uneconomical if social distancing came back into force.\n\nThe Association of Independent Festivals welcomed the scheme, but said it doesn't \"cover a festival needing to reduce capacity or cancel due to social distancing restrictions being reintroduced\".\n\nGreg Parmley, chief executive of industry association Live, said the scheme was \"good news\" but \"the devil is very much in the detail\".\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the association wanted to work with government to ensure it covered cancellations due to the reintroduction of social distancing making an event financially unviable and artists being forced to self-isolate after catching the virus.\n\nHe added that these situations were \"far more likely\" to cause events to be cancelled in the coming months than another lockdown.\n\nChancellor Rishi Sunak said the lack of \"the right kind\" of insurance had proved \"a problem\" for the UK's live events industry.\n\n\"As the economy reopens I want to do everything I can to help events providers and small businesses plan with confidence right through to next year,\" he said.\n\nRishi Sunak said \"the right kind of insurance\" was needed\n\nCulture Secretary Oliver Dowden called it \"an important next step\" for the live events sector, and said it would give organisers \"the confidence they need to plan for a brighter future\".\n\nThe development comes after the government's £1.8bn Culture Recovery Fund was set up to provide grants for arts organisations and heritage sites affected by the pandemic.\n\nJamie Njoku-Goodwin, head of trade body UK Music, said: \"We are extremely grateful to government for listening to the calls of the sector and delivering a solution to the market failure in the insurance industry.\"\n\nMichael Kill, the CEO of the Night Time Industries Association, said: \"I am extremely pleased the government has decided to introduce an insurance scheme for the events and festival sector, it stands testament to a government that is starting to acknowledge the varying issues within the sector and through engagement, take the appropriate action to protect businesses and jobs.\"\n\nBut, he added: \"It is devastating that the timings of this scheme could not have been earlier, as we have already lost many amazing festivals and events to the uncertainty that this pandemic represents.\n\nLabour said the funding was a \"bare minimum\" and promoters would still be taking risks by staging events.\n\nShadow culture secretary Jo Stevens described the scheme as \"a solution that doesn't address the problem\".\n\nThe government also published endorsements from the Events Industry Alliance, the Meetings Industry Association and the organisers of Southampton International Boat Show.\n\nEvents companies will be able to purchase the cover from next month, with the scheme set to run until September 2022.\n\nBut the events industry is not the only sector currently calling for more government support.\n\nThe travel industry has urged the Treasury to extend the furlough support scheme to protect jobs.\n\nTim Alderslade, chief executive of industry body Airlines UK, said despite the latest changes to the UK's traffic light system it was one of the \"few sectors that cannot reopen properly\".\n\n\"We've now had two summers of precious little revenue and we're at the limit of what we can borrow,\" he said. \"Tens of thousands of jobs are at stake and without furlough it will be very tough.\"\n\nThe government said it was providing an \"unprecedented package\" of support to protect jobs and businesses, and the airlines sector would have received about £7bn by the end of September.\n\nOn Thursday 30,215 new Covid cases were reported across the UK, along with a further 86 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.", "Boris Johnson has declined to apologise amid a backlash over his remarks about coal mine closures under former premier Margaret Thatcher.\n\nThe PM has faced demands to say sorry after claiming the shutdowns in the 1980s gave the UK a \"big early start\" in fighting climate change.\n\nOpposition MPs have called the comments offensive to former mining communities.\n\nThe PM's spokesman said he recognises the \"huge impact and pain\" of closures, but did not offer an apology.\n\nVisiting a Scottish wind farm on Thursday, Mr Johnson told reporters: \"Thanks to Margaret Thatcher, who closed so many coal mines across the country, we had a big early start and we're now moving rapidly away from coal altogether.\"\n\nHe is reported to have laughed and added: \"I thought that would get you going.\"\n\nScotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Mr Johnson's remarks were \"crass and deeply insensitive\" to mining communities.\n\nShe tweeted: \"Lives and communities in Scotland were utterly devastated by Thatcher's destruction of the coal industry (which had zero to do with any concern she had for the planet).\"\n\nLabour's shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy had called for an apology on Thursday, calling the PM's comments \"shameful\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAsked on Friday if the PM would be apologising, his official spokesman said: \"The prime minister recognises the huge impact and pain closing coal mines had in communities across the UK.\n\n\"This government has an ambitious plan to tackle the critical issue of climate change, which includes reducing reliance on coal and other non-renewable energy sources.\"\n\nShortly afterwards, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer issued a statement repeating the party's demands for an apology, adding the remarks had shown Mr Johnson's \"true colours\".\n\n\"For Boris Johnson to laugh when talking about the closure of the coal mines is a slap in the face for communities still suffering from the devastating effects of Margaret Thatcher's callous actions,\" he added.\n\nIn 1984, there were 170 working collieries in Britain, employing more than 190,000 people - but by 2015, they had all closed.\n\nMrs Thatcher's announcement that she planned to close 20 of them, led to the year-long miners' dispute.\n\nMillions of people protested against pit closures and throughout the summer of 1984 there were violent clashes between striking miners and police, whose numbers often ran into several hundred at each confrontation.\n\nViolence led to widespread use of the breach of the peace charge.\n\nIn October, it was announced that miners convicted during the strike would be pardoned by the Scottish government following an independent review.\n\nGrahame Morris, Labour MP for the former County Durham mining community of Easington, said: \"Pushing Thatcher as some sort of eco-warrior for closing coal mines is a rewriting of history.\"\n\n\"Closing coal mines had nothing to do with saving the environment,\" he added.\n\n\"It was an assault on a way of life, on trade unions and on communities that did not fit with Thatcher's free market brand of conservatism.\"\n\nPolice restrain picketers outside a pit during the miners' strike in the 1980s\n\nTory MP Brendan Clarke-Smith, who represents the former coal mining area of Bassetlaw, said the PM's remark had \"clearly been made in jest\" and was \"said in the context of the move away from fossil fuels\".\n\n\"That said, I wouldn't have made the joke myself, and I think we all know that when an industry closes down in a community it can have a hugely detrimental effect on the local economy,\" he said.\n\nHe added he found it \"remarkable\" that \"the same people\" criticising the PM were also \"expecting everybody to cut out fossil fuels immediately and drive electric cars\", adding: \"They can't have it both ways.\"\n\nLabour is opposed to the opening of new coal mines, saying they are not compatible with the UK wanting to be a world leader in reducing carbon emissions.\n\nBut Labour's Alex Davies-Jones, who represents a former coalmining seat in south Wales, said closures had wrought long-lasting economic damage on such areas and Mr Johnson's remarks were \"appalling\".\n\nThe MP, whose father and grandfather were miners, added: \"He's clearly forgotten the devastation that these job losses caused for communities like mine\".", "Verphy Kudi had a duty to keep Asiah safe, the CPS said, but she \"selfishly chose to put her own need to party and be with her friends above all else\"\n\nA mother who left her daughter alone to starve to death as she partied for six days has been jailed.\n\nVerphy Kudi admitted the manslaughter of 20-month-old Asiah Kudi, who was left at her Brighton flat as she celebrated her 18th birthday in December 2019.\n\nShe travelled to London and Coventry, and had acted like a \"carefree teenager\", Lewes Crown Court was told.\n\nKudi, 19, of no fixed address, has been jailed for nine years.\n\nJudge Christine Laing QC told Kudi that Asiah \"was a helpless child\" who \"relied completely on you as her mother to provide for her needs\".\n\nShe said: \"It is almost unbearable to contemplate her suffering in the final days of her life, suffering that she endured so that you could celebrate your birthday and the birthdays of your friends as a carefree teenager.\"\n\nProsecutor Sally Howes QC told the court CCTV covering Kudi's home showed she had left Asiah alone in the flat for five days, 21 hours and 58 minutes.\n\nKudi left Brighton on 5 December and went to London, where she spent her birthday with her boyfriend.\n\nTwo days later she attended a concert in Elephant and Castle, south-east London, where she had the DJ announce her birthday, the court was told.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Footage shows Verphy Kudi partying and then returning to her flat\n\nOn 9 December she moved on to a birthday party in Coventry - 150 miles from Brighton - before returning to London the next day and then home on 11 December, the court heard.\n\nWhen she returned home, Kudi called 999 and told paramedics her baby wasn't waking up.\n\nAt just after 18:20 GMT an ambulance crew found Kudi \"incoherent, distressed and distraught\", the court was told.\n\nThe paramedics discovered Asiah was not breathing, and rushed her to the Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital, where she was pronounced dead soon after arrival, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.\n\nA post-mortem examination concluded the cause of death was starvation and influenza, with reported signs of dehydration and severe nappy rash, the CPS added.\n\nLibby Clark, of CPS South East, said: \"Asiah's mother Verphy Kudi had a duty to keep her safe from harm, but instead selfishly chose to put her own need to party and be with her friends above all else.\n\n\"The consequences of her decision meant that Asiah must have suffered dreadfully during the days and nights that she was alone in the flat.\n\n\"This follows a history of multiple earlier occasions of abandonment and neglect.\"\n\nWhen Kudi was first interviewed by police she claimed she had been with her child at the flat all the time, except for one visit she made with her to London.\n\nBut officers found the CCTV footage, and also discovered phone footage taken during her time away from home.\n\nIn a statement, Asiah and Verphy's family said: \"We are saddened by the current situation and as a family we have many unanswered questions.\n\n\"Verphy has experienced so much at such a young age and we have always done what we can to support her.\"\n\nThe statement said the family was \"in the midst of an unbearable tragedy\".\n\nIt added: \"Not only are we coming to terms with what has happened today but we are also still grieving for our beloved Asiah.\"\n\nBrighton & Hove Safeguarding Children Partnership said in a statement: \"We are currently working with our partners to look into what happened and are conducting a child safeguarding practice review.\"\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Although the trees are being planted to offset carbon emissions, there are concerns the loss of farmland harms rural communities\n\nPlans to encourage more trees to be planted in Wales are under fire for \"destroying communities\" in rural areas.\n\nLarge-scale investment companies have been buying farms across the country for afforestation - planting trees to offset carbon emissions.\n\nBut there are concerns it could damage local culture, language and heritage.\n\nThe Welsh government said it would launch a consultation on its National Forest plan.\n\nAbout 12 farms have been sold recently in mid Wales by companies outside the country, according to an agricultural expert.\n\nWales has declared a climate emergency and pledged to be at least 95% carbon neutral by 2050.\n\nThe Welsh government last year launched a plan to create a National Forest for Wales, promising to increase the number of trees being planted every year to improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gases.\n\nThe policy aimed to \"create woodlands that are accessible to people and give local communities the opportunity to get involved, helping to promote Welsh language, culture and heritage\".\n\nBut there are calls to make urgent changes to the strategy, which currently allows companies outside Wales to take advantage of forestry grants.\n\nAfter living on a farm for nearly 70 years, John Thomas hoped it would be passed on to future generations of farmers - but it was resold to a company in London\n\nAfter living and working on Frongoch Farm in Carmarthenshire's Cothi Valley for nearly 70 years, it was a wrench for John Thomas to sell the farm when he retired three years ago.\n\nHe hoped the new owners would take care of his family home in Cwrt y Cadno and safeguard it for future generations of farmers.\n\nBut it was resold earlier this year to a multi-national investment company called Foresight Group, based at the Shard in London.\n\nAt auction, the guide price was exceeded and the farm, together with another local holding, sold for more than £2m.\n\nMr Thomas said it was \"breaking my heart\" to see his childhood home become one of many sold to \"huge, faceless companies in England\" for planting trees.\n\n\"I feel very sad about it - I feel quite angry actually,\" he said.\n\n\"It shouldn't be allowed to happen on such a big scale. It's shameful that they should be allowed to do this.\n\n\"They're sacrificing Welsh land for the benefit of the rich in England.\"\n\nThe Foresight Group owns four farms in Wales - Frongoch, Brynglas, Esgair Hir and Banc - and confirmed that it intended to use the land for afforestation.\n\nThe company said: \"Sustainability is central to Foresight's business and we believe it is right to invest responsibly in forestry sites around the UK.\n\n\"A key focus of our approach is to ensure that any land use change is done in as sensitive way as possible. As part of any new scheme, we always engage and consult with local communities.\"\n\nThe company added it targeted less fertile land for afforestation projects and confirmed it intended to apply for Welsh government grants.\n\nSusan Price was raised on a farm near Llanwrtyd Wells and says she feels bitter that the land has been sold to companies outside Wales\n\nSusan Price, who lives on a farm near Llanwrtyd Wells in Powys, said there were three farms in the area which had been recently sold to companies from outside Wales to plant trees.\n\nShe said taking fertile land out of food production into forestry was harmful for the local agricultural industry and damaged the local culture and language.\n\n\"I feel quite bitter because it's part of our heritage,\" added Ms Price.\n\n\"When our livelihoods are taken away from us, then our heritage and our communities and our language disappear and I think it's very sad.\n\nShe said large companies bought land as investment, \"outpricing local families\", and the Welsh government was \"making it so easy for them\" through its grant system.\n\n\"I don't suppose you can blame them - it's here for them on a plate and they're going to take it up, but unfortunately, we have to lose things because of it,\" she said.\n\nAgricultural consultant Dai Dyer has been researching the buying and selling of farms and says urgent action is needed by the Welsh government\n\nDai Dyer, an agricultural consultant in the Tywi Valley, Carmarthenshire, has researched the buying and selling of farms in mid and south-west Wales.\n\nHe warned the buying up of farms for tree planting became \"a trend that might not be able to be stopped\", turning \"fruitful, productive farms that also house families\" into \"a house surrounded by trees\".\n\nHe added the grant scheme should only be offered to those living in Wales and the amount of planting on anyone holding restricted to 10%.\n\nThe Welsh government said: \"The Woodland Investment Grant Scheme is not a land purchase scheme.\n\n\"It is unlikely investors buying land for planting trees on a large scale will apply to the scheme, unless they are aiming to create a woodland area for local communities.\"\n\nThe Welsh government added a formal consultation on the National Forest scheme would be launched shortly to engage with local communities and farmers.", "The rate at which Covid is spreading in Scotland has fallen to its lowest level since May.\n\nThe Scottish government estimates the reproduction number, a rating of the disease's ability to spread, as between 0.7 and 0.9 in the week to 2 August.\n\nIf the R value is higher than one, then the number of cases keeps increasing.\n\nBut if the R number is lower the disease will eventually stop spreading, because not enough new people are being infected to sustain the outbreak.\n\nHospital admissions have been declining slowly since mid-July and ICU numbers are also beginning to decline.\n\nThe latest Covid-19 modelling report estimates the number of new daily infections for Scotland as being between 58 and 114, per 100,000 people, based on the period up to 2 August.\n\nAmong the data the report looks at is wastewater monitoring.\n\nIt says Covid-19 RNA concentrations have fallen by about 20%, although the current levels of wastewater Covid are still in a similar range to late January/early February.\n\nThe report says wastewater Covid-19 levels continue to be higher than would be expected given the current rate of new cases.\n\nThe South Lanarkshire local authority overall wastewater Covid-19 level is significantly above the national average, in contrast to the low levels of new cases.\n\nThe latest daily Covid statistics show 1,250 cases confirmed on Friday, continuing the decline from more than 4,000 at the start of July.\n\nThere were seven new reported deaths of people who have tested positive.\n\nThe stats showed 54 people were in intensive care and 367 were in hospital.\n\nMore than four million people have received the first dose of the Covid vaccination, 89.9% of the adult population.\n\nAnd 3,286,153 have received their second dose, 74% of adults.\n\nFrom Friday, people who are 16 or 17 in mainland Scotland are being invited to register their interest through the online portal at NHS Inform, and will then be sent an appointment via SMS or email.\n\nIt is expected that everyone in this age group will have been offered a vaccination appointment by the end of September.\n\nThe latest population figures show there are an estimated 55,890 people aged 16 and 54,249 aged 17 in Scotland.", "More than 180 vaccines were given to 16 and 17-year-olds at the SSE arena on Friday morning\n\nThe first young people aged 16 and 17 in Northern Ireland have received a vaccination against Covid-19.\n\nIt is the first part of the UK to give jabs to teenagers in this age group with no underlying health conditions.\n\nThe move follows a recommendation by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).\n\nMore than 180 vaccinations were administered to 16 and 17-year-olds at the SSE arena in Belfast on Friday morning.\n\nConfirming the number, lead nurse at the regional vaccination centre Pauline Wilson said there was a sense of excitement among young people in line for their jab.\n\n\"The general feedback is that they're pleased to be here and they're looking forward to things opening up again,\" she said.\n\n\"It's their turn and they are keen to get their vaccinations.\"\n\nBethany Holden, 16, was among those to receive the vaccine at the SSE Arena in Belfast on Friday.\n\nBethany Holden said she got the vaccine to protect herself and others\n\nShe said she \"just wanted to get it done really\".\n\n\"I'm glad to get it done to get back to school, just so I'm more protected and protecting other people as well,\" she added.\n\nRegional vaccination centres in Northern Ireland are providing a walk-in service for first doses of Pfizer vaccines for those aged 16 and 17.\n\nFor those who prefer to book, an online booking platform will be available in the coming days.\n\nThe first vaccination will also be available at pop-up walk-in clinics across Northern Ireland.\n\nID and proof of date of birth are required when attending either a regional vaccination centre or walk-in vaccination clinic.\n\nSome examples of ID include exam and birth certificates, school bus passes, work ID and provisional driving licences.\n\nBBC News NI understands that staff want young people to receive their jab and will be flexible about what type of ID is brought.\n\nOne dose will provide some protection for young people as they return to school in September.\n\nHealth authorities are encouraging an early take up so that it is more effective when the new term starts.\n\nSignalling the move to extend the vaccination programme, Health Minister Robin Swann welcomed the latest advice.\n\n\"When formulating advice in relation to childhood immunisations, JCVI has consistently held that the main focus of its decision should be the benefit to children and young people themselves, weighed against any potential harms from vaccination to children and young people,\" he said.\n\nQueen's University Belfast virologist Connor Bamford said a high vaccine uptake among 16 and 17 year-olds was key to making \"the winter safer for all of us\".\n\n\"Upwards of 80% is what we would like, that is realistic,\" he told BBC Radio Foyle.\n\n\"For their own health it is very good for them to get the vaccine, it is certainly safer than getting Covid.\n\n\"And on the other hand it will help stop and slow down transmission, particularly for that older group who are socialising more. If we slow transmission down it will stop it creeping up into more vulnerable groups.\"\n\nDr Tom Black, chairman of the British Medical Association (BMA) in Northern Ireland, said young people \"take a very small risk for a huge benefit\" by getting the vaccine and will not only protect themselves but \"protect others\" too.\n\nHe said they should \"take the example\" of older generations who have experience of vaccinations helping to prevent the spread of other health concerns.\n\n\"It's just so important that we keep the pressure on here, we keep persuading and convincing people that they need to get their vaccination,\" he told BBC News NI's Good Morning Ulster.\n\nDetails of the latest walk-in clinics are listed here.", "Chris Quealy and Penny Steven met in 2015 in Spain\n\nA long-distance couple who have been separated by pandemic travel rules for 18 months have been granted an exemption to get married in England.\n\nSince March last year, Australia has banned its citizens from leaving the country as part of its Covid strategy.\n\nBut Australian Chris Quealy, 72, now has dispensation to leave the country, after he proposed to Penny Steven, 69, over Zoom this year.\n\n\"I am on cloud nine,\" says Penny, from Amersham. \"It is a dream come true.\"\n\nAustralia's tough border rules have been controversial - but the government says its measures aim to reduce the risk of Covid entering the country, as it grapples with its worst outbreaks in a year.\n\nIn May 2015 mum-of-four Penny met Chris, who is from the Gold Coast, during a solo adventure to walk the Camino de Santiago in Spain, and the pair fell in love.\n\nOver the next five years, the couple regularly travelled the 10,000 or so miles between their home countries to spend time together.\n\nPenny returned from her last visit to Australia on 3 February 2020 and Chris was supposed to follow soon after - but lockdowns came in March, separating the couple.\n\nIt's been a \"very tough\" 18 months for couple, says Penny, adding that they have twice-daily phone conversations to keep in touch. \"It has made us stronger,\" she says.\n\nTheir story captured the hearts of listeners of BBC Radio 2's Zoe Ball Breakfast Show earlier this year, when the couple explained that failed visa attempts meant there appeared to be no end of their separation in sight.\n\nStrictly Come Dancing star Anton du Beke even came on air to speak to Penny, who is a huge fan of the BBC One show.\n\n\"At some stage down the line you're going to need a first dance. I'd be honoured if I could be the choreographer of your first dance at some stage in the future.\"\n\nBut the marriage looked out of reach until Thursday, when Penny says an email from the Australian government finally confirmed that Chris could leave the country.\n\n\"I couldn't quite believe it when he let me know. I was in a daze yesterday,\" she says.\n\nNow the couple have to book a wedding and apply for a UK marriage visa before grandfather-of-two Chris can book his flight to England, but they can begin to look forward to their reunion at the airport.\n\n\"I imagine it all the time. It is going to be wonderful,\" says Penny, who is hoping for a November wedding.\n\n\"Whenever we meet up at airports I always imagine running in to each other's arms, but actually one of us is always tired, so it doesn't happen.\"\n\nIt will be a long time coming for a couple who found love on their travels - during which Penny met the \"Mr Perfect\" man she had prayed for.\n\n\"I got a message from my vicar saying we have been praying for you to meet a Bruce Willis look-a-like,\" Penny says. \"I said 'can you make it Bryan Ferry?'\n\n\"I said 'OK God can you find me somebody?' I went though this great shopping list.\n\n\"Ten minutes later I met Chris and he ticked every box.\"", "Family members of the victims of the 11 September 2001 terror attacks have called on President Joe Biden to stay away from memorial events unless he declassifies files about the attacks.\n\nNearly 1,800 people signed a letter calling on him to release documents that they believe implicate officials from Saudi Arabia in the plot.\n\nThey say that if he refuses, he should not attend ceremonies next month to commemorate the 20th anniversary.\n\nThe attacks were committed by the Al Qaeda terror group, investigators say, and triggered the US invasion of Afghanistan. Fifteen of the 19 plane hijackers were Saudi nationals.\n\n\"We cannot in good faith, and with veneration to those lost, sick, and injured, welcome the president to our hallowed grounds until he fulfils his commitment,\" says the letter from family members, first responders and survivors.\n\nThey call on President Biden to stay away from the three sites where the attacks took place - in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania.\n\nThe families have long argued that Saudi officials had advance knowledge of the attack, and did nothing to stop it. They have sued the government of Saudi Arabia, which has denied being involved.\n\nLast month, the lawsuit saw several top former Saudi officials questioned under oath. The depositions remain sealed, further upsetting families.\n\n\"Since the conclusion of the 9/11 Commission in 2004 much investigative evidence has been uncovered implicating Saudi government officials in supporting the attacks,\" the families' statement continues.\n\n\"Through multiple administrations, the Department of Justice and the FBI have actively sought to keep this information secret and prevent the American people from learning the full truth about the 9/11 attacks.\"\n\nThe administrations of George W Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump also declined to declassify the documents, citing national security concerns.\n\n\"Twenty years later, there is simply no reason - unmerited claims of 'national security' or otherwise - to keep this information secret,\" the group writes. \"But if President Biden reneges on his commitment and sides with the Saudi government, we would be compelled to publicly stand in objection to any participation by his administration in any memorial ceremony of 9/11.\"", "University clearing may be more competitive for some students this year, the boss of the admissions service Ucas has said.\n\nClare Marchant suggested it would still be a \"good year for clearing\", and predicted a record number of applicants would get places that way.\n\nBut she added: \"Are there going to be hotspots potentially where it is much more competitive? Absolutely.\"\n\nStudents will get their A-level, BTec and Scottish Higher results on Tuesday.\n\nExams were cancelled again this year because of the pandemic, and grades have been decided by teachers' estimates.\n\nClearing is how universities fill spare places, and students apply for a course through clearing after they have their results. It is often used by students who either got different grades than they expected, or if they have changed their mind about a course.\n\nMs Marchant, who is the chief executive of Ucas, urged students using clearing to make a decision about courses \"in a matter of days\" rather than waiting weeks.\n\n\"At the most selective institutions at the most selective courses it is likely to be a bit more competitive because there might be slightly reduced courses in clearing, albeit there will still be thousands,\" she said.\n\nThere have been predictions that this year could be a record year for top results like A* and A, as grades are decided not by exams but by teachers who consider students' coursework, mock exams and essays.\n\nAnd if more pupils receive high grades, some have suggested there could be a crush for places at the most sought-after universities and courses.\n\n\"I think it would be disingenuous of me not to point out that for those most selective courses at the most selective institutions it is likely to be more competitive,\" said Ms Marchant.\n\n\"There will be thousands of courses from higher tariff institutions in clearing, but they are likely to be slightly down on previous years.\"\n\nHigher tariff institutions are those considered the most selective as they traditionally require higher exam grades.\n\nMs Marchant also mentioned medicine courses, which have been so oversubscribed that the University of Exeter has encouraged students to delay by offering £10,000.\n\n\"Certainly medicine is one of those most competitive courses and it's capped as well and so at the most selective institutions I imagine that is going to be increasingly competitive,\" she said.\n\nBut she said she still believed there could be a record number of clearing places taken - 90,000 - compared to 83,000 last year.\n\nEarlier this week, Ms Marchant told the BBC that there will be a huge spike in demand for university places over the next four years.\n\nHowever a survey of current students found that only about a quarter felt they got good value for money from university over the past year. Many thought their fees and living costs were not justified by the disrupted teaching during the pandemic.\n\nWhat questions do you have about this year's results?\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf 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 send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Other countries have already been offering youngsters Covid vaccinations\n\nAll teenagers aged 16 and 17 in Wales will be offered Covid-19 vaccinations, the Welsh government has confirmed.\n\nHealth Minister Eluned Morgan said work was under way to expand the vaccination programme.\n\nIt follows new advice to offer 16 and 17-year-olds a first dose of the jab from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).\n\nThere are 67,142 teenagers in the age bracket in Wales - some have already been eligible for the jab.\n\nMs Morgan said: \"In line with the other nations of the UK, the Welsh government welcomes the latest JCVI advice and thanks them for their expertise and considered judgement on such important issues.\n\n\"We are now working with the NHS on the arrangements needed to offer the vaccination to all 16 and 17-year-olds in line with the JCVI advice.\"\n\nThe JCVI said advice on when to offer the second dose will come later.\n\nIt is not clear when the Welsh NHS will begin to offer the vaccinations. A spokesperson said the details are being finalised and arrangements will be confirmed \"very shortly\".\n\nPlaid Cymru's health spokesman Rhun ap Iorwerth said he hoped ministers would \"act quickly to roll out those vaccines\", and said schools need to be made as \"safe as possible\" ahead of their reopening in September.\n\nThe Welsh Conservatives said the roll out was \"great news and only made possible through the British government's procurement of plenty of vaccines\".\n\nThe only vaccine approved for use in the UK for under-18s is the Pfizer-BioNTech jab.\n\nUntil now children aged 12 or older have been offered jabs if they have health conditions that make them vulnerable to coronavirus, they live with others who are at high risk or are near to having their 18th birthday.\n\nIn Wales 9,618 16-17 year olds have already had a first dose.\n\nOther countries, such as the US and France, have already been vaccinating children over the age of 12.\n\nRecent figures show 75% of 18-29 year olds have had their first jab in Wales\n\nLaura Doel, director of NAHT Cymru, said the headteaching union would \"continue to urge ministers to ensure that alternative safety measures are put in place\" in schools \"such as better ventilation and a properly functioning test and trace system that takes into account how schools function\".\n\nThe JCVI has effectively set much of the UK's vaccine policy throughout the pandemic, although it is up to the Welsh government and other UK nations to decide if they follow the advice.\n\nSupplies have been purchased by the UK government, and distributed by the different NHS bodies in the four nations.\n\nThe committee said it expected one dose of the vaccine to give good protection against severe illness and hospitalisation in the 16 and 17 age group.\n\nRecent figures show that 75% of 18 to 29-year-olds have had their first jab in Wales.\n\nThe Covid case rate fell on Wednesday to 136.3 new infections per 100,000 people.\n\nMost lockdown rules are set to be eased this weekend, with social distancing laws set to be scrapped, and legal limits on who you can meet set to end.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app. Laura Kenny became the first British woman to win gold at three Olympic Games as she and Katie Archibald were crowned madison champions in Tokyo. Kenny, 29, also becomes GB's most successful female athlete with her fifth gold and sixth Olympic medal. \"I've never wanted to win a medal so much in all my life,\" said Kenny, the most successful female Olympic cyclist. Jack Carlin then won individual sprint bronze for his second medal of the Games and Team GB's fifth on the track. He won team sprint silver earlier in the week alongside Jason Kenny and Ryan Owens, while Laura Kenny and Archibald won team pursuit silver. Their madison gold on Friday follows Matt Walls' victory in the men's omnium the previous day. The women's madison was added to the Olympic programme for the first time at Tokyo 2020. \"I messaged [husband] Jason and said I feel like my Olympics ends today,\" said Kenny. \"I love the team pursuit but I felt relief when it was over because this was the one race I wanted to win - I just feel so relieved.\" Archibald added: \"I've been dreaming about having this conversation - I've never wanted something so much, I've never been so nervous but we've been so clinical with our approach. \"We had a change of coach last year for this event. We're going for the all round and trying to spread between events and it feels so satisfying for it to come off.\" Archibald won World Championship madison gold in 2018 before she and Kenny teamed up for European silver in the event the following year. But their performance in Tokyo was a masterclass in madison racing, winning the three opening sprints of the 120-lap, 30km race. In total, they won 10 of the 12 sprints on offer and gained a lap - earning 20 points - alongside Denmark and the Russian Olympic Committee, who won silver and bronze respectively. But such was Kenny and Archibald's dominance that they finished with more than double the Danes' points, Amalie Dideriksen and Julie Leth ending their race on 35 points while the ROC had just 26. Dutch world champions Amy Pieters and Kirsten Wild finished off the podium, forced to settle for fourth after being involved in a crash. Kenny and Archibald credited coach Monica Greenwood - who took over coaching the endurance squad in December - for their win, revealing they had been training against GB's men's under-23 squad to perfect their madison plan. Kenny's gold was her first as a mother, having welcomed son Albie in August 2017. \"All week I've been saying please don't ask me about Albie - I've never missed him so much,\" she told BBC Sport. \"But I couldn't do it without these girls. With Katie I feel like I'm racing with a sister - I'm so grateful to have her here and her support. I couldn't have done it without her.\" She later said: \"When I fell pregnant, there was a moment two months into the pregnancy where I woke up and said to Jason 'I can't do this, I'm not going to be able to carry on [with cycling], there's just no way.' And here we are.\" Earlier in the week, Jason Kenny had tipped team-mate Carlin for a medal in the individual sprint and that prediction came good in the bronze medal race. The Scot had earlier lost in two legs to Dutch world champion and eventual gold medallist Harrie Lavreysen in the semi-finals, meaning he would take on Denis Dmitriev of the Russian Olympic Committee in the race for the final step on the podium. Carlin comprehensively beat the Rio 2016 bronze medallist in the first race, crossing the line almost half a second before Dmitriev. The second race, however, was much closer, Carlin just holding on to pip his opponent to the line by 0.015 seconds. \"Tough day today,\" he said. \"I didn't feel like I had the same legs as yesterday but I gave it my all and managed to come away with something.\" Carlin took up cycling after breaking both ankles while playing football, needing a non-contact sporting option during his recovery, only to go on to break his wrist on his first track session. Lavreysen beat compatriot Jeffrey Hoogland over three legs in the gold medal race.\n• None The music that makes The Hundred: Check out the best new music from your teams region\n• None Could a DNA test find you the perfect diet? How people are using the findings for nutrition advice", "Amazon has told its US corporate staff not to return to the office until next year as Covid continues to spread.\n\nThe online shopping giant previously asked staff to work from home until 7 September, but will now extend this until 3 January 2022.\n\nIt comes as new Covid infections surge across America, with with daily cases at an average not seen in months.\n\nTwo US financial institutions, Wells Fargo and Blackrock, also said they would push back their office returns.\n\n\"As we continue to closely watch local conditions related to Covid-19, we are adjusting our guidance for corporate employees,\" said Amazon.\n\nThe online shopping giant's policy will apply to corporate and tech employees, but not the warehouse and delivery workers who make up the bulk of its workforce.\n\nStaff in the US will be affected but also some based abroad, although Amazon did not specify where.\n\nSeparately, Wells Fargo - the biggest US bank in terms of headcount - said it was delaying its return to the office from 7 September, to 4 October.\n\nThe lender, which has almost 260,000 employees, said it would also give staff eight hours of paid time off to enable them to get vaccinated.\n\nInvestment giant Blackrock is postponing the date it expects all staff to be back in the office by a month to 1 October.\n\n\"We are following the Delta variant in different parts of the country and closely monitoring the latest guidance from public health officials and local government authorities that encourages people to wear masks in indoor public spaces in areas of substantial or high transmission,\" said BlackRock's chief operating officer, Rob Goldstein, in a memo to staff.\n\n\"We know this raises concerns about returning to the office.\"\n\nThe contagious Delta variant of coronavirus is spreading rapidly across the US, with states such as Florida and Texas seeing high levels of new infections.\n\nA slowing vaccination rate is only adding to the problem, and companies are under pressure to act.\n\nGoogle, Facebook and Twitter have all said they will delay their returns to the office, with the former two also requiring employees to be vaccinated.\n\nWalmart and Uber, meanwhile, have asked their management, not frontline staff, to get the vaccine, while investment giant Vanguard on Wednesday said it would pay staff who got vaccinated $1,000 (£792).\n\nAmazon, which is not mandating vaccines, said it would continue to follow local government guidance to ensure a safe office return, including asking all unvaccinated staff to wear masks in the workplace.\n\nAs previously announced, its corporate employees will also be allowed to work from home two days a week, under a new hybrid model.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Athlete Krystina Timanovskaya: \"It's dangerous for me in Belarus\"\n\nTwo Belarusian coaches have lost their Olympic accreditations after allegedly attempting to force an athlete to leave the Games in Tokyo.\n\nThe International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed that Artur Shimak and Yury Maisevich had left the Olympic Village. An investigation is under way.\n\nThe case of Krystina Timanovskaya caught global attention after she refused her team's orders to fly home.\n\nShe is now in Poland, where she has been granted a humanitarian visa.\n\nThe case has again put the spotlight on Belarus, which has been ruled by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko since 1994. Last year, nationwide protests over his disputed re-election were violently repressed by the security forces.\n\nBelarus says Ms Timanovskaya was removed from the national team because of her emotional state. But the 24-year-old says this is not true, saying she was removed because she spoke on Instagram about the \"negligence of [her] coaches\".\n\nIn a statement, the IOC said it had removed the accreditations of the two coaches \"as a provisional measure... in the interest of the wellbeing of the athletes of the National Olympic Committee of Belarus who are still in Tokyo\".\n\nThe body said a disciplinary commission had been established to investigate the incident and that both coaches would be \"offered an opportunity to be heard\".\n\nThe Belarusian Olympic committee released its own statement on Friday, reported by state news agency Belta. It said it was working with the IOC to \"clarify\" the reasons behind their decision, and vowed to protect its team from \"any forms of discrimination\".\n\nThe body confirmed the coaches would return to Belarus soon, but said they \"reserve the right to appeal this decision\".\n\nIOC President Thomas Bach said at a press conference on Friday the committee was \"happy\" Ms Timanovskaya was safely in Poland, and called what happened to her \"deplorable\", Reuters news agency reported.\n\nJapan's foreign ministry said it was \"unjust\" and \"not acceptable\" that Belarusian authorities had pressured the sprinter to fly home, Reuters reported.\n\nMs Timanovskaya's removal came after the sprinter complained on social media about being entered into the 4x400m relay race at short notice, after some team-mates were found to be ineligible to compete.\n\nThe video led to criticism in state media, with one television channel saying she lacked team spirit.\n\nMs Timanovskaya said two coaches came into her room and told her to pack her bags immediately, ready to return home. She was told to say that she had been injured.\n\nIn an interview with the BBC, she said she was on her way to the airport last week when her grandmother warned her it was not safe to return, after watching local news reports on the situation.\n\nAt the airport, Ms Timanovskaya showed officers a translated plea for help on her phone in an effort to avoid being put on a plane home.\n\nShe was then given police protection before being moved to the Polish embassy in Tokyo. She travelled to Poland on Wednesday.\n\nThe mass protests that gripped Belarus last year saw security forces often use violence to break up the demonstrations and thousands of people arrested.\n\nSome of the protesters were national-level athletes, who were then stripped of funding, cut from national teams and detained.\n\nBut Ms Timanovskaya insists that she is \"not a political girl\" and just wants to focus on her sporting career.\n\n\"I don't know anything about politics. I never was in politics,\" she said.\n\nThe sprinter told the BBC she wanted to return to Belarus, but that it was too dangerous at the moment.\n\nHer husband has also fled Belarus and has been given a visa for Poland, but her relatives remain in the country.", "Clubbers will not have to wear masks while dancing, according to the latest Scottish government guidance.\n\nNew rules, published on Friday ahead of the end of most Covid restrictions on Monday, say that face coverings can be removed while dancing, drinking and dining.\n\nIt followed calls from the industry for clarity.\n\nClubs can reopen on 9 August for the first time since last March as Scotland moves beyond level zero.\n\nConfusion followed the first minister's update on Tuesday, when Nicola Sturgeon announced that almost all of Scotland's remaining Covid-19 restrictions would end.\n\nOn Wednesday, Scotland's national clinical director Prof Jason Leitch confirmed that drinking at the bar would be allowed in pubs from next week.\n\nBut earlier in the day, Deputy First Minister John Swinney had given a different answer about so-called vertical drinking, leading to the Scottish Conservatives accusing the government of confusion and inconsistency.\n\nNightclub owners complained of uncertainty on how the rules on face coverings would be applied.\n\nMs Sturgeon said they would continue to be required in indoor public spaces, but acknowledged this could be problematic for the nightclub sector.\n\nHe plans to reopen some clubs on Monday and his larger Club Tropicana venues next Friday after more than a year with the lights up.\n\nEarlier this year, he backed a legal bid against the Scottish government over restrictions placed on the sector.\n\nDrinking will be allowed at the bar from Monday\n\nMr Cochrane told BBC News: \"It's excellent news that people can dance without face coverings. It is also a great relief. We are now waiting on some more sector-specific details from the Scottish government.\n\n\"We started to prepare, taking the first minister at her word, and have had to re-staff venues and retrain. A lot of our staff had already moved on.\n\n\"We have been working around the clock to get the venues safe.\n\n\"We know the virus is still out there and we will do everything we can to keep staff and customers safe.\"\n\nThe Night Time Industries Association Scotland welcomed the announcement that venues would be able to return normal operating hours, and at full licensed capacity.\n\nBut the industry body said it was still \"deeply concerned\" that the remaining requirements for face masks to be worn in some circumstances \"creates significant safety and security risks for both staff and other customers\".\n\nFollowing the publication of the latest advice, it emerged that some restrictions could remain in place until early next year.\n\nThe guidance says ministers \"anticipate it may be necessary to keep some precautionary measures in place until early 2022\" to help manage increased pressure on the health service over winter.\n\n\"Many of the remaining restrictions are being lifted on Monday, but some - including the wearing of face masks - will continue. Ministers will review the situation every three weeks.\"", "Sixteen and 17-year-olds across the UK are now being invited to book their Covid vaccine.\n\nGPs in England have been told they can contact this age group, while invites are also being sent out in Wales.\n\nIn Northern Ireland, walk-in centres are now open to older teenagers, and in Scotland they can register their interest online.\n\nMeanwhile, new figures show most patients in hospital with Covid in England continue to be unvaccinated.\n\nChildren aged 12 to 17 who are at higher risk of getting ill if they catch Covid - or live with people who have a weak immune system - have already been able to get vaccinated.\n\nIn England 240,870 under-18s had received a first dose by 1 August.\n\nThe opening of vaccinations to all 16 and 17-year-olds in England comes amid a drive to encourage young people to get jabbed.\n\nThe vaccine's benefits will be promoted to partygoers in nightclubs, including Ministry of Sound and Heaven.\n\nA campaign will also be rolled out across social media channels including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and TikTok, as well as on radio stations Kiss, Capital, Heart, Sunrise, and TalkSport, urging young adults to get jabbed.\n\nWalk-in centres in England will begin accepting people aged 16 and 17 from next week, but those in that age group are currently unable to book an appointment using the NHS website.\n\nIn Northern Ireland people aged 16 and up have begun to get the vaccine.\n\nElliot Aston, 16, from Newtownards told the PA News Agency it was good his age group was able to get the jab as \"we are probably the ones that are out and about the most\".\n\nBethany Holden, 16, who was among the first to receive the vaccine at the SSE Arena in Belfast on Friday, said she was glad to get the jab as she was \"more protected and protecting other people as well\".\n\nBethany Holden said she got the vaccine to protect herself and others\n\nChildren aged 12 to 15 who are clinically vulnerable to Covid or live with adults who are at increased risk of serious illness from the virus will be contacted by the NHS and invited for their vaccine over the coming weeks, NHS England said.\n\nJabs will also be offered to children aged 12 years and over who live with someone who is immunosuppressed, such as those receiving chemotherapy or who have had a transplant, with NHS England saying more than a million children and young people could now get the jab.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid said the vaccines were \"building a wall of defence against the virus\" and were \"the best way to protect people from serious illness\".\n\nSince 19 July, 1,467 people have been admitted to hospital with cases of the Delta variant, Public Health England (PHE) said.\n\nOut of these 808 (55.1%) were unvaccinated, while 512 (34.9%) had received both doses.\n\nPHE said: \"While vaccines provide high levels of protection, they are not 100% effective and will not stop everyone catching Covid-19.\n\n\"As more of the population gets vaccinated, we will see a higher relative percentage of vaccinated people in hospital.\"\n\nDr Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, stressed vaccines would not eliminate all risk and it was still possible to become unwell with Covid-19 and infect others.\n\n\"It is still vital that we exercise caution, particularly while cases are high,\" she added.\n\nSome 88.8% of the UK's adult population have now had one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, while 73.8% have had both jabs.\n\nDelta remains the dominant variant in the UK, making up about 99% of cases.\n\nThe brunt of Covid in the UK is clearly being born by the unvaccinated.\n\nOnly one in ten adults have now not had a single dose of the vaccine, and children rarely become severely ill.\n\nSo it is hugely telling when more than half of those in hospital are from the unvaccinated minority.\n\nBut this shouldn't be a surprise.\n\nThe latest estimate by the UK's Vaccine Effectiveness Expert Panel says two doses cuts the chance of you needing hospital treatment by 95% if you catch Delta.\n\nThat's not perfect, vaccines aren't an impenetrable shield; and yes there are still people in hospital who had both jabs.\n\nBut the way vaccines are rapidly transforming the pandemic - at least in wealthier countries - is incredible.\n\nOn Friday 31,808 new cases of Covid were reported across the UK along with a further 92 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.\n\nProf Sir Ian Diamond, the UK's national statistician, told the BBC the UK was seeing evidence of a decline in Covid infections across the country.\n\nHe said rates were still relatively high in many areas, but he expected to see a \"continued decline\" over the next four or five weeks.\n\nHe warned that he did not think \"we're in a position to say we have reached the end of Covid\" and said people should not stop showing a degree of caution.\n\nThe R number - which represents the average number of people one infected person will pass the virus on to - has also fallen in England to between 0.8 and 1.1, according to the latest government figures.\n\nLast week it was estimated as between 1.1 and 1.4.\n\nWhen the R number is above one, the number of cases keeps increasing.", "Police said Ianto Sior Jenkins was struck by a vehicle\n\nThe mother of a three-year-old boy killed on a farm has paid tribute to her \"kind, blue-eyed boy\".\n\nIanto Sior Jenkins died after an incident on his family's farm near Efailwen, Carmarthenshire, on Tuesday.\n\nDyfed-Powys Police said he had been hit by a vehicle.\n\nThe boy's mother, Chloe Picton, said in a statement: \"Ianto was my inspiration to life, he was a kind little boy who was always smiling and laughing.\"\n\nShe said: \"His best friend was his older sister Seren, who were always joined at the hip.\n\n\"Ianto loved going to nursery and was excited to start his first day at school in Ysgol Beca in Efailwen in September.\n\n\"He loved being out on the farm and going on the tractor with his daddy.\n\n\"Ianto and I had a very strong bond, he was 'mummy's little boy' and was always by my side everywhere we went, now that's been taken from me.\n\n\"No parent should lose a child and I would like people to respect our wishes, giving us space at this very difficult, heart-breaking time.\"\n\nIanto Jenkins died at the farm in Carmarthenshire\n\nPeople living in the farming community told BBC Wales they were shocked and saddened by the incident.\n\nDyfed-Powys Police said no-one else was injured and an investigation had been launched.\n\nIanto's family were being supported by specialist officers, and the Health and Safety Executive and the coroner had been informed, it added.\n• None Boy, 3, killed in collision with vehicle at farm", "The blanket self-isolation of whole classes following a positive Covid test will no longer be \"routine\", First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.\n\nShe told MSPs children identified as close contacts would not have to isolate if they tested negative.\n\nHowever, teachers and secondary school pupils will still be asked to wear face coverings in classrooms for the first six weeks of the new term.\n\nThe policy on wearing masks in school buildings will be kept under review.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she was \"acutely aware\" that many young people found the mask policy difficult but she said experts considered it an \"important protection\" for people in schools.\n\nThe announcement was welcomed by unions but one parents' group said it was \"unacceptable\" that children would have to wear face coverings \"considerably longer than almost any adult doing any job\".\n\nMost children returning to school later this month will not have been vaccinated, as only those who are aged 12 and over and at higher risk of falling ill from Covid are being offered the vaccine.\n\nHowever, Ms Sturgeon said she was hoping updated advice from the UK's vaccine advisory group over the \"next day or so\" would recommend \"going further\" on the vaccination of young people.\n\nShe said she was \"particularly concerned\" to get 16 and 17-year-olds vaccinated.\n\nIn her update to a virtual Scottish Parliament, the first minister said carbon dioxide monitors - which asses how well-ventilated a space is - will also be required in schools and childcare settings.\n\nAnd all school staff and secondary school pupils will be asked to take a lateral flow test one or two days before they return to school for the new term. They should then take them twice a week.\n\nSchool restrictions are now tougher than those for the rest of society.\n\nSecondary pupils have to wear a mask at all times and one metre distancing remains between adult staff.\n\nTeachers were given a guarantee that no rules would change on day one but these current restrictions look set to remain for at least six weeks.\n\nIt shows a nervousness from the government about large groups of unvaccinated teenagers mixing when term starts - as early as next week for some.\n\nThe return of schools last August saw the beginning of an upward trend of cases. Ministers are hoping that holding their nerve now, keeping strict rules for pupils, will prevent history repeating.\n\nMs Sturgeon told the parliament that anyone who tests positive for Covid-19 would still be required to self-isolate but the rules around close contacts would change.\n\nPeople aged 17 or over should get a PCR test and if it is negative there will be no requirement to self-isolate.\n\nThe same policy will apply to children aged between five and 17, while children aged under five will be \"encouraged but not required\" to take the test.\n\n\"This means that the blanket isolation of whole classes will no longer be routine,\" Ms Sturgeon said.\n\n\"Instead a more targeted approach will identify close contacts at highest risk of infection.\n\n\"So fewer young people will have to self-isolate, and most will be asked to self-isolate for a much shorter period of time.\"\n\nIt come after thousands of pupils had to isolate in the summer term - at one point in June there were more than 24,000 in self-isolation, only slightly lower than a peak of almost 30,000 last autumn.\n\nMs Sturgeon said the new approach to self-isolation was important to minimise disruption to children's education.\n\nBut she said that the government's education advisory group has advised that other measures to mitigate the spread of Covid in schools were retained.\n\nAs well as wearing face coverings, staff will be asked to keep at least one metre from each other and from children while on the school estate.\n\nMs Sturgeon said: \"The last year and a half has been difficult and stressful for children and young people, parents, and staff working in education settings. I am grateful to them for the understanding and cooperation shown.\n\n\"The new school and academic year will still have challenges - but I hope it will bring fewer disruptions, and allow a much more normal learning environment.\"\n\nParents' group UFT Scotland said it was grateful for the change to isolation measures, but criticised the decision on face coverings.\n\n\"While nightclubs reopen and football fans flock in their thousands to stadiums across the country, kids will still have to stew in masks all day,\" organiser Jo Bisset said.\n\n\"This means children will be forced to wear coverings for considerably longer than almost any adult doing any job - that's unacceptable.\"\n\nMeanwhile the EIS union welcomed the decision to broadly retain the same mitigations in school, as at the end of last term.\n\nIt said the voluntary vaccination of 12-17-year-olds \"would be sensible and may go some way towards making schools safer places and help to address the anxieties of some people\".", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 30 July and 6 August.\n\nSend your photos to scotlandpictures@bbc.co.uk. Please ensure you adhere to the BBC's rules regarding photographs that can be found here.\n\nPlease also ensure you follow current coronavirus guidelines and take your pictures safely and responsibly.\n\nConditions of use: If you submit an image, you do so in accordance with the BBC's terms and conditions.\n\nCatch of the day: Mo Matthew captured an Osprey with a trout at Aviemore.\n\nChair to dream: David Griffiths said he could let his imagination fly free with this view.\n\nWhat UV is what you get: Lucy O'Donnell said the sun came out at the end of a very grey day at Saligo Bay on Islay.\n\nGone fishing: Ian Mulvey said the mackerel season was in full swing off Port Seton in East Lothian.\n\nRock formation: Ian Munro took this image of lots of people congregating at the top of Ben Nevis.\n\nAny white horses? Jean Lowdon was glad the sea was not too choppy at Belhaven Beach at Dunbar.\n\nThe bee's knees: Dave Smith said he could see a kaleidoscope of colours in his honeycomb, showing the wide variety of pollen and therefore the flowers his honey bees were foraging on.\n\nMistified: David Ellison said he enjoyed the tranquillity of an early morning walk through the Abernethy Forest past Loch Garten.\n\nThistle do nicely: Prit Buttar was taking a picture of this flower in Dundrennan, in Dumfries and Galloway when a hoverfly landed on it.\n\nSheer terror: Laura McQuade took this view from the foot of the Inaccessible Pinnacle on Skye’s Cuillin Ridge\n\nPut a kilt on it: Callan Dick said the colours of the foliage bordering Dornoch beach immediately made him think of many tartans he had seen.\n\nJust great: Susan Urquhart took this lovely picture of her 90-year-old mother with her first great granddaughter - both called Maggie.\n\nMid-knight: Chris Colford took this picture of Eilean Donan Castle after dark.\n\nI can see you: Ian Nicholson manged to get a picture of the elusive wolf fish about 16m below the surface during a dive St Abbs (New Asgard)\n\nCloud-cuckoo land: Val Ross said: \"A juvenile cuckoo begging to be fed by its foster parent, probably a meadow pipit, on the edge of a wood to the west of Beauly.\"\n\nHairpin bend: Ali Parmenter at the Bealach na Ba said: \"What you can't see is the small yellow car that the mega motor home was towing. At the point I took the shot they had almost become completely stuck. They had to detach the car and drive that separately down the pass.\"\n\nSeal of approval: \"Breakfast in the sun!\", Emma Ford said. \"We spotted this mummy seal feeding her pup whilst relaxing in the sun on the rocks at Southend, Kintyre.\"\n\nOutfoxed: Dave Stewart said this Edinburgh fox walked up for a look with only railings between them, before trotting back to the other five foxes in the field behind in Leith.\n\nI carrot live without you: Sylvia Black said: \"I dug up these two carrot lovers in my vegetable patch in Aberdeen.\"\n\nAlpaca hairdryer: Paul Condron said this nosey Alpaca didn't seem too happy at what the first rain in weeks was doing to his hair at Bellevue Farm on the Isle of Arran.\n\nWorking from home: Jackie Mitchell said: \"Mount Stuart House on the Isle of Bute was a family home up until 1993.\"\n\nEwe’ve had yours already: Paul Gill took this picture of little Grace feeding orphan lambs, Lola and Ted, on the Isle of Harris.\n\nWild life: Pauline May took this beautiful picture of wildflowers at Strichen Community Park, Aberdeenshire.\n\nMonumental undertaking: Lindsay Kyle took great effort to get this aerial shot of McCaig's Tower in Oban.\n\nWater you thinking about this?Ambika Meetei Thoudam took this beautiful drone picture of Arisaig.\n\nBird's eye view: David Millar loved seeing this seagull up close in Oban.\n\nAs far as the eye can tee: Fraser Spence captured the beauty of Machrihanish Dunes Golf Course.\n\nRays the bar: James Thomson took this incredible shot of the sunset view from Elgol (Ealaghol) beach on the Isle of Skye.\n\nIsland paradise: Ruth smith took this stunning photograph of Ailsa Craig.\n\nFlower of Scotland: This thistle stood out to Claire Sowden due to part of it being in the shade in Aberdeenshire.\n\nYummy dummy: Beth Simpson said her daughter, Josie, enjoyed the sand at Ruby Bay Elie.\n\nFlower power: Susan Nelis said: \"Colours, textures, heavenly scents and the humming of honey bees hidden between the River Spey and Moray Coast.\"\n\nOver the dune: Matthew Wade said: \"Inviting sand dunes leading to turquoise seas on North Uist.\"\n\nI lilac this a lot: Alli McMahon took this beautiful picture of a lavender field in Kinross.\n\nStoatin' aboot: Lesley Skinner said: \"Saw this cutie and his family running about at Duncansby Head on a cloudy, misty day.\"\n\nBeauty and the beast: Mark Reynolds said: \"A snap of a beautiful pair of swans with the Corpach Wreck and Ben Nevis in the background.\"\n\nShingle-minded: Martin Cannon captured Borve on the Isle of Harris beautifully.\n\nWheelie good view: Sheila Jones said: \"Cycling from Fort William to Oban on the Caledonia Way, we crossed on the passenger ferry to Camusnagaul before cycling down to the Corran Ferry and on to Oban.\"\n\nMark Cunningham took this picture with a UV filter at Port Logan in Galloway.\n\nPlease ensure that the photograph you send is your own and if you are submitting photographs of children, we must have written permission from a parent or guardian of every child featured (a grandparent, auntie or friend will not suffice).\n\nIn contributing to BBC News you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way, including in any media worldwide.\n\nHowever, you will still own the copyright to everything you contribute to BBC News.\n\nAt no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe the law.\n\nYou can find more information here.\n\nAll photos are subject to copyright.", "Children under the age of 12 will no longer need to wear face coverings from Monday, according to new Scottish government rules.\n\nPreviously, those over five were required to wear masks in shops and other indoor settings.\n\nNew guidance from the government now says under 12s are exempt.\n\nCovid mitigation measures at schools will be in place for at least six weeks after the summer break, it has also been announced.\n\nThis means schools will largely operate as they did in the last term, except the blanket self-isolation of whole classes following a positive Covid test will no longer be \"routine\".\n\nThere will still be a requirement for children aged 12 and over to wear face coverings in school.\n\nThe new advice comes after it was announced most of the Covid restrictions in Scotland will be lifted on 9 August when the country moves beyond the current level zero rules.\n\nLatest guidance published by the Scottish government states: \"Children under 12 are exempt from any requirement to wear face coverings, but can of course continue to choose to do so.\"\n\nThe Scottish government said people over the age of 12 need to continue wearing face masks in shops and on public transport\n\nRetaining mitigations, such as one-way systems in corridors and restricting assemblies, are expected to remain in place at schools until the end of September, according to Scottish government guidance.\n\nChildren attending secondary school before their 12th birthday are encouraged to follows the same rules as those over 12.\n\nLatest Scottish government estimates suggest 79% of the teacher population in Scotland will have been offered a second jab by 16 August, when most schools will have returned after the summer break.\n\nThe 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. Kaylee-Jayde Priest: CCTV shows last time she was seen before her death\n\nA mother has been convicted alongside her then boyfriend of killing her three-year-old daughter, days after threatening to do so in a text message.\n\nKaylee-Jayde Priest was found dead at the flat in Solihull where she lived with her mother, Nicola Priest, 23, on 9 August last year.\n\nPriest and lover Callum Redfern, 22, were cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter.\n\nThe youngster died from serious chest and abdominal injuries.\n\nThe child's mother rang 999 but a jury convicted Priest after hearing the youngster had been \"dead before the call was made\".\n\nMedical examinations later showed she had also suffered historical injuries including broken ribs, lower leg fractures and a broken sternum, Birmingham Crown Court heard.\n\nNicola Priest and Callum Redfern pointed the finger of blame at each other during their trial\n\nPriest and Redfern were at the time in a \"close sexual relationship\".\n\nJurors had heard how the mother would hit Kaylee around the head, while the youngster was also heard crying \"in a fearful tone\".\n\nOn one occasion, neighbours in a flat below at Kingshurst House, Solihull, recalled hearing a bang above and then the girl crying, before allegedly hearing Priest say: \"I'll just say she fell off the bed.\"\n\nThe same residents claimed they noticed that \"when Kaylee cried, the response appeared to be to drown out her crying with music\".\n\nIn a text message exchange on 24 July last year, days before the youngster's death, Priest told Redfern: \"I'm gonna kill her... because she keeps leaving the living room or going in the kitchen, so I've paled [hit] her one and smacked her for [dirtying] her nappy.\"\n\nRedfern said: \"Good - give her one from me.\"\n\nThe youngster's grandmother said she \"deserved to show the world who she could have been\"\n\nFrom the time the mother moved in to the flat in mid-2019, neighbours heard her \"shouting with real regularity\" at Kaylee, including comments like \"Shut up\", \"Go away\" or \"Leave me alone\" - and \"never anything positive or kind\".\n\nIn CCTV played to court, the girl and Priest were seen together, hours before the youngster's fatal collapse, using a lift at the block of flats where they lived.\n\nAt no point in the footage was there any physical contact between the pair, with the mother neglecting to reach out to hold her daughter's hand.\n\nPriest, of Poplar Avenue, Edgbaston, Birmingham, and Redfern, of Temple Street, Dudley, will be sentenced on Friday.\n\nThe mother was also found guilty of cruelty to a child, relating to the youngster's historical injuries, but Redfern was cleared of that charge.\n\nIn a statement released through police after the verdicts, Kaylee's grandmother, Debbie Windmill, said she could \"never stop staring at the smile on her beautiful face\".\n\nThe grandmother added preparing to buy her first grandchild her pre-school uniform \"was something that filled me with such happiness\".\n\nShe said: \"I couldn't wait to see her in it, but this opportunity was stolen from me in the most brutal of ways.\"\n\nSpeaking afterwards, Det Insp Adam Jobson, said he did not think \"we will ever fully know what has happened\".\n\nHe added: \"One thing is clear, Nicky Priest has failed her daughter, she's failed to protect her and she should be - being a mother to that little girl - the one person who should have been able to protect her.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Hong Kong residents believe China is undermining its rights and freedoms\n\nThousands of Hong Kong residents are to be offered a temporary \"safe haven\" in the US, President Joe Biden says.\n\nMr Biden said that because Hong Kong's freedoms were being violated by China, the US would allow visitors to stay for a period of 18 months.\n\nThousands of Hong Kong residents already in the US may benefit.\n\nChina has reacted angrily to the announcement, describing the decision as a gross interference in Hong Kong's internal affairs.\n\nThe UK has offered people from Hong Kong a path towards permanent residency following last year's adoption of China's security law for the territory.\n\nThe law criminalises what are deemed to be acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion.\n\nMr Biden said there were \"compelling foreign policy reasons\" to allow Hong Kong visitors to stay.\n\nHe said China had been \"undermining its remaining democratic processes and institutions, imposing limits on academic freedom, and cracking down on freedom of the press\".\n\nHe pointed to the arrests of more than 100 people, including activists and opposition politicians, under the new security regime.\n\nLiu Pengyu, the spokesman for China's embassy in Washington, criticised the US government's actions, which he said \"disregard and distort facts, and grossly interfere in China's internal affairs\".\n\nThe Chinese foreign ministry's Hong Kong office said the US had engaged in a \"plot to oppose China and stir up trouble in the city\".\n\nMaggie Shum, a researcher in the US, said many students had been left in limbo amid uncertainty about returning to Hong Kong and welcomed Thursday's news.\n\n\"I feel elated and welcome this Biden decision to not abandon us - the US did not abandon us,\" she told Reuters news agency.\n\nSamuel Chu of Washington-based Hong Kong Democracy Council, which campaigned for the move, says the group estimates that it could affect some 100,000 people.\n\n\"It is a significant number because, I think, its a pretty good chance that a pretty large number of visitors would benefit from this,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"Partly also because the situation in Hong Kong has been unfolding pretty publicly, and you've seen people travelling and leaving Hong Kong in droves, not just to the US but other countries.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. From protests to 'patriots': Why China is bent on crushing Hong Kong dissent\n\nThe US government says some 155,000 visitors arrived from Hong Kong in 2019 and 23,000 came in 2020.\n\nThose who have serious criminal convictions will reportedly not be eligible to stay.\n\nThe move is the latest action Mr Biden has taken to combat what he says is an erosion of democracy in Hong Kong.\n\nIn July, the US government warned firms over the risks of doing business in Hong Kong under the security law.\n\nIn January, the UK introduced a scheme allowing residents of the former British colony to come to the UK for up to five years and apply for permanent residency. It launched the visa after China imposed the security law.\n\nThe British government estimates 5.4 million Hong Kong residents are eligible for the scheme, and expects 300,000 people to take up the offer in the first five years.", "Police were called to an address in Noel Park Road in Wood Green\n\nTwo police officers and a social worker have been attacked in north London.\n\nPolice were called to assist the social worker who was attempting to check on the welfare of children in Wood Green at about 19:20 BST on Friday.\n\nThe 61-year-old social worker was stabbed multiple times, a police officer was slashed and a second officer was assaulted.\n\nA 33-year-old man who was arrested at the scene on suspicion of grievous bodily harm remains in custody.\n\nTwo other men were also arrested at a nearby property in connection with the incident. The Met said the nature of their involvement was still being established.\n\nThe officers have left hospital while the social worker's condition has been described as non-life changing.\n\nScotland Yard said when entry was refused, the officers forced entry leading to the attack in a communal part of the building in Noel Park Road.\n\nSteps have been taken to ensure the welfare of the children who were the subject of the initial welfare visit, police said.\n\nThe officers have left hospital while the social worker's condition has been described as non-life changing\n\nThe Met has appealed for anyone with information on the attack to contact the force or Crimestoppers anonymously.\n\nCh Supt Treena Fleming, policing commander for Haringey and Enfield, said she was appalled by the attack.\n\n\"Social workers play a vital role in ensuring that vulnerable people in our community, including children, are safe and protected,\" she said.\n\n\"This incident shows just how much of a threat knives pose to everyone in Haringey and across London.\"\n\nIn a joint statement, the leader of Haringey Council, councillor Peray Ahmet, and the local authority's chief executive, Zina Etheridge, said it was a shocking incident.\n\n\"Social workers do an incredibly important job. Their safety is of uppermost importance to us,\" they said.\n\n\"This type of incident, while rare, is an important reminder that frontline staff across the public sector put themselves in harm's way to do their jobs and we should all express our thanks and support for them as they do so.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Aaliyah was one of the last major stars to be absent from streaming services\n\nAaliyah's biggest albums are to be made available on streaming services, after being out of circulation for most of the last two decades.\n\nThe late R&B star's final two records, One in a Million and Aaliyah, have been in limbo for years - a result of legal issues and uneasiness in her family.\n\nNow, as the 20th anniversary of her death approaches, a deal has been struck to reissue the records.\n\nThe rollout begins on 20 August with the release of One in a Million.\n\nNew titles will be released throughout the rest of the year, including the soundtracks to the film Romeo Must Die, in which Aaliyah co-starred, as well as the compilations Ultimate Aaliyah and I Care 4 U.\n\nThe long out-of-print CD and vinyl versions, which currently fetch hundreds of dollars on the second-hand market, will also be reissued.\n\nThe news was announced by Aaliyah's uncle and former manager Barry Hankerson, whose Blackground Records owned the rights to the star's back catalogue - with the exception of her debut album, Age Ain't Nothing But A Number, which is currently her only album available on streaming services.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by AaliyahVideoHD This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’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. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nHankerson said he had entered a new partnership with music distribution company Empire, \"to introduce Aaliyah and Blackground's legacy to a new audience\".\n\nIt will also enable the label to release albums by Timbaland, Toni Braxton and JoJo which have also been absent from streaming services.\n\nBut JoJo, who eventually re-recorded her Blackground albums after a decade-long legal battle with the label, told fans she wouldn't make money from the re-releases.\n\n\"Just so you know - a stream of the re-recorded 2018 version supports me and helps me continue to do what I love,\" she wrote on Twitter. \"Streaming the original unfortunately does not.\"\n\nAaliyah died in 2001, after a plane she was travelling in crashed and burst into flames shortly after taking off in the Bahamas.\n\nThe star had been visiting the island to record a music video for her single, Rock The Boat. She was killed along with eight other passengers, including video director Douglas Kratz and record label executive Gina Smith.\n\nAn investigation by America's National Transportation Safety Board later concluded the plane had been overloaded at the time of take off.\n\nAlthough she was only 22, the star had already left an indelible imprint on R&B, with sleek, futuristic songs like We Need A Resolution, More Than A Woman and Are You That Somebody?\n\nHer influence can still be heard in the music of Rihanna, Drake, Alicia Keys and Beyoncé.\n\nThe star's uncle said the family's grief had been partly responsible for keeping her music out of circulation, after Blackground's distribution deals with Universal Music petered out in the early 2000s.\n\nAaliyah's mother, in particular, was against the idea of re-releasing the music.\n\n\"There was a conversation we had that she didn't want the music out, and whatever my sister told me, I tried to do what she wanted me to do,\" he told Billboard magazine.\n\n\"As a parent, I would understand if she did not want the music out. Because who wants to hear the voice of your daughter who's gone? So when she said that to me, I said, 'OK, we're not putting it out. I don't know when, but one day we will.' We literally packed everything up and went on to something else.\"\n\nThe singer sold 14 million albums in the US alone\n\nThe turning point came last August, on the 19th anniversary of Aaliyah's death, when the star's estate released a statement addressed to \"our loyal fans\".\n\n\"We are excited to announce that communication has commenced between the estate and various record labels about the status of Aaliyah's music catalogue, as well as its availability on streaming platforms in the near future,\" it read. \"Thank you for your continued love and support. More updates to come!\"\n\nHankerson took that as a green light and began negotiating the deal that will result in her music being restored.\n\nHowever, shortly after an announcement teasing the releases appeared online, the star's estate issued a statement apparently disapproving of the move.\n\n\"We have always been confused as to why there is such a tenacity in causing more pain alongside what we already have to cope with for the rest of our lives,\" it read.\n\n\"This unscrupulous endeavour to release Aaliyah's music without any transparency or full accounting to the estate compels our hearts to express a word - forgiveness.\n\n\"Ultimately, we desire closure and a modicum of peace so we can facilitate the growth of the Aaliyah Memorial Fund and other creative projects that embody Aaliyah's true essence, which is to inspire strength and positivity for people of all creeds, races and cultures around the world.\"\n\nFor now, however, the release plans appear to be going ahead.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "The factory is located in the Granville industrial estate near Dungannon\n\nA man has died following an incident at a food processing plant in County Tyrone.\n\nLinden Foods is in the Granville industrial estate near Dungannon.\n\nOne emergency crew and two officers were dispatched by the Ambulance Service after a report was made at 08:03 BST on Thursday.\n\nThe Health and Safety Executive are at the scene, and the police are also investigating the circumstances surrounding the death.\n\nLinden Foods said its thoughts were \"with the family, friends and workmates\" of the man.\n\n\"Safety is a priority at Linden Foods and we are investigating the circumstances of the tragic accident and fully co-operating with the relevant authorities,\" it added.\n\n\"We will be providing full support to those colleagues impacted by this tragic incident.\"\n\nUlster Unionist councillor Meta Graham said the \"thoughts and prayers\" of the community were with the man's family.\n\n\"He was an exceptional young man, an asset to everything he participated in,\" said Ms Graham.\n\nThe Clogher Valley representative said the community had been plunged into \"immense grief\".\n\nSinn Féin MP Michelle Gildernew said her thoughts were with the family, friends and loved ones of the man \"who are receiving the awful news of his tragic death\".\n\nDUP councillor Frances Burton said she was \"devastated\" and added the community \"will be deeply saddened by the death of this popular young man\".\n\n\"I know the family personally and I wish to send my condolences to them,\" she said.\n\nLinden Foods processes and manufactures beef, lamb, pork and chicken for branded and own label products.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nBarcelona say Lionel Messi will not be staying at the club \"because of financial and structural obstacles\".\n\nMessi, 34, has been a free agent since 1 July when his contract expired.\n\nHe agreed a new deal on reduced wages with the club two weeks later, but it was dependent on Barca selling players to afford his salary.\n\n\"Both parties deeply regret that the wishes of the player and the club will ultimately not be fulfilled,\" the club said.\n• None Is this really the end for Messi at Barcelona?\n\nBarcelona had said Messi was poised to extend his 21-year association with the club by signing the new deal on Thursday, and blame La Liga for the failure to do so.\n\nHe had reached an agreement to stay with the Catalan side until 2026 - but La Liga said the club must reduce wages before he and any new players can be registered.\n\n\"Despite FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi having reached an agreement and the clear intention of both parties to sign a new contract today, this cannot happen because of financial and structural obstacles [Spanish La Liga regulations],\" the club said.\n\n\"FC Barcelona wholeheartedly expresses its gratitude to the player for his contribution to the aggrandisement of the club and wishes him all the very best for the future in his personal and professional life.\"\n\nMessi is Barcelona's record scorer with 672 goals and has won 10 La Liga titles, four Champions Leagues and seven Copa del Reys, as well as claiming the Ballon d'Or on a record six occasions.\n\nKeeping Messi at the Nou Camp had been president Joan Laporta's top priority this summer.\n\nThe Barca future of a player who is widely regarded as being one of the world's greatest of all time, however, has been severely complicated by the club's financial problems.\n\nThe presidential election earlier this year was held against the backdrop of Barca being on the verge of bankruptcy.\n\nThe Argentine arguably now becomes the most in-demand player in world football.\n\nMessi has long been linked with a move to either Paris St-Germain or Manchester City, where he would be reunited with his former Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola.\n\nAmerica's Major League Soccer, which Messi has previously considered experiencing, is another option.\n\nThe announcement that Messi is to move on comes a year after he sent a fax to Barcelona bosses saying he wished to exercise a clause in his contract that would have allowed him to leave for free last summer.\n\nDays later he said he would stay, admitting it was \"impossible\" for any team to pay his 700m euro (£624m) release clause, which Barca insisted needed to be met.\n\nAged 13 Messi joined Barca's famed La Masia academy in 2000 from Argentine side Newell's Old Boys and made his senior debut aged 16 in 2004.\n\nHe has gone on to make 778 appearances for the club, scoring 672 goals, including 120 Champions League goals (second behind Cristiano Ronaldo), and a record 474 La Liga goals.\n\nHe has collected the European Golden Shoe award for the continent's top scorer on six occasions.\n\n25 August 2020 - Messi sends a fax to the club saying he wishes to exercise a clause in his contract, allowing him to leave for free with immediate effect.\n\n4 September 2020 - Messi says he is staying at Barcelona because it is \"impossible\" for any team to pay his 700m euro (£624m) release clause, which the club insist would have to be met.\n\n27 October 2020 - Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu, who had fallen out with Messi over his failed transfer request, resigns.\n\n28 December 2020 - Messi says he hopes to one day play in the United States, but is unsure of his future when his contract runs out.\n\n31 January 2021 - Barcelona say they will take \"appropriate legal action\" against Spanish newspaper El Mundo after it published details of Messi's contract, worth £492m over four years.\n\n16 May 2021 - Manager Ronald Koeman says he hopes Messi has not played his final home game for the club after a 2-1 defeat by Celta Vigo ended their title hopes and meant they finished outside the top two for the first time since 2007-08.\n\n22 May 2021 - Paris St-Germain are believed to be \"looking closely\" at Messi's contract situation.\n\n28 May 2021 - Barcelona president Joan Laporta says a new contract for Lionel Messi is \"not done yet\" but that \"things are going well\".\n\n1 July 2021 - Messi's Barcelona contract expires and he becomes a free agent.\n\n15 July 2021 - Messi agrees to stay with Barca on a deal until 2026 that includes reducing his wages.\n\n5 August 2021 - Barcelona announce Lionel Messi will leave the club \"because of financial and structural obstacles\".", "The 2019 parade was attended by more than 1.5 million people\n\nLondon's Pride parade has been cancelled for a second year due to coronavirus restrictions.\n\nThe UK's biggest LGBT pride festival usually takes place in the capital every summer, although it was not staged last year due to the pandemic.\n\nOrganisers said this year's event was not possible under current guidelines.\n\nBut Culture Minister Caroline Dinenage said there \"shouldn't be any reason now that live events shouldn't be able to go ahead\".\n\nExplaining the decision, executive director of Pride in London Chris Joell-Deshields said the \"crucial parade\" could not take place, which would have meant \"reducing the event to two or three stages scattered across London with limited tickets\".\n\n\"This goes against everything we want Pride to be, and everything we've done before,\" he said, adding that: \"No parade, no protest, means no Pride.\"\n\nHowever, when asked about the cancellation Ms Dinenage said there \"shouldn't be any reason\" that live events were not taking place.\n\n\"We know that so many [outdoor events] have already - things like Latitude and Tramlines - have already happened.\n\n\"There are a whole range of events that are going ahead this summer,\" she said.\n\nNews of London Pride's second cancellation will come as a blow to many in the LGBT community.\n\nPride gives the chance not just to come together, but also to represent and to protest for hard-fought rights. For some it may also be their first chance to publicly celebrate their sexuality.\n\nFor one day a year, streets in central London are shut down for the Pride parade, with tens of thousands marching, celebrating, protesting, raising awareness and taking up space in front of over a million spectators. It doesn't get much more high profile than that.\n\nBut to go ahead with the London event in a way that complied with government Covid guidelines would have meant reducing the event to just a couple of stages, limiting tickets and - crucially - losing the parade, something the organisers said they were not prepared to do.\n\nThe announcement follows the axing of most in-person Pride events in Brighton, which were due to take place this weekend, and many other Pride events in the UK and around the world.\n\nManchester Pride has had to cancel its main parade, but - as it stands - is set to hold a two-day live music event over the August Bank Holiday.\n\nMore than 100 Pride events were cancelled or postponed last year.\n\nThe London parade usually attracts huge crowds, with organisers estimating the 2019 parade was attended by more than 1.5 million people.\n\nReacting to the cancellation, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: \"It is a real shame that for the second year in a row we will not be able to join together on the streets of London for Pride.\n\n\"But although our city continues to open up, we must still be cautious about the spread of Covid-19 and it is understandable why the Pride in London committee have made this decision.\n\n\"I truly hope that next year we will be able to unite on our streets once again in solidarity and celebration.\"\n\nMembers and supporters of the LGBT community taking part in the 2019 Pride parade in London\n\nDrag Race UK contestant Bimini Bon Boulash, tweeted about the cancellation, promising \"we'll go even bigger next year\", while Rachel Cunliffe, deputy editor of the New Statesman newspaper, called the cancellations \"so sad\".\n\n\"It's an outdoor parade. If the Euros can happen, why not Pride?,\" she tweeted.\n\nNext year will be 50 years since the first Pride parade in London and organisers have called on the government to \"declare 2022 as the year of queer\".\n\n\"Tomorrow we start planning our return to the streets of London for 2022, with out most inclusive and queerest event yet,\" Mr Joell-Deshields said.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Friday evening. We'll have another update for you tomorrow.\n\nSixteen and 17-year-olds across the UK are now being invited to book their coronavirus vaccine. GPs in England have been told they can contact this age group, while invites will also be sent out in Wales. In Northern Ireland, walk-in centres are now open to older teenagers, and in Scotland they can register their interest online. Meanwhile, new Public Health England data shows most patients in hospital with Covid in England continue to be unvaccinated. PHE said that of the 1,467 people hospitalised with the Delta variant since 19 July, 808 (55.1%) were unvaccinated, while 512 (34.9%) had received both doses.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Why it is normal for some people to experience short-term side effects from Covid-19 vaccines\n\nA long-distance couple separated by pandemic travel rules for 18 months have been granted an exemption to get married in England. Australian Chris Quealy, 72, proposed to Penny Steven, 69, from Amersham, over Zoom this year, as strict Covid border rules in Australia kept the couple apart. But on Thursday, the pair - who met in 2015 during a hike of Spain's Camino de Santiago - finally received confirmation of Chris's dispensation to leave Australia. \"I am on cloud nine,\" says Penny, from Amersham. \"It is a dream come true.\"\n\nItaly has become the latest EU country to introduce a digital Covid certificate scheme for access to some services and venues, in a bid to curb infections. The \"green pass\" will allow access for people who have had at least one jab, have recovered from Covid or who have tested negative within the previous 48 hours. From Friday, anyone over 12 at venues such as gyms, bars, cinemas museums and restaurants must show their pass. You can read more here.\n\nJennifer Aniston has explained on Instagram why she has cut off unvaccinated friends - after telling a media outlet that she had \"lost a few people from [her] weekly routine\" who had refused the jab. Asked by followers on the social media platform why she was so worried given she was vaccinated, the Friends actress said there was a chance she could still catch the virus and give it to someone who was unvaccinated or medically vulnerable. You can read more here.\n\nToday marks the return of the world-famous Edinburgh Fringe, after last year's festival was cancelled for the first time in more than 70 years because of the pandemic. But at a fraction of the size and with no posters, flyers or pop-up performances, this year's socially-distanced Fringe feels like a different sort of festival, says Pauline McLean, BBC Scotland's Arts correspondent.\n\nFind more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf 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 send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Sudesh Amman was killed by police on Streatham High Road\n\nThe mother of a terrorist shot dead by police during a stabbing spree said she instantly knew he was responsible when she first heard about the attack, an inquest has heard.\n\nSudesh Amman, 20, was shot in Streatham, south London, on 2 February 2020 after stabbing two people.\n\nHaleema Khan told his inquest he had called her shortly before the attack and said: \"Bye bye, I love you Mummy.\"\n\nHowever, Ms Khan said she had had \"no idea\" her son was going to strike.\n\nAmman was shot by police who had been tracking his movements, within 62 seconds of launching the attack. The man and woman he targeted both survived.\n\nSpeaking at the Royal Courts of Justice through a Tamil interpreter, Ms Khan said she had been on the phone to her husband when she saw a news alert about the stabbing on Streatham High Road.\n\nThe 20-year-old was captured on CCTV during the attack\n\nIn her witness statement, she said: \"I saw that someone was shot dead in Streatham at 2pm.\n\n\"I knew it was Sudesh. I saw on a website that the dead man was wearing (his brother's) jacket and his shoes.\"\n\nMs Khan then called the Probation Service to tell officers that her 20-year-old son had been wearing the clothing, the inquest heard.\n\nShe told Jonathan Hough QC, counsel to the inquest, that she called her husband and they both tried to call the 20-year-old.\n\n\"I was shocked,\" she said. \"I kept crying. All my children were running to me and asking why I was crying.\"\n\nThe inquest previously heard how Amman was deemed to be \"one of the most dangerous individuals\" that police and MI5 teams had investigated and that the Probation Service denied there had been a \"missed opportunity\" to stop him.\n\nJurors have also been told that police had asked the prison governor not to release Amman from HMP Belmarsh, the month before the attack. However, this happened on 23 January as there was no mechanism to prevent it.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Apple has announced details of a system to find child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on US customers' devices.\n\nBefore an image is stored onto iCloud Photos, the technology will search for matches of already known CSAM.\n\nApple said that if a match is found a human reviewer will then assess and report the user to law enforcement.\n\nHowever there are privacy concerns that the technology could be expanded to scan phones for prohibited content or even political speech.\n\nExperts worry that the technology could be used by authoritarian governments to spy on its citizens.\n\nApple said that new versions of iOS and iPadOS - due to be released later this year - will have \"new applications of cryptography to help limit the spread of CSAM online, while designing for user privacy\".\n\nThe system works by comparing pictures to a database of known child sexual abuse images compiled by the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and other child safety organisations.\n\nThose images are translated into \"hashes\", numerical codes that can be \"matched\" to an image on an Apple device.\n\nApple says the technology will also catch edited but similar versions of original images.\n\n\"Before an image is stored in iCloud Photos, an on-device matching process is performed for that image against the known CSAM hashes,\" Apple said.\n\nThe company claimed the system had an \"extremely high level of accuracy and ensures less than a one in one trillion chance per year of incorrectly flagging a given account\".\n\nApple says that it will manually review each report to confirm there is a match. It can then take steps to disable a user's account and report to law enforcement.\n\nThe company says that the new technology offers \"significant\" privacy benefits over existing techniques - as Apple only learns about users' photos if they have a collection of known CSAM in their iCloud Photos account.\n\nHowever some privacy experts have voiced concerns.\n\n\"Regardless of what Apple's long term plans are, they've sent a very clear signal. In their (very influential) opinion, it is safe to build systems that scan users' phones for prohibited content,\" Matthew Green, a security researcher at Johns Hopkins University, said.\n\n\"Whether they turn out to be right or wrong on that point hardly matters. This will break the dam — governments will demand it from everyone.\"", "Hossam Metwally recorded himself performing alleged exorcism rituals on his drugged partner\n\nAn anaesthetist who poisoned his partner in a series of botched exorcism ceremonies is facing jail.\n\nHossam Metwally, 61, performed a \"dangerous perversion\" of the Islamic Ruqya ritual on Kelly Wilson at the couple's home in Grimsby.\n\nSheffield Crown Court heard she suffered multiple organ failure from being injected with drugs.\n\nJurors found Metwally guilty of eight charges, including administering a noxious substance and a count of fraud.\n\nAn eight-week trial heard Metwally, an NHS anaesthetist and chronic pain specialist, believed Ms Wilson was possessed by supernatural spirits known as jinns.\n\nHe believed there were a number of the entities \"hiding\" inside his partner, the court heard, and that he had to remove them by reciting verses of the Koran and placing holy water and oils on her skin.\n\nJurors heard he had performed more than 250 rituals, and made dozens of recordings over a four-year period starting in 2016.\n\nExtracts from 200 clips were shown to the jury, in which Metwally could be heard chanting \"Bismillah Allah-hu-Akbar\" as he administered fluids through a cannula to Ms Wilson as she lay on a bed.\n\nIn one, a black restraint is tied to a drugged and drowsy Ms Wilson's wrist as Metwally chants before pausing to mention a jinn called Magdulina, asking Ms Wilson: \"Did you get her?\"\n\n\"Bismillah. Go to them in your head,\" he says repeatedly.\n\nJurors also heard from an imam during the trial that the Ruqya was considered a valid practice but would never involve drugs or sedation.\n\nMetwally was arrested after Ms Wilson fell into a coma on 4 July 2019. She was on the brink of a cardiac arrest and was taken to hospital that afternoon.\n\nDuring investigations police found a \"vast stock of drugs\" at his home, including ketamine, propofol, fentanyl and Diazemuls.\n\nHossam Metwally had a \"vast stock of drugs\" at his Grimsby home\n\nFollowing Metwally's conviction on Thursday, Judge Jeremy Richardson QC said he had \"never been involved in a more bizarre case\".\n\nAfter lifting reporting restrictions on Friday, Judge Richardson told Metwally, who worked at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust (NLGNFT): \"It is a shocking circumstance that a doctor, a medical professional, should find himself in the dock awaiting sentence on such a serious criminal charge.\"\n\nMetwally, who qualified in his native Egypt, also worked in Saudi Arabia before practising in the UK. He moved to Grimsby in 1999, three years after arriving in the country, the court heard.\n\nThe pair met when Ms Wilson, now 33, was training to be a nurse in 2015. She worked at Metwally's private pain clinic and later moved in with him at his home in Laceby Road.\n\nJurors heard the former nurse was lonely, had a history of depression and suffered a catalogue of illnesses which resulted her in quitting her job.\n\nProsecutor John Elvidge QC said the medic was secretly giving various drugs to Ms Wilson including fentanyl and ketamine, and had \"knowingly fed her addiction\" for drugs.\n\nMetwally was found guilty of endangering Ms Wilson's life by administering anaesthetic drugs to sedate Ms Wilson; the supply of various controlled drugs or medicines and the possession of a controlled drug with intent to supply.\n\nHe was also found guilty of one count of fraud.\n\nIt took the jury less than 90 minutes to reach unanimous verdicts on the charges.\n\nReporting restrictions were lifted after he also admitted two unrelated voyeurism offences.\n\nJudge Richardson told Metwally a prison term \"of some substance\" would be inevitable at his sentencing hearing on 20 September.\n\nDr Kate Wood, medical director at NLGNFT, said Metwally was \"immediately excluded\" from working at the trust when the allegations came to light and reported to the General Medical Council.\n\nChris Hartley from the Crown Prosecution Service said Metwally was a \"dangerous\" man who had \"cruelly and deliberately\" exploited Ms Wilson.\n\n\"By administering powerful anaesthetic and sedative drugs outside the safety of a hospital setting he was not only deliberately injuring Ms Wilson; he was endangering her life,\" he said.\n\nFollow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Wildfires have swept across the island of Evia near Athens\n\nGreece carried out mass evacuations overnight in the northern suburbs of Athens and on the nearby island of Evia as wind whipped up huge wildfires.\n\nThousands left their homes near the Greek capital, which is cloaked in acrid smoke, and 600 fled Evia by boat.\n\nOn Friday, a man was killed by a falling electricity pylon near Athens, health officials said.\n\nFirefighters from France, Switzerland, Sweden, Cyprus and Romania have been deployed to assist Greece.\n\nGale-force winds are forecast to fan the many blazes.\n\nResidents of Marathon, north-east of Athens, were told to head to the coast on Friday as wildfires spread along several fronts.\n\nDozens of homes have been destroyed or damaged, and several dozen injured people are in hospital.\n\n\"If some people still doubt if climate change is real, let them come and see the intensity of phenomena here,\" Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said.\n\nClimate change increases the risk of the hot, dry weather that is likely to fuel wildfires. Greece has had a week of temperatures above 40C (107 Fahrenheit) and vegetation is bone-dry.\n\nThe world has already warmed by about 1.2C since the industrial era began, and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.\n\nIn Kourkoloi on the island of Evia, resident Ioannis Aslanis told AFP news agency, \"it's a disaster, everything burnt in the village\".\n\nWildfires are also raging in Albania and Bulgaria, where they began spreading in late July. North Macedonia has declared a state of emergency over its own blazes.\n\nAnd in south-western Turkey, the heatwave has made local wildfires the most intense on record. Eight people have died and several hundred have been injured, with thousands of residents and tourists forced to flee.\n\nOn Thursday Turkish firefighters managed to prevent the flames reaching a coal-fired power station at Kemerkoy, in the southern Mugla province. The province, which includes the resort of Marmaris, has seen 55,000 hectares of forest engulfed by flames.\n\nCritics have accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government of failing to prepare adequately for such a disaster. They say Turkey's response was too slow and firefighters were under-resourced.\n\nMr Erdogan described these as Turkey's worst-ever wildfires. He blamed the lack of resources on the Turkish Aeronautical Association, saying it had failed to provide an adequate number of aircraft to tackle the blazes.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Another woman has been sexually harassed in hotel quarantine despite new rules designed to prevent it.\n\nLast month the government said female guests would get female guards.\n\nHowever, Lorna Farmer, 28, walked out of the Hilton Garden Inn at Birmingham airport a week ago, after a guard offered to \"entertain\" her in her room.\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care now says it will introduce a new phone line for women to report harassment confidentially.\n\nEighteen women have now reported harassment to the BBC - two of them since the DHSC took steps to fix the problem in July.\n\nThe new measures included a new dedicated complaints system and extra training for guards on how to behave around lone women, as well as the plan for women to be supervised by female guards \"when available\".\n\nLorna Farmer says, however, that she was only escorted outside on exercise breaks by male guards.\n\nShe says she began receiving unwanted attention from a security guard employed by the company, Mitie, soon after arriving at the Hilton Garden Inn on Sunday 25 July.\n\nHe asked to see her in her pyjamas, and asked to enter her room, she says - knocking repeatedly on her door and sometimes sitting on the floor outside it.\n\nOn one occasion, when she was cleaning her room, he said: \"Why don't you put that Hoover down and I'll come in and entertain you.\"\n\nMs Farmer says he repeated this another five times within the space of 10 minutes.\n\nWhen she complained to the head of the security team in the hotel, from the company Mitie, the guard was removed.\n\nBut Ms Farmer says a different guard had also made lewd comments to female guests during their exercise break, so she still felt unsafe and got her father to come and drive her home.\n\nShe then reported the harassment to police in Northamptonshire, where she is from.\n\nMitie said: \"Should a complaint be raised by a guest a full investigation is carried out. In this case, the investigation found that the officer had not followed our procedures and therefore is no longer working on the contract.\"\n\nAsked whether he was still working for Mitie, and whether he might now be working at a different quarantine hotel, a spokesperson said she could not share personal information about staff.\n\nLorna Farmer's first quarantine hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn at Birmingham airport\n\nThe Hilton Garden Inn emphasised that security firms were contracted by the DHSC and fell outside its responsibility.\n\nThe DHSC said: \"Sexual harassment or abuse is completely unacceptable and totally abhorrent. We take all such allegations extremely seriously and we expect providers to take firm action - including suspending staff or reporting them to the police where appropriate - as has happened in this case.\"\n\nIt said the new confidential reporting line for lone female guests would be staffed by recently retired and trained police officers.\n\nAnother woman, who is still in quarantine, says that a male security guard knocked on her door twice in one evening, giving a transparently bogus reason for wanting to talk to her.\n\nShe said she was not reporting the incident because she felt unsafe and was not leaving her room.\n\nMs Farmer told the BBC that when she went outside for exercise at the Hilton Garden Inn, she was always escorted by a single male guard, despite the DHSC's intention that lone female guests should get female guards.\n\nThree other women quarantining since the rule change have told the BBC that they too had male guards.\n\nOthers have said that they have mostly had female guards, though one added that \"once you're outside it's like being a walking exhibit with male guards sitting all around the parking lot like it's a gallery and looking you up and down as you walk\".\n\nIn July, the government said that if female guards were unavailable, lone women should be escorted by two male guards, \"with each guard chaperoning the other to ensure appropriate behaviour\".\n\nThis idea was sharply criticised by some women's safety campaigners and, judging from the reports of women in quarantine, appears to have been rarely adopted in practice.\n\nAfter walking out of the Hilton Garden Inn on Friday and spending the weekend at home, Lorna Farmer was called on Tuesday by an official who told her that West Midlands Police were looking for her, and that she could be arrested and fined £10,000 if she didn't return to quarantine.\n\nShe says she felt very uneasy when two men then arrived in a van with darkened windows to accompany her to another quarantine hotel, the Crowne Plaza NEC. Here she was escorted outside for exercise by a female security guard, but says she only saw male guards on her corridor.\n\nMitie says there was a female guard on her floor at all times, and that at least two female officers were always on shift at each hotel, in line with DHSC guidance. The company added that it was taking active steps to increase the number of female officers working in quarantine hotels.\n\nAccording to the Security Industry Authority only 10% of licenced security guards in the UK are women.\n\nMs Farmer says she thinks it is \"ridiculous\" for lone women to be forced to quarantine in hotels when their safety cannot be guaranteed.\n\n\"The woman from public health said, 'Lorna, are you aware that West Midlands Police are looking for you, that they've put you down as absconded?' I was like, 'No, I spoke to Northamptonshire Police and reported everything that's happened, and they are absolutely happy with me being home.'\n\n\"And she was like, 'You have to come back today, otherwise we will come and get you and you'll be prosecuted and fined.' And I was like, 'Are you serious? After everything that's happened?'\"\n\nMs Farmer was allowed to leave the hotel on Thursday, 11 days after she arrived in the UK from Dubai.\n\nWest Midlands Victims' Commissioner Nicky Brennan said she was \"disgusted\" to hear how women were being treated by security staff in quarantine hotels.\n\n\"The government who have given the contract and the security company need to investigate the practices, training and conduct of staff with urgency. People who are quarantining in hotels at the orders of the government should not have to feel unsafe when following those rules.\n\n\"This would appear to be a problem across the country with security staff in these hotels. It's worrying for anybody, especially lone women that they could be treated in this way. They should not be put in this position by a government which is meant to be keeping them safe.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nGreat Britain boxer Lauren Price will fight for a gold medal on the final day of Tokyo 2020 after winning her women's middleweight semi-final on Friday.\n\nPrice, 27, won her bout with Dutch opponent Nouchka Fontijn on a split decision to go into the gold-medal bout on Sunday.\n\nThe Welsh boxer was docked a point for excessive holding in the second round.\n\nBut against an opponent she has faced in several major finals, Price fought back in the last round to edge victory.\n\nIt was an uncertain start for Price as the taller Fontijn used her reach to keep her rival at distance early on.\n\nWhen the GB boxer then had a point deducted in round two it was clear she needed a significant final three minutes to stand any hope of winning.\n\n\"I had the scores in the second, I was 3-2 up, so it was all on the last round,\" said 2019 world amateur champion Price.\n\n\"I needed a big last round. For me, it was no silly mistakes and sticking to my boxing.\"\n\nHer bouncy, on-the-toes style helped her find the shots needed to secure victory by the narrowest of margins.\n\nPrice will now face China's 2018 world champion Li Qian in the fight for gold.\n\n\"It's mad to be honest,\" said Caerphilly-born Price, who could not hide her joy at progressing to the final.\n\n\"I knew I was up against it today. We've fought each other a number of times and know one another inside out.\n\n\"I am over the moon - [Fontijn] is world class. Each fight it gets harder but it doesn't get harder than that.\n\n\"It's everyone's dream to get to the final and I'm going to do the utmost to bring back that gold.\"\n\nFormer world super-middleweight champion Richie Woodhall said Fontijn paid the price for not working hard enough in round three, while BBC Radio 5 Live analyst Steve Bunce said Price showed \"pure guts and pure heart\" to edge through.\n\n\"I would make a case for Fontijn being one of the best female boxers of the last 25 years, but she's been beaten,\" said Bunce.\n\n\"Price will be going into this final as a heavy favourite. She puts every part of her body into it - it's such a victory for her. She has beaten these two women that are in the other semi-final very comfortably.\"\n\nPrice is guaranteed to take home Great Britain's sixth boxing medal of the Games.\n\nGalal Yafai, who won his thrilling semi-final on Thursday, will compete for gold in the men's flyweight final on Saturday.\n\nOlympic bronze medals have been secured by GB's Kariss Artingstall and Frazer Clarke, while Pat McCormack and Ben Whittaker won silver.\n\nAlso on Friday, Cuba's Julio La Cruz added to his light-heavyweight gold from Rio 2016 by winning gold a division higher - at heavyweight - with a masterful victory over Russian Muslim Gadzhimagomedov.\n• None The music that makes The Hundred: Check out the best new music from your teams region\n• None Could a DNA test find you the perfect diet? How people are using the findings for nutrition advice", "Booster jabs could begin in Wales this month if advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation is received early in August, the first minister said.\n\nMark Drakeford said that if the advice came at the end of the month, the booster campaign would start in September.\n\nPlans for the campaign were \"in from every health board in Wales\", he said.\n\nThe first minister told reporters the programme would focus on the most vulnerable people first.", "Alok Sharma visited the red list country Bolivia this week, before heading to another red list country, Brazil\n\nThe president of the UK's upcoming climate change conference is under fire for travelling to more than 30 countries in seven months.\n\nSeveral places visited by Alok Sharma were on the Covid red list - but he used an exemption for ministers to avoid quarantine on his return.\n\nThe government said face-to-face meetings were \"crucial\" ahead of the COP26 climate summit.\n\nBut opposition parties have accused Mr Sharma of hypocrisy.\n\nWales' First Minister Mark Drakeford called his itinerary - which was all published on government websites - \"inexplicable\".\n\nHe said government ministers should \"demonstrate that we too mean business\" in tackling climate change if they want the public to follow suit.\n\nLiberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine said it was \"completely and utterly irresponsible\" for the minister to come back from red list countries without quarantining.\n\nThe Daily Mail - which first reported the story - also claimed Mr Sharma held a meeting with Prince Charles days after returning from Bangladesh - a red list country - before going on a visit to a primary school.\n\nMr Sharma tweeted pictures of his meeting with the prince, including one showing participants sitting inside without wearing masks.\n\nHe is currently in Brazil - also a red list country - and has tweeted that he is having \"constructive meetings\".\n\nMr Sharma left his post as business secretary in January to take over the presidency of COP26 - the United Nations climate change conference due to take place in Glasgow in November.\n\nSince then, he has met with dignitaries across the globe to discuss climate commitments ahead of the conference - despite the ongoing pandemic.\n\nAsked by the BBC's Nick Robinson in June how he defended his air travel when he is leading on environmental policy, he said it was \"really important\" to meet other governments to discuss plans and the visits had been \"targeted\".\n\nBut Mr Drakeford said ministers \"couldn't exempt themselves\" from changes required to tackle climate change.\n\nHe told BBC News: \"I accept that there are some crucial meetings where being in the same room with other people does bring a new dimension to your ability to make progress.\n\n\"[But] was that necessary 30 times in the lead up to COP26? That, I think, is a completely different matter.\n\n\"We need to maximise the way in which we avoid travel, and we avoid adding to the emissions that creates and we need to lead by example, and I am afraid that is not what we are seeing.\"\n\nPrince Charles met Alok Sharma in June - days after the minister's return from a red list country\n\nThe Green Party's Baroness Jones also said she \"despaired at the inability of Tory ministers to grasp their hypocrisy of talking about our climate emergency then behaving as normal.\"\n\nBut Conservative Culture Minister, Caroline Dinenage, said Mr Sharma had a \"huge job\" with the upcoming conference and success could \"only be achieved by these really strong collaborative conversations that [he] has been pursuing around the world\".\n\nAnd Allegra Stratton, the PM's spokeswoman for COP26, said Mr Sharma had travelled to \"meet key players and negotiate success for us all,\" and was doing \"vital work\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Christine Jardine: Government \"making up a rule\" to suit itself\n\nA government spokesman added: \"Helping the world tackle the climate emergency is an international priority for the government.\n\n\"Virtual meetings play a large part, however face-to-face meetings are key to success in the climate negotiations the UK is leading as hosts of COP26 and are crucial to understanding first-hand the opportunities and challenges other countries are facing in the fight against climate change.\"\n\nIt is also understood the government plans to offset the emissions associated with travel by Mr Sharma and other UK officials in the run up to COP26.\n\nAlok Sharma is not alone in clocking up the air miles.\n\nUS Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry has made official visits to Bangladesh, Belgium, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, the UK and the UAE this year.\n\nFrans Timmermans is the EU executive vice president for the European Green Deal.\n\nHe seems to have been travelling less, having been in South Korea and Singapore in July, with visits to the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy and the UK earlier in the year.\n\nMr Sharma is also facing further criticism for not quarantining on his return from the trips, including from red list countries, such as Bangladesh and Turkey.\n\nUK citizens are advised not to travel to red list countries \"except in the most extreme of circumstances\" - but if they do, they are required by law to quarantine in a government-approved hotel for 10 days at a cost of £2,285 for one adult.\n\nBreaking this law can result in a fine of up to £10,000.\n\nHowever, government ministers can claim an exemption from this rule to carry out \"essential government work\".\n\nOther groups can claim the exemption, including elite sportspeople, certain business executives, diplomats, lorry drivers, and border officials.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, the Lib Dem's Ms Jardine said the government was showing \"yet again [that] there is one rule for them and a different rule for the rest of us\".\n\nShe added: \"Again this government is making up a rule to suit this government and not other people. What about all the families who would love to be in the room for the christening of a grandchild or the wedding of a relative across the world? They would love to be in the room and they are not there.\n\n\"The rest of us the rest of the time have learned to make use of the electronic facilities that are there, the advances in technology.\n\n\"This government is losing touch completely with what the actual needs, demands and priorities of the ordinary people in this country are.\"", "Gas and electricity customers are still being plagued by inaccurate bills from the UK's worst-rated suppliers, a charity has said.\n\nIt said many people whose finances were already stretched by the pandemic faced further difficulties after receiving incorrect energy bills.\n\nSuppliers said smart meters would help improve the accuracy of bills.\n\nCitizens Advice said there was a clear divide between the best and worst performing energy suppliers in the UK during the first three months of the year.\n\nIt has warned of \"a race to the bottom\" among the companies it had placed at, or near, the bottom of the list.\n\nThe charity raised particular concern about inaccurate billing, suggesting that suppliers ranked in the bottom five failed to provide an correct bill for 15% of their customers.\n\nThese problems were then often made worse as customers were unable to contact the company to ensure things were put right.\n\nOne elderly customer told the charity: \"I've contacted them so many times and they say someone will get back to me, but no-one ever calls me back.\"\n\nClare Moriarty, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: \"All companies have a responsibility to deliver the best possible service to their customers and it is disappointing to see such a wide chasm between those who are taking this seriously and those who are not.\n\n\"When customers with billing errors are unable to contact their supplier for help, it can cause immense stress. These problems are even worse for those who are already worried about money.\"\n\nA spokesman for Energy UK, which represents suppliers, said: \"Energy suppliers produce millions of energy bills each year and in the rare cases where errors are made, they need to be fixed quickly.\"\n\nHe said suppliers were striving to improve service and maintain standards. The introduction of smart meters would bring accurate bills, as well as more choice, control and visibility to consumers over their energy use, he added.", "Last updated on .From the section Man City\n\nManchester City have signed England midfielder Jack Grealish from Aston Villa for a British record £100m.\n\nThe 25-year-old joins the Premier League champions on a six-year contract and will wear the number 10 shirt recently vacated by Sergio Aguero.\n\nThe fee surpasses the £89m Manchester United paid to re-sign midfielder Paul Pogba from Juventus in 2016.\n\n\"City are the best team in the country with a manager considered to be the best in the world,\" said Grealish.\n\n\"It's a dream come true to be part of this club.\"\n\nThe move makes Grealish the ninth most expensive footballer in history.\n\nHe could make his debut for Pep Guardiola's side in Saturday's Community Shield against Leicester City at Wembley.\n• None Villa 'hoped' Grealish £100m release clause would never be met\n• None Where does Grealish fit in at Man City?\n• None Quiz: Name the past 13 players to go for a British transfer record\n\nA boyhood Villa fan, Grealish joined the club aged six and made 213 appearances in all competitions, scoring 32 goals.\n\nHe said: \"It was obviously a difficult few months because I have been an Aston Villa fan for my whole life, but when I spoke to the manager here and you see what type of players they have got here, in the end it was something I couldn't say no to.\n\n\"Competing for major trophies is something that I wanted to do. It was something I couldn't turn down.\n\n\"Playing in the Champions League was a massive thing for me, I haven't done that yet. When I was sitting there on a Tuesday or Wednesday night last year it was just what I wanted to do. To be able to do it with this club is going to be a dream.\n\n\"I had a long chat with [Pep Guardiola] about positions and stuff like that, all football. It was such a positive chat and shows why I want to play under him.\n\n\"The way this team is set up to play suits me down to a tee, the way the manager likes to play suits me.\"\n• None How would you get Grealish in the team? Pick your Man City XI\n• None Listen: The Football Daily Podcast breaks down Grealish's move to Man City\n\nCity director of football Txiki Begiristain said: \"Jack's development over the past few seasons both for club and country has been plain for everybody to see.\n\n\"His natural talent together with his commitment to improve as a player has seen him become one of the most exciting attacking players in world football today.\"\n\nIn an address to supporters explaining the reasons behind Grealish's sale, Villa chief executive Christian Purslow revealed there was a £100m release clause in the five-year deal he signed last summer.\n\n\"Jack wanted to be certain if at any point a Champions League club came in for him and Aston Villa were not in the competition we would not stand in his way,\" said Purslow.\n\n\"For that reason, we agreed to incorporate a so-called release clause. We set the value at a level we hope would not be met, but reflected his true value to Villa.\"Manchester City said they would be willing to pay £100m to trigger the clause.\n\n\"It was a highly emotional moment when Jack finally told me his decision, leaving me in no doubt how hard it had been for him to decide to leave.\"\n\nAfter progressing through the Villa youth set-up, Grealish went on loan to Notts County, then in League One, in 2013 to gain senior experience.\n\nHe made his Villa debut in a 4-0 defeat by City in May 2014 and made 17 Premier League appearances during the 2014-15 season as Villa finished one place above the relegation zone.\n\nDuring the following season, he scored his first top-flight goal against Leicester City in September 2015 and made 16 league appearances as Villa finished bottom and were relegated to the Championship.\n\nVilla spent three seasons in the Championship before Grealish helped them regain their Premier League status with a play-off final win against Derby County.\n\nHe made 36 Premier League appearances during 2019-20 and scored eight goals, including one in the 1-1 draw against West Ham United which secured Villa's top-flight survival on the final day of a season interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nA Republic of Ireland Under-21 international, Grealish announced in 2015 that he wanted to represent England. Having switched to their Under-21 side, he made his senior England debut in a goalless draw against Denmark in September 2020.\n\nLast season, Grealish scored six goals in 26 Premier League appearances, including two in a 7-2 win over Liverpool, as Villa finished 11th.\n\nHe spent three months out injured from mid-February to mid-May but his return just before the end of the campaign saw him selected in England manager Gareth Southgate's squad for Euro 2020.\n\nGrealish impressed in warm-up wins against Austria and Romania and made one start and four substitute appearances, registering two assists, for England during the tournament.\n\nFor all the nudges about Manchester City's spending and the questions about how the club manages to do deals like this one without falling foul of profit and sustainability rules, it is worth noting they are now responsible for the biggest single purchase by an English club during their Abu Dhabi ownership for only the second time.\n\nThe first occasion was that never-to-be-forgotten night in 2008 when Sheikh Mansour went on an elaborate sweep of available players to prove he was a man to be taken seriously and spent £50m on Brazil striker Robinho.\n\nIn the same period, Manchester United have held the record seven times. It is United's £89m purchase of Paul Pogba in 2016 that the Grealish deal has overtaken.\n\nOf City's 'big six' rivals, only Tottenham have not invested a significant sum in an individual player during the pandemic - although United and Chelsea are the only clubs that can truly be argued to have spent such high sums so consistently over so many seasons.\n\nThere is a book-balancing exercise going on as well.\n\nIncluding Leroy Sane's exit for Bayern Munich last summer and the £11m they received as a sell-on payment from Borussia Dortmund's sale of Jadon Sancho to Manchester United, City sources argue the club has already raised £109.5m over the past 12 months - with - potentially - another £55m to come through sales of younger players.\n\nThis does not include the exit of high-earning Sergio Aguero to Barcelona, nor the potential sales of bigger names before the transfer window closes, the most likely of which is Bernardo Silva, who wants to move to Spain.\n\nOn the basis that some clubs will always have more money than others, some may wonder why this is important anyway.\n\nHowever, given their recent skirmish with Uefa over Financial Fair Play, it is understandable why City are sensitive when it comes to their finances.\n\nEvidently though, the club is in a different place to 20 years ago, when they were trying to re-invent themselves under Kevin Keegan. Back then their idea of a big name was Eyal Berkovic, who joined them from Celtic for £1.5m.\n\nFind all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.\n• None Get news and features about your favourite team direct to your phone with the BBC Sport App's Premier League club news notifications, along with line-ups, latest scores and results. Download the App here:\n• None Notifications, Live Guide, social media and more with BBC Sport", "Afghan government forces and allied militia are fighting against the Taliban in key cities across the country\n\nAfghan journalists who work for the British media will be allowed to relocate to the UK if they are under \"imminent threat\" from the Taliban, the foreign secretary has said.\n\nIn a letter to UK media organisations, Dominic Raab said cases would be considered \"on an exceptional basis\".\n\nBritish news outlets had urged No 10 to treat Afghan journalists the same as the British Army's Afghan interpreters.\n\nIt comes as a top Afghan media officer was killed by the Taliban on Friday.\n\nDawa Khan Menapal, the director of Afghanistan's media and information centre, was shot dead as he was leaving a mosque in his car in the Afghan capital of Kabul. The Taliban said he had been \"punished for his deeds\".\n\nTaliban militants continue to make rapid advances in Afghanistan, taking swathes of countryside and targeting key cities, following the decisions by US and Nato forces to leave the country.\n\nLocal officials said insurgents had captured the city of Zaranj, in Nimroz province, on Friday afternoon, in a significant blow to government forces.\n\nThis 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 TOLOnews 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.\n\nAlso on Friday, the UK government advised all UK nationals to leave Afghanistan due to the \"worsening security situation\".\n\nThe Foreign and Development Office has updated its travel advice to urge Britons to leave by commercial means, and to make the British embassy in Kabul aware of their plans.\n\nMr Raab's letter follows a plea from a group of newspapers and broadcasters who wrote to the UK government to urge that Afghan journalists, translators and fixers be treated the same as interpreters who worked for the British armed forces.\n\nSince 2013, some Afghan interpreters who had put their lives at risk by working with the British military have been permitted to relocate to the UK, with their families.\n\nMr Raab wrote that the \"freedom\" of global media outlets was a \"priority\" for the government.\n\nHe added: \"The vibrant Afghan media is one of the greatest successes in Afghanistan in the last 19 years, and it should be celebrated and protected.\n\n\"Your letter highlighted the threat faced by Afghan staff who have worked for your media organisations in Afghanistan, in particular the risk of reprisals they face from the Taliban from their association with the UK.\n\n\"Under existing schemes, we are able to consider individual cases for relocation on an exceptional basis, where there is evidence they are under imminent threat due to the nature of their engagement with the UK.\n\n\"Journalists (and those supporting them) can be eligible for our support, depending on the individual circumstances that apply.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Afghan interpreter relocated to UK: \"A better life for my wife and children\"\n\nEarlier this year plans to relocate hundreds more Afghan interpreters and their family members were announced, with more than 3,000 expected to be allowed to settle.\n\nOn Thursday a flight of 104 people, made up of interpreters and their family members, arrived at a Midlands airport as part of the UK's ongoing relocation programme.\n\nOne interpreter, called H, said that while he was happy for his wife and children to be in Britain he was sad to have left his family behind.\n\nLast month, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said all British troops assigned to Nato's mission in Afghanistan would be returning home, and most had already left.\n\nThe US has said it will withdraw all forces by 11 September.\n\nBut Britain's most senior general, General Nick Carter, warned Afghanistan could slide into civil war once foreign troops leave.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Athlete Krystina Timanovskaya: \"It's dangerous for me in Belarus\"\n\nA sprinter from Belarus who refused her team's orders to fly home early from the Olympics has revealed she decided to flee after her grandmother warned her it was not safe to return.\n\nKrystina Timanovskaya told the BBC she was being driven to the airport when her grandmother called, saying: \"Do not come back.\"\n\nThe athlete had been ordered to return home after criticising her coaches.\n\nShe is now in Poland, where she has been given a humanitarian visa.\n\nBelarus says she was removed from the national team because of her emotional state. But the 24-year-old says this is not true.\n\nThe case has again put the spotlight on Belarus, which has been ruled by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko since 1994. Last year, nationwide protests over his disputed re-election were violently repressed by the security forces.\n\nMs Timanovskaya's removal came after the sprinter complained on social media about being entered into the 4x400m relay race at short notice, after some teammates were found to be ineligible to compete.\n\nThe video led to criticism in state media, with one television channel saying she lacked team spirit.\n\nMs Timanovskaya said two coaches came into her room and told her to pack her bags immediately, ready to return home. She was told to say that she had been injured.\n\nThe sprinter revealed her grandmother said she was concerned that something bad might happen, after watching local news reports on the situation.\n\n\"I couldn't believe [that my grandmother would tell me not to come home] but I asked, 'Are you sure?' And she said, 'Yes. I'm sure. Do not come back,'\" she recalled.\n\n\"That was the reason why I went to the police.\"\n\nAt the airport, Ms Timanovskaya showed officers a translated plea for help on her phone in an effort to avoid being put on a plane home.\n\nShe was then given police protection before being moved to the Polish embassy in Tokyo. She travelled to Poland on Wednesday.\n\nThe mass protests that gripped Belarus last year saw security forces often use violence to break up the demonstrations and thousands of people arrested.\n\nSome of the protesters were national-level athletes, who were then stripped of funding, cut from national teams and detained.\n\nBut Ms Timanovskaya insists that she is \"not a political girl\" and just wants to focus on her sporting career.\n\n\"I don't know anything about politics. I never was in politics,\" she said.\n\nThe sprinter told the BBC she wanted to return to Belarus, but that it was too dangerous at the moment.\n\nHer husband has also fled Belarus and has been given a visa for Poland, but her relatives remain in the country.\n\nShe said her parents were \"OK, just a little bit nervous\", and trying to avoid watching TV reports about their daughter.\n\n\"They know me and they know the truth and they know what's happened,\" she said.\n\nShe added that the support she had received from people around the world had made her stronger.\n\nIn a separate case, two Belarusian opposition figures have gone on trial this week, charged with incitement to undermine national security.\n\nAnd on Tuesday, Vitaly Shishov, the head of an organisation helping Belarusians fleeing abroad, was found dead near his home in neighbouring Ukraine. He had reportedly been followed recently.\n\nAsked about her hopes for Belarus, Ms Timanovskaya said: \"I want people in my country not to be afraid anymore\".", "Laura Kenny becomes the first British woman to win gold at three Olympic Games as she and Katie Archibald are crowned madison champions in Tokyo.\n\nWatch live coverage of Tokyo 2020 on BBC One, BBC Two, the BBC Sport website, app and BBC iPlayer", "A haul of sprats caught in the Clyde sea\n\nThe return of a small fish in large numbers could signal an improvement in the ecosystem of the Clyde.\n\nThe tiny fish live in open water and are a food source of other marine species.\n\nResearchers at the University of Aberdeen have discovered massive schools of sprat in the Clyde sea, some more than 2km (1.2 miles) long and over 30m (100ft) deep.\n\nThe study found numbers had increased 100-fold since the late 1980s.\n\nThe Clyde was once a thriving marine ecosystem with large fisheries for herring and other species such as cod and haddock.\n\nHowever, these fisheries disappeared, largely due to overexploitation in the latter part of the 20th Century, although a sustainable prawn fishery now operates.\n\nHerring fishing, in particular, disappeared in the late 1990s.\n\nThis new Aberdeen-led study, published in the journal Current Biology, has shown that although herring are still present, the sprat population, a related species, is 100 times more numerous.\n\nThe last time herring and sprat were measured in the 1980s, the combined biomass - or weight - was a quarter of what it is now.\n\nSprat numbers have increased 100-fold since the late 1980s.\n\nThe authors worked with Marine Scotland Science on the vessel Alba na Mara, using scientific sonar equipment to detect the schools of fish.\n\nThey then used advanced sonar processing techniques to estimate the numbers of each species over three years from 2014 to 2016.\n\nThe total weight of sprat in 2016 was estimated at over 70,000 tonnes, equivalent to a population size of 23 billion individuals.\n\nDr Joshua Lawrence led the study which was funded by the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology Scotland (Masts).\n\nHe was surprised at the results.\n\nHe said: \"The Clyde is famous for its herring, but although there has been virtually no fishing pressure on herring in over 20 years, it is the sprat population that has bounced back, not the herring.\n\n\"We can only speculate as to why this has happened - perhaps it is the warming seas, which may favour the sprat, or their more favourable reproduction strategy, as herring need particular gravel beds to spawn, whereas sprat do not.\n\n\"We also found a large concentrations of krill in the Clyde - a major food source for the fish and for other larger animals such as minke whales which are known to visit the area. So there are large populations at various levels of the marine food chain, which tells us that the Clyde's marine ecosystem is faring better than previously thought, despite centuries of overexploitation.\"\n\nOrcas are among whales seen in The Clyde\n\nProf Paul Fernandes, fisheries scientist at the University's School of Biological Sciences, said: \"Sprat form a critical part of the marine food chain, and are vital for other larger fish such as cod and whiting, as well as other animals further up the food chain such as seabirds, whales, dolphins, and sharks.\n\n\"It is fantastic to see these parts of the food chain recover. This should, in time, lead to recovery of the populations of the larger animals that feed on them.\"\n\nHe said the findings now presented a dilemma to fisheries managers and the local seafaring community.\n\nHe said a sprat fishery could operate in the river, but a more sustainable and more lucrative opportunity could present itself through whale watching.\n\nAnecdotal reports suggest more whales and dolphins appearing in the Clyde, and the university detected large numbers of porpoises in the area in a related study.\n\nProf Fernandes said: \"As these whale populations themselves recover, they may find their way into these rich feeding grounds, much as they once did, and I am sure people would pay to see them, as they do in other parts of the world where marine ecosystems have recovered.\n\n\"The key will be to do this responsibly to ensure a long-term future for the Clyde's historic seafaring community.\"", "The assassination comes days after the Taliban attacked the defence minister's house in Kabul\n\nThe director of Afghanistan's media and information centre has been assassinated by Taliban militants in the capital, Kabul.\n\nDawa Khan Menapal was killed by gunmen on Darul Aman Road in the capital, reports said.\n\nThe Taliban said he had been \"punished for his deeds\".\n\nIt came as local officials said that the southern city of Zaranj had become the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban.\n\nA government source told the BBC that the insurgents had taken the city in Nimroz province, on the border with Iran, on Friday. The source said fighting was still happening around the National Directorate of Security office.\n\nThe reports have not been officially confirmed.\n\nMenapal's killing came days after the Taliban assaulted the defence minister's home in Kabul.\n\nAfter the attack on Wednesday - the first major bombing by militants in the city for nearly a year - the Taliban warned of further attacks on government figures.\n\n\"Unfortunately, the savage terrorists have committed a cowardly act once again and martyred a patriotic Afghan,\" interior ministry spokesman Mirwais Stanikzai said.\n\nUS Charge d'Affaires to Afghanistan Ross Wilson tweeted that he was \"saddened and disgusted\" by the killing, adding: \"These murders are an affront to Afghans' human rights and freedom of speech.\"\n\nThis 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 TOLOnews 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.\n\nThe UN Security Council has called an open meeting for Friday on the situation in Afghanistan amid worsening violence.\n\nTaliban militants have captured large swathes of the countryside and are now attacking key cities including Kandahar in the south, economically important Herat, and Lashkar Gar - capital of Helmand Province.\n\nIt comes after US and other international forces announced their withdrawal following two decades of operations.\n\nDiplomats said Afghan government officials requested the meeting in view of the growing unrest. It is set to start at 10:00 local time (14:00 GMT) in New York, diplomats said.\n\nOn Thursday night US and Afghan forces launched air strikes on Taliban positions in Lashkar Gah.\n\nGovernment troops have vowed not to lose the strategically significant town, and fighting there has been fierce. Officials have urged civilians to evacuate, with thousands trapped or fleeing for their lives.\n\nNeighbouring nations are also set to discuss the situation in Afghanistan on Friday.\n\nKazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have sent diplomats to Turkmenistan's town of Avaza on the Caspian Sea for annual talks.\n\nTurkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov called Afghanistan \"the question that worries us all\" on Wednesday during a state television broadcast, AFP news agency reports.\n\nRussia meanwhile has held military drills with Uzbek forces this week, amid growing concerns about security in the region - including the capture of key Afghan border crossings in the past month.\n\nOn Thursday the European Union called for \"an urgent, comprehensive and permanent ceasefire\" in Afghanistan as the \"senseless violence\" escalates.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. In July the BBC's Yogita Limaye travelled to Afghanistan's Kunduz province, most of which has fallen to the Taliban", "Jennifer Aniston recently took part in the Friends reunion\n\nJennifer Aniston has expanded on why she has cut off some of her friends who have refused to be vaccinated.\n\nEarlier this week, the Friends actress said she had \"lost a few people from [her] weekly routine\" who had decided against having a Covid jab.\n\nSome of her Instagram followers have since asked why she was so worried, given that she had been vaccinated.\n\n\"Because if you have the variant, you are still able to give it to me,\" she posted on Thursday.\n\n\"I may get slightly sick but I will not be admitted to a hospital and or die.\n\n\"But I can give it to someone else who does not have the vaccine and whose health is compromised (or has a previous existing condition) - and therefore I would put their lives at risk.\"\n\nThe actress made the comments on her Instagram story, which allows users to post pictures, videos and messages which only stay live for 24 hours.\n\nIn her interview with InStyle, published on Tuesday, Aniston said: \"There's still a large group of people who are anti-vaxxers or just don't listen to the facts. It's a real shame.\n\nAniston will star in the second series of The Morning Show, which launches in September\n\n\"I've just lost a few people in my weekly routine who have refused or did not disclose [whether or not they had been vaccinated], and it was unfortunate. I feel it's your moral and professional obligation to inform, since we're not all podded up and being tested every single day.\"\n\nShe added: \"It's tricky because everyone is entitled to their own opinion - but a lot of opinions don't feel based in anything except fear or propaganda.\"\n\nAniston is one of the most famous actresses in the world, thanks in large part to her portrayal of Rachel on the US sitcom Friends.\n\nEarlier this year, the cast of the show hit the headlines when they reunited on screen for the first time in 17 years.\n\nAniston broke an Instagram record (which has since been beaten) when she joined the social media platform in 2019, and now has 37 million followers.\n\nEarlier this week, US news network CNN sacked three employees for returning to work unvaccinated. CNN boss Jeff Zucker said the company had \"a zero tolerance policy on this\".\n\nIn the UK on Thursday, the new NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard urged unvaccinated young adults to get jabbed, saying it is \"so important\".\n\nMore than 46 million people in the UK have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine - part of the biggest inoculation programme the country has ever launched.\n\nThese high vaccination levels have created a \"protective wall\", the government has said, sufficient to end legal restrictions on social contact.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Professor Jonathan Van-Tam answers a range of questions about Covid from young audience members\n\nFirst vaccines are now being offered to everyone aged 16 and above as well as children over the age of 12 who are at higher risk from Covid.\n\nThe NHS website states that vaccines are \"the best way to protect yourself and others\" against Covid, noting how they reduce the risk of people getting seriously ill or dying from the virus, while also lessening the chances of them catching or spreading it.\n\nHowever, they also note that vaccinated people can still catch and spread coronavirus.\n\nWhile mild side effects are common, they say, more serious ones such as allergic reactions or blood clotting are rare.\n\nAniston may have publicly championed vaccines, but other entertainment stars including Stone Roses singer Ian Brown, Van Morrison and Eric Clapton have expressed concerns.\n\nClapton described his experience of taking the vaccine as \"disastrous\", and blamed \"propaganda\" for overstating its safety.\n\nHe, Brown and Richard Ashcroft have all pulled out of a festival appearances over their refusal to play events that require vaccination proof as a condition of entry.\n\nFrom the end of September, the government hopes to introduce a law requiring two jabs to go to nightclubs and some other venues in England.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion, email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Snickers in Spain has pulled a controversial TV advert that was heavily criticised for being homophobic.\n\nThe 20-second commercial shows Spanish influencer Aless Gibaja transform into a bearded man with a low voice after eating a Snickers ice cream.\n\nThe video went viral this week, with some calling for a boycott of Snickers.\n\nThe chocolate brand has now apologised for any \"misunderstanding that may have been caused\" by the film.\n\nIn it, Mr Gibaja is at a beach bar with a friend where he asks a waiter for a \"sexy orange juice with vitamins A, B and C\".\n\nThis 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 Mario Montes 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.\n\nThe waiter, looking confused, offers him the Snickers ice cream. After taking a bite, Mr Gibaja appears to transform into a bearded man.\n\n\"Better?\" the friend asks. \"Better,\" replies the man. A slogan reads: \"You're not yourself when you're hungry.\"\n\nThe advert unleashed a wave of accusations on social media that the brand was insulting gay men.\n\n\"It is shameful and regrettable that at this point there are companies that continue to perpetuate stereotypes and promote homophobia,\" the State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Trans and Bisexuals tweeted.\n\n\"I wonder to whom it might seem like a good idea to use homophobia as a business strategy,\" she wrote on Twitter.\n\n\"Our society is diverse and tolerant. Hopefully those who have the power to make decisions about what we see and hear in commercials and TV shows will learn to be too.\"\n\nThe left-wing party Podemos noted how the advert had followed a slew of homophobic hate crimes in Spain in recent months.\n\n\"In the face of a wave of LGBTI-phobia, including attacks and even murders, Snickers can't think of a better idea than to create a trashy commercial that tells you that you are not yourself if you are effeminate,\" it said on Twitter.\n\nIn May, five gay men were injured in three attacks during a single weekend in Barcelona.\n\nOn Thursday, Snickers Spain said it was deleting the advert and apologised for \"any misunderstanding\" it may have caused.\n\n\"In this specific campaign, the aim was to convey in a friendly and casual way that hunger can change your character,\" it said in a statement posted online.\n\n\"At no time has it been intended to stigmatize or offend any person or group.\"\n\nA spokesperson for parent company Mars Wrigley said the firm wholeheartedly apologised for any harm caused by the advert and recognised that it \"got it wrong\".\n\n\"We take equal rights and inclusion seriously, we want a world where everybody is free to be themselves and we believe that as an employer and advertiser we have a role and a responsibility to play our part in creating that world,\" the firm's spokesperson added.\n\nIn 2008, a Snickers advert that featured the A-Team's Mr T calling a speed walker a \"disgrace to the man race\" was pulled after accusations it was offensive to gay people.\n\nCorrection 24 August 2021: An earlier version of this article omitted trans when translating the Federación Estatal LGTB into English and this line has been amended.", "Tokyo Olympics: Day-by-day guide to the key events and British medal hopes\n\nLast updated on .From the section Olympics", "Cpl Jake Hartley, who died in Afghanistan in 2012\n\nAfter the withdrawal of US troops, battles between the Taliban and government forces are raging across Afghanistan. But how are the families of British soldiers who died in Afghanistan coping now? The BBC spoke to one soldier's mother.\n\n\"Hello family. Please don't cry Mum. I'm not here now, I'm in a better place.\"\n\nThose were the words of Corporal Jake Hartley to his mum Nathalie in his last letter - the message written by soldiers to be opened in the event of their death.\n\nJake was 20 when he died in Afghanistan in 2012, and his mother has struggled to cope ever since. \"It makes me angry,\" says Nathalie. \"Jake gave his life for Queen and country.\"\n\nJake grew up with his mum and younger brother Ethan, whom he adored, in a village called New Mill near Holmfirth in West Yorkshire. Jake and his mother were inseparable.\n\n\"He could just walk in a room and if you were feeling sad or down he would just make you laugh,\" says Nathalie. \"He was just a lovely character. And he joked all the time, he could make anybody laugh, he was such a lovable person.\"\n\nNathalie had no idea that Jake wanted to be a soldier. When he was younger, he planned on becoming a plumber.\n\nBut a visit to an air show changed his life, and his heart was set on a career in the military - specifically, the Yorkshire Regiment. After joining the Army, he thrived, and quickly rose to become a corporal.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nathalie's son Cpl Jake Hartley was killed in Helmand in 2012\n\nJake first toured Helmand in 2009, before returning to Afghanistan in 2012. His family were incredibly proud, and he loved life in the regiment.\n\nBut in March that year, there was a knock at the door of the family home in New Mill that changed everything.\n\n\"When they knocked on the door, I was just in shock,\" says Nathalie.\n\n\"I just slammed the door when I saw them in uniform. I knew it, I had a really bad feeling that there was something wrong. I collapsed, and I can still hear my cry, a scream like a cry.\"\n\nCpl Jake Hartley was one of six servicemen killed when an improvised explosive device exploded under their Warrior armoured vehicle. At the time it was the biggest single loss of life in combat suffered by the British in the war.\n\n(In 2006, 14 British servicemen were killed when a Nimrod plane exploded in Afghanistan shortly after air-to-air refuelling - the cause was a fuel leak).\n\nNathalie says: \"They were in the Warrior and the six of them were going to do a patrol,\" says Nathalie. \"They got lost and they went off track. They didn't know that IEDs were planted there.\"\n\nNathalie is 49 now, and her home is full of pictures of Jake - images from his Army career and youth. It's a shrine to his memory; a life cut short just before his 21st birthday.\n\n\"I light a candle and I touch his picture,\" she says. \"I say good morning, good night Jake. I can hear laughter in the house. I'll talk to him, it's like he is here.\n\n\"I still charge his old phone and keep his wallet on the microwave, that's where he plonked them, with money and items like cinema and Blockbusters tickets.\n\n\"I've got his best clothes, I polish his boots, his buckle and I still have his shoes in the shoe rack. It's just little comforts, but it might seem crazy to some people.\"\n\nFor Nathalie, this is her way of coping with grief and pain that has lasted nearly a decade. Since losing Jake, life has been a struggle.\n\n\"I've had issues with alcohol. And it's been my worst nightmare, my worst enemy. But I've learned how to deal with that, to live with the pain.\n\n\"Some days are harder than other days and there are triggers - things can happen within my day that can take me back to that moment.\"\n\nSome days, Nathalie has been consumed with guilt and has wanted to end her own life. She still sees Jake's friends - some are 30 years old, married with children.\n\n\"I have depression - there's been times in my life that I've hit rock bottom,\" she says.\n\n\"Losing Jake has caused so much pain. I've not wanted to be here... it's like I just wanted to go to him and I wanted the pain and everything to just go away, I just didn't want to feel.\"\n\nAfter two decades of intervention and conflict, it has taken just weeks for the Taliban to seize control of large areas of Afghanistan after US forces left. It's been hard for Nathalie to watch.\n\n\"I don't think we should go back or have any involvement whatsoever; we've done what we can and it's cost too many lives. It makes me angry, Jake gave his life for Queen and country and for us to be safe.\"\n\nThe Ministry of Defence says 457 British military personnel lost their lives during the conflict in Afghanistan.\n\nJake was a highly commended soldier, and Nathalie believes he would have gone on to achieve his ambition of being selected for the SAS. She also says he would have loved to have settled down and start a family.\n\n\"Jake paid the ultimate sacrifice, but so do the families - we have definitely been forgotten about,\" she says,\n\n\"It's just a waste, it does feel like a waste but I think that there is no comeback. There is nothing we can do.\"", "Modern prepayment meters can be topped up online\n\nPeople who use prepayment energy meters should be at the front of the queue in a shift to new, money-saving energy technology, charities have said.\n\nNational Energy Action, which lobbies for action for warm and dry homes, said some people were forced outside during lockdowns to top-up old meters.\n\nFollowing consultation with a host of charities, it said replacing these old meters should be given priority.\n\nSmart meters are being installed in households across the country.\n\nNational Energy Action spoke to 130 organisations across the UK that work with low income and vulnerable energy consumers. Many lower-income residents and tenants pay for their electricity and gas via prepayment meters often online, but possibly by buying credit at shops and post offices.\n\nIts report. published on Tuesday, suggested families with the oldest prepayment meters faced extra difficulty during the Covid crisis to keep the lights on and to keep homes warm. Some had to go out to shops, when they would have otherwise stayed at home, to pay to top-up meters.\n\n\"There is clear evidence vulnerable energy customers with older pay-as-you-go meters were put at needless risk during pandemic,\" said Frazer Scott, chief executive of Energy Action Scotland and co-author of the report.\n\nSmart meters are being installed across the UK\n\nHe said replacing these meters should be the priority for the smart meter roll-out, as well as capping how much these customers paid.\n\nThe introduction of smart meters into British households has not been smooth, with concerns raised over missed targets, faulty technology and concerns for some customers switching suppliers.\n\nHowever, the move has been marketed as an opportunity to make the system more efficient, by ending manual meter readings, and to save customers money.\n\nRobert Cheesewright, from Smart Energy GB - which promotes the technology, said: \"Getting smart prepayment meters can be life changing for households. We must make sure low-income, vulnerable and prepay customers benefit from smart meters and the roll-out.\"\n\nThe report comes shortly after advice charity Citizens Advice warned that gas and electricity customers were still being plagued by inaccurate bills from the UK's worst-rated suppliers.", "An Afghan man who worked as an interpreter for the British army has said that he is \"in hell\" waiting to be evacuated from Afghanistan.\n\nThe man said colleagues who also worked as interpreters had already faced warnings from the Taliban.\n\nHe said the reason they were suffering is because they had worked for the British army.\n\nHe added he had been queuing at the airport with his wife and four-month-old daughter for more than 24 hours.\n\nThe interpreter is one of thousands of people said to be waiting to board flights at Kabul's international airport, just over a week after the Taliban seized the capital.\n\nThe UK is working with US forces to evacuate people before the 31 August deadline when US forces say they will withdraw.\n\n\"You are waiting 14, 15 hours without water, without food,\" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. \"You can see lots of people over here, thousands of people.\n\n\"There is no way for us to go in and ask someone. I'm actually trying to find somebody from [the] British embassy just to ask them what's happening with us.\n\n\"I'm always sending emails, tens of emails, and I asked them please help us. And they just sent me one email back, that we should wait. I don't know what to do.\"\n\nThe man, who cannot be named for security reasons, said the heat was becoming unbearable for them, with temperatures reaching 40C.\n\n\"[My daughter] is just four months old. She's just four months old,\" he said. \"She is screaming, crying, she is very uncomfortable. And what to say?\n\n\"Some of my friends have already faced many issues, like they have already got warnings from Taliban. Some people came [to the] door for us, and they asked about us.\n\n\"There's hundreds of other interpreters, their lives are in danger. And their futures are very uncertain. And I think we are in a hell.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Lyse Doucet reports from Kabul airport, where many Afghans are fleeing the Taliban regime\n\nArmed Forces minister James Heappey told BBC Breakfast that 6,631 people had been evacuated from Afghanistan in the past week, and that nine flights were planned for a 24-hour period.\n\nAfghan interpreters and others who worked for the UK government can come to the UK as part of the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP).\n\nBut the man who spoke to the BBC is one of those still waiting. Mr Heappey said more than 2,000 Afghans were still due to be evacuated under the scheme.\n\nPleading directly to the British authorities, the interpreter said: \"I was with you everywhere, I was with you in a very dangerous zone.\n\n\"I don't want food from them, I don't want a shelter from them, I just want them to take me out of this hell, please.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA consultation is launching to seek people's views on whether beavers should be reintroduced to England's rivers.\n\nThe creatures were once widespread throughout Britain, but were hunted to extinction 400 years ago.\n\nStudies have shown that the return of the mammals could help to restore river habitats.\n\nBut the National Farmers' Union warned that beavers' dams can cause disruption.\n\nThe consultation will last for 12 weeks.\n\nEnvironment Secretary George Eustice said: \"Today marks a significant milestone for the reintroduction of beavers in the wild.\n\n\"But we also understand that there are implications for landowners, so we are taking a cautious approach to ensure that all potential impacts are carefully considered.\"\n\nThe steps towards bringing beavers back to England follows reintroduction programmes in Scotland, which have led to established wild beaver populations. Trials in Wales and England have also been assessing the mammal's impact on the environment.\n\nA five-year study of beavers that were reintroduced to the River Otter in Devon found that the creatures were beneficial to the environment.\n\nBeavers are often described as eco-engineers - their dams create wetland habitats where wildlife can flourish. The animals transport logs, branches, stones and mud to build the barriers across rivers. The dams help create pools of deep water that deter predators.\n\nThe River Otter study found that the natural constructions also act as natural flood barriers, protecting homes downstream.\n\nBeavers were once native to Britain but were wiped out 400 years ago\n\nEva Bishop, from the Beaver Trust, said a national policy for the animals was an important step.\n\n\"We hope to see beavers accepted back in the countryside like any other native wild animal - particularly as they have a role to play in nature's recovery and British wildlife resilience in the climate emergency,\" she said.\n\nHowever, the River Otter study also concluded that beavers can cause localised problems for some landowners.\n\nAnd the National Farmers' Union urged caution over widespread reintroductions, warning that beavers can damage trees and impede drainage from farmland.\n\nNFU spokesman Richard Bramley said: \"Where there is a financial impact on a farm business, adequate compensation must be made and an exit strategy must be in place should major issues occur.\"\n\nThe government has also announced plans to give beavers legal protection in England as a native species.\n\nThis makes it an offence to deliberately capture, kill, disturb or injure the mammals, or to damage breeding sites or resting places.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Khalid says his baby was in \"a bad situation\" outside Kabul airport, but is now doing better\n\nWith evacuation flights now reaching the UK, one BBC correspondent caught up with one Afghan evacuee he first met in the crush outside Kabul airport.\n\nKhalid, a former British Army interpreter, has just arrived in the north of England on an evacuation flight from Afghanistan. Speaking from his hotel room, he has a broad smile.\n\n\"It feels fantastic, it's very good,\" he says.\n\nWe first met Khalid close to Kabul airport on Friday, along with his wife, two young children and a newborn baby. They had been granted permission to fly out by the UK embassy, but the crowds around the gates were so large and panicked it was impossible for them to get through.\n\nAmid the dirt, heat and rush, he was terrified that his baby could die.\n\n\"I thought to myself I will never be able to enter the camp… my baby was in a bad situation,\" Khalid told the BBC. His ordeal included being lashed by the Taliban whilst in the crowd.\n\nKhalid feared he and his family would not get into the airport compound in Kabul\n\nMost of those camped out in dire conditions at the airport have not yet been granted visas. They're so desperate to leave that they've turned up anyway, clutching documents proving they worked with international troops or foreign embassies. As a result of the huge crowds, those with permission are struggling to get through.\n\nWe managed to alert British soldiers to the condition of Khalid's family, who were able enter the secure compound where evacuees are processed. Khalid's wife and baby received medical care, before they were all flown to the UK.\n\nLeaving Afghanistan was a relief, but the moment was bittersweet. Khalid feared being targeted by the Taliban for working with British forces, despite promises by the group of an amnesty.\n\n\"They are saying these things now, but no-one knows what will happen in the future,\" he said.\n\n\"When you leave your country, your people, especially your sister, your brothers, your mother, your everyone… because of those things I was sad, but now I am happy in the UK.\"\n\nKhalid is particularly concerned about friends and close family members who worked for British private security companies in Afghanistan, but who have been told they are not eligible for relocation. He's urging the British government to allow them to travel too. Many others who want to leave will not be able to.\n\nKhalid and his family are now safe in the north of England", "Katie Price was taken to hospital after Essex Police was called to Little Canfield\n\nA man has been arrested on suspicion of assaulting former model and TV personality Katie Price.\n\nMs Price, 43, was taken to hospital after sustaining a facial injury, Essex Police said.\n\nThe force said it was called by the ambulance service shortly after 01:30 BST to reports of an assault in Little Canfield, near Stansted Airport.\n\nA 32-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of assault and remained in custody, police said.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Kamala Harris in her visit to Asia has sought to reassure allies\n\nLike many across the world, millions in Asia have been shocked by the scenes of desperation coming out of Afghanistan - with some asking if America can still be trusted.\n\nOn Sunday evening - just a week after the Afghan capital Kabul fell to the Taliban - US vice-president Kamala Harris landed in Singapore for the start of a whirlwind Asian tour.\n\nShe has since sought to smooth ruffled feathers by saying the region is a \"top priority\" for the US.\n\nBut is it enough to reassure those concerned in Asia? And can America fend off China's attempts to seize on what some say is a golden opportunity for anti-US propaganda?\n\nOn Monday, Singapore's prime minister Lee Hsien Loong warned that many in the region were watching how the US repositions itself in the fallout of Afghanistan.\n\nFor two of America's biggest regional allies in particular, South Korea and Japan, public confidence in the US has largely been unaffected - but there have been anxious murmurings from some quarters.\n\nSome conservatives have called for their militaries to be beefed up, arguing that they cannot fully trust in America's promise to back them up in a conflict.\n\nThe US presently has tens of thousands of troops stationed in both countries, but former president Donald Trump's America First foreign policy had strained relationships.\n\nIn an interview with ABC News last week, US President Joe Biden insisted there was a \"fundamental difference\" between Afghanistan and allies like South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, saying it was \"not even comparable\".\n\nThe Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has unsettled many in Asia\n\nExperts have agreed, pointing out that Afghanistan is not the same as more developed places in Asia which have their own substantial military resources and strong governments.\n\nAs Asian democracies, they share similar values as America and have become significant trade and military partners. And with places like South Korea forming the bedrock of US military strategy in Asia, it would be unlikely that the US would pull out its troops any time soon.\n\nBut as uncertainty swirls, China has ratcheted up its rhetoric.\n\nChina's foreign Minister Wang Yi said last week that the US \"hasty\" pullout from Afghanistan has caused a \"serious negative impact \"while some hawkish government figures and state media have gone one step further.\n\nForeign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian has repeatedly compared it to the fall of Saigon, while his colleague Hua Chunying called the US \"destructive\", adding that \"wherever the US sets foot… we see turbulence, division, broken families, deaths and other scars in the mess it has left.\"\n\nNationalist tabloid Global Times carried an editorial urging Taiwan to stop \"bonding themselves to the anti-Chinese mainland chariot of the US\", arguing that the US would not bother waging a costly war with China over Taiwan.\n\nIts editor-in-chief also posted this tweet:\n\nThis 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 Hu Xijin 胡锡进 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.\n\nTaiwan, which buys weapons from the US, considers itself as an independent country, but China sees it as a renegade province that must be reclaimed even by force.\n\nThe island has fought back in recent days by repeatedly likening China to the Taliban. Premier Su Tseng-chang said last week that \"foreign forces\" who wanted to invade Taiwan were \"deluded\", while foreign minister Joseph Wu had this to say:\n\nThis 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 2 by 外交部 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan) 🇹🇼 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. End of twitter post 2 by 外交部 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan) 🇹🇼\n\nThe situation was not helped by Mr Biden who, in his ABC interview, appeared to conflate Taiwan with South Korea and Japan, with whom the US has formal agreements to defend if war breaks out. Unlike the others, Taiwan does not have a defence treaty with the US and only an implicit security guarantee.\n\nUS officials later said their \"strategic ambiguity\" policy on Taiwan had not changed, but the incident only gave Chinese state media more fodder to attack the US.\n\nThe Afghanistan exit, in other words, has been a golden opportunity for China to convince the Asian public that the US cannot be trusted, say experts.\n\n\"The whole point of this propaganda is to increase public pressure on governments that have close cooperation with US, and weaken that relationship,\" said Ian Chong, an associate professor of political science with the National University of Singapore.\n\nBut Afghanistan has not been a total windfall for China either.\n\nBonnie Glaser, an Asia expert at the German Marshall Fund, believes that Beijing sees the recent changes in Afghanistan as more risky than beneficial. \"The Chinese are very worried about the potential for instability and Afghanistan continuing to be a haven for militants and terrorists,\" she said.\n\nIn a pragmatic move, China invited the Taliban over for talks last month, offering economic support for Afghanistan but also stressing that the country should not be used as a staging point for terrorists.\n\nChina has skin in the game: its companies have won multi-million dollar oil and copper mining contracts in Afghanistan.\n\nChina's foreign minister Wang Yi (right) posed for pictures with the Taliban leader Mullah Baradar (left)\n\nBut domestically, it has struggled to sell this cautious alliance to some parts of the Chinese public that are repulsed by the Taliban.\n\nWhen the Taliban retook power last week, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that China respects \"the choice of Afghan people\". The phrase quickly attracted backlash and accusations of whitewashing on Chinese social media.\n\nAt a time of heightened awareness of women's rights in China, many online have criticised the Taliban for their treatment of Afghan women.\n\nThere's also the fact that Beijing now has to deal with an Islamist militant group right at its doorstep, at a time when China continues to brutally crack down on its own Muslim minority in the name of combating extremism.\n\nWith the clampdown on the Uighurs, \"the Chinese central government has been getting people to be wary of religious groups. So this association with the Taliban could be problematic as it's contradictory,\" said Dr Chong.\n\n\"What China is doing now is to garner whatever tactical advantage they can get. But what [kind of gains] it can be transformed into, is up in the air. We don't even know where Afghanistan is going right now.\"\n\nSome observers, like Ms Glaser, believe that the Afghan withdrawal is not \"the death knell of US leadership\", and that US allies will be reassured that Washington would now pay greater attention to the region and its competition with China.\n\nIn her speech on Tuesday in Singapore, Ms Harris sold a vision of American faithfulness to Asia.\n\nShe said \"there should be no doubt we have enduring interests in this region and enduring commitments as well… those commitments also include security\", and promised that the US would \"invest our time and our energy\" in strengthening relationships.\n\nMs Harris in Singapore on Tuesday received an orchid that was named after her\n\nJames Crabtree, executive director of think tank II-SS Asia, noted that Ms Harris' visit was one of several made to Asia in recent months by top US officials.\n\n\"The Americans have answered the first set of criticisms which is 'You've forgotten us' - now they are turning up,\" he said.\n\n\"Now the next question is, with all this talk of partnerships, what does this amount to in fact?\"\n\nSome believe the US will need to deliver more than just promises. Dr Chong said this may mean getting bipartisan support for US commitments, ratifying the UN's maritime law convention, and re-joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement which the US withdrew from under Donald Trump.\n\nSaid Mr Crabtree: \"People are going to watch more closely what the US is going to do in Asia from now on, because Afghanistan has primed them to look for signs that they are not reliable.\n\nThe US may be more wary of people questioning their commitment and would want to demonstrate it is not the case.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "'We need to up our game' against the virus\n\nNicola Sturgeon ends by saying that the situation is much better than it was previously thanks to vaccination. But she says we must remember the virus is circulating around us. She says it is a moment where we need to \"up our game\" and make sure we are providing as much resistance to the virus as possible.", "Experienced staff will leave the NHS sooner than they might have if the government does not come up with a plan for the health service's recovery from the pandemic and its future, a senior health leader has warned.\n\nThe president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said she is \"genuinely not confident\" the government has a plan for the NHS, which is facing rising waiting lists and continued pressure from coronavirus cases.\n\nDr Katherine Henderson said there must be a plan in the short term to manage public expectations and give staff a vision on \"somewhere that we're going\" and a longer term outline of how to resource the health service to provide the care people expect.\n\nIf this does not happen soon, the most experienced people who are approaching retirement but are \"holding a lot of stuff together\" will \"bail out\", she said.\n\nShe told the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus: \"We can't limp from investigation to investigation, to criticism, to yet another scandal where workforce comes down to being the primary problem.\n\n\"We don't have enough people able to deliver the standard of care that we believe the NHS ought to be able to do.\"\n\nShe said while younger people will always come into the NHS, there will be employees with years of experience \"who will leave sooner than they should\".", "The heavy rainfall behind deadly flooding in Europe in July was made more likely by climate change, scientists say.\n\nThe floods in Germany, Belgium and other areas killed at least 220 people as towns and villages were swamped.\n\nResearchers say global heating made rainfall events like this up to nine times more likely in Western Europe.\n\nDownpours in the region are 3-19% more intense because of human induced warming.\n\nThe dramatic and deadly floods that hit Germany, Belgium and elsewhere in mid-July were a shock to weather forecasters and local authorities.\n\nLives were swept away and houses, motorways and railway lines destroyed by the rapidly rushing waters.\n\nA car destroyed as a result of flooding in Germany along the Ahr river\n\nThe severe flooding was caused by heavy rainfall over a period of 1-2 days on already sodden ground, combined with local hydrological factors such as land cover and infrastructure.\n\nTo analyse the impact of climate change in events like this, researchers from the World Weather Attribution group focused on the heavy rainfall that preceded the floods.\n\nThey did this in part because some of the hydrological monitoring systems, which would have given them more accurate information about the floods, were destroyed by the waters.\n\nThe rainfall data showed that in the areas around the Ahr and Erft rivers in Germany and in the Meuse region of Belgium, intense downpours brought 90mm of rain in a single day.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nWhile the scientists found a trend of increasing rainfall in these small regions, making a deduction about the influence of climate change was challenging, as there was also a large amount of natural variability from year to year in the local rainfall patterns.\n\nTo really see the influence of rising temperatures, the researchers had to broaden their analysis and look at a larger section of Western Europe, including eastern France, western Germany, eastern Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and northern Switzerland.\n\nThe team found that in this broad region, climate change driven by humans increased the intensity of rain that fell in a one day event in Summer by between 3% and 19%.\n\nRising temperatures also made downpours similar to those that triggered the floods more likely to happen by a factor of between 1.2 and 9.\n\nMost rapid attribution studies to date have been carried out on extreme heat events such as the recent US and Canadian wildfires. Working on extreme rainfall events is more of a challenge.\n\n\"We combined the knowledge of specialists from several fields of study to understand the influence of climate change on the terrible flooding last month, and to make clear what we can and can not analyse in this event,\" said Dr Sjoukje Philip who's a climate researcher, with the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute (KNMI) and part of the WWA team.\n\n\"It is difficult to analyse the climate change influence on heavy rainfall at very local levels, but we were able to show that, in Western Europe, greenhouse gas emissions have made events like these more likely.\"\n\nThe researchers say that in the current climate, for any given location in Western Europe, they would expect a rainfall event like the one in July to happen once in 400 years.\n\nWith continued greenhouse gas emissions and rising temperatures, the heavy rainfall that brought misery to parts of Europe will become more common.\n\n\"Our state of the art climate models indicate increases in slow moving extreme rainfall events in a future warmer world,\" said Professor Hayley Fowler from Newcastle University.\n\n\"This event starkly shows how societies are not resilient to current weather extremes. We must reduce greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible, as well as improving emergency warning and management systems and making our infrastructure 'climate resilient' - to reduce casualties and costs and make them more able to withstand these extreme flooding events.\"\n\nThe study, which used peer reviewed methods, was carried out by 39 researchers. It can be found here.", "Online accommodation platform Airbnb has said it will temporarily house 20,000 Afghan refugees at no charge to help them resettle across the world.\n\nThe company's boss said the move was in response to \"one of the biggest humanitarian crises of our time\".\n\nHe said the firm felt a responsibility to step up.\n\nChief executive Brian Chesky added: \"I hope this inspires other business leaders to do the same. There's no time to waste.\"\n\n\"As tens of thousands of Afghan refugees resettle around the world, where they stay will be the first chapter in their new lives. For these 20,000 refugees, my hope is that the Airbnb community will provide them with not only a safe place to rest and start over, but also a warm welcome home,\" he said.\n\nThe offer starts immediately and the company said it was working with non-governmental organisations \"on the ground\" to help with the most pressing needs.\n\nIt has not specified how much the company plans to spend on the initiative or how long refugees will be housed for.\n\nBut it said it would collaborate with resettlement agencies and partners \"to go where the need goes\" and evolve the initiative and its support as necessary.\n\n\"Starting today, Airbnb will begin housing 20,000 Afghan refugees globally for free,\" Mr Chesky tweeted on Tuesday.\n\n\"While we will be paying for these stays, we could not do this without the generosity of our hosts.\"\n\nThe company said the cost of the stays would be funded through contributions from Airbnb and Mr Chesky, as well as donors to the Airbnb.org Refugee Fund.\n\nHe said: \"The displacement and resettlement of Afghan refugees in the US and elsewhere is one of the biggest humanitarian crises of our time.\"\n\nAirbnb said it would release more details soon about how people might help.\n\nThe company said: \"We know that Airbnb hosts and guests around the world will be eager to stand up and assist this massive effort - and in the coming days, Airbnb and Airbnb.org plan to share details on how hosts and the broader community can support this initiative.\"\n\nProperty owners who host Airbnb locations have long been encouraged to donate stays at their homes for \"people in crisis\".\n\nThe scheme began in response to Hurricane Sandy in 2012, when more than 1,000 people needed emergency accommodation after New York city was hit.\n\nSince then, it claims to have helped more than 75,000 people.\n\nThe company launched its Open Homes initiative in 2017 to allow its host community to offer their homes for free to people hit by disasters or fleeing conflict.\n\nThe initiative has since offered free stays to people affected by the Mexico City earthquake, Californian wildfires, Australian bushfires and other disasters.\n\nIt also led to the company setting up its own independent non-profit, Airbnb.org, to focus on helping people share housing and resources with each other in times of crisis.\n\nLast week, it gave emergency funding and support to the International Rescue Committee, HIAS and Church World Service to provide temporary stays for up to 1,000 arriving Afghan refugees.\n\nDuring the last weekend, it placed 165 refugees in safe housing shortly after touching down in the US.\n\n\"Accessible housing is urgently needed and essential,\" said David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee.\n\nHave you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences and views by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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. \"I wish we had more time\": UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace on the 31 August deadline\n\nIt is unlikely the deadline to evacuate people from Afghanistan will be extended beyond 31 August, the defence secretary has said.\n\nBen Wallace told BBC Breakfast the UK would like more time and \"every day we get after that would be a big bonus\".\n\nTaliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said he did not think the deadline would be extended.\n\nThe US is being pressed by other countries to delay its withdrawal of troops.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to ask US President Joe Biden for an extension of the 31 August deadline when he chairs a virtual G7 meeting this afternoon.\n\nMr Johnson will also call for an increase in aid and promise \"to use every humanitarian and diplomatic lever\" to protect human rights in the country.\n\nThe UK, France and Germany have all raised the possibility of US forces staying beyond the end of August to continue the airlift, and reports suggest Mr Biden will decide within the next 24 hours whether to push back the deadline.\n\nHowever, a Pentagon spokesman said America's focus remained \"getting this done by the end of the month\".\n\nTaliban spokesman Mr Mujahid said there was enough time to get foreign nationals out before the 31 August deadline and the Taliban were \"not in favour\" of allowing Afghans to leave.\n\nThe UK has evacuated 8,458 people from Afghanistan since 13 August, according to the Ministry of Defence.\n\nOf these 5,171 are Afghans eligible for relocation due to their association with the UK government, or who are at risk from the Taliban.\n\nBut ministers have been clear that British forces in Kabul cannot stay once the US has left.\n\nAsked if there was any chance the 31 August deadline for US troops to leave could be extended, the defence secretary said: \"I wish we had more time. I think at the moment it is unlikely.\"\n\n\"We have to plan on 31 August being the last moment. Every day we get after that would be a big bonus,\" he told BBC Breakfast.\n\n\"Everyone knows that the rest of the international community wishes to have more time but there are two other people with a vote in that - that is the Taliban and the president of the United States. And in the end both of them have significant power in that final decision,\" he added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told the BBC that foreign troops staying past 31 August would be \"a clear violation\"\n\nConservative MP Tom Tugendhat, who served as an Army officer in Afghanistan, is among those calling for an extension of the deadline.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's Today programme many families were struggling to get to the airport and \"a day, maybe two days longer, would help just a few more\".\n\nHe said one of his own friends, a former interpreter, was currently trying to flee the country with his wife and children.\n\nWhile his friend now had a visa to come to the UK, Mr Tugendhat said he was \"still not quite relaxed\" as the man faced a dangerous journey.\n\nShadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy also called for politicians to \"step up\" and extend the deadline, adding that the UK still had some leverage with the Taliban, including assets held in western bank accounts.\n\nHowever, Lord Dannat, former head of the British army, said he did not expect the Taliban to agree to an extension and the UK government should have made a better plan to get people out of the country quicker.\n\n\"What needs to happen now is maximum effort in the days available to get the maximum number of entitled people out of Kabul,\" he told the BBC.\n\nThe Taliban's swift takeover of Afghanistan has shocked its people and the world. It happened after foreign forces announced their withdrawal following a deal between the US and the Taliban, two decades after American-led forces removed the militants from power in 2001.\n\nLeaders of the G7 countries - the UK, US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan - will now meet virtually to discuss the situation.\n\nAhead of the meeting, Mr Johnson said the first priority should be \"to complete the evacuation of our citizens and those Afghans who have assisted our efforts over the last 20 years\".\n\nHe added that, \"as we look ahead to the next phase, it's vital we come together as an international community and agree a joint approach for the longer term\".\n\nThere have been chaotic scenes at Kabul airport as people desperate to flee the country crushed around access points, and a member of the Afghan security forces was killed in an isolated gunfight with unidentified attackers on Monday morning.\n\nMore than 1,000 UK troops are on the ground in Kabul helping to secure the airport and process British nationals and eligible Afghans.\n\nUK government sources confirmed that a person on the country's no-fly watchlist was flown to Birmingham as part of the evacuation of Kabul - but later deemed not to be a person of interest.", "The car park at Glasgow Royal Infirmary was one of three built under PFI deals\n\nHospital car parking charges are set to end permanently in Scotland.\n\nThe Scottish government has struck deals worth £35m to buy out the car parks at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee and Glasgow Royal Infirmary.\n\nNegotiations are also \"progressing\" to take over the site at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.\n\nCharges at the hospitals were initially suspended last March to ensure staff would not have to pay to park while working during the Covid pandemic.\n\nParking fees at the rest of Scotland's hospitals were scrapped in 2008.\n\nThe government had pledged to take steps to end hospital parking charges permanently at PFI sites in Scotland during the first 100 days of its new term.\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf confirmed the buyout of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary site would cost £26.3m, while the deal at Ninewells was done at £9m.\n\nHe said: \"We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to our NHS workforce for their heroic efforts throughout the pandemic and this will ensure that, along with patients and visitors using our hospitals, they will not face the prospect of parking charges returning.\n\n\"This announcement shows we are determined to ensure car parking charges will not return at any PFI site in Scotland.\n\n\"Talks are progressing well with the owners of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh site and I am hopeful of reaching an agreement in due course.\n\n\"As this progresses, we will be keeping the car park at the hospital free while the final agreement is reached.\"\n\nNegotiations are ongoing to take over the site at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh\n\nGovernments and local authorities have always paid private contractors to build roads, schools, prisons and hospitals out of tax money.\n\nBut in 1992, the UK government hit on a way of getting the contractors to foot the bill.\n\nUnder PFI, contractors pay for the construction costs and then rent the finished project back to the public sector.\n\nThis allows the government to get new hospitals, schools and prisons built without raising taxes.\n\nThe contractor, for its part, is allowed to keep any cash left over from the design and construction process, in addition to the \"rent\" money.\n\nHowever, critics say that the government is just mortgaging the future - and the long-run cost of paying the private sector to run these schemes is more than it would cost the public sector to build them itself.", "Bobbie, left, fears the charges will mean her daughter Saskia missing out on activities she enjoys\n\nDisabled and vulnerable adults in England are being hit by a steep rise in the amount they have to pay towards their care, BBC News research reveals.\n\nSome adults with learning disabilities are paying thousands of pounds extra a year, with six councils doubling the amount of money collected in charges.\n\nIn half of 83 areas that responded to a BBC request, bills across all users have risen at least 10% over two years.\n\nSaskia Granville was shocked when, earlier this year, her care charges increased more than 400% - from £92 to £515 a month.\n\nShe has a learning disability and lives in supported accommodation in Worthing, West Sussex, but fears the charges will curtail her independence.\n\n\"When Mum told me, she just burst out into tears,\" Saskia says.\n\n\"It makes me really upset.\"\n\nSaskia loves to play football but fears she will no longer be able to afford the train fare\n\nA sum of almost £1,500 was also taken out of Saskia's bank account as a backdated payment, in March, leaving her in debt.\n\nHer mother, Bobbie, says: \"Without my intervention, she wouldn't have had any food that week.\n\n\"She wouldn't have been able to pay her gas, electricity or water bills.\"\n\nBobbie is challenging the charge increase but says there has been no notable progress.\n\nThe rise has also left Saskia worrying whether she can continue playing football each week - and coaching a girls' team - because of the train fare and team subscription.\n\n\"It's very important because it's my favourite sport,\" she says.\n\nWest Sussex County Council said its charging arrangements, based on \"a person's ability to contribute towards the financial costs of [their] care\", \"follow national guidance\".\n\nHow much more people are paying\n• None 13% average increase in how much disabled and frail people asked to contribute, in two years\n• None 83councils responded to BBC request for information (151 were asked)\n• None Equivalent £500rise per person with learning disabilities, in 22 of those councils\n\nBBC News sent 151 councils a Freedom of Information request asking how much those living in the community had to pay towards their care.\n\nIn the 83 that responded, the amount disabled and frail people are expected to contribute has risen from £369m in 2018-19 to £420m in 2020-21.\n\nAnd the rise is particularly apparent for those with learning disabilities, who often need greater levels of support.\n\nIn 22 councils, the charges have risen by the equivalent of £500 per person supported, since 2018-19.\n\nBut in other areas, the charges have fallen since the start of the pandemic, during which time many people have had their levels of support cut.\n\nAnd in one council, Hammersmith and Fulham, residents are charged nothing for their care.\n\nMatthew has a severe learning disability and sometimes will communicate only with his mother via his phone\n\nMatthew Willis has a severe learning disability and Smith-Magenis syndrome, which has autism-like features.\n\nHis mother, Lulu, says this can lead to behavioural challenges, as he becomes frustrated at struggling to communicate, such as \"meltdowns\" that can last for days and include him self-harming and breaking down doors.\n\nRespite services, where support workers take care of Matthew, have provided an important change of scenery and helped her own mental wellbeing.\n\nBut this is no longer something the family can afford - as Matthew's care charges have now risen from about £20 to more than £300 a month.\n\n\"It is totally immoral,\" Lulu says.\n\n\"I want my son to have a meaningful life - and the money from his benefits goes towards paying for that.\"\n\nJackie O'Sullivan, from the charity Mencap that represents people with learning disabilities, said the charge rises meant \"the least well off in society [having] to make up for the shortfall [in funding]... that should come from the government\".\n\nMany were still receiving less support than before the pandemic but \"having to make tough choices between food and heating, and paying for care\".\n\nAnd only 6% of those with learning disabilities were in work, making finding the extra money \"impossible\" for many.\n\nAnyone who receives care from their council will have a very high need for support and a low income. So it is a sign of the acute financial pressures faced by local authorities in England that there has been such a significant increase in the money raised from people needing services.\n\nMost who receive council support rely on benefits, so finding extra money to contribute to care, which is vital to their quality of life, can cause real hardship.\n\nThe pandemic has increased the demand for support and the financial pressures on a care system already in crisis. For many, it is perhaps one of the most shameful signs of that crisis that it is people in the toughest of circumstances having to dig deeper to plug the financial gaps.\n\nThe prime minister has promised he will reveal his long-awaited plans for reform by the end of the year. But Saskia, Mathew and many others need investment in a care system that will help them lead the best lives they can, right now.\n\nCath Roff, of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said councils were \"really stretched\" after \"10 years of austerity\".\n\nCalling on the government to \"bring forward [social care] reform now\", she said raising care charges was \"not what any local authority would want to do - but... we need to stay solvent\".\n\n\"We now have Covid, which has added extra pressures,\" she said.\n\n\"We've got people coming forward with increased needs - [and] we have a workforce crisis.\"\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care said it would bring forward proposals to reform the adult social-care system \"later this year\".\n\nAnd since the start of the pandemic, it had \"committed over £6bn to councils, through un-ringfenced grants to tackle the impact of Covid-19 on their services, including adult social care\".\n\nSocial care, the system for helping both disabled and older people, is in a bad way. Demand is up, financial support is down. For years, governments have promised a solution. Now, Boris Johnson has said he will set out plans for reform by the end of the year. BBC News will be looking at the issue from all sides, over the coming weeks.", "Thousands of people have been evacuated from Kabul in the past week (file photo)\n\nA person from Afghanistan on the UK's no-fly watch list was flown into Birmingham as part of the evacuation of Kabul, government officials confirmed.\n\nThe individual, who was identified as being on the list on arrival in the UK, was later not deemed a person of interest after investigation.\n\nThe no-fly watch list is used to stop people coming to the UK who are thought to be a security threat.\n\nThe Home Office said the person was flagged in a \"rigorous checks process\".\n\nSomeone can be placed on the no-fly watch list due to previous serious criminal conduct as well as terrorism.\n\nLabour's shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said: \"An organised exit strategy would have ensured the necessary checks were in place, so this kind of lapse couldn't happen.\"\n\nThe UK's \"no-fly\" watch list is designed to keep people out of the country who are considered to pose a terrorism security risk, or some other kind of risk - such as involvement in serious criminality or stirring up unrest.\n\nIn normal circumstances the list should stop people getting visas to the UK or getting on to a plane.\n\nBut even then there is a backstop - Border Force staff at UK airports.\n\nIn the cauldron of chaos that is Kabul airport it is perhaps unsurprising that a mistake was made, and ministers say we should be reassured that the error was corrected on arrival at Birmingham Airport.\n\nIn this case it turns out that the concerns about the individual were out of date anyway.\n\nBut with multiple planes packed with people heading to the UK taking off from Kabul every day, ministers and officials know it is important to cut down on the mistakes.\n\nNot least of all because of a threat to the aircraft and passengers themselves. But also because in the current circumstances there is no chance of deporting anyone considered a risk back to Afghanistan.\n\nAfghanistan is on the Covid travel red list, meaning arrivals into England must quarantine in a government-approved hotel for 10 days.\n\nThe UK is one of a number of Western countries processing people eligible for evacuation out of Afghanistan after the Taliban seized control of Kabul.\n\nA team at Kabul airport led by the British ambassador Sir Laurie Bristow is under huge pressure to process as many people as possible ahead of a 31 August deadline.\n\nThe UK has evacuated 8,458 people from Afghanistan since 13 August, according to the Ministry of Defence.\n\nThose evacuated include British nationals, diplomatic staff, and Afghans eligible for relocation because they worked for the UK government in frontline roles or are otherwise considered to be at risk under a Taliban administration.", "Afghan refugees have been arriving in the US\n\nThe US is being pressed by allies to delay its withdrawal from Afghanistan to allow more time for evacuating those who want to flee the country, now that it is run by Taliban militants.\n\nUS troops controlling Kabul airport - the only one in the country functioning - are scheduled to leave by 31 August.\n\nThe UK is hosting a G-7 summit, warning \"not everyone will get out\".\n\nThe Taliban have warned of consequences if foreign forces remain after the deadline agreed with the US.\n\nCurrently 5,800 US troops are on the ground. President Joe Biden is set to decide within the next 24 hours whether to extend their stay, an official told Reuters news agency.\n\nThe US has evacuated, and facilitated the evacuation of, approximately 48,000 people since an intense airlift started on 14 August, the White House said.\n\nOthers seeking to flee remain crammed in or near the international airport in the capital, Kabul.\n\nMany of the people fleeing, particularly those who worked with foreign forces, live in fear of reprisals from a group that imposed a harsh version of Islamic law when in power from 1996 to 2001.\n\nThousands of people, foreign nationals and Afghans, continue to throng the gates of Kabul airport.\n\nAmidst the crowds, even those with the right permits aren't able to get through. Some have been waiting there for days, with little shelter or food.\n\nAt least 20 have been killed in shootings and stampedes at the airport since last week. More than 10,000 were evacuated on Monday, but time is running out.\n\nElsewhere in Afghanistan, the BBC has spoken to people who have been in hiding out of fear they will be killed by the Taliban. They say they don't have the means to leave.\n\nThere are millions who support the insurgent group as well, hoping they will bring an end to the violence.\n\nThe Taliban have been holding discussions on forming a government. Markets and workplaces are slowly opening up. But banks are still closed and fewer women are visible on the streets.\n\nFrance, Germany and the UK have pressed for more time to complete the evacuations from Afghanistan.\n\nFrance's Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters in the United Arab Emirates: \"We are concerned about the deadline set by the United States on August 31. Additional time is needed to complete ongoing operations.\"\n\nGermany's Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said he had discussed keeping Kabul airport open beyond the deadline with Nato allies and the Taliban.\n\nOn Tuesday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to push the US for an extension during the virtual summit with other G7 leaders.\n\nBut Defence Secretary Ben Wallace it would all depend on both the US and the Taliban.\n\n\"Our focus is to get as many people out,\" Mr Wallace said.\n\n\"But the scale of the challenge means that not everyone will get out. We are ruthlessly prioritising people.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told the BBC that foreign troops staying past 31 August would be \"a clear violation\"\n\nMilitary advisers have told the White House that a decision must be made on Tuesday in order to allow for the troops, along with their equipment and weapons, to leave in time for the deadline, CNN reports.\n\nA defence official told the network that if Mr Biden agreed on withdrawing in time for the deadline, there would be \"a few more\" days of evacuating people before the drawdown of troops began, possibly at the end of this week.\n\nAccording to the White House, about 10,900 people were evacuated from Kabul between 11:30 and 23:30 local time (07:00 - 19:00 GMT) on Monday.\n\nImages from Washington's Dulles Airport show Afghans arriving in the country.\n\nThe Taliban have tried to paint a conciliatory picture for those Afghans who stay, asking them to help rebuild the country. Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told the BBC people with passports would still be able to leave on commercial flights after the deadline.\n\nHe said: \"We want them to stay in the country but if they intend to go, they can.\"\n\nThe United Nations human rights council is set to meet in an emergency session on Tuesday to discuss Afghanistan. It comes amid warnings from aid agencies about the deepening humanitarian crisis in the country and concerns over human rights, in particular, the rights of women.\n\nThe Taliban say they will respect the rights of women and girls but there are already reports of detentions and executions. Human rights groups say the UN must create an international, independent body to investigate what is happening.\n\nTuesday's emergency human rights council session could do this - but the draft resolution, submitted by Pakistan does not go that far, says the BBC's Imogen Foulkes, in Geneva.\n\nThe resolution asks the UN human rights chief to keep an eye on things, and report back in December.\n\nThere are currently 5,800 US troops on the ground in Afghanistan\n\nThe airlift began as the Taliban moved into Kabul following a lightning campaign in which they captured almost all of the country in the wake of the US decision to withdraw forces.\n\nThe sole remaining area holding out appears to be the Panjshir region north-east of Kabul, a stronghold of anti-Taliban opponents who say thousands of people are ready to carry on the fight.\n\nThe Taliban were ousted by US and allied troops following al-Qaeda's 11 September 2001 attacks. A 20-year conflict ensued.", "A US flag is seen posted in the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York, two days after the attack there Image caption: A US flag is seen posted in the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York, two days after the attack there\n\nThe BBC is covering the 20th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US, which led to the 20-year conflict in Afghanistan.\n\nThis is the story of Chris Cruz, who explains in an interview to BBC's OS programme why he decided to join the US army.\n\n\"My mother was heading to work on a normal 11 September day. As soon as she exited the subway, she was told to start running as the buildings were coming down. She literally saw them coming down and described people jumping out of the windows,\" says Chris.\n\n\"When she finally made it home, I - as an 11-year-old boy at the time - had to tell her that she had burn marks and blood spots on the back of her legs. She was in a state of shock.\n\n\"As I grew up, I realised... I had the ability to be part of an organisation that could defend and prevent these atrocities for all Americans.\n\n\"9/11 played a role, but not in a way of revenge. I didn't want to join out of bloodlust. I served two tours in Afghanistan. Both of those times I volunteered to go.\n\n\"I don't think our mission would have succeeded without our Afghan partners. I agree we couldn't be there forever, but we made a promise to keep our partners safe and that we wouldn't turn our backs on them, and that's exactly what we've done.\"\n\nChris adds: \"I do think the way we pulled out, the way we left it, was completely wrong. There needed to be a better exit strategy.\"", "The festival was held at Watergate Bay in Cornwall and was headlined by Gorillaz, Jorja Smith and Foals\n\nMore than 4,000 Covid cases could have links to a music and surfing festival, with more expected in the coming days.\n\nCornwall Council said 4,700 cases may be linked to the Boardmasters event between 11 and 15 August.\n\nAbout 50,000 people attended the festival in and around Newquay, which now has the three neighbourhoods with the highest infection rates in England.\n\nCornwall's public health team said: \"We won't know the complete picture for another few days.\"\n\nAbout 800 of those positive cases are people who live in Cornwall.\n\nThe figure comes after the Swansea Bay health board in Wales said on Friday about 50 cases there had been linked to the festival.\n\nRuth Goldstein, deputy director of public health for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, said: \"At the moment, there are currently about 4,700 which could be linked to Boardmasters.\n\n\"These are people who have noted when they have had a PCR test, they have been associated to Boardmasters.\n\n\"We don't know whether they have been camping, or to events on the beach, or to parties in the town put on by Boardmasters.\n\n\"Of those people, three-quarters of them are aged between 16 and 21, which is exactly the profile of the people who we know attend the festival.\"\n\nAndy Virr - Cornwall Council portfolio holder for adults, and an emergency doctor - said cases were expected but he was \"reassured\" they were not \"translating into a serious life-threatening illness\".\n\nHe added there were \"benefits\" from holding the event, although the possibility of cancelling it was discussed by the council.\n\nHe told a press briefing: \"Covid will have lots of impacts ongoing, and one of them is around loneliness and isolation and mental health problems.\n\n\"That festival brought a lot of joy to people. And, yes, there are some things we are having to deal with, but that was part of the judgement.\n\n\"I think, at the moment, there are no regrets - we were expecting to have this wash-up to deal with.\"\n\nThree parts of Newquay now have the three highest Covid infection rates in England for the seven days up to 18 August:\n\nThe national average of neighbourhood areas within English local authorities is 308.\n\nFestival organisers said they \"went above and beyond what was asked of us\".\n\nA spokesperson said: \"Because of these measures, over 450 people who would otherwise have been at risk of passing on the virus did not attend or left the festival early.\"\n\nThey added: \"We look forward to sharing our experience of running the festival in the current circumstances with other large events so we can all continue to provide much needed economic benefit to our wider communities and entertainment to our loyal audience.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe 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. Boris Johnson: The G7 powers have agreed a roadmap for engaging with a Taliban government\n\nThe Taliban must guarantee a safe passage for those who want to leave Afghanistan beyond the 31 August deadline, PM Boris Johnson has said.\n\nFollowing an emergency virtual meeting of G7 leaders, Mr Johnson said the UK would continue evacuating people from the country \"until the last moment\".\n\nHe added he was confident thousands more could be airlifted out.\n\nUS President Joe Biden told the G7 meeting the US was \"currently on pace\" to finish its mission by 31 August.\n\nDefending the decision to leave, he warned of the risk of a terrorist attack on US troops in the region, adding: \"The sooner we finish the better\".\n\nThe UK was among several other G7 countries pressing the US to delay its withdrawal of troops, warning they will not be able to evacuate all those fleeing the Taliban after 31 August without the US presence at Kabul airport.\n\nMr Johnson, who chaired the meeting, said the G7 - the UK, US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan - had agreed a \"roadmap\" for engaging with the Taliban, which retook full control of the country nine days ago.\n\n\"The number one condition that we are insisting upon is safe passage beyond the 31st, beyond this initial phase, for those who want to leave Afghanistan,\" he said.\n\nHe added that the G7 had \"very considerable leverage - economic, diplomatic and political\" at its disposal, including withholding substantial funds from the Taliban.\n\nBoris Johnson chaired a virtual meeting of the G7 leaders on Tuesday\n\nThe prime minister said the UK had so far evacuated 9,000 people from Kabul, across 57 flights - although he added that there were \"harrowing scenes\" at the airport.\n\n\"We're confident we can get thousands more out, but the situation at the airport is not getting any better,\" he said.\n\nThe numbers are pretty staggering. The Pentagon says the allies have evacuated 58,700 people in the past 10 days and more than 21,000 in the past 24 hours alone. Planes are leaving Kabul airport at a rate of one every 45 minutes.\n\nBut when it's over, the international community has a huge job to do. To help Afghanistan without necessarily helping the Taliban. To persuade Afghanistan's new rulers to let people leave, but in ways that won't throw them into the arms of people smugglers.\n\nTo prevent terrorist groups gaining a foothold. And to use what levers Western powers have - aid, access to international finance and, if necessary sanctions - to preserve what are rightly seen as the gains of the past 20 years, particularly as they relate to women and ethnic minorities.\n\nThis twilight phase, between a Western-backed government and a Taliban that says it has changed, has already thrown up extraordinary moments. Not least, the widely reported meeting, yesterday, between CIA Director William Burns and the Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Barader.\n\nWhether that meeting ranged beyond the question of when the evacuation ends is not known. But other high level meetings will have to follow if fragments of success are to be plucked from what, right now, still looks like a catastrophic failure of Western policy.\n\nMore than 1,000 UK troops are on the ground in Kabul helping to secure the airport and process British nationals and eligible Afghans.\n\nThere have been chaotic scenes at Kabul airport in recent days - people desperate to flee the country following the Taliban's swift takeover of Afghanistan have crammed in or near the airport access points.\n\nThe airport is currently being defended and run by the US, which has 5,800 troops on the ground.\n\nEarlier, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said there was enough time to get foreign nationals out before the 31 August deadline.\n\nThe Taliban has previously warned of consequences if foreign forces remain after the deadline agreed with the US.\n\nIn a joint statement after the meeting, the G7 leaders said that the legitimacy of any future government in Afghanistan depended on its approach to upholding international obligations.\n\nThey said the Taliban must safeguard the human rights of all Afghans, \"particularly women, children, and ethnic and religious minorities\".\n\nIt comes after the UN highlighted \"credible\" reports of abuses by the Taliban, notably restrictions on women.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lisa Nandy: Lack of G7 plan on Afghanistan \"is a really, really shameful moment for the UK\"\n\nShadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy told the BBC that the prime minister appeared to have left the G7 meeting he was chairing \"without any clear plan\" for exerting pressure on the Taliban.\n\nSNP Westminster Leader Ian Blackford said the failure to extend the deadline was \"deeply regrettable\" and called for Parliament to be brought back from its summer break to monitor the situation.\n\nLiberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said a failure to secure an extension showed Mr Johnson had \"failed on the global stage once more, and the consequences could not be more devastating\".", "Neither side would confirm the reports that William Burns (L) met Mullah Baradar (R) on Monday\n\nThe head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) secretly met the leader of the Taliban in Kabul on Monday, sources have told US media.\n\nNeither the Taliban nor the CIA would confirm the reported meeting between William Burns and Mullah Baradar.\n\nUS President Joe Biden has set a deadline of 31 August for American forces to leave Afghanistan. Allies - including the UK - want an extension.\n\nUS forces have been in Afghanistan since 2001, following the 9/11 attacks.\n\nSources have told US news outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Associated Press and broadcaster NPR about the CIA-Taliban meeting.\n\nHowever, they gave few details.\n\nIf confirmed, this would be the highest-level contact between the US and the Taliban since the militants took Kabul on 15 August, prompting the internationally backed Afghan government to flee.\n\nAbout 5,800 US troops are currently guarding Kabul airport as thousands of foreign nationals and Afghans try to leave the country.\n\nThe Washington Post says the discussions are likely to have involved the deadline for the US military to conclude its airlift.\n\nAlso on Tuesday, the Taliban said no more Afghans would be allowed to leave the country, nor would the deadline for the US withdrawal be extended.\n\nMullah Baradar is one of the four men who founded the Taliban in 1994. He was captured in a US-Pakistani operation in 2010 and spent eight years in prison.\n\nSince 2019, he has been the head of the Taliban political office in Qatar. In February 2020, he signed the Doha agreement on the withdrawal of US and Nato troops.\n\nHe was also the first Taliban leader to communicate directly with a US president, after having a telephone conversation with Donald Trump in 2020.", "The anti-clockwise carriageway of the M25 was closed between junctions 26 and 27\n\nThree people have died in a collision involving multiple vehicles on the M25.\n\nEssex Police said the crash involved a lorry, a minibus and a car between junctions 26 for Waltham Abbey and 27 for the M11 at about 18:15 BST on Monday.\n\nA fourth person is in hospital with life-threatening injuries.\n\nTwo people have been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and serious injury by dangerous driving.\n\nPolice appealed to anyone with information or dash-cam footage to contact them.\n\nDet Sgt Steve Holmes described the crash scene as \"incredibly challenging\".\n\n\"We are continuing to work as quickly as we can to piece together exactly what led to this tragic incident,\" he said.\n\n\"My thoughts, and those of all officers on scene, are with the families of those who lost their lives.\"\n\nThe carriageway was closed for about 11 hours while officers gathered evidence.\n\nNine ambulances, two air ambulances and four fire engines attended the scene.\n\nEast of England Ambulance Service said it had treated a number of people.\n\nThis 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 Jonny Ashton 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.\n\nAdam Pipe, head of roads policing at Essex Police, said it was a \"complex investigation\".\n\nHe said officers worked as fast as they could to gather evidence at the scene in order to reopen the carriageway.\n\n\"We do apologise for what happened last night,\" he said.\n\n\"We have a duty to the families and friends of those that have been lost to manage that situation and to investigate it properly.\"\n\nHe urged people who travel on motorways to consider taking supplies with them to help if they did become delayed.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion please email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Ms Harris was speaking during a trip in Singapore\n\nUS Vice President Kamala Harris has hit out at China during a speech made in Singapore on the first leg of a South East Asian tour.\n\nMs Harris accused Beijing of coercion and intimidation in the South China Sea, which has been a regional flashpoint for years.\n\nShe said the US would \"stand with our allies in the face of threats\".\n\nMs Harris' trip is seen as an attempt to reaffirm US commitment to the region.\n\nHer speech which touched on a number of other issues, also mentioned the US pull-out from Afghanistan, where she insisted the decision was \"courageous and right\".\n\nOn China, Ms Harris criticised its claims \"to the vast majority of the South China Sea,\" which she said were based on intimidation and coercion.\n\n\"These unlawful claims have been rejected by the 2016 arbitral tribunal decision and Beijing's actions continue to undermine the rules-based order and threaten the sovereignty of nations,\" she said.\n\nMs Harris was referring to a landmark legal victory the Philippines won over China, concerning territorial incursions in the South China sea. Since 2012, and despite the tribunal ruling, there has been a constant Chinese Coastguard presence there - with Filipino fishermen reporting harassment by the authorities.\n\nChina accused the US of acting \"arbitrarily\" without consulting the international community.\n\nThe US only cites \"rules and order\" to whitewash its \"bullying and hegemonic actions,\" said Wang Wenbin, the foreign ministry spokesperson. \"But how many people would actually buy it?\"\n\nIn recent years, China has been increasingly assertive over what it says are centuries-old rights to the contested region, and has been rapidly building up its military presence to back up those claims.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Why is everyone fighting over the South China Sea?\n\nSeveral other countries including Japan claim ownership of various small islands and reefs that dot the sea and with it, access to resources.\n\nAlthough the South China sea is a massive regional issue, Ms Harris' trip has been largely overshadowed by the country's rushed exit from Afghanistan, which is due to happen by 31 August.\n\nShe did not go into detail on the issue which has been criticised by the global community, only saying the US had \"achieved what we had gone there to do\", and adding that they were now \"laser focused\" on evacuating Afghans who had worked with US troops.\n\nThe Taliban's swift takeover of Afghanistan in just 10 days has shocked the world.\n\nComparisons have been made with the so-called fall of Saigon in Vietnam 1975.\n\nMs Harris is due to visit Vietnam later on Tuesday.", "Arthur had an emotional reunion with his nan\n\nA boy who walked 150 miles to visit the grandparents he had not seen for 18 months said he was not expecting such a big reaction at the finish line.\n\nArthur Mortimer, 15, from Rugby, walked to Llanhilleth in Wales to see family from whom lockdowns had kept him apart.\n\nInspired by Capt Sir Tom Moore, Arthur used the journey to raise more than £4,500 for the Help for Heroes charity.\n\n\"It's amazing, it made me feel really happy and proud of myself,\" he said on completing the feat.\n\nAs for the reception at the end, he added: \"I wasn't expecting it to be that big - we're walking down the road to [my grandparents] and everyone is just there clapping and cheering.\n\n\"We've got the Help for Heroes banner across the road, so we had to walk through that and then my nan and granddad were waiting on the other side of the banner... we went over and gave them a big, big hug.\"\n\nFamily and friends gathered as Arthur crossed the finish line\n\nThe teenager said it was emotional seeing some of his family and extended family for the first time since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nTo make the reunion happen, he set off with his father Kevin on 14 August and reached the destination a week later, arriving on Saturday afternoon.\n\nArthur was joined by his dad Kevin on the walk\n\nThe trek was not without difficulties after Arthur twisted his ankle, having only just stopped using crutches due to ankle ligament damage suffered in a skateboard fall.\n\nSpeaking to BBC CWR, Kevin Mortimer said: \"The fact that he is so young to have such an idea and commitment to make the journey inspired quite a lot of people, and the fact that he wanted to see his grandparents, it makes it just as poignant.\"\n\nHe said he had an \"amazing sense of pride\" for his son, whom, he added, had \"a beautiful soul\".\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "Most of Channel 4's presenting line-up at the Tokyo Paralympics are disabled\n\nChannel 4 has said it would not be able to do \"anything like\" as much coverage of the Paralympics in the future if the broadcaster was privatised.\n\nThe government is set to decide in the coming months whether the channel should have a private owner.\n\nChannel 4 will air 300 hours from Tokyo on TV, starting with Tuesday's opening ceremony, and 1,000 more hours online.\n\nProgramming director Ian Katz said the budget would be cut for future games if profit was the channel's priority.\n\n\"I just don't think there's any chance that a primarily profit-driven Channel 4 would invest anything like what we invest in trying to build up and celebrate the Paralympics in the way we do,\" he told the Edinburgh Television Festival on Tuesday.\n\n\"I think we should make no mistake that a purely profit-driven Channel 4 would be a very different beast to the Channel 4 that we know now, and much that is really special and treasured about Channel 4 I think would very likely be lost.\"\n\nThe channel, founded in 1982, is currently funded by advertising but is publicly-owned. A government consultation on privatisation will close in September.\n\nCulture Secretary Oliver Dowden has said it is the right time to \"consider releasing Channel 4 from the constraints of public ownership\" and that the media world \"has changed immeasurably\" since the early 80s.\n\nThe government has said Channel 4 is \"particularly vulnerable\" to fluctuations in the advertising market, and selling it \"could allow it to access new capital, create strategic partnerships, and reach international markets only available through the private sector\", as well as diversifying its income streams.\n\nMr Katz said some safeguards could be written into the licence with regulator Ofcom, but that they would be bound to come under pressure.\n\n\"Inevitably any purely commercially-driven organisation will begin to argue for a weakening of those licence requirements,\" he said.\n\n\"We've seen it again and again in commercial television. Over time, inevitably, the essence, what's really special about the channel, I think, would be destroyed.\"\n\nIn recent days, Channel 4 has announced shows including a property programme fronted by rapper Tinie Tempah, an exploration of cancel culture by comedian John Cleese, and author Candice Carty-Williams' adaptation of her own best-selling novel Queenie.", "McDonald's has run out of milkshakes and some bottled drinks at restaurants in England, Scotland and Wales.\n\nThe fast-food chain said it was facing supply chain issues affecting the availability of shakes and bottled drinks at its 1,250 outlets.\n\nAn updated statement said it was \"working hard\" to limit the impact on deliveries and customers and had taken some items off its menus for now.\n\nIt confirmed the lorry driver shortage was one reason behind the disruption.\n\nIts statement said: \"As reported, a number of issues are impacting retailers in the UK at the moment, one of which is the nationwide shortage of HGV drivers.\"\n\nA wide range of businesses have reported problems with supplies because of the driver shortage.\n\nLast week, Nando's closed some outlets after running out of chicken.\n\nEarlier this month, a survey by the Road Haulage Association (RHA) estimated there was a shortage of more than 100,000 drivers in the UK, out of a pre-pandemic total of about 600,000.\n\nThe RHA has said some 30,000 HGV driving tests did not take place last year because of the coronavirus pandemic, adding that a \"historic\" shortage in drivers had been exacerbated by changes to rules following Brexit.\n\nMore recently, drivers being told to self-isolate after being notified by the NHS Covid app have also added to the problem.\n\nAnalysis of the latest ONS Labour Force Survey for the second quarter suggests that 14,000 EU lorry drivers left jobs in the UK in the year to June 2020, but only 600 had returned by July 2021.\n\nFirms from a number of sectors in the UK have been battling with a supply chain crisis due to a shortage of lorry drivers. On Friday, Logistics UK, which represents freight firms, and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) wrote to the government to plead for new measures to alleviate the problem.\n\nTesco has been offering lorry drivers a £1,000 joining bonus amid a chronic shortage of drivers in the industry.\n\nOther companies are also understood to be offering similar incentives for HGV drivers after disruption to supply chains led to product shortages. Morrisons said it was working on schemes to train staff to become lorry drivers.\n\nA government spokesperson said last week it was bringing in a package of measures to help tackle the HGV driver shortage, including plans to streamline the process for new drivers to gain their HGV licence and to increase the number of tests that can be conducted.\n\nAlthough famous for its Big Macs and fries, McDonald's is actually one of the biggest drinks retailers in the UK.\n\nThe shift towards McCafés and promotion of coffee sales was a deliberate policy in the last decade to try to bring in more customers outside of normal mealtimes.\n\nBut faced with supply chain issues, it has decided to prioritise its big sellers at the expense of milkshakes. Because every element of the burger needs to be present in the production line, those deliveries are being secured. Bottled drinks can sit in a warehouse much longer without going out of date.\n\nThe timing of this shortage coming in the summer holiday season has meant a higher number of customers will be disappointed at missing out on their milkshakes.\n\nIt has also temporarily relaxed drivers' hours rules to allow HGV drivers to make slightly longer journeys.\n\nOther leading businesses have reported problems caused by driver shortages.\n\nLast week, Nando's was forced to close about 50 of its restaurants after running out of chicken.\n\nRival KFC also warned recently that supply chain issues meant it was unable to stock some menu items.\n\nDairy giant Arla has had to cut back on milk deliveries to supermarkets because of a shortage of drivers, while sweet producer Haribo also reported problems resulting from a shortage of drivers.\n\nOil giant BP temporarily closed a \"handful\" of its UK sites because not enough unleaded petrol and diesel had been delivered.\n\nMcDonald's apologised for any inconvenience and thanked customers for their patience.", "UB40 saxophonist and co-songwriter Brian Travers, one of the founding members of the chart-topping reggae group, has died at the age of 62.\n\nHis bandmates said they were \"devastated\" by the news about \"our comrade, brother, founding UB40 member and musical legend\".\n\nThey said he had endured a \"long and heroic battle with cancer\".\n\nHe had surgery to remove two brain tumours in 2019 and reportedly had another operation earlier this year.\n\nTravers was a key part of the UB40 line-up as a saxophone player, arranger and lyricist.\n\nThe group, from Birmingham, found success in 1980 with Food For Thought, their first UK top 10 single, before having hits with I Think It's Going to Rain Today, One in Ten and covers of Red Red Wine and I Got You Babe.\n\nIn total, they have recorded 39 UK top 40 singles and 28 top 40 albums, and sold 100 million albums worldwide.\n\nThis 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 UB40 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.\n\nTravers formed the band with a group of school friends in the late 1970s, and the lack of jobs in the city led them to borrow the name of the official Unemployment Benefit Form 40, used by people signing on the dole.\n\n\"We had just signed on and somebody said 'UB40' and we all instantly knew that was the name of the band,\" Travers told The Telegraph in 2010.\n\n\"Thank God for the dole. We got fed, it paid the rent and it enabled us to concentrate on developing our careers. We commandeered a cellar and started rehearsing every day, nine till five.\n\n\"Our first experiences of playing an instrument started together, and we'd humiliate each other over mistakes. But we were very serious about our music.\"\n\nThe band made their breakthrough in 1980\n\nDebut album Signing Off, which captured both their love of reggae and anger at the global injustices of the time, reached number two.\n\nIn 2010, Travers said it \"still has relevance\". He added: \"But it's naïve. We thought we could change everything with a pop song and we learnt it changes nothing.\"\n\nThe group enjoyed success around the world, including the US, where Red Red Wine went to number one, as did another cover, (I Can't Help) Falling in Love with You, which spent seven weeks at number one in 1993.\n\nThey were nominated for four Grammy Awards, and were nominated for the Brit Award for best British group in 1984.\n\nHowever there was acrimony after singer Ali Campbell left the band in 2008 and was replaced by his brother Duncan.", "Who will receive a third booster dose of a Covid vaccine this autumn has not been confirmed\n\nThe UK has ordered 35 million more doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which will be delivered in the second half of 2022.\n\nThe government said it was preparing for a programme of Covid boosters to protect the most vulnerable this year.\n\nHealth and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said the move was intended \"to future-proof our vaccine programme\".\n\nThe UK has now ordered more than 540 million doses of eight different Covid vaccines.\n\nFour have so far been approved for use in the UK.\n\nThe deal with Pfizer means the UK has ordered more doses of that Covid vaccine - 135 million - than any other.\n\nThe NHS was given the green light to start planning third booster doses for the over-50s, after interim advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) in early July, and Mr Javid recently said the programme would start in September.\n\nHowever, the UK's vaccine committee is still to give its final advice on whether a booster programme ahead of this winter should proceed and who should be included.\n\nThe JCVI is thought to be waiting for better data on how long protection from the first two doses of the vaccines lasts.\n\nIt's likely people who are immunosuppressed, with weakened immune systems, will receive a booster jab even if all over-50s - around 30 million people - do not.\n\nMr Javid said the UK's vaccination programme was protecting tens of millions of people from Covid-19 and saving thousands of lives.\n\n\"While we continue to build this wall of defence from Covid-19, it's also vital we do everything we can to protect the country for the future too - whether that's from the virus as we know it or new variants,\" he said.\n\n\"I am pleased we've reached this agreement with Pfizer for more doses as part of our robust preparations to future-proof our vaccine programme, ensuring we have plans in place to keep the nation safe for years to come.\"\n\nBut some scientists, including Prof Andrew Pollard, who helped develop the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, have warned that booster doses should be used to protect unvaccinated people in other countries, where they will have the greatest impact.\n\nThe UK has announced it will donate 100 million vaccine doses to developing countries, through Covax, within the next year.\n\nThe first nine million doses were donated last month.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe head of Iran's prison service has apologised after hackers leaked videos showing the abuse of detainees at Tehran's notorious Evin prison.\n\nThe hackers released security footage showing guards beating prisoners and dragging one along a floor.\n\nOn Tuesday, Prisons Organisation chief Mohammad Mehdi Haj-Mohammadi said he took responsibility for the \"unacceptable behaviour\".\n\nMany political prisoners and dual and foreign nationals are held at Evin.\n\nBBC Persian's Jiyar Gol says the leaked videos confirm decades of reports of mistreatment and abuse at prisons across Iran.\n\nHowever, our correspondent adds, former political prisoners say the footage is nothing compared to what they experienced in detention. They accuse authorities of routinely using sexual, physical and psychological torture - a charge Iran's government denies.\n\nThe surveillance footage released by a hacking group called Edalat-e Ali (Ali's Justice) shows several guards beating a man in handcuffs, as well as a fight between a guard and another man in uniform.\n\nIn another video, an elderly man is seen collapsing in a car park before guards approach and begin dragging him along the floor through the prison. At one point, a Muslim cleric steps over the man as he lies in a stairwell.\n\nThe hackers posted messages on the screens inside Evin prison's control room\n\nOther footage shows guards at Evin's control room reacting as the phrase \"cyber-attack\" appears in Persian on screens in front of them.\n\nThe hacked screens also show a message reading: \"Evin Prison is a stain of shame on Raisi's black turban and white beard\" - a reference to Iran's new president, who is a hardline cleric and former judiciary chief.\n\nOn Tuesday, Mr Haj-Mohammadi apologised publicly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the country for the abuses seen in the videos.\n\n\"I accept responsibility for such unacceptable behaviour and pledge to try to prevent any repeat of these bitter events and to deal seriously with the wrongdoers,\" he tweeted.\n\nThanks to the low cost and ease of set up, a huge number of camera systems around the world are badly secured.\n\nFrom shopping malls to private driveways and restaurants, there are entire websites offering thousands of live CCTV feeds open to anyone to watch.\n\nYou'd hope that CCTV inside sensitive areas like prisons is better protected, but this isn't the first time they've been hacked.\n\nIn March this year another hacker activist leaked footage from 150,000 cameras inside jails and police stations to highlight poor security.\n\nThe Evin prison hackers clearly had different motives and seem to have succeeded in their goal.\n\nNot only have they exposed mistreatment to the world but they've also showed that so called \"hacktivism\" is still, even in the age of data breach boredom, a potent tool.", "School pupils still need to wear masks in class\n\nNicola Sturgeon has said she cannot rule out the reintroduction of some Covid restrictions as the number of daily cases reached a record high.\n\nThe first minister said the country was at another \"fragile and pivotal moment\" in the pandemic.\n\nShe said she hopes not to have to reintroduce restrictions, and that if this happened they would be as limited and proportionate as possible.\n\nA total of 4,323 new cases were reported on Tuesday.\n\nThe previous highest level was during the summer wave in early July, when the number of daily cases peaked at 4,234.\n\nThe Scottish government has also announced that a public inquiry into the handling of the Covid pandemic will begin by the end of the year.\n\nMs Sturgeon told a Covid briefing that there had been a \"sharp rise\" in Covid-19 cases in recent days.\n\n\"New cases in Scotland have more than doubled over the past week, and that is one of the sharpest rises we have experienced at any point during the pandemic,\" she said.\n\nShe said the latest daily figure was the largest recorded in a single day - although more testing was now being carried out than in earlier stages of the pandemic.\n\nThe first minister said: \"We always knew cases were likely to rise as restrictions eased, so to some extent what we are seeing now is not entirely unexpected.\n\n\"That said, the scale of the increase is still a cause of real concern.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon said it was a \"fragile and pivotal\" moment, adding: \"If this surge continues and accelerates and we start to see evidence of substantial increase in serious illness, we cannot completely rule out having to reimpose some restrictions. We hope not to do that.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon said people could take steps such as getting vaccinated, sticking to the rules on face coverings, and being mindful of physical distancing, unnecessary contacts and ventilation.\n\nThe first minister said vaccination was \"making a big difference\" and that many of the new cases were in younger people, who were \"less likely\" to have had both doses of vaccine.\n\nShe said that about half of all new cases were in people under the age of 25 with 34% of Tuesday's tally in the under 19s.\n\nAn additional 10 deaths linked to Covid were reported, taking the total under the daily measure to 8,080.\n\nThe test positivity rate was 14.5%, up from 12.4% the previous day.\n\nA total of 4,085,552 people have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination, and 3,587,145 have had their second.\n\nMost of the Covid restrictions in Scotland were lifted when the country moved beyond the level zero rules on 9 August.\n\nPhysical distancing rules and the limits on gatherings were removed, and all venues were allowed to reopen.\n\nThere were also changes to rules on self-isolation - but face coverings still need to be worn in many public spaces, including schools.\n\nIs the first minister preparing us for the return of restrictions? Well, not necessarily.\n\nHer now trademark cautious tone was there. She described the state of the pandemic as \"fragile\" and spoke about \"real concern\" over rising cases.\n\nBut Nicola Sturgeon was also keen to stress the impact of the vaccination programme on the number of people becoming seriously ill with the virus.\n\nThat will be a key barometer for ministers when it comes to the next steps. Further increases in cases could lead to greater pressure on the NHS - and the government may then have to act.\n\nThe door hasn't been closed on the reintroduction of Covid measures.\n\nBut today's briefing could be described as a warning shot about what might come further down the tracks, rather than laying the groundwork of an inevitable move backwards.\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said: \"Nicola Sturgeon's lingering threat to impose more constraints on people's lives is unjustifiable, given the success of Scotland and the UK's vaccine scheme.\n\n\"The public want to move on but Nicola Sturgeon is unable or unwilling to give up the control she has had. Just a few weeks after most Covid rules have been dropped, she's talking of bringing them back. She seems determined to prolong restrictions, no matter the cost to jobs, our NHS or people's mental health.\"\n\nHe added: \"This is a different phase of the pandemic, when NHS remobilisation and rebuilding Scotland's economy should be our top priorities.\"\n\nScottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said the rising case numbers were \"troubling\".\n\nHe said: \"I think it is very telling that was not met with the introduction of further restrictions.\n\n\"It suggests we have moved to a different phase in Covid where we have accepted we have to live around it, and it will be a fact of life for the foreseeable future.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Josh Willis says he and his wife Samantha \"always thought we had another 40 or more years together\"\n\nThe husband of a woman who died with Covid-19 shortly after giving birth has spoken about the pain of losing her.\n\nSamantha Willis, 35, who had not been vaccinated for Covid-19, died on Friday after spending 16 days in hospital.\n\nThe mother-of-four from Londonderry was buried on Monday after a service in which her new-born daughter child was baptised.\n\n\"We always thought we had 40 or more years together,\" her husband Josh Willis told BBC News NI.\n\nHe said he thought they would have that time \"to share experiences and watch the wee ones grow up\".\n\nA funeral for Samantha Willis took place in Derry on Monday\n\n\"Birthdays, communions, whatever it is - it was all taken away,\" he said.\n\n\"I just hope that she knows how I felt about her and I hope the way that we coped getting through the wake and the funeral and doing this sort of thing, that she's looking down and we are doing her proud basically.\"\n\nAt the funeral service for Mrs Willis, her two-weeks old daughter Eviegrace was carried behind the coffin.\n\nMr Willis said he and his wife had been taking precautions about coronavirus by using personal protective equipment and avoiding bars and restaurants.\n\nBoth of them tested positive for the virus on the same day and in the subsequent days Mrs Willis' condition worsened before Mr Willis had to take her to Altnagelvin Area Hospital in Derry.\n\nHe said that in the days before his wife's death he held her hand and told her: \"We're all here, we're all waiting - fight through it. You have everything to fight for.\"\n\nMr Willis said he and some other family members were called into the hospital after her condition worsened on Thursday evening.\n\n\"I was at the bottom of the bed and I was looking at the screens,\" he said.\n\n\"I had an idea about what some of the things on it meant - I seen one that I was pretty sure was the oxygen level and it said 20.\n\n\"I said to the nurse beside me: 'Is that her oxygen level?' And she just said: 'She has just literally passed away.''\"\n\nBefore she died, Mrs Willis had not been able to hold her new-born daughter Eviegrace.\n\nMr Willis said he had tried to arrange for her to hold her child before her condition had worsened.\n\nJosh Willis wants to raise awareness of the dangers of Covid-19 among pregnant women after his wife's death\n\n\"She carried her for eight months but she never held her in her arms... the one thing I wanted was for her to see her baby and to hold her,\" he said.\n\nMrs Willis had not been vaccinated for Covid-19 when she died - her husband said he wants to raise vaccination awareness after his wife's death.\n\n\"I just want to put her story out there... I think if she could help one person, one family, she would be happy,\" he said.\n\nMr Willis said when he was standing at his wife's graveside on Monday, he could hear her in his head saying: \"I'm gone, batter on, raise the wains, do what youse have to do.\"\n\n\"We have no choice, and if it was the other way around she would do the same. I would be probably telling her the same,\" he said.\n• None Baby girl is baptised as mother is laid to rest", "Katie Price (pictured in 2019) was taken to hospital after Essex Police was called to Little Canfield\n\nA man arrested on suspicion of assaulting former model and TV personality Katie Price has been released on police bail.\n\nMs Price, 43, was taken to hospital on Monday morning after sustaining a facial injury in Little Canfield, near Stansted Airport, Essex Police said.\n\nThe 32-year-old man was also arrested on suspicion of theft and coercive and controlling behaviour.\n\nHe has been released on bail until 20 September.\n\nPolice said they were called by the ambulance service to a house at about 01:30 BST.\n\nKatie Price, who has also written children's books, promoting her autobiography Being Jordan in 2004\n\nMs Price, a former glamour model, reality TV star, children's author and businesswoman was reportedly discharged from hospital on Monday.\n\nShe used to model under the name of Jordan, and was once said to be worth more than £40m.\n\nThe mother-of-five was declared bankrupt in 2019.\n\nLast year, Ms Price told a hearing at a specialist insolvency and companies court in London that she had \"lost everything\".\n\nShe also said she suffered a \"bad breakdown\" in 2019 and spent five weeks in rehabilitation at one of The Priory clinics.\n\nKatie Price made a BBC documentary about her disabled son Harvey as he turned 18\n\nMs Price was crowned the winner of Celebrity Big Brother in 2015, and she has been praised for her work as an anti-bullying campaigner, which began when her son Harvey was targeted due to his disabilities.\n\nIn January this year, Ms Price took part in a BBC documentary about the challenges facing Harvey as he turned 18.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n• None BBC One: Katie Price - Harvey and Me\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Just Eat will create more than 1,500 customer service jobs in north-eastern England in the next 12 months.\n\nThe jobs will be based at a new facility in Sunderland as part of a £100m investment in the region by the firm over the next five years.\n\nCurrently, the takeaway food firm has more than 2,000 UK-based employees.\n\nNew employees will begin working from home and the firm will offer employees the option to work from the office in the coming months.\n\nJust Eat said it had already hired 300 staff in Sunderland and noted that customer satisfaction had gone up as a result.\n\nPreviously, the firm had outsourced the majority of its customer service roles to Bulgaria and the Philippines.\n\nIts UK managing director, Andrew Kenny, said the move was about positioning the firm for future growth. \"The [takeaway] industry has changed a lot over the past 18 months,\" he told the BBC's Today programme.\n\n\"New trends have emerged such as significant growth over breakfast and lunch. We're very confident that many of the behaviours that kicked off during Covid will sustain themselves.\"\n\nThe delivery platform has more than 58,000 restaurant partners across the UK.\n\nCouncillor Graeme Miller, leader of Sunderland City Council, said: \"We're thrilled to have supported Just Eat to make its move to Sunderland, joining a dynamic business community and creating jobs and opportunities for people across the city.\"\n\n\"We're immensely proud of our skilled people and look forward to seeing how they drive the onward success of the Just Eat business,\" he added.\n\nThe office, in Houghton le Spring, was previously occupied by Npower and will provide a gym, lounge and catering area across its 20,000 sq-m space.\n\nJust Eat was founded by a group of five Danish entrepreneurs in 2000 and launched a year later.\n\nLast year, online food ordering company Takeaway.com won a battle for the UK-listed Just Eat with a £5.9bn all-share offer.\n\nIt made Just Eat Takeaway.com one of the world's largest meal delivery companies.\n\nEarlier this month, the company reported that sales rose 52% in the first half of 2021, reflecting a robust growth in orders during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nIn June, consumer organisation Which? researched the price of ordering meals for between two to four people from five restaurants and cafes.\n\nOn average, Which? found that ordering through Just Eat was 7% more expensive than ordering directly from the restaurant.", "Police investigating the discovery of a woman's body in a lake have released CCTV images in an attempt to identify her.\n\nOfficers were called to Cresswell Lake between the A34 and A40 in Yarnton, Oxfordshire, at about 20:30 BST on 16 August.\n\nHer death is being treated as unexplained after a post-mortem examination proved inconclusive.\n\nThames Valley Police said it has not yet been able to identify the woman.\n\nDet Insp Tracey Benham said the force had received no missing person reports of a woman matching her description.\n\nShe said: \"Despite extensive investigations, we have exhausted lines of inquiry as to identifying the woman.\n\n\"So we are taking the decision to release these CCTV images, captured on 8 August, as we have ascertained that this is very sadly the woman who was located in the water.\"\n\nPolice said the body was recovered from Cresswell Lake between the A34 and A40 in Yarnton\n\nThe woman is described as light skinned, of slim-to-medium build and approximately 5ft 6ins tall, aged in her mid-twenties.\n\nShe had shoulder length dark hair and was wearing an olive green Barbour jacket, a burnt orange jumper and an orange/red and cream striped long-sleeved t-shirt and blue jeans.\n\nDet Insp Benham asked people who may have seen a woman knocking on doors in the area over the last fortnight, and matching the description of the deceased, to contact police.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe 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. The BBC's Lyse Doucet reports from Kabul airport, where many Afghans are fleeing the Taliban regime\n\nIt hits you like a brick as soon as you put your foot on the tarmac at Kabul international airport.\n\nThe intensity, the urgency, the darkness of this hour. In every direction, there are the huge grey military transport planes from the US and many other countries. Military helicopters are in the sky.\n\nHeading towards every single plane are long queues of Afghans. The lines don't seem to end. They have been told they can only bring one suitcase and the clothes they are wearing, as they leave their country behind - the country now controlled by the Taliban.\n\nBut it's not just the country they are leaving. They are leaving behind the life they lived, and for the young educated generation, the life they built up, the dreams they cherished over 20 years.\n\nThere are said to be 14,000 people inside this airfield, controlled by US military, waiting to board.\n\nFreelance journalist Bilal Sarwary was among those who made it onto the airfield, having left behind everything he had worked so hard to build, save for a few pairs of clothes and his young family.\n\nThis 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 BILAL SARWARY 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.\n\nSarwary, a former BBC journalist, had planned to raise his daughter - named Sola, meaning \"peace\" - in his home country, the place he has spent 20 years covering, starting as a fixer and translator in 2001.\n\nInstead, he is hoping she will one day understand the decision he has made to leave.\n\n\"Today's the day that a generation of Afghans have buried their dreams and aspirations and our lives,\" he said.\n\n\"This city to us is our home, despite its contradictions we called it home, we're raised from here. We hope the Taliban can learn from the lessons of the past… and we can prove that we can move away from the tanks and bullets, towards a road where everyone can see themselves.\"\n\nAbout 17,000 people have left Afghanistan via Kabul airport in the last week, according to the US. It is not known how many were Afghan citizens given visas for their work with international governments and organisations amid fears they may be targeted by the Taliban.\n\nMany are professionals and graduates, and Sarwary fears what this \"brain drain\" will mean for Afghanistan. Afghanistan, he said, was \"a country where good people, they don't grow on trees\".\n\nOutside the airport gates, there are another 10,000 or more hoping to get onto the airfield - a crush of people wanting to leave however they can.\n\nThe longer it has taken, the more desperate the crowd has become. Reporters at the scene describe Saturday as one of the worst days, with several women known to have lost their lives as the people surged forward.\n\nAccording to Nato, they are among the at least 20 people who have died in and around the airport since the Taliban entered the city a week ago.\n\nSunday was reported to be calmer at the gates, although witnesses report Taliban fighters firing into the air and using batons in order to keep people in line, according to news agency Reuters.\n\nInternationally, concerns continue to grow that countries will not be able to get their people - nationals and the Afghans who have worked alongside them - out before the end of the month, at which point the US has said it will pull out.\n\nOn Saturday the European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned that it was \"mathematically impossible\" to evacuate so many in the next nine days.\n\nAs for Bilal Sarwary, he was adamant that just because he was leaving, it did not mean he was ready to give up.\n\n\"Our affair with Afghanistan is the affair of fatal love, no matter what happens we will never give up on it,\" he said.\n\nHave you been affected by this story? Do you have an experience to share around the evacuations from Afghanistan? Please do email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "England saw a rise in young adults taking up smoking during the first lockdown, according to a study.\n\nThe number of 18 to 34-year-olds who classed themselves as smokers increased by a quarter, from 21.5% to 26.8%, says Cancer Research UK.\n\nThe data does not explain why the changes occurred but experts believe many turned to cigarettes in response to stress.\n\nAt the same time, heavy drinking increased across adults of all ages.\n\nThe findings, published in the journal Addiction, come from monthly surveys, each involving hundreds of people, about tobacco and alcohol use.\n\nResearchers compared the responses given in the seven months prior to the first lockdown in spring 2020 with those given during it.\n\nBased on population estimates for England, the findings suggest an extra 652,000 young adults were smoking, compared with before the pandemic, say researchers.\n\nThe data also suggests the pandemic may have been a trigger for many smokers, including young adults, to think about attempting to quit tobacco.\n\nThere were increases in the number of existing smokers quitting successfully, and overall levels of smoking in adults remain stable, according to the figures.\n\nGiven that older people report being more worried about becoming seriously ill from Covid, health concerns may have served as a greater deterrent to them than to younger people, say investigators.\n\nLead researcher Dr Sarah Jackson, from University College London, said: \"The first lockdown was unprecedented in the way it changed people's day-to-day lives.\n\n\"We found that many smokers took this opportunity to stop smoking, which is fantastic. However, the first lockdown was also a period of great stress for many people, and we saw rates of smoking and risky drinking increase among groups hardest hit by the pandemic.\n\n\"It will be important to keep a close eye on how these increases in smoking and drinking develop over time to ensure appropriate support is made accessible for anyone who needs it.\"\n\nCancer Research UK warns there is no safe level of smoking and that it is not a healthy way to relax or relieve anxiety.\n\nDeborah Arnott, chief executive of health charity ASH, said swift action was needed to reverse this worrying trend.\n\n\"The growing number of young adult smokers is a ticking time bomb, as smoking is an addiction which puts people on a path to premature death and disability which is hard to escape. The government has committed to publish a new Tobacco Control Plan this year, which is welcome.\n\n\"The new figures provide proof, if it were needed, that unless the plan is sufficiently ambitious and well-funded it will not deliver the government's ambition for England to be smoke-free by 2030.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Some patients with impaired immune systems have a low or absent antibody response after receiving two doses of Covid vaccine, a UK study has found.\n\nExperts do not yet know what that means for protection, but say booster shots are probably a good idea for certain immunosuppressed people.\n\nIt includes those with vasculitis who are taking a strong medicine called rituximab.\n\nSome other countries have already started giving out booster Covid doses.\n\nThe UK is expected to begin offering vulnerable groups a booster shot next month, but is waiting for recommendations from an independent advisory body called the JCVI.\n\nThe Octave study, funded by the Medical Research Council and coordinated by experts at the University of Birmingham, is part of the evidence that will help inform the JCVI decision.\n\nPeople enrolled on the trial include patients with cancer, inflammatory arthritis, diseases of the kidney or liver and those who are having a stem cell transplant.\n\nFindings from lab tests on blood samples from 600 of these volunteers, published as a pre-print by The Lancet medical journal, suggest:\n\nBut 60% had antibody levels comparable to healthy young people and all of them had optimal levels of another type of immune cell response - T cells - that can clear coronavirus infection from the body.\n\nRecent research using real-world data on Covid illness rates in more than a million at risk people, suggests Covid jabs are very effective for people with underlying health conditions, reduced the risk of symptomatic Covid-19 by around 90%.\n\nProf Iain McInnes, lead of the Octave trial and from the University of Glasgow, said: \"While 40% of these clinically at-risk patent groups were found to have a low or undetectable immune response after a double dose of the vaccine, we are encouraged that this figure isn't higher.\n\n\"However, it is possible even partial protection may be clinically beneficial, and this is something we will closely monitor.\"\n\nProf Eleanor Riley, an expert in immunology and infectious diseases at the University of Edinburgh, said: \"As it is T cells that are particularly effective at stopping us getting severely ill and needing hospital treatment, we would expect that the vaccine is still offering substantial protection to most of these highly vulnerable people.\"\n\nProf Charles Swanton from Cancer Research UK said: \"We know the results could be worrying for those who are clinically vulnerable, but anyone undergoing cancer treatment should continue to follow the advice of their doctors and we encourage all who can to get the vaccine.\n\n\"With restrictions easing, you may wonder if you should be shielding - talk to your doctor, family and friends and ultimately you need to do what's right for you.\"\n\nAn extension of the Octave study will now look at the effect of giving patients and booster shot.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The aim of Project Stratum is to improve rural internet connectivity\n\nA funding boost for rural broadband in Northern Ireland is set to benefit a further 8,500 premises.\n\nProject Stratum aims to connect 76,000 homes and businesses by 2024 with the first 19,000 this year.\n\nThe scheme will get an extra £25m from the government's Project Gigabit for areas like Londonderry, Tyrone, mid-Ulster, Fermanagh and south Antrim.\n\nProject Gigabit is the government's plan to get ultra-fast broadband to the remotest of homes in the UK.\n\nThe contract is being delivered by Fibrus, who connected the first customers in the Coalisland area of County Tyrone in March this year.\n\nConal Henry, from Fibrus, told BBC News NI's Good Morning Ulster: \"The money allows Fibrus to extend the Stratum network even deeper into rural Northern Ireland across all six counties and provide full fibre gigabyte connectivity to thousands of homes and businesses across all six counties.\"\n\nMr Henry said Fibrus had passed 5,500 homes with the Stratum network already and remained ahead of schedule in the overall project.\n\nHe said Fibrus was building more than eight miles (14km) of new network every day.\n\nThe initial cost of the scheme was £165m with £150m coming from the 2017 confidence-and-supply agreement between the DUP and the Conservative Party.\n\nThe remaining £15m is being provided by Stormont's Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera).\n\nPromising that as many homes and businesses as possible would have access to \"broadband fit for the future\", UK Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said the project was the \"biggest broadband upgrade Northern Ireland had ever seen\".", "Researchers say they are seeing some waning of protection against Covid infections in double-jabbed people.\n\nThe real-world study includes data on positive Covid PCR test results between May and July 2021 among more than a million people who had received two doses of Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine.\n\nProtection after two shots of Pfizer decreased from 88% at one month to 74% at five to six months.\n\nFor AstraZeneca, the fall was from 77% to 67% at four to five months.\n\nWaning protection is to be expected, say experts.\n\nAlthough some breakthrough infections may be happening, vaccines are still doing a very good job at protecting people against severe Covid illness and deaths.\n\nPublic Health England estimates that around 84,600 deaths and 23 million infections have been prevented as a result of the Covid-19 vaccination programme in England so far.\n\nProf Tim Spector, lead investigator on the Zoe Covid Study app behind the research, said the findings could explain recent breakthrough infections that some fully vaccinated people have been reporting.\n\nProf Spector said: \"Waning protection is to be expected and is not a reason to not get vaccinated.\n\n\"Vaccines still provide high levels of protection for the majority of the population, especially against the Delta variant, so we still need as many people as possible to get fully vaccinated.\"\n\nHe estimates that protection against infection could drop to 50% by the winter and boosters will be needed, but other experts urge caution about making predictions for the months ahead.\n\nThe UK is expected to begin offering some people a third Covid booster jab next month, but is waiting for recommendations from an independent advisory body called the JCVI which is looking at evidence to support a decision.\n\nProf Spector said: \"Many people may not need them. Many people may have had a natural booster because they've already had a natural Covid infection, so will effectively have had three vaccines.\n\n\"So I think the whole thing needs to be much more carefully managed than just giving it to everybody which would be a huge waste and ethically dubious given the resources we have. I think we need a more targeted approach than last time.\"\n\nThis study once again illustrates why we need to get used to Covid circulating - this is not a virus that's going to go away.\n\nThe vaccines do not work like they do for measles which provide life-long immunity. Immunity against Covid was always expected to wane.\n\nAnd another factor to consider is that repeated exposure to the virus is likely to increase the risk of a breakthrough infection - the increased likelihood over time of infection post-jabbing may not be all related to waning immunity.\n\nWhatever the cause though, experts have been clear we should expect to be repeatedly infected over our lifetimes.\n\nThe important thing is that each re-infection should be milder as the vaccines remain highly effective at preventing serious illness.\n\nWhat the vaccines have effectively done is taken the edge off the virus - given our immune system a head-start so those early infections are milder than they would have been for most.\n\nWhat's not clear yet is the merits of offering the most vulnerable a booster jab. It is likely to be a fine judgement call because there are so many unknowns - although the expectation is some will be offered it.\n\nDr Simon Clarke, an expert in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said infection levels in the community would alter a person's chance of encountering and catching Covid at any given time, making it hard to draw firm conclusions about waning immunity.\n\nDr Alexander Edwards, also from the University of Reading, said it was important to understand when booster doses might be needed and for whom.\n\n\"Vaccination does not, unsurprisingly, make people invulnerable, and does not prevent all infections. Variants have real and significant impact on public health, and a lot of people are still tragically dying in the UK from this nasty virus.\n\n\"The vaccines we have are remarkably safe and effective, and still remain far better than other vaccines that give massive benefits.\"\n\nHe added: \"We must pro-actively plan our public health strategy to account for imperfect protection, and for the possibility of falling protection over time.\"\n\nA similar study was published by the Office for National Statistics and the Oxford Vaccine Group last week.\n\nBased on PCR test results from nearly 400,000 people who had been infected with the Delta variant in the UK, it found two doses of the Pfizer vaccine was initially more than 90% effective against symptomatic Covid infection, compared with around 70% for the AstraZeneca vaccine.\n\nBut over the course of three months, the protection from Pfizer fell significantly whereas immunity with the AstraZeneca jab remained more stable.\n\nProf Adam Finn, a government vaccine adviser, said other studies had shown that the vaccines maintained good protection against serious illness and hospitalisation.\n\nBut he said: \"We do need to watch out very carefully to see if this waning against milder disease begins to translate into occurrence of more severe cases because then boosters will be needed.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Jack Thorne has won five Bafta TV Awards for shows like National Treasure and The Fades\n\nHis Dark Materials and Enola Holmes screenwriter Jack Thorne has accused the TV industry of \"utterly and totally\" failing disabled people.\n\nThorne described disability as the \"forgotten diversity\" and called for new quotas to improve representation.\n\n\"The TV world is stacked against the telling of disabled stories with disabled talent,\" he said in the Edinburgh TV Festival's keynote speech.\n\nThorne's TV credits also include Kiri, The Virtues and National Treasure.\n\nHis theatre work includes writing the hugely successful play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, for which he won an Olivier Award in 2017.\n\nIn the MacTaggart Lecture - one of the most high-profile speeches in the media calendar - Thorne explained that he had developed a condition called cholinergic urticaria at the age of 20.\n\n\"I was allergic to outside heat, I was allergic to artificial heat, and I was allergic to my body movement,\" he said. \"Every time I moved, I would develop welts, and was in pain.\n\n\"My condition was invisible. I didn't experience prejudice... and as such, I have had opportunities that my disabled family have not.\"\n\nThorne reflected on the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on those with underlying health conditions before outlining improvements the TV industry could make for employees with disabilities.\n\n\"TV has failed disabled people. Utterly and totally,\" he said. \"Disability is the forgotten diversity, the one everyone leaves out of speeches.\n\n\"Gender, race, sexuality, all rightly get discussed at length. Disability gets relegated out. In conversations about representation, in action plans, and new era planning, disability is confined to the corner, it remains an afterthought.\"\n\nThorne wrote the Harry Potter play based on a story by John Tiffany and JK Rowling\n\nHe took particular issue with non-disabled actors being cast in disabled roles\n\n\"Actors - actors I admire - have taken roles they shouldn't have,\" he said. \"I've been complicit in some of those decisions.\"\n\nHe referred to the 2020 US film Come As You Are, about three disabled friends going on a road trip to lose their virginities, as an example of where casting could have been more representative. \"None of these three characters were played by disabled actors. Something as sensitive as disability and sex - really sensitive - and they couldn't find disabled actors to play the roles?\"\n\nThorne also highlighted the large number of Oscar winners who had won for portraying disabled characters.\n\nThorne praised Channel 4's The Last Leg as a good example\n\nThorne went on to highlight the disabled talent already working in the TV industry, and called for them to be offered more high-profile drama roles.\n\n\"Mat Fraser did a demon Richard III for Northern Broadsides theatre company. Give him that same villain role on television,\" he said. \"Cherylee Houston rips up Corrie [Coronation Street] every time she appears on it. Make her the next Sarah Lancashire.\n\n\"And someone is going to build a show around Ruth Madeley, and when they do they'll realise she is one of the talents of our time.\"\n\nThorne said that, while many networks had made positive noises about improving representation, setting targets was required to bring about true change.\n\n\"In order to get this diversity, disability needs quotas. Desperately needs quotas,\" he said. \"There is an intention to change, but that intention is not backed up by impositions on the makers to change their ways.\"", "There is still time for firms to \"speak up and help\" Afghans being displaced by the current humanitarian crisis, the co-founder of AirBnB has said.\n\nIt comes after the accommodation platform promised to provide free temporary lodging for 20,000 refugees.\n\nRelatively few companies have offered help in the crisis so far, but Brian Chesky told the BBC he expected more would feel \"compelled\" to.\n\n\"I do think nearly every business can help in their own way,\" he said.\n\n\"And the time is now - it's not just helping, it's helping quickly because if people are displaced and need to be resettled, every hour counts.\"\n\nThe tech boss told the BBC the displacement of people fleeing the Taliban was \"the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time\".\n\nHowever, he could not say how long refugees would be able to stay with AirBnB hosts, only that it \"is really up to how long our hosts can house them and also the need\".\n\n\"Most of these people aren't looking for long-term housing, they're looking for a temporary housing before they decide where they want to live,\" he added.\n\n\"And there's a pretty extensive protocol to work with the settlement agencies to figure out where they actually want to start their lives... but you know I want to make sure we can go as big as possible for these people.\"\n\nSince Taliban militants took over Afghanistan, AirBnB has put up about 200 Afghan refugees in its listed properties, leading to questions about whether it will be able hit its 20,000 pledge.\n\nBut Mr Chesky said the firm had successfully offered homes to 225,000 frontline workers during the pandemic.\n\n\"We would have not made a public commitment I didn't think we could fulfil,\" he said.\n\nThe refugees will stay with AirBnB hosts all over the world and will be fully vetted by the firm's NGO partners, which include International Rescue Committee and Church World Service.\n\nThere have been security fears over the evacuation of Kabul after someone on the UK's no-fly list was flown into Birmingham over the weekend.\n\nMr Chesky urged potential hosts to embrace the opportunity, saying: \"When you take someone into your home sometimes you gain as much as the person you're providing housing for.\n\n\"There's just something about that experience that we've heard is one of the most meaningful experiences in people's lives, to be able to care for a family.\"", "Working women in Afghanistan must stay at home until proper systems are in place to ensure their safety, a Taliban spokesman has told reporters.\n\n\"It's a very temporary procedure,\" spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.\n\nThe Taliban, which enforced a strict version of Islamic law when they ran Afghanistan before 2001, retook full control of the country nine days ago.\n\nThe UN has highlighted \"credible\" reports of abuses by the Taliban, notably restrictions on women.\n\nUN Human Rights High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet said on Tuesday that women's rights were a \"fundamental red line\".\n\nIn his news conference in Kabul on Tuesday, the Taliban spokesman also addressed the US-led evacuation from the capital, Kabul.\n\nUS troops control Kabul airport from where some 58,700 people have been evacuated so far. Mr Mujahid reaffirmed the Taliban's position that the operation should end by 31 August.\n\nThousands of Afghans are desperate to reach Kabul airport while evacuations are continuing there\n\nOn the situation of Afghan women, he said that any restrictions would be short-lived.\n\n\"Our security forces are not trained (in) how to deal with women - how to speak to women (for) some of them,\" Mr Mujahid said. \"Until we have full security in place... we ask women to stay home.\"\n\nAs well as expressing concern over women's rights, Ms Bachelet also said she had received reports of the recruitment of child soldiers and summary executions by the Taliban.\n\nShe was speaking at an emergency meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Afterwards, the council endorsed a resolution affirming its \"unwavering commitment\" to the rights of women and girls.\n\nBut the resolution fell short of what many human rights groups had called for - in particular, it did not recommend the appointment of a special UN investigator for Afghanistan.\n\nSince their return to power, the militants have tried to convey a more restrained image, promising rights for women and girls and some freedom of speech.\n\nPresident Biden is holding talks with leaders of the other G7 leading industrial countries on Tuesday.\n\nThousands of people including British citizens, other foreign nationals and Afghans eligible for resettlement abroad are still waiting to get out.\n\nKhalid, an Afghan who worked as an interpreter for the British Army, told the BBC about his relief - tinged with sadness - at leaving the country. He and his family are now in the north of England.\n\n\"When you leave your country, your people, especially your sister, your brothers, your mother, your everyone… because of those things I was sad, but now I am happy in the UK,\" he said.\n\nEven before the Taliban retook control, more than 550,000 people had been forced to flee their homes this year due to fighting, according to the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency.\n\nMeanwhile, the head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) held a secret meeting in Kabul with Taliban founder Mullah Baradar, sources told US media.\n\nIf confirmed, it would be the highest-level meeting so far between the US and the Taliban since the fall of Kabul and the removal of the US-backed government.", "The family was staying in a static caravan at the Sealands park near Skegness\n\nA two-year-old girl has died in a fire at a seaside caravan park.\n\nThe blaze broke out in a static unit at Sealands caravan park in Ingoldmells, near Skegness, on Monday night.\n\nLincolnshire Police said the girl's mother and three siblings managed to escape the blaze and have since been released from hospital.\n\nDet Insp Jo Fortune said investigations were at an early stage and the cause of the fire was not yet clear.\n\nShe said teams would be working to piece together the circumstances of the \"particularly harrowing\" case over the coming days.\n\nLincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service said the fire was \"well established\" when crews arrived.\n\nAbout 50 people from nearby caravans were evacuated to emergency accommodation set up by site owner Laver Leisure.\n\nA holidaymaker said the fire took hold of the caravan \"very fast\"\n\nOne holidaymaker from Bedfordshire, who gave his name as Nigel, described how quickly the fire took hold.\n\n\"It went from being a small glow to being a massive inferno and by the time the fire brigade turned up, you could see that the shell of the caravan had gone.\"\n\nThe force has appealed for any witnesses or people with footage of the fire to contact them.\n\nSealands is a coastal holiday home site with 263 static home plots, many of which can be rented.\n\nIt is popular with holidaymakers and is close to Fantasy Island theme park and a Butlin's holiday camp.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Dr Anne McCloskey says she stands by her comments about the vaccines\n\nA Londonderry GP has been suspended for comments she made about the Covid-19 vaccination programme.\n\nDr Anne McCloskey, a former Aontú councillor, expressed concerns in a social media video about young people being given the Covid-19 vaccine.\n\nThe Health and Social Care Board (HSCB) said it was suspending Dr McCloskey \"as a precautionary measure while it undertakes a full investigation\".\n\nDr McCloskey cannot work for the health service during that time.\n\nThe HSCB said that suspension was \"not an automatic occurrence when undertaking an investigation\".\n\nIn the nine-minute video posted on Sunday, Dr McCloskey made a number of claims, including that there was not enough evidence that it was safe for young people to be vaccinated.\n\nDr McCloskey said she was \"distraught\" by the number of young people \"damaged\" by \"unlicensed and unapproved\" vaccines.\n\nShe said many young people had been \"coerced, bribed or bullied\" into being vaccinated and that vaccines were \"malevolent\".\n\nThere is no evidence to support Dr McCloskey's comments.\n\nHealth chiefs say the risk of becoming ill from Covid-19 is about 90% lower if you have been vaccinated.\n\nThe largest study of its kind has indicated that younger people gain more protection from being vaccinated than older people.\n\nThe HSCB ordered an investigation into Dr McCloskey after receiving complaints \"from both GP colleagues and members of the public around her behaviour, comments and conflict of interest\".\n\nThe board said it \"takes a very serious view of this\".\n\n\"Patients often turn to GPs as a source of medical advice and GPs must inspire confidence and trust in patients,\" said the board.\n\n\"We can confirm that the HSCB is carrying out an urgent investigation into the comments/views expressed by Dr McCloskey on social media and WUC is currently progressing with its own separate investigations and internal processes in relation to the matter.\"\n\nThe board said Dr McCloskey works on a sessional basis for Western Urgent Care, which is the organisation responsible for GP out-of-hours services in the western part of Northern Ireland.\n\n\"This means that she does not frequently work for the service,\" the board said.\n\nDr McCloskey says her views have been in the public domain since last March\n\nFoyle SDLP MLA Sinead McLaughlin said she had also lodged a complaint in relation to the video with the General Medical Council (GMC).\n\nThe GMC said it would \"examine any allegations to determine whether further action is required\".\n\n\"We expect doctors to justify trust in the profession and the spread of misinformation during the pandemic is a serious concern,\" said the GMC.\n\nDr McCloskey, who came out of retirement at the start of the pandemic, said her views had been in the public domain since last March when she first spoke out against lockdowns.\n\nShe said she was not anti-vaccination but that she was against the \"mandatory imposition of vaccines\" on young people.\n\nThe GP said she believed the investigations were revealed to the media before she had seen a private email informing her of the move.\n\nIn October, last year Dr McCloskey stood down from Derry City and Strabane District Council because of differences of opinion with her party Aontú over Stormont's handling of Covid-19.\n\nShe also stood down as the party's deputy leader.\n• None Covid vaccine safety - What we know", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Liam Reardon's family celebrated in one of their hometown's pubs\n\nAn offer of a free pasty and a cocktail named after him is how Liam Reardon's hometown has celebrated his Love Island win.\n\nThe Merthyr Tydfil bricklayer was crowned winner alongside partner Millie Court in Monday evening's final.\n\nAnd as Liam, 22, basks in his newfound reality show fame, people in his Welsh hometown have been celebrating too.\n\nJorge Dascencao, who owns Liam's local pub, The New Crown, said it brought the whole town together.\n\nHe said a Love Island-themed party they hosted to celebrate the show's final sold out in 15 minutes.\n\nDuring the event, the pub was kitted out with palm trees, catchphrases from the hit ITV show, such as \"I've got a text\", and cheese boards.\n\n\"Merthyr is a town that people will come together when they need to come to together,\" he told BBC Radio Wales.\n\nMillie Court and Liam Reardon were crowned winners of Love Island\n\nLiam's favourite cocktail bar Hardie's has even created a custom drink called \"The Milliam\" - after the couple's joint nickname on the show - which he is \"welcome to enjoy\" when he returns.\n\nAnd endorsement of the victory has extended beyond Merthyr's hospitality industry.\n\nConsultant hepatologist Dai Samuel tweeted that he was \"chuffed to bits\" over Liam's win.\n\nThis 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 Dr Dai Samuel 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.\n\nElsewhere, department store Trago Mills - which has a store in the Welsh valley's town - has offered Liam a free pasty and £50 to spend in-store.\n\nLiam's win also put him on a par with Amber Davies, from Denbigh in north Wales, after she won the hit reality show alongside then-partner Kem Cetinay in 2017.\n\nThe 24-year-old has gone on to forge a successful showbiz career - appearing in West Ends shows as well as a CBBC children's show.\n\nOther Welsh reality stars include 2005 Big Brother winner Rachel Rice, from Pontypool and Alana Spencer, from Aberystwyth, who won The Apprentice in 2016.\n\nFormer Miss Wales Imogen Thomas, lifeguard Glyn Wise, hairdresser Helen Adams and junior doctor Alex George all found fame after appearing on Big Brother and Love Island respectively.\n\nFormer Big Brother contestant Imogen Thomas found fame after the show\n\nWhile some contestants have used the platform to propel them to further fame - others have returned to normality.\n\nBoth Glyn and Rachel are now teachers and live in relative obscurity while Dr Alex and Amber remain in the public eye.", "Striking video has been captured of lightning hitting the One World Trade Center in New York City, as Storm Henri approached the north-east of the US.\n\nHeavy rain caused by the storm has caused damage across several states.\n\nMillions of people have been told to prepare for flooding, as well as downed trees and power lines.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Billy Connolly says he will \"play it by ear\" as he decides how his illness affects his future plans\n\nLegendary Scottish comedian Billy Connolly has said the medical challenges he faces while filming for television are \"getting worse\".\n\nThe comedian was speaking during a session at the Edinburgh TV Festival.\n\nIt was honouring the 78-year-old comic with a lifetime achievement award for his contribution to the industry.\n\nSir Billy was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2013 and retired from live performances five years later.\n\nThe comedian has continued to make TV programmes but, interviewed by his wife, Dr Pamela Stephenson Connolly, he said: \"The challenges lately have been medical. They are getting worse.\"\n\n\"I will have to weigh it up and see how bad it gets. Play it by ear.\"\n\nSir Billy said that on his last tour he used to say to the audience: \"Good evening symptom spotters. I would show them symptoms and it would work really well.\"\n\nBilly Connolly has continued to make TV programmes despite his Parkinson's\n\nHe said the audience for the online TV festival event would have \"noticed I have been holding my left hand as this has been going on\" as it had started to involuntarily shake.\n\n\"It's started to jump around,\" he said.\n\nSir Billy said he was \"proud and happy\" to be receiving the lifetime achievement award.\n\nDuring the interview, the comedian also discussed his first appearance on Sir Michael Parkinson's talk show in the 1970s which helped to make his name.\n\nHe said it was a \"very weird\" experience.\n\n\"I had done wee talk shows in Scotland and they were good, but there wasn't the big time thing that Parkinson had.\"\n\nBilly Connolly with children in Glasgow in 1975\n\nSir Billy also discussed receiving a warm welcome back to Glasgow when he was applauded by members of the public after he landed at the city's airport following his appearance on the show.\n\n\"It's a thing the Scots have got about accents,\" he said.\n\n\"You can be as popular as you like but if you don't have a Scottish accent when you're doing it, it's different.\n\n\"They loved the fact I went on with my Scottish accent and got famous. They took it personally and they all applauded and it was lovely.\"\n\nThe discussion, which was streamed online, took place on the first day of the Edinburgh TV Festival, which runs until Thursday.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Everyone over the age of 40 in England will be able to have their blood pressure checked for free in High Street chemists from October.\n\nOfficials say the NHS scheme could save around 2,000 lives in the next five years by detecting and then treating high blood pressure before it causes strokes and heart attacks.\n\nAn estimated 4.8m people in the UK are living with undiagnosed hypertension.\n\nIt rarely has noticeable symptoms which is why it is important to run checks.\n\nNHS England said estimates show that 3,700 strokes and 2,500 heart attacks could be prevented within five years as a result of the tests.\n\nIf 2.5 million people get their blood pressure checked in this way, it is estimated that an extra 250,000 people could receive life-saving treatment for hypertension.\n\nProf Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said: \"The NHS Long Term Plan aims to crack down on killer conditions and this action by pharmacy teams will go a long way in helping us achieve our ambitions of saving more lives.\n\n\"More High Street heart checks for blood pressure will mean more rapid detection of killer conditions and quicker treatment for patients who need it.\"\n\nJohn Maingay, from the British Heart Foundation, urged people to take up the offer: \"Most people don't know they have it until they get it measured by a healthcare professional.\n\n\"It often doesn't present any symptoms, which is why it is sometimes referred to as a silent killer, so it's important that you get your blood pressure checked - especially if you have a family history of heart and circulatory disease.\"\n\nBlood pressure is recorded with two numbers. The systolic pressure (higher number) is the force at which your heart pumps blood around your body.\n\nThe diastolic pressure (lower number) is the resistance to the blood flow in the blood vessels.\n\nEveryone's blood pressure will be slightly different. What's considered low or high for you may be normal for someone else.\n\nhigh blood pressure is considered to be 140/90mmHg or higher (or 150/90mmHg or higher if you're over the age of 80)\n\nideal blood pressure is usually considered to be between 90/60mmHg and 120/80mmHg\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Enrique Tarrio has led the far-right group since 2018\n\nThe leader of the far-right Proud Boys group has been given nearly six months in jail for burning a stolen Black Lives Matter flag and a weapons crime.\n\nEnrique Tarrio, 37, pleaded guilty to destruction of property and attempted possession of a large-capacity ammunition feeding device.\n\nAppearing through video in court on Monday, Tarrio apologised and said there was \"no excuse\" for his actions.\n\nHe will report to jail on 6 September to begin his 155 day sentence.\n\nProsecutors said that Tarrio and other members of the Proud Boys removed the banner from the historically black Asbury United Methodist Church in Washington DC on 12 December and set it ablaze.\n\nThe incident was a part of a pro-Trump demonstration in protest of Joe Biden's election win.\n\nSeveral days later, Tarrio admitted to participating in the banner's burning in an interview with the Washington Post.\n\nWhile Tarrio acknowledged his actions were \"wrong\" in Monday's hearing, DC Superior Court Judge Harold Cushenberry said his remorse was \"wholly unconvincing\".\n\nMr Cushenberry added that he believes Tarrio \"clearly, intentionally and proudly crossed the line from peaceful protest and assembly to potentially violent conduct\".\n\nThe mostly peaceful demonstrations in December ended in isolated scuffles after counter-protests began. Police said that more than three dozen people were arrested and four churches were vandalised.\n\nLocal police took Tarrio into custody on 4 January, just two days before the Capitol Hill riot on 6 January. Police found weapon magazines in his car during a traffic stop - which led to the second charge.\n\nAhead of the riot, Tarrio said on the now-defunct social media app Parler that the Proud Boys were planning to \"turn out in record numbers on Jan 6\" and called its members \"the most notorious group of extraordinary gentlemen\".\n\nFounded in 2016 by Canadian-British right-wing activist Gavin McInnes, the Proud Boys is a far-right, anti-immigrant, all male group with a history of street violence against left-wing groups. Tarrio became a national leader in 2018.\n\nOn Sunday, members of the group were reportedly involved in a violent demonstration in Portland, Oregon, that ended with a gunfight. Nobody was reported injured during the incident.", "As thousands of citizens and foreign nationals attempt to flee Afghanistan, scenes outside Kabul airport have become increasingly desperate.\n\nSince the Taliban took control of the country at the weekend and closed land border crossings, the capital's airport has become the only way out of the country for many.\n\nBut the militants have said they don't want Afghans to leave the country. They have set up checkpoints on Airport Road - shown in yellow, below - the main route to Hamid Karzai International Airport, and have attacked people.\n\nThe violence has left 12 people in the area, dead - killed by gunshots or in stampedes - since Sunday, an anonymous Taliban official told Reuters news agency, meaning the journey to the airport is an increasingly treacherous one.\n\nInside the walls of the airport compound, more than 4,000 US troops are in temporary control. Outside, heavily-armed Taliban fighters now ring the perimeter, generating an atmosphere of fear.\n\nTaliban fighters have control of the exterior of the airport\n\nThe militants are reportedly preventing Afghans - including some of those with visas - from getting to the tarmac.\n\nBut even before people fleeing reach the edge of the airport, they are being attacked en route, witnesses say.\n\nA correspondent for the LA Times newspaper saw dozens of Taliban firing into the air, aiming weapons at crowds and using sticks and rope to lash civilians as they tried to make their escape. Graphic images captured by Marcus Yam show at least one woman hurt and a young child left bloodied with what appears to be a head injury.\n\nA woman was injured on her way to the airport\n\nPhotos published by SBS showed an Afghan interpreter, who appeared to have been attacked, being treated for a gunshot wound.\n\nCrowds have also been gathering along the airport's perimeter to the north of the city - seen in the map above - over the past few days, with reports of a stampede injuring 17 people on Wednesday. Many have been trying to climb over barbed wire fences and there are reports of shots being fired.\n\nPeople have been scaling the boundary wall of Hamid Karzai International Airport\n\nAmong the crowds are families with children, many of whom have not had access to food and drink for days, reporters on the ground say. Footage shared on social media showed children being passed over a wall to foreign soldiers in the hope they might be able to escape.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A child is handed over the wall at Kabul airport, as the chaos continues\n\nOne girl in a pink jacket was hoisted aloft to a soldier on a ladder.\n\nA number of children have been seen being helped over walls at Kabul airport\n\nThe chaotic conditions emerged as European governments rushed to bring home their citizens - as well as Afghan colleagues.\n\nAfghan families have been seeking sanctuary with foreign troops\n\nAlthough the Taliban have said Afghans should stay in the country they have also claimed they are facilitating a safe exit for both foreigners and locals. \"We are preventing any form of violent, verbal clash at the airport among Afghans, foreigners and Taliban members,\" an official said.\n\nThe latest reports of Taliban violence and harassment come as a confidential UN document, seen by the BBC, says the militants are intensifying their hunt for people who worked for and collaborated with Nato and US forces.\n\nThe crush of people heading for the airport can be seen in satellite images of the area, with thousands converging in vehicles as they desperately tried to escape.\n\nImages of the chaos first emerged from Kabul airport on Monday as it was overrun by Afghans terrified at the prospect of Taliban rule.", "The head of Iran's prison service has apologised after hackers leaked videos showing the abuse of detainees at Tehran's Evin prison.\n\nMany political prisoners and foreigners are held at Evin.\n\nHackers released CCTV footage in which guards are seen beating prisoners and dragging one on a floor.\n\nMohammad Mehdi Haj-Mohammadi said he took responsibility for the \"unacceptable behaviour\".", "Visitors are also being encouraged to take lateral flow tests if they visit Cornwall\n\nTourists have been urged to stay away from Cornwall unless they have pre-booked a trip because of a huge spike in Covid cases.\n\nThe latest figures show Cornwall has 770 cases per 100,000 people, double the previous week's figure.\n\nThe UK also recorded 174 new Covid-related deaths on Tuesday - the highest figure since March.\n\nMalcolm Bell, head of Visit Cornwall, is calling on visitors to help keep the region safe.\n\nHe said: \"We are asking people not to come unless they have booked ahead and request they take a lateral flow test before, during and after their stay so that people can be safe and help us to manage the current spike.\"\n\nMr Bell said the county had witnessed \"too many occurrences of overcrowding in honeypots\" - places that attract mass tourism - and urged visitors to consider visiting less popular parts of Cornwall.\n\n\"We have over 300 beaches and lovely parts that can cope with visitors,\" he said.\n\nOn Monday, Cornwall Council said 4,700 cases may be linked to the Boardmasters festival held in Newquay.\n\nAbout 800 of those positive cases are people who live in Cornwall.\n\nJack Stacey, from Staffordshire, told the BBC he caught Covid at Boardmasters and wished he had not gone.\n\n\"My whole family's got it now so I regret going to be honest… It wasn't worth it,\" he said.\n\nThe 20-year-old, who is not vaccinated, said he was \"shocked\" at how ill the virus made him, leaving him bed-bound for nine days.\n\nOthers were overjoyed at being able to party at a festival again.\n\nFestival organisers said in terms of Covid restrictions they \"went above and beyond what was asked of us\"\n\nRosie Breakwell, 22, from Bath, said she also caught Covid there after receiving her first jab, but said she \"got over it pretty quickly\".\n\n\"I live for festivals so not having one in two years was just horrendous, and it was just so nice being back in a sweaty field with everyone,\" she said.\n\nVirologist Dr David Strain said music festivals were \"something that is important for mental health of a younger generation who have missed out on so much\".\n\nThe lecturer at the University of Exeter Medical School said: \"It would have been nicer to have left it a month or so later so 17-18 year olds would have been double vaccinated.\"\n\nBut he said he \"probably would have made the same decision\" for it to go ahead.\n\nDr Strain said 18-25 year olds had a \"very low risk of being hospitalised\" with coronavirus, but the \"real test\" of how the festival had impacted young people would be the number of long Covid cases that emerged.\n\nBoardmasters is a good reminder that just because large events are now allowed to take place, Covid-19 hasn't simply disappeared.\n\nAs long as cases linked to festivals aren't landing people in hospital, making them seriously ill or putting pressure on the NHS, then organisers would argue the vaccination programme is reducing the public health risk.\n\nWe're about to head into a bank holiday that is likely to be the busiest weekend of live music and festivals in the UK since the start of the pandemic.\n\nThousands of people will be attending the likes of Reading and Leeds, Creamfields, Manchester Pride and All Points East in London and based on what's happened following Boardmasters, we can assume there will be a rise in cases linked to these events.\n\nBy now, anyone attending knows there's going to be a risk of catching or spreading the virus when a large group of people share the same space.\n\nFestivals were \"core to the mental health of the younger generation\" said virologist Dr David Strain\n\nA condition of entry to Boardmasters was use of the NHS Covid Pass - a measure recommended as best-practice for other large events.\n\nFestival organisers said the systems they put in place meant more than 450 people were found to be at risk of passing on the virus \"and as a result did not attend our Watergate Bay site or left the festival early\".\n\nThey said: \"We are grateful to them and everyone else who took the extra steps this year.\n\n\"No event is able to eliminate risk entirely.\n\n\"We look forward to sharing our experience with our local authority partners and other large events so we can all continue to provide much-needed economic benefit to our communities and entertainment to our loyal audiences.\"\n\nIn Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly there were 770 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to 20 August.\n\nThe figure for the previous week to 13 August was 384 cases per 100,000.\n\nNewquay's beaches have attracted tourists and surfers to the region\n\nThree parts of Newquay now have the three highest Covid infection rates in England for the seven days up to 18 August.\n\nThe town's mayor, Lewis Gardner, said they had been working tirelessly \"all summer\" to keep Covid rates down.\n\n\"We've done vaccination pop-up centres, we've been handing out lateral flow tests, we've given advice to businesses,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"And it just seems that everything we do, no matter what we do, the rates keep creeping up.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Retail leaders are urging the UK government to follow Scotland's example in extending new protections for shop workers.\n\nThe Protection of Workers Act comes into force in Scotland on Tuesday, which makes assaulting or abusing retail staff a standalone offence.\n\nThe British Retail Consortium (BRC) and union Usdaw want similar rules to be introduced across the rest of the UK.\n\nBRC boss Helen Dickinson said \"enough is enough\".\n\n\"It is incomprehensible that despite Holyrood's decisive action, the UK government has so far failed to provide the same protections to shop workers in the rest of the UK,\" the head of the trade group said.\n\nMs Dickinson added that the BRC would \"not stop until our asks are met\".\n\nThe new Scottish law, which was passed unanimously, will also see tougher sentences for perpetrators.\n\nUsdaw is also calling on the government to bring forward an amendment to extend the same protections to retail staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland when its policing bill goes to the House of Lords for a second reading in September.\n\nIts general secretary, Paddy Lillis, said shop workers face \"violence, threats and abuse\" on a regular basis.\n\nThis has been exacerbated by staff being asked to enforce Covid-related measures such as social distancing or mask-wearing during the pandemic, Usdaw said.\n\nMichelle Whitehead has worked at the same supermarket for the last 20 years\n\n\"We've always had abuse against us, but since the pandemic it has gotten so much worse,\" says Michelle Whitehead, who has worked at the same supermarket in Wolverhampton for two decades.\n\nAfter politely asking customers to wear a face mask when restrictions were in place, or explaining why certain items were out of stock, she has faced both verbal and physical abuse.\n\nOne male customer told her he would wait for her after closing. Others have threatened to hit her with a walking stick and spat at her.\n\n\"I have come home and cried because of it... I enjoy my job and love most of the customers - I just want to get on with it,\" she says.\n\nShe would like to see a tougher stance taken in England: \"It would make people stop and think before they shouted and bawled at us because they might be prosecuted - it'd save me coming home crying.\n\n\"Most of the abusers don't realise we're actually people... It'd be nice to have a clear message to say: 'We're shop workers and assaulting and abusing us is totally unacceptable.'\"\n\nAccording to the BRC's annual crime survey, the number of violent or abusive incidents rose to 455 a day between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020, in comparison with 424 in the previous year.\n\nThat was despite shops spending a record £1.2bn on safety measures such as security staff, body cameras and panic alarms, it said.\n\nLast month, 100 retail bosses wrote to the prime minister demanding action.\n\nLeaders of brands such as Tesco, Sainsbury's, Aldi and Ikea signed an open letter saying the situation \"cannot be allowed to get any worse\".\n\nThey added there was \"a clear need now for better protection in law for retail workers\".\n\nA Home Office spokeswoman said: \"It is completely unacceptable to threaten or assault shop workers, not least when they are working so hard to keep vital services running.\"\n\nShe cited the launch of the #ShopKind campaign in April to encourage customers to treat shop workers with respect.\n\n\"The Sentencing Council has set out guidelines which means courts should increase sentences for assaults committed against all those providing a service to the public, which includes shop workers,\" she added.", "Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada is a political and religious leader who is the third Supreme Commander of the Taliban\n\nThe Taliban took many by surprise as they swept across Afghanistan in just 10 days in August, quickly taking control of towns and cities.\n\nThe militant group has announced an interim government, declaring the country an \"Islamic Emirate\".\n\nThe cabinet will be led by Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, one of the movement's founders.\n\nSo, here's what is known about who is leading the Taliban today.\n\nHibatullah Akhundzada became the supreme commander of the Taliban in May 2016, and is now leader of the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.\n\nIn the 1980s, he participated in the Islamist resistance against the Soviet military campaign in Afghanistan, but his reputation is more that of a religious leader than a military commander.\n\nAkhundzada worked as head of the Sharia Courts in the 1990s.\n\nAfter first seizing power in the 1990s, the Taliban introduced and supported punishments according to their strict interpretation of Islamic law: they publicly executed murderers and adulterers and amputated thieves' limbs.\n\nUnder the leadership of the reclusive Mullah Mohammed Omar (who is thought to have died in 2013), the Taliban also banned television, music, movies, make-up, and stopped girls aged 10 and over from attending school.\n\nVery few images exist of former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, who died in 2013\n\nAkhundzada is believed to be in his 60s and has lived most of his life in Afghanistan.\n\nHowever, according to experts, he maintains close ties with the so-called \"Quetta Shura\" - the Afghan Taliban leaders said to be based in the Pakistani city of Quetta.\n\nAs the group's supreme commander, Akhundzada is in charge of political, military and religious affairs.\n\nMullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund is one of the four men who founded the Taliban in Afghanistan in 1994.\n\nHe is a longtime head the Taliban's powerful leadership council, or Rehbari Shura.\n\nHe served as foreign minister and deputy prime minister during the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan in 1996-2001.\n\nHe is under UN sanctions for his role in the government during that period.\n\nSirajuddin Haqqani is another of the group's top figures, who is on an FBI most wanted list.\n\nAfter the death of his father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, he became the new leader of the Haqqani network, which has been credited with some of the most violent attacks that have occurred in Afghanistan against Afghan forces and their Western allies in recent years.\n\nThe Haqqani network is currently one of the region's most powerful and feared militant groups. Some say it is even more influential than the Islamic State group in Afghanistan.\n\nThe Haqqani network is currently one of the most powerful and feared militant groups in the country\n\nThe group, designated by the US as a terrorist organisation, oversees the Taliban's financial and military assets along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.\n\nHaqqani is believed to be around 45.\n\nIn an opinion piece in the New York Times last year before the signing of the Doha agreement, Haqqani wrote: \"For more than four decades, precious Afghan lives have been lost every day. Everyone has lost somebody they loved. Everyone is tired of war. I am convinced that the killing and the maiming must stop.\"\n\nHe became a lynchpin of the insurgency after the militants were toppled by the US-led invasion in 2001.\n\nBut he was captured in a joint US-Pakistani operation in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi in February 2010.\n\nHe remained in prison for eight years, until he was released as part of a plan to facilitate the peace process. He has been the head of their political office in Qatar since January 2019.\n\nIn 2020, Baradar became the first Taliban leader to communicate directly with a US president after having a telephone conversation with Donald Trump. Before that, Baradar signed the Doha agreement on the withdrawal of US troops on behalf of the Taliban.\n\nThen US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Abdul Ghani Baradar met in September 2020 in Doha\n\nMohammad Yaqoob is the son of the founder of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammed Omar.\n\nHe is believed to be little more than 30 years old and is currently the leader of the group's military operations.\n\nFollowing the death of former Taliban leader Akhtar Mansour in 2016, some militants wanted to appoint Yaqoob as the group's new supreme commander, but others felt that he was young and lacking in experience.\n\nAs the Taliban advanced through the country, Yaqoob urged Taliban fighters not to harm members of the Afghan military or government and to stay out of abandoned homes of government and security officials who had fled, according to the Associated Press news agency.", "Tens of thousands have been evacuated but others remain crammed in or around Kabul airport\n\nThe US aims to complete evacuations from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan by a 31 August withdrawal deadline - as calls grow from allies to extend it.\n\nThe Pentagon said it was not yet at the point to seek a change, though the UK, France and Germany will step up pressure at a virtual G7 summit.\n\nThe Taliban told the BBC that any extension would violate an agreed deal.\n\nTens of thousands have been evacuated, but others seeking to flee remain crammed in or near Kabul airport.\n\nUS President Joe Biden is expected to decide within the next 24 hours on whether to extend the timeline for withdrawal, Reuters news agency reports.\n\nAn unnamed official told the agency the decision would be made in order to give the Pentagon time to prepare.\n\nAt Kabul airport on Monday, dozens crowded around the BBC's Secunder Kermani, desperately flashing documents to try to get on to flights they had not been given permission to board.\n\nThe crush makes it difficult for those who have received emails telling them to turn up at the airport to gain access, he says.\n\nOne Canadian official told Reuters the crowds were \"intense, violence is becoming more common\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told the BBC that foreign troops staying past 31 August would be \"a clear violation\"\n\nAccording to the White House, about 10,900 people were evacuated from Kabul between 11:30 and 23:30 local time (07:00 - 19:00 GMT) on Monday.\n\nThe US has evacuated, and facilitated the evacuation of, approximately 48,000 people since an intense airlift started on 14 August, the White House said.\n\nThe airlift began as the Taliban moved into Kabul following a lightning campaign that has seen them take over almost all of the country in the wake of the US decision to withdraw forces.\n\nThe sole remaining area holding out appears to be the Panjshir region north-east of Kabul, a stronghold of anti-Taliban opponents who says thousands of people are ready to carry on the fight.\n\nWhite House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the US was in daily talks with the Taliban through political and security channels, although Mr Biden was not considering direct talks at this time.\n\nHe said the US believed all Americans who wanted to leave Afghanistan could be evacuated by the deadline, but that Mr Biden would also take a \"day-by-day\" approach on whether to extend it.\n\nEarlier, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said: \"Our focus is on getting this done by the end of the month.\"\n\nIf commanders on the ground said an extension was needed it would be passed to President Biden, he said, but added: \"We just aren't there right now.\"\n\nHe added: \"We've seen the public statements by the Taliban spokesman about their views on the 31st of August. I think we all understand that view.\"\n\nMr Kirby was reluctant to give the specific number of Americans evacuated so far, saying it was in the \"thousands\".\n\nHe also said there were no plans at present to add to the 5,800 troops securing the airport and overseeing evacuations.\n\nIt appears unlikely British soldiers could remain if the Americans decided to keep to the deadline\n\nMr Kirby said that, on at least one occasion, the US had used a helicopter to bring people to the airport.\n\nFormer state department official James Steinberg told the BBC there was a good chance Joe Biden would extend the evacuation deadline in order to protect the remaining Americans - and the president would probably not give the Taliban \"an option to veto\" it.\n\nThe UK, France and Germany have all indicated evacuations will have to continue beyond the deadline.\n\nMr Biden and UK PM Boris Johnson spoke by telephone about the G7 summit taking place on Tuesday. The main point of debate will be whether foreign troops will remain to oversee evacuations or whether they can continue via a civilian operation.\n\nGermany's Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has said that talks are taking place with allies - and with the Taliban - on civilian operations.\n\nThe UK has said that any foreign military presence at Kabul airport would not be able to continue without the US troops.\n\nMr Kirby said it was \"conceivable, even without a US military footprint, that people will be able to get out of Kabul\".\n\nTaliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen had earlier told the BBC that people would still be able to leave on commercial flights after the deadline.\n\nHe said: \"We are not putting hurdles in their way if they have a passport issued - they can go on commercial flights at any time. We want them to stay in the country but if they intend to go, they can.\"\n\nHowever, many Afghans, particularly those who worked with foreign forces, live in fear of reprisals from a group that imposed a harsh version of Islamic law when in power from 1996 to 2001.\n\nThe Taliban were ousted by US and allied troops following al-Qaeda's 11 September 2001 attacks. A 20-year conflict ensued.\n\nMr Shaheen tried to paint a conciliatory picture for those Afghans who stay, asking them to help rebuild the country.\n\nBut he stressed there would be \"consequences\" if the foreign forces stayed beyond 31 August. He did not elaborate on what this would mean, saying only that the Taliban leadership would decide.", "Last updated on .From the section Disability Sport\n\nCoverage: Follow on Radio 5 Live and on the BBC Sport website\n\n\"Paralympic athletes know that no matter which way the wind blows, its power can be harnessed to move forward. They know that by being brave and spreading their wings, they can reach extraordinary heights.\"\n\nThe words of Tokyo 2020 organisers, as the Paralympic Games finally opened, 364 days later than planned and after a year of the utmost difficulties.\n\nFive years have passed since competitors said 'tchau' to Rio. At long last, it is the turn of the Paralympics to bid 'konnichi wa' to Tokyo.\n\nThe Games began with an opening ceremony full of colour and celebration interjected with a touch of poignancy, a concept of 'We Have Wings' which organisers said was intended to raise awareness of the courage of Paralympians.\n\n\"I cannot believe we are finally here,\" said Andrew Parsons, president of the International Paralympic Committee, in his opening speech.\n\n\"Many doubted this day would happen. Many thought it impossible. But thanks to the efforts of many, the most transformative sport event on earth is about to begin.\"\n\nThese Games will feel different to those of previous times. But as the Olympics showed just a few weeks ago, the power of sport will prevail.\n• None A 'different' Games but Paralympians still hope to shine\n• None Tanni Grey-Thompson column: 'I still think these Paralympics will take the movement to another level'\n\nIt has the power to create \"winds of change\" too.\n\nMost of us haven't been through an airport in nearly 18 months, but Tuesday's opening ceremony - at Tokyo's National Stadium - transported us to Para Airport.\n\nThere we met the Little One-Winged Plane, convinced she cannot fly because she has only one wing. Gradually, she has a change of heart, inspired by the displays of resilience around her, and grows enough in confidence to take off on her own journey.\n\nNo crowds were there to watch the opening ceremony, as will be the case throughout the Games, but it was a still a show, a cauldron of colour and celebration.\n\nThere were sombre moments, too, reflective of the events of the past 17 months. A rescue worker was among those to carry the Japanese flag into the stadium, while the Paralympic flag was handed over to eight key workers who supported the people of Japan in their day-to-day lives during the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nOf the 714 cast members performing in the opening ceremony, 166 have impairments. In Japan, it is hoped the Games will act as a catalyst for change in societal attitudes towards disability in the country.\n\nThe parade of athletes saw swimmer Ellie Simmonds and archer John Stubbs carry the flag for Great Britain, leading a 17-strong British delegation into the stadium.\n\nEight-time Paralympic medallist Simmonds later called it \"one of the proudest moments\" of her life.\n\nThe Afghanistan flag was carried in by a Games volunteer, as an act of solidarity after Afghanistan's two Paralympic athletes were forced to withdraw from the Games because of the situation in the country since the collapse of the government and the return of the Taliban.\n\nThe Paralympic cauldron, placed lower than its Olympic counterpart so competitors can \"feel an affinity\" with it, opened like a flower to \"embody vitality and hope\", and was lit by a trio of Japanese Para-athletes.\n\nIn all, about 4,400 athletes from 162 national Paralympic committees will compete in 539 medal events across 22 sports in Tokyo, the first city to hold the summer Paralympics twice, having first done so in 1964.\n\n\"Paralympians, you gave your all to be here. Blood, sweat and tears. Now is your moment to show the world your skill, your strength, your determination,\" said Parsons.\n\n\"If the world has ever labelled you, now is your time to be relabelled: champion, hero, friend, colleague, role model, or just human. You are the best of humanity and the only ones who can decide who and what you are.\n\n\"You are the truth. You are amazing. You choose to be the greatest in whatever the plan is.\n\n\"Your performances could change the fortunes of your lives. But most importantly they will change the lives of 1.2 billion forever. This is the power of sport, to transform lives and communities. Change starts with sport. And from tomorrow on, Paralympic athletes start once again to change the world.\"\n\nGreat Britain won 147 medals, including 64 golds, in Rio. Time to find out what Tokyo's got.\n• None Challenges to keep your child or teenager busy this summer\n• None Which food has the same carbon footprint as five miles in an SUV? The carbon cost of what we eat", "Nausheen snaps herself in the mirror of a lift. She endured constant dread it could all go wrong\n\nSafehouses. Teenage Taliban guards. Anxious waits for embassy calls. Airport chaos. And throughout, the constant fear this could end in disaster for you and your loved ones.\n\nThis is the story of Nausheen and her struggle to find a way out of Kabul as the Taliban took charge of the Afghan capital. Her name has been changed to protect her and her family.\n\nI'm speaking to Nausheen by phone. It's the afternoon of Saturday the 21st of August. She has been sitting inside a minibus outside Kabul airport for almost 20 hours, with no access to food or a toilet, in a desperate attempt to board a military aircraft as part of India's emergency evacuation plan.\n\nBut this is not the final chapter. Far from it. How did it come to this?\n\nRewind to 15 August. Nausheen, an Indian married to an Afghan with relatives in both countries, is booked on an Air India flight on the 19th from Kabul to Delhi. But as the Taliban take over Kabul, all commercial flights, including hers, are cancelled.\n\nShe wakes on the 15th to find that most embassies have shut down overnight and their staff are fleeing at the first possible opportunity.\n\nHer husband wants her out of Afghanistan as soon as possible. She grabs her passport and blue chadari (burqa) and, with her husband, rushes to the Indian embassy to ask about evacuation flights.\n\n\"When we reached the Indian embassy, luckily it was still functional. But you could sense the tension in the air. They were destroying all the documents and burning all paperwork. The staff told us they would continue working until that evening. I wanted to get visas for the rest of my family here in Afghanistan. They asked me to come back in the evening with passports and other documents. So I went back home.\n\n\"People were running haphazardly fearing the Taliban. My husband held my hand, and we ran towards our home. It felt as if the entire city was out on the street, running towards the airport. It was horrific. When I reached home, the security staff of the building had changed from proper uniforms to kurta-pyjamas. My building was surrounded by the Taliban.\"\n\nNausheen and her husband pick up documents and go back to the embassy. Luckily they also get visas for the rest of the family.\n\nThen begins the wait for that phone call from the Ministry of External Affairs of the government of India. As an Indian, she is on her country's priority list.\n\n\"I got a message from the ministry on 19 August. I needed to reach (a location we cannot reveal for security reasons) where many others who were part of the evacuation plan were to assemble. I was leaving behind my whole family, and it wasn't easy. But my family was concerned about my safety and there was hardly any time to think. We had been asked to carry only a small handbag. So, I picked up my laptop, hard drives, phone, a power bank and left.\"\n\nThere are 220 other passengers at the safe house, waiting to be evacuated. Indian Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and a few Afghan families as well.\n\nBut the safehouse does not feel secure and the next two days are filled with anxiety.\n\n\"There were no arrangements, we had no information on when we would get evacuated. No security was given to us inside the safehouse. In fact, the Taliban were standing outside guarding us, so that no other fringe groups could attack us. We felt very vulnerable. We couldn't sleep out of fear.\"\n\nA sudden evacuation order comes at 22:00 on 20 August. In the next hour and a half, some 150 passengers leave for the airport in seven minibuses.\n\n\"We were escorted by the Taliban. One car led us from the front, and another was behind. We reached the airport around 00:30. Large crowds were desperately waiting outside in an attempt to flee the country. The Taliban were firing rounds from one side and from the other the Americans were firing tear gas shells to control the crowd. We were taken to the northern gate, which is mostly used by the military.\"\n\nBut they are now denied access into the airport by the Americans who control it. They spend the night in the buses, with no evacuation plan in effect.\n\n\"There were children, women and sick people with us. We were stranded on the road. Some women had their periods, but we had no access to the toilet. We were sitting in an open space, and anyone could have attacked us.\"\n\nIt is about to get worse.\n\nNausheen took a secret snap of one Taliban guard. She said some appeared only teenagers\n\n\"At 9:30 on 21 August, the Taliban came to our buses and started questioning our co-ordinator. They snatched his phone and slapped him. We didn't know what was going on.\n\n\"We were driven to an industrial area where we were detained. These were very young Taliban men, some looked as young as 17 or 18. We were scared for our lives and thought it was all over. Those few hours were the most dangerous of my life. We thought we won't be able to meet our family again. We won't be able to go home.\"\n\nMen and women are made to sit separately in a park. The Taliban take away passports and start questioning them. The Indian women married to Afghans are separated from the rest of the Indians.\n\n\"I said 'I am an Indian and would prefer being with Indians' to which they said I must stay with the Afghans. I started fearing what they were going to do to my Indian brothers and sisters. What if they take them somewhere and do something to them?\n\n\"One Taliban asked me - why do you want to leave this country? We are trying to build it. He asked if I would come back to Afghanistan. I said no, we are scared of you. They reassured us that there's nothing to fear and gave us water to drink but made no eye contact.\n\n\"Later, they told us that there was a security threat, and they were ensuring that we were safe. I also received a message from a friend from the Indian group that I was separated from, and she told me that the Taliban fed them and took good care of them.\"\n\nA Taliban spokesperson later tells Afghan media they had detained the passengers because they had suspicions and wanted to ensure everyone's safety and security - rejecting reports of a kidnapping.\n\nThe Taliban took Nausheen and others from the airport but denied they had been kidnapped\n\nAfter a couple of hours, Nausheen is put on a bus with Afghans and other Indian women married to Afghans. The other Indian groups join them on their way back to the airport. At 14:00, they are back at the northern gate and the wait to enter the airport begins all over again.\n\n\"The Ministry of External Affairs was trying to get us inside the airport, but it wasn't working. I felt very angry that we had informed them about our detention by the Taliban and how stranded we felt but still nothing was being done about it. We are not aware of what negotiations were happening behind closed doors but as someone who was stuck there, I felt desperate and vulnerable.\n\n\"If they weren't sure, they shouldn't have asked us to come out of our homes. We would have been hiding inside our homes. We won't have stepped out in so much danger. Now we are out in the open.\"\n\nIt's still the 21st. It's been horrible but things are not slowing down. They are still outside the airport.\n\nAt 17:00 Nausheen's group is informed by the Ministry of External Affairs it will be taken inside the airport in the next 15 to 20 minutes. It doesn't happen.\n\nAt 18:00 another call comes from the ministry. They are asked to go back to the safehouse.\n\nSleepless, hungry and emotionally broken, Nausheen is told the evacuation might happen later in the night. But they have been told that so often. They have been without sleep for three days and some have young children.\n\nAt 20:00, exhausted and disheartened, Nausheen decides to go back home.\n\nLater, a group of Indians and Afghans are successfully evacuated on an Indian Airforce C-17. Nausheen has missed out.\n\n\"I was told by others that it happened very quickly. They were taken back to the airport soon after they reached the safehouse. They had no time to inform me, and I got left behind. Now they all are inside the airport. I don't want to be harsh on myself for leaving the safehouse. We were mentally and physically drained.\"\n\nThe next day, the 22nd, Nausheen is contacted twice by the Ministry of External Affairs and her name is added to a new list of people to be evacuated. And on 23 August she is contacted by the ministry at 02:30 and told to reach at a particular location by 05:30.\n\nThe airport itself was chaos, as Afghans flooded it, desperate to flee\n\nAt 08:00, two minibuses, with a capacity of 21 seats each but carrying up to 80 passengers, reach the main gate of Hamid Karzai International airport. The scene outside is no better than before.\n\n\"A large number of people were still trying their luck. We saw the Taliban lashing people with whips. They were firing in the air. We were asked to keep all windows shut and curtains drawn. It was scary. There were Taliban members at the main gate, and we saw some even inside the main gate. We were brought further in and could see American soldiers. They were waving at us. Some Indian officials came to check our passports.\"\n\nIt's 11:20. Nausheen and the others are sitting on the tarmac waiting for an Indian aircraft to get permission from the Americans to land.\n\nAfter an hour she says she is inside a military aircraft heading to Tajikistan and her phone soon switches off.\n\nNausheen arrives at Delhi's Indira Gandhi international Airport at 09:40 India time on 24 August. It's been a hellish nine-day ordeal.\n\nI call her soon after she lands and say \"welcome home\".\n\n\"I don't know what to make of this. I'm here but my husband, my family are still in Afghanistan. It's only sinking in now what horror I've been through. While we were in Kabul, we didn't have a minute to think about all that was going on but once we landed in Dushanbe (Tajikistan), things started sinking in. I'm numb. I'm now praying that my husband and in-laws also get evacuated soon. Until then, I won't feel I'm home.\"", "Self-catered accommodation in the UK is costing on average 40% more than in the summer of 2019, according to consumer group Which?.\n\nIts analysis, with BBC Panorama, suggests holidaymakers are paying an average of £300 more per week in August compared to before the pandemic.\n\nBrighton is among the seaside resorts with soaring prices, with average rental costs almost doubling.\n\nThe data is from AirDNA, which monitors websites such as Airbnb and Vrbo.\n\nBBC News has approached Airbnb for comment. The company has previously claimed figures from third-party organisations can be misleading.\n\nWatch BBC Panorama: The Great British Staycation? at 19:30 BST on Wednesday on BBC One, or later on BBC iPlayer\n\nMore than 20 million Britons planned to holiday in the UK this year, according to research by market research company Opinium.\n\nThe average cost of one night of self-catered accommodation for two people in Brighton was £109 in 2019, but is now £206 - a rise of 89% - according to AirDNA's data.\n\nMeanwhile, stays in St Helier in Jersey increased by 76% on 2019, and Lyme Regis on the south coast jumped up 74%.\n\nCatherine Lane, who lets out six properties in Brighton, told BBC Panorama she put up some of her prices this year because her costs had risen considerably.\n\n\"Now we have to have cleaning and sanitation costs, which are much higher. We have to have time for the cleaners to disinfect the place,\" she said.\n\nShe said prices had gone up to meet the high demand, but added: \"A lot of pricing we don't have control over.\n\n\"If you're booking by third-party advertising website, they're putting commissions on the actual end price.\"\n\nHoliday booking site Vrbo told BBC Panorama it \"does not set, change or influence the property prices a host chooses\".\n\nWhich? also looked at how big the price difference can be between holidaying in the UK and travelling abroad - even when flights are factored in.\n\nIts research compared prices for late August getaways for two people in the UK and abroad, looking at the cheapest, highly-rated hotel available in a central location, as well as transport costs.\n\nFor a coastal break, it found a week in Brighton for £1,131, while a hotel in Nice in the south of France, which included flights, cost £1,085.\n\nElsewhere, a week in Lake Windermere in the England's Lake District cost £2,424, compared to just £802 for flights and accommodation for a week in Lake Garda in northern Italy.\n\nWhich? compared properties near Lake Windermere (left) and Lake Garda (right)\n\nWhich? travel editor Rory Boland said: \"We're not talking about £10, we're not talking about the cost of a meal out. We're talking… hundreds and hundreds of pounds.\"\n\nHe said the reason behind the differences in price wasn't just down to the pandemic.\n\n\"When we looked at it, accommodation prices in 2019 were more expensive in the UK than they were abroad. So this isn't a pandemic problem only, the pandemic has made it worse,\" Mr Boland added.\n\nWatch BBC Panorama: The Great British Staycation? at 19:30 BST on Wednesday on BBC One, or later on BBC iPlayer", "A Hazardous Area Response Team was dispatched to the Solent Hotel & Spa in Whiteley\n\nToxic fumes have left 24 people in hospital after a mix of chemicals at a hotel spa.\n\nHampshire & Isle of Wight Fire Rescue Service was called to the Solent Hotel & Spa, Whiteley, to deal with the \"large-scale\" incident at 20:44 BST on Monday.\n\nIt said chlorine - a poisonous gas - had been created on site when two chemicals were accidentally mixed.\n\nSome guests required ventilation after breathing in the resulting fumes.\n\nBreathing apparatus was supplied by a Hazardous Area Response Team from South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS), which was also at the scene in Rookery Avenue in Whiteley.\n\nIt said those taken to hospital included children.\n\nA fire service spokeswoman said: \"A number of hotel guests had been overcome by fumes in the spa area after two chemicals had accidentally been mixed together and created chlorine gas.\n\n\"Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service began immediate emergency care, set up a casualty handling area and requested the ambulance service to attend.\n\n\"A ventilation fan was used to clear the fumes and firefighters took the vessel containing chemicals to fresh air. Gas monitors were used to check that the scene was safe.\n\n\"In total, 24 people were taken to hospital by ambulance crews.\"\n\nBy Tuesday morning the situation was being dealt with by the hotel management\n\nStation manager Dave Graham called it a \"large-scale incident with multiple people requiring medical treatment for the inhalation of gas\".\n\nHe said the scene \"was made safe\" and was now being dealt by the hotel management.\n\nFirefighters from Hightown, Fareham, Cosham, Portchester, St Mary's and Romsey were sent to the hotel during the operation.\n\nIn a statement, SCAS said eight ambulance crews joined its hazardous response team at the scene.\n\nIt added: \"Twenty-four patients, ranging from children to those in their 50s, were assessed and treated by our ambulance teams for breathing difficulties.\n\n\"Following treatment at the scene by our crews those patients were taken to University Hospital Southampton for further assessment for those non-life threatening injuries.\"\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Nearly 12,500 migrants have arrived in the UK this year after making crossings in small boats (image from 5 August)\n\nMore than 800 migrants crossed the English Channel to the UK on Saturday - setting a new record for crossings in a single day.\n\nThe Home Office said nearly 200 people making the trip were also stopped by the French authorities.\n\nNearly 12,500 people have made the journey so far this year.\n\nOfficials say there are safe and legal routes for migrants and they were working with international partners to tackle the \"dangerous crossings\".\n\nThe Home Office said the UK authorities rescued or intercepted 828 people in 30 small boats on Saturday, while the French prevented 193 people in 10 boats from reaching Britain.\n\nIt said there were no arrivals on Sunday or Monday.\n\nThe previous highest number of migrants to cross the Channel in one day was on 12 August, when 592 people made the journey.\n\nDan O'Mahoney, Clandestine Channel Threat Commander, said: \"These dangerous crossings from safe EU countries are completely unnecessary and we are determined to take down the evil criminal gangs behind them.\"\n\nA deal agreed between London and Paris last month will see France double the number of police patrolling its beaches. It will also fund improved intelligence sharing and introduce better technology to target people who organise the crossings.\n\nThe government hopes an overhaul of asylum rules will deter migrants in future.\n\nThe Nationality and Borders Bill, which is currently being considered by MPs, will mean migrants entering without permission could face up to four years in prison.\n\nBut it has prompted a backlash from campaigners and charities who have urged the government to create more safe routes and schemes for asylum seekers and refugees.\n\nIt comes as ministers announced a resettlement programme to allow 5,000 Afghans to come to the UK, with the long-term goal of helping 20,000 people from the country.", "A week after the Taliban takeover of the country, many Afghans are uncertain of what it will mean for their lives and their safety. Here, a young female student shares her fears about her future. The BBC is not identifying her to protect her safety.\n\n\"It is the seventh day since the country collapsed, the president escaped, and the Taliban, once again, came to power.\n\nFear has taken over my whole being, and as the days pass, I can feel how hope fades away from within me. It gets replaced with frustration. All I can see is darkness, uncertainty, and a not so bright future.\n\nI will be killed certainly. I have reasons to be...\n\nThis is how it feels when the ones you are afraid of occupy the country.\n\nImagine being on a long road, with no end, with hazy weather; alone.\n\nI have witnessed so many hurdles in my life, many that no other girl would be able to tolerate. I could manage to overcome them, but this...\n\nHey world, do you care what happens here? Do we matter to you? Do you see us? Do you?\n\nFor those who are listening, for those who care, I am writing this. I am saying this.\n\nWe are suffering here, we are being left behind.\n\nLiving with fear is no less than death. It is worse.\n\nIf you are listening to us, help us. Help us survive, and once again believe in light and rise; stronger than before.\n\nWe want our country back. Want our people to live the way they want, the way they deserve.\n\nTell your countries to stop war - war is ugly, it has a dirty face, it has no winner. The heart is too tiny to bear war, to bear its consequences.\n\nWe are the fruit of war, some young girls drown in uncertainties, in fear, in doubts... looking for somebody to help us survive. Looking at our families and crying for being unable to do anything.\n\nLooking at the sky and asking from him: do you see us, will you help us? Shall I have hope, that little hope!\n\nHey world, hey people living out there, lucky you! I envy the life you live.\n\nLook at us. I was the one with so many big dreams, dreams of helping others and now I am seeking help.\n\nThis is war. Will I be able to ever say: We did it? We could make it? Will I?\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How Afghanistan's media is changing under Taliban rule", "As the US and its allies continue their urgent evacuations from Kabul, Ros Atkins looks at the US-Taliban deal of February 2020 and the role it has played in the militant group's takeover of Afghanistan.", "Government plans to decarbonise homes are too complicated and confusing, according to a coalition of consumer and industry groups.\n\nThey've written to the prime minister to say that current schemes to adapt homes go wrong far too often.\n\nThe open letter, from Citizens Advice and others, calls for more financial support for making changes.\n\nOtherwise, they argue, efforts to curb emissions from millions of homes in the UK will be at risk.\n\nTackling energy use in the residential sector is seen as key to the government's aim of getting to net zero by 2050.\n\nNet zero involves reducing greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible and then balancing out any further releases by absorbing an equivalent amount from the atmosphere by, for example, planting trees.\n\nThe carbon generated by home heating amounts to about 20% of all UK emissions.\n\nBut the government's current efforts to help householders to adapt their homes are \"too complicated\", and too often things go wrong, say industry and consumer groups.\n\nTraditional gas boilers will need to be replaced if the UK is to hit net zero emissions by 2050\n\nThe coalition includes Citizens Advice, the Federation of Master Builders, the Aldersgate Group and Which?\n\nThey argue that the process of installing low-carbon heating, upgrading insulation or putting in smart technologies is \"time consuming, confusing and stressful\".\n\nThey cite the example of the Green Homes Grant, a scheme that was designed to help people insulate their homes.\n\nIt was scrapped in March this year after reaching just 10% of the houses that the government had promised would be improved.\n\nAccording to the coalition, simply choosing the right technology or finding a reputable installer demands huge amounts of time, knowledge and effort.\n\nFar too often, things go wrong with poor installation and technologies not working as expected.\n\nThe letter to the prime minister says there are three key concerns that need to be addressed to ensure that plans to decarbonise homes don't fail.\n\n\"Our evidence is clear. Right now, making green changes to homes is too confusing and too often things go wrong for those trying to do the right thing,\" said Dame Clare Moriarty, chief executive of Citizens Advice.\n\n\"The public is behind the net zero transition, but they need the right information and tools, particularly when it comes to adapting their home.\n\n\"By getting things right now, the government can give people the confidence to make changes and play their part in getting to net zero.\"\n\nA close up look at solar panels on a rooftop\n\n\"I think solar panels are a very good idea, especially for people who want to contribute to a cleaner environment.\"\n\nThat's the view of Michael, a homeowner in Liverpool who decided to ditch his gas heating for solar power a few years ago.\n\nAll went well until his roof began to leak and damaged the ceiling in a bedroom. The first time it happened, the fitter repaired the problem.\n\nWhen it happened again in the same spot, Michael found the company had gone out of business.\n\n\"This trader had not been properly checked, I don't think they had a necessary qualification to be to be installing solar panels.\"\n\nDespite an insurance scheme that was meant to help out in circumstances like this, Michael has been unable to get his roof fixed.\n\n\"There is no effective guarantee, no effective accountability and responsibility which should have been in place to stop all this happening,\" he said.\n\nIn response to the letter, a government spokesperson said: \"We are investing £1.3bn this year alone to support people to install energy efficiency measures in their homes, with upgrades to 50,000 low-income households already underway.\n\n\"Our Simple Energy Advice service offers clear information on what financial support is available for people to make home improvements so they can save money on their energy bills.\"\n\nIn a separate study, the National Housing Federation said that England's homes produce more carbon emissions every year than all the country's cars.\n\nThe Federation, which represents housing associations across England, says that the emissions from homes are so high because of gas central heating and poor insulation.", "Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate of nearly 10,500 people in Scotland\n\nScotland is to hold its own public inquiry into the handling of the Covid pandemic by the end of the year, the Scottish government has confirmed.\n\nThe announcement follows pressure from relatives of some who have died.\n\nThe inquiry will scrutinise decisions that were taken over the course of the crisis, with the aim of learning lessons for any future pandemics.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon had previously said her preference was for a UK-wide inquiry to be held.\n\nBut Prime Minister Boris Johnson told MPs in May that an independent public inquiry examining the handling of the pandemic across all four UK nations would not begin until the spring of next year, despite Ms Sturgeon calling for it to start this year.\n\nCampaigners from the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group said a separate Scottish inquiry was needed to examine decisions made by the devolved Scottish government, and to hold it to account.\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney met representatives of the group shortly before the announcement was made.\n\nAlmost 10,500 deaths have been registered in Scotland where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate since the pandemic began.\n\nThe Scottish government is inviting people to give their views on the aims and principles of the public inquiry by 30 September.\n\nIt said particular consideration would be given to the \"four harms\" of the pandemic:\n\nIt will also investigate \"events causing public concern\", for example the high number of deaths in care homes, and will examine the explanations of the decisions that were taken and the causes of \"anything which may not have gone as expected\".\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon and former Health Secretary Jeane Freeman have both admitted that the way elderly people were discharged from hospitals into care homes at the start of the pandemic was a mistake.\n\nMore than 1,300 elderly people were sent to care homes before a robust testing regime was in place.\n\nMs Sturgeon told her Covid briefing on Tuesday: \"The inquiry will look at all matters related to the handling of the pandemic that are within our devolved competence.\n\n\"This will include of course the situation in our care homes.\"\n\nDonald Macaskill, the chief executive of Scottish Care, the representative body for Scotland's independent care homes, told BBC Scotland the desire to protect the NHS did not appear to have included social care, which was treated as a second class citizen.\n\nHe criticised the lack of planning and support with protective equipment (PPE) and said the inquiry needed to look at whether it was \"realistic\" to expect residential care homes to follow infection control procedures which were as stringent as an acute hospital setting.\n\nAsked if care homes would make financial pay-outs to the families of people who went into care homes Covid-free and died from the virus, Mr Macaskill said: \"I have no doubt that if there is culpability on the part of a care home provider then appropriate action will be taken - but if that culpability rests with government, with the NHS, with other parts of the system then I think that is a more fundamental question the inquiry will explore.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon has admitted that the way elderly people were discharged from hospital to care homes in the early stages of the pandemic was a mistake\n\nIn her briefing, Ms Sturgeon stressed that the Scottish government would \"liaise closely\" with the UK government and the other devolved administrations on the likely terms of a UK wide inquiry to \"avoid duplication and overlap\".\n\nShe added: \"The need for co-operation with other governments is not in my view a reason to delay the establishment of our own inquiry.\n\n\"I do believe a full public inquiry has an extremely important role to play, both in scrutinising the decisions that we took and indeed continue to take in the course of the pandemic, but also of course in identifying and learning appropriate lessons for the future.\"\n\nThe government said the announcement met its commitment to begin to take the necessary steps to establish a public inquiry within its first 100 days in office after the Holyrood election.\n\nDiscussions are also under way to identify and appoint a judge to chair the inquiry.\n\nSolicitor Aamer Anwar, who is acting on behalf of members of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, welcomed the announcement but said the public inquiry must be truly independent and leave no stone unturned.\n\nAnd he said grieving families must be at the heart of the inquiry process if it is to be effective and meaningful.\n\nMr Anwar also urged the prime minister to follow the Scottish government's lead and bring forward a UK-wide inquiry.\n\nMembers of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group welcomed the announcement at an event in Glasgow\n\nPeter McMahon, who lost his wife Debbie to coronavirus at the age of 53 from coronavirus, was one of the campaigners who watched the first minister announce the inquiry, which he said was \"very welcome\".\n\nHe added: \"My wife Debbie, along with thousands of others, died what I see as an avoidable death.\n\n\"I would like this public inquiry to confirm who took certain decisions, clarify why they were taken, especially around the ending of shielding in July 2020.\"\n\nScottish Conservative health spokeswoman Annie Wells said the inquiry must uncover what went wrong throughout the pandemic, especially in care homes.\n\nShe added: \"It's a disgrace that they are only getting around to this now, when Nicola Sturgeon promised it would be a priority during the election campaign.\n\n\"Major errors were made by the SNP government that left our most vulnerable citizens unprotected.\"\n\nScottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said the Scottish government had been \"dragging their feet, ignoring the pain of the grieving families and sacrifices of thousands of key workers\".\n\nHe said: \"The first minister must end the dither and delay and act now so that light can be shone on the Scottish government's handling of the pandemic, lessons can be learned, and justice can be done.\"\n\nScottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: \"Last summer, the Scottish government mismanaged quarantine and the return of students to campus allowing the virus to be re-seeded. Test and Protect was unprepared for the pressure of restrictions easing and tracing collapsed. People were discharged in their thousands from hospitals to care homes without tests or even after testing positive.\n\n\"This needs to be an avenue to accountability and responsibility for what happened in Scotland.\"\n\nScottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater said: \"It's vital that the government's handling of the pandemic is subject to the most thorough scrutiny, and that's why this inquiry is so necessary.\n\n\"It's essential that we establish how the country could have been better prepared, and learn every lesson possible, to ensure we are in a better position to handle future public health crises.\"\n\nIt comes as the number of daily cases of the virus in Scotland reached a new record high of 4,323 on Tuesday, with Ms Sturgeon saying that she cannot rule out having to reintroduce \"limited and proportionate\" restrictions.\n\nThe number of new cases has more than doubled over the past week, with Ms Sturgeon warning that the country was at another \"fragile and pivotal moment\" in the pandemic.\n\nA total of 364 people were in hospital on Monday with recently confirmed Covid-19, up by eight on the previous day, with 43 patients in intensive care, up two.", "Sharon Graham would be Unite's first female leader\n\nSharon Graham looks set to become the first female leader of the Unite union, taking over from Len McCluskey.\n\nThe head of the union's organisation department was not Mr McCluskey's preferred choice.\n\nHe had backed Steve Turner, an assistant general secretary of the union who had run his previous campaigns for general secretary.\n\nBut in a text message to supporters this evening, Mr Turner - once seen as the favourite - appeared to concede.\n\nHe said: \"It appears Sharon has got it! Sorry it didn't work out for us.\n\n\"Thanks for everything and we will make the formal announcement tomorrow.\"\n\nGerard Coyne, the candidate seen as most sympathetic to Sir Keir Starmer, seems set to come third.\n\nInsiders are estimating that Ms Graham could have a majority of around 6,000 votes over Mr Turner, with Mr Coyne narrowly behind.\n\nThe health warning is that the formal vote count only gets under way on Wednesday.\n\nBut after ballots had been sorted in to respective piles, and extensively \"sampled\" to check for discrepancies, members of all three campaign teams that spoke to the BBC tonight expected a victory for Ms Graham.\n\nA fourth candidate, Howard Beckett, pulled out earlier in the contest and threw his support behind Mr Turner.\n\nUnite is the Labour Party's biggest trade union funder and, under Mr McCluskey, it strongly backed Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader.\n\nMr McCluskey has been very critical of Sir Keir's tenure and has funded legal challenges to the party over suspensions and expulsions.\n\nAlthough also on the Left, Ms Graham campaigned on putting more emphasis on the workplace, and far less on Westminster politics.\n\nThose who know her say she has little interest in Labour's internal wrangling.\n\nWhile Labour sources say they are relaxed about her expected win, she may still give them anxious moments.\n\nThe union gave the party £3m in the run up to the 2019 election, but when I previously interviewed Ms Graham she said she wanted to see \"payment by results\".\n\nWhile she did not campaign explicitly on reducing contributions to Labour, she did say she would not give the party \"a blank cheque\".\n\nAnd party and union could soon be at loggerheads over job cuts at Labour's HQ.\n\nBut it may be employers rather than Labour leaders who have the most to fear from her leadership.\n\nShe told the BBC: \"Unashamedly, I am talking about jobs, pay and conditions as the number one, number two and number three priorities of the organisation.\"\n\nShe said she often gets involved in industrial disputes when they turn hostile, and puts some of her victories down to what is called \"leverage\", meaning applying pressure on multi-national companies to resolve sometimes local problems.\n\nFor example, to help settle a dispute at a bus company in England she brought its behaviour to the notice of the Swedish government, putting the awarding of a potentially lucrative contract there at risk.\n\nHer likely victory was welcomed by left-wing campaign group Momentum, which praised \"the use of leverage to take on bad bosses\".\n\nHer \"back to the workplace\" message may have eaten in to some of Mr Coyne's support, as he also campaigned on less meddling in Labour's internal affairs.\n\nAnd with turnout expected to be even lower than the 12.2% achieved in the 2017 contest, those who are most active in the union are most likely to have voted.\n\nAnd many of them may have had direct experience of successful disputes led by Ms Graham.\n\nHer supporters say she is on the verge of a \"historic\" win.\n\nA spokesman for her campaign said: \"She has fought against the odds and triumphed. We were told she was a no-hoper, now it looks she has won.\n\n\"Unite workers have come behind her banner. It's time Unite went back to what it says on the trade union tin - fighting relentlessly for jobs, pay and conditions.\"\n\nLast year, another huge union, Unison, elected its first female leader, Christine McAnea.\n\nThere is certainly a change in style at the top of the union movement but it looks like there could also be a change of substance as Mr McCluskey's 11 year tenure at the top of Unite draws to a close.", "A popular fishing spot is being searched by police investigating the suspected murder of Claudia Lawrence.\n\nThe 35-year-old's disappearance has remained a mystery since she failed to turn up for work at the University of York in March 2009.\n\nNorth Yorkshire Police said its latest search at Sand Hutton gravel pits, about eight miles (13km) outside York, was expected to take a number of days.\n\nThe force said it could not disclose what had led officers to the location.\n\nDet Supt Wayne Fox, who took over as senior investigating officer in the case earlier this year, said teams of specialist officers, including underwater search teams, would spend several days at the site.\n\nHe said the searches were among \"several active lines of inquiry\" being pursued amid efforts to establish what happened to Claudia and \"identify any person responsible for causing her harm\".\n\nMs Lawrence's family had been notified about the search, he added.\n\nThe former gravel pits at Sand Hutton sit to the north-east of York, close to the busy A64.\n\nPopular with anglers, the site is believed to have been used as fishing ponds since the late 1960s.\n\nPolice cordoned off a large section of woodland surrounding the waters on Tuesday as officers searched undergrowth along a public bridleway which runs through the area.\n\nThe search is expected to last a number of days, police said\n\nUniversity chef Ms Lawrence was last seen at 15.05 on Wednesday 18 March walking towards her home on Heworth Road.\n\nLater that evening she spoke to both her parents, Joan and Peter Lawrence, by phone, but the following day failed to arrive for her job at Goodricke College.\n\nA friend who became concerned when she failed to meet at a local pub that evening contacted Ms Lawrence's father, who reported her missing on 20 March.\n\nThe Sand Hutton gravel pits lie in woodland north-east of York\n\nIn April 2009, police confirmed they were treating her disappearance as a case of suspected murder.\n\nNine people have been questioned in connection with her disappearance, but no charges have ever been brought.\n\nNorth Yorkshire Police said the investigation had been difficult because Ms Lawrence did not use social media or own a smartphone.\n\nThe force scaled back its investigation in 2017, however it said it would investigate any fresh lead or evidence in the case.\n\nPeter Lawrence, seen here on the 10th anniversary of his daughter's disappearance, died in February\n\nMs Lawrence's father, Peter, died in February without finding out what had happened to his daughter.\n\nThe 74-year-old had lobbied for a change in the law, which came into force in 2019, to allow relatives to take control of their missing loved ones' financial affairs.\n\nMr Lawrence was appointed an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2018 in recognition of his campaigning.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "R. Kelly's trial in Brooklyn is expected to last a month\n\nA second accuser took the stand at R. Kelly's sex-trafficking trial on Monday, testifying that the star abused her, knowingly infected her with herpes and ordered her to have an abortion.\n\nThe woman, identified as Jane Doe No 5, said her five-year relationship with Mr Kelly began in 2014, when she was 17.\n\nShe alleged that the singer sought to control every detail of her life and would punish her if she did not comply.\n\nMr Kelly, 54, has denied the allegations against him.\n\nHis lawyers have portrayed his accusers as groupies out for revenge after their relationships with the R&B singer faded.\n\nThe anonymous woman, now 23, testified that she had met the singer, whose real name is Robert Kelly, when he invited her to his hotel room after a gig in Orlando, Florida.\n\nShe had hoped to audition for him, but the star would not let her proceed until he performed a sex act on her.\n\n\"I just wanted to sing,\" she told the court. \"I genuinely wanted his input.\"\n\nMr Kelly continued to pressure her, saying he would \"take care of me for life\" if she acquiesced, she said. The woman, who told Kelly she was 18, eventually relented.\n\nThe star, best known for hits like I Believe I Can Fly and Ignition (Remix), denies all charges\n\nAfter their first encounter, she said they began a relationship and Kelly invariably videotaped their sexual encounters.\n\nMr Kelly made her adhere to a strict set of rules, she claimed. If she did not obey, the singer \"chastised\" her - sometimes spanking her hard enough to make her \"skin tear\", she told jurors.\n\nThe physical abuse occurred \"nearly every two to three days\", she said, her voice breaking with emotion.\n\nWhen she finally told Mr Kelly she was under age, he slapped her but allowed her to remain in his life, she added.\n\nAt one point, the woman said he \"purposely gave me something he knew he had\", herpes. Mr Kelly's longtime physician previously testified that the star has suffered from herpes for more than a decade.\n\nThe woman also told the court how, after she became pregnant in 2017, Kelly urged her to get an abortion she didn't want.\n\n\"He said, 'You need to look into that abortion stuff because you need to keep that body,'\" she said.\n\nShe is due to face cross-examination from the singer's lawyers on Tuesday, the fifth day of his trial.\n\nLast week, the jury heard testimony from the trial's first witness, Jerhonda Pace, who said she started a sexual relationship with Mr Kelly when she was 16.\n\nBoth women have claimed the star forced them to call him \"Daddy\" and described how he ruled their lives - telling them what to wear, who they could speak to, and whether they could eat or use the toilet.\n\nMr Kelly has not been charged with sex crimes related directly to the women's testimony. Instead, he faces a racketeering charge that paints him as the kingpin of a criminal enterprise whose explicit purpose was \"to prey upon young women and teenagers\" for sexual purposes.\n\nHe has pleaded not guilty to all charges.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Mark Frerichs, left, was taken by the Taliban in 2020\n\nCharlene Cakora, 57, spent a frantic week in Washington DC trying to convey a message to President Joe Biden: rescue her brother from Taliban captivity.\n\nMrs Cakora's brother, Mark Frerichs, was kidnapped by the group over a year ago. He is one of two remaining Americans thought to have been kidnapped by the Taliban during the US war in Afghanistan who is still unaccounted for.\n\nAmid the Afghan government's collapse, the fall of Kabul and chaotic scenes of thousands scrambling to flee the country being broadcast around the globe, his family said they were increasingly desperate for his return, and frustrated by the lack of progress from the government.\n\n\"We have been at war with the Taliban for 20 years. President Biden declared the war over on 31 August,\" Mrs Cakora told the BBC. \"When a war ends, each side get to have their prisoners come home. That is all we are asking for Mark.\"\n\nThe family had \"waited patiently\" through both the Trump and Biden administrations, she said.\n\n\"[We] were told that efforts were underway to get my brother home,\" she added. \"Well, they were not.\"\n\nAt least seven US civilians have been taken captive or gone missing during the war in Afghanistan. Of the total, one was reportedly killed, one escaped, and three were rescued or released. An eighth captive, Bowe Bergdahl, was a US soldier captured after deserting his post in 2009. He was released in 2014.\n\nMr Frerichs, 59, had been living and working in Kabul as a civil engineer for 10 years when he was kidnapped.\n\nA \"journeyman contractor\" who went from project to project, motivated by a desire to help people in need, he had found \"a good fit for himself in Afghanistan,\" Mrs Cakora said. \"Three days before he was kidnapped, he told me that he had just finished a municipal water project. He was so proud of it.\"\n\nThe US Navy veteran was lured to a meeting to discuss a potential project and taken against his will to Khost Province, a former national security official told the BBC.\n\nMr Frerichs and an Afghan colleague examine a project they worked on together\n\nIn Khost, the official said, he was handed over to the Haqqani Network, one of the region's most powerful and feared militant groups. The network's leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is one of the Taliban's top deputy leaders.\n\nAdvocates working to secure Mr Frerichs' release say that the \"only\" thing that the Taliban have mentioned when US officials have pressed for his return is the release of Bashir Noorzai, a Taliban-affiliated drug lord who has been imprisoned in the US for the last 16 years.\n\nNoorzai, who was arrested in 2005, was sentenced to life in prison in 2009 on charges that he imported over $50m (£36m) worth of heroin from Afghanistan and Pakistan into the US and other countries. He fought alongside the now-deceased Taliban founder Mullah Mohammed Omar against Soviet occupation in the 1980s, and is believed to have supplied the group with financial backing, weapons, ammunition and as many as 400 fighters.\n\nResponding to BBC queries, a state department spokesperson said that the US Special Representative for Afghanistan has pressed the Taliban for Mr Frerichs' release and raised the issue with Taliban representatives in Qatar and Pakistan.\n\n\"We place a high priority on Marks Frerichs' safety and will not stop working until he is safely returned to his family,\" the spokesperson said.\n\nSpokespeople at the Taliban's representative office in Qatar did not respond to BBC requests for comment.\n\nMrs Cakora said that while the family understands that an exchange of Noorzai for Mr Frerichs is a \"hard trade\" and that it would mean making concessions to kidnappers, they believe it is the only viable option.\n\nWhen asked what she would tell the White House about her case, Mrs Cakora directed a plea at President Biden.\n\n\"Please treat my brother like he was your son and act to bring him home quickly,\" she said.\n\nShe also had a message for Taliban political leader Abdul Ghani Baradar.\n\n\"We know that this war is ending, and you want your prisoners back as much as we want my brother,\" she said. \"Please treat him well and work with US officials to arrange a prisoner swap that gets you Bashir Noorzai and returns Mark home safely to us. Let that be the one thing that both sides can see as a win.\"\n\nBesides Mr Frerichs, only one other American suspected to have been abducted in Afghanistan, author Paul Overby Jr, remains unaccounted for. Mr Overby was last heard from in May 2014, when he vanished in Khost while traveling to interview Sirajuddin Haqqani. The Taliban have denied any involvement.\n\nWith the situation in Afghanistan growing more dangerous by the day, Mrs Cakora expressed hope that her brother's release may provide a small positive outcome.\n\n\"President Biden has the power to make it happen,\" she said. \"The story on our exit from Afghanistan is horrible. Can't we get one glimmer of good news by having my brother come home?\"", "It won't just be teenagers with great A-level grades jumping in the air in celebration.\n\nAway from the photographers, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, the exam boards and watchdogs might be tempted to have a quiet results' day leap of their own.\n\nBecause after the chaotic U-turns of last year's exams, this year has been a much smoother run.\n\nIt might be because results are way above anything ever seen before, thus fewer reasons to complain.\n\nLast year, the algorithm process saw about 40% of teacher assessed grades being downgraded, this time exam boards only intervened to change 1% of grades.\n\nIt feels as though the exam system has given as many chances as possible to students who have survived two years of unprecedented disruption at school.\n\nAs exam officials said in a briefing, these results reflect an ideal world where no one had a bad day in an exam hall and everyone had multiple chances to do well.\n\nQuite right too, say head teachers, who have been irritated at talk of grade inflation, when they say comparisons with other years are meaningless. Ministers who once fulminated against such rising grades have looked the other way.\n\nBut there will be consequences for those chasing university places - with warnings of a crush for top places in a year when more people than ever have applied.\n\nThe sorting process for the most sought-after universities is usually based on the limited number getting top grades.\n\nBut over the last two years the proportion of top grades has soared from about 25% to about 45%. In independent schools, it's over 70%, compared with 39% in comprehensives.\n\nExam results are handed over in a second year of replacement results\n\nThe Russell Group of top universities has already said that those who narrowly missed out on required grades will find it harder to get a place - because so many will already have been filled.\n\nOnce today's celebrations have finished, there will nervous glances ahead to next year. Because having allowed results to rise like a kite, at what point and how do you pull them down again?\n\nWill there be a long-term plan to get grades back to pre-pandemic levels? And would that mean years of artificially lowered grades? How would that be fair?\n\nNone of that will be of much concern to those getting their results today. Whether celebrating or commiserating, or a bit of both, this has been the strangest of times to be in an exam year.\n\nWhat's it really about? Maybe put the percentages aside.\n\nEven when writing this in the office, there was a parent disappearing into a corner with their mobile phone. I heard him taking a moment to speak to his son who had got his results. He was telling his son how proud he was.\n\nThere was a bit of a wobble in his voice when he said he'd give him a big hug when he got home.\n\nThere are no results in a spreadsheet for that.\n\nWhat are your plans after A-levels? Have you been offered your first choice of university? Will you go through clearing? Share your stories. Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "The University of Leeds said some courses in its business and law schools were oversubscribed\n\nStudents wanting to study law or business at the University of Leeds are being offered £10,000 cash and free accommodation to defer their courses.\n\nDeputy Vice Chancellor Peter Jimack said the university was making the offer as some courses were full.\n\nHe said the nature of teacher-assessed grades as opposed to exam-based grades had made it \"harder to predict\" the number of successful applicants.\n\nThe University of Exeter has made a similar offer to medical students.\n\nPeter Jimack said students who chose to defer their place would be supported by the university\n\nProf Jimack told the BBC: \"We've contacted students on a small number of programmes in two schools to let them know that we are going to make them an offer to defer to next year with an incentive of a cash payment of about £10,000 and our fee for their halls of residence in their first year being paid by the university.\n\n\"We are not putting pressure on anybody to make that choice, it's an entirely free choice.\"\n\nHe said any students who chose to defer until 2022 would be provided with online materials to help them prepare for their arrival next year.\n\nHe added that the university was also creating an extra 30 places to study medicine for students who were unable to get a place at universities which were oversubscribed.\n\nA record number of students have applied to study medicine this autumn, a rise of more than 20% on last year.\n\nThe number of places for medicine in England is capped by the government.\n\nProf Jimack said: \"We recognise that there is a national need and we know from the last 18 months how important our doctors and nurses are.\n\n\"So we're stepping-up and making available some additional places that we will make available to students from oversubscribed universities to come and study with us at Leeds.\"\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Jason Ledford said he was inspired by the nurses who treated him\n\nA boy who spent a year in hospital after being diagnosed with a brain tumour has defied the odds and secured the GCSE grades he needed to attend college.\n\nJason Ledford, from Alvaston, Derby, was left unable to walk, talk or see after two 11-hour operations in 2019.\n\nThe 16-year-old was determined to sit his exams despite the disruption to his studies.\n\nHis long hospital stay has inspired him to become a nurse.\n\nThe Merrill Academy student's results will now enable him to study health and social care at Derby College.\n\nThe teenager first discovered he had a tumour after experiencing a persistent headache.\n\nHis GP suggested an eye test, where an optician immediately spotted a problem and sent him to the Royal Derby Hospital.\n\nHe was then taken to Nottingham's Queen's Medical Centre where he underwent surgery.\n\nThe second 11-hour operation left Jason with posterior fossa syndrome, a common side effect of the procedure.\n\nSurgery left Jason unable to walk, talk or open his eyes\n\nJason spent the next year recovering, where he was fed through a tube, required six weeks of radiotherapy and six months of chemotherapy.\n\nHe said: \"I missed school so much. I went to the hospital school for a while, but my teachers and friends from Merrill kept in touch with me and I just wanted my old life back.\n\n\"My balance is still not great, and my left side is quite weak, but I am getting there.\n\n\"I was on two different wards, and my ambition now is to get a job on one of those wards.\n\n\"I know what a difference it makes when you have a nice nurse - mine were amazing.\"\n\nJason's stint in hospital has inspired him to train to become a nurse\n\nHis long-term foster mum Helen Westfield said: \"Jason was adamant that he was going to sit his exams and even when some of them clashed with hospital appointments, he went in and sat them on his own. We are all so very proud of him.\"\n\nGrace Hoskins, vice principal of Merrill Academy, said: \"After everything Jason has been through it was extremely pleasing that he was keen to continue with his GCSEs and we hope that his dream of becoming a nurse is one day fulfilled.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Rail services across Scotland stopped for one minute at 09:43 to remember those who died in a train crash southwest of Stonehaven a year ago.\n\nPeople were asked to observe a minute's silence at railway stations across the country.\n\nIf safe to do so, train services came to a halt in memory of the three men who died on 12 August last year.\n\nBrett McCullough, Donald Dinnie and Chris Stuchbury died in the Stonehaven crash in Aberdeenshire last August\n\nSix other people were injured when the 06:38 Aberdeen to Glasgow service crashed into a landslide at Carmont, south of Stonehaven, caused by heavy rain.\n\nA memorial plaque was unveiled at a private ceremony attended by the families of those who died.\n\nA full report into the crash is expected in the autumn. However, Network Rail's interim report found that the train \"struck a pile of washed-out rock and gravel before derailing\".\n\nThe Rail Accident Investigation Branch has said there was \"near-continuous heavy rain\" in the area between around 05.50 and 09:00 on the day of the crash, which caused \"significant flooding\".\n\nThe 51.5mm (2in) of rain that fell in this period was almost 75% of the monthly total in Aberdeenshire in an average August.\n\nBut it was \"dry and sunny\" when the derailment happened at 09.37. The minute's silence is being held at 09:43 - the time the crash was first reported.\n\nThis 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 BBC North East Scot 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.\n\nThe train was returning towards Aberdeen at the time of the accident due to the railway being blocked. It was travelling at around 73mph - below the maximum permitted speed of 75mph for that section of track - when it struck the debris and derailed to the left, destroying a bridge barrier.\n\nCustomers will be made aware of the silence through messages on boards around the country and onboard announcements.\n\nThe derailment happened near Stonehaven on 12 August last year\n\nAlex Hynes, ScotRail's managing director, said: \"Everyone at Scotland's Railway will always be broken-hearted about the terrible accident at Stonehaven.\n\n\"Today, exactly a year on, we pay tribute to Brett, Donald and Christopher, who lost their lives, and also, of course, we remember those who were injured.\n\n\"We come together as Scotland's Railway family and we send our love and support to everyone, particularly the loved ones of the deceased, who have been affected by the tragedy. We will never forget.\"", "James Markham died of a stab wound to the lung\n\nA father of three who was stabbed to death while confronting a group of youths has been described as a \"man with a good heart and a good soul\".\n\nJames Markham, 45, who was married, died outside his home in Chingford, north-east London, on Monday evening.\n\nA family friend, who did not want to be named, said: \"He was my friend, my neighbour. A lovely man, a worker.\"\n\nTwo 14-year-old boys were arrested on Wednesday in connection with the murder while a girl, 16, was held on Thursday.\n\nShe is being questioned on suspicion of assisting an offender.\n\nThe family friend said Mr Markham \"would wake up at 5am, come back 6pm, doing the daily routine with the kids, always with the kids\".\n\nMr Markham was treated by paramedics at the scene of the stabbing, on Churchill Terrace\n\n\"We are devastated for Jamie. He was kind, a good person, someone who will always be there for you.\n\n\"Anything that you need, he'll always be there, fixing anything that you need from the house.\"\n\nMr Markham was treated at the scene on Churchill Terrace by paramedics. A post-mortem examination found he died of a stab wound to the lung.\n\nDet Insp John Marriott, of the Met's Specialist Crime Command, said: \"We believe that James confronted a group of youths causing a disturbance and was stabbed as a result.\n\n\"The brutality of this response is beyond shocking and our thoughts are with James' family who have been left devastated by their loss.\"\n\nOne of the boys detained on Wednesday was arrested on suspicion of murder, the other on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. All three teenagers remain in custody.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Six people, including a suspected gunman, have died in a shooting in Plymouth.\n\nDevon and Cornwall Police said three females, two males and the suspect had died in the Keyham area of the city on Thursday evening.\n\nOne of the dead was a child under 10, according to an MP, but the shooting is not terror-related, police confirmed.\n\nThe death toll means it is the worst mass shooting in the UK for more than a decade.\n\nEmergency services were called to Biddick Drive shortly after 18:00 BST on Thursday.\n\nPeople were told to stay inside and follow police advice as the emergency response developed.\n\nEyewitness Sharron, who lives nearby and did not want to give her full name, said what happened was \"horrendous and so sad\".\n\n\"Firstly, there was shouting, followed by gunshots - three possibly four to begin with,\" she said.\n\n\"This was when the shooter kicked in the door of a house and randomly started shooting. He ran from the house shooting as he ran and proceeded to shoot at a few people in the linear park up from the drive.\"\n\nShe said the \"shooter proceeded along Royal Navy Avenue still shooting\".\n\nAnother witness, Robert Pinkerton, said he \"walked around the corner\" and \"bumped into a bloke with a shotgun\". He said the man was dressed all in black.\n\nIn a statement, Devon and Cornwall Police said two females and the three males died at the scene, while one female died shortly after in hospital.\n\nIt added: \"The area has been cordoned off and police are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.\"\n\nPlymouth Sutton & Devonport MP Luke Pollard said the incident was \"unspeakably awful\" and that he was \"utterly devastated\" to learn one of those killed was a child.\n\nThe last mass shooting in Britain happened in 2010 when taxi driver Derrick Bird killed 12 people in Cumbria.\n\nPolice said two females and three males died at the scene\n\nScenes of crime officers in white suits could be seen using cameras in the street and members of the public who lived locally were not allowed into their homes, PA Media reported.\n\nOfficers appealed to the public not to speculate or share pictures of the scene on social media or anywhere else.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel tweeted: \"The incident in Plymouth is shocking and my thoughts are with those affected.\n\n\"I have spoken to the chief constable and offered my full support.\n\n\"I urge everyone to remain calm, follow police advice and allow our emergency services to get on with their jobs.\"\n\nMultiple air ambulances attended the scene, including from Devon and Cornwall\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer tweeted: \"There's much we don't know about the shocking events in Plymouth. However it's clear tragedy has hit Keyham.\n\n\"My thoughts are with the families and neighbours of those caught up in this nightmare. I pay tribute to our emergency services who ran towards events we'd all run from.\"\n\nMr Pollard added Ford Primary School and St Mark's Church on Cambridge Road would be open from 09:00 on Friday as a \"safe place for our community to come together\".\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nAre you in Plymouth? Did you witness what happened? If you have any information to share, please email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Directors at UK inhaler company Vectura have recommended shareholders accept a £1bn bid from tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI).\n\nThe Marlboro cigarette maker's offer of £1.65 per share beat a rival bid from US private equity group Carlyle, whose final offer was £1.55 per share.\n\nVectura makes inhaled medicines and devices to treat respiratory illnesses such as asthma.\n\nDozens of health groups had urged Vectura to reject the firm's offer.\n\nThe health groups warned that the deal would significantly harm the future prospects of the healthcare company, as it will deter top lung researchers and scientists unwilling to work for a tobacco company.\n\nShares in Vectura, which counts Novartis and GSK among its customers, have soared 33% in value since Carlyle's first offer in May.\n\nPhilip Morris recently said it could stop selling cigarettes in the UK in 10 years' time as it focuses on alternatives, such as heated tobacco.\n\nThe firm indicated it would welcome a government ban on cigarettes and said \"strong regulation\" was needed to \"help solve the problem of cigarette smoking once and for all\".\n\nHowever, health charity Ash said it was hard to take such claims seriously from the firm responsible for selling over a tenth of cigarettes globally.\n\nLabour's shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: \"Philip Morris's attempted takeover of a key player in lung health products beggars belief. It is bitterly disappointing that Vectura have so far failed to exercise duty of care to patients and scientists and reject this takeover by big tobacco.\n\n\"This is now a test for Sajid Javid. When we know smoking causes so much serious illness and premature death, it's time this government takes the right course, stands up to this tobacco giant and blocks this takeover.\"\n\nSources close to the deal tell me the company feels their primary duty is to shareholders and note that PMI must be allowed a chance to transition to its stated goal of deriving half its revenue from non tobacco products within a decade.\n\nSome have also questioned whether this deal is any different in principle from oil and gas companies investing in renewable energy.\n\nHowever, this decision will be treated with dismay by health groups and will disappoint many shareholder groups who hoped this deal be an acid test of whether shareholders really prized wider societal goals over getting the best price.\n\nPMI will need to convince 51% of shareholders to take the money for it to take control. Many other shareholders may feel uncomfortable being a minority shareholder in a tobacco company subsidiary.\n\nA letter sent by more than 20 UK, US and European health organisations on Thursday had urged Vectura's board to \"put sustainability and ethics first\".\n\nThe signatories included the bosses of Asthma UK, the British Lung Foundation, the Royal Society for Public Health and the Royal College of Physicians, as well as public health directors of several councils and some distinguished medical professors from King's College, Imperial College and University College London (UCL).\n\n\"If PMI were to acquire Vectura, PMI could then profit from treating the very illnesses that its products cause,\" they wrote.\n\nOne of the health groups' key concerns is that Vectura's research links with various universities and hospitals could be compromised.\n\nThe signatories warned that Vectura could be blocked from participating in clinical trials, thus \"disrupting crucial drug development\".\n\nThey added that professional partnerships could also be affected, since Vectura won the most contracts in 2020 to develop treatments for respiratory disease and lung cancer.\n\nThe takeover battle began in May with a £958m bid from Carlyle, which received early backing from Vectura's board.\n\nBut on 8 August, Philip Morris increased its offer to £1.65 per share, which totalled a bid of about £1.02bn ($1.41bn) from the Marlboro cigarette-maker.\n\nLondon-listed shares of Vectura closed at £1.63 on Thursday after hitting a more than five-year high of £1.76 pence on Tuesday.", "There are a total of 18,449 registered nurses and midwives in Northern Ireland, according to the Department of Health\n\nMore than 180 nurses resigned from Northern Ireland's largest health trust in the first half of this year, BBC News NI has learned.\n\nFigures from the Belfast Trust show 315 nurses left between 1 January and 31 July for various reasons.\n\nMore than half (182) resigned, while 81 nurses retired and 21 transferred within the health service.\n\nA total of 533 nurses left all of the trusts during that time period but only the Belfast Trust gave a breakdown.\n\nA nursing union says it is angry and worried about the growing number of members leaving the profession.\n\nRita Devlin, acting director of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said it was now a safety issue as there were not enough nurses to give patients the care they needed.\n\nA nursing agency said the number of new registrations it received during the first six months of this year was up by about 10% compared to the same time last year.\n\nThe Department of Health said the 533 leavers figure would include retirees and nurses moving to other health and social care organisations.\n\n\"This level of leavers in recent years is commensurate with the size and composition of the workforce,\" the department said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'I was there for four years and was exhausted'\n\nKatharine Walker left the health service in June 2020 - several months after the start of the pandemic.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News NI, she said she wanted a work-life balance, which was not possible when mostly working nights.\n\n\"I loved my time working within the NHS but I was only there for four years and I was exhausted.\n\n\"I can't imagine how the staff are coping at the minute working with Covid and everything else.\n\n\"I worked in ICU [intensive care unit] and I worked with really incredible people who are so passionate about their job and the things you are seeing are almost indescribable at times.\"\n\nMs Walker joined an agency, which she says has given her flexibility and the \"slightly\" better pay means she can work fewer hours.\n\nShe is inundated with requests to work at the minute.\n\n\"All the hospitals are looking staff,\" she said.\n\n\"Some wards are really on their knees and it's hard because it plays on your good nature as a nurse because you want to help out but ultimately you have to look after yourself too.\"\n\nShe doesn't blame management for the staffing issues.\n\n\"They don't have enough staff to manoeuvre - so maybe if the staffing was there it would help,\" she added.\n\nMs Devlin said the RCN had been on the record for at least a decade over nursing shortages.\n\n\"They are starting to vote with their feet and they are leaving some of the high-pressure areas to go to other places or indeed to go and work for agencies,\" she said.\n\nKieran McCormick, managing director of Balmoral Healthcare, said nurses were leaving the health service and joining the independent sector so they could be more in control of the hours they work.\n\nMr McCormick, who once worked for the health service, said nurses wanted to be respected and generally felt \"fed up and done\".\n\n\"I believe the executive is trying to fix it but it's about the whole package - paying them good wages, offering nurses flexible working and allowing them to move around and progress within the system,\" he said.\n\nChief nursing officer Charlotte McArdle acknowledged that staff shortages were not something that could be \"fixed overnight\" but that a \"clear plan\" for recruitment had been put in place.\n\nShe also told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme that the safety of patients and nurses on wards was paramount.\n\n\"Any unit that would be unsafe, steps would be taken to ensure that position is rectified and there are a number of things that can be done to make that happen,\" she said.\n\n\"Bringing in additional staff, closing beds where they have to to maintain a safe staffing level, deploying other staff into that unit, there are steps that can be taken on a daily basis.\n\n\"Nursing is a safety-critical profession, I would agree with my colleagues in the RCN on that point, but steps are being taken to ensure that safety is maintained and that can be challenging at times but that is a requirement.\"\n\nPatricia McKeown, regional secretary of the union Unison, said the figures reflected \"the serious pressure that nurses are under working within a health service that is understaffed and under-resourced\".\n\nShe said that while many nurses would have moved within the health service, a significant number would have chosen to leave the NHS to work for nursing agencies, with pay a \"major factor in that decision\".\n\n\"These agencies charge a premium to cover staff shortages across the health service whilst vacancies remain unfilled,\" she said.\n\nShe said the executive must make pay a priority.\n\nOut of the nurses who left the Belfast Health Trust, 16 were from the intensive care unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital.\n\nThe figures for all leavers from the other trusts are:\n\nNot all of the health trusts could provide answers within the time requested, but according to the Southern Trust it has 255 unfilled posts. There are 150 in the Northern Trust.\n\nThe Department of Health said there were 18,449 registered nurses and midwives with a staff turnover rate of about 1,000 registrants per annum, \"which has been consistent for the past three years\".\n\n\"It should be pointed out however that this does not represent a reduction in overall staff numbers as the nursing and midwifery workforce has grown by 4.4% from March 2020,\" the department said.\n\nA spokesperson said the department had been addressing nursing shortages over the past five years through a range of measures.\n\n\"Since April 2020, over 3,800 new appointments have been made across Health and Social Care services, of which almost 2,200 are Health and Social Care appointments,\" they added.\n\n\"In addition, we have maintained the highest ever number of pre-registration nurse training places for this year - 1,325.\"", "Humanitarian organisations warn that women and children will be badly affected\n\nWith violence surging in Afghanistan, and the Taliban taking new territories in the north, thousands of people are fleeing their homes to seek safety in the capital Kabul.\n\nWhen they get there, many of these people face sleeping in abandoned warehouses or on the streets. They're struggling to find food, shelter and other basic necessities, such as medicine and sanitary items.\n\nBut they feel they have little choice - it is either hardship in Kabul, or potential death in their home region.\n\nNow, thousands have gathered in makeshift camps on scrubland on the city's outskirts.\n\nAsadullah, a 35-year-old street vendor from Kunduz province, travelled to the capital with his wife and two young daughters earlier this week after the Taliban set fire to his home.\n\n\"I was a street worker, I sold food and spices... but when the Taliban attacked we came to Kabul,\" he tells the BBC.\n\n\"Now we have no money to buy bread, or get some medicine for my child.\"\n\nAsadullah was a street worker in Kunduz province, selling food and spices\n\nAsadullah, his two daughters (pictured) and wife slept on the streets after arriving in Kabul\n\nAsadullah and his young family spent the night on the streets.\n\n\"All of our home and belongings caught fire, so we came to Kabul and pray to God to help us. Rockets and mortars hit our home... there were heavy clashes in the past seven days, we had no bread to eat and all the bakeries, shops and bazaars were closed.\"\n\nA woman, who didn't give her name, told the BBC she fled her home in the northern city of Pul-e-Khumri with her husband and children. Her husband, she says, was wounded in the war.\n\n\"We had a good life, but because of the bomb blasts we lost our home and came here,\" she says. \"We left our home with only one dress and no money.\"\n\nThis woman said her family had a good life in Pul-e-Khumri, but they've now lost everything\n\nHumanitarian organisations have been warning of a rise in internally displaced persons in Afghanistan since US-led forces began withdrawing from the country earlier this year, following 20 years of military operations.\n\nThe campaign began in 2001 following the 9/11 attacks on American soil. Now, most of the foreign troops have pulled out.\n\nSince then, clashes between the Taliban and government forces have escalated. The Taliban have taken at least eight of the country's 34 provincial capitals, and are threatening to seize more.\n\nThe Washington Post has also cited unnamed US officials saying that even Kabul could fall to the Taliban within the next 90 days, based on US military assessments.\n\nThis unrest has caused a rise in people fleeing their homes for the capital. In July the UN warned that around 270,000 more people were internally displaced in the country after troops started to leave - this number is estimated to have surged in just the last few days.\n\nAmid all of this more than 1,000 civilians have been killed, according to the UN.\n\nThousands of people are camped in scrubland on the outskirts of Kabul\n\nNGOs say that this mass displacement will hit women and children particularly hard.\n\n\"We're seeing a lot of increased reporting around health protection needs, gender-based violence, sexual exploitation and abuse and trafficking,\" Jared Rowell, Country Director of the Danish Refugee Council in Afghanistan, tells the BBC.\n\n\"Early marriage will become a larger problem too as girls and young women are sold off in order to get cash to provide for their families. Those types of issues, which have always been a problem, are going to get more and more severe.\"\n\nAs well as food, shelter and health and sanitary items, Mr Rowell says, displaced people in Kabul are in desperate need of cash.\n\n\"It's really important people have access to multi-purpose cash,\" he says. \"Meaning an agency like DRC would give them a cash distribution that they have the autonomy to determine what they spend that money on in order to best support their needs.\n\n\"Cash is also particularly important at this point in time, especially when they're relocating to a large city like Kabul with high food prices and markets with fluctuating prices due to the current instability.\"\n\nFor Asadullah, his main hope now is that his family can one day return to their normal life in Kunduz.\n\n\"We want to go back and continue our lives there,\" he says. \"We hope that one day peace will come to Afghanistan, and our country will be free.\"", "Almost half a million EU citizens are still awaiting a decision over UK settled status after a surge of applications before the June deadline.\n\nSome 483,200 cases were pending in July, Home Office data shows.\n\nLawyers have warned that delays can last weeks, leaving some EU nationals unable to work or rent.\n\nThe Home Office says it has deployed extra resources to deal with applications and most non-complex cases are decided within five working days.\n\nAfter Brexit, the automatic right for EU citizens and their families to live and work in the UK ended.\n\nInstead, EU citizens had to apply for legal permission to remain under what is known as the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS).\n\nA total of 6,015,400 applications were made between the launch of the scheme in March 2019 and the closing date of 30 June 2021.\n\nAnother 58,200 applications came in after the deadline, figures up to 31 July show.\n\nPoland was the nation with the highest number of applications at 1,091,500, followed by Romania with 1,067,200 and Italy with 545,600.\n\nEU nationals living in the UK were given until 30 June to apply to stay in the UK.\n\nFollowing a surge in applications ahead of the 30 June deadline, the government increased the number of caseworkers and resolution agents to respond to queries.\n\nHowever, Bhavneeta Limbachia, an immigration lawyer at Russell-Cooke solicitors, has warned of delays in issuing EU citizens with a Certificate of Application.\n\nThis is the document required to demonstrate an individual still has the right to live and work in the UK.\n\n\"This bottleneck in the system is failing EU nationals, especially when employment has had to be temporarily suspended,\" she said.\n\n\"The delay is also prejudicial to landlords and employers, who are left in a predicament when assessing whether an applicant is legally permitted to continue renting or working in the UK.\"\n\nImmigration minister Kevin Foster said anyone who makes a late application will receive temporary protection until it is concluded.\n\n\"I'm delighted thousands more EU citizens have had their status secured through our hugely successful EU Settlement Scheme and we continue to work as quickly as possible to conclude all applications received,\" Mr Foster said.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his prison cell while awaiting trial for sex-trafficking charges\n\nThe Met Police will review its decision not to investigate whether Jeffrey Epstein committed crimes in London, Commissioner Cressida Dick has said.\n\nThe Met previously ruled out opening an investigation into Epstein, who killed himself in prison after he was charged with sex trafficking.\n\nDame Cressida said the force would review the decision after one of his accusers brought a civil court case against the Duke of York.\n\nDame Cressida told LBC: \"It's been reviewed twice before, we've worked closely with the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service). We are of course open to working with authorities overseas; we will give them every assistance if they ask us for anything within the law, obviously.\n\n\"As a result of what's going on, I've asked my team to have another look at the material.\n\n\"No-one is above the law.\"\n\nVirginia Giuffre, then Victoria Roberts, was pictured with Prince Andrew in London in 2001\n\nIn August 2019, US financier Epstein was found dead in his cell in New York's highly secure Metropolitan Correctional Center, prompting some to question whether he killed himself.\n\nThe month before, the 66-year-old had pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and conspiracy charges.\n\nPreviously, Epstein was accused of paying girls under the age of 18 to perform sex acts at his Manhattan and Florida mansions.\n\nIn a secret plea deal in 2008, he admitted soliciting prostitution from a minor and received an 18-month jail sentence. During this time, he was able to go on \"work release\" to his office for 12 hours a day, six days a week.\n\nVirginia Giuffre, one of Epstein's many accusers, alleges she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew three times between 2001 and 2002, when she was 17 years old.\n\nMs Giuffre says the abuse happened in London, New York and on Epstein's private island in the Caribbean.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. In 2019, Ms Giuffre – then Virginia Roberts – told BBC Panorama about the allegations she took to the Met\n\nOn Monday, Ms Giuffre began legal proceedings against 61-year-old Prince Andrew. She alleges that he engaged in sexual acts without her consent, knowing how old she was and that she was a sex-trafficking victim.\n\nIn a Newsnight interview in November 2019, the prince said he had \"no recollection\" of meeting Ms Giuffre. He denies all allegations, maintaining there are \"a number of things that are wrong\" about her account.\n\nPrince Andrew claims he flew to New York in 2010 to end his friendship with the multimillionaire financier\n\nSpeaking to LBC, Dame Cressida said the force had made the \"right decision\" in November 2019 by choosing not to open an investigation into Ms Giuffre's allegations.\n\nAt the time, the force concluded it was \"not the appropriate authority\" to investigate the matter.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The UK holiday recovery is lagging behind the rest of Europe, in part due to uncertainty over shifting Covid travel restrictions, Europe's biggest travel firm has said.\n\nTui bookings have jumped by 1.5 million since May, primarily driven by bookings from continental Europe.\n\nBut the holiday firm said frequent UK rule changes had deterred people.\n\nThe UK government said that its \"top priority is to protect public health\".\n\nTui chief executive Friedrich Joussen said British holidaymakers had faced more uncertainty than many other Europeans in recent months and had been put off by changing policies from the UK government.\n\nHe pointed out the UK decision to add Portugal to the list of green travel destinations in mid-May before removing it in early June.\n\n\"When you change the programme so often, then people cancel,\" he added.\n\nThe cost of PCR tests for Covid would also be putting off customers, he said.\n\nSince mid-January, on all but a few days, UK travellers cancelled more travel for summer 2021 than they booked, according to Tui data.\n\nThis is in direct contrast to customers from Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, where bookings were ahead of cancellations for most of that period.\n\nDespite a jump in summer interest, total Tui bookings were still down 68% compared with summer 2019.\n\nTui said that about 4.2 million customers had booked for summer 2021, with an increase of 1.5 million bookings since May.\n\nThe travel firm said pent-up demand from European holidaymakers was behind the rise.\n\nBut while UK bookings are picking up, they are still lagging behind other countries.\n\nUK customers are normally a major part of Tui's business, but only about 17% of those 4.2 million summer customers were from the UK.\n\nIn the third quarter, only 50,000 customers departed from Tui's northern region, composed of the UK and Ireland, the Nordic countries, Canada and Russia.\n\nThis reflected \"limited green list destinations made available by the UK government\" and the \"stop-start nature of permitted destinations under UK travel restrictions\", Tui added.\n\nThe next UK travel list review is due on or about 25 August.\n\nTravel expert Simon Calder said: \"The simple reason bookings are so sluggish in the UK is the unpredictability of government advice.\"\n\nHe added: \"I am hearing from a lot of prospective travellers that they are not confident enough to book - and from many of those with bookings that they wish they hadn't committed.\"\n\nThe UK government has a \"traffic light\" system in place for international travels, with green, amber and red list countries.\n\nThis week, it updated the list, with France moving from \"amber-plus\" status to normal amber country rules.\n\nMost countries are on the amber list, with adults that have been fully vaccinated in the UK, US and most European countries not having to self-isolate upon arrival in the UK.\n\nThe UK government has previously said that while it wants people to be able to travel, the travel lists are updated \"to protect us against new variants\" of Covid.\n\nA Department for Transport spokesperson said: \"Our top priority is to protect public health - decisions on our traffic light system are kept under regular review and are informed by the latest risk assessment from the Joint Biosecurity Centre and wider public health factors.\n\n\"We recognise the challenging times facing the travel sector, which is why we have committed around £7bn of support by September 2021 and continue to work with industry to help them navigate this difficult period.\n\n\"Travel continues to be different this year and we encourage people to always check [Foreign Office] travel advice before travelling as any trip carries an increased risk.\"\n\nTui and many other firms in the travel sector have been hit very hard by the effects of coronavirus.\n\nThe travel firm, which has its headquarters in Hanover, has had a number of bailouts from the German government and loans worth billions of euros.\n\nBecause of Brexit, its credit line from a British bank could not be extended beyond summer 2022.", "Previously women could not wear trousers in the Steward's Enclosure at the Henley Royal Regatta\n\nWomen can now wear trousers at the Henley Royal Regatta everywhere after it changed its \"draconian\" dress code.\n\nPreviously women could only wear a dress or skirt with a hemline below the knee to gain access to the Steward's Enclosure at the annual event in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.\n\nFor the first time in decades women can now wear trousers and trouser suits.\n\nRegatta chairman Sir Steve Redgrave said organisers believed women should wear trousers if they wished to.\n\nThe five-time Olympic champion said the dress code at the Steward's Enclosure was only adopted in the late 1970s.\n\n\"We felt with the introduction of all the new events for females, if they would like to wear trousers, they should be allowed to wear trousers,\" said Sir Steve.\n\n\"Within investitures they now allow trousers as well, so we've eased our dress code for that same sort of reason.\"\n\nIt comes after a petition last year by University of Oxford rower Georgia Grant who called the dress code \"draconian\".\n\nMs Grant said: \"It's quite a small change, but I think for them to sort of concede on it and change something which has existed for years, that's a huge step and it made me feel quite excited about attending the event.\"\n\nShe added her petition had led to transgender and disabled attendees sharing their struggles over their difficulty choosing what to wear, and that the next step should be \"de-gendering\" the dress requirements.\n\nThe Steward's Enclosure is only open to stewards who organise the regatta, members - who can reportedly wait years to be given membership - and their guests.\n\nIt is described by one rowing website as the \"equivalent of the Royal Enclosure at Ascot\", and has the best view of the finish line.\n\nMen are required to wear lounge suits, or jackets, or blazers with trousers, together with a tie or a cravat.\n\nSpectators Izzie Mayhew-Smith and Lucy O'Neill said they were pleased with the change\n\nIzzie Mayhew-Smith, who was wearing trousers to the Steward's Enclosure, said: \"It was a lot easier to find something to wear in my wardrobe, and I think it's good because men can wear trousers so we should be able to as well.\n\n\"The regatta becoming more modernised will maybe encourage more people to come and it's not just something for older people that's old fashioned.\"\n\nLucy O'Neill added: \"Trousers are just more comfortable personally and it's easier to walk around and sit down, so I've enjoyed wearing my trousers today.\"\n\nIn previous years women could only wear trousers in the Regatta Enclosure - which did not have a formal dress code.\n\nA trouser ban remains for women at some private member clubs alongside the river where spectators can view the regatta.\n\nThe annual five-day event, which is taking place from 11-15 August, has resumed after it was cancelled last year for the first time in its history outside of the World Wars due to Covid-19.\n\nHenley Royal Regatta sees rowers battle it out on the River Thames over five days of racing, attracting huge crowds.\n\nIt was first staged in 1839 and attracts participants ranging from Olympians, university and school teams, to amateur clubs.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.", "People have been sleeping on the streets in Kabul and in makeshift camps after fleeing their homes\n\nAfghanistan has replaced its army chief, as Taliban militants continue to make rapid advances.\n\nInsurgents have taken control of 10 of the country's 34 provincial capitals.\n\nOn Thursday the Taliban said they had taken the strategically important Ghazni city, which is on the road to the national capital Kabul.\n\nPresident Ashraf Ghani earlier flew to the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif - traditionally an anti-Taliban bastion - to try to rally pro-government forces.\n\nThe removal of the country's army chief, General Wali Mohammad Ahmadzai, was confirmed to the BBC on Wednesday. He had only been in the post since June.\n\nHis successor will have to deal with escalating violence across the country, as the Taliban continue their offensive. US and other foreign troops have all but withdrawn following 20 years of military operations.\n\nMore than 1,000 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan in the past month, according to the UN.\n\nAlso on Wednesday, President Ghani held crisis talks in Mazar-i-Sharif with ethnic Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum and prominent ethnic Tajik leader Atta Mohammad Noor about defending the city.\n\nMr Dostum, a veteran commander, was quoted as saying: \"The Taliban have come to the north several times but they were always trapped.\"\n\nFor years, Mr Ghani tried to sideline the warlords in an attempt to boost the Afghan National Army, and now he is turning to them in his hour of need, the BBC's Ethirajan Anbarasan says. Earlier this week, the president also agreed to arm pro-government militia.\n\nPresident Ashraf Ghani (centre) has tried to sideline powerful Afghan warlords to strengthen the Afghan National Army\n\nMazar-i-Sharif lies close to the borders with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and its loss would mark the complete collapse of the government's control over the north of Afghanistan.\n\nIn Kunduz, another northern provincial capital, hundreds of government soldiers - who had earlier retreated to the airport after the Taliban overran the city - have now surrendered.\n\nAccording to local media reports, the Taliban have now taken over Kunduz airport and the army corps stationed there have surrendered.\n\nLocal sources told the BBC that fighting was also raging in eastern Afghanistan's Ghazni on Wednesday, after Taliban insurgents entered the city centre.\n\nThe International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) humanitarian group later said intense \"street-by-street\" fighting was taking place in Afghanistan's second-largest city Kandahar.\n\nThe Taliban claimed to have taken over the city's prison, though this has not been confirmed.\n\nAccording to one US official speaking to CBS News, Afghanistan's capital could fall to the Taliban in as soon as 90 days.\n\nHowever, the official told news agency Reuters that it was possible for the Afghan security forces to halt the Taliban's momentum by putting up more resistance, adding that the fall of Kabul was not a \"foregone conclusion\".\n\nThe official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was reportedly citing US intelligence.\n\nIn the city of Lashkar Gah, in Helmand province, ICRC director-general Robert Mardini said hospitals were \"struggling to deal with the dead bodies\".\n\nIn addition to fighting on the ground, US and Afghan planes have been carrying out air strikes against Taliban positions in the country.\n\nThe Washington Post newspaper on Wednesday cited unnamed officials as saying the capital Kabul could fall to the Taliban within 90 days, based on US military assessments.\n\nA senior adviser to Mr Ghani, Waheed Omer, dismissed this prediction. \"It's hard times for us but we know that we will prevail,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"They have managed to gain some territory but it's not about territory. It's about the people. The people don't want them and they will soon find that it was a mistake to actually attack our people,\" he said.\n\nMazar-i-Sharif, now a major economic centre, has historically been the supply gateway from the former Soviet Union to the country.\n\nThe government in Kabul recognises the importance of the city, and that is why the Afghan president visited it to hold talks with local leaders and former warlords.\n\nThe last time the Taliban took the city was in the 1990s. This happened without any heavy resistance after a deal was done with a rival of Abdul Rashid Dostum.\n\nBut now he is one of the key leaders fighting the militant group.\n\nWith violence surging, thousands of people have been fleeing in search of safety.\n\n\"We have no money to buy bread, or get some medicine for my child,\" a 35-year-old street vendor who fled Kunduz province after the Taliban set fire to his home told the BBC.\n\n\"We had a good life, but because of the bomb blasts we lost our home\", a woman who fled the city of Pul-e-Khumri said.\n\nAfghan politician Shukria Barakzai said the Taliban gains were \"a red signal for the entire globe\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC speaks to two high profile figures in the Taliban chain of command who have very different messages", "KFC has warned that supply chain issues are disrupting both their food and packaging stocks nationwide.\n\nIn a tweet on Wednesday, the fast-food chain said some items would not be available because there's been \"some disruption\" over the last few weeks.\n\nThe statement did not mention which items on its menus have been affected or the reason for the disruption.\n\nIt said the situation is \"not ideal\" and that they were \"working hard to keep things running smoothly\".\n\n\"Please be patient with our teams...they''re doing a brilliant job despite the disruption,\" it continued.\n\nThe company did not say which of its restaurants would be affected. The majority (80%) of KFC outlets are run on a franchise basis.\n\nReplying to the tweet, customers said that there were no cups or lids on drinks.\n\nIt is not known how long the disruption will last.\n\nIt comes after a previous supply chain problem in 2018 when the company had to close 750 restaurants after a delivery contract with DHL led to shortages.\n\nDisruptions across the food and delivery industries are currently being caused by a shortage of HGV drivers, with a combination of fewer drivers from EU member states post Brexit and enforced isolation with drivers being contacted by NHS Test and Trace.\n\nThe Road Haulage Association believes there is a shortfall of about 100,000 lorry drivers across the country.\n\nDixons Carphone, which owns Currys PC World and Carphone Warehouse, said on Thursday it would pay new lorry drivers a £1,500 bonus amid the shortage.\n\nExisting drivers will get a £1,500 retention bonus, while those who refer a friend for a driver vacancy will get £1,000. In addition, it will launch a scheme where over 21-year-olds who have held a drivers licence for more than a year will get the costs of training and tests paid for by the company.\n\nLast month dairy giant Arla, which supplies milk to all major UK supermarkets, said a lorry driver shortage has forced it to cut back on its deliveries. Recently M&S also warned it could be forced to reduce opening hours.\n\nTesco also said in July it would offer a £1,000 joining bonus for new drivers, and Arla pays £2,000 to drivers willing to work weekends.\n\nIn July, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced a temporary extension of lorry drivers' working hours, from nine to 10 hours a day.\n\nHowever, the RHA said the relaxation was a \"sticking plaster\".\n\nFrom 16 August, people who have been fully vaccinated will not have to self-isolate if they are contacted by NHS Test and Trace when they have come into contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid. They will instead be advised to take PCR test as soon as possible.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Health Secretary Sajid Javid urged people to come forward for treatment, but said a rise in waiting lists is likely\n\nA record number of people - more than 5.45 million - are waiting for NHS hospital treatment in England.\n\nThe June figures show a mixed picture - with the numbers waiting more than 18 weeks or a year both down, but a rise in those waiting more than two years.\n\nMany have joined the waiting list in recent weeks, as more people are referred for treatment.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid said the government would look at \"what more we need to do\" for the NHS.\n\nNHS England's Prof Stephen Powis said the summer had seen some of the highest numbers ever coming forward for care.\n\nAnd he said the health service had made \"effective use\" of the additional resources it had been given to address the Covid backlog.\n\nBut in signs of progress, the number of patients waiting longer than 18 weeks for care has dropped by almost 25,000 to 1.7 million.\n\nThe number having to wait more than a year to start treatment was 304,803 in June - down from 336,733 the previous month.\n\nMost hospitals are doing all they can to reduce the number of long waits for operations.\n\nSome trusts in England have been given extra funding if they can get their volume of work above pre pandemic levels - extending operating theatre hours with smarter use of the time available and cutting down delays with pre-op checks for patients are among the policies being adopted.\n\nTrusts are working more closely with GPs, pharmacists and other local health providers to try to reduce the number of patients requiring hospital treatment, so freeing up resources for those who most need it.\n\nBut dealing with new referrals and tackling the backlog are huge tasks. And millions more who did not come forward for treatment during the pandemic may now do so.\n\nThe issue is rising rapidly up the political agenda. Growing waiting lists are also evident in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nSajid Javid, the Health Secretary, discussing the issue in England has said more money will be required. The question is how much. There could yet be battles with the chancellor in the run up to the spending review in the autumn.\n\nThe health secretary said waiting lists would rise as people came back to the NHS for healthcare having not done so during the worst periods of the pandemic.\n\nMr Javid said: \"We estimate there's probably some seven million people that ordinarily would have come forward to the NHS that stayed away, understandably, during the height of the pandemic.\n\n\"We want those people to come back. I don't know how many will come back but, even if half of them came to the NHS - and can I just stress I really want people that need to be seen by the NHS to know the NHS is there for them and they should come forward - but as they do I think waiting lists will rise because there will be a huge increase in demand.\"\n\nHe said an extra £29bn had gone into the NHS and social care this year.\n\nChris Hopson of NHS Providers told the BBC the NHS was \"going at full pelt\" to try to get through the backlog.\n\nBut he added: \"They're having to cope with the fact that we're 8,000 beds short compared to the normal number of beds we have because of infection control, and we've got large numbers of staff self-isolating.\n\n\"We're also in the peak leave period and we've got very large numbers of people coming in for urgent and emergency care - and we've still got 5,000 Covid patients in hospital beds.\"\n\nHe said a long-term funding settlement was vital.\n\nProf Neil Mortensen, president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said a \"volatile mix of pressures\", including Covid control measures and staff shortages due to pinging, was hindering the NHS's ability to address the surgery backlog.\n\nOf the 5,727 patients waiting more than two years for treatment - a 46% increase on the previous month - the RCS says most need hip and knee replacements, gallbladder removals or hernia operations.\n\nIt warns some may be unable to work, or carry out day-to-day tasks, while they wait for their procedures.\n\nSome have warned the number on waiting lists could rise much further, with the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warning it could rise to 14m by the end of 2022.", "The recent surge in consumer prices will be a temporary phenomenon as the UK emerges from the pandemic, the Bank of England's governor has insisted.\n\nAndrew Bailey told the BBC the jump in inflation was understandable given the \"bumpy\" economic recovery.\n\nOn Thursday, the Bank warned inflation will hit 4% this year, higher than previously forecast and double the 2% rate it aims for.\n\nBut policymakers decided to leave interest rates unchanged at 0.1%.\n\nThe Consumer Prices Index hit its highest for almost three years in June, at 2.5%, as food and energy costs rose.\n\nRate-setters on the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) have diverged over whether rising prices fuelled by the economic recovery are temporary and when they might start to fall.\n\nHowever, the committee, currently made up of eight members, not the usual nine, voted unanimously in favour of holding rates at their record low.\n\nMr Bailey said the rapid recovery in demand for some goods was outstripping supply, contributing to price increases, but many of the inflation drivers are \"temporary\".\n\nBut he added: \"I want to emphasise that we don't take this [inflation rise] lightly by any means. We at the Bank of England are very focussed on inflation. But we do expect it to come back to target.\"\n\nSome economists argue the Bank should rein in its economic stimulus programme - quantitative easing - but there was also no change on Thursday.\n\nThe central bank will keep up its £875bn QE following a seven to one vote in favour. Michael Saunders was the one vote against. He argued that the government bond purchases should be cut from £875bn to £830bn.\n\nThe Bank's former chief economist Andy Haldane called for a £50bn cut in QE before he left the committee after its June meeting.\n\nDespite rising prices, the MPC concluded that it would start to fall back to the target rate of 2%.\n\n\"The Committee's central expectation is that current elevated global and domestic cost pressures will prove transitory,\" the Bank said in a statement.\n\nBut it added: \"Nonetheless, the economy is projected to experience a more pronounced period of above-target inflation in the near term than expected in the May Report.\"\n\nSeparately, the Bank's latest economic growth outlook published on Thursday forecast a gross domestic product (GDP) rebound of 7.25% in 2021.\n\nAlthough this is unchanged from the previous estimate of 7.25% in May, it is still the fastest growth rate for 70 years.\n\nHowever, the Bank now expects the economy to then grow by 6% in 2022, compared with a previous 5.75% forecast.\n\nMr Bailey said he was very confident about the economic recovery. \"We were criticised a year a go for being over-optimistic about the bounce-back,\" he said. \"But the element that has come out much better than anybody forecast is unemployment.\"\n\nWith more than 70% of adults in Britain now fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and most social-distancing rules lifted, Britain's economy has recovered strongly since its 10% crash in 2020.\n\nA resounding headache is not just a common symptom for those suffering from coronavirus but for those who have to deal with the economic fallout.\n\nInflation's usually the last thing central bankers worry about after a recession - particularly one that's the deepest since the Great Frost of 1709.\n\nBut this isn't a typical crisis. The Bank of England is bracing for inflation, to hit 4% by year-end, twice its target. However activity and employment have yet to reach pre-pandemic levels, the path of recovery uncertain once furlough ceases and given the risk of renewed restrictions.\n\nHow to balance those? The Bank is betting on the spike in inflation being transitory, reflected in the main bottlenecks in supply chains and the like as the economy adjusts.\n\nSo it's opted for a wait-and-see approach rather than risk undermining the recovery, leaving not just rates but its asset buying programme, QE, alone.\n\nEconomists think the first rate hike may still be at least a year off.\n\nThe Bank may well be right but if not, there could be a steep price for inaction. Interest rates changes typically take anything up to two years to impact prices. Leave it too late, and they may have to rise further and faster than otherwise - a fresh headache, this time for borrowers.", "A pair of Afghanistan veterans have reflected on the legacy of the conflict as foreign forces pull out of the country after 20 years.\n\nFormer Welsh Guards soldier Mark Owen, from Caernarfon, did a tour of Afghanistan in 2009.\n\nHe said he replayed things in his mind from his tour \"every single day\".\n\nMr Owen said if the presence of foreign forces brought \"a bit of stability and normality\" to the country, then it was worth it.\n\nNazie Ayeen - who starting working as a translator for British forces in 2007 - said he young at the time and had no understanding of \"how complex my country was\".\n\nReflecting on the war, he added: \"Unfortunately it did not bring the peace that was promised for the Afghan people.\"", "The four-year project explored the monument and its surroundings near Newport, Pembrokeshire\n\nDairy farming could have been happening in Wales as early as 3,100BC, according to new research.\n\nShards of decorated pottery taken from the Trellyffaint Neolithic monument near Newport, Pembrokeshire, were found to contain dairy fat residue.\n\nThe residue could only originate from milk-based substances such as butter, cheese, or more probably yoghurt.\n\nGeorge Nash, of the Welsh Rock Art Organisation, said it was the earliest proof of dairy farming in Wales.\n\nProject leader Dr Nash said Julie Dunne of the University of Bristol had detected the dairy fat residues from the inner surfaces of the pottery, as well as dating them with 94.5% accuracy to 3,100BC.\n\n\"It's incredibly rare to find any archaeological remains such as bone and pottery in this part of Wales because of the soil's acidity,\" he said.\n\nThis stone feature was discovered during excavation\n\n\"So, we can't say for certain that this is the earliest example of dairy farming, but it is the earliest that anyone has been able to prove, using new revolutionary direct dating methods.\n\n\"The discovery of this pottery is important because it is right on the cusp of when a new Neolithic ideology was taking hold.\"\n\nDr Nash, who teaches at the University of Coimbra in Portugal, termed the period a \"Neolithic package\" that included animal husbandry, pottery making, food procurement and different ways of burying and venerating the dead.\n\nIt gradually replaced the hunting, fishing and gathering way of life which had typified the previous era.\n\nDairy fat residue was discovered on pottery at the site\n\nInterest in Trellyffaint began when former University of Bristol archaeology graduates Les Dodds and Phil Dell conducted several geophysical surveys on and around the Neolithic stone chambers.\n\nThey discovered two concentric henges along with other buried objects.\n\nThe henges - two circular earthen banks - are roughly contemporary with Stonehenge, dating from the mid to latter part of the Neolithic period, between 3,000BC and 2,000BC.\n\nHowever, Dr Nash said it is important to view the period as a continuum of social and ritual development rather than a single event.\n\n\"As the population grew throughout this period, communities had to diversify the way in which they sourced their food,\" he explained.\n\n\"Initially, farming was a far riskier economy than hunting, fishing and gathering, as if you had one outbreak of disease - one crop failure - then you were prone to starvation and instability.\n\n\"It is probable that throughout the Neolithic period in western Britain, both natural resources and farming played equal roles in providing communities with the resources they needed.\n\nMarkings on a stone in the monument suggest the night sky\n\n\"The pottery recovered from this excavation probably reveals something about the veneration of the earth and what it could provide, hence the offering of dairy products within a ritualised landscape\".\n\nThe survey discovered the main chamber was largely in a good state of preservation.\n\nHowever, at some point in the recent past, the enormous capstone covering the chamber had slipped off its supporting upright stones.\n\nUp to 75 engraved cupmarks - gouged circular indentations - and several intersecting lines were recorded on top of this stone.\n\nThe cupmarks, which feature on only a handful of Neolithic burial-ritual monuments in Wales, suggest the stone formed part of a new religious ideology where rock art represented the night sky and constellations.\n\nMaybe a few hundred years later, the community using Trellyffaint made the decision to yet again change their worldview, which resulted in the construction of the two concentric henges a few yards north of the monument.\n\nFor this new set of monuments, offering dairy products rather than looking towards the night sky became the new way of veneration.\n\nThe artefacts discovered will be presented to the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff for safekeeping, while the team's research is due for publication in several international scientific journals.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The chart-topping musician was remanded in custody ahead of sentencing\n\nRapper Nines has admitted being part of a plot to import 28kg of cannabis into the UK from Spain and Poland.\n\nThe chart-topping musician, real name Courtney Freckleton, 31, and Jason Thompson, 35, of Barnet, pleaded guilty to drugs and money laundering charges.\n\nHarrow Crown Court heard they had been involved in one successful bid to import the class B drug, while another attempt had also been made.\n\nSentencing was adjourned and the pair were remanded in custody.\n\nNines, of Barbican, and Thompson were arrested in June after police raids across London and Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, in an operation understood to have stemmed from the infiltration of encrypted messaging service Encrochat.\n\nThe network, which was used by thousands of criminals worldwide, was infiltrated by authorities last year after being hacked by French investigators.\n\nAppearing in court, the pair admitted conspiracy to import the Class B drug into the UK from Poland and Spain and conspiracy to transfer criminal cash between 10 March and 3 July last year.\n\nProsecutor Genevieve Reed said the plot had involved a total amount of 28kg of cannabis while the money laundering charge related to a £98,000 debt, as well as the value of the drugs.\n\nNines and Thompson denied two further counts of conspiracy to supply cocaine and conspiracy to supply cannabis and Ms Reed said prosecutors will not be seeking a trial on those charges.\n\nLast year Nines topped the UK album chart with his record Crabs In A Bucket.\n\nHe was also named best hip hop act at last year's Mobo Awards.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Travellers quarantine at the Radisson Blu hotel near Heathrow airport\n\nA law firm representing travellers is challenging the UK's quarantine hotel policy and seeking a judicial review.\n\nCurrently, passengers must spend 11 nights in quarantine hotels on returning from red list countries, despite being fully vaccinated and testing negative for Covid.\n\nLondon-based firm PGMBM says this is an \"unlawful deprivation of liberty\".\n\nOn Thursday, the cost of staying in a quarantine hotel jumped from £1,750 to £2,285.\n\nPGMBM managing partner Tom Goodhead said: \"Mandatory hotel quarantine is a fundamental breach of human rights. It has led to the false imprisonment of people who are fully vaccinated and have tested negative.\n\n\"Prisoners are entitled to more liberty than those forced to quarantine in hotels.\"\n\nMore than 60 locations including Turkey, Mexico, Kenya and many countries in Africa are currently on the red list.\n\nThe other European countries with mandatory quarantine involving hotel detentions - Ireland and Norway - have amended their schemes so fully vaccinated travellers are exempt from needing to quarantine.\n\nA government spokesperson said: \"We are determined to protect our country and the progress we have made thanks to the vaccine rollout. That is why the government has taken decisive action at the border, including the introduction of the managed quarantine system.\n\n\"Every essential check we've introduced has strengthened our defences against the risk of new coronavirus variants.\n\n\"Countries around the world are taking equivalent action and apply a fixed charge for quarantine costs. The cost for travelling back from a red list country covers transport from the port of arrival to the designated hotel, food, accommodation, security, other essential services and testing.\"\n\nThe legal team are seeking compensation, not only for those they represent, but also for anyone who has been double-jabbed in the UK and has stayed at a quarantine hotel.\n\nIn addition to compensation for the alleged breach in human rights, the law firm is also seeking refunds of the cost of the quarantine hotel stays.\n\nThis is the second case PGMBM has brought about quarantine hotels. The first was on the grounds of financial hardship and resulted in the government offering the option to pay in 12 monthly instalments for those facing financial hardship.\n\n\"We want to see this draconian policy scrapped and those affected to be properly compensated,\" he continued.\n\nMr Goodhead added that the majority of the people who got in touch with the law firm were not travelling to or from red list countries for holidays or for leisure.\n\n\"They are often travelling for emergency or urgent reasons and would not be travelling unless they felt it was absolutely necessary,\" he explained.", "Officers were called to an address in Bridgend on Wednesday evening\n\nPolice have launched an investigation after a two-year-old boy was taken to hospital in critical condition.\n\nA 31-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and is in custody, police said.\n\nOfficers attended an address in the Broadlands area of Bridgend shortly before 20:00 BST on Wednesday.\n\nThe boy was taken the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff where he remains in a critical condition.\n\nThere was still a police presence in the area on Thursday afternoon\n\nSouth Wales Police detectives have been conducting house-to-house enquiries here in Broadlands this [Thursday] afternoon.\n\nShortly afterwards four officers in forensic suits arrived and entered a property.\n\nThe significant police presence is all the more conspicuous as the residential area is extremely quiet.\n\nI spoke with one local resident who said there was an ambulance present last night as well as several police cars. She said the entire community was in shock.", "Tributes have been paid to a \"gorgeous and intelligent\" two-year-old boy allegedly murdered.\n\nReid Steele was taken to University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, after being found in a critical condition at a house in Bridgend, on Wednesday.\n\nA 31-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder and detained under the Mental Health Act.\n\n\"He was a super, super-happy, wonderful and intelligent little boy who lit up everyone's lives,\" his family said.\n\nThey added: \"He loved the garden and the beach, picking raspberries and going for walks collecting shells.\n\n\"He was a very chatty little boy and would happily speak to anyone.\"\n\nThe woman remains on police bail and has been transferred into the care of health services.\n\nSouth Wales Police said it was not looking for anyone else.\n\nPeople have started leaving flowers near to the house where the boy was found\n\nDet Ch Insp Matt Davies said he understood the \"very sad and tragic\" incident would have caused concerns in the Broadlands area of the town.\n\n\"I must stress we are not currently looking for anyone else in connection with this matter at this time,\" he added.\n\n\"The family continue to be supported by dedicated family liaison officers and I would appeal to people to refrain from speculating on social media at what is a very difficult time for all concerned.\"\n\nPolice are not looking for anyone else in connection with the boy's death\n\nBridgend county council is offering advice on where residents can access additional support and help while the investigation is underway.\n\nCouncil leader Huw David said: \"This tragic news has left local people shocked and saddened, especially as it has occurred so soon after the harrowing death of five-year-old Logan Mwangi.\n\n\"Our heartfelt thoughts and condolences are with the family and friends of the little boy at this extremely distressing and traumatic time.\n\n\"Communities throughout Bridgend county have been expressing their grief and sympathy even as they continue to support one another.\"\n\nOfficers were called to an address on the Broadlands estate in Bridgend on Wednesday evening\n\nPeople have been leaving flowers and cuddly toys at a site about half a mile from the house on Parkwood Heights.\n\nA lion, a gorilla, and a rabbit are among the toys that have been left by schoolchildren and their parents.\n\nOne said the \"precious little boy\" would always be in their thoughts while another teddy bear has written on its belly: \"RIP Little Man. Sleep Tight.\"\n\nBetween the bouquets of flowers are large single sunflowers.\n\nTributes have been left to two-year-old Reid Steele\n\nIan Spiller, councillor for Laleston, Bryntirion and Broadlands, said: \"The community is absolutely devastated by the news, we are all in complete shock especially after the events that occurred last week.\n\n\"To have this happen in another community - in our community in Bridgend. I am absolutely speechless and our support goes out to those affected.\"\n\nMr Spiller added that he was aware of the community's \"need to grieve and show support\" at this time.\n\nIn a post on the community hub, he asked people to show their \"love and support from a distance and not to be intrusive to the family concerned\".\n\nHe asked people to use an area of grass at the corner of Careg Llwyd to leave tributes and flowers.\n\nHe also said Bethel Baptist Church in Laleston would open between 14:00 and 16:00 on Friday, while the chapel at Maes y Fedwen, Broadlands, was open all day for anybody who would like to grieve or pay respects.", "An offshore oil exploration rig, in the Scottish sector of the North Sea, burns off oil and natural gas\n\nNicola Sturgeon has written to the prime minister to urge him to reassess the development of a new North Atlantic oil field west of Shetland.\n\nThe first minister said proposals for the Cambo field should be re-examined over \"the severity of the climate emergency\".\n\nHer letter comes after a UN report issued a \"code red for humanity\".\n\nThe UK government wants to reduce the use of fossil fuels, but says there is still \"ongoing demand\" for oil and gas.\n\nIn her letter, Ms Sturgeon asked Boris Johnson to commit to \"significantly enhancing the climate conditionality\" associated with offshore oil and gas production.\n\nShe added: \"I am also asking that the UK government agrees to reassess licences already issued but where field development has not yet commenced. That would include the proposed Cambo development.\n\n\"Such licences, some of them issued many years ago, should be reassessed in light of the severity of the climate emergency we now face, and against a compatibility checkpoint that is fully aligned with our climate change targets and obligations.\"\n\nThe first minister's intervention is her first on the issue.\n\nOn a visit to Scotland, Boris Johnson said contracts should not be \"ripped up\"\n\nMs Sturgeon also urged the prime minister to host to a four-nations conference ahead of November's COP26 summit in Glasgow.\n\nEnvironmental groups have accused ministers of \"hypocrisy\" over the summit, after it emerged that the Cambo development could get the green light.\n\nThe oil field is situated approximately 125km (75 miles) to the west of Shetland in water depths of between 1,050m to 1,100m. It contains more than 800 million barrels of oil.\n\nWhen asked about Cambo during a visit to Scotland last week, the prime minister told BBC Scotland that contracts should not be \"ripped up\".\n\nBut Mr Johnson added that \"we need to transition as fast as we reasonably can\" to renewable energy sources.\n\nThe UK government says the original exploration licence for Cambo dates back to 2001. This licence granted permission to search for oil and gas in the area.\n\nThere is then a lengthy process - involving field development plans, environmental statements and approval from relevant bodies - before production activity can begin.\n\nIf approved by the Oil and Gas Authority, drilling at Cambo could start as early as 2022. The field is expected to produce oil and gas for approximately 25 years.\n\nNicola Sturgeon has been sitting on the fence on Cambo and today she edged towards coming off it.\n\nWhile her reassessment call is not a straightforward \"no\" to the new field, it does lean in that direction.\n\nIt is hard to imagine how Cambo and projects like it would pass \"robust\" new climate tests, as proposed by the first minister.\n\nIf that amounts to a \"presumption against\" new oil and gas extraction it would be a major policy shift.\n\nIt's not so long since the Scottish government endorsed plans to extract maximum remaining value from the North Sea and the SNP has championed the oil industry for decades.\n\nBut Nicola Sturgeon has stopped short of outright opposition because she knows that jobs, investments and energy security are also at stake.\n\nGreenpeace UK branded Ms Sturgeon's letter a \"PR exercise\" and called on the first minister to make her \"own stance clear\".\n\nCampaigner Sam Chetan-Walsh said: \"The first minister must stop hiding behind Boris Johnson. If she wants to show leadership on climate she must clearly say, 'Stop Cambo'.\"\n\nScottish Labour net-zero spokeswoman Monica Lennon said the first minister had taken \"a baby step\" towards having a position.\n\nShe added: \"Now is not the time to reassess. It's time for Nicola Sturgeon to firmly and loudly oppose Cambo, once and for all.\"\n\nThe Scottish Events Campus in Glasgow will host the COP26 conference in November\n\nScottish Green environment spokesman Mark Ruskell said: \"It is welcome to see the Scottish government start to come off the fence when it comes to the Cambo oil field.\n\n\"But it is clear there are still far too many hopes pinned on the oil and gas industry to get us out of the climate emergency.\"\n\nThe Scottish Conservatives said the first minister was putting a \"nationalist alliance with the Greens\" ahead of the economy.\n\nScottish Conservative Net Zero spokesman Liam Kerr added: \"The oil and gas sector supports over 100,000 Scottish jobs and the development of the Cambo field could create thousands more.\n\n\"It's a real shame the SNP government are too busy virtue signalling to work with the industry on the transition to renewables, as the UK government are doing.\"\n\nIndustry body Oil and Gas UK (OGUK) said the sector was \"committed\" to the Scottish and UK climate targets.\n\nOGUK energy policy manager, Will Webster, added: \"Regarding Cambo and other future oil and gas investments, it is already demonstrated in projections by government and independent agencies that these are compatible with net zero.\"\n\nA UK government spokeswoman said it was supporting the oil and gas industry's transition to green energy by 2050.\n\nShe said: \"Even though demand for fossil fuels is falling and we continue to break records on our use of renewable energy, the advice of the independent Climate Change Committee is that we will continue to need oil and gas in the coming years as it is still vital to the production of many everyday essentials like medicines.\n\n\"We have already ended support for fossil fuels overseas, and are already designing a climate compatibility checkpoint which will ensure any future licences will only be granted if they are aligned with the UK's climate change objectives.\"", "The twins showed off their gymnastics skills outside school\n\nOlympic gymnasts Jessica and Jennifer Gadirova say they are \"thrilled\" with their school grades, just two weeks after winning bronze medals in Tokyo.\n\nThe 16-year-old twins collected their results from Aylesbury Vale Academy.\n\nThey both received passes, with Jessica getting a BTEC level two distinction star in business, while both got a distinction star in the NCFE Health and Fitness award, as well as their GCSEs.\n\nThe pair plan to stay at the state school to study sport and management.\n\nThey also want to carry on with their gymnastics training and prepare for Paris 2024 and the World Championships.\n\nJennifer (left) and Jessica Gadirova won a bronze in the women's team event and also competed individually\n\nThe twins won bronze in Tokyo alongside teammates Alice Kinsella, 20, and Amelie Morgan, 18, to make history as the first women to win an Olympic gymnastic team medal for Great Britain since 1928.\n\nJessica said: \"We are very happy and pleased - we both got the pass and are very thrilled.\n\n\"It was very difficult, and it would not have been possible without the support from our teachers and coaches. If there were days that we had to miss school because of training, they would give us the resources and help to catch up.\"\n\nJennifer hopes to compete at the European Championships, following in the footsteps of her sister who won three medals in April.\n\nShe said: \"We did all the finals and all the competitions with each other which was such an amazing experience, because not everyone has their sibling or someone that they are close to with them all the time.\n\n\"She is my best friend, we are always with each other, so it just felt so nice - sometimes it's hard explaining the experience but when they are there with you it's lovely.\"\n\nJessica (left) and Jennifer Gadirova are celebrating Olympic success and getting the school grades they wanted\n\nOn being compared to each other, Jennifer said: \"Sometimes it does help and sometimes it doesn't - there is a time and a place when to compare and when not to compare us.\"\n\nJessica added: \"We always want to be better than each other, but in training and in competition we like to encourage ourselves and motivate and support each other, because when you are having a down day, picking each other up just helps us shoot forwards.\"\n\nThe twins spoke to members of the press from their school, which said it was \"proud\" to welcome them home\n\nGavin Gibson, the principal of their Buckinghamshire school, said: \"Both girls juggled the extreme demands of training for the Olympics with the challenge of their GCSE year.\n\n\"In any other year, students would have found this difficult but despite the restrictions presented by the pandemic, the twins showed the resilience that teenagers are capable of.\n\n\"They are role models for all our students and we look forward to them returning to join our Sixth Form.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "The man worked at the British embassy in Berlin, German prosecutors said\n\nA British man has been arrested in Germany on suspicion of spying for Russia.\n\nGerman federal prosecutors said the man - named only as David S - worked at the British embassy in Berlin.\n\nHe allegedly passed documents to Russian intelligence \"at least once\" in exchange for an \"unknown amount\" of money.\n\nHe was arrested in Potsdam outside Berlin on Tuesday and his home and workplace have been searched.\n\nThe German Foreign Ministry said it is taking the case \"very seriously\".\n\nForeign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters: \"Spying on a close ally on German soil is absolutely unacceptable and we are in full solidarity with our British friends.\"\n\nThe arrest was the result of a joint UK-German investigation, the statement read.\n\nIt was intelligence-led and had been going on for some time leading up to the arrest, the BBC's Security Correspondent Gordon Corera says. MI5 and other UK agencies, as well as British police, had been working with the Germans to learn as much as they could about the alleged activity.\n\nLondon's Metropolitan Police confirmed the arrest of a 57-year-old British national in Germany, as well as the involvement of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command.\n\nGerman authorities are in charge of the investigation, but officers will continue to work with German counterparts, the police said.\n\nThe man appeared before an investigating judge in Karlsruhe on Wednesday, where he was ordered to remain under arrest pending further inquiries.\n\nProsecutors said he was hired as a local staff member at the embassy.\n\nGerman online news site Focus Online reports that the documents passed on were to do with counter-terrorism, and that the man is not thought to have diplomatic immunity.\n\nBerlin was the epicentre of Cold War espionage with spies working its streets and alleys in search of secrets.\n\nIntelligence gathering has changed since those days and often involves cyber-espionage carried out remotely nowadays.\n\nBut the old ways have not disappeared. Spy services still seek out people whom they can recruit to pass on sensitive information and that makes embassies a prime target with Berlin still a major focus.\n\nAnd it is not just diplomats who have direct access to secrets who spies are interested in.\n\nLocally hired staff - ranging from drivers to security guards to cleaners - can also be targeted with cash or other inducements because they can provide access to rooms to plant listening devices or gather information themselves.\n\nGerman and UK relations with Russia are already strained after several high-profile incidents in recent years.\n\nThe UK accused Russia of being responsible for a 2018 nerve agent attack in Salisbury against Sergei and Yulia Skripal - an accusation Russia has repeatedly denied.\n\nBoth survived the attack. But a local woman died after she came into contact with a perfume bottle thought to have been used in the incident and then discarded.\n\nGermany meanwhile treated Russian dissident Alexei Navalny after he was poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent on a Russian flight last year. Russian authorities have also repeatedly denied their involvement in this incident.\n\nLast month German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Joe Biden vowed to stand together \"against Russian aggression\".", "Many of those given the harmless salt solution were in their 70s\n\nAuthorities in north Germany have asked more than 8,000 people to get repeat Covid vaccinations because a nurse is suspected of having injected saline instead of vaccine in many cases.\n\nPolice are investigating the nurse's actions at a vaccination centre in Friesland, near the North Sea coast.\n\nInitially just six people were believed to have received the harmless salt solution there in March and April.\n\nMany of those affected were aged over 70 - a high-risk group in the pandemic.\n\nInspector Peter Beer, quoted by Süddeutsche Zeitung, said the 40-year-old woman had been sharing \"corona-critical information\" on social media, criticising the government's restrictions aimed at curbing the virus's spread.\n\nRegional broadcaster NDR says 8,557 people have been asked to go back for repeat vaccinations, and so far about 3,600 new appointments have been confirmed.\n\nIn April the nurse had admitted giving saline to six people to cover up the fact that she had dropped a vaccine vial on the floor.\n\nBut as the police investigation unfolded it became clear that many more people had been given saline instead of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.\n\nPolice are not ruling out that a political motive could have prompted the nurse's action, though her lawyers have rejected that and they also dispute the reported scale of the saline swap.\n\nMore witnesses are being questioned and so far no charges have been reported in the case.\n\nGermany has seen many anti-vaccination protests.\n\nFar-right groups are among those who reject the official data and conclusions about the spread of Covid.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Inside the BioNTech vaccine factory in the German town of Marburg (Video from March 2021)", "Prime Minister Boris Johnson says jobs are coming back as the economy recovers from coronavirus\n\nBoris Johnson believes the UK will see a \"steady\" economic recovery post-pandemic, but he warned there would be \"bumps on the road\" in the next year.\n\nSpeaking to LBC, the PM said job numbers were \"increasing\", but a \"cautious approach\" was needed.\n\nIt comes as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it expected UK economic output to grow by 7% this year - up from the 5.3% it predicted in April.\n\nMeanwhile, Labour is calling for more flexible conditions for working people.\n\nThe party's deputy leader, Angela Rayner, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that more people would return to workplaces as the economy emerges from Covid if employers allowed staff to compress their hours or work at different times.\n\nShe added: \"We've seen throughout this pandemic that employees have acted tremendously well, especially some for those who are on the most insecure and vulnerable contracts, and it's time for us to stop that practice where we do see unfortunately huge amounts of exploitation.\"\n\nThe UK saw its GDP - the value of all goods and services in the economy - dramatically fall in 2020, down 9.9% from the previous year, as a result of coronavirus restrictions, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said it was the hardest hit of the world's major economies in the early months of the pandemic.\n\nUnemployment has not been as bad as feared due to government support schemes, such as furlough, but the Bank of England expects the unemployment rate to reach around 5.5% in the autumn when the schemes come to an end.\n\nAnd the government has had to borrow huge sums of money to pay for the schemes and support the economy - £299bn from April 2020 to 2021, the highest figure since records began in 1946.\n\nHowever, borrowing this year has been less than expected as the economy starts to reopen - £53bn, which is £14bn less than forecast in March.\n\nMr Johnson told LBC that, thanks to the vaccine roll-out, England had been able to \"open up in the way that we said we would\" as the final part of his roadmap for easing restrictions.\n\nHe said: \"That is enabling us to make the economic progress that we are and so you're seeing the job numbers increasing.\n\n\"I think the rest of this year... there will still be bumps on the road, but I think you'll see a story of steady economic recovery and perhaps quite fast economic recovery as well.\"\n\nPointing to the report from the IMF, the prime minister added: \"Jobs are coming back.\n\n\"It's clear that... if we're sensible and we continue to take a cautious approach that we can see a very, very strong recovery.\"\n\nLabour's Angela Rayner says the rights of workers should be improved as the country comes out of the pandemic\n\nMs Rayner said the world of work in a post-pandemic UK needed to change to offer more flexibility to staff.\n\nLabour has launched a set of policies this week calling for workers to be given \"full\" employment rights from day one, which it said would \"fundamentally change the economy\".\n\nThese rights would include being able to ask for flexible working, which the deputy leader said would lead to a better work/life balance for staff.\n\nShe told Today: \"Flexible working should be mandatory and should be available for all people.\n\n\"This is about making sure there is that healthy balance where people can get into gainful employment and have that security... so they can live happy fruitful lives.\n\n\"And at the moment, the balance is incorrect.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA man stabbed by a terrorist on a south London street feared he would bleed to death, an inquest has heard.\n\nThe man overheard the phrase \"he's not going to make it\" in an ambulance after being stabbed by Sudesh Amman, 20, on Streatham High Road on 2 February 2020.\n\nArmed police shot Amman dead before two passers-by helped the victim, the Royal Courts of Justice heard.\n\n\"They cut off my clothes, they saved my life. I will never forget,\" he said in a police statement read out in court.\n\nAnother victim, a woman who was pushing a bike, also survived being stabbed. In a highly unusual move, neither of their names were mentioned during the hearing.\n\nSudesh Amman was jailed for 40 months in 2018 for preparing and engaging in acts of terrorism\n\nThe man told police he did not realise at first that he had been stabbed.\n\nThe inquest heard he walked three or four metres before falling over, at which point two passers-by, Katherine Day and Thomas Baldwin, performed first aid.\n\nHe said: \"They cut off my clothes, they saved my life. I will never forget.\n\n\"The woman was crying, saying: 'Please don't go. Where's the ambulance?'\n\n\"It really hurt when they put me on the ambulance bed. I heard someone say: 'We can't drive, he's not going to make it.'\"\n\nHe added: \"Thank God for the doctors, or I would be dead.\"\n\nOn Wednesday, the inquest heard that a nine-man surveillance team had been following Amman after his release from prison, 10 days before the stabbings.\n\nOne officer told the inquest how he feared for his life after witnessing Amman \"plunge\" a knife into the upper back of a woman wearing a bright pink jacket.\n\nIn her statement, read out to the jury, the victim said she suddenly felt pain in her right shoulder.\n\nShe told police: \"I took about four steps forward when I heard people shout: 'She's been stabbed.'\n\n\"I thought if I had been stabbed, why were people walking past me? I doubted myself.\n\n\"Due to the pain I dropped my bike on to the floor.\"\n\nShe suffered a small wound to her back and was discharged from hospital later that day.\n\nAmman was placed in a bail hostel in Streatham after his release from prison\n\nThe inquest previously heard there had been concerns about Amman's imminent release from HMP Belmarsh on 23 January 2020, part-way through a 40-month sentence for preparing and engaging in acts of terrorism.\n\nHowever, the request was turned down by the governor because the offence Amman was jailed for did not justify him serving further time in prison.\n\nJurors have also heard that Amman was spotted buying items later used to fashion a fake suicide belt but the Probation Service was \"satisfied\" that in making the purchases he had not breached any licence conditions.\n\nThe inquest has been adjourned until Friday.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Pupils use their GCSE results to progress to A-level, courses in Further Education, training or employment\n\nThere has been a rise in the number of top GCSE grades in Northern Ireland.\n\nGrades A* and A were awarded to just under 40% of entries, which is up from 37.1% in 2020.\n\nAs exams were cancelled for a second year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, pupils' results were based on grades calculated by schools.\n\nSimilar arrangements for A-levels saw a record number of entries awarded top grades on Tuesday but the rise in results at GCSE has been less dramatic.\n\nIan Bell, principal at Movilla High School in Newtownards, said his pupils had done \"remarkably well in some very difficult circumstances\".\n\n\"Sometimes I think it's very easy for people to jump to conclusions where they think 'oh it seems that they were easier' or 'it was an easier process' and I would certainly refute that and I'm sure every other principal in the province would refute that too,\" he said.\n\nIan Bell said pupils had had to deal with events \"over which they had no control\"\n\n\"Hopefully, things as they start to return to normal, we will be able to get back to our normal procedures, but I don't think the examination systems have anything to lose from learning some of the lessons we've had, especially over the last two years.\"\n\nThe pupils at the high school said their whole summer had \"been leading up to results day\" and that there were a lot of nerves in the last few days.\n\n\"Last night I was really nervous, but I was excited to come and see everybody, \" one pupil said.\n\nThe pupils at Movilla High School say they dealt with a lot of uncertainty\n\n\"It was hard going into this year because you're going into uncertainty and you didn't know would exams go on or would exams be cancelled, but I think we had to just go head on and do the best that we possibly could.\"\n\nAbout 29,000 students in Northern Ireland received their GCSE results on Thursday.\n\nOthers received results for BTec, vocational or entry level qualifications.\n\nAaron (left) and Angus (right) celebrate their results with parents Bill and Cathy at Campbell College\n\nTeachers will have used evidence like classwork, homework, coursework and in-class tests to provide grades for pupils.\n\nGrades calculated by schools were also used to give pupils their GCSE results in 2020 after exams were cancelled.\n\nThere has been some criticism that the assessment system used has led to a grade-inflation, but one Londonderry principal believes there are some benefits for pupils not having to sit traditional GCSE exams.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio Foyle, Michael Allen, principal of Lisneal College in the Waterside, said there was \"certainly elements I prefer\" about using an evidence-based method for the determination of grades.\n\nMichael Allen said there were some positive aspects to exams being cancelled\n\n\"Examinations and grades are pre-determined by the exam boards so the number of kids who achieve an A*, A or B is already pre-determined,\" he said.\n\n\"By removing the algorithm I think we are actually seeing what young people are actually capable of before examination boards are in a position to manipulate results.\"\n\n2019 was the most recent year in which a full exam series took place.\n\nPupils had to come in to collect their GCSE results\n\nJust under a third of all GCSEs in Northern Ireland were awarded A* or A in 2019, and that has risen to 39.9% of entries this year.\n\nAbout nine in every 10 (89.6%) entries were awarded A* to C grades, similar to 2020.\n\nGirls continue to outperform boys in achieving the top grades.\n\nJust under half of entries from girls in 2021 received A* or A grades compared to about a third of entries from boys.\n\nPupils shared news of their results with family and friends\n\nIn 2020, almost one in every eight GCSE entries (12.4%) in Northern Ireland was awarded the top A* grade, a rise from 8.1% of entries in 2019.\n\nMore than one in three GCSE entries (37.1%) received the top A* or A grades in 2020.\n\nThe vast majority of GCSEs in Northern Ireland are taken by pupils through the exams board CCEA and results were available from 08:30 BST on Thursday.\n\nMany pupils went to their school to pick up results as unlike A-levels, they cannot receive them online.\n\nAbout 98% of entries are through CCEA, with the remainder through English and Welsh exam boards.\n\nThat means some pupils in Northern Ireland received results in the form of numbers as well as letters.\n\nThat is because GCSEs in England are graded numerically from nine to one.\n\nPupils use their GCSE results to progress to A-level, courses in further education, training or employment.", "The Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan, almost 20 years after being ousted by a US-led military coalition.\n\nEmboldened by the withdrawal of US troops, they now control all key cities in the country, including Kabul.\n\nThe Taliban took some areas from government by force. In other areas, the Afghan National Army withdrew without a shot being fired.\n\nAlthough renewed clashes had been going on for several weeks, from 6 August the Taliban made a more rapid advance across the country, as they took control of provincial cities.\n\nThe maps below start in early July and show the 400 or so government districts as they fell to the Taliban.\n\nUS forces based outside Afghanistan had launched air strikes against Taliban positions earlier last week, but they failed to slow the advance of the insurgents.\n\nAlthough most US troops left in July, several thousand returned to Kabul at the weekend to help evacuate American and allied personnel from the capital.\n\nThe airport in the capital was the only official route out of the country after the Taliban took control of all the major border crossings.\n\nCustoms duty on goods entering the country via crossings they control is now collected by the Taliban - although exact amounts are unclear as the volume of trade has fallen as a result of the fighting.\n\nBut, Islam Qala on the border with Iran was, for example, capable of generating more than $20 million per month.\n\nDisruption to the flow of imports and exports has affected prices of essential goods in the markets - fuel and foodstuffs in particular.\n\nUS troops and their Nato and regional allies forced the Taliban from power in November 2001. The group had been harbouring Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures linked to the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US.\n\nBut despite a continued international presence in the region, billions of dollars of support and training for the Afghan government forces, the Taliban regrouped and gradually regained strength in more remote areas.\n\nA BBC study in 2017 showed the Taliban were in full control of a number of districts. But the research also showed they were active in many other parts of the country, mounting weekly or monthly attacks in some areas, suggesting significantly higher strength than previous estimates.\n\nIn 2017 about 15 million people - half the population - were reported to be living in areas either controlled by the Taliban or where the Taliban were openly present.", "Thousands of people are living in makeshift camps in Kabul after fleeing the Taliban insurgency\n\nThe Taliban seized the cities of Ghazni and Herat on Thursday, in the most dramatic string of captures since launching their offensive.\n\nTaking the strategically important Ghazni increases the likelihood the Taliban could take the capital Kabul.\n\nThere is also heavy fighting in the second largest city, Kandahar.\n\nThe insurgents have moved at speed, seizing new territories almost daily, as US and other foreign troops withdraw after 20 years of military operations.\n\nThe city of Qala-I-Naw also fell to the Taliban, who now control about a third of the country's regional cities and most of northern Afghanistan. The group's rapid advance has dealt a crushing blow to government security forces.\n\nSources have told the BBC that Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, is also now in the hands of the Taliban, though this has not been confirmed.\n\nThousands of civilians have been displaced, fleeing to Kabul to try and escape the fighting.\n\nTaking Ghazni is a significant gain due to its location - it is 150km (93 miles) from Kabul, and is on the major Kabul-Kandahar motorway, linking militant strongholds in the south to Kabul.\n\nA provincial council member in the city told the BBC that the Taliban had taken most of the centre, with only a police base on the outskirts controlled by the Afghan security forces.\n\nHerat, which has been under siege for weeks, is also a major win for the militants. It is Afghanistan's third largest city, lies on significant ancient trade routes and is seen as the gateway to Iran.\n\nOn Thursday, video on social media showed the insurgents running through a central Herat street firing their weapons, and the Taliban flag was seen flying over the police headquarters. A regional council member confirmed to the BBC that the city had fallen to the militants.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Secunder Kermani reports on life in a town recently taken by the Taliban\n\nMeanwhile in Kandahar, once the Taliban's stronghold, heavy fighting was reported and the militants claimed to have taken over its prison and released all of the inmates, although this has not been confirmed.\n\nIf Kandahar falls into militant hands, it will be the biggest loss yet for Afghan security forces.\n\n\"Life as we know it is getting harder day by day,\" a woman in Kandahar told the BBC, adding \"both sides are just using… us as pawns in their own power-hungry games\".\n\nThe US embassy in Kabul said it was hearing reports that the Taliban was executing Afghan troops who were surrendering, saying it was \"deeply disturbing and could constitute war crimes.\"\n\nThis 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 U.S. Embassy Kabul 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. End of twitter post by U.S. Embassy Kabul\n\nThe US said it was sending 3,000 troops to the airport in Kabul to help evacuate a \"significant\" amount of embassy staff on special flights.\n\nThe UK later said it was deploying about 600 troops on a short-term basis to provide support to British nationals leaving the country. The number of staff working at the British embassy in Kabul has abeen reduced to a core team.\n\nMore than 1,000 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan in the past month, according to the UN.\n\nJust this week thousands of people from northern provinces have become internally displaced, travelling to Kabul to seek safety. An estimated 72,000 children arrived in the capital in recent days and are mostly sleeping on the streets, according to Save the Children.\n\nMakeshift camps have been established on scrubland on the outskirts of the capital, while many others have reportedly been sleeping on the streets or in abandoned warehouses.\n\n\"We have no money to buy bread, or get some medicine for my child,\" a 35-year-old street vendor who fled Kunduz province after the Taliban set fire to his home told the BBC.\n\nIn response to the insurgency, the German government has threatened to end its annual financial support of $500m (£360m) to Afghanistan if the Taliban gains complete control of the country.\n\nGermany has also suspended the forced repatriation of Afghan citizens whose asylum applications have failed. The French and Danish governments said they would follow the same policy.\n\nOn Wednesday, Afghanistan replaced its army chief, General Wali Mohammad Ahmadzai, who had only been in the post since June.\n\nAlso on Wednesday, President Ashraf Ghani flew to the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif - traditionally an anti-Taliban bastion - to try to rally pro-government forces there.\n\nMazar-i-Sharif lies close to the borders with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and its loss would mark the complete collapse of government control over northern Afghanistan.\n\nPresident Ghani held crisis talks in Mazar-i-Sharif with ethnic Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum and prominent ethnic Tajik leader Atta Mohammad Noor about defending the city.\n\nMr Dostum, a veteran commander, was quoted as saying: \"The Taliban have come to the north several times but they were always trapped.\"\n\nFor years, Mr Ghani tried to sideline the warlords in an attempt to boost the Afghan National Army, and now he is turning to them in his hour of need, the BBC's Ethirajan Anbarasan says. Earlier this week, the president also agreed to arm pro-government militia.\n\nAre you in Afghanistan? Do you have links to Ghazni? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "A new analysis suggests the current level of UK spending to combat climate change is lagging behind what advisers say is needed.\n\nA study by the pressure group WWF says new green policies in the March 2021 Budget add up to just 0.01% of GDP.\n\nBut the government's own advisory Climate Change Committee has said 1% of national wealth - or GDP - must be spent every year in the UK to ensure climate targets are met.\n\nIn November the prime minister promised £12bn for a 10-point plan \"green industrial revolution\".\n\nWWF says its research also shows that some Budget policies that encourage pollution totalled £40bn - far more than the PM's green plan.\n\nIt says that the freeze on fuel duty is costing the Treasury some £11.2bn in the financial year 2019-20 alone, rising to £13.9bn in 2022-23 if the freeze continues.\n\nA Treasury spokesman defended the government's record and said a comprehensive strategy for financing the \"green revolution\" would be outlined in the autumn.\n\nBut WWF says the UK won't remotely deliver on its own promise of a 78% CO2 cut by 2035 at the current rate of annual spending.\n\nIsabella O'Dowd from WWF said: \"It's not yet too late to prevent global warming from rising above 1.5°C - it is in our hands.\n\n\"But to do that, the UK government must play its part by keeping every climate promise it has made.\"\n\nThe government's aim is to reduce UK emissions to almost nil by 2050 - that's a trajectory the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said would save the world from the very worst catastrophes that lie ahead.\n\nA Treasury spokesman said: \"\"The UK is a world leader in the global effort to tackle climate change, growing our economy by 78% while cutting emissions by 44% over the past three decades and being the first major economy to legislate to reach net zero emissions by 2050.\"\n\nThe government has been urged recently by some of its own backbench MP to spell out exactly how the low-carbon transition will be funded. They fear the UK may take expensive action to cut emissions when other nations sit back.\n\nThe Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng told the BBC recently that policies to shield poor families from higher heating bills would be published soon.\n\nChris Stark, head of the advisory Climate Change Committee, told BBC News the WWF report is \"an interesting snapshot\" of government spending on the net zero transition.\n\nHe continued: \"We estimate the cost of reaching net zero to be around 1% of GDP per year, a mixture of public and private money.\n\n\"Not all of that funding will be reflected in the government's Budget, but it's vital that a net zero test is applied to the Treasury spending review in the Autumn if we are to have a fighting chance of delivering net zero.\"\n\nRecent analysis for the All-Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group suggests the government is also falling short at a policy level on net zero ambitions.\n\nIts report said ministers have fully or partially met just 61 out of 135 policies recommended by the advisory Climate Change Committee.\n\nThe prime minister has promised a full suite of policies before the vital climate summit known as COP26 that he's hosting in Glasgow in November.\n\nExperts say if the UK must prove how it can decarbonise its own economy to show other nations that it's economically possible.\n\nOne of the government's new policy initiatives is to promote hydrogen as a power source. A hydrogen strategy is due soon.\n\nLobby groups are pressing for widespread hydrogen use in home heating.\n\nBut a report from Cornell and Stanford Universities warns that using hydrogen could increase emissions overall unless it's made by electrolysis from surplus wind power.\n\nThat's because the most common current method of getting hydrogen is to split it from natural gas, which produces high carbon emissions.", "UK police have been involved for months in the case of a British man arrested in Germany on suspicion of spying for Russia, the Met boss has said.\n\nThe 57-year-old man, named only as David S, worked at the British embassy in Berlin and was detained on Tuesday.\n\nHe is alleged to have passed documents to Russian intelligence for money.\n\nMetropolitan Police commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said police had been working closely with German authorities and the UK government over the issue.\n\nShe told LBC Radio: \"I think it's a very good example of international co-working.\"\n\nMI5 and other UK agencies had been working alongside bodies including the BKA - Germany's federal criminal police office - and prosecutors ahead of the arrest in Potsdam, outside Berlin.\n\nThe man's home and workplace have been searched and he appeared before a judge on Wednesday. He was ordered to remain under arrest pending further inquiries.\n\nDame Cressida said: \"If this person is charged, we will support any trial, wherever that may be.\n\n\"At the moment the Germans are most certainly handling it.\"\n\nShe added of the arrest that \"these things are, thankfully, very rare\".\n\nThe arrest of a security guard at the British Embassy in Berlin is a reminder that old-fashioned spying has not gone out of fashion.\n\nStories of betrayal, bribes and stolen documents make for racy tales with all the elements of spy fiction.\n\nBut the truth is that nothing in the Berlin case should surprise us. What is alleged to have happened is not very unusual, even if we do not hear about it very often.\n\nIn recent years, Western states have called out Russia for the aggressive actions of its intelligence services - for instance the GRU, Russian military intelligence, using nerve agent in Salisbury or blowing up an arms depot in the Czech Republic, both actions killing innocent people.\n\nBut you will not hear the same complaints when it comes to the allegation involving the British Embassy in Berlin.\n\nThat is because if it turns out to be true, following the legal process, then it would be business as usual when it comes to more traditional spying.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police said officers from the force's Counter Terrorism Command - which investigates alleged breaches of the Official Secrets Act - were liaising with their German counterparts.\n\nThe suspect is understood to have been a security guard working as a contractor at the embassy. Prosecutors said he was hired as a local staff member at the embassy.\n\nLord Ricketts, former national security adviser, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme \"we're probably not looking at highly classified information being passed to the Russians - a security guard would not have access to that\".\n\nHe said it was a \"reminder\" that \"old-fashioned\" methods of spying were still being carried out, not just cyber-hacking and social media disinformation. The fact German and British authorities knew about the alleged spying and tracked it show that our defences \"are not in bad shape at all\", he added.\n\nMPs have called for a security review of UK embassy contractors following news of the man's arrest, with Chris Bryant - chair of the all-party parliamentary Russia group - saying it could be \"one of the most serious security breaches at a UK embassy for many years\".\n\nAnd Tobias Ellwood, chair of the commons defence select committee, called on the government to review the security of all contractors working at UK embassies, the Daily Telegraph reported.\n\nThe German Foreign Ministry said it was taking the case \"very seriously\", with Foreign Minister Heiko Maas telling reporters: \"Spying on a close ally on German soil is absolutely unacceptable and we are in full solidarity with our British friends.\"", "Scotland's hospitals are under more pressure than ever, doctors have told BBC Scotland.\n\nWhile the number of Covid patients has fallen, the NHS is trying to catch up with surgeries and treatments put on hold during the first wave of the pandemic.\n\nBut more people are also being admitted with other complex, more advanced disease, having put off seeking treatment.\n\nIt's leading to long waits in emergency departments and piling pressure on capacity in other parts of the hospital.\n\nAs the Scottish government prepares to publish a Covid recovery plan for the NHS, medics at Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital spoke to BBC Scotland's health correspondent Lisa Summers.\n\nDr Alan Whitelaw says the hospital is a \"very difficult place to work just now\".\n\nIt's 10am on Tuesday at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. The emergency department is full. Five seriously ill patients are in resus, all 16 assessment cubicles are occupied. Some have been waiting more than 12 hours for a bed to become available elsewhere in the hospital.\n\nDr Alan Whitelaw, a consultant in emergency medicine who heads up the department, says: \"The demand is something I have never seen before, it is busier than the Queen Elizabeth has ever been in its six years of existence.\"\n\nIt is a similar picture in other emergency departments. Data published this week by Public Health Scotland shows nationally just 78.7% of patients were admitted, treated or discharged within four hours, and 182 people spent more than 12 hours in an A&E.\n\nDr Whitelaw says the pressures in the emergency department are a reflection of how stretched the NHS is, with very few beds available in other parts of the hospital.\n\n\"Lying on a trolley for a number of hours anywhere is unpleasant, it also turns the tension up, everyone is waiting and everyone is not as satisfied as they otherwise would be,\" he says.\n\n\"It's a very difficult place to come and work just now. It's very tiring, very draining, stressful and you can see that on the staff on a day-by-day basis.\"\n\nThe last 18 months have been the most difficult in the 20 year career of Helen Dorrance.\n\nOther parts of the hospital are equally busy. Staff are still treating Covid patients but in far fewer numbers. Instead, they are seeing many more patients who have more complex and advanced disease.\n\nHelen Dorrance, a senior surgeon who specialises in cancer, has more than 20 years' experience but says the last 18 months have been the most difficult of her career.\n\n\"The waiting times for clinics and for investigations like colonoscopy and endoscopy and for day surgery in particular are huge at the moment, so I have no idea when we are going to be out of this other than it is not going to be any time quickly,\" she says.\n\nIt is very hard knowing that delays in starting treatment have led to worse outcomes for some patients, she adds.\n\n\"It makes you very sad for the individual, sometimes angry. It's very difficult knowing that had an individual come six months earlier then the discussions might have been different, the outcome for them and for their families might have been completely different.\"\n\nSenior charge nurse Lauren Johnson gets emotional talking about the toll Covid took on her patients\n\nAt the start of the pandemic, it was care-of-the-elderly wards which were the first to be turned into Covid wards.\n\nSenior charge nurse Lauren Johnson says staff had to adapt quickly to wearing PPE and communicating with sometimes confused or hard-of-hearing patients who were scared and couldn't see their families.\n\n\"It's a blur, it really is,\" she says. \"The five months I worked on the Covid hub was so difficult, I didn't see my family.\n\n\"I get emotional just talking about it, just seeing our wee frail patients not getting the chance for their families to say goodbye sometimes, and we were the ones saying goodbye to them, it was really, really difficult.\n\n\"It was the hardest thing I've ever had to deal with in my life.\"\n\nThere are 244 care-of-the-elderly beds at the Queen Elizabeth, most of them are back to treating non-Covid patients, but all of them are occupied.\n\nDr Lara Mitchell says they are seeing more people presenting late with illness.\n\nClinical lead and consultant in medicine for the elderly, Dr Lara Mitchell, says the patients who come to them are also sicker.\n\n\"We are still full, we are still busy,\" she says. \"The pandemic has been hard for all of us but it has been particularly bad for the older adult.\n\n\"They've not been connected with as many of their family and friends, they've not had ways to meet, so patients are not as strong as they used to be.\n\n\"All of that impacts on their general health when they have other medical issues going on, and I think that is what we are seeing, a lot of deconditioning as well as late presentation of illness because people have held on at home.\"\n\nA spokesperson for the Scottish government said they recognised the additional pressure NHS staff were facing, and were in daily contact with boards facing the greatest challenges.\n\n\"We are delivering record funding of more than £16bn in 2021-22 to support NHS Scotland and its heroic staff through the most challenging period in history - and after careful and extensive consultation we are currently finalising our NHS recovery plan which will set out plans to increase inpatient, day-case and outpatient activity,\" they added.\n\nGetting the health service back on track is going to be a huge challenge. Spending on healthcare already amounts to about half of the entire Scottish budget, and there have been long-standing difficulties recruiting staff.\n\nFour ambulances parked outside the emergency department have patients onboard\n\nOutside the emergency department, four ambulances are parked up. They are waiting with patients onboard until there is room in the department. It means four less ambulances on the road.\n\nSocial distancing rules limit numbers in the waiting room and a queue has formed outside. A nurse is patiently explaining the pressures today and helping patients work out if they would get better treatment elsewhere.\n\nDr Whitelaw says: \"If you've got what you perceive to be a life-threatening condition you should absolutely come to the emergency department, whether that is by 999 ambulance or getting here yourself.\n\n\"I think if you've not got what you think is a life-threatening condition you should access NHS 24 on 111 rather than just coming to an emergency department, because demand currently exceeds supply and we are full today.\"", "A Home Office deportation flight left for Jamaica overnight with just seven people on board, after last-minute legal challenges.\n\nThe flight, which is understood to have taken off from Stansted Airport in Essex just before 01:30 BST, was originally meant to deport 50 people.\n\nLawyers said it was \"an enormous waste of taxpayers' money\".\n\nThe Home Office said all those on board were convicted criminals with no legal right to remain in the UK.\n\nAnd it added that late legal claims can reduce the value for money of these operations.\n\nSome 18 of the legal challenges were made in the 24 hours before departure.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel is required by law to issue a deportation order for any foreign national who has been given a jail sentence of more than a year.\n\nPersistent offenders or those convicted of serious crimes may also be deported where it is deemed \"conducive to the public good\".\n\nCampaigners had been trying to stop the flight, with reports that some may have had a right to British citizenship.\n\nOn average, a deportation flight costs around £200,000, so returning the handful of passengers to the Caribbean is likely to have cost the Home Office about £30,000 each.\n\nThis is not the first time the Home Office has sought and failed to organise a mass deportation to Jamaica.\n\nIn December, another aircraft intended to have 50 Jamaican nationals on board left with just 13.\n\nOn that occasion, the Home Office acknowledged some of those due to fly may have been victims of modern slavery.\n\nThe home secretary is keen to demonstrate her commitment to securing Britain's borders.\n\nBut with record numbers of migrants arriving in small boats on the Kent coast, and continued problems in organising deportation flights, there is obvious frustration in the department.\n\nMaria Thomas, of Duncan Lewis Solicitors, said some deportees did not fly after claims they were entitled to stay in the UK as part of the Windrush Scheme, which grants residency to many West Indian migrants and their descendants.\n\nOthers, she said, had tested positive for Covid, while two of her clients - one in his 20s and another in his 30s who have lived in the UK since they were 10 and 11 - were taken to hospital in the afternoon after attempting to take their own lives in a government immigration removal centre.\n\nMs Thomas described the practice of removing by way of charter flights as \"brutal\". She said: \"It's extremely concerning.\n\n\"It's an enormous waste of taxpayers' money to charter a plane in these circumstances, particularly in light of an ongoing pandemic.\"\n\nBella Sankey, director of Detention Action which assists with some of the legal challenges, tweeted that the situation was \"complete chaos\" and the Home Office \"hasn't got a clue what it's doing\".\n\nThe Home Office said \"extensive checks\" had been carried out to ensure that no-one on board had been eligible for the Windrush Scheme.\n\nIt said the 43 people who did not fly had committed crimes including murder and rape, and that their combined sentences \"totalled 245 years\".\n\nDamion Thompson, known as Trimpy, is being held at a detention centre near Heathrow\n\nDamion Thompson, a Jamaican man who has lived in Leeds for 20 years, was due to be deported on Wednesday.\n\nIt's been 10 years since he was sentenced to jail for drugs offences - serving 14 months - triggering his automatic removal from the UK.\n\nHis wife, Linda Rose, said the deportation order had been \"hanging over the family\" ever since, despite several attempts to overturn it.\n\nNow the family say they have secured a seven-day injunction to try to stop his deportation - but they \"don't want to get too hopeful\".\n\nA Home Office spokesperson said: \"We make no apology for seeking to remove dangerous foreign criminals.\"\n\nMs Patel said those who were meant to be on board \"have violated our laws and values and have left their victims living with the scars of the crimes that took place against them\".\n\n\"The British people should be in no doubt of my determination to remove these criminals to protect both the victims of their crimes and the public. The government uses every means to continue to remove foreign nationals who have committed crimes against our citizens,\" she said.\n\n\"We remove foreign criminals from the UK to different countries every week and this flight is no different.\"", "Golden Ray is now being cut into eight pieces\n\nA Welsh firm's technology is being used to help prevent an \"environmental catastrophe\" in the United States.\n\nIts kit is being used to stop thousands of gallons of fuel onboard a wrecked cargo ship polluting the ocean off Georgia.\n\nChief executive Wayne Preece said: \"We're one of the few companies in the world that can do it.\"\n\nThe ship was leaving port when it capsized\n\nThe South Korean ship Golden Ray was carrying about 4,200 vehicles when it capsized soon after leaving the Port of Brunswick in September 2019.\n\nAround 1,000 of the vehicles have been recovered either by using a mechanical claw or by fishing them out of the water.\n\nBut the ship's 656ft (199m) hull remains, lying on its side.\n\nThe Golden Ray is too big to remove intact, so it is being carved up into eight massive chunks - each weighing 3,720 tonnes.\n\nWhile much of its fuel has been siphoned off, the salvage operation has been complicated because of that which remains on board.\n\nShould this leak into the ocean it would cause an \"environmental catastrophe\", something everyone involved in the project is keen to avoid.\n\nHydro Industries has been tasked with helping prevent this scenario, while enabling the ship and its remaining cargo to be safely removed.\n\nThe firm operates around the world clearing up and purifying water that has been contaminated by industries including oil and gas, mining and marine salvage.\n\nIt has worked on shipwrecks in France, Germany, Australia and Japan but this is its largest project so far.\n\nThe latest stage of the demolition severed the ship's fuel line near the engine room and while some oily discharges were seen, no major leaks were reported.\n\n\"The impact to the environment as a whole has been less significant than we feared,\" said Doug Hayman, director of the coastal resources division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.\n\nAs the salvage operation enters its next stage, Hydro Industries is moving its equipment 4,032 miles (6,497km) from its site at a former Ministry of Defence base to the shipwreck.\n\nWayne Preece says the company will treat about a million gallons of mud\n\n\"On that ship is contaminated oil mud. It's quite thick, quite nasty stuff,\" said Mr Preece.\n\n\"We've been tasked with treating about a million gallons of it, getting it off the ship, treating it, safely discharging the sea-water back into the sea, and then collecting the oil.\"\n\nThe capsized ship remains on its side\n\nThe equipment has been loaded into shipping containers in Llangennech over the past two weeks.\n\nThe journey by sea would normally take five to six weeks to complete, but the US Coast Guard would speed up the process and lead it into port, Mr Preece said.\n\n\"It'll get to Atlanta in around three weeks and our team will be on a plane waiting for it, and we'll deploy immediately and it's probably about a month's work.\"\n\nCaitlin Davies, an environmental engineer at the company, explained how the equipment - which looks like a giant bath - would work.\n\n\"It uses a system which allows the oil to be separated from the water,\" she said.\n\n\"By putting the aluminium charge onto the electrodes, it coagulates the smaller particles into bigger particles.\n\n\"It's a really clever but simple solution.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Oprah Winfrey onstage during her 2020 Vision tour, sponsored by Weight Watchers International\n\nShares in WW International, formerly known as Weight Watchers, have dived 25% after the firm said people were putting diets on hold after lockdown.\n\nThe weight loss firm, which is backed by talk show host Oprah Winfrey, had 4.9 million subscribers at the end of June, down from 5 million last year.\n\nBoss Mindy Grossman said part of this was a seasonal effect.\n\nBut she also said people are less worried about what they eat as they venture out of their homes again.\n\n\"While people are acknowledging their need for recommitting to weight loss and wellness, our recent consumer research shows that, at the moment, they're also asking for a pause to enjoy social reconnection,\" said Ms Grossman.\n\n\"With both traffic and search under pressure, this sentiment shift appears to be across the weight loss and wellness category.\"\n\nLike other dieting companies, WW benefited during the pandemic as consumers stuck at home decided to get back into shape.\n\nMany people had put on weight as they stopped commuting to work and increasingly turned to food and alcohol to manage stress.\n\nHowever, in the three months to 30 June, subscriber numbers fell or were flat in all its key markets, including North America, the UK and the rest of Europe. Sales of its branded products slipped 6.9%.\n\nFounded in 1963 in New York City, WW International provides a weight-management programme and food plan to subscribers. It also makes money out of branded goods and services such as magazines and snacks and drinks.\n\nIts high profile ambassadors include actress Kate Hudson, comedian James Corden, and Ms Winfrey, who bought a 10% stake in the company in 2015 and is a member of its board.", "Emergencies ministry rescuers and divers have been sent to the area\n\nA tourist helicopter with 16 people on board has crashed into a lake in Russia's Far East, officials say.\n\nThere were eight known survivors, Russian media quoted emergencies ministry officials as saying.\n\nThirteen tourists, including a child, and three crew were on board when the Mi-8 crashed and sank in Kurile Lake on the Kamchatka Peninsula.\n\nThe helicopter is lying at a depth of 137 metres (450ft) - too deep for divers to operate, the officials say.\n\nThe aircraft belonging to the Vityaz-Aero company crashed about 700 metres from the shore, the emergencies ministry said, adding that specialist deep-water equipment was expected to arrive shortly.\n\nTourist Viktor Stvolkin, one of the survivors, later gave a dramatic account of how he had managed to escape from the sinking aircraft.\n\nHe was quoted by Russia's Ria Novosti news agency saying that he was asleep during the flight and only woke up when \"the water hit my face in a stream\".\n\n\"My friend's son was sitting next to me. He was fastened with seat belts, and I did not have time to pull him [free]. I only managed to unfasten myself.\"\n\nMr Stvolkin added that he had managed to escape through the cockpit's smashed window from a depth of about eight or nine metres.\n\nA search and rescue operation is continuing on the Kuril Lake\n\nAccording to preliminary information, the aircraft was travelling from the village of Nikolayevka to the Kuril Lake and the Khodutka volcano when it crashed, the emergencies ministry said.\n\nThe Mi-8 - a medium twin-turbine helicopter - was carrying tourists from Moscow and St Petersburg, Ria Novosti reported.\n\nThe mountainous Kamchatka peninsula - more than 6,000 km (3,730 miles) east of Moscow - is popular among tourists.\n\nIn July, all 28 people on board an aircraft died in a crash on the peninsula.", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Thursday evening. We'll have another update for you tomorrow morning.\n\nGCSE students have received another set of record grades, in the second year of Covid disruption to exams in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Top grades (7/As and above) rose to 28.9% from 26.2% last year, while grades 4/Cs and above - seen as passes - rose to 77.1% up from 76.3%. Instead of exams, teachers submitted grades for the more than half a million pupils on GCSE courses this year. Exams regulators said the process has been fair and thorough, while some students told us of their relief at getting their grades.\n\nThe UK economy grew by 4.8% between April and June as most businesses emerged from lockdown. Data from the Office for National Statistics showed that the expansion in gross domestic product (GDP) was fuelled by retail, restaurants and hotels. Education also boosted the economy as schools reopened in the second quarter. However, the figure was slightly below the 5% the Bank of England expected. The UK economy is now 4.4% smaller than it was before the pandemic. Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: \"The economy and our public finances have experienced a significant shock. It is going to take us time to fully recover from that.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Chancellor Rishi Sunak: 'Still work to be done'\n\nThe UK holiday recovery is lagging behind the rest of Europe, partly due to uncertainty over shifting travel restrictions, Europe's biggest travel firm has said. Tui chief executive Friedrich Joussen said frequent UK rule changes had deterred people. He also said the cost of PCR tests for Covid would also be putting off customers. The UK government has consistently said that travel restrictions are needed to combat the Covid pandemic. Meanwhile a law firm representing travellers is challenging the UK's quarantine hotel policy and seeking a judicial review. Currently, passengers must spend 11 nights in quarantine hotels on returning from red list countries, despite being fully vaccinated and testing negative for Covid. On Thursday, the cost of staying in a quarantine hotel jumped from £1,750 to £2,285. London-based firm PGMBM's managing partner Tom Goodhead called hotel quarantine \"a fundamental breach of human rights\".\n\nThe Australian capital Canberra is going into a snap one-week lockdown after recording its first case of Covid-19 in more than a year. The lockdown was called for the whole of the Australian Capital Territory - home to around 400,000 people - because authorities do not know how the infected person caught the virus. Residents will only be able to leave home for essential reasons. Queues were reported at supermarkets as the lockdown approached. Australia is struggling to get on top of the highly infectious Delta strain, which has resulted in two of its largest cities - Sydney and Melbourne - going into strict lockdowns.\n\nGypsies and travellers are arriving at Appleby in Cumbria as the annual horse fair gets under way for the first time since the pandemic. Tens of thousands are expected at the event, which is normally held in June but was postponed this year, and cancelled in 2020, due to Covid. Some businesses in the town have decided to close over fears the fair may prompt a rise in Covid cases. Organisers say pop-up clinics are being made available for those who have not yet been vaccinated.\n\nAs the UK's vaccine rollout out continues down the age groups, here's our explainer on which teenagers can now get the vaccine.\n\nFind more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf 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 send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "The moment a man was tackled to the ground and arrested after claiming to have a bomb outside a police station has been caught on bodycam.\n\nJayesh Thanki had called 999 to say he was going to take an explosive device in a bag to Weston Favell police station in Northampton, on 14 May 2020.\n\nThe building was evacuated and the video shows officers offering him a cigarette before moving in once he took his hand out of the bag.\n\nThanki, 46, of Dryleys Court, Northampton had made multiple abusive calls to the police, blaming them for his eviction.\n\nHe pleaded guilty to making a bomb threat and was jailed for three years at Northampton Crown Court.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. With fast-fashion brands under growing pressure, the boss of Boohoo says it's taking action to be more sustainable\n\nThe boss of fast fashion online retailer Boohoo has insisted its clothing brands are \"not throwaway\".\n\nIn an exclusive interview with BBC Radio 5 Live's Wake Up to Money podcast, John Lyttle said Boohoo had a \"clear strategy\" for being more sustainable.\n\n\"We're here because people want to wear clothes, they have to be supplied,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"We're trying make the journey as sustainable as possible,\" he added.\n\nHowever, sustainability targets the company has set itself could take some time to meet, he said, adding there were \"lots of pieces still to answer.\"\n\n\"20% of all our ranges will be sustainable this autumn... 40% next spring/summer,\" said Mr Lyttle.\n\n\"They're not going to be fixed in six and 12 months... It's the same 2030 timeframe as combustible engines.\"\n\nMr Lyttle, a former chief operating officer at Primark, defended Boohoo's ultra-low advertised prices for its clothing: \"We're not down in the cheap end. Even on our lower price brand our selling price is higher.\"\n\nHe added: \"Our data doesn't suggest people are buying every day or buying once and wearing something new.\"\n\nFormer Labour MP and Environmental Audit Committee chairwoman Mary Creagh said Boohoo's environmental policy claims and 20% sustainability target amounted to \"greenwashing\".\n\n\"We've consistently seen them play cat and mouse with lawmakers and public opinion on the issue of sustainable working practices and sustainable consumption,\" she said.\n\n\"Boohoo in particular has to reduce the volume of clothes it makes and accurately price their garments to reflect the environmental cost of fashion production.\"\n\nMeanwhile Noelle Hatley, senior lecturer in fashion business at Manchester's Fashion Institute, said brands were able to use the term \"sustainable\" because there is \"no industry-wide agreement on its meaning\".\n\n\"40% is a reasonable target, but it all hinges on what they mean by sustainable and how much information they will actually share with the customers,\" she stressed.\n\nBoohoo was founded in 2006 in Manchester by Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane. By 2020, the company had hit sales of £1.2bn and boasted a 5,000-strong workforce.\n\nThe aim of the venture was to use the internet to \"cut out the middle man\" in retail.\n\nIn April, consumers complained that Karen Millen clothing they purchased had an Oasis label \"covered in pen\"\n\nAs well as facing questions about the environmental impact of Boohoo's fast-fashion business model, there have been accusations of widespread abuse of employment law at some of its suppliers in Leicester.\n\nInvestigations last year suggested workers were being paid below the minimum wage amid unsafe working conditions.\n\nSubsequently, an independent review into the retailer concluded that there were \"many failings\" in the way Boohoo managed its supply chain.\n\n\"We were very upset about it,\" Mr Lyttle said. \"It's not the culture of our business, it's not how we look after our staff.\n\n\"We want to make sure everything is proper and done in the right way.\"\n\nThe crisis led to calls for his resignation, but he says this would not have been the right approach to take.\n\n\"If I'd have resigned, it would have set it back - in terms of time - to do what we needed to do,\" he stressed.\n\nHe added that Boohoo had \"not seen evidence\" of workers being paid under the minimum wage, but the company could \"level up our audit and investigation to ensure those workers are getting paid\".\n\nBoohoo is now creating 3,000 new jobs across the country, including at a warehouse in Burnley, as well as more roles at its Manchester headquarters.\n\nMr Lyttle said consumer habits had changed during the Covid-19 pandemic, prompting the company to hire more staff.\n\n\"We need efficiency and speed,\" he added. \"Immediacy is the biggest trend in the last 18 months and that's getting greater and greater. Consumers drive the trends.\"", "Police are responding to an incident in Keyham in Plymouth\n\nEmergency services are responding to a \"serious and tragic\" major incident in Plymouth.\n\nMultiple police, air ambulances and land ambulances were called to the Keyham area of the city at 18:12 BST on Thursday.\n\nMP Johnny Mercer tweeted asking people to \"remain calm\" adding: \"The incident is not terror related, and neither is the suspect on the run in Plymouth.\"\n\nHome secretary Priti Patel tweeted her thoughts were with those affected.\n\nThe ambulance service said it had sent \"a significant number of resources\".\n\nSouth Western Ambulance Service said it was responding with \"Hazardous Area Response Teams (HART), multiple ambulances, air ambulances, multiple doctors and senior paramedics\".\n\nThis 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 Johnny Mercer 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.\n\nMs Patel said: \"The incident in Plymouth is shocking and my thoughts are with those affected.\n\n\"I have spoken to the Chief Constable and offered my full support.\n\n\"I urge everyone to remain calm, follow police advice and allow our emergency services to get on with their jobs.\"\n\nPeople are being asked to stay inside and follow police advice as the emergency services respond to the incident.\n\nLocal MP Luke Pollard tweeted: \"Really worrying news coming out of Keyham.\"\n\nHe said: \"Please can everyone stay safe, stay indoors and follow police advice.\"\n\nThis 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 2 by Luke Pollard MP 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.\n\nMr Pollard added: \"I've spoken to some local residents and the police and the situation looks very serious indeed.\n\n\"Please avoid speculation and please do not share images of any victims. Please keep our community in your thoughts and prayers.\"\n\nHe later tweeted: \"Update: awaiting confirmation of number of victims but this looks like a very grim day for our city and our community.\n\n\"Please can I ask that you think of the families and our community and not share any images or videos of any of the victims. #keyham.\"\n\nMultiple air ambulances have attended the incident including from Devon and Cornwall\n\nA number of police vehicles are on the scene and some roads have been closed.\n\nFour air ambulances have been seen taking off from the scene\n\nI'm standing on Wolseley Road, one of the main routes through Plymouth and it is currently closed in both directions around Henderson Place with traffic being diverted.\n\nThere's a huge police presence here, I've lost count of the number of police vehicles.\n\nJust where I'm standing I can see at least half a dozen.\n\nThere are three ambulances and we've just seen four air ambulances actually take off from the scene here, so there's a huge amount going on.\n\nEmergency services are at the incident in Plymouth\n\nWe do not have any confirmed official details from the police yet other than that the incident is ongoing.\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Mediterranean heatwave has led to the spread of wildfires across southern Italy\n\nThe Italian island of Sicily may have registered the hottest temperature ever recorded in Europe - 48.8C (119.8F).\n\nRegional authorities reported the reading, which needs to be verified by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), near Syracuse on Wednesday.\n\nAccording to the WMO, the current official record in Europe is 48C, registered in Athens, Greece, in 1977.\n\nThe latest heatwave in Italy is being caused by an anticyclone - nicknamed Lucifer - moving up from Africa.\n\nAnticyclones are areas of high atmospheric pressure where the air is sinking.\n\nLucifer is forecast to head north across mainland Italy, further raising temperatures in cities including the capital, Rome.\n\nItaly's health ministry has issued \"red\" alerts for extreme heat in several regions and the number of cities that face the highest health risk is expected to rise from eight to 15 by Friday.\n\nThe Mediterranean heatwave, which has seen some countries record their highest temperatures in decades, has led to the spread of wildfires across southern Italy, with Sicily, Calabria and Puglia the worst-hit regions.\n\nItalian firefighters on Wednesday said they had been involved in more than 300 operations in Sicily and Calabria over a 12-hour period, battling through the night to control blazes burning thousands of acres of land.\n\nThree fire-related deaths - two in Calabria and one in Sicily - have been reported by Italian media.\n\nSeparately, wildfires are continuing across Greece, fuelled by strong winds and parched vegetation. Foreign teams are helping to tackle blazes in what Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has described as a \"nightmarish summer\".\n\nClimate change increases the risk of the hot, dry weather that is likely to fuel wildfires.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe world has already warmed by about 1.2C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.\n\nOn Monday the UN released a major report saying human activity was making extreme weather events more common.", "The hacker behind one of the largest cryptocurrency heists to date has returned almost half of the $600m (£433m) stolen assets.\n\nOn Tuesday, the firm affected, Poly Network wrote a letter on Twitter, asking the individual to get in touch \"to work out a solution\".\n\nThe hacker then posted messages pledging to return funds, claiming to be \"not very interested in money\".\n\nOn Wednesday, Poly Network said it had received $260m back.\n\nThe company, a blockchain platform which lets users swap different types of digital tokens, posted on Twitter that it had been sent back three cryptocurrencies, including $3.3m worth of Ethereum, $256m worth of Binance Coin and $1m worth of Polygon.\n\nA total of $269m in Ether tokens and $84m in Polygon tokens has yet to be recovered.\n\nA blockchain is a ledger, or log, of every single transaction made of a cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin.\n\nThe ledger is distributed to all the users in the network to verify all new transactions when they occur, instead of being held by any one single authority.\n\nThe hacker published a three-page-long Q&A session on one of the blockchains essentially in the form of a self-interview, according to Tom Robinson, co-founder of Elliptic, a London-based blockchain analytics and compliance firm.\n\nThe hacker claimed to have always planned to return the tokens and said the heist was carried out to highlight vulnerabilities in Poly Network software.\n\n\"I know it hurts when people are attacked, but shouldn't they learn something from those hacks?\" the hacker wrote in the notes embedded on the Ethereum blockchain.\n\nThe technology underpining all crypto-currencies is blockchain - a distributed log of every single transaction made of a digital currency, that is sent to all users on the network\n\nThe hacker claimed to have spent all night looking for a vulnerability to exploit. They said they were worried that Poly Network would patch the security flaw quietly without telling anyone, so they decided to take millions of dollars in cryptocurrency tokens to make a point.\n\nBut they stressed that they did not want to cause a \"real panic [in] the crypto-world\", so they only took \"important coins\", leaving behind Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency that started off as a joke.\n\n\"Either they just intended to commit theft and steal the assets, or they were acting like a white hat hacker to expose a bug, to help Poly Network make themselves more strong and secure,\" Mr Robinson, who routinely advises governments and law enforcement agencies about crypto-related crimes, told the BBC.\n\nHe added that the nature of blockchain technology makes it hard for cyber-criminals to profit from stealing digital currencies, because everyone can see the money being moved across the network into the hackers' wallets.\n\n\"I wonder whether this hacker stole the funds, realised how much publicity and attention they were getting, realised wherever they moved the funds they would be watched, and decided to give it back,\" said Mr Robinson.\n\n\"The blockchain itself has operated here flawlessly, but the problem is on blockchains like Ethereum, you can write your own smart contracts. Various services have started offering this, including Poly Network.\n\n\"So whenever a human being writes code, there's a chance they will make a mistake.\"\n\nDespite the volatility in prices and frequent news of cryptocurrency heists, more and more young people are buying and selling crypto-currencies online\n\nPoly Network's platform works by facilitating movement between several blockchains when people trade one cryptocurrency for another, such as trading Binance Coin for Ether.\n\n\"The Poly Network is the thing that facilitates the movement between these chains - ultimately, it's software, it's code, and code always has imperfections and defects in it,\" James Chappell, co-founder of London-based cyber-security firm Digital Shadows, told the BBC.\n\n\"And that's true of banks, or any financial system. Unfortunately, what seems to have happened here is a party has spotted a weakness in the implementation and exploited it to fool the network into transferring these tokens incorrectly.\"\n\nSimilar attacks have happened to several other services in the last 12 months. These include:\n\nAfter a rollercoaster 24 hours for the crypto community, it seems the hacker intends to return all or most of the stolen money.\n\nAs the criminal posted online: \"The pain suffered is temporary, but memorable.\"\n\nThe claim that it was all an elaborate way to force Poly Network to fix security failings is being treated with scepticism.\n\nWhy the taunting and boasting online if the motive was honourable?\n\nThere's some suggestion that the net may have been closing in, as one cyber-security company says it was close to working out the identity of a suspect.\n\nIt might have been the case that the hacker bit off way more than they could chew and got scared, so returned the money.\n\nRegardless, the authorities will still no doubt be working hard to find them.\n\nBut what this story mostly points to is just how powerful hackers can be and how powerless the unregulated, decentralised cryptocurrency world is when someone swipes a large fortune from under its nose.", "Actress Una Stubbs, who appeared in some of the best-loved shows on British TV from the 1960s to the 2010s, has died at the age of 84.\n\nShe found fame in Cliff Richard's 1963 film Summer Holiday before starring in hit sitcom Till Death Us Do Part.\n\nThe actress went on to appear in shows like Worzel Gummidge, The Worst Witch, EastEnders and Sherlock.\n\nHer agent paid tribute to her as \"a wonderful actress\" and \"graceful, gracious and kind and constant friend\".\n\nAfter starting her career as a dancer, Stubbs became a fixture on the small screen in the 60s when she played Alf Garnett's exasperated daughter Rita in Till Death Us Do Part and the 1980s follow-ups 'Til Death and In Sickness and In Health.\n\nTony Booth, Una Stubbs, Warren Mitchell and Dandy Nichols starred in Till Death Us Do Part\n\nShe was also a regular on the game show Don't Say A Word and its follow-up Give us a Clue, and became a favourite of young audiences as Aunt Sally in Worzel Gummidge.\n\nShe starred in another children's hit, The Worst Witch, in the late 1990s, as well as playing Caroline Bishop in soap EastEnders and appearing in comedies The Catherine Tate Show and Benidorm.\n\nHer last major role saw her play Sherlock's landlady Mrs Hudson in the BBC drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch.\n\nSherlock creator Steven Moffat remembered Stubbs as \"the loveliest light on Baker Street\".\n\nWriting on Instagram, he said: \"What a woman, what a talent, what a star - and just about the kindest, nicest, funniest person you could meet.\n\n\"I don't know how anyone even starts summing up that career - Till Death Us Do Part, Fawlty Towers, the incomparable Aunt Sally in Worzel Gummidge... and, of course, the irreplaceable heart and soul of Sherlock\".\n\nIn a statement, Stubbs' sons Joe and Christian Henson and Jason Gilmore said: \"Mum passed away quietly today with her family around her, in Edinburgh. We ask for privacy and understanding at this most difficult and sad of times.\"\n\nHer agent Rebecca Blond, who represented Stubbs for more than 20 years, said she would \"miss her enormously and remember her always\".\n\nThe veteran actress had been ill for a few months, Blond told BBC News.\n\nShe said: \"We are desperately sad to have lost not only a wonderful actress, whose screen and stage career, spanning over 50 years, was so extraordinarily varied, from Till Death Us Do Part to Sherlock, as well as memorable performances in the West End, at the Old Vic, Donmar Warehouse, Sheffield Crucible and National Theatre, but also a wickedly funny, elegant, stylish, graceful, gracious and kind and constant friend.\n\n\"She was also a highly respected and exhibited artist.\"\n\nStubbs exhibited in the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition, and her passion for art made her the perfect choice to co-host BBC One's The Big Painting Challenge in 2015.\n\nStubbs with Michael Aspel and Lionel Blair on Give Us A Clue\n\nBroadcaster Gyles Brandreth paid tribute, saying it was \"a sad day\".\n\nHe wrote: \"Such a funny, lovely, gifted lady - a marvellous actress with a special style & a great (and impish) sense of humour.\"\n\nFellow dancer and actress Bonnie Langford said it was \"such a loss\".\n\nShe said: \"She made everything look so effortless. A consummate professional, kind, gracious, elegant, versatile and fun. Her Aunt Sally was a masterclass alone.\"\n\nOther tributes came from across the entertainment industry.\n\nThis 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 Mark Gatiss 💙 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.\n\nThis 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 2 by Floella Benjamin 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.\n\nThis 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 3 by Jessica Fox 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.\n\nThis 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 4 by Lucy Benjamin 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.\n\nThis 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 5 by Paul Weller 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.\n\nStubbs started her career at the age of 16 as a chorus girl at the London Palladium, and was the Dairy Box girl in TV chocolate adverts in the 1950s.\n\nShe auditioned for Summer Holiday as a dancer, but ended up being given one of the main roles. She had no formal acting training, saying: \"I've been to the school of observation. I learned everything there.\"\n\nShe maintained a long career that saw her remain popular with successive generations. \"Different age groups recognise me for different things,\" she said.\n\nShe starred on stage as well as screen, including in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night - which she described as her most challenging part - and in the original cast of the National Theatre adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.\n\nIn her private life, Stubbs was married and divorced twice, to actors Peter Gilmore and Nicky Henson, and had three sons.\n\nStubbs and Nicky Henson just after their wedding in 1969\n\nShe once said she felt she spent most of her life \"doing two jobs, motherhood and acting, and only being so-so at both of them\".\n\nBut she also spoke about the resilience she found under pressure. \"I am amazed at the strength I found,\" she told The Guardian in 2007.\n\n\"When I think of what a lightweight girl I was, expecting roses to grow around the door, expecting everyone to be perfect... but of course, it's the layers you grow that make you into a person.\n\n\"I realise on reflection that I'm a strong person - even steely, actually - but I had no idea.\"\n\nUna Stubbs and singer Mary Millar in a picture taken when they appeared on the Dick Emery Show in 1963\n\nUna Stubbs appeared in an episode of Fawlty Towers in 1979\n\nStubbs appeared in the Keeping Up Appearances Christmas Special in 1995\n\nStubbs (right) pictured in a 2006 episode of EastEnders with Emma Barton and Barbara Windsor\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion, email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "People have been queuing in shops as the lockdown approaches\n\nThe Australian capital Canberra is going into a snap one-week lockdown after recording its first case of Covid-19 in more than a year.\n\nIt will come into effect at 17:00 local time on Thursday (07:00 GMT).\n\nThe lockdown was called for the whole of the Australian Capital Territory - home to around 400,000 people - because authorities do not know how the infected person caught the virus.\n\nResidents will only be able to leave home for essential reasons.\n\nQueues were reported at supermarkets as the lockdown approached.\n\nAustralia is struggling to get on top of the highly infectious Delta strain, which has resulted in two of its largest cities - Sydney and Melbourne - going into strict lockdowns.\n\nLarge parts of New South Wales are locked down, and in Victoria there are similar restrictions on Melbourne for at least another week.\n\nExtra military reinforcements could be called upon to ensure compliance with lockdown rules in Sydney, the New South Wales state government said.\n\n\"We are making sure that we do not leave any stone unturned in relation to extra (military) resources,\" state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told a media conference.\n\nSome 580 unarmed army personnel are already assisting police in enforcing quarantine orders in areas of Sydney.\n\nDespite seven weeks of lockdown in Sydney, infections remain near their highest. A total of 345 new locally acquired cases were recorded in New South Wales on Thursday, while two men in their 90s died.\n\nFewer than a quarter of Australians are vaccinated. Despite avoiding the worst of the pandemic, frustration over restrictions has led to several large anti-lockdown protests.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Video from New South Wales Police showed clashes in Sydney", "Sharing the exam news at Ark Burlington Danes Academy in west London\n\nGCSE students have received another set of record grades, in the second year of Covid disruption to exams in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nTop grades (7/As and above) rose to 28.9% from 26.2% last year, while grades 4/Cs and above - seen as passes - rose to 77.1% up from 76.3%.\n\nThis is a smaller rise than last year, the first time exams were cancelled and teacher assessed grades were used.\n\nExams regulators have insisted the process has been fair and thorough.\n\nTeachers submitted grades for the more than half a million pupils on GCSE courses this year, using evidence such as mock exams, course work and tests.\n\nThere were more top GCSE grades, but the increase was not as sharp as at A-level\n\nThere are different devolved systems for GCSEs:\n\nThe two years of replacement grades, after exams were cancelled in the pandemic, have had significantly higher results, for GCSEs and A-levels.\n\nExam officials say it reflects that no one has had a bad day in an exam and that pupils had multiple chances to show their best potential.\n\nEngland's exam watchdog Ofqual said the system was fair, each centre had its assessment policy reviewed and samples of work were checked during a \"quality assurance\" process.\n\nExam boards say that below 1% of grades were changed in the checking process.\n\nAs well as getting GCSEs, more than half a million vocational qualifications were also issued, including for 230,000 BTec students.\n\nSchools Minister Nick Gibb defended the way GCSE results had been awarded, saying this had been a \"very different year\" and it was right that exams were cancelled.\n\n\"This was the best alternative to exams,\" he told BBC Breakfast. \"I think people can be confident of the grades that have been awarded this year.\"\n\nMr Gibb said longer term, he wanted to get back to a pre-pandemic system where there are no \"significant changes\" year-on-year in the grades awarded to students.\n\nLabour's Shadow Education Secretary Kate Green said the exam results were a \"stark warning\" of a widening social divide.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. GCSE results day: \"It's amazing, I can't believe it\"\n\n\"Children on free school meals have been abandoned by this government and students in state schools are again being outstripped by their more advantaged private school peers,\" she said.\n\nJon Andrews of the Education Policy Institute think tank warned the higher results should not \"distract us from the huge learning losses that students have faced\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Schools minister: \"People can be confident of the grades awarded\"\n\n\"There is a risk that higher grades awarded to young people conceal the underlying losses that they have experienced from the pandemic.\"\n\nProf Alan Smithers, of the Centre of Education and Employment Research, at Buckingham University, said it would be difficult for the government to reverse the trend of increasing grades over the coming years - as the higher grades are popular with parents and schools.\n\n\"It will be quite a task for the government to put the genie back into the bottle,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. It is \"pretty astonishing\" that the education secretary is still in his job, says the Labour leader.\n\nBut head teachers say the replacement grades used this year will allow pupils to progress to the next stage of their education.\n\nNational Association of Head Teachers leader Paul Whiteman said it was important that these pupils have access to any additional academic or pastoral support they need as they progress into the next stage of their education.\n\nGeoff Barton, of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: \"It is important to focus on the achievements of this cohort rather than fixate on comparisons with other years, which are somewhat meaningless.\"\n\nSyeda in Dagenham got all grade 9s in her GCSE results\n\nSyeda had been hoping for high grades after sitting 62 assessments, instead of the usual exams, at Sydney Russell School in Dagenham, east London.\n\nAnd her hopes have been realised. \"I did it. I got all 9s in my GCSEs and two distinctions,\" she said.\n\n\"It's the best possible results and I'm so proud of myself. I think there is a big sense of relief.\"\n\nHer mum, Shahima came to the school with her to share the experience.\n\nShe says: \"I'm extremely, extremely proud of Syeda. She's put so much effort and hard work into this and lots of sleepless nights.\"\n\n\"It has been a bit crazy for everyone involved in this process this year,\" she says.\n\nRoman says he would have preferred the regular exam system\n\nRoman is celebrating four grade 7s and four grade 8s in his GCSEs.\n\n\"I'm definitely satisfied, but in a sense I feel I've been bumped down a few grades due to some exams being very different and out of the ordinary this year compared to other years.\"\n\nHe says the challenges he's faced over the past two years have had an impact.\n\n\"It's been a rollercoaster. So many ups and downs and so many battles, both mental battles and physical ones.\"\n\nHe says he would actually have preferred to sit exams as he feels one exam at the end would have been easier than the constant pressure of lots of tests.\n\n\"I don't think anyone could have ever imagined stuff like this,\" she says\n\n\"But the fact is that we have got through it - and hopefully our results tomorrow will prove that we have worked hard.\"\n\nTo those people who criticise the value of this year's grades, Syeda says: \"I would tell them they should try and be in our place.\"\n\n\"I don't think anyone can know what it is like unless you are experiencing it yourself.\"\n\nShe is aiming to sit A-levels next year and study English literature at the University of Cambridge.", "Police believe James Markham died after he confronted a group of youths\n\nTwo 14-year-old boys have been arrested after a man was stabbed to death in an east London street.\n\nIt is believed that James Markham, 45, died after he confronted a group of youths in Churchill Terrace, Chingford, at about 18:20 BST on Monday.\n\nThe Met said one teenager had been held on suspicion of murder while another was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder.\n\nBoth remain in custody at an east London police station, the force added.\n\nOfficers found Mr Markham fatally injured after they were called to the street over reports of a disturbance.\n\nHe was treated by paramedics but was pronounced dead at the scene.\n\nThe 45-year-old was found fatally injured in Churchill Terrace, Chingford\n\nA post-mortem examination found that Mr Markham died from a stab wound to the lung.\n\nDet Insp John Marriott said: \"We believe that James confronted a group of youths causing a disturbance and was stabbed as a result.\n\n\"The brutality of this response is beyond shocking and our thoughts are with James' family who have been left devastated by their loss.\"\n\nHe added that the arrests were \"a significant development\" but appealed for anyone with information about what happened to contact police.\n\nThe 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. \"It flies cleaner and is more efficient\" - Hybrid-electric plane trialled over Scotland\n\nScotland's first electric-powered aircraft has taken to the skies from a new test centre in Orkney.\n\nOne of the twin engines in Ampaire's six-seater Cessna Skymaster has been replaced with an electric motor.\n\nThe company believes it could pave the way to retrofitting inter-island and short-haul flights with greener technologies.\n\nIt is the first low-carbon aircraft to fly at the £3.7m sustainable aviation facility based at Kirkwall airport.\n\nThe plane was built in 1974 but has been retrofitted at the company's headquarters in California.\n\nAfter initial test flights in Hawaii, it was shipped to Scotland for its first flight across open water between Orkney and Wick, a 37-mile (60km) flight.\n\nThe aircraft will initially only be used for short-haul flights\n\nTest pilot Justin Gillen told BBC Scotland: \"It's the only hybrid-electric airplane that I know of flying today.\n\n\"As the airplane is approaching, you hear the propeller which is a kind of blade-through-air sound and then you hear the throatier sound of the engine. With our electric engine, you hear the propeller but that's pretty much it.\"\n\nOn Ampaire's aircraft, the engines are built at the front and back of the cockpit in a \"push-pull\" design.\n\nIt's the front engine which has been replaced with an electric motor that's a fraction of the size.\n\nAn electric motor has replaced one of the Cessna Skymaster's twin engines\n\nA huge battery pack has been attached to the underbelly which can keep the aircraft running for several hours in the right conditions.\n\nAbout 90 minutes of rapid charging would provide around an hour of flight.\n\nSusan Ying from Ampaire said: \"It will fly cleaner, be more efficient and more economical.\n\n\"It will start as a short-haul but eventually, as the technology's improving, it could go into medium to long-haul.\"\n\nThat would require batteries to continue shrinking but the developers are confident that will happen.\n\nThe aircraft running for several hours before it has to touch down\n\nAir travel is a notoriously difficult industry to decarbonise because the aviation fuel has a high energy density.\n\nBut it's a high emitter of carbon dioxide which needs to be reduced to net-zero if we are to halt climate change.\n\nIsland air links in Scotland are regarded as \"lifeline\" for communities who live there, and so battery-powered flights are under serious consideration.\n\nTest pilot Justin Gillen flew the aircraft over open water between Orkney and Wick\n\nDougie Cook, from Highlands and Islands Airports, explained: \"If aviation is to survive throughout the world, then it needs to decarbonise and it needs to do so quite quickly. So this is a really important first step.\n\n\"The links around Orkney are called lifeline links for a reason and it's absolutely essential that we keep them going so electric aviation will guarantee that and make it sustainable for the future.\"\n\nFlights currently operate from Kirkwall to six of the furthest islands - Eday, Sanday, Stronsay, North Ronaldsay, Westray and Papa Westray.\n\nThe test facility is expecting to play host to other forms of low-carbon flights, including hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuels.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jacinda Ardern: 'We cannot keep NZ border restrictions forever'\n\nNew Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said that that the country's borders will remain closed until at least the end of the year.\n\nShe said an elimination strategy was the best way to keep Covid-19 out and the economy open.\n\nThe prime minister also said New Zealand would move to a new individual risk-based model for quarantine-free travel from the start of next year.\n\nShe stressed the priority was vaccinating the population by end 2021.\n\nNew Zealand is seen as one of the most successful countries in the world in controlling the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThe country has recorded just 26 deaths in a population of just under five million people.\n\n\"We're simply not in a position to a fully reopen just yet,\" Ms Ardern said in a speech at a forum about reconnecting New Zealanders to the world.\n\n\"When we move we will be careful and deliberate, because we want to move with confidence and with as much certainty as possible.\"\n\nShe added that when the country does reopen next year, vaccinated travellers from low-risk countries will be able to visit without quarantining, while those from higher risk countries will have to either self-isolate or quarantine for 14 days.\n\nNew Zealand has contained Covid-19 outbreaks and Ms Ardern has won praise for her handling of the pandemic.\n\nStrict border controls and snap lockdowns are among the measures that have kept infection rates low.", "Harvey Spence says he found it hard to stand up for himself\n\nA former B&M worker has settled a disability discrimination case against his past employer.\n\nHarvey Spence, who has a learning disability, took a case alleging harassment against the retailer.\n\nMr Spence, from east Belfast, settled the case for £5,000 without his former employer admitting liability.\n\nThe 19-year-old claims he was excluded from conversations, subjected to derogatory remarks and constantly told he was useless.\n\nMr Spence said he worked for B&M for 18 months in a stock-filling role and had enjoyed the job.\n\nHowever, he said that changed when he received \"disability harassment\" from some of his colleagues.\n\nHe claims he was also told that no other company would want him because he was stupid and that everything about him was bad.\n\n\"I liked going out to work and earning my own money, it was important to me,\" he said.\n\n\"After a year in my job, some new people I worked with started being horrible to me and it became really hard and very upsetting. I dreaded going to work.\n\n\"Some of the people I worked with wouldn't speak to me at all and others would tell me to go away by saying horrible things, they used really bad language and called me names.\n\n\"I found it hard to stand up for myself and in the end I had to leave my job as it was making me feel very sick.\n\n\"I don't know if I'll ever be able to get another job because I'm really afraid other people will treat me like that again.\"\n\nMr Spence's case was supported by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland.\n\nDr Evelyn Collins, chief executive of the commission, said the 37.3% employment rate for disabled people in Northern Ireland was the lowest of all UK regions.\n\n\"Harvey's experience at work highlights that much remains to be done to challenge barriers to employment for many disabled people and to ensure they can secure and retain paid employment,\" she said.\n\n\"Employers have a responsibility to provide and promote a good and harmonious working environment.\n\n\"Harvey did not experience that, he felt he had no option but to go off on sick leave and then it appears that no-one contacted him to check if he was OK or to offer support.\"\n\nAs part of the settlement, B&M agreed to liaise with the commission to review its equal opportunities policies and practices, and agreed to consider reasonable adjustments within an agreed timetable.", "Dozens of fires have burnt through areas of northern Algeria, amid a heatwave sweeping across North Africa.\n\nThe flames have been fanned by strong winds and tinder-dry conditions.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. While some young people have found it hard at times, others have learnt new skills\n\nYoung people have been asked to share their experiences of how they have coped during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nChildren's Commissioner for Wales Sally Holland said her national survey was important because sometimes views of younger people can be \"surprising\".\n\nShe said the information provided would also help inform the Welsh Government ahead of some tough decisions it will need to make in the future.\n\nA similar survey was carried out in the first lockdown last year.\n\nA recent Prince's Trust Youth Index survey asked young people across the UK about their thoughts and feelings towards the pandemic.\n\nMore than 2,000 responded including 200 from Wales.\n\nIt found 63% of 16 to 25-year-olds said the pandemic had left them \"always\" or \"often\" feeling anxious - 64% said they were feeling like they were \"missing out on being young\".\n\nBBC Wales spoke to a number of children and young people about their thoughts on a variety of issues including home schooling, loneliness and finding out what they are doing to stay positive.\n\nAngel, 16, from Cardiff, is studying for her GCSEs.\n\n\"I've just been confused a lot of the time. All the information out there and it's really hard to process and get to a point where you're in a mindset where you know what's happening.\n\n\"There's such a high level of uncertainty you're constantly worried or actually doubting what's going to happen next.\n\n\"When you have goals for the future it's something to help you get through this but when you're in the circumstances we're in now, it's really hard to find the motivation and a purpose for what you're doing now.\"\n\nTo try and stay positive Angel has been trying to get out for walks during her school breaks or watch Netflix.\n\nShe said she has also tried to learn some sign-language during lockdown and attempted yoga.\n\nEmrys and Clara have been learning home skills\n\nEmrys, 11, from Bridgend, said he misses not having the structure of a school day and seeing his friends.\n\nHe added: \"I'm a social person. I have friends, I chat with them, I play with them, and it's hard not being with my friends but I mean the family will have to do.\"\n\nHe and his six-year-old sister, Clara, have enjoyed going for walks with their parents and have been learning some new skills including washing dishes, cooking dinner and baking cakes.\n\nMeanwhile, 11-year-old Sophie has found it difficult to not get bored during long periods of time in the house.\n\n\"I'd say I cope OK with it at some points, but then not okay with it at other points,\" she added.\n\nSophie said it can be hard sometimes to find things to do\n\nAlicia is studying for her A-levels and has friends who have dropped out of their studies this year because of the stress and anxiety caused by the uncertainty about exams and their futures.\n\nThe 17-year-old also said it was \"heart-breaking\" not being able to see many of her close friends for almost a year.\n\nShe added: \"My thoughts are, it's less of a luxury now, I need to be able to go out to see them and to work.\"\n\nBefore the pandemic, Sarah, 16, from Swansea enjoyed going to her local youth club and took part in a local drama group but it how now moved online, giving a different experience.\n\n\"It's quite sad because I used to enjoy being able to do those things whenever it was on, but I think I'm getting used to do everything online,\" she said.\n\nAs a person who does not cope very well with not knowing what will happen next, the pandemic has caused anxiety at times for Sarah.\n\n\"I am finding it quite scary but hopefully things will change and I'll be able to go back soon,\" she said.\n\n\"I think if you're really struggling with something, talking really helps so it would be nice to see people in person.\"\n\nChildren's commissioner Sally Holland conducted a survey of pupils in Wales during the first lockdown\n\nChildren's helpline MEIC Cymru said it had seen a 10% increase in the number of calls from young people, parents, and carers during the pandemic compared with previous years.\n\nStephanie Hoffman, Head of Social Action at Promo Cymru, the charity which runs the helpline, said: \"We're seeing what I'd say are many more substantive contacts, so a lot more contact dealing with really serious issues to do with social well-being, mental health and relationships, as opposed to what we might have seen more of in the past.\n\n\"Now we're dealing with situations which can be quite complicated.\"\n\nOf the survey, Ms Holland said: \"We've heard a lot from adults showing concern for children at the moment, such as parents, carers and professionals working with children about the potential impact of the lockdown on children.\n\n\"Those voices are important to hear, but it's also important we hear directly from children and young people because sometimes they can be surprising.\"\n\nWe know that Covid-19 vaccinations have been on people's minds in Wales - with many wanting to know when they or their loved-ones will receive theirs.\n\nIf you have a question about this issue, a story you'd like to share or a query about anything else related to coronavirus, you can sent it to us using the form below.\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read the terms and conditions.\n\nIf you are reading this page on the BBC News app, you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question on this topic.", "Last updated on .From the section Athletics\n\nBritish sprinter CJ Ujah has been suspended from competition after testing positive for a banned substance.\n\nUjah, 27, was part of Team GB men's 4x100m relay team which won silver at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics this month.\n\nHe has been provisionally suspended, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said.\n\nThe AIU said a test showed the \"presence/use of a prohibited substance (Ostarine and S-23).\"\n\nA UK Athletics spokesperson said the governing body does not comment on ongoing processes.\n\nUjah, who has yet to comment, won the 100m at the British Championships in June.\n\nBritain's men's quartet missed out on the 4x100m title by just a hundredth of a second in Tokyo.\n\nUjah ran the opening leg as anchor runner Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake was overhauled on the line by Italy's Filippo Tortu.\n\nWorld Athletics Anti-Doping rules state that in instances where an athlete who has committed an ADRV competed as a member of a relay team, \"the relay team shall be automatically disqualified from the event in question, with all resulting consequences for the relay team, including the forfeiture of all titles, awards, medals, points and prize and appearance money\".\n\nEnobosarm, or Ostarine, is listed as an anabolic agent - banned at all times - in the World Anti-Doping Agency's list of prohibited substances.\n\nThe UK Anti-Doping (Ukad) website said it has \"similar effects to testosterone\".\n\nS23 is a Selective Androgen Receptor Modulator (Sarm), which, according to the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) \"have similar anabolic properties to anabolic steroids\".\n\nUjah can request analysis of the B-sample - kept for storage while the A-sample is analysed - and should that confirm the Adverse Analytical Finding [AAF], the case will be referred to the Anti-Doping Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport [Cas ADD].\n\nIn turn, the International Testing Agency (ITA) said: \"The Cas ADD will consider the matter of the finding of an Anti-Doping Rule Violation [ADRV] and the disqualification of the men's 4 x 100 relay results of the British team\".\n\nThree other athletes have been suspended after tests carried out during the Tokyo Olympics.\n\nThey are Bahrain's 1500m runner Sadik Mikhou, shot putter Benik Abramyan of Georgia and Kenyan sprinter Mark Otieno Odhiambo.\n• None Six challenges across six weeks to keep your child or teenager busy this summer\n• None Can you guess which of these are the real items and which are sugary fakes?", "The gap is widening between girls and boys' results at GCSE level in England Image caption: The gap is widening between girls and boys' results at GCSE level in England\n\nIn English GCSE, girls achieved almost a third of the top grades, compared to less than a fifth of their male counterparts.\n\nAsked about the gap between boys and girls, Sir Daniel Moynihan, CEO of the Harris chain of academies in London says boys \"traditionally pull it out of the bag\" for exams, while girls are typically \"more steady, more hardworking\".\n\nHe says the switch - during the pandemic - to more assessment-based marking has not played in boys' favour.\n\n\"Unfortunately for boys, this year... the option of pulling it out of the bag at the last moment for an exam has been taken away,\" Sir Dan tells Radio 4's World At One.\n\nHe adds: \"So we need more work with boys in order to do something about that approach.\"\n\nThe latest results show girls continuing to move ahead of boys at GCSE stage, with 33.4% of girls' results were grade 7/A, compared to 24.4% for boys.\n\nSkills minister Gillian Keegan concedes \"girls outperforming boys\" at school is not what the government wants to see and acknowledges \"it has been happening for a while\".\n\n\"But I think, any gaps between girls and boys... you can certainly see that they are equalled out later on. And certainly when it comes to university, jobs - look at the top jobs and the people that hold them in the country - those gaps are overcome.\"", "John McCorry set fire to the home he owned with his ex-wife in Kennford, near Exeter\n\nA man who burned down his home to take \"revenge\" on his ex-wife has been jailed for two years.\n\nJohn McCorry set the home he owned with his ex-wife on fire days before it was due to be sold.\n\nMcCorry, 75, of Lloyds Court, Exeter, previously admitted arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered at Exeter Crown Court.\n\nRecorder Donald Tait said: \"Your actions have destroyed her future and you have destroyed your own future.\n\n\"You would appear to have been entirely consumed by hatred for your wife at that time and this was revenge on your part.\"\n\nRecorder Tait also imposed a five-year restraining order banning McCorry from contacting his ex-wife, who had moved out about two years before the fire.\n\nThe court heard McCorry had spent years renovating the 200-year-old cottage.\n\nThe house was due to be sold days after the fire for £550,000, but due to the damage was only sold for £320,000.\n\nThe loss was not insured because McCorry had stopped paying the premiums without telling his wife after she moved out.\n\nThe house was due to be sold for £550,000 days after\n\nAt an earlier fact-finding hearing McCorry initially claimed the fire had been started accidentally.\n\nThe flames were only extinguished when neighbours alerted the fire service, who shut the entire village to battle the blaze.\n\nNeighbours were shocked to see McCorry sitting in his garden, sipping a glass of whisky, as the flames engulfed the back of the house.\n\nWhen asked what he was doing, he replied \"I'm watching it burn\", the court was told.\n\nMcCorry previously told the court he was not seeking a divorce and did not want to move out of the house.\n\nHe said: \"That came from her end. I was not angry, I was upset.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Taliban security guards in Kabul, a year on from their triumphant return to power\n\nThe Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, two decades after being removed from power by a US-led military coalition.\n\nThe hardline Islamist group advanced rapidly across the country, seizing province after province before taking the capital Kabul on 15 August last year, as the Afghan military collapsed.\n\nForeign forces, who had agreed to leave, were stunned by the speed of the advance and had to accelerate their exit. Many Western-backed Afghan government leaders fled, while thousands of their compatriots and foreigners fearing Taliban rule scrambled to find room on flights out of the country.\n\nWithin weeks, the Taliban were in control of all of Afghanistan - something they had not managed to do in their first stint in power between 1996 and 2001.\n\nThe group had struck a deal with the Americans in 2020 for US troops to withdraw, following a bloody but ultimately successful guerrilla campaign lasting many years.\n\nTaliban fighters pictured in Laghman Province last year as they began a lightning offensive to retake the country\n\nUnder the deal, the Taliban committed to national peace talks, which never took place, and to preventing al-Qaeda and other militants from operating in areas that the Taliban controlled.\n\nFollowing the group's return to power, Afghanistan's economy imploded, leaving a huge portion of the population struggling to find enough money to eat and to access other essentials.\n\nBillions of dollars in Afghan assets held abroad are frozen as the international community waits for the Taliban to honour promises still to be met on security, governance and human rights, including allowing all girls to be educated.\n\nThe Taliban, or \"students\" in the Pashto language, emerged in the early 1990s in northern Pakistan following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.\n\nIt is believed that the predominantly Pashtun movement first appeared in religious seminaries - mostly paid for by money from Saudi Arabia - which preached a hardline form of Sunni Islam.\n\nThe promise made by the Taliban - in Pashtun areas straddling Pakistan and Afghanistan - was to restore peace and security and enforce their own austere version of Sharia, or Islamic law, once in power.\n\nFrom south-western Afghanistan, the Taliban quickly extended their influence. In September 1995, they captured the province of Herat, bordering Iran.\n\nExactly one year later, they captured the Afghan capital, Kabul, overthrowing the regime of President Burhanuddin Rabbani - one of the founding fathers of the Afghan mujahideen that resisted the Soviet occupation. By 1998, the Taliban were in control of almost 90% of Afghanistan.\n\nAfghans, weary of the mujahideen's excesses and infighting after the Soviets were driven out, generally welcomed the Taliban when they first appeared on the scene.\n\nTheir early popularity was largely due to their success in stamping out corruption, curbing lawlessness and making the roads and the areas under their control safe for commerce to flourish.\n\nBut the Taliban also introduced or supported punishments in line with their strict interpretation of Sharia law - such as public executions of convicted murderers and adulterers, as well as amputations for those found guilty of theft. Men were required to grow beards and women had to wear the all-covering burka.\n\nThe Taliban also banned television, music and cinema, and disapproved of girls aged 10 and over going to school. They were accused of various human rights and cultural abuses. One notorious example was in 2001, when the Taliban went ahead with the destruction of the famous Bamiyan Buddha statues in central Afghanistan, despite international outrage.\n\nThis time round, there has been no repeat of such excesses, but the Taliban are accused of a range of well-documented abuses, including killing opponents, as well as beating and detaining journalists and Afghans protesting for their rights.\n\nWomen are no longer allowed to go on long-distance journeys without a male chaperone and, while not required to wear the burka, have been ordered to cover their faces in public. Most women are not allowed to work.\n\nPakistan has repeatedly denied that it was the architect of the Taliban enterprise, but there is little doubt that many Afghans who initially joined the movement were educated in madrassas (religious schools) in Pakistan.\n\nPakistan was also one of only three countries, along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which recognised the Taliban when they were in power the first time round in Afghanistan. It was also the last country to break diplomatic ties with the group.\n\nAt one point, a Pakistani offshoot of the Taliban threatened to destabilise Pakistan from areas it controlled in the north-west. One of the most high-profile and internationally condemned of all Pakistani Taliban attacks took place in October 2012, when schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai was shot on her way home in the town of Mingora.\n\nA major military offensive two years later following the Peshawar school massacre greatly reduced the group's influence in Pakistan, though. At least three key figures of the Pakistani Taliban had been killed in US drone strikes, including the group's leader, Hakimullah Mehsud in 2013.\n\nSchoolgirl and rights activist Malala Yousafzai was shot by Taliban gunmen in October 2012\n\nThe attention of the world was drawn to the Taliban in Afghanistan in the wake of the 11 September 2001 World Trade Center attacks in New York. The Taliban were accused of providing a sanctuary for the prime suspects, Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda movement.\n\nOn 7 October 2001, a US-led military coalition launched attacks in Afghanistan: by the first week of December, the Taliban regime had collapsed. The group's then leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, and other senior figures, including Bin Laden, evaded capture despite one of the largest manhunts in the world.\n\nMany senior Taliban leaders reportedly took refuge in the Pakistani city of Quetta, from where they guided the Taliban. But the existence of what was dubbed the \"Quetta Shura\" was denied by Islamabad.\n\nDespite ever higher numbers of foreign troops, the Taliban gradually regained and then extended their influence in Afghanistan, rendering vast tracts of the country insecure, while violence in the country returned to levels not seen since 2001.\n\nThere were numerous Taliban attacks on Kabul and in September 2012, the group carried out a high-profile raid on Nato's Camp Bastion base.\n\nPakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike in 2013\n\nHopes of a negotiated peace were raised in 2013, when the Taliban announced plans to open an office in Qatar. But mistrust on all sides remained high and the violence went on.\n\nIn August 2015, the Taliban admitted they had covered up Mullah Omar's death - reportedly from health problems at a hospital in Pakistan - for more than two years. The following month, the group said it had put aside weeks of infighting and rallied around a new leader, Mullah Mansour, who had been the deputy of Mullah Omar.\n\nAt about the same time, the Taliban seized control of a provincial capital for the first time since their defeat in 2001, taking control of the strategically important city of Kunduz.\n\nMullah Mansour was killed in a US drone strike in May 2016 and replaced by his deputy Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, who remains in control of the group.\n\nIn the year following the US-Taliban peace deal of February 2020 - which was the culmination of a long spell of direct talks - the Taliban appeared to shift their tactics from complex attacks in cities and on military outposts to a wave of targeted assassinations that terrorised Afghan civilians.\n\nThe targets - journalists, judges, peace activists, women in positions of power - suggested that the Taliban had not changed their extremist ideology, only their strategy.\n\nDespite grave concerns from Afghan officials over the government's vulnerability to the Taliban without international support, new US President Joe Biden announced in April 2021 that all American forces would leave the country by 11 September - two decades to the day since the felling of the World Trade Center.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Hibatullah Akhundzada is a religious scholar and he is former head of the Taliban courts\n\nHaving outlasted a superpower through two decades of war, the Taliban began seizing vast swathes of territory, before once again toppling a government in Kabul in the wake of a foreign power withdrawing.\n\nThey swept across Afghanistan in just 10 days, taking their first provincial capital on 6 August. By 15 August, they were at the gates of Kabul.\n\nTheir lightning advance prompted tens of thousands of people to flee their homes, many arriving in the Afghan capital, others heading for neighbouring countries.\n\nThe future for Afghans living under the Taliban's rule remains highly uncertain. While most are relieved war is over, millions are struggling to survive.\n\nNo country has recognised the Taliban government in the year since they returned to power.\n\nThe August 2022 killing in a US drone attack of al-Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul will do nothing to persuade Taliban critics that the group has turned over a new leaf.\n\nHardliners in the movement appear to have the upper hand on issues such as female employment, freedom of speech and secondary education for girls, meaning that desperately needed foreign-held funds are unlikely to be released any time soon.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nChelsea beat Villarreal 6-5 in a penalty shootout to lift the Uefa Super Cup for a second time after a draining 120 minutes in Belfast.\n\nSubstitute goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga saved captain Raul Albiol's spot-kick at Windsor Park on a night that began superbly for the Blues with an excellent first-half performance before the Spaniards stormed back into the contest after the break.\n\nHakim Ziyech opened the scoring midway through the opening 45 minutes but was then forced off with what looked like a worrying shoulder injury before half-time.\n\nThe Spaniards hit the woodwork either side of the break before Gerard Moreno equalised in the 73rd minute to force extra time.\n\nChelsea, who look set to complete a deal to re-sign striker Romelu Lukaku for a club record fee of £97.5m from Inter Milan, failed to rediscover their first-half vigour in extra time but did come close to a winner through Christian Pulisic and Mason Mount.\n\nIt was the first time the Super Cup was played in Northern Ireland and 13,000 spectators generated a fantastic atmosphere in the south Belfast stadium, the highest attendance at any sports event in the country since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.\n• None Kepa goes from Chelsea villain to shootout hero\n\nKepa was brought off the bench by Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel just a few minutes before the end of extra time and dived low to his right to save from Albiol - his second save of the shootout having also denied Aissa Mandi - and spark mass scenes of celebration among the Chelsea players and supporters.\n\nZiyech's goal arrived in the 27th minute when the lively Kai Havertz ran on to a ball into the left channel and delivered a precise pull-back, with Ziyech directing his shot in despite not getting a clean connection.\n\nVillarreal's equaliser was the result of a poor clearance out of defence by Antonio Rudiger, with Gerard Moreno feeding Boulaye Dia, whose clever flick-return to the Spaniard was clinically swept past Edouard Mendy.\n\nIt was an equaliser that looked like coming after Alberto Moreno crashed a volley off the underside of the crossbar in first-half injury time and Mendy had dived superbly to tip a Gerard Moreno shot on to the post after the keeper had initially given the ball away.\n\nThe opening 40 minutes were something of a stroll for Chelsea as they imposed themselves on Villarreal, not giving their Spanish opponents a glimmer of hope until just before the break.\n\nThe contrasting styles of captain-for-the-night N'Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic in midfield provided a base from which to apply pressure on the Europa League winners, with Kovacic's diagonal balls to Callum Hudson-Odoi on the right particularly penetrating.\n\nTimo Werner had their first chance in the sixth minute, having his close-range volley well saved by Sergio Asenjo, while Kante flashed just wide from 20 yards before Zouma volleyed an excellent chance over the bar.\n\nZiyech then clashed with Juan Foyth and went down, requiring oxygen treatment and going off the pitch with his right shoulder having to be supported amid a chaotic closing few minutes to the first half.\n\nTuchel's side looked flat as the second half got under way and were not helped when the inevitable host of substitutions began being made, though Villarreal deserve credit for taking advantage and giving their enthusiastic supporters something to cheer on their first Super Cup appearance.\n• None Penalty saved! Raúl Albiol (Villarreal) fails to capitalise on this great opportunity, right footed shot saved in the bottom left corner.\n• None Goal! Chelsea 1(6), Villarreal 1(5). Antonio Rüdiger (Chelsea) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the centre of the goal.\n• None Goal! Chelsea 1(5), Villarreal 1(5). Juan Foyth (Villarreal) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom right corner.\n• None Goal! Chelsea 1(5), Villarreal 1(4). Christian Pulisic (Chelsea) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom right corner.\n• None Goal! Chelsea 1(4), Villarreal 1(4). Dani Raba (Villarreal) converts the penalty with a left footed shot to the bottom right corner.\n• None Goal! Chelsea 1(4), Villarreal 1(3). Jorginho (Chelsea) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the centre of the goal.\n• None Goal! Chelsea 1(3), Villarreal 1(3). Moi Gómez (Villarreal) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Goal! Chelsea 1(3), Villarreal 1(2). Mason Mount (Chelsea) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the centre of the goal.\n• None Goal! Chelsea 1(2), Villarreal 1(2). Pervis Estupiñán (Villarreal) converts the penalty with a left footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Goal! Chelsea 1(2), Villarreal 1(1). Marcos Alonso (Chelsea) converts the penalty with a left footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Penalty saved! Aïssa Mandi (Villarreal) fails to capitalise on this great opportunity, right footed shot saved in the bottom left corner.\n• None Goal! Chelsea 1(1), Villarreal 1(1). César Azpilicueta (Chelsea) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom right corner.\n• None Goal! Chelsea 1, Villarreal 1(1). Gerard Moreno (Villarreal) converts the penalty with a left footed shot to the bottom right corner.\n• None Penalty saved! Kai Havertz (Chelsea) fails to capitalise on this great opportunity, left footed shot saved in the bottom right corner. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of Chelsea is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything Chelsea - go straight to all the best content", "Kinloch Castle was built in the 1890s as a hunting lodge\n\nThe \"right owner\" is being sought for a 19th Century island castle off the west coast of Scotland.\n\nKinloch Castle is a former hunting lodge on the Isle of Rum - one of the Small Isles, south of Skye.\n\nThe castle and most of the island are owned by NatureScot, formerly Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH).\n\nIt says Kinloch Castle is not for sale on the open market but it is looking for a \"beneficial owner\" for the property and its grounds.\n\nNatureScot said the lodge requires restoration work and a future owner would need to conserve and preserve the property, while minimising its impact on the environment.\n\nA Fort William-based businessman has submitted a plan to the Scottish government for the refurbishment of Kinloch Castle.\n\nAngus MacDonald, who owns a bookshop and a cinema is a former vice president of National Trust for Scotland, said his plan would require some public money along with funds he would raise.\n\nNatureScot manages land it owns on Rum as a national nature reserve\n\nTwo years ago, Kinloch Castle Friends Association (KCFA) proposed developing part of the castle into a 51-bed B&B and later turning other areas into a museum.\n\nBut SNH rejected a request to transfer the property to KCFA as a community asset.\n\nThe agency said it was concerned the group did not have funds to maintain the castle.\n\nNatureScot said over the past nine years it had been delivering a conservation plan to maintain and protect the castle, in agreement with Historic Environment Scotland and Highland Council.\n\nA spokeswoman said: \"We feel the castle will best support the community with the right owner, and we have been working towards that goal over the past few years.\n\n\"While Kinloch Castle is not currently on the open market for sale we continue to work to identify a beneficial owner for the castle and grounds.\"\n\nNatureScot said any future owner would need to contribute towards \"three key objectives\".\n\nThe spokeswoman said they were securing the conservation and preservation of the castle, contributing to the sustainability of the Rum community and enhancing nature on Rum and, thirdly, minimising the castle's impact on the natural environment.\n\nKinloch Castle was built in 1897 as a hunting lodge for Lancastrian industrialist George Bullough and he had it luxuriously furnished.\n\nThe property fell into decline after World War One and was taken over by SNH's predecessor, the Nature Conservancy, in 1957.\n\nIt has required extensive restoration work over the years.\n• None Bid to take over Rum's Kinloch Castle rejected", "Mark Chilman treated his ex partner as his \"property\", his \"chunk of gold\" the judge said\n\nAn \"obsessed\" man has been jailed for at least 22 years for murdering his former long-term girlfriend's new partner, leaving him in a burning car.\n\nA trial at Worcester Crown Court heard he lay in wait for his victim, hit him and set his car alight to try and make it look like suicide.\n\nJudge James Burbidge QC said Chilman had treated his ex as his \"property\".\n\nThe judge said Chilman had immediately \"harboured a desire to do Mr Parkinson harm,\" after discovering Julie Adcock had moved on with her life.\n\nNeil Parkinson, 66, was discovered in a burning car on 12 December\n\nThe court heard Chilman prepared by \"scoping\" his ex partner's farm, stealing two petrol jerry cans, buying disposable mobile phones and leaving his own phone elsewhere, while asking a friend to give him a false alibi.\n\nHe then waited for Mr Parkinson, 66, to drive away from the farm in Broadwas, to care for his 94-year-old mother, who had dementia.\n\nWhen the victim got out to lock the gate, Chilman attacked him, hitting him so hard with a weapon, possibly a hammer, he fractured the base of his skull and left him unconscious.\n\nThe trial heard he then drove Mr Parkinson to a lay-by, poured petrol over him and the vehicle, and set it alight.\n\nThe car was discovered on Ankerdine Road, Cotheridge\n\nJudge Burbidge said, as the fire took hold, Chilman sent a long text message \"in despicable and defamatory terms\" to try and suggest it was Mr Parkinson attempting to take his own life.\n\nThe death had left Mr Parkinson's family and his ex-partner Ms Adcock \"shattered and grieving\", the judge added.\n\nIn a statement, Mr Parkinson's family described Chilman as an \"evil, calculated individual\".\n\n\"Neil was a loving, caring, happy person who enjoyed life to the full,\" they said. \"As a family it's been a very difficult eight months and our lives have been changed forever.\n\n\"Neil will be sorely missed by all his family and the memories of him as a loving father, grandfather, brother and son and will be remembered dearly for all the happy times.\"\n\nJurors heard Chilman, from Pencombe in Herefordshire, told police \"whatever, he is out of the way now\" when detectives suggested to him the blaze looked suspicious.\n\nThe judge accepted the death of the defendant's father some years before hit him hard and the loss of his relationship with Ms Adcock sent his world \"crashing down\".\n\nBut he said his love and affection became \"misplaced\" and he \"could not bear for her to be happy with anyone else\".\n\nIt emerged during the hearing Chilman had been attempting correspondence with Ms Adcock from his jail cell.\n\nDet Ch Insp Dean Jones, from West Mercia Police, welcomed Chilman's \"significant sentence\", describing the murder as \"brutal\" and \"senseless\".\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Twenty years of conflict in Afghanistan – what happened when?\n\nFrom 9/11, to intense fighting on the ground, and now full withdrawal of US-led forces, here’s what happened.\n\nAl-Qaeda, led by Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan, carries out the largest terror attack ever conducted on US soil. The World Trade Centre is reduced to rubble Four commercial airliners are hijacked. Two are flown into the World Trade Centre in New York, which collapses. One hits the Pentagon building in Washington, and one crashes into a field in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people are killed. A US-led coalition bombs Taliban and al-Qaeda facilities in Afghanistan. Targets include Kabul, Kandahar and Jalalabad. The Taliban, who took power after a decade-long Soviet occupation was followed by civil war, refuse to hand over Bin Laden. Their air defences and small fleet of fighter aircraft are destroyed. The Northern Alliance, a group of anti-Taliban rebels backed by coalition forces, enters Kabul as the Taliban flee the city. Coalition-backed Northern Alliance fighters ride tanks into Kabul as the Taliban retreat By the 13 November 2001, all Taliban have either fled or been neutralised. Other cities quickly fall. After protracted negotiations at a “loya jirga” or grand assembly, the new Afghan constitution is signed into law. The constitution paves the way for presidential elections in October 2004. Hamid Karzai led anti-Taliban groups around Kandahar before becoming president Hamid Karzai, the leader of the Popalzai Durrani tribe, becomes the first president under the new constitution. He serves two five-year terms as president. British troops arrive in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold in the south of the country. Soldiers of the Parachute Regiment lead the first UK deployment to Helmand Their initial mission is to support reconstruction projects, but they are quickly drawn into combat operations. More than 450 British troops lose their lives in Afghanistan over the course of the conflict. US President Barack Obama approves a major increase in the number of troops sent to Afghanistan. At their peak, they number about 140,000. US troops in intense combat operations in the south of the country The so-called “surge” is modelled on US strategy in Iraq where US forces focussed on protecting the civilian population as well as killing insurgent fighters. Bin Laden is traced to a compound located less than a mile from a Pakistani military academy The leader of al-Qaeda is killed in an assault by US Navy Seals on a compound in Abbottabad in Pakistan. Bin Laden’s body is removed and buried at sea. The operation ends a 10-year hunt led by the CIA. The confirmation that Bin Laden had been living on Pakistani soil fuels accusations in the US that Pakistan is an unreliable ally in the war on terror. The founder of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammed Omar, dies. His death is kept secret for more than two years. The Taliban leader is believed to have suffered a shrapnel wound to his right eye in the 1980s According to Afghan intelligence, Mullah Omar dies of health problems at a hospital in the Pakistani city of Karachi. Pakistan denies that he was in the country. At a ceremony in Kabul, Nato ends its combat operations in Afghanistan. With the surge now over, the US withdraws thousands of troops. Most of those who remain focus on training and supporting the Afghan security forces. The Taliban launch a series of suicide attacks, car bombings and other assaults. The parliament building in Kabul, and the city of Kunduz are attacked. Islamic State militants begin operations in Afghanistan. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says more than 45,000 members of his country’s security forces have been killed since he became leader in 2014. The figure is far higher than previously thought. The US and the Taliban sign an “agreement for bringing peace” to Afghanistan, in Doha, Qatar. The US and Nato allies agree to withdraw all troops within 14 months if the militants uphold the deal. The deal lays out a timetable for full withdrawal US president Joe Biden announces that all US troops will leave Afghanistan by 11 September 2021. In just over a month, the Taliban sweep across Afghanistan, taking control of towns and cities all over the country, including Kabul. Afghan security forces collapse in the face of the Taliban advance.", "The UK is looking at a \"bespoke arrangement\" for Afghan refugees, with full details to be set out in due course, the foreign secretary has said.\n\nA new resettlement scheme will be aimed at helping those most in need - including women and girls - to come to the UK, No 10 has said.\n\nDominic Raab did not confirm how many refugees would be able to come but said the UK was \"a big-hearted nation\".\n\nIt comes after the Taliban seized control of capital city Kabul.\n\nMr Raab told BBC Breakfast the UK had \"always been a country that has provided safe haven for those fleeing persecution\".\n\nHowever he added: \"The most important thing we can do at source... is try and provide the stability so we don't see these large numbers of migrant flows.\n\n\"So I think that ought to be the number one priority but nonetheless asylum is really important.\"\n\nMr Raab said details of the new resettlement scheme would be set out by the home secretary and prime minister \"in due course\".\n\nParliament is being recalled from its summer recess on Wednesday to debate the situation in Afghanistan.\n\nThe BBC has been told the new resettlement scheme will be similar to that used to help Syrian refugees.\n\nAround 20,000 refugees who fled the conflict in Syria have been resettled in the UK under the scheme since it was launched in 2014.\n\nOn Monday evening, the Home Office said the UK had already admitted more than 3,300 Afghan interpreters, staff and their families to the UK for resettlement.\n\nThe Home Office said \"it will be guided by the capacity of local authorities\" when deciding how many Afghan refugees to allow to settle in the UK after the Taliban seized power.\n\nMr Raab said the UK could also increase humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"I expect that we will increase our aid budget for development and humanitarian purposes, probably by 10% is what I have in mind on last year.\n\n\"We want to try and make sure it won't go through the Taliban, but make sure that we can alleviate the humanitarian suffering.\"\n\nHundreds of Afghan nationals have been evacuated on UK planes\n\nWomen's rights activist Malala Yousafzai, who was 15 when she was shot in the head by Taliban militants in Pakistan, urged the international community not to abandon Afghans.\n\n\"Countries need to open their borders to Afghan refugees, to the displaced people,\" she told BBC Two's Newsnight.\n\nFormer Conservative defence minister Tobias Ellwood said the UK should \"open our doors\" to Afghans, adding that many were fleeing because they had worked for the international coalition.\n\n\"This fall of a state is on our watch, it's thanks to our withdrawal, our retreat, that we're now going to see mass migration on a scale not seen since World War Two and many of them will be heading towards Europe,\" the former British Army captain told the BBC.\n\nLabour's shadow foreign affairs minister, Stephen Kinnock, said the government's offer to refugees needed to be \"bold, ambitious and generous\", and \"backed up with the capacity to process it\".\n\nHe also accused the government of \"a dereliction of duty\" in how it had handled the withdrawal from Afghanistan, describing it as \"disastrous\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Afghan interpreter: \"I'm so worried about my parents and my sisters' safety\"\n\nIt comes after a number of people died at Kabul airport on Monday, with large crowds on the runway eventually leading to all flights being halted for several hours.\n\nAmid chaotic scenes at the airport, British ambassador to Afghanistan Sir Laurie Bristow was said to be working alongside UK staff and the armed forces to process visas for eligible Afghans.\n\nOn Monday, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the UK would send a further 200 troops to Kabul to help evacuate British nationals and Afghans who are eligible to resettle in the UK - taking the total number to about 900.\n\nThe MoD also said further personnel would be deployed to other countries in the region and able to move on to Afghanistan if needed, while more troops would be put on standby in the UK.\n\nMost Afghan nationals currently eligible for relocation to the UK are those who have worked for the British government in frontline roles \"that made a material difference to the delivery of the UK mission\" in the country.\n\nThis group includes interpreters as well as cultural advisers and embassy staff. Others eligible are those deemed to be at high and imminent risk, according to the Ministry of Defence.\n\nMr Rabb said the government expected 350 more British nationals and Afghan staff to leave the country in the next 24 hours - and that numbers should increase \"quite significantly\" if the situation stabilises.", "A proposed code of practice covering police use of live facial recognition in England and Wales has been criticised by human rights groups.\n\nLive facial-recognition systems compare faces captured on closed-circuit television with those on a watch-list, alerting officers to a match.\n\nFormer CCTV watchdog Tony Porter said the new rules were \"bare bones\" and offered unclear guidance.\n\nAnd two campaign groups have called for the practice to be ended entirely.\n\nThe Home Office said the new guidelines, included in the first update to the Surveillance Camera Code of Practice in eight years, empowered police and maintained public trust.\n\nIn August 2020, Ed Bridges, of Cardiff, won a court case after twice being filmed by South Wales Police's automatic facial-recognition van.\n\nOn the final occasion, the former Lib Dem councillor was attending a peaceful protest.\n\n\"I take the view that in this country we have policing by consent and the police should be supporting our right to free protest, rather than trying to intimidate protesters,\" he told BBC News, after his court victory.\n\nIn its judgement, the Court of Appeal said more checks should have been made to ensure the live facial-recognition (LFR) algorithm used had no gender or racial bias - and tighter regulations were needed.\n\nThe new code, which covers CCTV use by local authorities and the police, says LFR deployments should:\n\nLiberty lawyer Megan Goulding, who worked on Mr Bridges's case, told BBC News: \"One year since our case led the court to agree that this technology violates our rights and threatens our liberty, these guidelines fail to properly account for either the court's findings or the dangers created by this dystopian surveillance tool.\n\n\"Facial recognition will not make us safer, it will turn public spaces into open-air prisons and entrench patterns of discrimination that already oppress entire communities\".\n\nThe campaign group Big Brother Watch also called for the technology to be banned and said the code legitimised the use of an invasive surveillance technology.\n\nHowever the Ada Lovelace Institute told the BBC, the updated camera code, \"provides important additional guidance around the use of biometric technologies such as LFR in surveillance cameras\".\n\nBut it said, \"far more still needs to be done to ensure that the rules concerning the use of a technology as powerful and controversial as live facial recognition are clear, comprehensive and provide adequate protections from potential harms\".\n\nAfter the Bridges case, Mr Porter, the then Surveillance Camera Commissioner, produced 72 pages of guidance on the use of LFR, for police forces in England in Wales.\n\nHe said: \"It covered ethics, governance, leadership, the technical development of watch-lists - and I was somewhat surprised the redraft of the code was 'de minimis',\" a legal term describing something too small to merit consideration.\n\nHe says the proposed Home Office code as currently written is very \"bare bones\".\n\n\"I don't think it provides much guidance to law enforcement, I don't really it provides a great deal of guidance to the public as to how the technology will be deployed\", he added.\n\nMr Porter, now chief privacy officer for a facial-recognition supplier, added it was strange the new code would not cover organisations such as Transport For London, which owns thousands of cameras but would cover small councils.\n\nThe current surveillance-camera commissioner has also previously suggested expanding the code to cover CCTV operated by government departments.\n\nIn a statement the Home Office told the BBC, \"The Government is committed to empowering the police to use new technology to keep the public safe, whilst maintaining public trust, and we are currently consulting on the Surveillance Camera Code.\"\n\n\"In addition, College of Policing have consulted on new guidance for police use of LFR in accordance with the Court of Appeal judgment, which will also be reflected in the update to the code.\"\n\nIt added that all users of surveillance camera systems including LFR are required to comply with strict data protection legislation.\n\nIn 2019, Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said the police should slow down their adoption of LFR.\n\n\"Never before have we seen technologies with the potential for such widespread invasiveness,\" she blogged.\n\nAnd her office now says it will be responding to a consultation on the updated code.\n\n\"Data-protection law sets a high bar for police forces, public authorities and businesses to justify the use of live facial recognition (LFR) technology and its algorithms in public places,\" a representative said.", "Last updated on .From the section Snooker\n\nMark Allen defeated former partner Reanne Evans 3-2 after surviving a major scare in the British Open.\n\nThe Northern Irishman was facing defeat at 60-22 down in the fourth frame before fighting back in a tense match.\n\nEvans, backed by a raucous following, did not reciprocate when Allen offered a fist bump before the first-round match in Leicester.\n\nThe pair were meeting for the first time as professionals and in a ranking tournament.\n\n\"Both players have shown great character. It's been the most intense match I have probably ever witnessed,\" said seven-time men's world snooker champion Stephen Hendry, commentating on ITV.\n\nAllen described the draw as \"awful\" and said he would not want to face Evans again, but acknowledged the performance of his beaten opponent.\n\n\"She played much better than me but I made a good break to win it. She potted some unbelievable individual balls. She was very unfortunate not to go on and win 3-1,\" said the 35-year-old.\n\nHe added: \"It was horrible. It's not something I want to really go through too often, but we had to try and remain as professional as possible and I think I did that very well.\"\n\nWhen asked about the fist bump snub, he replied: \"I'd rather not answer that one.\"\n\nEvans explained: \"I was told at the start there were no handshakes or anything, and just in my head I was visualising the start of the match so I just went straight to the table.\"\n\nDespite the edgy opening, Evans apologised for a fluked pot during the match and Allen tapped the table to acknowledge a break from his opponent.\n\nEvans, 35, had saluted her vocal supporters as she came out for the game and went 34 ahead in the opening frame before a missed black let her opponent in.\n\nThe English player won a scrappy second frame after Allen failed to pot the yellow when needing the colours and a 56 break helped seal the next.\n\nA shock victory looked on the cards before Evans rattled a tricky red in the jaws of the pocket and Allen clinched the fourth frame with a nerveless 47 clearance.\n\nHe followed up with a 68 break in the decider to help seal victory.\n\n\"I'm absolutely gutted but really proud of myself,\" said Evans. \"No-one wanted that match did they? But you have to respect that top players do what they do and it's sport - we're in the same sport so it's always going to happen.\"\n\nEvans, who was made an MBE in 2020 for her services to women's snooker, has earned a two-year tour card this season to turn professional.\n\nThe match came four months after Allen requested that Evans be removed from a television studio at the World Championship, where she was working as a BBC pundit.\n\nAllen was reported to have said he did not want her to be in a TV studio where a practice table was situated.\n\nIn April, the Northern Irishman said he was taking a \"break\" from the game to address personal issues.\n\nEarlier on a dramatic opening day, Scotland's John Higgins made the 12th maximum 147 break of his career, to surpass Hendry's total, as he beat Alexander Ursenbacher of Switzerland 3-1.\n\nWorld number one Judd Trump just edged past Mitchell Mann 3-2 while veteran Jimmy White whitewashed Aaron Hill 3-0 and Allen's compatriot Jordan Brown beat Andrew Higginson 3-2.\n• None A hilarious look at how lads become men is streaming now on BBC iPlayer\n• None Why we all need our alter ego: How does the likes of Rafael Nadal channel theirs for better performance?", "Ultra Electronics, a major supplier to the Royal Navy, has agreed to be bought by US-owned Cobham in a £2.6bn takeover being monitored by the UK government.\n\nCobham said it would \"offer legally binding and enforceable commitments to HM Government\" over the Ultra deal.\n\nDefence and aerospace company Cobham was controversially bought by US private equity firm Advent in 2019 despite national security concerns.\n\n\"We look forward to working with HM Government, and other relevant stakeholders, to agree legally binding commitments which safeguard Ultra's contribution to the UK economy and national security,\" said Shonnel Malani, chairman of the Cobham Group.\n\nThe UK's Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, was reported to be considering launching a national security investigation into the deal last month under the Enterprise Act.\n\nThe act gives the government the power to intervene in mergers on public interest grounds covering national security.\n\nHowever, the Enterprise Act will be superseded from January next year by the new National Security and Investment Act, which aims to impose more stringent safeguards on foreign ownership of British companies.\n\nThe new act will introduce stronger powers of intervention if there are concerns about national security issues in any takeovers.\n\nIt will also have a wider remit covering 17 business sectors and will probe any investments of more than 25% in a UK company that cause concern. Crucially, it could be used retrospectively to fine firms.\n\nAs part of its takeover of Ultra - which has two sites in Dorset - Cobham said its commitments would cover \"safeguarding and supporting the UK's national security\" including national security clearance arrangements.\n\nIt has also pledged to protect existing and create new UK manufacturing and engineering jobs, and to increase investment in research and development (R&D) in the UK.\n\nLord West of Spithead, who served as First Sea Lord, has also raised concerns about the Cobham-Ultra deal and a similar one involving British defence supplier Meggitt.\n\nMeggitt announced it had agreed a £6.3bn takeover by Ohio-based Parker Hannifin earlier this month but then revealed it was the subject to an unsolicited £7bn bid approach from US firm TansDigm.\n\nOn Monday, it gave shareholders notice of a vote on the recommended Park Hannifin deal on 17 September.\n\nTransDigm has now been given a deadline of 14 September by the UK Takeover Panel to make a formal offer for Meggitt.\n\nMeggitt's chairman, Sir Nigel Rudd, called on ministers to block a takeover if any bidder tries to buy it without giving binding commitments on investment and jobs.\n\nHe told the Sunday Times that while \"clearly, price is important\", any new owner would need to give Meggitt and the government undertakings, including to keep the company's headquarters in Coventry and maintain R&D spending.\n\nMeggitt specialises in components for the aerospace, defence and energy industries. Companies that it supplies include Airbus and BAE Systems, but it also has contracts with the Ministry of Defence that Parker Hannifin has pledged to honour.\n\nThere has been a number of sales of UK defence sector businesses to US firms, ahead of the probable Ultra and Meggitt deals.\n\nThis month Frazer-Nash Consultancy, a defence engineering consultancy working on Britain's nuclear submarines and weaponry for the Royal Navy, was sold by UK's Babcock International to US group KBR for £293m.\n\nCobham - based in Wimborne, Dorset - was bought by US private equity firm Advent at the end of 2019 for £4bn. It is famed for its air-to-air refueling kit which played a significant role in the Falklands War, allowing the Royal Air Force to attack the remote Port Stanley airfield.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. People tried to cling on to the wheels of a departing US military plane\n\nThere were scenes of panic at Kabul airport on Monday as desperate residents tried to flee following the Taliban's seizure of the Afghan capital.\n\nThe US army said soldiers shot two armed men, while three people were reported to have died after falling from the underside of a plane they were clinging to shortly after take-off.\n\nThe airport was closed earlier for soldiers to try and clear the runways.\n\nUS military planes are now landing, including one carrying US marines.\n\nMarines are being flown in to help the evacuation effort. The US and other countries are rushing to remove staff and allies from the country.\n\nA German evacuation plane also landed at Kabul airport on Monday, sources told Reuters news agency.\n\nOn Sunday the Taliban declared victory after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled abroad and his government collapsed.\n\nThe militants' return to rule brings an end to almost 20 years of a US-led coalition's presence in the country.\n\nKabul was the last major city in Afghanistan to fall to a Taliban offensive that began months ago but accelerated in recent days as they gained control of territories, shocking many observers.\n\nThe Islamist group was able to seize control after most foreign troops pulled out.\n\nFollowing the Taliban's seizure of Kabul, many people headed to the airport.\n\nEvacuations of foreigners and some Afghans with links to foreign governments and organisations have been taking place, but passengers said rumours spread that even those without visas were being allowed to travel.\n\nOne picture showed Afghans crowding behind barbed wire near the airfield\n\nAs huge crowds gathered, US forces reportedly fired into the air to disperse people who were trying to force their way on to planes.\n\nVideo obtained by Afghan media outlets also showed people clinging to the side of a plane as it began to taxi on the runway. Another video appeared to show men falling from a plane that had taken off.\n\nLater, a Pentagon spokesman said all flights had been halted \"out of an abundance of caution\".\n\n\"US military forces are on the scene working alongside Turkish and other international troops to clear the area of people. We do not know how long this will take\" John Kirby said.\n\nMr Kirby also said there were early reports that a US service member had been wounded.\n\nRakhshanda Jilali, a human rights activist who is trying to leave, said: \"How can [the Americans] hold the airport and dictate terms and conditions to Afghans?\"\n\n\"This is our airport but we are seeing diplomats being evacuated while we wait in complete uncertainty,\" she told Reuters news agency.\n\nThousands of American citizens, locals embassy staff and their families, as well as other \"vulnerable Afghan nationals\" are to be airlifted in the coming days, the US government has said.\n\nThe US has sent 6,000 troops to assist in the evacuation.\n\nAt the weekend US President Joe Biden defended the withdrawal of American troops, saying he could not justify an \"endless American presence in the middle of another country's civil conflict\".\n\nMore than 60 countries, including the US and the UK, have issued a joint statement saying the Afghan people \"deserve to live in safety, security and dignity\", and that security and civil order should be immediately restored.\n\nThey also called on the Taliban to allow anyone who wishes to depart to do so, and to keep roads, airports and border crossings open.\n\nA Taliban spokesman said people would be allowed to return home from the airport, Reuters reported.\n\nOn Sunday Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban negotiator in Qatar, told the BBC that properties and lives were safe. \"We are the servants of the people and of this country,\" he said.\n\nAbout 600 British troops have been deployed to assist with their own withdrawal mission.\n\nUK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said his priority was getting UK nationals and \"all those who have helped the UK effort over 20 years\" out of Afghanistan \"as fast as we can\".\n\nRussia said it would not be closing its embassy because the Taliban had provided security assurances.\n\nChina expressed its readiness to develop \"friendly relations\" with the group.\n\nIran's new hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi, said the US pull-out should offer an opportunity for lasting peace in Afghanistan.\n\nAre you or your family in Afghanistan? How have you been affected? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "Amol Kamble, a constable from India's Mumbai city, always dreamt of becoming a professional dancer.\n\nAs a child, he would spend hours in front of the television mastering iconic moves.\n\nAlthough life had different plans for him - he ended up joining the police force - Mr Kamble never stopped dancing.\n\nThe 39-year-old first became a viral sensation on TikTok, with videos of him dancing getting millions of views.\n\nWhen India banned the popular app last year, Mr Kamble was upset - he wasn't sure what to do.\n\nBut soon his viral videos made a comeback on Instagram, where he now has thousands of followers.", "Afghanistan's economy is \"shaped by fragility and aid dependence\".\n\nThat is the troubling overview set out by the World Bank several months before the Taliban takeover.\n\nEconomic prospects look even more precarious now, as future financial assistance is under a cloud of uncertainty.\n\nAfghanistan does have substantial mineral resources, but the political situation has impeded their exploitation.\n\nThe aid dependency is striking. In 2019, World Bank figures show development aid was equivalent to 22% of gross national income (which is not the same as GDP, but close to it).\n\nThat is a high figure, but it is down a long way from the 49% the World Bank reported 10 years earlier.\n\nNow those aid flows are under a cloud of profound uncertainty. German Foreign Minister Heike Maas told the broadcaster ZDF last week: \"We will not give another cent if the Taliban takes over the country and introduces Sharia law.\"\n\nOther aid donors are sure to be watching developments closely.\n\nThe fragility the World Bank refers to is illustrated by the very high levels of spending on security before the Taliban takeover: 29% of GDP, compared with an average of 3% for low-income countries.\n\nSecurity and severe problems with corruption are behind another persistent problem in Afghanistan: very weak foreign business investment.\n\nAccording to United Nations data, there were no announcements in the last two years of new \"greenfield\" investments, which involve a foreign business setting up an operation from scratch. Since 2014, there have been a total of four.\n\nTo take two other countries from the South Asia region, both with somewhat smaller populations, Nepal has managed 10 times as many and Sri Lanka 50 times more over the same period.\n\nThe World Bank describes Afghanistan's private sector as narrow. Employment is concentrated in low-productivity agriculture: 60% of households get some income from farming.\n\nThe country also has a large illicit economy. There is illegal mining and, of course, opium production and related activities such as smuggling. The drugs trade has been an important source of revenue for the Taliban.\n\nAll that said, the Afghan economy has grown since the US invasion in 2001.\n\nThe figures for Afghanistan are not reliable, but what they show, according to the World Bank, is average annual growth of more than 9% in the 10 years from 2003.\n\nAfter that, it slowed (which may well reflect the lower levels of aid) to an average rate of 2.5% between 2015 and 2020.\n\nThe drugs trade has been an important source of revenue for the Taliban\n\nThe country does have significant natural resources, which would, in the context of better security and less corruption, be attractive to international business.\n\nThere are several types of mineral available in substantial quantities, including copper, cobalt, coal and iron ore. There is also oil and gas and precious stones.\n\nOne with particularly striking potential is lithium, a metal that is used in batteries for mobile devices and electric cars. The latter application is going to be especially important as the motor industry makes the transition to zero-carbon forms of transport.\n\nBack in 2010, a top US general told the New York Times that Afghanistan's mineral potential was \"stunning\" - with \"a lot of ifs, of course\".\n\nThe paper also reported that an internal US Defence Department memo had said the country could become \"the Saudi Arabia of lithium\".\n\nYet this undoubted potential is nowhere near being exploited - and the Afghan people have seen very little, if any, benefit from it.\n\nThere have been many reports that China is keen to be involved. It seems to have better relations with the Taliban than Western powers do, so may have an advantage if the new regime does hold on to power.\n\nHowever, Chinese firms did win contracts to develop operations in copper and oil. But little happened.\n\nIt is to be expected that China would be interested. The opportunities appear to be very substantial and the two countries do share a short border.\n\nBut any Chinese agency - official or a business - would want to be confident of succeeding. They will be reluctant to commit unless they feel the security and corruption problems will be well enough contained to enable them to extract worthwhile quantities of these industrial commodities.\n\nA key question for any hard-nosed potential investors - from China or anywhere else - will be whether the Taliban is likely to be any more able than the previous Afghan government to create the kind of environment they need.\n\nAnother factor likely to affect the economy is women's employment. In the past decade the percentage of the female population over 15 years of age in employment has risen dramatically, though at 22% in 2019 it was still low by international standards. Under the Taliban the change is likely to be reversed, further damaging economic prospects.\n\nIn the immediate future, there is also a great deal of uncertainty about financial stability. Crowds of people have been trying to withdraw their money from the banks.\n\nThe Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press reported a Taliban spokesman as offering assurances to bank owners, money changers, traders and shopkeepers that their lives and property would be protected.\n\nThat there are even questions about the physical safety of financial operators is shocking. They do need to be confident if Afghanistan's financial system is to function. But it also needs customers to feel their money is safe. That won't happen quickly.", "Rescue workers in Les Cayes raced to find survivors before Tropical Storm Grace hit\n\nRescue work following the deadly earthquake which struck Haiti on Saturday has been hampered by heavy rains brought by Tropical Storm Grace.\n\nTens of thousands of people left homeless by the quake had to decide whether to brave the storm under flimsy tarpaulins or risk returning into buildings damaged by the tremor.\n\nAt least 1,419 people are known to have died in the 7.2-magnitude quake.\n\nMore than 6,900 were injured, and an unknown number are still missing.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Buildings in Les Cayes were destroyed by the 7.2-magnitude earthquake\n\nRescue workers dug through rubble on Monday in a desperate attempt to find survivors before the heavy rains were able to turn the earth into cloying mud, making locating those buried even more difficult.\n\nAt 06:00 GMT Tuesday, Grace, which has been upgraded from a tropical depression to a tropical storm, was west of the city of Les Cayes and moving further westward towards Jamaica, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC).\n\nThe NHC had earlier predicted that Grace could dump up to 25cm (10 inches) of rainfall over the worst affected area. It is feared the deluge could trigger landslides.\n\nOn Twitter, Haiti's civil protection agency urged \"good neighbours whose space has not been affected\" to help shelter displaced people.\n\nThe south-west of Haiti appears to have suffered the worst of the damage from the quake, especially around the city of Les Cayes.\n\nError message: If this image does not load your device may not support this visualization\n\nError message: If this image does not load your device may not support this visualization\n\nHomes, churches and schools were among buildings flattened in the quake. Some hospitals were left overwhelmed and in need of supplies as they struggled to treat the injured.\n\nIt's hard enough to treat survivors of any natural disaster but when the hospitals themselves are under fear of collapse it makes it all the more difficult.\n\nLes Cayes Ofatma hospital is deemed too unsafe so they've brought everyone outside. People swat away flies on hospital beds placed under makeshift tents and trees. You can hear people screaming in pain.\n\nOne woman, Elsy, had only just woken up when the earthquake happened. Her son has a serious fracture to his leg.\n\nThere simply aren't the facilities needed to treat people in this remote part of the country. One doctor comes to us, angry, asking why he has no medicine.\n\nOne woman we spoke to - who has a very bad broken leg and is also pregnant - has had no pain relief for two days.\n\nThe people here need help, but at the moment not enough help is coming - and with a tropical storm close by it could become even more difficult.\n\nThe earthquake compounds problems facing the impoverished nation, which is already reeling from a political crisis following the assassination of its president last month.\n\nPrime Minister Ariel Henry, who is in power until fresh presidential election can be held, has declared a month-long state of emergency and urged the population to \"show solidarity\".\n\nHaiti has been hit by a series of natural disasters over the past years, including Hurricane Matthew in 2016.\n\nThe deadliest was the 2010 earthquake which killed more than 200,000 people and caused extensive damage to the country's infrastructure and economy.", "Passengers on the Air India flight from Kabul landed in Delhi on Sunday evening\n\nWhen an Air India flight carrying 40 passengers - all Afghans - from Delhi approached the airport in Kabul on Sunday afternoon, air traffic control cleared it for landing.\n\nIt was a warm, sunny day with temperatures rising to 35C.\n\nThe six-member crew had little idea of how fast things were unravelling on the ground. Taliban fighters were seizing Kabul after the government in Afghanistan collapsed, bringing to a swift end almost 20 years of a US-led coalition's presence in the country.\n\nEven as the pilot prepared for landing, air traffic controllers told them to hold in the air, without giving any reasons.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"I can't believe the world abandoned Afghanistan\": Afghans arrive at Delhi airport\n\nFor the next 90 minutes, sources in the airline said, the flight circled at a height of 16,000ft (5,000m) over the capital.\n\nAnticipating landing delays and accounting for the fact that air communication at heights around Kabul can be sometimes patchy, the plane was carrying extra fuel.\n\nAir activity around Kabul airport is also often \"busy and tedious\", pilots say. During this time of the year, flying into the city poses an extra challenge: the winds are strong and gusty.\n\nThere were at least two other foreign airlines circling in the air above Kabul awaiting clearance to land.\n\nThe 160-seater Air India Airbus 320, commanded by Captain Aditya Chopra, finally landed around 15:30 Kabul time.\n\nUsually it took between 105 and 120 minutes to fly from Delhi to Kabul; on Sunday afternoon it had taken three and a half hours.\n\nSome passengers on the plane recounted that they could \"gauge the tension on the ground\", but it was not clear what it was all about.\n\nThere were soldiers skirting the runways. There was also a roar of air activity: C-17 Globemaster military transport aircraft and Chinook helicopters were flying in and out.\n\nAnd they saw civilian airplanes belonging to Pakistan and Qatar parked on the tarmac.\n\nTaliban fighters outside the international airport in Kabul on Sunday\n\n\"We heard that airport workers were sheltering at the airport, and there was a big rush of people trying to enter the airport,\" a passenger on the Air India flight said.\n\nAfter the flight landed, the crew stayed in the cockpit as is the protocol in Kabul.\n\nAfter waiting more than an hour and a half on the tarmac, the Air India plane took off with 129 passengers. Among them were some Afghan officials, at least two MPs and a senior advisor to the former president. A number of others possibly missed the flight because they were caught in traffic jams in Kabul.\n\n\"I have never seen the plight of citizens of a country so desperate to leave their land. When they walked into the plane, you could see that desperation in their eyes,\" one passenger said.\n\nThe majority of passengers on the flight were Afghans, escaping their country. There were also several returning Indian workers.\n\nBy the evening, there was a desperate rush of Afghans to the Kabul airport to catch a flight out of the country - videos emerged of pell-mell crowds of men, women and children inside the airport and milling on the tarmac. Major airlines were rerouting their flights to avoid flying over Afghanistan.\n\nOn Monday morning videos emerged of a rush of passengers scrambling for an evacuation flight out of Kabul.\n\nThis 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 Nicola Careem 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.\n\nIn 1999, an Indian Airlines - which later merged with Air India - jet was hijacked en route to Delhi from Kathmandu with 180 people on board. It was flown to Kandahar in Afghanistan, from where the hijackers negotiated the release of militants fighting in Kashmir. India released three Kashmiri militants in exchange for the passengers. None of the five armed hijackers were caught.\n\nAir India has been operating regular flights to Kabul after the war ended, but everything is uncertain now. A spokesperson said there was a scheduled commercial flight to Kabul on Monday afternoon.\n\n\"But if the airspace is closed, we won't be able to operate.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "In an exclusive interview, Nobel peace laureate, Malala Yousafzai, has told the BBC that countries need to open their borders to Afghan refugees, following the fall of the country's government to the Taliban.\n\nThe Pakistani activist was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen in 2012 because she campaigned for girls' education.\n\nMalala Yousafzai told BBC Newsnight's Sima Kotecha that the world needs to act.", "Tyler Westlake had checked the conditions beforehand and was a \"strong swimmer\", the inquest heard\n\nAn angler was swept to his death off rocks by a \"rogue wave\", an inquest has been told.\n\nTyler Westlake, 24, was fishing with two friends at Tubby's Head, St Agnes, on the north Cornwall coast, last November when the incident happened.\n\nHis friends were also struck by the wave as they packed up fishing gear but managed to scramble to safety, the hearing in Truro was told.\n\nThe tragedy happened as the UK was battered by torrential rain and thunderstorms, the inquest was told.\n\nMr Westlake's best friend, Charlton Cunningham, said they had checked the tide times, wind and swell before setting off on 12 November.\n\nHe said the wind did not drop so they started to pack up when a large wave crashed over them.\n\nMr Cunningham's girlfriend, Hannah Davey, said they were hit by a \"rogue wave\" at the spot, where they regularly went to as a \"safe place to fish\", adding that \"Tyler was a strong swimmer\".\n\nMr Westlake was swept into the sea and then smashed by another wave, disappearing in the water, the inquest heard.\n\nMr Cox heard the pair did not see Mr Westlake go into the sea, but saw and heard him shouting for help.\n\nThey said he removed his coat and lay on his back in the sea \"to preserve energy\", but the second wave struck and \"swept him under\".\n\nFour lifeboats, three coastguard teams, a helicopter and police searched for him and recovered some of Mr Westlake's possessions from the sea.\n\nHowever, his body was never found despite 45 hours of searching.\n\nMr Cox concluded it was an accidental death, saying: \"Tyler was hit by a wave which swept him into the sea and he was not able to be recovered.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Masks are expected to remain for at least six weeks\n\nScotland's education secretary has promised face coverings in classrooms will be dropped \"as soon as possible\".\n\nAs most pupils return this week, the need for masks in high schools is one of the main mitigations remaining.\n\nThe Scottish government had said the requirement would be in place for \"at least six weeks\", but Shirley-Anne Somerville told the BBC if it could be dropped earlier, it would.\n\nAll secondary pupils must continue to wear them at all times.\n\nIn an interview with Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme, the minister said that the covid rules in place for the return to school were \"erring on the side of caution\".\n\nMs Somerville said: \"We are making sure we are continuing to keep a safe environment for children and young people and staff.\n\n\"Wearing face masks within areas for example, retail etc, is still in place in the wider community for secondary school age people. Because secondary school age children would have been wearing a mask for example going to the shops to do back to school shopping, it won't be unusual for them to continue to wear the masks as they go to school.\"\n\nShe added: \"Of course we would like to take these restrictions off as soon as possible. We think they might be in place for up to six weeks, that's to ensure that all the staff within our schools have the opportunity to be fully doubly vaccinated.\n\n\"But if we can take those restrictions - particularly the face masks - off earlier then of course we would do that.\"\n\nChildren under 12 do not have to wear face coverings in school but will join all pupils in maintaining 1m physical distancing from teachers and staff.\n\nThe biggest difference pupils and parents will notice in the new session is changes to self-isolation rules.\n\nThe blanket self-isolation of whole classes following a positive Covid test is no longer routine.\n\nMs Somerville said: \"That's very important because that really does reduce the level of disruption that children and young people have had.\n\n\"Last year we had many people having to self isolate that didn't go on to actually get Covid. We had many people having education disrupted but not actually getting the disease at the end of it.\n\n\"With the changes we have made, we will see less disruption.\"\n\nA year ago, the return to school triggered a spike in Covid tests and by September, tens of thousands of pupils were absent from school, however, not all were for Covid-related reasons.\n\nThe education secretary does not believe a rise in infections will follow the return this year.\n\nShe said: \"It is incumbent on all of us across wider society to still be maintaining guidance in place at the moment.\n\n\"The best way we can stop spreads within the wider population and that includes children and young people is by us all following the rules because a lot of what happens in the schools is based around community transmission not actually transmission within the schools.\"\n\nThe majority of council areas go back over the course of this week, with pupils returning in North Lanarkshire, Glasgow and Renfrewshire from Monday.\n\nLesley-Ann Dick, headteacher of Our Lady of Peace Primary School in Linwood, Renfrewshire, told BBC Radio Scotland: \"We know that many people will be really keen to get their children back to school today but there are others who might still be a wee bit anxious because of the reduction in (Covid safety) measures.\n\n\"But schools are here to support families and staff and they should contact the school if they have any concerns, because their health and wellbeing is of our utmost concern.\"\n\nAt Notre Dame High in Glasgow girls starting sixth year told BBC Scotland they are excited about the new academic year.\n\nOne said: \"It's nice to be back and it's good to see the school changing. It's like a completely different school and I can't wait to see what it's going to be like.\"\n\nAnd a classmate added: \"I've been really looking forward to it, especially since it does feel a lot safer than it was before.\n\n\"A lot of people have been getting vaccinated and I'm feel really grateful.\"\n\nMeanwhile, it is not yet clear whether Scottish pupils will sit \"normal\" exams this year.\n\nCandidates have not been able to sit traditional exams for two years, with 2021 grades again criticised for how they were reached, by a combination of coursework and assessments.\n\nThe exams body, the SQA, is also to be replaced and Ms Somerville said plans would be revealed in the near future.\n\n\"I will be making that announcement soon as I appreciate that both children and young people and staff will want to make early planning for that,\" she said.\n\n\"We want to reassure the young people going into assessments this year that they will know what they are facing very, very soon.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'This is an urgent humanitarian crisis'\n\nUS President Joe Biden \"has a lot to do\" and must \"take a bold step\" to protect the Afghan people, Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has said.\n\nThe Pakistani women's rights activist found refuge in the UK after being shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012.\n\nShe told BBC Two's Newsnight it was time for world leaders - especially the UK and US - to act to protect civilians and refugees in the country.\n\n\"Countries need to open their borders to Afghan refugees\", she said.\n\nYousafzai, now 24, was 15 when she was targeted by the Taliban for speaking up for the right of girls to be educated.\n\nShe survived the assault, in which a militant boarded her school bus in the north-western Swat valley and opened fire, wounding two of her school friends as well.\n\nAfter recovering from her near-fatal injuries, she and her family relocated to Birmingham. Aged 17, she later became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She studied at Oxford University, and has become a leading human rights campaigner.\n\nIn an exclusive interview with Newsnight on the plight of Afghanistan, Yousafzai said: \"My request to all countries, especially the US, UK, and western countries, is that they must protect all those human and women's rights activists right now.\n\n\"And you know what has happened, you know, we can definitely debate about that. But we also need to talk about the immediate next steps that we need to take. We need to talk more about the solutions right now.\"\n\nShe accused America of making irresponsible statements in the light of the Taliban takeover.\n\n\"I think the way the US described this war and how it was declared as a victory, I think this sends a very wrong impression,\" she said. \"The Taliban waited for twenty years and they [US] are claiming their so-called victory after that.\"\n\nThe US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, recently said that the US-led mission in Afghanistan had been a successful one.\n\nYousafzai said she has talked to other world leaders and members of the US and UK governments.\n\n\"I have been trying to reach out to many global leaders. I think every country has a role and responsibility right now. Countries need to open their borders to Afghan refugees, to the displaced people,\" she said.\n\nYousafzai, pictured at a conference in 2019, set up the Malala Fund to support girls' education in Pakistan\n\nYousafzai has been an avid campaigner of women's rights, often emphasising the need for girls in developing countries to have a proper education.\n\nShe said she was \"raising her voice for the women\" in Afghanistan who are fearful about their future under a Taliban regime.\n\nWhen the Taliban previously controlled the country, women were stoned for adultery while their limbs were cut off for theft. Girls were prevented from going to school.\n\nYousafzai said: \"The women are brave, they're strong, and they keep raising their voices. And we must give more opportunities and time to them to tell us what it is that needs to be done for them, for the peace in Afghanistan.\"\n\nWhen asked about the rapid pull-out of the coalition forces from Afghanistan, she said the focus during their time there had sometimes been wrong.\n\n\"There had been very little interest in focusing on the humanitarian aid and the humanitarian work.\n\n\"There had been very little focus on strengthening the democracy there, there has been very little focus on eradicating extremist ideologies. I think every country, every group, is finding their own interest in it, and they're finding their own benefits.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Malala Yousafzai: \"I want to inspire women and girls\"", "The Taliban are establishing themselves after sweeping into Kabul unopposed on Sunday.\n\nAfghan President Ashraf Ghani has fled the country, reportedly to Uzbekistan.\n\nHere are pictures from the capital on Monday.\n\nLife appears to be normal in the city centre, says the BBC's Malik Mudassir.\n\nThere is a lot less traffic, most of the shops are closed. But people look much calmer.\n\nAt the international airport, though, scenes were catastrophic, said our correspondent.\n\nThere are currently 2,500 American troops at the airport, with an additional 500 arriving in the coming hours, said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.\n\nUS troops - seen below - are still \"working to re-establish security\", the spokesman said, as the Pentagon announced a pause in flights.\n\nFootage shared on social media appears to show Afghan civilians clinging to the side of a US military aircraft as it prepares to take off.\n\nAmnesty International has called on the international community to act \"decisively to avert further tragedy\".\n\n\"What we are witnessing in Afghanistan is a tragedy that should have been foreseen and averted,\" said the organisation's secretary general, Agnes Callamard.\n\nAll pictures are subject to copyright.", "On social media, there's a new type of influencer. But instead of promoting clothing lines and lifestyle products, they promote fraud.\n\nThey flash stacks of cash, hide their faces, and some even lure new recruits by selling guides on committing fraud.\n\nYou'd think these scammers and their illegal products would be hard to find, and once upon a time, they were, hidden in the shadows of the dark web. But not any more.\n\nAs part of an investigation for BBC Panorama, I discovered just how easy it was to make deals with fraudsters and purchase fraud guides online. I also unmasked one anonymous influencer who has been selling them.\n\nOn social, perpetrators of online retail fraud refer to it as \"clicking\", making it seem more innocuous.\n\nBut committing fraud - which is defined by the police-run service Action Fraud as using trickery to gain a dishonest advantage, often financial, over another person - can lead to up to 10 years in prison.\n\nThe guides being traded are known as methods.\n\nThey can target banks, retailers and even the government's Universal Credit system, leaving organisations and members of the public out of pocket.\n\nAnd they all rely heavily on something known as fullz, slang for full information.\n\nThese are the personal details of an unconnected person: typically an individual's name, phone number, address and bank details.\n\nWith the fullz in hand, fraudsters can follow the steps in the guides to make online purchases or even take out a loan in someone else's name.\n\nPanorama: Hunting the Social Media Fraudsters is on BBC One at 19:35 BST on Monday or later on iPlayer\n\nHow do these private details end up in circulation in the first place?\n\nThey have often come from phishing scams. Think of those dodgy emails or text messages that pretend to be from legitimate sources and con people into revealing their personal information.\n\nSometimes these fraudsters conduct or commission phishing activities themselves, or sometimes they get hold of the information via others.\n\nExploiting a person's \"fullz\" - by, for example, making purchases using their details - can wreck their credit score. A bad credit score can have life-changing implications: it affects your chances of applying for a loan, or getting a mortgage, or even opening a new bank account.\n\nI contacted one fraudster who was advertising his services on social media and, through a messaging app, he offered to build me a fake website and send 4,000 phishing texts on my behalf to get people's personal details. His fee was £115.\n\nOn a separate Instagram profile, I noticed a scammer had posted some \"fullz\" - as a sort of free sample, encouraging people to pay to receive many more stolen details. I decided to call some of the phone numbers that were listed.\n\nIt was difficult listening to a stranger react as I told them their names, addresses, card details and phone numbers were posted online for anyone to see and exploit.\n\nI later met up with one of the victims, Wilson from Oxford, who said seeing all his details online was scary because it made him realise how unprotected he was.\n\nSo why aren't more people behind these schemes being caught?\n\nCybercrime specialist Jake Moore says investigators are facing an uphill battle to find the culprits.\n\n\"Anonymous accounts are leaving not just a small amount of breadcrumbs to investigate them - there are no breadcrumbs,\" he says. \"There's no digital footprint left behind them. So to investigate this is nearly impossible.\"\n\nBut being an influencer inevitably means sharing some elements of your life online - and over time, one influencer has left behind a few too many clues.\n\nHe calls himself Tankz, and in videos of him rapping online, he boasts: \"I'm a London scammer. I see it, I want it, I click it.\"\n\nI posed as someone interested in learning about fraud and messaged Tankz about his methods via Instagram. We bought his top guide for £100.\n\nIt arrived as a link, sent via social media, to 43 files on a cloud storage system.\n\nThe files were filled with detailed techniques on how to exploit online retailers. They also directed would-be criminals to websites where they can buy \"fullz\".\n\nWe wanted to find out who this masked fraud influencer was.\n\nPanorama analysed footage Tankz posted on social media, and realised he gave too much away while trying to remain anonymous.\n\nWe noted a reference to north London's Wembley as his local area, a mention of studying economics and finance at university, and a glimpse of his car number plate.\n\nOne clip also featured a distinctive black-and-grey carpet, and we were able to find a match on a website advertising student accommodation in the Wembley area.\n\nWe went to the block, spotted the car, and waited. Then we saw a man approach the car wearing the exact same tracksuit Tankz had been wearing earlier that day in a social media video.\n\nLeft: a photo of Tankz, right: the man that BBC Panorama believes may be Tankz\n\nWe had unmasked the masked fraudster but who was he?\n\nHis social media posts are anonymous, but we discovered that his songs were also listed on Apple Music. On one of his tracks, the copyright isn't listed to Tankz, but to what seems is his real name: Luke Joseph.\n\nIt didn't stop there. We discovered an email sent from Tankz's official address which also made a reference to the same name. There was even an eBay account under the name of Tankz, where Luke Joseph is the contact address.\n\nFinally, we discovered that there was someone of the same name living in the same student accommodation block in Wembley. It seems that Tankz may be a London student called Luke Joseph.\n\nWe contacted Luke Joseph, and Tankz, but we didn't get a response.\n\nHis TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat accounts were removed by the respective social media platforms after Panorama notified them about the content.\n\nSince then, he has created a new TikTok account where he continues to post about his life.\n\nSo what are the wider authorities doing to crack down on online fraud and those who promote it?\n\nEarlier this year, the government revealed plans to reduce illegal and harmful digital content. It wants the communications regulator Ofcom to police social media and hold big tech giants to account.\n\nFraud-related content was not originally set to be included in this Online Safety Bill, but at the last minute the government changed its mind. The word \"fraud\" is still absent, but it could be covered by what the bill refers to as \"illegal content\".\n\nSome have voiced concerns that it won't specifically address the problem.\n\nArun Chauhan, a solicitor specialising in fraud, says he thinks the bill \"is not fit for purpose in the fight against fraud\".\n\nBut a government spokesperson told Panorama the new law would \"increase people's protection\" from scams, and said they \"continue to pursue fraudsters\" and \"close down the vulnerabilities they exploit\".\n\nTikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube all told us they did not allow fraud on their platforms.\n\nThey said that they took fraud very seriously and were constantly clamping down on criminal content.\n\nThe question is whether they can take it down faster than it's being posted.\n\nPanorama: Hunting the Social Media Fraudsters is on BBC One at 19:35 BST on Monday or later on iPlayer", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nSecond LV= Insurance Test, Lord's (day five of five)\n\nEngland produced one of their worst home performances in recent memory to lose the second Test against India by 151 runs at Lord's.\n\nFrom a position where they started the final day as marginal favourites, England's bowling was flayed by the India tail before their batting capitulated to 120 all out.\n\nMohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah - two genuine tailenders - shared a ninth-wicket stand of 89 in front of some raucous Indian support.\n\nShami had reached 56 not out and Bumrah an unbeaten 34 when India declared on 298-8, setting England an unlikely 272 to win or 60 overs to survive.\n\nThey instantly found themselves 1-2 after openers Rory Burns and Dom Sibley fell for ducks, and hope faded when Jonny Bairstow then, crucially, captain Joe Root were dismissed in the space of four balls separated by tea.\n\nJos Buttler, who faced 96 deliveries for 25, chewed up 16 overs with Moeen Ali and 12 with Ollie Robinson, either side of Sam Curran completing a king pair.\n\nHowever, Robinson and Buttler fell in successive overs, before Mohammed Siraj bowled last man James Anderson to end with 4-32 and put a rampant India 1-0 up with three Tests to play.\n• None I got tactics wrong in the field - Root\n• None Tuffers & Vaughan podcast: 'This series has just gone up a notch'\n\nDisappointing England Test performances have become commonplace, especially overseas. They have also been bowled out for 85 and 67 at home by Ireland and Australia respectively, but at least they won those matches.\n\nWhat makes this defeat so abject is the manner they threw away a genuine chance of victory, one which came after they were second best in the drawn first Test and allowed India to reach 276-3 on day one here.\n\nTheir tactics during the Shami-Bumrah stand were completely baffling. Perhaps sucked in by the emotion of Anderson being peppered by Bumrah on the the third evening, England targeted the man rather than the stumps. By the time they changed the plan, it was too late.\n\nNot only that, but the fractious nature of the contest - there were numerous verbal exchanges between the two sides - seemed to galvanise India, while England wilted.\n\nSure enough, when England came to bat to save the match on a pitch only showing an occasional sign of uneven bounce, they were blown away, much to the delight of the swathe of India fans inside a buzzing Lord's.\n\nEngland are now without a win in seven Tests and must find a response when the sides reconvene at Headingley on 25 August. India, on the other hand, will take some stopping.\n\nWith India 181-6 overnight - 154 ahead - their hopes seemed to rest on the swashbuckling Rishabh Pant.\n\nThat they could be taken to a declaration by Shami and Bumrah - men who averaged 11 and three respectively in Test cricket - is barely believable.\n\nAnd yet, after Robinson had Pant caught behind for 22 and trapped Ishant Sharma lbw for three, England took leave of their cricketing senses, scattering the field and hardly producing a delivery aimed at the top of off stump.\n\nAlthough Bumrah began with some wild swipes, Shami was assured throughout. As England became increasingly frustrated, Bairstow dropped a half-chance at mid-wicket when Shami was on 31, while Root shelled a straightforward catch at slip off Moeen when Bumrah had 22.\n\nShami went to his second Test half-century from 57 balls by hoisting Moeen over mid-wicket for six, both men reaching their highest scores. Overall, the ninth-wicket pair bumped along at 4.5 an over.\n\nBy the time the declaration arrived in the second over after lunch, India were the only side with a realistic chance of victory, while England were absolutely scrambled.\n\nGiven their fun with the bat and England's fragile batting, it was almost inevitable that Bumrah and Shami would do early damage.\n\nWhen Burns got a leading edge off Bumrah and Shami produced a devilish away-swinger to take Sibley's edge, it was the first time in an England home Test innings that both of their openers had fallen for ducks. Sibley must be in severe danger of being left out of the third Test.\n\nEven the prolific Root, who made an unbeaten 180 in the first innings, could not save his team. He was caught at first slip off Bumrah in the first over after tea and England looked beaten.\n\nAlthough Buttler and Moeen battled, they still needed the fortune of Buttler being dropped by first slip Virat Kohli off Bumrah and Moeen being caught behind off a Ravindra Jadeja no-ball.\n\nWhen Moeen and Curran edged successive Siraj deliveries, Curran became the first man to return two golden ducks in a Lord's Test.\n\nRobinson provided support to Buttler, yet when he was lbw on review to a skilful Bumrah slower ball from round the wicket, it was the start of the final three wickets falling in seven deliveries.\n\nSiraj had Buttler caught behind and bowled Anderson with a beauty, the pace bowler setting off on a sprint to begin the celebrations of a famous India victory.\n• None An expose into the drug war and cartels that operate on the Mexico/US border\n• None Can the recruits gets through these gruelling Special Forces tests?", "The remains of Esther Dingley, an experienced hiker, were found by Mr Colegate on Monday\n\nThe partner of a British hiker who went missing in the Pyrenees has paid tribute to French and Spanish police teams involved in the search for her.\n\nDaniel Colegate found Esther Dingley's remains on Monday, more than eight months after she disappeared.\n\nInvestigators have said Ms Dingley's injuries suggested a fall, though the cause was unclear.\n\nIn a statement on the couple's Facebook page, Mr Colegate said those looking for Ms Dingley were \"heroes\".\n\n\"Having experienced first hand how hard it was to find answers, I honestly don't think they could have done more,\" he said.\n\n\"The only difference between me and them was that I only had a single task, while they continued to rescue others as well.\"\n\nDaniel Colegate walked hundreds of miles in the search for his missing partner Esther Dingley\n\nThe couple met at Oxford University and lived in Durham before setting off to travel around Europe in a campervan six years ago.\n\nMs Dingley, who was an experienced hiker, had been trekking solo when she last communicated with her partner from the top of Pic de Sauvegarde at about 16:00 on 22 November.\n\nMr Colegate said he did not \"have the vocabulary to fully express how challenging these past months have been\".\n\n\"But I am certain that without the support, courage and determination of the individuals assigned to lead this case and their team members, those difficulties would have been significantly increased,\" he said.\n\nInvestigators said the cause of Ms Dingley's accident was not clear\n\nThe BBC's Chris Bockman in Toulouse said an autopsy and an examination of Ms Dingley's rucksack had been carried out by forensic teams.\n\nHe said it was \"unclear\" how the accident had happened but police believe the hiking shoes she was wearing several thousand metres up a mountain \"did not have the grip necessary for the icy conditions at the time and she probably slipped and fell\".\n\nHe also said French officers had confirmed Mr Colegate, who was 100 miles away in France when Ms Dingley, 37, disappeared, was not a suspect.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Captain Mark Hale was fatally wounded in a bomb attack in Afghanistan\n\nThe widow of a soldier from County Down who was killed in Afghanistan has said her husband \"died in vain\".\n\nAlmost 20 years after they were ousted from power, the Taliban has effectively seized control of the country.\n\nIt follows the withdrawal of most foreign troops in recent days.\n\nBrenda Hale, whose husband Capt Mark Hale was killed in August 2009, said by withdrawing from the country, Western governments have left people \"in the mouth of hell\".\n\nAfghanistan's capital city, Kabul, was the last major territory to fall to the Taliban, with the collapse of the country's government.\n\nPeople try to get inside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul\n\nOn Monday, crowds descended on Kabul's international airport, which is under the control of US troops, in an attempt to leave Afghanistan.\n\nMrs Hale, a former DUP assembly member, said the events in Afghanistan coincided with the 12th anniversary of her husband's death and she watched the television pictures with a \"knot\" in her stomach and \"in a state of anxiety\".\n\nSpeaking to BBC News NI, Mrs Hale said the television pictures from Afghanistan are \"difficult to watch\" and the situation across the country is \"hard to comprehend\".\n\nMrs Hale claimed that Western governments have abandoned the Afghani people and left the country \"like a concentration camp and given the Nazis the key\".\n\nShe said her husband was a \"hugely compassionate and kind man\" and, whilst in Afghanistan, had worked hard to protect local residents from the Taliban.\n\nShe insisted that Capt Hale and his military colleagues really believed they were \"trying to build some sort of democracy in Afghanistan to help that country move forward\".\n\nBrenda Hale, whose husband Capt Mark Hale was killed in August 2009, said the situation is \"hard to comprehend\"\n\nMrs Hale added that after the Western Forces left the country, \"we have sent the devil in after them and that petrifies me for the people living in Afghanistan\".\n\nShe said that by leaving the country, the West was creating \"a dystopian playground for international terrorists to train and come and hit the West at any given time\".\n\nThe former politician also said having to negotiate with the Taliban would be \"a very bitter pill to swallow\".\n\nMPs are to debate the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on Wednesday in the House of Commons.\n\nAlliance deputy leader Stephen Farry thinks the debate has come \"a little late in this process\".\n\nThe North Down MP said the government has \"dropped the ball on this\" and should have acted sooner.\n\nDUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said Northern Ireland has a duty to consider offering sanctuary to some refugees from Afghanistan.\n\nHe said people who worked with British forces and in particular Christian minority groups should be offered support.\n\nSir Jeffrey, who visited troops from Northern Ireland in the country a number of times, said it was evident the coalition-backed police and army \"weren't up to the task of taking on a much smaller, less well-equipped Taliban\".\n\nHe told BBC News NI's Good Morning Ulster he feared there would be \"terrible consequences from the Taliban\" for those citizens who \"very courageously worked alongside our military\".\n\nSDLP MP Claire Hanna told BBC News NI that Northern Ireland has \"a capacity to take a number of refugees and asylum seekers\".\n\nShe said they will be people who make \"a strong contribution to life here\".\n\nIreland's Foreign Minister Simon Coveney has said 15 Irish citizens are currently looking to leave Afghanistan.\n\nMr Coveney confirmed there were a total of 23 Irish citizens currently in Afghanistan, adding he was \"very concerned\" about the situation there.\n\n\"Some have expressed a preference to stay for now, because they are working with humanitarian organisations and doing very important work that is becoming even more important now,\" he told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.\n\nMr Coveney also said the Irish government had already made decisions about visa waivers for Afghan people.\n\n\"We've already approved 45 visa waivers - some of those people are trying to get out and some are in Pakistan having fled across the border and are flying into Ireland,\" he said.\n\n\"I have agreed we would certainly make available between 100 and 150 more places in terms of refugees, and we will be prioritising human rights organisations, media, women and girls, and other family members that are vulnerable.\"\n\nAn Irish woman currently in Kabul says she is hoping to be able to return home within the next 48 hours.\n\nAoife MacManus, from Ashbourne in County Meath, has been living in Kabul for two years, working in the primary education sector.\n\nShe said \"there is a sense of panic and fear all over the city - it's the fear of the worst expectations\".\n\nShe said that leaving her work compound on Sunday \"everybody was crying because of the expectations of what things are going to be like\".\n\n\"All the work we've put into education, that it might all be for nothing.\"\n\nUlster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie, who served three tours in Afghanistan with the Royal Irish Regiment, said he had \"a real sense of anger, a real sense of sadness, but most of all a real sense of fear\" about what has happened.\n\n\"Fear for the people of Afghanistan, especially women and young girls who will now be airbrushed out of that society and repressed once again,\" he continued.\n\nMr Beattie, who reached the rank of captain, said he believed there would be reprisals for Afghan citizens who worked with and worked for the coalition forces.\n\nThe Upper Bann assembly member said many women and young girls could face \"virtual enslavement\" with the potential for the \"horrific\" treatment of people in villages and rural areas under a Taliban regime.\n\nSinn Féin Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said the international community needed to act to help the people of Afghanistan.\n\nShe added: \"Previously the Stormont Executive welcomed Syrian refugees as part of the British government relocation and resettlement scheme.\n\n\"Our party would certainly support such a scheme for Afghans to provide whatever measure of support we can.\"", "This image of Mark Barrott in 2015 was released along with CCTV images of him at Leeds railway station on Sunday\n\nDetectives investigating a woman's murder have appealed for help to trace her husband and released CCTV images as he caught a train to Scotland.\n\nEileen Barrott, aged 50, was found with serious injuries when officers went to Naburn Fold, in Whinmoor, Leeds, at about 18.30 BST on Sunday.\n\nThe injured woman died at the scene, said West Yorkshire Police.\n\nMark Barrott, 54, left Leeds by train arriving at Edinburgh Waverley at 16:00 the same day, said the force.\n\nCCTV images of Mr Barrott at Leeds railway station on Sunday have been released\n\nDet Ch Insp Vanessa Rolfe said: \"We urgently need to speak to Mark Barrott in connection with the investigation.\"\n\nAnyone who has seen Mr Barrott or has information has been asked to contact the police.\n\n\"We would advise members of the public not to approach him but to contact the police immediately via 999 if they do see him,\" she added.\n\nPolice are also trying to trace Mr Barrott's car, a silver Toyota Avensis, registration FJ51 ZHB that is still believed to be in Leeds.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Work days for midwife Nooria Haya regularly included meetings and discussions with male doctors. They decided on treatments for locals and the priorities for the public clinic she works in. It's in Ishkamish, a rural district with sparse amenities, in Takhar province on Afghanistan's north-eastern border with Tajikistan.\n\nBut recently, the 29-year-old found out that meetings between male and female staff were prohibited. It was the first order the Taliban gave them when the group took control of the region, she says. She could only ask herself how else her life would change.\n\nIshkamish sits in the Hindu Kush mountain range. It's a key border area that the Taliban, emboldened by Nato's withdrawal of nearly 10,000 troops at the start of May, has taken.\n\nIgniting intense fighting with seemingly unprepared government forces in southern Helmand by the middle of the month, the fundamentalist Islamist group then took the northern Burka district at the mountains' foothills.\n\nAround the same time, US forces left Kandahar airbase - one of the largest in the nation, in a province containing the country's second largest city, Kandahar. Locals were acutely aware of the Taliban's progress.\n\n\"Every individual was frightened,\" says Jan Agha, 54, in Arghistan district, on the border with Pakistan, and a windy two-hour drive east of Kandahar city.\n\nPeople locked themselves in their homes. But the Taliban took up positions in almost every village. Locals can't escape them.\n\nArmed fighters walk through the streets. In the morning and evening, they knock on people's doors to collect food, which they're given for fear of worse consequences.\n\n\"Each house now keeps three or four breads or dishes for them,\" Jan, a fruit seller, says, no matter how poor the residents, in a chronically poor country. If the fighters want to stay in their homes too, they do.\n\nThrough June, the Taliban claimed the capture of several provinces in the north, including Takhar, Faryab and Badakhshan. They forced the army to strategically retreat, and with it democratic institutions. Most of the 2,500 US troops had left by this time, although a handful remain in the capital Kabul, as does its Air Force.\n\nAfghans have criticised the international withdrawal as too hasty. Some argue that peace talks over the last two years between the Americans and the Taliban only enhanced the latter's perceived legitimacy, recruitment and ambition.\n\nAn end to the conflict - which had been ongoing since the US-led invasion ended half a decade of Taliban rule almost 20 years ago - had never been close.\n\nAs the Taliban reasserted itself in June, fighters sequestered more than food and lodging. Social and economic rights fought for with limited success over the last two decades were immediately withdrawn. Their privations on women descended on Nooria for the first time in her life.\n\n\"There are a lot of restrictions now. When I go out, I have to wear a burka as the Taliban orders us, and a male has to accompany me,\" she says.\n\nTravelling as a midwife across the district is especially difficult. Men are not allowed to shave their beards - the Taliban says this is against Islam. Barbers are prohibited from giving purportedly foreign-style short back and sides haircuts.\n\nA group within the Taliban, called the Amri bil Marof (literally: order the good), particularly enforces the social rules. Its punishments brought the most terror to Afghans in the 1990s. Now, again, it's imposing a two-strike rule. First a warning, second a punishment - public humiliations, prison, beatings, lashes.\n\n\"Suddenly most freedoms have been taken away from us,\" Nooria says. \"It is so hard. But we have no other option. They are brutal. We have to do whatever they say. They are using Islam for their own purposes. We are Muslims ourselves, but their beliefs are different.\"\n\nDifference has also arrived with some increased security from criminality, and from war - where the conflict has been pushed to other areas. Locals welcome such nuanced calm, as they would if the government were in control - even if they doubt its durability.\n\nBut other things have been driven away too. Afghans used to visit Takhar, famous among the country's 34 provinces for its clean, crisp mountain air that blankets snowy mountains, green and verdant fields, and clear river waters.\n\nIn Farkhar district, taxi driver Asif Ahadi says he used to make 900 Afghanis ($11; £8) a day. But as the Taliban continued their march, tourists stopped their travels.\n\n\"Those visitors were my customers,\" Asif, 35, says. \"The money they paid me I used to feed my family. Now my best day will only earn me 150 Afghanis. It's not even enough to cover the cost of my fuel, which has more than doubled now.\"\n\nAnd there's been a deadening impact on social life. \"People used to have parties every Friday night - listen to music and dance - have fun. All of these are completely banned now,\" Asif says.\n\n\"Every business has suffered the same.\"\n\nBy 4 July, two days after US and Nato troops left Afghanistan's biggest airbase at Bagram, the linchpin for all US-led operations for the last two decades, the Taliban seized Panjwai district, in Kandahar province - their birthplace and former bastion.\n\nLess than a week later, they said they controlled the country's biggest border crossing and trade route with Iran and major port, Islam Qala. By the third week of the month, the insurgency had already claimed to command 90% of Afghanistan's borders and 85% of the country. The government disputed the figures - and they are impossible to independently verify - and it still held more populated urban areas.\n\nAs the Taliban solidified their control, people started to come out of hiding at home, Asif says. Some had never seen the Taliban's rapid dispensing of justice and methods of governing before.\n\n\"They make decisions very quickly on issues and matters like crime,\" Asif says. \"There's no bureaucracy, no red tape - every sort of problem can be solved in days - and nobody can challenge any decision.\"\n\nThey also collect \"Taliban Usher\" and Zakat, usually freely-given Islamic offerings to the poor, of about 10% of people's harvest or a fraction of income, respectively. But the Taliban distorts them into essentially taxes for their own use.\n\nIt's another financial pressure, alongside prices for \"all goods that are hiked to sky\", Asif says, as external and internal trade is restricted, and the economy is squeezed. Public works have stopped.\n\n\"The people were already very poor, and there's no opportunity for work, and no investment,\" he adds.\n\nSome have seen the Taliban's system before, however.\n\n\"Their ideology and thinking are exactly as they were during their Emirate time. Nothing has changed at all,\" says Jan. \"The Taliban say they have sacrificed a lot to re-establish the Islamic Emirate, so it can't be cast aside.\"\n\nHe says the Taliban has shut all schools in his area. They've said any education should be according to their strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law. It's one of many worrying indicators for locals.\n\nDuring their last rule from 1996 to 2001, the Taliban banned education and work for women and girls, and restricted their access to healthcare. Since they were forced from power, women retook places in public life, making up a quarter of parliament.\n\nNumbers of girls in primary education went up to 50%, although by late secondary school the figure was around 20%. Women's life expectancy grew from 57 to 66 years. The figures are comparatively poor, but improvements have been made. Yet now there are only fears that they will regress.\n\nProgress is what the Taliban are making now. In August, they've attacked more urban centres - taking a third of the regional capitals, including Kunduz in the north and Taloqan in Takhar province. This week they took Herat in the west, and southern Kandahar and Lashkar Gah, strategically and symbolically important cities, where, together, well over one million people live.\n\nThe US Air Force has been supporting the Afghan military with strikes. But the last remaining foreign forces are expected to leave the country by 11 September. The date marks the 20th anniversary of al-Qaeda's 9/11 attacks in the US. They spurred the US-led invasion of Afghanistan to remove the Taliban from power for harbouring Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures.\n\nThe struggle takes its toll on human life. A thousand civilians were killed in the month up to the first week of August, the UN says. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes.\n\nControl of the country isn't yet certain. But where the Taliban now rules, the change is clear.\n\n\"You have to bow your head to live your life,\" Jan says. \"You cannot dare oppose them. You cannot say things against them at all. If they say 'yes', you have to say 'yes'. If they say 'no', you must say 'no'.\"\n\nSuch fear prevails, Nooria says. \"Although it might seem like people looked relaxed, when you speak with them, you understand the serious worries they have. We sit together, praying for God to take them away from us.\"\n\nThe names of interviewees have been changed\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Secunder Kermani reports on life in a town recently taken by the Taliban", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Johnson: \"We've known for a long time this was the way things were going\"\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson has said no one wants Afghanistan to become a \"breeding ground for terror\", as the Taliban enters capital Kabul.\n\nSpeaking after a meeting of the emergency Cobra committee, he said the situation \"continues to be extremely difficult\" and will get even more so.\n\nHe called on \"like-minded\" powers to work together and not recognise any new government without agreement.\n\nThe UK Parliament is being recalled on Wednesday to discuss the situation.\n\nAfghan President Ashraf Ghani has fled the country as the militants stand on the brink of taking total control.\n\nThe situation is \"extremely difficult\" in Afghanistan and is \"getting more difficult\", said Mr Johnson.\n\n\"Our priority is to make sure we deliver on our obligations to UK nationals, to all those who have helped the British effort in Afghanistan over 20 years, and to get them out as fast as we can.\"\n\nMr Johnson said the British ambassador - who remains in Kabul - was \"working around the clock\" to do this and has been at the airport processing applications.\n\nThe prime minister said he wanted to make sure other like-minded nations did not \"prematurely\" recognise the Taliban.\n\nHe added: \"What we're dealing with now is very likely the advent of a new regime in Kabul. We don't know yet exactly what kind of regime it will be\".\n\nReports from Kabul say the Taliban have now seized the presidential palace. It comes after thousands of Afghans sought refuge in the city in recent weeks.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMr Johnson said the UK would work with the UN Security Council and other Nato countries to stop Afghanistan \"lapsing back into terror\" and called for an \"international effort\" from the West.\n\nHe admitted the US decision to pull out of the country had \"accelerated things\" in Afghanistan but said \"we've known for a long time this was the way things would go\".\n\nThe Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said the UK has reduced its diplomatic presence but that government staff \"continue to work to provide assistance to British nationals and to our Afghan staff\".\n\n\"We are doing all we can to enable remaining British nationals, who want to leave Afghanistan, to do so,\" said a spokesperson.\n\nMany people had sought refuge in Kabul in recent weeks\n\nThe Foreign Office has advised more than 4,000 British citizens thought to be in Afghanistan to leave.\n\nAbout 600 British troops sent to help with the departure of Britons, Afghan staff and interpreters have now arrived in Afghanistan.\n\nMr Johnson said the UK was \"working very fast\" on getting people out of the country, adding: \"We certainly have the means at the moment to get them out.\"\n\nUK defence forces have told the BBC most of the UK's embassy staff have already been flown out of the country on military flights. All commercial flights out of Kabul have now been suspended.\n\nWednesday could be a very uncomfortable day for the government, as MPs return to the Commons to debate the UK's response to the deepening crisis in Afghanistan.\n\nThe government will have to answer questions about why it so badly miscalculated the strength of the Taliban, and its decision to withdraw its forces in the face of impending disaster.\n\nIn what will be an emotive debate, many MPs will stress the sacrifices already made over the past 20 years, and the obligation they believe this country owes to the people of Afghanistan.\n\nThey are likely to push the government to do much more, in a bid to avert a humanitarian catastrophe, despite the claim by Defence Secretary Ben Wallace that it would be impossible for the UK to act alone.\n\nHe spoke to the Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the UN Secretary General António Guterres about the current situation in Afghanistan on Sunday.\n\nIn those talks, he called for meetings of Nato's North Atlantic Council and the UN Security Council to take place as soon as possible to enable high-level international discussions on these issues, said Downing Street.\n\nLabour leader Keir Starmer has described the situation in Afghanistan as \"shocking\", saying the priority had to be to evacuate British personnel and support staff.\n\nForeign Secretary Dominic Raab was returning to the UK today, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said, when asked to confirm he had been on holiday.\n\nMr Raab earlier spoke of his \"deep concerns about the future for Afghanistan\".\n\nLabour peer Lord Robertson of Port Ellen - the former defence secretary who was secretary general of Nato from 1999 to 2003 - said it was \"stunning that the foreign secretary would stay on holiday as our mission in Afghanistan disintegrated\".\n\n\"The horrors unfolding with every minute demand focused attention from the top,\" he said.\n\nLord Robertson added he was \"sickened by the prospect of the 20th anniversary\" of the 11 September attacks \"being marked by the Taliban back in control of Afghanistan\".\n\nMeanwhile, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has called on the UK to offer \"as much refuge for vulnerable Afghans as possible\".\n\nShe said the Scottish government is \"willing to play our full part and do all we can to help those in peril as a result of the horrifying situation currently unfolding\".", "Vicky McClure, Adrian Dunbar and Martin Compston are all nominated for best drama performance\n\nThe stars of Line of Duty will go head-to-head for one of the main prizes at this year's National Television Awards.\n\nVicky McClure, Adrian Dunbar and Martin Compston are among the five nominees for the best drama performance trophy.\n\nThey will face competition from Olly Alexander and David Tennant, who delivered acclaimed performances in It's a Sin and Des respectively.\n\nPiers Morgan has been nominated for best TV presenter, five months after he exited Good Morning Britain.\n\nScroll down for the full list of nominations.\n\nFormer GMB host Piers Morgan is nominated for best TV presenter\n\nMorgan left the ITV breakfast show in March after making controversial comments about the Duchess of Sussex's interview with Oprah Winfrey.\n\nThe presenter has continued to host Piers Morgan's Life Stories, but will have to overcome Ant and Dec - who have won the prize for 19 years in a row - as well as Alison Hammond, Bradley Walsh and Holly Willoughby.\n\nThe National Television Awards, hosted by Joel Dommett, will take place in London on 9 September.\n\nRead more about the nominees:\n\nThe latest series of Line of Duty, which was a ratings hit but received a mixed response from viewers and critics, will go up against Call The Midwife, Unforgotten and The Crown for the returning drama prize.\n\nThe documentary about late Love Island presenter Caroline Flack has been shortlisted for the factual prize.\n\nCaroline Flack: Her Life And Death featured family and friends, including Olly Murs and Dermot O'Leary, speaking about how the presenter was affected by her life in the spotlight.\n\nA new category has been introduced this year for the genre of authored documentaries, following a wave of celebrity-led factual programmes.\n\nKate Garraway is shortlisted for her poignant look at how Covid-19 affected her husband in Finding Derek.\n\nAnother new category, for best quiz game show, will see Michael McIntyre's The Wheel compete with Beat the Chasers, Celebrity Catchphrase and In For A Penny.\n\nRose Ayling-Ellis, who plays Frankie Lewis in EastEnders, has been nominated for best newcomer days after it was announced she would take part in the next series of Strictly Come Dancing.\n\nBridgerton's first series, which starred Adjoa Andoh and Regé-Jean Page, is nominated for best new drama", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Rob and Patrick faced homophobic abuse and were hit with bottles during a night out in Birmingham\n\nTwo men have been attacked with bottles and had homophobic abuse shouted at them in Birmingham, police have said.\n\nRob and Patrick, in their 30s, were outside the Missing Bar in the city's Gay Village on Sunday.\n\nWest Midlands Police said the abuse came from a group of four men in a black SUV, who then got out and assaulted the victims.\n\nPatrick was knocked unconscious in the attack and his partner said it was \"shocking that would happen in 2021\".\n\nRob said he and Patrick, from Bicester, Oxfordshire, had been at a friend's housewarming party and decided towards the end of the night to go dancing in the Gay Village.\n\nAs they left Missing Bar he said he saw the men with balloons in the car and jokingly asked them if it was their birthday.\n\n\"They did not like that and went into all sort of foul language, including homophobic slurs directed at us,\" he said.\n\nDetectives said an attacker snatched a phone from Patrick as he tried to film them and one of their female friends was dragged along by the SUV as she tried to get it back.\n\nThe woman, in her 20s, suffered a foot injury.\n\nRob said he then ran after the car to try and challenge the group but, when they stopped at a red light, they got out and attacked him with bottles.\n\nPatrick said he ran to help his partner but \"someone from the car got out and hit me from behind my head and I blacked out\".\n\nHaving been treated in hospital for lacerations and cuts, Rob said he regretted chasing after the group.\n\nBut he added: \"[The Gay Village] should be a safe area to be who you want and not have to tolerate people yelling homophobic remarks at you.\"\n\nThe attack happened outside the Missing Bar\n\nDetectives said the men in the car were described as being of Middle Eastern or Asian appearance.\n\nCCTV footage is being gathered by the force and Insp Steve Lloyd said officers were taking the hate crime seriously.\n\n\"This was an absolutely appalling attack and robbery on people just trying to enjoy a night out in the city centre,\" he said.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n• None 'It's shocking this would happen in 2021' Video, 00:01:28'It's shocking this would happen in 2021'\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "People in England and Northern Ireland who have had two Covid vaccine doses will no longer have to isolate if they come into contact with someone who has tested positive for the virus.\n\nInstead of having to quarantine for 10 days, they are now advised to take a PCR test - but this is not compulsory.\n\nThey are also advised to wear a face covering in enclosed spaces and to limit contact with others, especially the clinically vulnerable.\n\nThe guidance applies to under-18s too.\n\nThe changes to self-isolation rules have already been implemented in Scotland and Wales.\n\nThe relaxed rules in England and Northern Ireland are expected to significantly reduce the number of people being compelled to stay at home.\n\nAt its peak in July, the number of self-isolation alerts sent in England and Wales in a week was just under 700,000.\n\nIndustries, including car manufacturers and food distributors, complained at the time that the number of staff isolating because of pings was disrupting their businesses.\n\nThis led the government to allow some key workers - such as those working in food distribution - to be exempt from having to self-isolate if pinged and take daily tests instead.\n\nThe sensitivity of the NHS Covid-19 app in England and Wales was also tweaked to ensure fewer people were advised to quarantine.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid said Monday's changes to self-isolation guidance were part of a cautious \"step back towards normality\", thanks to the vaccine rollout.\n\n\"Vaccines are what will bring this pandemic to an end, with over 84,000 lives already saved and 23 million infections prevented,\" he added.\n\nIn England, the new rules apply to those who had their final dose of an approved vaccine at least 14 days before coming into contact with a positive case.\n\nPeople who are pinged will now be advised to take a free PCR test but will not have to self-isolate while waiting for the result.\n\nAs double-jabbed people identified as close contacts are still at risk of being infected, people are advised to consider other precautions such as wearing a face covering in enclosed spaces, and limiting contact with other people, especially with anyone who is clinically extremely vulnerable.\n\nThose who test positive, or begin to show symptoms, will still be legally required to self isolate for 10 days.\n\nSimilar rules apply in Northern Ireland, but those affected are advised to take two PCR tests - on days two and eight after being identified as close contacts.\n\nThe rules changed in Wales on 7 August when instead of instructing fully-vaccinated adults to isolate, contact tracers and advisers started providing people with advice and guidance about how to protect themselves and stay safe.\n\nSome extra safeguards were put in place for those working with vulnerable people, particularly health and social care staff, including a risk assessment for staff working in health and care and daily lateral flow tests.\n\nMembers of the public in Wales are strongly advised not to visit hospitals and care homes for 10 days.\n\nEveryone identified as a contact of a positive case in Wales is advised to have a PCR test on day two and day eight, whether they are fully vaccinated or not.\n\nIn Scotland it is also already the case that double-vaccinated adults and all children can avoid self-isolation as a close contact so long as they are symptomless and provide a negative PCR test.\n\nMeanwhile, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called for world leaders to convene an emergency vaccines summit ahead of the UN General Assembly in September.\n\nMr Brown said there was a \"global vaccine scandal\", with a lack of doses for Africa meaning that most countries on the continent will miss a target of vaccinating 10% of their citizens by next month.\n\nWhile half of adults in most of the wealthiest economies have been double-jabbed, in Africa only 1.9% of the population have been fully vaccinated, Mr Brown said.\n\nOnly an intervention at the highest level by US President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Mario Draghi, chairman of the G20, can end what he calls the vaccine inequality that shames the world, the former PM said.\n\nIn the UK 89.4% of adults have had one vaccine dose while 76.7% have had both doses.\n\nOn Sunday, the UK reported a further 26,750 cases and 61 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nBayern Munich and Germany legend Gerd Muller has died at the age of 75.\n\nOne of the best strikers in history, Muller scored 68 goals in 62 appearances for West Germany, including the winning goal in the 1974 World Cup final against the Netherlands.\n\nHe also scored 547 goals in 594 competitive games during 15 years at Bundesliga giants Bayern.\n\n\"Today is a sad, black day for FC Bayern and all of its fans,\" Bayern president Herbert Hainer said.\n\n\"Gerd Muller was the greatest striker there has ever been - and a fine person, a personality in world football. We are united in deep sorrow with his wife Uschi and his family.\n\n\"Without Gerd Muller, FC Bayern would not be the club we all love today. His name and the memory of him will live on forever.\"\n\n'One of the greatest legends in history'\n\nMuller, a two times German footballer of the year, won the Golden Boot for netting 10 goals at the 1970 World Cup and also won the Ballon d'Or that year.\n\nHe helped West Germany win the European Championship two years later, scoring twice in a 3-0 win against the Soviet Union in the final.\n\n\"The news of Gerd Muller's death deeply saddens us all,\" Bayern chief executive Oliver Kahn said.\n\n\"He's one of the greatest legends in the history of FC Bayern, his achievements are unrivalled to this day and will forever be a part of the great history of FC Bayern and all of German football.\n\n\"As a player and a person, Gerd Muller stands for FC Bayern and its development into one of the biggest clubs in the world like no other. Gerd will forever be in our hearts.\"\n\nDuring his 15 years at Bayern, Muller was the Bundesliga's top scorer seven times. He also held the record for the most goals in a calendar year after scoring 85 in 1972 until Lionel Messi surpassed his total in 2012.\n\nHis record of 40 goals in a Bundesliga season - scored in 1971-72 - stood for 49 years before it was broken by Robert Lewandowski in May.\n\nIn total, Muller helped Bayern win four Bundesliga and DFB Cup titles, three European Cups, a European Cup Winners' Cup and an Intercontinental Cup.\n\nIn 2015, the club announced he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.\n\n'The Muhammad Ali of the penalty box'\n\nBorn on 3 November 1945, Muller joined Bayern in 1964. With his short stature and stocky build he was nicknamed \"short, fat Muller\" by his first coach at the club, Zlatko Cajkovski.\n\nHowever, Muller quickly developed a reputation for being a clinical striker and his goals helped Bayern win the league title four times between 1969 and 1974.\n\nHis prowess in the penalty box quickly made him one of the most feared forwards at club and international level, with another Bayern great - Karl-Heinz Rummenigge - describing Muller in 2015 as \"the best of all time, the Muhammad Ali of the penalty box\".\n\nMuller retired from international football shortly after helping West Germany win the World Cup in 1974, aged just 28, but continued to enjoy success at Bayern before leaving in 1979 to join Fort Lauderdale Strikers.\n\nHe played three seasons in the United States before announcing his retirement in 1982.\n• None With 365 goals in 427 Bundesliga matches, he is the record scorer in Bundesliga history.\n• None He scored 40 goals in 1971-72 - a Bundesliga record which was broken last season by Robert Lewandowski (41).\n• None In the 1969-70 season, he scored in 16 successive Bundesliga matches, a mark still unbroken.\n• None He was the top scorer in seven Bundesliga seasons - also a record.\n• None The \"Bomber der Nation\" (\"the nation's Bomber\") is also the best scorer in German Cup history - he scored more often (78 goals) than he played games (62).\n• None Only Miroslav Klose has scored more goals for the German national team (71) than Muller (68). However, Klose also played more than twice as many international matches (137) as Muller (62).\n• None An expose into the drug war and cartels that operate on the Mexico/US border\n• None Can the recruits gets through these gruelling Special Forces tests?", "Roger Federer says he will be sidelined for \"many months\" as he prepares to have further knee surgery.\n\nThe 40-year-old Swiss, a 20-time Grand Slam champion, had two knee operations last year.\n\nIn a video post on Instagram, Federer said he hoped the surgery would give him \"a glimmer of hope\" to return to action.\n\nHe was knocked out in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in July and then missed the Tokyo Olympics.\n\n\"I'll be on crutches for many weeks, and also out of the game for many months,\" Federer, who turned 40 a week ago, said on Sunday evening.\n\n\"It's going to be difficult in some ways but, at the same time, I know it's the right thing to do because I want to be healthy, I want to be running around later as well again.\n\n\"I also want to give myself a glimmer of hope to return to the tour in some shape or form.\n\n\"I am realistic - I know how difficult it is at this age right now to do another surgery and try it.\n\n\"But I want to be healthy. I will go through the rehab process with a goal, while I'm still active, which I think is going to help me during this long period of time.\"\n\nAfter losing to Poland's Hubert Hurkacz at Wimbledon, Federer - now ranked number nine in the world - told reporters he was unsure whether he would play at SW19 again.\n\nIn the past two years, he has seen his Grand Slam titles tally equalled twice - first by Spain's Rafael Nadal at the 2020 French Open and then by Serbia's Novak Djokovic, who won a 20th major at Wimbledon 2021.\n\nFederer had two operations on his right knee in 2020 after the Australian Open, before returning to the Tour in Doha in March.", "The explosion occurred as soldiers handed out fuel seized from alleged black marketeers\n\nProtesters attacked the home of Lebanon's prime minister-designate after a petrol tank explosion killed 27 people and injured 79 others on Sunday.\n\nDozens of demonstrators demanded Najib Mikati's resignation, threw stones at his house and clashed with police.\n\nMr Mikati said he understood \"the cries of people\" but condemned what he called the \"unacceptable vandalism\".\n\nThe army said the explosion occurred as soldiers handed out petrol seized from black marketeers in the Akkar region.\n\nThe cause of the blast was not clear, but a large crowd was gathered around the tank at the time, it added.\n\nThe health minister said seven of the injured were in a critical condition in hospital\n\n\"We were informed that the army was distributing gasoline... so people flocked to fill it in plastic containers,\" Marwa al-Sheikh, whose brother Ismail was badly burned on his arms and legs, told AFP news agency.\n\nShe said some witnesses had told her that the explosion happened after someone used a lighter, but that others had claimed that shots were fired.\n\n\"The dead are victims of a careless state,\" she added.\n\nCaretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab - whose government resigned after the devastating explosion in Beirut a year ago but has not been replaced because of political deadlock - called the explosion a \"tragic catastrophe\" and declared a national day of mourning for Monday.\n\nThe army said it was investigating the circumstances that led to the blast and had arrested the owner of the land in the town of al-Tleil where the tank was located. Locals also reportedly set fire to his house.\n\nA doorway of the building in Beirut where Najib Mikati lives was broken during the protest\n\nFuel is scarce in Lebanon, which is in the grips of one of the world's worst economic crises in modern times.\n\nThe currency has collapsed over the past two years, causing inflation to skyrocket, and more than half of the population live below the poverty line.\n\nLast week, the central bank unilaterally decided to end fuel subsidies because of its dwindling reserves of foreign currency.\n\nThe government condemned the move and said fuel prices must not change.\n\nSecurity forces began on Saturday to distribute fuel allegedly being hoarded by petrol stations and by individuals in tanks like the one in Akkar.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMuch of Lebanon relies on private generators and the fuel shortages have left many people and institutions with just two hours of electricity a day.\n\nSome of the hospitals who treated those injured in Sunday's explosion have warned that they may be forced to close without regular supplies of fuel.", "A spokesman for the Taliban has told the BBC that the militants want a \"peaceful transfer of power\" in Afghanistan the next few days.\n\nIn the wide-ranging interview, she pressed him on the Taliban's plans for the country amid concern the militants will impose strict interpretations of Sharia law, including corporal punishments and a ban on girls going to school.", "If you like neat lines, tidiness and admire symmetry, what's not to like about the decision of Joe Biden to pull American combat troops out of Afghanistan by 11 September 2021 - exactly 20 years on from 9/11?\n\nIn modern day America it often feels that all roads lead back to 9/11; the single most defining - and scarring - event since Pearl Harbor: the surprise attack by the Japanese on America's Pacific fleet, which would ultimately bring America into World War Two.\n\nAnd so it was that 9/11 led to this country's longest military encounter. The attack on the Twin Towers, the plane that flew into the Pentagon, and the one that crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, were initially the spur for a surge of US nationalism. Young people - in fact people of all ages - were going along to armed forces recruitment offices wanting to sign up. America had come under attack; these patriots wanted to fight to defend the country the \"land of the free\", and seek revenge on those who would do the US harm.\n\nAnd don't mistake this for some kind of kneejerk jingoism. It wasn't that. I knew many people - not just Americans - who were of a liberal bent and had been no great fans of all the doings of the US of A but who have a visceral sense this was a moment where you had to pick your team.\n\nWere you on the side of the rule of law, free and fair elections, due process, sexual equality, universal education? Or were you on the side of those who would fly planes into buildings, or would stone people to death, or throw homosexuals off of buildings, or deny girls schooling? If that seems a massive over-simplification, maybe it is - but in the devastating aftermath of 9/11, that is how it seemed to many.\n\nBiden makes a surprise visit to Afghanistan as vice-president in 2011\n\nBut by 2016 it was one of the factors that led to Donald Trump's election: the weariness of the \"endless wars\" as candidate Trump would refer to the quagmires of Afghanistan and Iraq; the wariness of America being able to act as the world's policeman.\n\nAmericans understandably wanted to pull up the drawbridge, bring the troops home, leave it to the people in those countries to sort out their own problems, and finally give up on the idea that a US model of liberal democracy was an exportable commodity that could be imposed. The liberal interventionist crusade was over.\n\nTrump, if he had won last November, would have pulled out US troops, probably quicker. Although Joe Biden inherited Trump's promise to withdraw, in policy terms the easiest thing would have been to continue to sign the cheques to pay for American servicemen and women to stay in Afghanistan for another year. And then another. And another after that.\n\nThe political pressure was by no means overwhelming. If anything, the reverse. The defence top brass, the foreign policy establishment, America's allies abroad thought anything other than the status quo would be reckless. But one question was gnawing at the new president, and it was the one posed by Hillel the Elder back in biblical times: \"If not now, then when?\"\n\nBiden - who advised President Barack Obama not to send more troops in 2009 but lost the argument - went with now, in what could be the most consequential single decision of his presidency.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Taliban leaders speak to BBC News about conquer and compromise\n\nWhen 9/11 happened I was the BBC's Paris correspondent, reporting on Eurotunnel's attempt to force the closure of a Red Cross refugee centre called Sangatte - where many of the world's storm-tossed refugees and migrants congregated before making the final leg of the journey to the UK.\n\nI was driving to Calais when I got a call from a colleague telling me to stop at the nearest service station to watch TV, and see what was unfolding.\n\nWe didn't know what would happen next - or where we would end up. One year into the optimism of a new millennium, there was a narrative and it wasn't a happy one - the war on terror, a clash of civilisations, call it what you will. At the time the two stories could not have been more different, but a lot of the bedraggled people we met on the roads around Calais were from Afghanistan fleeing Taliban rule.\n\nIt's worth remembering why the US, UK and others went into Afghanistan. The Taliban had - in effect - become a finishing school for Islamist terrorists wanting to wage jihad against the west. Al-Qaeda wannabes were going into the country to train for holy war. The 9/11 terrorists had honed their skills and hatched their plot there. Removing the Taliban and tackling al-Qaeda became critical for global security.\n\nWithin a few weeks of 9/11, I was in northern Afghanistan, travelling via Delhi and then Dushanbe in Tajikistan to get there. We were moving with the US and UK-backed Northern Alliance troops as they pushed the Taliban out.\n\nOusting the Taliban was considered a global priority 20 years ago, writes the author (right)\n\nOur first day was spent travelling from Khoja Bahauddin, then the Northern Alliance HQ along a road where the Taliban had killed a number of journalists in an ambush two days earlier. After one night we ended up in a town called Taleqan. It had fallen the night before we arrived. One of the iconic shots was of a girls-school classroom that had become a weapons dump for Taliban rockets that in their hasty retreat they had left behind.\n\nThe stubborn last stronghold was Kunduz - a vital communication corridor sitting between Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif and then further north to the border with Uzbekistan.\n\nNow both Taleqan and Kunduz have come back under Taliban control, with a third of the country's regional capitals now under their control.\n\nAnd that raises a super-uncomfortable question for Joe Biden and his \"if not now, then when\" policy.\n\nTwenty years on and so many lives lost, and so many billions of dollars spent, what was it for? What's been achieved? What do you say to the families of all those servicemen killed by the Taliban now that the US is giving up? What's to stop terror groups from re-establishing their jihad training camps? At the UN Security Council hearing last Friday it was reported that up to 20 different terror groups, involving thousands of foreign fighters were already fighting with Taliban forces.\n\nThe regions where Jon travelled are now back under Taliban control\n\nI'm sure as I am writing this more families will be packing up their possessions fearful of what Taliban control will mean, perhaps heading to Calais and then the UK. Will the girls' schools return to become weapons storage facilities again?\n\nThe scars of 9/11 are clear everywhere - thousands of servicemen have come back with prosthetic limbs and disturbed minds. Suicide rates have been rising. Families have lost loved ones. On America's streets are men with red plastic beer cups begging for loose change, many of them with signs saying they are veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.\n\nUS-led forces toppled the Taliban: In 2001 US-led forces overthrew Afghanistan's Taliban rulers after the 9/11 attacks masterminded by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was based there.\n\nTwenty years of occupation and military operations followed: The US and allies oversaw elections and built up Afghan security forces, but the Taliban continued to launch attacks.\n\nEventually the US made a deal with the Taliban: They would pull out if the militants agreed not to host terrorist groups. But talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government failed. US-led forces withdrew this year and the Taliban have now retaken most of the country.\n\nThe desire to stay at home and shut yourself away from a troubling world is completely understandable. There is no surprise that \"America First\" as a slogan had such resonance. George W Bush was not advocating that back in 2001 - but there were no US troops in Afghanistan or Iraq then. And that didn't keep America safe when early that morning, across those gin-clear blue skies passenger aeroplanes were hijacked and became al-Qaeda-guided missiles, flying into their targets killing thousands of people doing nothing more provocative than going about their daily lives.\n\nThere's also a difference between enforcing your will as the world's policeman, and being a peacekeeper. Thousands of American troops are still stationed in South Korea - even though the Korean war was 70 years ago. The calculation of successive US presidents has been that a tense peace is better than a hot war or a destabilised region.\n\nJoe Biden was hoping his decision would result in headlines like \"Afghan War Ends\" or \"America's longest war is over\". But 20 years on, and the Taliban now re-establishing control with all that could flow from that, might historians in future judge that the 20th anniversary marked the start of the second Afghan war?", "The Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan, almost 20 years after being ousted by a US-led military coalition.\n\nEmboldened by the withdrawal of US troops, they now control all key cities in the country, including Kabul.\n\nThe Taliban took some areas from government by force. In other areas, the Afghan National Army withdrew without a shot being fired.\n\nAlthough renewed clashes had been going on for several weeks, from 6 August the Taliban made a more rapid advance across the country, as they took control of provincial cities.\n\nThe maps below start in early July and show the 400 or so government districts as they fell to the Taliban.\n\nUS forces based outside Afghanistan had launched air strikes against Taliban positions earlier last week, but they failed to slow the advance of the insurgents.\n\nAlthough most US troops left in July, several thousand returned to Kabul at the weekend to help evacuate American and allied personnel from the capital.\n\nThe airport in the capital was the only official route out of the country after the Taliban took control of all the major border crossings.\n\nCustoms duty on goods entering the country via crossings they control is now collected by the Taliban - although exact amounts are unclear as the volume of trade has fallen as a result of the fighting.\n\nBut, Islam Qala on the border with Iran was, for example, capable of generating more than $20 million per month.\n\nDisruption to the flow of imports and exports has affected prices of essential goods in the markets - fuel and foodstuffs in particular.\n\nUS troops and their Nato and regional allies forced the Taliban from power in November 2001. The group had been harbouring Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures linked to the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US.\n\nBut despite a continued international presence in the region, billions of dollars of support and training for the Afghan government forces, the Taliban regrouped and gradually regained strength in more remote areas.\n\nA BBC study in 2017 showed the Taliban were in full control of a number of districts. But the research also showed they were active in many other parts of the country, mounting weekly or monthly attacks in some areas, suggesting significantly higher strength than previous estimates.\n\nIn 2017 about 15 million people - half the population - were reported to be living in areas either controlled by the Taliban or where the Taliban were openly present.", "The child and serving officer are named as three-year-old Harrison Louden and his father, David Louden, 39\n\nA police officer found dead with a three-year-old child were father and son, his West Mercia force colleagues have confirmed.\n\nPolice named the pair, discovered at a property in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, on Friday, as David Louden, 39, and his boy Harrison.\n\nIn a statement from Mr Louden's family, the officer was described as \"a kind, loving, considerate, amazing\" father.\n\nThe deaths are being treated as unexplained, police said.\n\nAn investigation into the circumstances is under way.\n\nOn Saturday, the area's police and crime commissioner, John Campion, said there was not a \"wider concern to the public\".\n\nThe statement issued by police and attributed to Mr Louden's wife and wider family said: \"David was a kind, loving, considerate, amazing father, husband, son, brother, uncle, friend and colleague.\n\n\"They will both be forever missed and loved.\"\n\nThe West Mercia force did not state Mr Louden's rank.\n\nTheir bodies were discovered at a house on Cairndhu Drive, Kidderminster, on Friday morning.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Rhona Malone claims she was subjected to a series of sexist comments\n\nA former firearms officer who was told two female officers should not be deployed together when there were men on duty has said the comment \"felt like a slap in the face\".\n\nRhona Malone has raised an employment tribunal action against Police Scotland alleging sex discrimination.\n\nOn the first day of the tribunal, Ms Malone said she wanted \"accountability for what went wrong\".\n\nPolice Scotland has denied claims it has a culture of sexism.\n\nMs Malone, from West Lothian, joined the police in 2009 and seven years later she successfully applied to become a firearms officer.\n\nIn January 2018, Ms Malone and another female officer were copied into an email from an inspector who said that for operational reasons he did not want to see two female officers deployed together when there were sufficient male staff on duty.\n\nThe male inspector went on to write that other than the obvious differences in physical capacity, this made more sense from a \"search, balance of testosterone perspective\".\n\nThe tribunal heard that the inspector had since acknowledged the email was very badly worded and that he had wanted to ensure that pairings of officers going out together were the strongest possible.\n\nThe email was also not the view of senior management in Police Scotland, the tribunal heard.\n\nMs Malone was a police officer for seven years before qualifying as a firearms officer\n\nBut Ms Malone claimed the email \"felt like a slap in the face\" and was part of a wider sexism issue that she and other female colleagues in the force had faced.\n\nAsked why she had brought the tribunal case, she said it was for \"accountability and acknowledgment for what went wrong, it is only right I stand up and say something.\"\n\nShe added: \"I was a police officer, I was extremely proud of my job and I helped victims obtain justice and I expected to receive the same.\n\n\"For me, it is about changing things for the future. What I went through, there was no need for it.\"\n\nIn 2018, Police Scotland told the BBC the email was dealt with immediately and fully investigated. They said the officer who wrote it fully accepted the wording was unacceptable and he apologised.\n\nBut Ms Malone was not satisfied and took legal action.\n\nMs Malone said Police Scotland offered her a pay-out but on the condition she signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement - a legal document which would prevent her speaking about what happened - and she refused.\n\nPolice Scotland's Chief Constable, Iain Livingstone, has previously said any kind of discrimination was deplorable and had no place in policing.\n\nThe tribunal is expected to last for two weeks.", "Trevor aged two, with his mum, Kes, pictured with her partner Luke, have both had immunoglobulin treatment\n\nPlasma from blood donations in England will be used to make a vital medicine, following a rule change to reduce reliance on imported stocks.\n\nEach year about 17,000 people need immunoglobulin treatment and, until recently, there was a ban on using plasma from UK donors to safeguard against vCJD or \"mad cow disease\".\n\nOfficials say this precaution is no longer necessary.\n\nA mother and son from the Wirral are among those to have had the treatment.\n\nKes Earl, now 24, whose son Trevor is two, said: \"Immunoglobulins saved my family.\"\n\nDonor plasma is used to make the medicine\n\nThe move will help secure NHS plasma stocks to make the antibody-based medicines, called immunoglobulins.\n\nRollout of the service will happen across England over the coming months, and NHS blood donor services elsewhere in the UK could opt to do the same.\n\nCurrently, the UK relies solely on plasma imports, which can be in short supply - a situation made worse by Covid.\n\nGerry Gogarty, from NHS Blood and Transplant, welcomed the decision, calling it a huge step forward.\n\n\"By recovering plasma from blood donations, we can improve long-term supplies of immunoglobulin medicine, and each generous blood donation will go even further in helping to save the lives.\"\n\nThe red blood cells from donations will continue to be used as normal, so there will be no impact on donor blood stocks. Plasma is the fluid and other cells and components of whole blood.\n\n\"Your blood is mostly made up of plasma and it contains the antibodies which fight infections. Those antibodies can save the lives of people with faulty immune systems,\" he said.\n\nTrevor during his stay in intensive care\n\nTrevor was born with neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia - a dangerous condition caused by his mum's immune system attacking his blood.\n\nHe received the urgent treatment in neonatal intensive care.\n\nKes went on to have immunoglobulin herself during her second pregnancy, to prevent the same condition happening to her younger son Wyatt.\n\n\"Plasma is the reason I have two healthy little boys that keep me on my toes. I am so happy that plasma from blood donors is now being be used for immunoglobulins, to help make sure there's enough available,\" said Kes.\n\nThe treatment can be used to help patients who cannot make antibodies themselves, or in circumstances where their bodies are not making enough antibodies, or the ones they are making don't work properly, as well as for disorders when the body's immune system is attacking itself.", "Last updated on .From the section Disability Sport\n\nSpectators will not be allowed at the Tokyo Paralympic Games because of the city's ongoing struggle with coronavirus, organisers have confirmed.\n\nThe Japanese government has proposed expanding and extending the country's state of emergency, with the Paralympics beginning on 24 August.\n\n\"We very much regret that this situation has impacted the Paralympic Games,\" organisers said in a statement.\n\nAs well as stadiums, fans were also requested not to attend road events.\n• None Everything you need to know about Paralympic classification\n\nOrganisers confirmed spectators would not be allowed at events in Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba and Shizuoka because of infection rates in those regions.\n\nSchoolchildren will still be allowed to attend at the request of local authorities or school administrators.\n\nFans were barred from venues in the capital for the Olympics, with events held in some other regions allowed up to 50% capacity.\n\n\"We sincerely apologise to all ticket buyers who were looking forward to watching the Games at the venues,\" the statement continued.\n\n\"We hope that you understand that these measures are unavoidable and being implemented in order to prevent the spread of infection. Everyone is encouraged to watch the Games at home.\"\n• None An expose into the drug war and cartels that operate on the Mexico/US border\n• None Can the recruits gets through these gruelling Special Forces tests?", "Afghan interpreters worked with the Army in Helmand province\n\nThe UK government is being urged to help provide safe routes out of Afghanistan for people at risk from violence and reprisals by the Taliban.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said there was an obligation to help those who had aided UK forces, and a need to \"assert the human rights of everyone\".\n\nParliament is to be recalled on Wednesday to discuss the situation.\n\nThe government says it has capacity to remove at least 1,000 people a day from Afghanistan and is promising new plans.\n\nAsked how many refugees the UK would take from Afghanistan, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab wouldn't give a figure, but said \"we are obviously a big-hearted nation\" and added that the government was \"working very carefully on what kind of further commitment we might make\".\n\nMr Raab said \"everyone\" had been \"caught by surprise by the pace and the scale of the Taliban takeover\" in Afghanistan.\n\nHe said 150 British nationals are due to arrive in the UK in the early hours of Tuesday morning, and that there would be 350 further arrivals of both British and Afghan nationals in \"the days that come\".\n\nThis is in addition to the 289 Afghan nationals that have been \"delivered\" over the last week, he said.\n\nThe BBC has been told that officials are looking at a response similar to the Syrian resettlement scheme from 2014 - which saw the UK accept refugees in the greatest need, including survivors of violence, and women and children.\n\nUS forces have secured the perimeter of Kabul airport, from where hundreds are trying to flee following the Taliban seizing control of virtually the whole country.\n\nBut several deaths have been reported amid chaotic scenes.\n\nThe United Nations Security Council is meeting in an effort to avert what has been described as a possible \"humanitarian catastrophe\".\n\nOn Monday, the Ministry of Defence said a further 200 UK troops would be sent to Kabul, to take the total British armed forces presence to 900.\n\nIt added that a \"small number\" of RAF aircraft are being diverted from other operations to help the evacuation effort.\n\nBut many Afghan interpreters and others who have worked with Nato forces in the 20 years since the previous Taliban government was ousted are in fear of their lives.\n\nSpeaking on a visit to Wolverhampton, Sir Keir said Mr Johnson had to \"step up to the plate and show some leadership, some urgency\".\n\nHe added that the UN had to make \"an assertion of the human rights of everyone in Afghanistan... particularly women and girls\" and reach \"an agreement on safe and legal routes for refugees\".\n\nAs the government scrambles to get people out of Afghanistan, ministers are engaged in an exercise of mitigation, as events unfold in Kabul beyond their control.\n\nBut they will want to show they have some sort of grip on the crisis, by successfully evacuating British passport holders - and eligible Afghans who've worked with the British authorities.\n\nHowever as an emotional defence secretary today admitted, not everyone will get out.\n\nOn refugees, with many Afghans expected to try and flee, Downing Street won't give potential numbers but says it will set out its approach to wider asylum claims in the coming days.\n\nMore broadly, the government is still insisting that, once the Americans decided to go, it wasn't feasible for the UK to stay and act unilaterally.\n\nBut this, as well as Britain's broader approach to foreign policy over the last two decades, will all be up for discussion when Parliament is recalled on Wednesday. That may feel a little late as, in Afghanistan, things seem to be changing hour by hour.\n\nSir Keir also said: \"We need to get UK nationals out. But we also have an obligation to all of those Afghans who helped and assisted the UK.\n\n\"We shouldn't have nice distinctions between this type of help and that type of help. If those in Afghanistan have helped us, the UK, in our work in Afghanistan, we have an obligation to them.\"\n\nLast week the government said about 2,000 Afghan \"people we have an obligation to\" would also be transported to the UK, joining about 3,000 who have already been taken out of the country.\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace told the BBC the biggest barrier to increasing the rate of evacuation was not a lack of capacity on planes but \"how quickly\" people could be processed by officials.\n\n\"Our flights, our planning and coming in and out and soon if we manage to keep it in the way we're planning to, we should have capacity for over 1,000 people a day to exit to the UK,\" he said.\n\nMr Wallace also said the rules had changed to allow more contractors who had served British forces into the UK.\n\nFurther plans have been promised over the next few days.\n\nBut, appearing on LBC radio, Mr Wallace was close to tears as he admitted that \"some people won't get back\".\n\nForeign forces are pulling out of Afghanistan following a deal between the US and the Taliban militants.\n\nThe Taliban has pledged not to allow Afghanistan to become a base for terrorists who could threaten the West.\n• None Afghanistan: Why is Parliament being recalled?", "Currently anyone who is a close contact of a Covid-19 case in Northern Ireland must self-isolate for 10 days\n\nFully-vaccinated close contacts of people who have Covid-19 no longer need to automatically self-isolate.\n\nInstead, they should get a PCR test on day two and day eight of what would have been their 10-day isolation period.\n\nA number of changes to Covid-19 restrictions made by the NI Executive last week come into effect on Monday.\n\nMore than six people can now sit together in pubs and restaurants and conferences can resume.\n\nOther changes have been agreed for schools and the hospitality sector.\n\nOn Monday, three coronavirus-related deaths were recorded in Northern Ireland.\n\nAnother 1,306 people have tested positive for coronavirus.\n\nThis 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 Department of Health 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. End of twitter post by Department of Health\n\nClass bubbles will no longer be required from the start of term.\n\nHowever, the executive stopped short of changing rules on social distancing or face coverings.\n\nPost-primary students will also still have to wear masks in class for the first six weeks of term.\n\nThe executive agreed to the changes to the Covid-19 rules on Thursday following discussion of a paper submitted by Health Minister Robin Swann.\n\nThe change to self isolation rules brings Northern Ireland in line with England. The move has already taken effect in Scotland and Wales.\n\nIf someone tests positive, they must continue to self-isolate, even if they do not have symptoms of the disease.\n\nPeople who started self-isolating before 16 August can stop on that date but only if they have been fully vaccinated.\n\nThe hospitality sector in Northern Ireland is keen to see current social distancing rules relaxed\n\nFrom Monday 16 August the following changes come into effect:\n\nIndoor premises and workplaces in Northern Ireland are still required to comply with a social distancing rule of at least 1m (3ft).\n\nThat rule has been lifted in other parts of the UK and many people in Northern Ireland's hospitality sector are keen to see it relaxed locally too.\n\nNightclubs still do not have a reopening date.", "Major General Charlie Herbert, a military commander from the UK’s campaign in Afghanistan, has accused the government of betraying Afghans who supported British troops.\n\nHerbert, who left the army two years ago, is trying to help hundreds of interpreters and support staff whose work with allied forces means their lives are now at risk.\n\nHe spoke to the BBC's Home Editor Mark Easton.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe Taliban has claimed victory in Afghanistan after taking over the capital Kabul, bringing to a swift end almost 20 years of a US-led coalition's presence in the country.\n\nFighters have seized the presidential palace. The government has collapsed, with President Ashraf Ghani fleeing.\n\nA spokesman for the group has told news network Al Jazeera: \"The war is over.\"\n\nKabul has descended into chaos, and residents and foreign nationals have been trying to escape.\n\nAt the capital's international airport, an eyewitness told the BBC that staff had abandoned their desks and people were running to planes.\n\nThe US has moved all of its embassy staff to the airport. The US military has secured the perimeter and is in the process of taking over air traffic control to evacuate American and allied personnel from the country, said the State Department.\n\nKabul was the last major city in Afghanistan to hold out against the Taliban offensive, which began months ago but has accelerated in the space of days as they rapidly gained control of territories, shocking many observers.\n\nThe militants were able to seize control after most foreign troops pulled out.\n\nUS President Joe Biden has defended the withdrawal of American troops, saying he could not justify an \"endless American presence in the middle of another country's civil conflict\".\n\nMore than 60 countries, including the US and the UK, have issued a joint statement saying the Afghan people \"deserve to live in safety, security and dignity\", and that security and civil order should be immediately restored.\n\nThey also called on the Taliban to allow anyone who wishes to depart to do so, and to keep roads, airports and border crossings open.\n\nThe Taliban ordered their fighters to enter Kabul on Sunday, after earlier holding them back at the outskirts of the city.\n\nThey said they were going in to prevent chaos and looting after security forces left parts of the capital.\n\nThis 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 Al Jazeera English 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.\n\nThe Taliban's advance into Kabul came after President Ghani fled. Details of his whereabouts are not confirmed but Al Jazeera, citing a member of his staff, said he had flown to Tashkent in neighbouring Uzbekistan.\n\nIn a Facebook post addressed to Afghan citizens, Mr Ghani said he made the difficult decision to leave to avoid bloodshed in the capital city.\n\n\"The Taliban won victory in the judgment of sword and gun and they have responsibility to protect the honour, prosperity and self-respect of our compatriots,\" he said.\n\nThe president was criticised by other politicians for leaving.\n\n\"God will hold him accountable and the nation will also judge,\" said Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of Afghanistan's High Council for National Reconciliation.\n\nLarge queues have been forming at banks\n\nThere was panic in Kabul as the Taliban drew closer to victory. Residents headed for the airport, abandoning cars and making their way on foot in a desperate bid to get out of the country.\n\nOne 22-year-old student told the BBC that he had walked for more than five hours.\n\n\"My feet hurt, they have blisters and I'm finding it difficult to stand,\" he said.\n\n\"Now that I'm leaving, I think about my family - they don't have any way to escape. I don't see a future.\"\n\nThe US has sent military helicopters to evacuate embassy staff\n\nThe US embassy said there were reports of gunfire at Kabul's airport, and warned its citizens to take shelter as \"the security situation... is changing quickly\".\n\nIn the city centre, large queues formed at banks throughout the day as people sought to withdraw cash.\n\nLocal MP Farzana Kocha told the BBC that people did not know what to do, with some running away or hiding in houses.\n\nThere were reports of fighting and injuries in the city's Qarabagh district.\n\nSuhail Shaheen, a member of the Taliban's negotiating team in Doha, told the BBC that people in Kabul had no need to worry and that their properties and lives were safe.\n\n\"We are the servants of the people and of this country,\" he said.\n\nThe US has deployed thousands of troops to help remove its staff and the Afghans who assisted with its mission. Helicopters transporting embassy personnel could be heard over the city on Sunday, and there were reports of smoke rising near the embassy compound as important documents were destroyed.\n\nAbout 600 British troops have been deployed to assist with their own withdrawal mission.\n\nUK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said his priority was getting UK nationals and \"all those who have helped the UK effort over 20 years\" out of Afghanistan \"as fast as we can\".\n\nHe called on \"like-minded\" powers to work together and not recognise any new government without agreement.\n\nOther countries are also evacuating their nationals, scaling back their presence in Afghanistan and in some cases closing their embassies altogether.\n\nRussia is planning to convene an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.\n\nIt said it would not be closing its embassy because it has been provided with security assurances by the Taliban.\n\nAre you in Afghanistan? How have you been affected? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "William Leiper's body was discovered in Househill Park in Pollok on Wednesday 4 August\n\nA man has been charged over the death of a man, whose charred remains were found at the site of a park fire in Glasgow.\n\nThe severely-burned body of 31-year-old William Leiper from Glasgow was found in Househill Park in Pollok on 4 August.\n\nPolice Scotland said a 40-year-old man was arrested over the death on Friday and charged on Saturday.\n\nHe is due to appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Monday.\n\nA police spokesman said inquiries were continuing to establish the full circumstances of Mr Leiper's death.\n\nThey have appealed for dog walkers, joggers, cyclists or anyone in the area who may have information about the case to come forward.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Poland has many memorials to Polish Jews killed by the Nazis during World War Two\n\nPoland's president Andrzej Duda has approved a law that will make it harder for Jewish people to recover property lost during and after World War Two.\n\nThe move has triggered a diplomatic crisis, with Israel recalling its ambassador to Poland and branding the law \"anti-Semitic\".\n\nThe legislation relates to claims on property stolen by Nazi Germany, then seized by Poland's communist regime.\n\nThe law sets a 30-year limit on challenges to such confiscations.\n\nAs most happened soon after the war, many outstanding claims will now be blocked.\n\nThe Polish government says the change will end a period of legal chaos, but Israel condemned it forcibly.\n\n\"Poland today approved - not for the first time - an immoral, anti-Semitic law,\" Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said in a statement.\n\nMr Lapid also said he was recommending Poland's ambassador to Israel, Marek Magierowski, remain on his summer holiday in Poland.\n\n\"He should use the time available to him to explain to the Poles what the Holocaust means to the citizens of Israel and how much we will not tolerate contempt for the memory of the victims and the memory of the Holocaust,\" he tweeted.\n\nOn Monday Poland's foreign ministry said Mr Magierowski had been recalled until further notice, citing Israel's \"recent unjustified actions\".\n\nEarlier Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he would arrange for the ambassador's children to be brought home.\n\nIn a statement, the prime minister rejected Israel's accusations of anti-Semitism and said its rhetoric would \"increase hatred towards Poland\".\n\nMr Duda said signing the bill into law ends an era of legal chaos in the process of handing back confiscated properties.\n\nIn recent decades property restitution has become deeply mired in corruption, with title claims being bought and sold, and tenants suddenly finding themselves thrown out of their apartments from one day to the next. Jewish claims account for just a minority of total claims, most of which have been made by Poles.\n\nAs a result, the law received the backing of Poland's opposition as well as the government.\n\nIsraeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett branded the law \"shameful\". He said it showed \"disgraceful contempt for the Holocaust's memory\".\n\nAbout six million Jews died in the Holocaust, half of them Polish. About 90% of Poland's pre-war Jewish community were killed.\n\nIsrael's opposition to the legislation was supported by the US, and Mr Lapid said further courses of action would be discussed with Washington.\n\nThe Polish government has previously said the new law has nothing to do with Israeli and US fears.\n\nWhen World War Two ended, Poland's communist authorities nationalised many properties that had been left empty because their owners had fled or been killed.\n\nThe new law covers both Jewish and non-Jewish claimants, but critics say Jewish owners were often late in lodging claims after the war and will be disproportionately affected.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dominic Raab sets out the numbers of people expected to arrive in the UK from Afghanistan\n\nThe UK is to send a further 200 troops to Kabul after the Taliban seized control of the Afghan capital.\n\nA total of about 900 UK troops will patrol Kabul's airport after chaotic scenes on the runway, as part of efforts to secure evacuation flights.\n\nForeign Secretary Dominic Raab confirmed 350 more UK nationals and Afghans who worked with UK troops would be evacuated in \"the days that come\".\n\nHe said the UK was considering how many Afghan refugees it would take in.\n\nMr Raab said the situation was \"not what we wanted, but we have to deal with the new reality\".\n\nHe said 289 Afghans who worked with the UK had come to the UK \"over the last week\".\n\nAnd on Monday evening, the Home Office said the UK had admitted more than 3,300 Afghan interpreters, staff and their families to the UK for resettlement.\n\nThe Home Office said \"it will be guided by the capacity of local authorities\" when deciding how many Afghan refugees to allow to settle in the UK after the Taliban seized power.\n\nA government source later told the BBC that ministers were looking to develop a \"bespoke\" scheme to prioritise women and girls to come to the UK.\n\nOfficials are looking at a response similar to the Syrian resettlement scheme from 2014 which saw the UK accept refugees in the greatest need, the source added.\n\nChaotic scenes at Kabul airport saw a number of people die on Monday, prompting all flights to be halted.\n\nThe Ministry of Defence said no further Royal Air Force aircraft were due to depart Kabul on Monday. Another 150 British nationals were due to arrive in the UK from Kabul on Tuesday morning.\n\nThe Foreign Office has advised more than 4,000 British citizens thought to be in Afghanistan to leave.\n\nOn Thursday night, the government announced about 600 UK troops would be sent to the country to help British and eligible Afghan nationals leave.\n\nThe MoD said further personnel would be forward deployed to the region and able to move to Afghanistan if needed, while more troops would be held at readiness in the UK.\n\nThe Pentagon said the US would send another battalion to help, bringing the total US forces on the ground to about 6,000.\n\nHundreds of Afghan nationals have been evacuated on UK planes\n\nSpeaking to broadcasters following a meeting of the government's emergency Cobra group on Monday, Mr Raab said there had been \"surprise\" at the speed of the Taliban's progress.\n\nHe said: \"Everyone, I think, has been surprised by the scale and the pace at which the Taliban have taken over in Afghanistan, and that's a lesson that we've all got to learn from.\n\n\"But the truth is what matters right now is focusing on getting British nationals out, getting out those who have so loyally served the UK, and making sure that the gains that we've made over 20 years are not lost.\"\n\nBut Labour MP Andrew Gwynne disputed Mr Raab's comments, saying it did \"not come as a surprise to anyone with a basic knowledge of what's been happening on the ground in Afghanistan\".\n\nAsked about the number of refugees the UK might be willing to take, Mr Raab said he was unable to commit to taking in a specific number, but that the government was considering the next steps.\n\n\"We're obviously a big-hearted nation. We've got the criteria for asylum that is set in law - we work with the UN on that.\n\n\"We're looking very carefully at what kind of further commitment we might make\".\n\nOfficials are looking at a potential response similar to the resettlement of people from Syria in 2014 - which saw the UK accept refugees in greatest need, including survivors of violence, and women and children.\n\nMr Raab said the UK would work with its international partners to hold the Taliban to account over the group's commitments, including a pledge to prevent Afghanistan becoming a base for terrorism.\n\nDowning Street said the British ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Laurie Bristow, was working from the airport in Kabul, alongside UK staff and the armed forces, to process visas for eligible Afghans.\n\nSir Laurie Bristow was appointed British ambassador to Afghanistan in June\n\nThere have been warnings that Afghan interpreters who helped British forces could be left behind after Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said \"some people won't get back\".\n\nFormer Grenadier Guard Julian Perreira told BBC Radio 4's PM programme he was trying to reassure some interpreters, but added: \"I just haven't got the heart to tell them that I think their worst fears may be coming true - that they may be left behind.\"\n\nMost Afghan nationals eligible for relocation to the UK are those who have worked for the British government in frontline roles \"that made a material difference to the delivery of the UK mission\" in the country.\n\nThis group includes interpreters as well as cultural advisers and embassy staff. Others eligible are those deemed to be at high and imminent risk, according to the MoD.", "Video shows hundreds of Afghans at Kabul airport attempting to escape, as the Taliban took over the capital.\n\nGunfire was heard on Monday morning, with eyewitnesses telling the BBC that civilians had been killed. US troops reportedly fired into the air to scatter the crowds.\n\nThe Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan, almost 20 years after being ousted by a US-led military coalition.", "Two women intervened after the American bulldog turned on a child at a home in Hoylake Crescent, Bilborough\n\nA woman who was attacked by her American bulldog has been left with life-changing injuries.\n\nNottinghamshire Police said the dog turned on a child at a home in Hoylake Crescent, Bilborough, on Saturday evening.\n\nTwo women at the property intervened and were repeatedly bitten on the face, arms and stomach by the animal.\n\nThe dog was eventually stabbed by another occupant, and secured in the garden before they called 999.\n\nBoth women were taken to hospital for treatment and police were called to the property at 00:10 BST on Sunday.\n\nAn emergency vet was called but was left with no option but to put down the animal.\n\nDet Insp Jon Kerry said: \"It's devastating that a woman has suffered such serious injuries caused by her own pet, but we can only be grateful that it didn't result in far worse consequences had the animal been able to attack the child.\n\n\"Although we don't believe that the animal was a banned breed, this is a stark reminder to all pet owners not to take any chances with animals around children, particularly if they have ever displayed violent tendencies.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Roads out of the Afghan capital have been choked with traffic as people fearful of a Taliban takeover try to flee.\n\nThe Taliban say their fighters have now entered Kabul to prevent any looting, but that they want a peaceful transfer of power. The Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has left the country for an unknown destination.\n\nFarzana Elham, and MP in Kabul, told the BBC that residents were scared and were either trying to leave the city or hiding in their homes.", "All 16 and 17-year-olds in England are to be offered their first coronavirus vaccine dose or the chance to book one by 23 August, the government has said.\n\nThe health secretary said offering vaccines by this date would allow teenagers to get some protection before starting school or college next month.\n\nA walk-in site finder is being launched online by NHS England to help people locate their nearest vaccine centre.\n\nYoung people in this age group were first offered a jab earlier this month.\n\nBut unlike older age groups, no second dose is being scheduled.\n\nThey will be invited, by text or letter, to get vaccinated either by making an appointment through GPs or by going to a walk-in centre, the Department of Health said.\n\nInvites are also being sent out in Wales, while in Northern Ireland, walk-in centres are now open to older teenagers, and in Scotland they can register their interest online.\n\nTens of thousands of people aged 16 and 17 have already had a first vaccine. Having it done by 23 August will mean there is two weeks for them to build immunity before the new term gets under way.\n\nThose aged 12 to 15 who are clinically vulnerable or live with others at increased risk of getting seriously ill with coronavirus are also being invited for their vaccine by that date. However, some parents have told the BBC of their struggles in securing vaccines for children in this group.\n\nTeenagers who are within three months of turning 18 can book an appointment online through the National Booking Service or calling 119.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid urged people not to delay, adding: \"Get your jabs as soon as you can so we can continue to safely live with this virus and enjoy our freedoms by giving yourself, your family and your community the protection they need.\"\n\nExperts have warned that high levels of coronavirus infection and rising case rates mean the UK is \"running hot\" when it comes to managing the spread of the disease.\n\nDr Simon Clarke, associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said on Friday that while vaccines are reducing the number of hospital admissions and deaths, high case numbers \"still place an unnecessary burden on the NHS\".\n\nThe rate of new cases of the virus is currently rising in all four nations, suggesting the sharp fall in Covid-19 cases that had been under way since mid-July has now come to an end.\n\nThe National Education Union said the vaccinations of 16 and 17-year-olds would help minimise disruption to education in the next academic year, but said additional safety measures needed to continue in schools.\n\nThe union's joint general secretary, Kevin Courtney, said: \"With the autumn and winter terms coming up, the issue of crowded schools with no social distancing and inadequate ventilation remains a problem.\"\n\nThe government says vaccines have saved about 84,600 lives as well as preventing 23.4 million infections and 66,900 hospital admissions by 6 August.\n\nSunday's data showed that 47,302,445 first doses had now been given in the UK - covering about 89% of the adult population - and 40,577,198 second doses, about 77% of adults.\n\nThere were 26,750 new cases announced and 61 deaths, where the person had tested positive within the previous 28 days.\n\nDr Nikki Kanani, NHS medical director of primary care and deputy lead for the vaccination programme in England, said more than a quarter of a million under-18s had had a first jab so far.\n\n\"Now as teenagers prepare to head back to school or college or into their first full-time jobs, once again NHS staff are doing everything they can to offer young people the lifesaving vaccine as quickly as possible to protect themselves and others,\" she said.\n\nThe latest data showed that 70% of people aged 18 to 29 in England had received a first dose of vaccine up to 11 August.\n\nThose aged 16 and above do not need parental consent to get a vaccine as they are considered capable of making their own medical treatment decisions.", "The Taliban appear to be on the brink of taking total control of Afghanistan\n\n\"Thanks to God you are come,\" shouted an old man as my colleagues and I marched into Kabul on 14 November 2001, battling our way through the joyful crowds.\n\nThe anti-Taliban forces of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, which had the backing of the US and other Western countries, had halted on the city outskirts, and the Taliban had simply run for it.\n\nFive years of the most extreme religious dictatorship in recent times were over.\n\nUnder the Taliban, Afghanistan had become a black hole in which all sorts of extremism could thrive.\n\nOnly two months earlier the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington had been planned and guided by Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda movement. It simply never occurred to me then that Taliban could make a comeback.\n\nNow of course everyone is looking for reasons.\n\nThe governments of Afghanistan's two post-Taliban presidents, Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani, were democratically elected but never strong, and corruption was the system which worked best.\n\nNevertheless President Ghani would still be in his palace and the army would be driving round in its expensive Western vehicles, if Donald Trump had not decided that he needed a foreign policy success before the 2020 election.\n\nHe thought that bringing a long-running war to an end would achieve that.\n\nSeveral Afghan politicians and journalists I know were horrified by the conclusion of the US talks with the Taliban political leadership in Doha in February 2020, and doubly so when President Joe Biden made it clear he was going to stick to it.\n\nI was warned that no matter how moderate and peaceable the leaders in Doha might promise to be, the Taliban fighters on the ground would feel no compulsion to observe the fine print.\n\nDirectly after the US, British and other Western troops began pulling out, the Taliban fighters across Afghanistan made their play for power. Reports of prisoners being executed brought an atmosphere of blind panic in one town after another, until Kabul itself succumbed and officials and soldiers were battling their way to the airport to get out.\n\nAfghans wait in long lines for hours at the passport office in Kabul on Saturday\n\nPerhaps the Taliban will stick to the terms of their soothing statement promising not to take revenge on anyone, and appealing to the police, the military and the civil service to stay in place.\n\nThey may very well think it'll be safer not to provoke the West to intervene again.\n\nBut what sort of country will Taliban-controlled Afghanistan be this time?\n\nThe only guide we have is the five-year period from 1996 when (again in a matter of a few days - that's how these things go in Afghanistan) the Taliban drove out the moderate mujahideen government controlled by the redoubtable Ahmad Shah Massoud.\n\nI spent a good deal of time in Afghanistan during the Taliban's period of power, and found it deeply scary.\n\nSharia law in its fiercest forms was in operation everywhere, with public executions, stonings and whippings commonplace.\n\nGangs of vigilantes hung out on street corners, attacking men who showed their ankles or wore any form of Western clothing.\n\nWomen only ventured out if they had written permission from men, and of course had to wear the all-encompassing burka.\n\nThe Taliban minister of health, Mullah Balouch, complained to me that the International Red Cross refused his request to provide surgeons to cut off the hands and feet of convicted thieves, so he had to do the job personally; though he seemed to quite enjoy it.\n\nWorking for television was a nightmare, because taking the image of any living creature was expressly forbidden on religious grounds. Bookshops were regularly ransacked for illustrations, and any guilty bookseller was whipped.\n\nMost people fled the city if they could, and most shops were shut up.\n\nThe Taliban couldn't pay for oil imports, so the brightest lights at night-time were the candles people put in their windows, and the loudest noise was the barking of packs of marauding dogs, abandoned by their owners.\n\nFor all the failings of successive Afghan governments and their Western backers, Kabul and other cities have burst with commercial life since the Taliban were chased out.\n\nKabul has been transformed as a city in recent years\n\nLiving standards have shot up. Cars pack the once empty streets. Schools have blossomed, especially for girls; under the Taliban the education of girls was expressly forbidden. Music, banned under the Taliban, blared out everywhere.\n\nThere are new buildings everywhere. The last time I was there, I couldn't even find the place on the edge of the city where my BBC colleagues and I started our walk into town in 2001; the whole area had been built over.\n\nMost Afghans will regard the Taliban takeover as a catastrophe for themselves and their country.\n\nThe main question now is, will the Taliban follow their instincts and take Afghanistan back to the past as radically as they did before liberation day 20 years ago - or have they learned a lesson?", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nPresident Joe Biden has said he stands \"squarely\" behind the US exit from Afghanistan as he faces withering criticism over the Taliban's lightning conquest of the war-torn country.\n\n\"How many more American lives is it worth?\" asked the Democratic president.\n\nHe said that despite the \"messy\" pull-out, \"there was never a good time to withdraw US forces\".\n\nOn Sunday, the Taliban declared victory after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled and his government collapsed.\n\nThe militants' return to rule brings an end to almost 20 years of a US-led coalition's presence in the country.\n\nKabul was the last major city in Afghanistan to fall to a Taliban offensive that began months ago but accelerated in recent days as they gained control of territories, shocking many observers.\n\nMr Biden's address followed a dramatic day at Kabul's international airport, where hundreds of civilians desperate to flee the country forced their way inside on Monday.\n\nMany thronged the runway, running alongside a moving military transporter aircraft as it prepared for take-off.\n\nSome clung to the side of a plane, and at least two of them are reported to have perished when they fell from the aircraft after it had left the ground.\n\nAmerican troops killed two armed Afghans who were part of the crowd that breached the airport perimeter. Seven people reportedly died in total.\n\nThe US suspended its evacuation from Kabul but it has now resumed.\n\nA remarkable picture from Sunday appears to show 640 Afghans packed onboard a US military cargo plane leaving Kabul for Qatar.\n\nThe image, not verified by the BBC, was obtained by the US defence analysis website, Defense One.\n\nPanicked civilians had scrambled up the loading ramp, the website quoted US officials as saying, but the crew decided it was best to take off rather than force the Afghans off.\n\nIn a separate development, the Taliban have announced what they are calling a general amnesty for government officials, and have urged them to return to work.\n\nA statement said officials should \"continue their duties without any fear\".\n\nMr Biden returned on Monday to the White House from the Camp David presidential retreat to make his first public remarks on Afghanistan in nearly a week.\n\n\"If anything, the developments of the past week reinforce that ending US military involvement in Afghanistan now was the right decision,\" said Mr Biden.\n\n\"American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves.\"\n\nMr Biden is facing an intense political backlash over the turmoil in Kabul following his April decision to order all American troops out of Afghanistan by 11 September - the 20 year anniversary of the terror attacks that triggered the US invasion.\n\nMitch McConnell, Republican Senate Minority Leader, tweeted: \"What we are seeing in Afghanistan is an unmitigated disaster. The Biden Administration's retreat will leave a stain on the reputation of the United States.\"\n\nFormer US President George W Bush, who authorised the military intervention in 2001, said he was \"watching the tragic events unfolding in Afghanistan with deep sadness\".\n\n\"The Afghans now at greatest risk are the same ones who have been on the forefront of progress inside their nation,\" Mr Bush said, stressing that the US had \"the legal authority to cut the red tape for refugees during urgent humanitarian crises\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. People tried to cling on to the wheels of a departing US military plane\n\nIn his speech, Mr Biden said the US mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been about nation-building.\n\nHe said that when he was vice-president he had opposed the 2009 deployment of thousands more troops into the country by former President Barack Obama.\n\nMr Biden also noted he had inherited a deal negotiated with the Taliban under former President Donald Trump for the US to withdraw from Afghanistan by May of this year.\n\nHe said he was now the fourth US president to preside over America's longest war, and would not pass the responsibility on to a fifth.\n\n\"I will not mislead the American people by claiming that just a little more time in Afghanistan will make all the difference.\"\n\nMr Biden campaigned as a seasoned expert in foreign policy and declared after assuming office this year that \"America is back\".\n\nLast month he assured reporters it was \"highly unlikely\" the Taliban would overrun the entire country.\n\nBut he conceded on Monday that \"this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated\".\n\nOn Tuesday Mr Biden's assessment was echoed by the chief of the Nato alliance, which had a leading role in combat operations and training government security forces in Afghanistan.\n\nNato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said while Nato forces \"never intended to stay in Afghanistan forever,\" the speed at which the Taliban took control surprised them.\n\nMr Stoltenberg described this rapid takeover as a \"failure of Afghan political leadership\", but said Nato also had lessons to learn.\n\nOpinion polls suggest most Americans support the US exiting Afghanistan.\n\nBut Mr Biden is facing a barrage of criticism over the manner of the departure, after he withdrew US troops then sent thousands back in to help the evacuation.\n\nImages emerged on Sunday showing US helicopters circling the US embassy in Kabul.\n\nFor many, the pictures evoked America's humiliating departure from Saigon, Vietnam, in 1975 when Mr Biden was a junior senator.\n\nHave you been affected by the issues in this story? Get in touch.\n\nOr use this form to get in touch:\n\nIf 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 comment or send it via email to HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any comment you send in.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nTottenham made light of the absence of unsettled Harry Kane to start the Premier League season with a win over champions Manchester City and their £100m man Jack Grealish.\n\nKane - heavily linked with a move to Manchester City - sat out this pulsating encounter but Pep Guardiola wasted no time in throwing in his British record signing from Aston Villa.\n\nIt was Son Heung-min who gave new manager Nuno Espirito Santo the perfect start to his reign with a low shot that snaked beyond Manchester City keeper Ederson 10 minutes after the break.\n\nSpurs fully deserved their win as they survived a shaky opening phase to play with real purpose, already showing signs of the Nuno trademark with fierce defensive discipline allied to pace on the break.\n\nGrealish had a quiet debut, being shown a yellow card late on, and it was actually Spurs who had the best opportunity after Son's goal, only for Steven Bergwijn to shoot wide when clean through.\n\nCity had fleeting opportunities but rarely tested Spurs keeper Hugo Lloris as they looked rusty in contrast to the sharpness of their opponents.\n\nManchester City's pursuit of England captain Kane gave this game an added edge - so how the home fans enjoyed victory against the club attempting to snatch away their main marksman.\n\nAnd Spurs delivered exactly what their supporters, finally back inside their magnificent new stadium, wanted with this opening-weekend victory - the chance to taunt Manchester City and to remind Kane what he might be leaving behind.\n\nLate on, those fans sent a chant of 'are you watching, Harry Kane?' reverberating around the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.\n\nAnd it was Son, the man who has been Kane's partner in goals for so many years, who provided the flourish befitting this high-octane Spurs performance with a typical piece of skill and ingenuity to slide the winner low past Ederson.\n\nSpurs players - and manager - Nuno rightly took the acclaim at the final whistle. The home side had heroes everywhere in match-winner Son, the outstanding defender Japhet Tanganga and the tireless Lucas Moura.\n\nIt remains to be seen how the Kane affair plays out but this will be the perfect psychological lift to Spurs that will sustain them until the saga comes to a close one way or the other.\n\nRusty Man City can have no complaints\n\nManchester City's race appeared run long before the end of this game, with the early spark of promise snuffed out by the endeavour and skill of Spurs.\n\nGrealish made some useful contributions early on but his day ended in the frustration of a yellow card and it is clear Guardiola, understandably, still has some work to do to integrate his talents into a squad already packed with creative ability.\n\nOne look at the City bench hinted at what Guardiola can introduce in the weeks ahead, even if Kane does not make the move to Manchester.\n\nKevin de Bruyne, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus were introduced in the final 20 minutes, while England's Euro 2020 pair Kyle Walker and John Stones were unused substitutes, as were Aymeric Laporte, Rodri and Bernardo Silva - a formidable array of talent.\n\nBut nothing could save this over-complicated and listless City show with Benjamin Mendy showing yet again what a flawed figure he is at left-back while Nathan Ake was also uncomfortable.\n\nAnd, significantly, City's lack of punch, with the great Sergio Aguero now gone, may just have prompted Guardiola to look even further into the acquisition of Kane, especially as Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United have already given notice that there will be very little margin for error in the title race this season.\n• None Attempt saved. Ferran Torres (Manchester City) right footed shot from a difficult angle on the right is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by João Cancelo.\n• None Attempt saved. Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Jack Grealish.\n• None João Cancelo (Manchester City) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. João Cancelo (Manchester City) header from outside the box is close, but misses the top right corner. Assisted by Kevin De Bruyne following a corner. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A bell chimed five times in remembrance of each victim\n\nA one-minute silence has been held to remember the five victims of the mass shooting in Plymouth.\n\nPeople across the UK were invited by the city council to observe the silence at 11:00 BST.\n\nIn Plymouth, people gathered outside the city's Guildhall.\n\nMaxine Davison, 51, Stephen Washington, 59, and Kate Shepherd, 66, were killed in the attack on Thursday, along with father and daughter Lee Martyn, 43, and Sophie Martyn, three.\n\nDozens gathered at Keyham's North Down Crescent Park to observe Monday's one-minute silence together\n\nLord Mayor of Plymouth Terri Beer, who spoke outside the Guildhall before the silence, said: \"I know that many people across the country and the world will also be taking a moment to reflect on the dreadful loss that has been suffered in our community.\n\n\"I know Plymouth is a place where people stand together during dark times.\n\n\"I hope and believe that we will get through the difficult times that lie ahead as we try to come to terms with the dreadful loss by continuing to support each other.\"\n\nIt was a very loving and sombre occasion.\n\nPeople were hushed and standing in reflection and thoughtfulness even before Lord Mayor Terri Beer spoke and the silence began, with Mrs Beer talking about Plymouth being together.\n\nThe chairman of Keyham Neighbourhood Watch, Kevin Sproston, spoke eloquently about the community pulling together.\n\nHe said people wished for the respect of national media in terms of going forward and allowing the community to grieve.\n\nMr Sproston said there would be dark days in the future, but, hopefully, the city would come out the other side.\n\nSpeaking afterwards, Kevin Sproston, from Keyham Neighbourhood Watch, said: \"At the moment Keyham is grieving. We grieve because we love. Grief is love. We are in shock, feel guilty and angry about the events surrounding the deaths of our beloved community members, because we love.\n\n\"And it is that love and energy that we can now use to bring about change.\n\n\"As a community we look to rebuild and restore together. Collectively we will support each other and with help bring back a community that we want our children to inherit.\"\n\nIn Plymouth, people gathered outside the city's Guildhall for the one-minute silence\n\nCouncillor Nick Kelly, leader of Plymouth City Council, who also observed the minute's silence outside the Guildhall, said: \"As a city we need to honour and respect those that are from our community.\n\n\"They are lives that have been taken prematurely and hopefully something positive will come out from this, but right now, right here, it is very difficult to see beyond just the tragic loss.\"\n\nPolice cordons have been lifted in Biddick Drive and Henderson Place in Keyham where Jake Davison shot the victims.\n\nFlowers and letters have been left in the area over the weekend in tribute to those who died.\n\nPolice said forensic examinations would continue at 17 Biddick Drive, where Davison lived, over the coming days.\n\nFlags were flown at half-mast along Plymouth Hoe on Monday\n\nAway from the Guildhall, groups gathered in other parts of the city including at Plymouth Hoe.\n\nAt Keyham's North Down Crescent Park, between 50 and 70 people observed the minute's silence together.\n\n\"You just don't believe it will happen around here,\" she said.\n\n\"Even walking around it's still quite eerie and a lot of people are still scared.\"\n\nAnother resident, Chris Morton, said: \"It's completely shocking and I just wanted to show some sympathy for the families involved, the victims, and those in hospital as well.\"\n\nHe described Keyham as \"very sombre\", but added the community had been \"very respectful, very kind to each other and very compassionate\".\n\nLocal person, Tracy Cooke, said attending the minute silence felt like \"the right thing to do\".\n\nThe prime minister was among those to pay their respects elsewhere in the country.\n\nIn Liverpool, traffic was held in the Mersey Tunnels, while courts and the Old Bailey in London rose to observe the silence.\n\nThis 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 UK Prime Minister 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.\n\nPeople have left letters and tributes to the five local victims\n\nIn Thursday evening's attack, 22-year-old Davison shot his mother Maxine before killing Sophie and her father.\n\nHe then killed Mr Washington in a nearby park before shooting Ms Shepherd, who was taken to Derriford Hospital where she died.\n\nHe also shot and wounded a 33-year-old man and a 53-year-old woman, who were taken to hospital, before turning the gun on himself.\n\nPolice officers remained outside 17 Biddick Drive, where Davison lived, on Monday\n\nDevon and Cornwall Police said a highly visible police presence would remain in the wider area until Monday evening.\n\nThe force said community drop-in centres remained open for Keyham residents at St Mark's Church and Ford Primary School.\n\nA vigil took place on Jubilee Green in Plymouth's neighbouring town of Saltash, in Cornwall, at 20:45.\n\nHundreds of people attended a vigil on Friday evening close to where the victims were shot.\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk", "Mr Bezos flew to space with his brother Mark (L) in July, in the first crewed flight of his New Shepard spacecraft\n\nJeff Bezos's space firm Blue Origin is suing Nasa over a decision to award a $2.9bn (£2.1bn) lunar lander contract to Elon Musk's SpaceX.\n\nThe former Amazon boss's firm said there were \"fundamental issues\" with the deal, calling it unfair.\n\nThe row stems from a decision in April to hand the deal to one company, not two as expected, because of a funding shortfall.\n\nNasa is yet to comment, but it has the backing of a federal watchdog.\n\nIn a court filing on Friday, Blue Origin said it continued to believe that two providers were needed to build the landing system, which will carry astronauts down to the Moon's surface as early as 2024.\n\nIt also accused Nasa of \"unlawful and improper evaluation\" of its proposals during the tender process.\n\n\"We firmly believe that the issues identified in this procurement and its outcomes must be addressed to restore fairness, create competition and ensure a safe return to the Moon for America,\" Blue Origin said.\n\nAt the time of the award, Nasa's human exploration chief, Kathy Lueders, admitted that the space agency's current budget precluded it from selecting two companies. That was after Congress granted it only $850m of the $3.3bn it requested for the project.\n\nNasa also cited the proven record of orbital missions by Elon Musk's SpaceX firm as a factor in the award. Cost is also thought to have played a role: SpaceX's bid was the lowest-priced by some distance.\n\nIn July, Mr Bezos offered to cover up to $2bn of Nasa's costs in order to be reconsidered for the contract, but he was rebuffed.\n\nUS watchdog the Government Accountability Office (GAO), meanwhile, rejected a complaint from Blue Origin and defence contractor Dynetic, saying that Nasa had not \"acted improperly\" in handing the contract to just one firm.\n\nNasa must file a response to the legal action by 12 October. SpaceX is yet to comment on the lawsuit.\n\nUnder its Artemis programme, Nasa hopes to return humans to the moon for the first time since 1972.\n\nIn April, Ms Lueders said: \"This critical step puts humanity on a path to sustainable lunar exploration and keeps our eyes on missions farther into the solar system, including Mars.\"", "It's one of the most memorable images from the Tokyo Olympics - diver Tom Daley knitting while sat in the stands.\n\nThe Olympic champion talks about his knitting obsession with BBC Breakfast's Sally Nugent - and even lets her try on his now famous Team GB cardigan.\n\nHe also opens up about what he's learnt as a parent (and from his late dad) and inspiring LGBT young people.", "Matt, Johnny and their friends are happy to use an app or queue at the bar: whichever is fastest\n\nCustomers should think carefully about handing over personal data when ordering food and drink via their mobile phones, the UK's body overseeing data privacy suggests.\n\nApp and web-based ordering has become commonplace during the pandemic.\n\nBut the Information Commissioner's Office told the BBC that customers should be aware they had a choice over whether to share information.\n\nVenues should only ask for data that is \"relevant and necessary\", the ICO said.\n\n\"I think it's too easy to upload an app and straight away put your name, email address, payment details in, without actually understanding fully where that information may be shared and why it's being used,\" said Suzanne Gordon, director of data protection at the ICO.\n\n\"Ultimately this is your data, it's your personal information and you need to be confident when you're handing it over and the reasons why.\"\n\nOnline ordering is popular with many customers, sparing them the crush at the bar and helping to reduce the risk from Covid.\n\nBut they're popular with businesses too, because they speed up the ordering process and provide an additional way to interact with customers. Apps now handle millions of pounds worth of transactions every day.\n\nAnd it looks as though they are here to stay. Apart from in Northern Ireland, where you still have to be served at the table, restaurants and bars across the UK can now return to pre-pandemic style service at the bar or from waiting staff. But most are keeping their online ordering too.\n\nOne group of friends, gathered for a drink in the sunshine at the Courtyard in Manchester, said they were happy either to use the app or to order at the bar, whichever would get their pint to them the fastest. But there were downsides to the apps, they admitted.\n\n\"You end up with 10 different passwords, I've got so many different apps,\" said Johnny. \"You give your postcode or your email, a lot of it seems irrelevant.\"\n\n\"It is irrelevant,\" added Matt. \"But it's a cost we kind of have to pay.\"\n\nBut the ICO said sharing personal data was far from obligatory.\n\n\"Customers need to understand they do have a choice. We're now coming out of the pandemic and there's the ability to order on the app or in the more traditional way,\" said Ms Gordon.\n\n\"I think it is very easy for people just to see the end product, and because they want that, they really don't question the amount of data that they are being asked for,\" she added.\n\nThe UK's four biggest pub chains, representing a quarter of the market - Wetherspoons, Greene King, Mitchells and Butlers and Stonegate - all now have their own in-house apps. The developers behind apps for independent venues say they have seen huge growth during the pandemic.\n\nThey all say they follow the guidelines informing customers of their rights and how their data will be dealt with. But those terms and conditions are unlikely to be closely read by a lot of people.\n\nOver the last year, lots of businesses have suddenly got a mountain of information about their customers that they didn't have access to before. Your local knows your name, an email address, maybe your date of birth, maybe your home address.\n\nFor the bar or pub, that's incredibly valuable information, worth much more than the round you just bought. It tells them what you like drinking, what time you're likely to visit, who you were sitting with and how frequently you reorder.\n\nPerhaps you're not bothered about the offers and discounts sent by them, but you might be more annoyed by calls from other companies, which could be in the small print of the app. Car insurance companies would be very interested in how much and how frequently you drink, while any number of other businesses would love to get hold of your mobile number.\n\nThe law says you can always ask a company to stop sending you spam, but it's a lot easier to make sure you tick or untick the right boxes in the app to start with, or just put the phone down and order in person.\n\nMost apps work by charging a venue approximately 2% to 3% transaction charge per order. In return, the technology can help streamline the ordering process, but can also offer the chance to learn a little about customers' habits and profiles.\n\n\"Hospitality is struggling,\" says Luke Beavon, financial director at one of the independent app providers, GoodEats. \"But the app gives them the ability to follow up with a customer and get them back through the door again.\"\n\nOnce registered, ease of use makes it more likely that customers will have another drink or an additional item, according to Chris Dunkley, director of another independent app, Hopt.\n\n\"Hopt hugely increases spend-per-head for the operator,\" he said.\n\nHowever, hospitality firms that do use the new technology should respect some boundaries, said the ICO's Ms Gordon.\n\n\"If [firms] are asking for data, they need to understand why they are asking for it and they need to make sure it is relevant and necessary,\" she said.\n\n\"It's up to them to make sure it isn't excessive.\"\n\nAlex Mackenzie and Sadra Hosseini, cofounders of ordering app Butlr, say they've reduced the amount of information it asks users to fill in\n\nThe app developers appear to be taking that advice on board.\n\nThe Courtyard, where Matt and Johnny are drinking, uses an app called Butlr, which accounts for about a third of the pub's orders, or more at weekends.\n\nBut the amount of data the app collects has been reduced since it was first launched in 2018, says Butlr co-founder Alex Mackenzie.\n\n\"When we had our first venues go live, it was quite a rigorous sign-up process, but the data we collect from individuals has gradually worn away now,\" said Mr Mackenzie. \"We want to make it as simple and easy as possible.\"\n\nPrask Sutton, chief executive of another app provider, Onvi, said the business kept ordering as simple as possible.\n\n\"We don't believe customers should have to hand over excessive personal information just to grab a pint at the pub. They're going for a drink, not applying for a mortgage.\"", "Paul Taylor said even his spaniels think he is \"nuts\"\n\nA man is embarking on a 1,800-mile tour on a 50cc moped of places with rude and funny names.\n\nPaul Taylor, from Wantage, Oxfordshire, is making the charity fundraising trip in memory of a friend who died of cancer.\n\nHis journey will begin in Shitterton, Dorset, on Wednesday and will take in locations such as Twatt in Orkney and Booze in the Yorkshire Dales.\n\nMr Taylor will be touring England and Scotland in search of funny place names\n\nHe said he chose Shitterton, near Bere Regis, as his starting point because of its \"appealing\" name.\n\n\"Everyone starts a long journey like that from Lands End to John O' Groats - I wanted to do something similar, with a bit of twist,\" he said.\n\n\"There's some good ones around there, like Happy Bottom Nature Reserve and Sandy Balls New Forest Holiday Park.\"\n\nOther destinations include Pity Me in Durham, Dull in Perth and Kinross, and the neighbouring hamlets of Crazies Hill and Cockpole Green near Reading in Berkshire.\n\nMr Taylor (right) is making the trip in memory of Alexis Leventis who died last year\n\nFunny street names on his itinerary include The Knob in King's Sutton, Northamptonshire, Butthole Lane in Shepshed, Leicestershire, and Titty Ho in Raunds, Northamptonshire.\n\nMr Taylor said after his friend Alexis Leventis died of cancer last year, aged 55, he wanted to do something \"to help beat this awful disease\".\n\n\"I thought this trip was a suitably ridiculous place to start and, as Alexis was a motorcyclist as well as a car nut, two wheels was not only appropriate but made it more of an adventure.\"\n\nMr Taylor, who has named his challenge the Moronic Moped Marathon, will be mostly camping on his trip.\n\nHe is raising money for the Institute of Cancer Research and will be recording his progress on social media.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n• None BBC Local Radio - The Localist - Dorset, Rude Britannia - you live where?", "Team GB athletes have been given an official homecoming - and a chance to show off their medals - with a star-studded concert at Wembley.\n\nOlympic champions including Tom Daley and diving partner Matty Lee, gymnast Max Whitlock and cyclists Jason and Laura Kenny were entertained by musicians including Nile Rodgers, Laura Mvula and Anne-Marie.\n\nIt was the first time the Tokyo 2020 athletes had a chance to celebrate together, as coronavirus restrictions meant they had to fly home within two days of competing.\n\nLaura Kenny, GB's most successful female athlete who won the madison event with Katie Archibald, said: \"It's actually really nice to be home. When you're out there, you're in such a little bubble that you don't really know what the feeling is [going to be] when you get back.\"\n\nTo come back to such a homecoming was \"an incredible buzz\", she said.\n\nHer husband Jason said: \"The biggest difficulty is coming out of Olympic preparation and that bubble where everything is sorted - then all of a sudden, you get home and and you have to think about 'what are we going to have for tea?'\"\n\nHe said it had felt like \"a long time away from everyone, especially from our little boy, so it was really special to come home and be reunited\".\n\nCompetitors including Joe Fraser, Alice Kinsella and Bryony Page celebrated the team's success at the event\n\nTom Daley, Matty Lee and Max Whitlock were among those attending\n\nCharlotte Worthington, who won gold in BMX freestyle park, said she hoped her success would help inspire a new generation.\n\nShe said people had come up to her telling her their children were keen to take up the sport, adding: \"People want BMXs for Christmas now - so I really hope they're inspired.\"\n\nWeightlifter Emily Campbell, who won a silver medal, said she was also \"really happy\" about for \"what I might have done for weightlifting in the future\".\n\nAnd she said that she had been recognised in public more now, with someone calling out: \"there's a celebrity in Morrisons!\" when she was doing her groceries.\n\nWeighlifter Emily Campbell said she hoped she'd inspired others to take up weightlifting\n\nYungblud was among the performers\n\nWhitlock said it was \"amazing to be back\" and that he felt \"massively grateful\" to be at the event.\n\nHe has been enjoying spending time with his family - including daughter Willow who has already started going to gym classes herself. He said he wanted her to try \"lots of different sports so she can pick what she wants to do\".\n\nNile Rodgers performed Good Times with Laura Mvula as his special guest\n\nRower Helen Glover said being back home, it \"kind of feels like it never happened\".\n\n\"It was a big reality check going home and being mum again - but it's really nice to feel that normality,\" she said.\n\nSinger Griff got to model the Team GB cardigan knitted by Tom Daley when he was in Tokyo\n\nThere was an audience of 8,000 at the event, including athletes' relatives and key workers as well as National Lottery players who had won tickets.", "It was the weekend Premier League fans had been waiting more than 17 months for - and it did not disappoint.\n\nWe saw full stadiums for the first time since the Covid pandemic shut football down in March 2020, the traditional 3pm fixtures were back and there were a near-record number of goals.\n\n\"It is amazing. It changes everything. Two or three months ago, something was missing,\" said Spurs boss Nuno Espirito Santo after their 1-0 win over Manchester City.\n\n\"The games were good but the fans are what it is all about - the edge of the game, and the boys need it.\"\n\nHe is not wrong. Football behind closed doors - with fake crowd noise on the TV and radio - has just not been the same.\n\nLast season, there were a few weeks with 2,000 fans allowed at some games in the winter, before two weeks of larger crowds at the end of the campaign, plus trials at Wembley in the FA Cup and Carabao Cup.\n\nBut full stadiums are back now. The roar from the 16,479 at the first-ever Premier League game to be played at Brentford - Friday's win over Arsenal - will live long in the memory.\n\nA crowd of 72,732 packed into Old Trafford to watch Manchester United hammer Leeds.\n\nEverton striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who scored against Southampton, said: \"It's a great feeling to score with fans being back in the stadium. I felt like a kid again.\"\n\nAnd Trevoh Chalobah's goal on his Premier League debut - and his emotional reaction - would not have been the same without his fellow Chelsea fans in the stands to celebrate with him.\n\nRead more from Emlyn here.", "Twitter is making changes to its new redesign, after users complained of headaches and discomfort.\n\nUnveiled only last week, the redesign mainly involved high-contrast colours and a custom-designed font, Chirp.\n\nAt the time, the social network said it \"might feel weird at first\" but would improve content consumption and clean up \"visual clutter\".\n\nBut many, especially with accessibility needs, found it confusing, hard to read and uncomfortably bright.\n\n\"It's smaller and denser now, which means I need to strain my eyes more to read,\" one user wrote.\n\nAnother said: \"It is just impossible to read if one has a visual and/or processing impairment.\"\n\nThis 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 Twitter Accessibility 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.\n\nA few days later, a tweet from the technology giant's accessibility account said: \"We're making contrast changes on all buttons to make them easier on the eyes because you told us the new look is uncomfortable for people with sensory sensitivities.\"\n\nAnd the next day, it said: \"We've identified issues with the Chirp font for Windows users and are actively working on a fix.\"\n\nMany users had also complained about the new font on mobile phones, however.\n\nAnd, replying to a concerned user asking to be able to choose their own font, Twitter promised future changes and it was \"going through everyone's feedback on the font\".\n\nAnnouncing the new font, in January, Twitter head of branding Derrit DeRouen said it had been designed, by Swiss type foundry Grilli, \"to improve how we convey emotion and imperfection\" - and the widely used standard typeface Helvetica was \"not up for the job\".\n\nThis 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 2 by Derrit DeRouen 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.\n\nBut now, that thread is filled with replies urging Twitter to use Helvetica - or whatever the user's default system font is.\n\nSocial-media companies often face a backlash to changes, however.\n\nAnd Facebook users have reacted badly to changes over the years - to both its design and the algorithms that power its news feed and dictate what users see.", "Taliban security guards in Kabul, a year on from their triumphant return to power\n\nThe Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, two decades after being removed from power by a US-led military coalition.\n\nThe hardline Islamist group advanced rapidly across the country, seizing province after province before taking the capital Kabul on 15 August last year, as the Afghan military collapsed.\n\nForeign forces, who had agreed to leave, were stunned by the speed of the advance and had to accelerate their exit. Many Western-backed Afghan government leaders fled, while thousands of their compatriots and foreigners fearing Taliban rule scrambled to find room on flights out of the country.\n\nWithin weeks, the Taliban were in control of all of Afghanistan - something they had not managed to do in their first stint in power between 1996 and 2001.\n\nThe group had struck a deal with the Americans in 2020 for US troops to withdraw, following a bloody but ultimately successful guerrilla campaign lasting many years.\n\nTaliban fighters pictured in Laghman Province last year as they began a lightning offensive to retake the country\n\nUnder the deal, the Taliban committed to national peace talks, which never took place, and to preventing al-Qaeda and other militants from operating in areas that the Taliban controlled.\n\nFollowing the group's return to power, Afghanistan's economy imploded, leaving a huge portion of the population struggling to find enough money to eat and to access other essentials.\n\nBillions of dollars in Afghan assets held abroad are frozen as the international community waits for the Taliban to honour promises still to be met on security, governance and human rights, including allowing all girls to be educated.\n\nThe Taliban, or \"students\" in the Pashto language, emerged in the early 1990s in northern Pakistan following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.\n\nIt is believed that the predominantly Pashtun movement first appeared in religious seminaries - mostly paid for by money from Saudi Arabia - which preached a hardline form of Sunni Islam.\n\nThe promise made by the Taliban - in Pashtun areas straddling Pakistan and Afghanistan - was to restore peace and security and enforce their own austere version of Sharia, or Islamic law, once in power.\n\nFrom south-western Afghanistan, the Taliban quickly extended their influence. In September 1995, they captured the province of Herat, bordering Iran.\n\nExactly one year later, they captured the Afghan capital, Kabul, overthrowing the regime of President Burhanuddin Rabbani - one of the founding fathers of the Afghan mujahideen that resisted the Soviet occupation. By 1998, the Taliban were in control of almost 90% of Afghanistan.\n\nAfghans, weary of the mujahideen's excesses and infighting after the Soviets were driven out, generally welcomed the Taliban when they first appeared on the scene.\n\nTheir early popularity was largely due to their success in stamping out corruption, curbing lawlessness and making the roads and the areas under their control safe for commerce to flourish.\n\nBut the Taliban also introduced or supported punishments in line with their strict interpretation of Sharia law - such as public executions of convicted murderers and adulterers, as well as amputations for those found guilty of theft. Men were required to grow beards and women had to wear the all-covering burka.\n\nThe Taliban also banned television, music and cinema, and disapproved of girls aged 10 and over going to school. They were accused of various human rights and cultural abuses. One notorious example was in 2001, when the Taliban went ahead with the destruction of the famous Bamiyan Buddha statues in central Afghanistan, despite international outrage.\n\nThis time round, there has been no repeat of such excesses, but the Taliban are accused of a range of well-documented abuses, including killing opponents, as well as beating and detaining journalists and Afghans protesting for their rights.\n\nWomen are no longer allowed to go on long-distance journeys without a male chaperone and, while not required to wear the burka, have been ordered to cover their faces in public. Most women are not allowed to work.\n\nPakistan has repeatedly denied that it was the architect of the Taliban enterprise, but there is little doubt that many Afghans who initially joined the movement were educated in madrassas (religious schools) in Pakistan.\n\nPakistan was also one of only three countries, along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which recognised the Taliban when they were in power the first time round in Afghanistan. It was also the last country to break diplomatic ties with the group.\n\nAt one point, a Pakistani offshoot of the Taliban threatened to destabilise Pakistan from areas it controlled in the north-west. One of the most high-profile and internationally condemned of all Pakistani Taliban attacks took place in October 2012, when schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai was shot on her way home in the town of Mingora.\n\nA major military offensive two years later following the Peshawar school massacre greatly reduced the group's influence in Pakistan, though. At least three key figures of the Pakistani Taliban had been killed in US drone strikes, including the group's leader, Hakimullah Mehsud in 2013.\n\nSchoolgirl and rights activist Malala Yousafzai was shot by Taliban gunmen in October 2012\n\nThe attention of the world was drawn to the Taliban in Afghanistan in the wake of the 11 September 2001 World Trade Center attacks in New York. The Taliban were accused of providing a sanctuary for the prime suspects, Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda movement.\n\nOn 7 October 2001, a US-led military coalition launched attacks in Afghanistan: by the first week of December, the Taliban regime had collapsed. The group's then leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, and other senior figures, including Bin Laden, evaded capture despite one of the largest manhunts in the world.\n\nMany senior Taliban leaders reportedly took refuge in the Pakistani city of Quetta, from where they guided the Taliban. But the existence of what was dubbed the \"Quetta Shura\" was denied by Islamabad.\n\nDespite ever higher numbers of foreign troops, the Taliban gradually regained and then extended their influence in Afghanistan, rendering vast tracts of the country insecure, while violence in the country returned to levels not seen since 2001.\n\nThere were numerous Taliban attacks on Kabul and in September 2012, the group carried out a high-profile raid on Nato's Camp Bastion base.\n\nPakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike in 2013\n\nHopes of a negotiated peace were raised in 2013, when the Taliban announced plans to open an office in Qatar. But mistrust on all sides remained high and the violence went on.\n\nIn August 2015, the Taliban admitted they had covered up Mullah Omar's death - reportedly from health problems at a hospital in Pakistan - for more than two years. The following month, the group said it had put aside weeks of infighting and rallied around a new leader, Mullah Mansour, who had been the deputy of Mullah Omar.\n\nAt about the same time, the Taliban seized control of a provincial capital for the first time since their defeat in 2001, taking control of the strategically important city of Kunduz.\n\nMullah Mansour was killed in a US drone strike in May 2016 and replaced by his deputy Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, who remains in control of the group.\n\nIn the year following the US-Taliban peace deal of February 2020 - which was the culmination of a long spell of direct talks - the Taliban appeared to shift their tactics from complex attacks in cities and on military outposts to a wave of targeted assassinations that terrorised Afghan civilians.\n\nThe targets - journalists, judges, peace activists, women in positions of power - suggested that the Taliban had not changed their extremist ideology, only their strategy.\n\nDespite grave concerns from Afghan officials over the government's vulnerability to the Taliban without international support, new US President Joe Biden announced in April 2021 that all American forces would leave the country by 11 September - two decades to the day since the felling of the World Trade Center.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Hibatullah Akhundzada is a religious scholar and he is former head of the Taliban courts\n\nHaving outlasted a superpower through two decades of war, the Taliban began seizing vast swathes of territory, before once again toppling a government in Kabul in the wake of a foreign power withdrawing.\n\nThey swept across Afghanistan in just 10 days, taking their first provincial capital on 6 August. By 15 August, they were at the gates of Kabul.\n\nTheir lightning advance prompted tens of thousands of people to flee their homes, many arriving in the Afghan capital, others heading for neighbouring countries.\n\nThe future for Afghans living under the Taliban's rule remains highly uncertain. While most are relieved war is over, millions are struggling to survive.\n\nNo country has recognised the Taliban government in the year since they returned to power.\n\nThe August 2022 killing in a US drone attack of al-Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul will do nothing to persuade Taliban critics that the group has turned over a new leaf.\n\nHardliners in the movement appear to have the upper hand on issues such as female employment, freedom of speech and secondary education for girls, meaning that desperately needed foreign-held funds are unlikely to be released any time soon.", "Taliban fighters have manned checkpoints and are directing traffic\n\nThe Taliban captured Afghanistan's capital Kabul on Sunday, 20 years after they were ousted from power. So what does it look and feel like the day after its fall?\n\nThe Taliban are everywhere, at the checkpoints which used to be official police or army barricades.\n\nThere is not much panic in the city today, as there was yesterday. The Taliban are controlling traffic, they are searching cars, and they are especially searching those vehicles which used to belong to police and the army, all of which they have confiscated.\n\nIf there are Taliban fighters themselves driving those vehicles now, they are stopped at checkpoints, too. They told us that they checked these vehicles to make sure they were not looters and thieves disguised as Taliban.\n\nThe scenes at the airport were catastrophic. On the road there were families, children, young, old, all walking along the 2km (1.2 miles) road. People are struggling to flee this country. Most are just waiting, on the green belt in the middle of the road.\n\nI'm talking about more than 10,000 people at the airport. At the approach to the main entrance gates, there were Taliban with heavy weapons trying to disperse people by shooting in the air. People who wanted to get in were climbing the walls, the gates, even the barbed wire. Every single person was pushing to get in.\n\nPeople are desperate to get into the airport compound\n\nWe spoke to an eyewitness who was stuck at the airport on Sunday. He had a flight to go to Uzbekistan, but it didn't happen. Officials then abandoned the airport. People had arrived without any tickets or passports - they thought they could get on any plane and be able to fly to anywhere else in the world, the eyewitness said.\n\nThousands of people were stuck inside the airport, without food or water. There were many women and children - and disabled people, too.\n\nBut if you go into the city centre, life appears to be normal. There is a lot less traffic, most of the shops are closed. But people look much calmer than yesterday - yesterday, everybody was furious. There was a big traffic gridlock.\n\nI've only seen a few women on the street - some single women as well, without escort. Some were wearing blue burkas, but I also saw some wearing surgical face masks and headscarves. And the Taliban seemed alright with them.\n\nAfghan security forces have melted away, and heavily armed Taliban line the streets\n\nThere is no music on the streets at all. They used to play background music at the hotel, but it has stopped. Staff are scared.\n\nThe city, however, is still carrying on. It is calm. I haven't spoken to many residents, but the local taxi driver I use was kind of alright with the takeover. Surprisingly, I've seen people greeting Taliban militants - saying \"hello, more power to you, best of luck\", that sort of thing.\n\nTaliban fighters seem happy, too - I've spoken to a couple of them, ground soldiers on patrol. We tried to get into the presidential palace but they didn't let us in. They said we needed permission from the high command. But the militants I saw were friendly to us.\n\nI was scared yesterday a bit, fearful there was going to be violence and things like that. But luckily nothing happened. It was so quiet and calm. I couldn't believe that the capital had changed hands after 20 years and it was all so quiet.", "PCR tests for travel have become \"a predictable Covid rip-off\", says the former chairman of the Competition and Markets Authority, Lord Tyrie.\n\nLord Tyrie said the competition regulator had been \"too slow to react\" to complaints about testing providers.\n\nHolidaymakers have objected to high prices and poor service from many of the 400-plus test firms listed on the government's website.\n\nTests cost about £75 on average, but prices can reach hundreds.\n\nLast week, Health Secretary Sajid Javid asked the CMA to investigate \"excessive\" pricing and \"exploitative practices\" among PCR Covid test firms.\n\nInitially, the CMA said it would take up to a month to report back. But after a chorus of objection from the travel industry, the CMA said it was reviewing the situation \"immediately\".\n\nLord Tyrie told the BBC that the CMA \"could and should have been better prepared\".\n\n\"It should either be acting already directly using existing powers. Or if deemed inadequate for the job, it should be advising the government on how to obtain a quick remedy, whether by legislation or by other means,\" he said.\n\n\"This advice should already be with the government.\"\n\nLord Tyrie left the competition watchdog last summer after two years in the post, suggesting the role prevented him leading a more aggressive campaign for change.\n\nHe added: \"The CMA acted much more quickly to quell price-gouging on hand sanitiser and other Covid-related products 18 months ago. Far from building on this success, boldness appears to have taken a back seat.\"\n\nLord Tyrie reflected that \"the CMA is full of able and highly motivated people, keen to tackle detriment like this\".\n\n\"Their energies need to be released from an excess of caution at the highest levels,\" he added.\n\nAt the weekend, the cost of NHS coronavirus tests for international arrivals to the UK was reduced. Test and Trace tests were cut from £88 to £68 for people arriving from green-listed countries, as well as for those coming from amber-listed countries who are fully vaccinated.\n\nMeanwhile, the price of two tests for amber arrivals who have not had both jabs has been cut from £170 to £136.\n\nIt is understood the price cut is an attempt to drive down the cost across the market, so other operators will follow.\n\nCriticism of the government's decision to implement PCR Covid testing for all UK arrivals has been significant from the travel sector.\n\nLast week, major airports including the Manchester Airport Group and Gatwick Airport, along with tour operator Tui, cited the testing policy as a major barrier to travel restarting and the industry recovering.\n\nThe government said its top priority was to protect public health and it continued to work with industry to help them navigate this difficult period.\n\nLord Tyrie said that the slow response of the CMA was likely to mean it was too late to offer a full remedy to the market before the peak holiday season comes to a close and people return to work and school in September.\n\nBut the CMA said: \"These comments are inaccurate.\"\n\nThe watchdog said it gave advice to Department of Health and Social Care officials about the PCR testing market in April and \"we gave further advice to the secretary of state last week\".\n\nA spokesperson for the CMA said: \"We continue to work closely with Department of Health and Social Care in reviewing the market and, as we have made clear, we will not hesitate to take enforcement action ourselves if there are breaches of consumer law.\n\n\"Since the start of the pandemic, the CMA has secured hundreds of millions of pounds in refunds for people who have been treated unfairly, in sectors including holiday accommodation and package travel.\"", "Black Widow was one of the biggest summer hits, but its takings were hit by the pandemic\n\nUK cinema box office takings in the month since all Covid restrictions were lifted in England were half of their pre-pandemic level.\n\nBox office tracker Comscore said £65.7m was spent on seeing films like Black Widow and Fast & Furious 9 in the four weeks after \"freedom day\" on 19 July.\n\nThe figure for the corresponding weeks in 2019 was £129m.\n\nCinemas said they were \"very pleased\" with the figures and \"pretty confident\" they will get back to previous levels.\n\nIt's a similar picture in the US, where takings for the last four weekends have been 51% of the equivalent 2019 figures.\n\nMany major movies that were delayed by Covid in 2020 have finally been released in cinemas this summer, but have not enticed the numbers they would have previously expected.\n\nContinuing uncertainty in the US, where the Delta variant has recently led to rising cases, has disrupted release schedules again.\n\nIn recent weeks, Clifford the Big Red Dog, the Venom sequel and Hotel Transylvania 4 have either been pushed back or moved to streaming.\n\nThere has been speculation that the next James Bond outing No Time To Die - which is due out in late September in the UK after being delayed three times - could be postponed yet again. However, on Wednesday The Hollywood Reporter suggested that's unlikely to happen.\n\n\"The conditions remain challenging, there's no doubt about that,\" said Phil Clapp, chief executive of the UK Cinema Association.\n\n\"It's clear that there is still some reluctance among certain audience segments to return, and that's particularly true among older audiences,\" Mr Clapp said. \"There's a continuing need to offer reassurance and to ensure that there's the right film content for those older audiences.\n\n\"But broadly I think people [in the industry] are very pleased with the response of the public to the reopening of cinemas. The film slate is strengthening. We're now seeing a major title released, if not quite every weekend, then every other weekend.\"\n\nThe UK industry lost £2bn during the pandemic and no-one expected things to bounce back immediately, Mr Clapp said. \"Everyone knew that we would need to have to work hard over the initial weeks and months. Everyone's broadly where they expected to be.\"\n\nAmar Bilas, 34, from Greater Manchester, met his wife while working in a cinema, and before Covid they would go to see a film at least every couple of months.\n\n\"It's kind of ingrained. Ever since we've been teenagers we've been going to the cinema and even worked in one. So it's been our go-to thing,\" he said.\n\n\"But it's been nearly two years since we've been. The main thing is, nobody is wearing face masks, and Covid is still about. I know we're not going to die, but we just can't be bothered getting ill. That's the main thing.\n\n\"If we do get it, we don't know who we're going to pass it on to. My mum and dad are elderly. Being in a confined space, you don't know who you're going to be sat next to and you don't know if they're being careful.\n\n\"The other thing is, a lot of the films have come on to a streaming platform. So you think, well, I can watch it from the comfort of your home. You're getting a peace of mind so I don't mind paying £20.\n\n\"It still doesn't replace the atmosphere and the feeling of going to the cinema. You queue up, you get your tickets, get your food, get drinks, go in. I miss that feeling.\"\n\nA cinema in London told passers-by in May \"I assure you we're open\"\n\nCharles Gant, box office analyst for industry outlet Screen Daily, said the current figures may be sharply down on 2019, but they are much better than summer 2020.\n\n\"I honestly think the primary emotion will be relief rather than despair because what happened last year after lockdown ended was pretty grim for everybody,\" he said.\n\nThe continual postponement of releases led to a \"death cycle that no one seemed to be able to find a way out of\", he said.\n\n\"So when I look at the numbers now, I'm just thinking, this is great. It's easy to forget that, actually, those numbers are still significantly down 2019.\"\n\nTwo years ago, 13 films grossed more than £20m in the UK, he said. This year, there have been none, despite some major blockbusters having made it onto the big screen.\n\nAround the world, the biggest-budget releases have not reached the peaks they would have normally expected, according to Jeff Bock from US analysts Exhibitor Relations.\n\nNathalie Emmanuel and Vin Diesel in a scene from Fast & Furious 9\n\n\"Only one film [F9] has grossed over $400m worldwide this summer, and only a handful have even topped $100m domestic [in North America],\" he said.\n\n\"The industry is used to having at least a few films boast $1bn worldwide, which is a number we might not see for quite some time now.\n\nHe added that the horror genre has held up better than others.\n\n\"Creativity is the name of the release game right now if you're a studio, which is why Disney and Warner Bros have been so aggressive in the streaming world.\"\n\nDisney has put films like Black Widow and Cruella on streaming platform Disney+ at the same time as they hit cinemas - for a premium price.\n\nBut it is saving other releases for the big screen.\n\nThe company's boss Bob Chapek said putting the forthcoming Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in cinemas for 45 days before joining Disney+ was \"an experiment\".\n\nWarner Bros, meanwhile is putting all its 2021 releases on HBO Max in the US, but has pledged to give cinemas a 45-day head start next year.\n\nThat's a much shorter window than before the pandemic. In the UK, there was traditionally around a four-month wait to watch films at home. Now, even if a film isn't on streaming platform straight away, fans know they will not have a long wait.\n\n\"It's apparent that the industry may have been changed forever by these events, as studios are in the eye of the hurricane,\" Mr Bock said.\n\n\"Everything is swirling around them and no-one really knows when and where things will land.\"", "An NYPD transit officer and bystander leap to the rescue of a passenger who fell unconscious on to the track - as a train hurtles towards the station.", "For days, thousands of fearful Afghans have waited outside the capital's airport in the hope of boarding a flight out\n\nThe rapid Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has left some fearing for their lives and seeking to escape the country, often by any means necessary.\n\nThe militant Islamist group is said to be carrying out door-to-door searches while violent scenes have also been reported at some Taliban-controlled checkpoints.\n\nThe militants seized control of major cities last week as part of a sweeping offensive that shocked international observers. It culminated in the fall of the capital, Kabul, which triggered the collapse of the Afghan government.\n\nNow, those who have worked for the government or other foreign powers, as well as journalists and activists, say they are fearful of reprisals and need to be evacuated. They have spoken to the BBC, but their names have been changed to protect their safety.\n\nUsman, who worked as an interpreter for the British armed forces, was sheltering with his wife and some neighbours when the Taliban came. He was woken in the early hours of the morning and told the group were nearby.\n\n\"They were searching door-to-door,\" he told the BBC's World at One programme. \"Everyone panicked - then the news spread to every other house.\"\n\n\"A neighbour said they were searching for weapons, documents and government vehicles. They were trying to find out who had worked for Nato or the government.\"\n\n\"I put on my clothes and just jumped over a wall and ran away,\" Usman said. \"I know that I am going to be killed. There is no other way.\"\n\nUsman was told he was eligible for relocating to the UK in December, but after all his paperwork was processed he received a letter of rejection on Friday. \"We are not feeling safe,\" he said. \"I'm really desperate.\"\n\nThe Taliban have been patrolling in Afghanistan's major cities\n\nHashem, a translator, was sheltering in an apartment in one of the country's biggest cities when he spoke to the BBC.\n\n\"I've been working with intermediary forces and thought the US and German governments would help,\" he said.\n\n\"I have had to destroy all my documents.\"\n\n\"I had the courage to go to Kabul airport, and someone from the Taliban told me there had been fake news spreading that the Americans would take people out.\"\n\n\"He told me to tell others not to go to the airport. We're discussing plans about what we can do to flee to another country.\"\n\nEvacuations have been taking place in recent days, but thousands of people remain desperate to leave\n\nIt is not just those who worked for international governments who are fearful. Two women who worked for a media outlet are in hiding and say the Taliban are searching for them.\n\nWithout a visa, however, they say travelling to an airport would be futile.\n\n\"They have twice called at my house... looking for me and my husband,\" one of the women, Aida, said. \"They are asking other members of my family where we are and they have also been sending me threatening texts.\"\n\n\"They say that when they find me they will kill me.\"\n\n\"I feel really desperate and stressed about what will happen to me and my family,\" she said.\n\n\"Right now we are like turkeys in our homes,\" her colleague, Saabira, said. \"We can't go out because the Taliban are all around us.\" She said her food supplies were running worryingly low.\n\n\"The Taliban are trying to find government [workers], journalists, and women's rights activists. We are really worried - what if they come to our home? What if they knock on our door?\"\n\n\"The airport is not possible for us because we haven't [got a] visa\" she said. \"We haven't got money or any support, so it's impossible.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Everybody got very emotional\": Hassina Syed describes getting out of Afghanistan on a British military plane\n\nMeanwhile, dozens of English language teachers who worked for the British council training Afghan school teachers are desperate to leave but have been denied visas to come to the UK.\n\n\"We are horrified and really scared,\" one said. \"For the past week, I couldn't speak English in front of anyone because I was scared they would realise I worked with foreigners and inform on me.\"\n\n\"I never considered going to Kabul airport, I have children and I couldn't risk their lives,\" he said. \"Our concern is that [the Taliban] are searching for specific people who provided services for foreign governments, it makes us scared.\"\n\n\"But when I see Kabul airport, I don't see any way to cross the crowd and get in.\"\n\n\"I want the UK government to consider the service that we provided for them,\" he said. \"If we remain in Afghanistan our lives are in great danger.\"", "As thousands of citizens and foreign nationals attempt to flee Afghanistan, scenes outside Kabul airport have become increasingly desperate.\n\nSince the Taliban took control of the country at the weekend and closed land border crossings, the capital's airport has become the only way out of the country for many.\n\nBut the militants have said they don't want Afghans to leave the country. They have set up checkpoints on Airport Road - shown in yellow, below - the main route to Hamid Karzai International Airport, and have attacked people.\n\nThe violence has left 12 people in the area, dead - killed by gunshots or in stampedes - since Sunday, an anonymous Taliban official told Reuters news agency, meaning the journey to the airport is an increasingly treacherous one.\n\nInside the walls of the airport compound, more than 4,000 US troops are in temporary control. Outside, heavily-armed Taliban fighters now ring the perimeter, generating an atmosphere of fear.\n\nTaliban fighters have control of the exterior of the airport\n\nThe militants are reportedly preventing Afghans - including some of those with visas - from getting to the tarmac.\n\nBut even before people fleeing reach the edge of the airport, they are being attacked en route, witnesses say.\n\nA correspondent for the LA Times newspaper saw dozens of Taliban firing into the air, aiming weapons at crowds and using sticks and rope to lash civilians as they tried to make their escape. Graphic images captured by Marcus Yam show at least one woman hurt and a young child left bloodied with what appears to be a head injury.\n\nA woman was injured on her way to the airport\n\nPhotos published by SBS showed an Afghan interpreter, who appeared to have been attacked, being treated for a gunshot wound.\n\nCrowds have also been gathering along the airport's perimeter to the north of the city - seen in the map above - over the past few days, with reports of a stampede injuring 17 people on Wednesday. Many have been trying to climb over barbed wire fences and there are reports of shots being fired.\n\nPeople have been scaling the boundary wall of Hamid Karzai International Airport\n\nAmong the crowds are families with children, many of whom have not had access to food and drink for days, reporters on the ground say. Footage shared on social media showed children being passed over a wall to foreign soldiers in the hope they might be able to escape.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A child is handed over the wall at Kabul airport, as the chaos continues\n\nOne girl in a pink jacket was hoisted aloft to a soldier on a ladder.\n\nA number of children have been seen being helped over walls at Kabul airport\n\nThe chaotic conditions emerged as European governments rushed to bring home their citizens - as well as Afghan colleagues.\n\nAfghan families have been seeking sanctuary with foreign troops\n\nAlthough the Taliban have said Afghans should stay in the country they have also claimed they are facilitating a safe exit for both foreigners and locals. \"We are preventing any form of violent, verbal clash at the airport among Afghans, foreigners and Taliban members,\" an official said.\n\nThe latest reports of Taliban violence and harassment come as a confidential UN document, seen by the BBC, says the militants are intensifying their hunt for people who worked for and collaborated with Nato and US forces.\n\nThe crush of people heading for the airport can be seen in satellite images of the area, with thousands converging in vehicles as they desperately tried to escape.\n\nImages of the chaos first emerged from Kabul airport on Monday as it was overrun by Afghans terrified at the prospect of Taliban rule.", "House prices have continued their upward surge despite the economic impact of lockdowns.\n\nThe current house prices boom was not caused by the stamp duty holiday, a new report has argued.\n\nThe Resolution Foundation says prices will keep rising because of pandemic-related factors like low interest rates and changing home preferences.\n\nIn fact, the think tank says the tax holiday was \"wasteful\" and HMRC lost out on about £4.4bn of taxes in England and Northern Ireland as a result.\n\nThe Treasury said the policy saved jobs by stimulating the housing market.\n\nBetween June 2020 and June 2021, the average value of a UK home increased 13.2%.\n\nAnd in summer 2020, several different transaction tax holidays were introduced across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nWhen the stamp duty holiday was introduced in England and Northern Ireland in July 2020, it was designed to boost the property market by helping buyers whose finances were affected by Covid, with savings of up to £15,000 per home.\n\nAccording to property website Rightmove, Wales has seen the biggest increase in house prices in the UK.\n\nAn HM Revenue & Customs evaluation of the stamp duty cut introduced for first-time buyers in wake of the financial crisis estimated that between 50-70% of the value fed through into higher house prices.\n\nThe Resolution Foundation's Housing Outlook report has investigated whether there is a link between the recent house price boom and these tax holidays, including the stamp duty cut for first-time buyers.\n\n\"It is reasonable to expect at least part of the savings from any transaction tax holiday to be capitalised into house prices,\" the report's authors Lindsay Judge, Krishan Shah and Felicia Odamtten wrote.\n\n\"But logically, if the cuts to transaction taxes have been the overwhelming driver of the house price trends observed over the past 12 months, we would expect to see higher growth in areas where the savings from the change in policy have been most significant as a share of the house price.\"\n\nThe think tank says the assertion that housing prices have risen mainly because of tax holidays is \"somewhat wide off the mark\".\n\nThe organisation says similar house price rises occurred in the US, France, Germany, Canada and Australia without the tax holiday.\n\n\"There appear to have been stronger forces at play within the housing market over the past year such as enforced savings during lockdowns, changing housing preferences and super-low interest rates,\" the authors wrote.\n\n\"We conclude that the transaction tax holidays have been problematic less because they were inflationary and more because they have been wasteful.\"\n\nA HM Treasury Spokesperson said: \"The temporary stamp duty cut is helping to protect hundreds of thousands of jobs which rely on the property market by stimulating house moves.\"\n\n\"Its time-limited nature is what has encouraged people to take advantage of the scheme.\"", "The agreement between the SNP and the Scottish Greens has been described as \"groundbreaking\" by Nicola Sturgeon.\n\nThe deal will take the Greens into government for the first time anywhere in the UK.\n\nIt includes a commitment to hold a referendum on Scottish independence within the next five years, and preferably by the end of 2023.\n\nThe agreement will see two Green MSPs appointed as junior ministers in Ms Sturgeon's government.\n\nThe Greens have signed up to the bulk of the government's policy - but there will be 10 areas where they can disagree.\n\nPolicy areas they have jointly agreed on include:\n• Increase investment in active travel and public transport, with the aim of providing a \"realistic and affordable\" alternative to car use\n• More support for the marine renewables and offshore wind sectors\n• A 10-year, £500m Just Transition Fund for the north east and Moray\n• Increasing the level of the Scottish Child Payment to £20 within this parliamentary term\n• Investing at least £1.8bn over this parliamentary session in energy efficiency and renewable heating\n\nMs Sturgeon said the agreement was about \"doing politics and governance better to find the solutions needed to solve the problems confronting the world today\".\n\nOn a future independence referendum, she said the agreement makes it \"harder, and indeed impossible, on any democratic basis for a UK government to resist the right of the Scottish people to choose their own future\".\n\nThat's all from our live coverage of the SNP/Greens announcement. Thanks for joining us.", "A campaigner outside Bute House as the agreement was announced\n\nThe SNP and the Scottish Greens have revealed details of the co-operation agreement which will see the parties work together at Holyrood. What could the deal mean for Scotland over the next five years?\n\nThe most obvious reason for the SNP to bring the Greens into government is to present a united front against the climate emergency, in the year Glasgow hosts the COP26 conference.\n\nHowever, as a flagship issue for the Greens - the clue is in the name - this is a topic the parties have clashed on frequently.\n\nThe Greens did not vote in favour of the Scottish government's climate bill in the last term of parliament, saying the targets it set - for a 75% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 - were not ambitious enough.\n\nHowever, their 2021 election campaign was more about hitting these goals than stretching them, with the 80% figure they pledged in the 2019 general election absent and co-leader Patrick Harvie saying the most important thing is now to deliver on the promises made.\n\nOn that front, the Greens want to see \"a fundamental transformation of our economy and society\", saying that \"every industry, every part of our economy and every individual will need to rise to the challenge\".\n\nSo not only would there be more pressure on ministers to hit their emissions targets - having fallen short of many of them so far - there would be calls for change across more or less every portfolio area.\n\nSpecific policies championed by the Greens include phasing out single-use and non-essential plastics by 2025; the introduction of more Low Emission Zones in cities; and banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2026 and boilers which run on fossil fuels by 2028.\n\nStriking a deal would give the SNP and Greens a comfortable majority in the Holyrood chamber\n\nThe other key motivation for the SNP in doing a deal is security - essentially making the coming parliamentary term an easier ride.\n\nNicola Sturgeon herself faced a confidence vote in the final days of the last session, although her position was never truly in danger.\n\nBut her deputy John Swinney was in real trouble on several occasions, with the Greens joining other opposition parties in calling for his head if he didn't back down in rows over school exams and the publication of government legal advice.\n\nWith the Greens signed up to a formal deal, the prospect of any minister being forced out by opposition pressure recedes.\n\nNot only that, the SNP no longer need to worry about getting their budgets through parliament - or at least, they only have to worry about doing a deal with their Green partners.\n\nThis would make Kate Forbes' job as finance secretary slightly easier each February, in that she wouldn't need to sit down with rivals like Murdo Fraser and Jackie Baillie, or have to make concessions to the Lib Dems.\n\nHowever, the Greens may still be looking for a decent return in exchange for passing up the annual opportunity to put the government over a barrel.\n\nThe SNP and the Greens have both called for major investment in infrastructure - particularly in green energy and renewables\n\nIt is unclear as yet how the monumental relief programmes of the pandemic era will be paid for, and what that means for future budgets.\n\nThe decisions on how to recover from the economic crisis which accompanied the health one were already going to be tricky, before they involved two parties with subtly different ideologies.\n\nTake for example the principle of economic growth. The SNP manifesto - while stressing that growth should be sustainable - talks about increasing Scottish GDP by more than £4bn. The Greens meanwhile are suspicious of the whole concept of \"endless economic growth\", with their election platform decrying \"the deep shortcomings of conventional economics\".\n\nSo what might actually happen, in practice?\n\nThe manifestos of each party pledged massive investment in infrastructure in an attempt to build a more sustainable economy post-pandemic, so this is something they will likely be able to work together on - so long as it doesn't involve big road-building projects.\n\nBoth parties have talked about moving to a four-day working week and back some form of universal basic income, so their pact might move these ambitious policies up the priority list.\n\nThe two are also largely aligned on income tax, with the SNP targeting \"stability\" across the next five years and the Greens agreeing that \"now is not the time for increases\" for most.\n\nBoth have promised a Citizens Assembly on taxation to study wider reforms, so that should be another easy box to tick.\n\nThe Greens want to scrap the council tax, something the SNP have pledged to do on various occasions - but never quite delivered. Could a deal here finally push reforms to local government funding over the line?\n\nAnd the Greens also want to push for more fiscal powers to be devolved from Westminster so that they can set up things like an annual wealth tax on anyone worth more than £1m (including property, pensions and other assets) and a tax on carbon emissions from corporations.\n\nGreen MSPs will be free to disagree with the SNP over the future of the oil industry - but will they also try to win them round?\n\nOne sector we are likely to hear a lot about is the oil and gas industry. There will doubtless be a clause in any SNP-Green deal allowing the parties to disagree amicably on things like how quickly to move on from fossil fuels, but it doesn't mean there wouldn't be friction behind the scenes - and indeed some lobbying.\n\nTake for example the issue of new licences for drilling in the waters around Scotland, like the proposed new Cambo oil field. The Greens have already said they are putting \"maximum pressure\" on the Scottish government to oppose such plans.\n\nThe SNP insists this is solely a matter for the UK government, with offshore oil and gas contracts being in Westminster's remit.\n\nBut of course that hasn't stopped them taking a view on various other reserved matters, from Trident to Universal Credit and indeed the Acts of Union.\n\nMinisters have thus far refused to come off the fence about Cambo, perhaps anxious about alienating oil industry workers - but might having Green voices closer to the heart of government tip the scales somewhat?\n\nCo-leader Lorna Slater recently attended a protest against the development. Would she really never bring it up if she happened to be in the next office over from the energy minister?\n\nThe issue of trans rights and reform to the Gender Recognition Act has been a sticky one for the SNP, and society more generally.\n\nThe government wants to change the law to make it easier for people to change their legally recognised gender, and reduce the \"trauma\" associated with the process. However, it has run into a row over whether allowing people to self-identify their gender could undermine the legal protections given to women under the Equality Act.\n\nProminent SNP figures have voiced concerns about the plans, and even post-election - with a new group of MSPs lined up behind the leadership and more critical voices like Joan McAlpine no longer in parliament - there could have been a backbench rebellion over elements of the legislation.\n\nThe Greens, though, are all-in on the policy - to the extent that they split with former MSP Andy Wightman over it.\n\nSeven extra votes would make it much easier for the SNP to fulfil their manifesto pledge to make changes \"at the earliest opportunity\".\n\nThe agreement between the parties promises that a bill to reform the Gender Recognition Act will be introduced in the first year of the parliamentary session.\n\nThis may be one of the most talked about elements of the deal, but may actually be the part where an accord is needed the least.\n\nDuring the election campaign, the Greens pledged that every one of their MSPs would back a new independence referendum - much like those of the SNP.\n\nThe two manifestos were closely aligned in a bid to cement the mandate of any pro-independence majority - so the votes for indyref2 are essentially in the bag regardless.\n\nThe real question is whether a formalising of the pro-independence bloc at Holyrood could have any impact in swaying the UK government when it comes to backing a new referendum.\n\nThere remains little sign that Prime Minister Boris Johnson has had a change of heart, but the SNP and Greens may hope that in the longer term a formal arrangement might help make the case seem all the more undeniable.", "Supermarket group Morrisons has accepted an improved £7bn takeover bid from US private equity group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R).\n\nMorrisons had previously recommended investors accept a £6.7bn offer from a consortium led by another US-based investment group, Fortress.\n\nFortress said it was \"considering its options\", amid signs shareholders think the battle is not over.\n\nMorrisons shares opened up on Friday, a signal investors expect another bid.\n\nThe retailer, which has almost 500 shops and more than 110,000 staff, has been at the centre of a takeover battle for weeks.\n\nFortress has urged Morrisons' shareholders to \"take no action\" on CD&R's agreed bid, which will require their approval at a meeting in October.\n\nIn July Morrisons turned down an offer worth £5.5bn from CD&R, saying it significantly undervalued the business.\n\nBut the grocer's board unanimously accepted the new offer, which represents a 60% premium to Morrisons' share price before takeover interest emerged in mid June.\n\nMorrison shares rose 4.4% following the announcement to 291.4p per share.\n\nNicholas Hyett, Equity Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said that although the new offer has the backing of Morrisions' management, \"this might not be the end of the story\".\n\nHe said: Rival bidder Fortress has urged investors to hold fire on accepting the deal and are expected to make a further statement in due course. With the shares currently trading above the new and improved offer price, the market clearly thinks a better offer is a distinct possibility.\"\n\nMorrisons was founded in Bradford in 1899 - where it still has its headquarters. The founder William Morrison's son, the late Sir Ken Morrison, ran the business for fifty years.\n\nCD&R said it recognises the \"legacy of Sir Ken Morrison, Morrisons' history and culture, and considers that this strong heritage is core to Morrisons and its approach to grocery retailing\".\n\nThe private equity firm said it would help Morrisons to build on its strengths, including its close relationships with suppliers and property portfolio.\n\nMorrisons chairman Andrew Higginson said the offer \"represents good value for shareholders while at the same time protecting the fundamental character of Morrisons for all stakeholders\".\n\nOver the last 10 years, CD&R has been advised by Sir Terry Leahy, who was the boss of Tesco at the time when Mr Higginson worked for him as chief financial officer.\n\nMorrisons' chief operating officer, Trevor Strain, also previously worked with Sir Terry at Tesco.\n\nSir Terry also advised CD&R on its acquisition of discount retailer B&M, which netted the private equity firm an estimated profit of £1bn when it sold it on.\n\nThe future of the UK's fourth largest supermarket has taken a new twist.\n\nMorrisons is one of a slew of UK companies that have been targeted by overseas investors. Defence contractors Meggit and Ultra are also the subject of bidding wars. The numbers are startling.\n\nEven before you count Morrisons, Meggit and Ultra - foreign, private buyers have spent more buying UK listed companies in the last eight months than they have in the last five years combined.\n\nUK companies look cheap to foreign buyers. The UK economy was one of the hardest hit by the pandemic - and the value of the pound has never quite recovered its pre-Brexit value which reduces the price of UK businesses for non-UK investors.\n\nSome say that these bids highlight the value of - and confidence in - UK plc. But others are concerned that private buyouts increase debt levels, reduce transparency and mean that key decisions about the future of UK companies like Morrisons could be taken in New York rather than Bradford.\n\nThe UK government has already asked the Competition and Markets Authority to review the bid for submarine technology specialist Ultra on grounds of National Security and it may yet intervene in the takeover bid for aerospace specialist Meggitt.\n\nThere is also legislation planned to expand its powers to intervene and increase the scrutiny of privately held companies but for now there is a rush to the checkout for important chunks of UK PLC.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 13 and 20 August.\n\nSend your photos to scotlandpictures@bbc.co.uk. Please ensure you adhere to the BBC's rules regarding photographs that can be found here.\n\nPlease also ensure you follow current coronavirus guidelines and take your pictures safely and responsibly.\n\nConditions of use: If you submit an image, you do so in accordance with the BBC's terms and conditions.\n\nStaggering view: \"A stag standing above a cloud inversion as seen from the summit of the munro Càrn Dearg, near Dalwhinnie\", says Jamie Vince at sunrise.\n\nEarly birds: This sunrise off Aberdeen was captured by Erskine Logan.\n\nTwo's a crowd: \"Dolphin photobombed by a gull on the way back from the Shiant Isles in the Hebrides\", says Michael Cuthbert.\n\nNet gain: An early morning shot paid off for Euan Gibson who liked the \"coppers and greys of first light\" outside St Abbs harbour.\n\nCreature comforts: \"Our kids Rory, five, and Anna, two, have loved watching all the animals around the bird feeder including badgers, birds, squirrels and mice\". Lindsay Dixon captured this holiday shot near Aviemore.\n\nIt's not an iceberg: \"During my first visit to North Berwick I was very impressed with seeing Bass Rock - it glowed in the sunshine and looked like a giant iceberg\", says Ronnie Dukes. \"It is a haven for sea birds\".\n\nWhy so sheepish? This \"wee lamb\" beside some thistles on Tiree caught the eye of David Hughes.\n\nThe high-lands \"The Great Polish map of Scotland at Eddleston in the Borders\", says Jim Mclean. \"Amazing detail from my drone\".\n\nPutt of gold? \"As a newbie golfer, and totally distracted by the wonderful rainbow over the castle, I can surely be excused hitting the ball into one of these bunkers at the 10th hole of Stirling Golf Club\", says Shirley Proctor.\n\nJust swanning about: \"This was Stirling Rambling Club setting off on a Linlithgow walk\", says Denis Taylor. \"From nowhere, this swan appeared as if it had been in the café\".\n\nHaar-bour scene: \"When the haar starts drifting up to my street I grab the camera and go out\", says Malena Astrom at the small boat harbour at Wardie Bay, Edinburgh.\n\nNo small feat: \"I took this picture on St Kilda of my pals who recently got married\", says Willie MacGillivray. \"It shows Kyle MacLeod on top of the Lovers Stone on Hirta with his wife Jenna in the foreground\".\n\n... two can play at that game: \"This is a photo taken by my husband Ewan of our daughter Iona on the Isle of Iona\", says Sara Armitage. \"We are on the top of Dun I, she is holding her younger sister Katie in the palm of her hand!\"\n\nThat castle fits the bill: \"Kilchurn Castle at Loch Awe - with some ducks included\", from Jamie Gordon.\n\nP-p-pic of a penguin: \"A little patience paid off to get this shot at Edinburgh Zoo\", says Jaimee Reynolds.\n\nField manoeuvres: \"A roe deer in Crathes, just before the barley is harvested\", says Fraser Elliott.\n\nMay the Forth be with you: \"This photo was taken during a cruise\", says Kenneth Gilmour.\n\nTracking shot: LNER service to Aberdeen passing through Broughty Ferry, courtesy of Cat Gordon.\n\nPrickly situation: \"My daughter Kayla, eight, peeking through the thistles when we were enjoying an evening walk in the sunshine at Gott Bay on the Isle of Tiree\", says Lainey McBeth.\n\nStill life: \"While on holiday in Kincraig I biked around Inshriach Forest in the Cairngorms, overlooking the Uath Lochans\", says Michael Kellie. \"I thought they looked like giant mirrors amongst the forest\".\n\nEyes bigger than its stomach: \"From the angle it was taken it looks like the carved eagle is about to scoop up the poor unsuspecting cow and have it for its tea\", says Claire Buchanan at Blairlogie near Stirling.\n\nBlooming lovely: \"Kailzie Hill and Hundleshope Heights above Peebles were a riot of colour after huge swathes of heather burst into full bloom\", says David Gray.\n\nRipple effect: \"A photograph taken by my son Lewis who captured his reflection in a rock pool during a walk at Yellowcraig, East Lothian\", says Steven Gillies.\n\nAll shipshape: An evening shot at Macduff Harbour, from Maurice Bennett.\n\nOn reflection: \"A beautiful swan at Keptie Pond, Arbroath\", says Linda Bolt.\n\nPeek-a-coo: \"Nosey neighbours\", says Carolyn France. \"The cows on the croft at our holiday cottage near Tarbert, Harris, were very interested in us and our car. The following day it was covered in lick marks!\"\n\n... and another peek-a-coo: \"This is a photo of my daughter Síofra from Dublin checking out the Tay Rail Bridge in Newport\", says Louise McManus of her photo next to pigeon images. \"We were visiting her grandparents in Broughty Ferry for the first time since she was born.\"\n\nHome maker: \"Gannet returning to the Bass Rock carrying seaweed to patch up its nest\", says Ian Woodrow.\n\nBrewing up a storm: Natalie Gallan captured this menacing scene at Footdee (pronounced Fittie) in Aberdeen by the sea.\n\nTents atmosphere: \"I thought you might like this photo of the Big Tent at Fringe by the Sea in North Berwick\", says John Drysdale. \"It was taken prior to Reginald D Hunter’s show\"\n\nA quiet place: \"I took this from my kayak\", says James Henderson, after a trip around Calve Island off Tobermory, Isle of Mull. \"The day was pretty grey and drizzly, but the evening was amazing, so clear with beautiful colours. Absolutely flat calm.\"\n\nSun and daughters: \"My girls Amelia, eight, with her baby sister Ailidh, who is 10 months\", says Alex Valentine. \"Taken at Polkemmet Country Park in West Lothian\".\n\nThis is nut what I had in mind: \"Cheeky squirrel stuck in 'squirrel-proof' bird feeder\", as seen by Roy Williamson. It escaped by itself soon after, apparently.\n\nWell-heeled: Six-year-old Ayda McGregor seems to have things under control during dog walking duties with Sue Forrester in Falkland, Fife.\n\nCast away: \"I was up in West Ardnamurchan and this particular photo was taken from Sanna Bay looking south towards Ardnamurchan Point Lighthouse\", says Marcus Milton. \"My two youngest sons are fishing in the foreground\".\n\nRays the bar: \"This was taken towards sunset while out walking after I noticed a passing walker looking over my shoulder at the way the light was coming through the clouds\", says Gerry McCormick of his impressive shot at Clarkston, East Renfrewshire.\n\nNot quite a full moon: \"I took this from Stirling University\", says Barry Hughes. \"I noticed the moon was just emerging from behind the National Wallace Monument and managed to get this photo\".\n\nDelayed reaction: \"I was delighted to get up Ballageich Hill just outside Glasgow on a clear night to see the annual Perseid meteor shower\", says William Johnston. \"I set up my camera to continuously shoot long exposures for an hour to capture the rotation of the stars and this is what turned out!\"\n\nBoard meeting: \"Rachel and William, my daughter and son, enjoying the sunset on their paddleboard at Port Ban, Achateny, Ardnamurchan\", says George Urquhart of his lovely shot.\n\nThe night Skye: Stuart McGinlay captured this wonderful image at Dunvegan.\n\nPlease ensure that the photograph you send is your own and if you are submitting photographs of children, we must have written permission from a parent or guardian of every child featured (a grandparent, auntie or friend will not suffice).\n\nIn contributing to BBC News you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way, including in any media worldwide.\n\nHowever, you will still own the copyright to everything you contribute to BBC News.\n\nAt no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe the law.\n\nYou can find more information here.\n\nAll photos are subject to copyright.", "The subscription site OnlyFans, known for its adult content, has announced it will block sexually explicit photos and videos from 1 October.\n\nPeople will still be able to post nude content on the site.\n\nBut this will need to be consistent with OnlyFans' policies.\n\nThe announcement comes after BBC News had approached the company for a response to leaked documents concerning accounts which posted illegal content.\n\nOnlyFans said the change had come after pressure from banking partners.\n\nThe site has grown during the pandemic and says it has 130 million users.\n\n\"In order to ensure the long-term sustainability of our platform, and continue to host an inclusive community of creators and fans, we must evolve our content guidelines,\" OnlyFans said in a statement.\n\nThe London-based social media site enables its creators to post nude videos and photos and charge subscribers for tips or a monthly fee.\n\nCreators can post a range of content from cooking to fitness videos, but it is best known for pornography.\n\nIn return for hosting the material, OnlyFans takes a 20% share of all payments.\n\nThe documents - described as \"compliance manuals\" - show that although illegal content itself is removed, OnlyFans lets moderators give creators multiple warnings before closing accounts.\n\nModeration specialists and child protection experts say this shows OnlyFans has some \"tolerance\" for accounts posting illegal content.\n\nIn response to the BBC's investigation, OnlyFans said the documents are not manuals or \"official guidance\", it does not tolerate violations of its terms of service, and its systems and age verification go far beyond \"all relevant global safety standards and regulations\".\n\nThe site, founded in 2016 by Essex businessman Tim Stokely, has come under fire in the past after a BBC News investigation found under-18s had used fake identification to set up accounts on the site. In June, BBC News found that under-18s sold explicit videos on the site, despite it being illegal for people to share indecent images of children.\n\nAfter the BBC investigation, the children's commissioner for England said OnlyFans needed to do more to stop underage users. In response to the investigation, OnlyFans said it had closed the accounts flagged and refunded all active subscriptions.\n\nIn July, the company's first monthly transparency report said that it deactivated 15 OnlyFans accounts after finding indecent images of children on those accounts.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A child is handed over the wall at Kabul airport, as the chaos continues\n\nThe Taliban have stepped up their search for people who worked for Nato forces or the previous Afghan government, a report has warned.\n\nIt said the militants have been going door-to-door to find targets and threaten their family members.\n\nThe hardline Islamist group has tried to reassure Afghans since seizing power in a lightning offensive, promising there would be \"no revenge\".\n\nBut there are growing fears of a gap between what they say and what they do.\n\nThe warning the group were targeting \"collaborators\" came in a confidential document by the RHIPTO Norwegian Center for Global Analyses, which provides intelligence to the UN.\n\n\"There are a high number of individuals that are currently being targeted by the Taliban and the threat is crystal clear,\" Christian Nellemann, who heads the group behind the report, told the BBC.\n\n\"It is in writing that, unless they give themselves in, the Taliban will arrest and prosecute, interrogate and punish family members on behalf of those individuals.\"\n\nHe warned that anyone on the Taliban's blacklist was in severe danger, and that there could be mass executions.\n\nForeign powers are continuing efforts to get their nationals out of Afghanistan. A Nato official said on Friday that more than 18,000 people have been evacuated in the last five days from Kabul airport.\n\nSome 6,000 more, among them former interpreters for foreign armed forces, are on standby to be flown out late on Thursday or early Friday.\n\nThe aim is to double evacuation efforts over the weekend, the official said.\n\nOutside the airport the situation remains chaotic. The Taliban have been blocking Afghans trying to flee, with one video showing a child being handed to a US soldier.\n\nPresident Joe Biden, who has come under scathing criticism over what his opponents say is a \"shambolic\" US withdrawal, is expected to speak on Friday about the evacuation effort.\n\nThe Taliban captured Kabul on Sunday, having swept across the country as foreign forces withdrew.\n\nTheir victory returns the group to power 20 years on from when they were toppled in a US-led invasion.\n\nThe group's previous stint in power saw widespread abuses, including public executions and banning women from the workplace.\n\nBut in their first news conference since retaking control of Afghanistan, the group presented a conciliatory tone, promising women's rights would be respected \"within the framework of Islamic law\".\n\nThe Taliban have reportedly pledged not to force women to wear the burka - a one-piece veil that covers the face and body. Instead, the hijab - or a headscarf - will be compulsory.\n\nThe warning comes despite the Taliban saying they would not carry out revenge on Afghans\n\nThey also said they did not want \"any internal or external enemies\" and that there would be an amnesty for former members of the security forces and those who worked with foreign powers.\n\nThe UN chief Antonio Guterres said the only leverage the body had over the Taliban was the militant's desire for international recognition.\n\nAsked in an interview if he thought the Taliban had changed, President Biden said no, adding the group faced an \"existential\" choice about whether they want to be recognised.\n\nAre you in Afghanistan and affected by this? Please tell us your story by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf 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.", "The team was feted in Washington DC in 2017 after the robotics competition\n\nAfter scrambling for days to bring them to safety, nine members of an Afghan all-girls robotics team have arrived in Qatar, the team's parent organisation has confirmed.Their flight out of Afghanistan was organised by the Qatar government, which expedited visas and sent an aircraft.The team first made headlines in 2017 after winning a special award at an international robotics competition in the US.\n\nThey have been widely praised as a shining example of the potential of women's education in Afghanistan.\n\nThe departure of the team members, aged 15 to 19, as well as a 25-year-old teacher, comes amid a worsening security situation in Kabul, the Afghan capital.\n\nIn a statement, the team's parent organisation, the US-based Digital Citizen Fund (DCF), said that they requested help from Qatar on August 12, just three days ahead of Kabul's capture by the Taliban.\n\nMembers of the Qatar government had remained in contact with the team after hosting them in Doha, the capital, in 2019. The girls originally came from the city of Herat, in western Afghanistan.\n\n\"When we heard that Kabul was going to fall, we were able to contact the [Qatari foreign] ministry and they immediately started expediting visas to get them out,\" DCF board member Elizabeth Schaeffer Brown told the BBC. \"They are taking very good care of them.\"\n\nShe stressed, however, that the girls were not \"rescued\".\"The girls rescued themselves through all their hard work and bravery over the past several years,\" she added. \"The flight out of Kabul was only the end of a journey in which safety was a concern.\"\n\nThe girls now in Doha may remain in Qatar or move further afield to continue their studies.\n\nAlthough she declined to provide specifics, she added that several universities around the globe - including some in the US - have offered scholarships.\n\n\"It will be important for them to continue their education,\" she said.\n\nMs Schaeffer Brown said other current and former team members remain in Afghanistan, along with teachers, mentors and others who work for the organisation.\n\nThe robotics team, which includes teenage members, was formed by Afghan tech entrepreneur and DCF founder Roya Mahboob in 2017.\n\nLast year, the team turned its focus on Covid-19 patients by making low-cost ventilators out of car parts.", "The family were found dead in a popular hiking area of the Sierra National Forest\n\nA family of three who were found dead on a hiking trail in California may have been killed by poison algae, investigators say.\n\nThe bodies of British man John Gerrish and his wife, Ellen Chung, and one-year-old daughter Miju were found in the Sierra National Forest on Tuesday.\n\nNearby waterways are being tested for toxic algae blooms, officials said.\n\nPost-mortem examinations have been carried out in an effort to establish the cause of death.\n\nThe family's dog, Oski, was also found dead at the scene in the Devil's Gulch area of the forest, which is a popular hiking destination.\n\n\"We don't know the cause… we won't rest until we figure it out,\" Mariposa County Sheriff Jeremy Briese told the Fresno Bee newspaper.\n\n\"There's no obvious indicators of how it occurred... you have two healthy adults, you have a healthy child and what appeared to be a healthy canine all within a general same area, deceased,\" he said.\n\nInvestigators suspected the deaths may have been linked to escaping gas from abandoned gold mines, but Mr Briese appeared to rule out that possibility on Thursday.\n\n\"I don't believe it's connected to a mine,\" he said. \"It's frustrating and we're not going to rest... it's devastating to everyone.\"\n\n\"From what I've gathered, these algae blooms are due to the recent drought,\" Mr Briese said. \"But I don't know too much detail about the toxicity of them.\"\n\nAlgae blooms can produce \"extremely dangerous toxins that can sicken or kill people and animals\", according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.\n\nLast month, the US Forest Service posted warnings about the potentially toxic algae in the Sierra National Forest on Facebook.\n\n\"[The park] would like to inform those visitors who like to enjoy this area... not to swim, wade or allow their pets to enjoy the water,\" one post read.", "Emergency services were called to the OYO Sheffield Metropolitan Hotel on Wednesday afternoon\n\nA five-year-old Afghan refugee who fell to his death from a Sheffield hotel window has been identified by police.\n\nIt is reported Mohammed Munib Majeedi fell from a ninth-floor room where he was staying with his mother.\n\nEmergency services were called to the OYO Metropolitan Hotel in Blonk Street, Sheffield, at about 14:30 BST on Wednesday.\n\nA fellow Afghan staying in the hotel said Mohammed's family arrived in the UK 15 days ago.\n\nIt is understood they were relocated to the UK as part of the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme.\n\nThe man, who worked as an interpreter for the British Army in Afghanistan, said one of his children alerted him to the boy falling and he went outside to help.\n\nHe was later asked to accompany Mohammed's mother to hospital to translate.\n\nHe said everyone in the hotel had been left shocked by the incident.\n\n\"They are so upset, they are so unhappy,\" he said.\n\n\"Everybody, if you want to talk to them, they have no time because they are so bad, in a bad condition.\"\n\nSouth Yorkshire Police said it was not treating the death as suspicious\n\nAnother Afghan resident said he was in his room when he heard the boy fall.\n\n\"His mother was in the room with him,\" he said.\n\n\"She was screaming, 'my son, my son'. When I came here [outside] I saw the ambulance and police here.\"\n\nHe added: \"They came here to save their lives, they came for a new life here, but unfortunately...\"\n\nThe man said the eight to 10 Afghan families staying at the hotel were being moved to another hotel on Thursday afternoon.\n\nA five-year-old boy, only just been evacuated from Afghanistan with his four siblings and parents, has died after falling from a hotel window.\n\nWe understand Mohammed's father worked for the British Embassy in Afghanistan and had travelled to the UK under the government's scheme to resettle interpreters and support staff whose lives may be at risk from the Taliban.\n\nOnce in the UK however, the Home Office is struggling to find accommodation for refugees - many of whom are large families.\n\nIt's understood the Home Office was directly managing the now empty hotel at the time of the incident.\n\nThere had been concerns raised about the safety of the windows. I'm told some people had been moved out, but the Home Office denies this.\n\nThe housing group Mears was looking after the hotel until a few months ago, but safety concerns saw it withdraw to another nearby hotel.\n\nWhat has happened here, therefore, raises some serious questions about what steps were taken to ensure the hotel was safe for vulnerable families and young children and about the state of accommodation being provided to asylum seekers.\n\nThe Home Office said: \"We are extremely saddened by the tragic death of a child at a hotel in Sheffield.\n\n\"The police are providing support to the family while the investigation continues and we cannot comment further at this time.\"\n\nSouth Yorkshire Police said: \"We can confirm that the five-year-old boy who sadly lost his life is from Afghanistan.\"\n\nIt said Mohammed's death was not being treated as suspicious and his family was being supported by officers.\n\nThe force has appealed for anyone who witnessed the incident to contact them.\n\nEnver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: \"This a terrible tragedy and our thoughts are with the family who have gone through so much trauma and suffering to reach the UK.\n\n\"It is vital the Home Office carry out an urgent investigation into what has happened so steps can be taken to quickly learn lessons.\n\n\"We don't know the details of the incident but it is imperative that families who come from Afghanistan are given all the support they need and housed in appropriate accommodation. They are vulnerable and often very traumatised.\"\n\nSheffield City Council leader Terry Fox said: \"This is absolutely devastating, just so incredibly sad.\n\n\"As a council we are in close contact with the police and will provide any support that we can to the family - my heart goes out to them.\"\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A report by human rights group Amnesty International has said the Taliban recently “massacred\" and brutally tortured several members of the Hazara minority in Afghanistan.\n\nFollowing the militant group’s takeover of the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Sunday, the Taliban have said that there would be \"no revenge\".\n\nBut Amnesty International’s Brian Castner told BBC World News that there was a real disconnect between “what a spokesman or leader might say and what an 18 year old with a Kalashnikov is going to do”.\n\nThe Hazara community is Afghanistan's third largest ethnic group.", "A man has pleaded not guilty to the murder of a 16-year-old girl at her family's Chinese takeaway.\n\nWenjing Lin died at the Blue Sky Chinese takeaway in Ynyswen, near Treorchy, Rhondda Cynon Taf, on 5 March.\n\nChun Xu denied murdering the high school student during a hearing at Cardiff Crown Court.\n\nHe also pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of 38-year-old Yongquan Jiang.\n\nThe 31-year-old spoke only to confirm his name during the 30-minute hearing.\n\nHe is due to stand trial at Swansea Crown Court on 1 November.\n\nDefendant Chun Xu pictured when he appeared at Merthyr Tydfil Magistrates' Court for an earlier hearing\n\nChun Xu is set to go on trial for murder in November\n• None Man in court charged with murder of girl, 16", "Optometrists across the country say they are diagnosing higher numbers of children with short-sightedness (myopia) since the start of the pandemic.\n\nThey put this down to less time spent outside due to Covid restrictions, more time spent on screens, and a drop-off in numbers of eye tests carried out during the pandemic.\n\nThe College of Optometrists is calling for parents to get kids playing outside for two hours a day, this is proven to prevent or stop the development of myopia; and to take their children for eye tests.\n\nThey're also asking for more funding for research in the UK population into the impact of the pandemic on children’s eyesight.\n\nFore more information: The NHS website: Eye tests for children", "Police have released a CCTV image of a man they would like to speak to\n\nPolice have released a CCTV image of a man they would like to speak to after a red phone box was stolen from a garden in a Cheshire village.\n\nThe box, belonging to Chelford Parish Council, was removed without permission from a garden on Chelford Road.\n\nA white Ford transit van dropped off a skip before three men used a digger to remove the box between 14:30 and 15:00 BST on 13 July, police said.\n\nThe men asked a member of the public to guard exposed live electric cables.\n\nThey said they would contact the energy network to make it safe, but never returned.\n\nPC John Milman said: \"We've been making a number of inquiries in the area and are keen to speak to anyone who recognises the man in this image as he may be able to help us with our inquiries.\"\n\nRedundant red phone boxes like these can often be seen in gardens or being put to inventive alternative uses\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "On Friday, the Department of Health reported 2,397 further cases and nine further coronavirus-related deaths\n\nNorthern Ireland has recorded the highest number of coronavirus cases in a single day since the pandemic began.\n\nOn Friday, the Department of Health reported 2,397 further cases and nine further coronavirus-related deaths.\n\nIt comes as doctors warn lives could be lost to other conditions such as cancer due to staff being diverted to treat coronavirus patients.\n\nA critical care consultant said dealing with the virus was as difficult now as at any time during the pandemic.\n\nDr George Gardiner told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme that continuing to carry out surgery while admitting Covid-19 patients to intensive care was a \"huge ask\" for staff.\n\n\"What's different this time is that we haven't switched off all the other essential services that hospitals in Northern Ireland provide,\" he said.\n\nDr George Gardiner said people should not expose themselves to Covid-19 when a vaccine is readily available\n\n\"We've kept cancer surgeries, we've kept urgent procedures, we've kept going for as long as possible - we really are at the edge of what we can achieve now.\n\n\"For every patient who is admitted with Covid, who hasn't had a vaccine, that's another bed lost for patients who need urgent cancer surgery.\n\n\"We only have so many nurses to run intensive care units.\"\n\nThe level of people testing positive for coronavirus has been increasing in Norther Ireland over the past few weeks.\n\nFigures show Northern Ireland has the highest infection rate in the UK and the lowest rate of vaccinations for people aged over 16 in the UK.\n\nHealth Minister Robin Swann said the latest Covid-19 figures were \"deeply concerning, both in terms of deaths and new cases\".\n\n\"The Delta variant is taking its toll on Northern Ireland and it is vital that as many of our citizens as possible are vaccinated,\" he added.\n\nA total of 184,172 cases of the virus have been confirmed in Northern Ireland since the start of the pandemic.\n\nOther figures showed Covid-19 was recorded on the death certificates of 40 people in the week up until 13 August.\n\nNorthern Ireland's statistics agency Nisra has now recorded 3,086 deaths associated with the virus.\n\nOn Thursday, Health Minister Robin Swann said the number of people being admitted to hospital with Covid-19 would be cut by half if another 5% of adults in Northern Ireland were vaccinated.\n\nAbout 70% of people with Covid-19 who are in hospital intensive care units (ICUs) have not been vaccinated, he confirmed.\n\nAbout 86% of adults in Northern Ireland have had at least one jab for Covid-19.\n\nA consultant at Altnagelvin Hospital's emergency department said staff there are worried about the winter ahead.\n\nDr Sandy Nelson said many problems facing the health service would undoubtedly have been compounded by the pandemic.\n\n\"The pressures of having to treat Covid and non-Covid patients in the same department is increasing and putting a lot of strain on our staff,\" he said.\n\n\"Our department is split into different areas trying to treat patients with possible Covid symptoms and we are seeing an awful lot of young people presenting with Covid symptoms.\"\n\nThe death rate as calculated by Nisra continues to rise, following a general downward trend for many months in the run up to the summer.\n\nIt has emerged that a serving prison officer has died with Covid-19, after what the prison service said was a \"short battle\" with the virus. He was the first prison Officer in Northern Ireland to die with Covid-19.\n\nNorthern Ireland's chief scientific officer Prof Ian Young said the number of people dying with Covid-19 is not likely to hit a peak for a couple of weeks.\n\nNisra's figures are higher than the Department of Health statistics because it records mentions of the virus on death certificates, where it may or may not have been confirmed by a test, while the department's figure is based on a positive test result being recorded.\n\nThe infection rate in Northern Ireland is much higher than in the rest of the UK and the Republic of Ireland, with almost 10,500 positive cases in the past seven days.\n\nOf these cases, 65% have been people aged under 40.\n\nProf Young said it was \"highly likely\" the number of deaths would continue to rise in the short term.\n\nHe told BBC News NI the number of people in Northern Ireland who remained unvaccinated was driving Covid-19 cases up and putting unnecessary pressure on the health service.\n\n\"Unfortunately, even the double vaccinated, particularly the elderly and more vulnerable, can become severely ill,\" he said.\n\n\"The fact that older people are still getting the virus is a consequence of the proportion of younger people who are not getting vaccinated.\"\n\nProf Young said cases must be reduced to ease pressure on hospitals and described the upcoming Big Jab Weekend incentive as \"critical\".\n\nMass vaccination centres will be offering walk-in first jabs for all adult age groups on 21 and 22 August.\n\nLead vaccinator Tanya Daly warned of the dangers of putting extra pressure on the health service\n\nNo more first doses of the Covid-19 vaccine will be offered at regional vaccination centres after Sunday.\n\nClinical lead vaccinator Tanya Daly appealed for people to come forward.\n\n\"If you don't get vaccinated you could end up in hospital which will impact on you for weeks and perhaps months to come,\" she said.\n\n\"My colleagues, my friends, have been redeployed to areas where they can't do their normal jobs.\n\n\"If you want an outpatient appointment who's going to be there to greet you at the door? Who's going to check your blood pressure? Who's going to be there to help the doctors to their job?\n\n\"Nobody, because they've been redeployed.\"\n\nThe Western Trust said it was aiming to vaccinate more than 2,000 people this weekend.\n\nGarret Martin, who is the operation manager at the trust's three vaccination centres, called on younger people to \"follow the science\".\n\n\"It's important because the vaccine works, the vaccine saves lives, we know that is proven,\" Mr Martin told BBC Radio Foyle.\n\nThe Burke family have all been working as vaccinators at the SSE Arena\n\nMeanwhile, Bryan and Lorna Burke have been working as vaccinators alongside their son, Patrick, at the SSE Arena, sometimes in adjacent cubicles.\n\n\"Everyone has been making jokes that the Von Trapp family are here,\" said Patrick.\n\nLorna Burke said while the experience working at the mass vaccination centre had sometimes been tiring, it had been \"so well run and so worthwhile\".\n• None Peak of Covid deaths 'likely to be weeks away'", "There has been continuing chaos at Kabul airport as Afghans carry on with their attempts to escape from the Taliban.\n\nA child was filmed being handed over the wall to a US soldier.\n\nTaliban fighters have also fired in the air, and US soldiers have used tear gas to control the crowds of people.", "Many have been paying tribute to Zaki Anwari on social media\n\nAfghan authorities have confirmed that a young footballer fell to his death after trying to stow away on a US military plane leaving Kabul airport.\n\nFurther details of when he died have not been disclosed.\n\nSince the Taliban's recapture of Afghanistan, thousands of people have scrambled to Kabul's airport as Western countries rush to evacuate their citizens and Afghan colleagues.\n\nImages emerged on Monday showing hundreds of people running alongside a US air force plane as it moved down a runway. Some people were seen clinging to its side.\n\nLocal media reports said that at least two people fell to their deaths after it took off. The US air force has also confirmed that human remains were found in the landing gear of an aircraft after it arrived in Qatar.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn a statement on Facebook, Afghanistan's General Directorate of Physical Education and Sports paid tribute to Mr Anwari.\n\n\"May he rest in heaven and pray to God for his family, friends and sports colleagues,\" the sports body said.\n\nOthers have also been sharing their respects on social media.\n\n\"His departure is a great sorrow,\" wrote one user on Instagram. \"Your memory is always dear to me\".\n\nAround 4,500 US troops are in temporary control of Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital.\n\nThe Taliban are blocking Afghans from entering the airport without travel documents - but even those with valid authorisation have struggled.\n\nAmid chaotic scenes at the airport, US President Joe Biden has defended his handling of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.\n\n\"The idea that somehow there's a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don't know how that happens,\" he told ABC News on Wednesday.\n\nMr Biden said that US troops may have to stay in Afghanistan beyond the planned 31 August deadline agreed with the Taliban, in order to help with evacuations,\n• None US troops may stay in Afghanistan past deadline", "Devon and Cornwall Police Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer said it was \"extremely rare\" for licensed guns to be misused in this way in the UK\n\nGunman Jake Davison had his shotgun and certificate seized after concerns were raised following an assault on two youths, a police watchdog has said.\n\nThey were returned to him in July after a police review once he had completed a rehabilitation scheme, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said.\n\nA worker on the scheme had raised concerns over Davison's shotgun ownership, leading to the seizure.\n\nDavison, 22, shot and killed five people in Plymouth on 12 August.\n\nHe killed Maxine Davison, 51, Stephen Washington, 59, Kate Shepherd, 66, Lee Martyn, 43, and three-year-old Sophie Martyn, before turning the gun on himself in Keyham.\n\nDavison had been placed on the rehabilitation scheme after admitting the previous assault on the two youths, which took place last September.\n\nThe IOPC said the shotgun certificate was then reviewed once Davison had completed the Pathfinder scheme, which aims to \"reduce harm and reoffending\", in March this year.\n\nThe programme is \"designed to deal with offenders outside of the criminal justice system\" by deferring charges and cautions.\n\nFollowing the review by Devon and Cornwall Police's firearms licensing department, the shotgun and certificate were returned to Davison on 9 July.\n\nThe IOPC is investigating the decision to return them.\n\nHis certificate was originally issued for sporting purposes in July 2017 and was valid for five years.\n\nDevon and Cornwall Police Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer said Jake Davison was permitted to use a gun for clay pigeon shooting.\n\nMr Sawyer said it was \"extremely rare\" for licensed guns to be misused in this way in the UK.\n\nShaun Sawyer attended a minute's silence in memory of the victims earlier this week\n\nA review is to be held into Devon and Cornwall Police's firearms procedures.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, Mr Sawyer said: \"I understand the unease. This was a licensed firearm that Jake had, I absolutely accept that.\n\n\"I'd ask people to reflect that those firearms, in my 10 years as chief constable, have never been used in that way.\n\n\"This is unprecedented for us in Devon and Cornwall and the city of Plymouth.\"\n\nHowever, Mr Sawyer said firearms were \"part of a rural economy and we have to accept that\".\n\nHe said: \"They're heavily regulated, they're heavily reviewed, and that's really important for public safety because it's the only thing police regulate that's designed to take life.\"\n\nWhen asked about future changes, Mr Sawyer said he believed new guidance from the Home Office would see social media checks become a \"must\" for police forces, rather than a discretionary decision based on the applicant.\n\n\"I think we have to realise it will be hard to monitor, but if that's where society wants to go, then that's where we'll go,\" he said.\n\nAll police forces across England and Wales have been asked by the government to review their current firearms processes following the tragedy.\n\nThe chief constable said he had not been asked to step down, but would reflect on his position \"once we have the facts\".\n\n\"As a man and a father and a parent, a child has lost its life on my watch, through a mechanism that is licensed by me,\" he said.\n\nHe paid tribute to the people of Keyham, where the shootings happened, for their \"dignity and strength of fortitude\" which had \"helped to stabilise the city\".\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Sport\n\nData from the UK government's Covid pilot scheme to test the return of big crowds to venues has shown major events \"can be conducted safely\".\n\nData from 37 trial events, including the British Grand Prix and Wimbledon, found case numbers were \"largely in line with or below\" community infection rates during the four-month programme.\n\nBut data for the Euro 2020 final shows 2,295 people at or near Wembley were likely to have already been infected, while another 3,404 potentially acquired Covid-19 around the event.\n\n\"We've shown that we can reintroduce mass sports and cultural events safely but it is important that people remain cautious when mixing in very crowded settings,\" said culture secretary Oliver Dowden.\n\n\"So that we can keep the football season, theatres and gigs safe with full crowds this winter, I urge sport, music and culture fans to get the vaccine as this is the safest way we can get big events firing on all cylinders once more.\"\n\nThe government's Events Research Programme included London theatre performances and music festivals, including Download, Tramlines and Latitude, as well as sporting events.\n\nFigures published on Friday showed that NHS Test and Trace recorded 585 cases at the time of July's British Grand Prix, which hosted the largest crowd in the UK in over 18 months with more than 350,000 people in attendance across three days.\n\nOf those cases, 343 were likely to have already been infectious, while 242 cases are from people likely to have acquired an infection around the time of the event.\n\nAt Wimbledon the same month, which hosted about 300,000 people over two weeks, 881 cases were recorded through NHS Test and Trace.\n\nThat breaks down to 299 cases that were likely to have already been infectious, with 582 cases likely to have picked up infection around the time of the championships.\n\nThe Department for Culture, Media and Sport said: \"Assumptions cannot be made that transmission definitely happened at the event, nor that individuals became infected at the time of their attendance at an event.\"\n\nThe Euro 2020 final between England and Italy took place during a time of higher underlying community prevalence of Covid-19.\n\nThat, and the significant numbers of ticketless fans who gathered at Wembley, \"likely contributed to the increased infections data\".\n\n\"Euro 2020 was a unique occasion and it is unlikely we would see a similar impact on Covid-19 cases from future events,\" said Dr Jenifer Smith, deputy medical director at Public Health England.\n\n\"However, the data does show how easily the virus can spread when there is close contact and this should be a warning to us all as we try and return to a cautious normality once again.\"\n\nMichael Kill, the chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association, said: \"We are pleased to see that the data supports the ability for cultural events, particular club shows and mass gatherings to take place safely.\n\n\"The industry are doing an amazing job of maintaining safe spaces for people to engage socially, and following a month of opening, we are pleased to see consistent figures which show a measured drop in cases and mortality rates.\n\n\"We hope that these results will bring a renewed confidence in the key sectors.\"\n• None Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka, Ben Stokes and their powerful message about mental wellbeing\n• None For The Love of Hip Hop: Romesh Ranganathan dives into the genre, not always successfully", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBoris Johnson says he \"absolutely\" has full confidence in his foreign secretary amid criticism of Dominic Raab's decision not to call Afghan ministers over evacuating translators.\n\nMr Raab said he instead prioritised \"security\" at Kabul airport and \"delegated\" the call to a junior minister.\n\nBut that call did not happen due to the \"deteriorating situation\", he added.\n\nThe foreign secretary has rejected demands from the opposition to resign.\n\nSpeaking after a meeting of the government's emergency Cobra committee on Afghanistan, the prime minister dismissed suggestions the UK was uninterested in the issue, saying: \"The whole of the government has been working virtually round the clock.\"\n\nHe added that the situation at the airport in Kabul was \"getting slightly better\".\n\nHe also said that the UK's commitment to Afghanistan was \"lasting\", adding: \"What I want to assure people is that our political and diplomatic efforts to find a solution for Afghanistan - working with the Taliban, of course, if necessary - will go on.\"\n\nSince Saturday, the UK has evacuated 1,615 people, including 399 British nationals and their dependants, 320 embassy staff, and 402 Afghan nationals who worked for the UK government in Afghanistan.\n\nMeanwhile, the government has announced £5m for local councils in England, Scotland and Wales offering to house Afghans who have arrived under the Afghanistan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) programme.\n\nUnder the scheme, Afghans who face threats from the Taliban having work for the UK in Afghanistan, have been allowed to come to the UK.\n\nA separate resettlement scheme has also been set up to relocate up to 20,000 Afghans over the long term with Home Secretary Priti Patel emphasising that the majority of those should be women and girls and persecuted minorities.\n\nNew arrivals from Afghanistan will be offered a first dose of a Covid vaccine and \"rapid access to support for mental wellbeing\".\n\nThe government has said it will also provide \"appropriate clothing\" and toys for the children to keep them entertained.\n\nEarlier this week it emerged, in a report by The Daily Mail, that Dominic Raab had been on holiday in Crete last Friday and unavailable to make the phone call to the Afghan foreign minister, as the Taliban advanced towards Kabul, Afghanistan's capital.\n\n\"It should have been an absolute priority to speak to the Afghan government and set out the immediate actions necessary to ensure the safe evacuation of Britons and Afghans,\" she added.\n\nOn Friday, Mr Raab attended a virtual Nato meeting where the members emphasised the need for an \"inclusive\" government in Afghanistan and urged the Taliban to uphold human rights.\n\nMr Raab said: \"The UK's immediate priorities are working alongside our Nato allies to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a safe-haven for terrorists, ensuring that life-saving humanitarian aid can reach those who need it most, and working with international partners to safeguard stability in the region.\"", "Schools have been told to space seating in classes as widely as possible and have children seated facing forward when the new term begins\n\nSchools in Northern Ireland can continue to teach some children in class bubbles when the new term begins.\n\nThat is despite the executive deciding on 12 August that schools no longer had to teach children in bubbles.\n\nBut new Department of Education (DE) guidance said schools could \"retain the use or partial use of bubbles\".\n\nIn a separate letter to school heads, the education minister said the guidance allowed schools \"flexibility\".\n\nMichelle McIlveen also said that the requirement for post-primary pupils to wear facemasks in class would be reviewed by the executive on 8 October.\n\n\"What we've tried to achieve here is a flexible system to allow school leaders who know their school environment better than us to adapt accordingly,\" she told BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme.\n\n\"We have been clear. This is about keeping our young people safe.\"\n\nThe revised guidance from the department comes just days before many staff and pupils are due to return to school.\n\nMany pupils have been taught in small group bubbles since September 2020.\n\nAs much as possible, children remained in the same class groups every day to reduce mixing with others.\n\nThe new guidance said it would be \"for each school to determine if they wish to continue to use some/all of the principles of bubbles that they will have used during the 2020-21 year\".\n\n\"Without the use of formal bubbles, schools should still seek to reduce contacts,\" the guidance said, as this would \"support the PHA's (Public Health Agency's) contact tracing by encouraging pupils to remain within a consistent group of pupils wherever possible\".\n\nSchools have also been told to space seating in classes as widely as possible and have children seated facing the front of the classroom.\n\nThey have also been asked to hold activities outdoors if they can.\n\nEducation Minister Michelle McIlveen said schools could now plan for a return to the academic year\n\nGraham Gault, of the National Association of Headteachers, said there was an \"air of disbelief\" among school leaders at the guidance.\n\n\"Only a week ago it was all over the media that bubbles would no longer be required,\" he said, adding that the guidance \"has the potential to confuse\".\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Good Morning Ulster Programme, Mr Gault said the guidance would not require any significant changes to Covid-19 mitigation measures already in place in schools.\n\n\"The advice that we are giving to school leaders across the country is the routines and mitigations that you have already set up, that your school community is already familiar with, that your teachers are already implementing are still appropriate. If it's working for you, don't change it.\"\n\nChris Logan, principal of Comber Primary School, said the changes have come too late for schools to make \"sweeping changes\" before term begins next week.\n\n\"Schools need time to prepare the curriculum and we may see time before schools are enable to enact some of the changes. It just takes time to plan and prepare,\" he told BBC News NI.\n\nThe executive had also decided that if a child was identified as a close contact of a positive Covid case, they would no longer have to self-isolate for 10 days.\n\nInstead, they should self-isolate and book a PCR test.\n\nIf the PCR test is positive they should isolate for 10 days, but if the result is negative they can end their self-isolation.\n\nHowever, the new department guidance does not provide detailed advice for schools on the new arrangements.\n\nInstead, Ms McIlveen said that the PHA was currently \"preparing guidance\" for schools on the new self-isolation arrangements.\n\nShe said that was to ensure they \"applied equally to all pupils in each year group\".\n\nHowever, she did not state when schools would receive the new PHA guidance.\n\nAll indoor and outdoor extra-curricular activities can also resume in schools when the new term begins.\n\nAccording to the department guidance, that includes \"music or singing\".\n\nSinging had been prohibited indoors in schools in the 2020/21 school year.\n\nHowever, children can sing in class and school choirs can now sing again indoors though mitigations should be in place like doors or windows being kept open.\n\nChildren are considered extremely low risk for becoming ill or dying from Covid-19.\n\nResearch also suggests that long-lasting symptoms in children are rare.\n\nMs McIlveen thanked school leaders and staff for their support and wished all pupils, teachers and staff a \"safe return to all our educational settings\".\n\nThe guidance was developed with the Department of Health and in consultation with school leaders and trade unions.", "Aidan McAnespie was shot as he walked through a checkpoint\n\nA former soldier has lost a bid to have a manslaughter case against him dropped before it reaches trial.\n\nA judge ruled there are sufficient grounds for 51-year-old David Holden to stand trial over the killing of Aidan McAnespie in County Tyrone in 1988.\n\nTwenty-three-year-old Mr Anespie was shot dead at a checkpoint near Aughnacloy as he walked to a Gaelic football match.\n\nHe posed no threat to the soldiers on duty.\n\nThe accused, who was 18 at the time of the shooting, claims his hand was wet and his finger slipped on the machine gun trigger, discharging three bullets.\n\nOne of the shots hit Mr McAnespie in the back, after ricocheting off the road.\n\nMr McAnespie was walking through a border checkpoint when he was shot\n\nLawyers for the Army veteran, who was in the Grenadier Guards regiment, had made an application to have the case dismissed, arguing that the evidence against him is insufficient.\n\nBut prosecutors claimed the accused's explanation for firing is \"implausible\" as a wet finger would not apply sufficient pressure to pull a trigger.\n\nThe judge found: \"Different views have been taken in the past as to whether the evidence is sufficient to warrant a charge of manslaughter being brought, but in my judgement it is.\"\n\nHe added how well the case \"stands up to scrutiny\" will be determined at his trial.\n\nA trial date will be fixed later this year.\n\nIt is expected to last three weeks.", "More than 50 people who went to Boardmasters have tested positive for Covid in the Swansea Bay area\n\nFifty-six positive Covid cases in the Swansea Bay health board area have been linked to a music festival in Cornwall.\n\nBoardmasters took place from 11 to 15 August with a capacity of more than 50,000.\n\nSwansea Bay University Health Board has urged everyone who attended to get tested for Covid if they feel unwell.\n\nThe health board registered 297 positive cases in the most recent update of data.\n\nThe festival was held at Watergate Bay in Cornwall and was headlined by Gorillaz, Jorja Smith and Foals.\n\nThe health board said that as well as a new cough, high temperature, and lack of taste or smell, symptoms could also include sneezing, a sore throat, headaches and fatigue.\n\nSion Lingard, of Public Health Wales, said: \"We are concerned that some people who attended the Boardmasters festival and are now feeling unwell may not realise they may be infected with Covid-19.\n\n\"It's important they get tested, and if the result is positive, to self-isolate to protect others.\"\n\n\"We are also calling on people to be responsible and remember they must not go to any other event, including festivals, if they have tested positive for Covid-19 or have Covid-19 symptoms,\" he said.\n\nCase rates in Wales have started to rise slightly as festivals, sports events and other mass gatherings restart.\n\nPublic Health Wales warned that Covid had not gone away, and that it was important that people who go to events take precautions to avoid the transmission of the virus.\n\nMore than 100,000 people from throughout the UK are expected to attend the Reading and Leeds festivals\n\nEleri Davies, an incident director at Public Health Wales, said people attending similar events should be vaccinated, and take a PCR test if they developed any symptoms.\n\n\"As expected following the move to alert level zero, case rates in Wales have risen and are currently over 200 cases per 100,000.\n\n\"While the vaccination programme has reduced the levels of hospitalisation and fatalities, the virus is still circulating in our communities,\" she said.\n\nMeanwhile, a medical centre in Swansea said it was suspending in-person visits as several members of staff have tested positive for Covid.\n\nIn a statement Fforestfach Medical Centre said: \"This situation also serves as a reminder that despite Wales now being in Level 0 status, the pandemic has not ended and the virus is still with us.\n\n\"We await advice from Public Health Wales, but hope to get back to normal as quickly as possible.\"\n\nThe 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. \"You've seen my British passport, these are my children\"\n\n\"Get back, get back,\" screamed the British soldier at a crowd gathered in front of the secure compound where those being evacuated by the UK embassy are taken before flying out.\n\nIn front of him, many frantically waved their British passports in the air, hoping to be allowed through but a group of Afghan security guards wielding rubber hoses tried to push them back.\n\nMany in the crowd had not received any indication they would be evacuated, but had pitched up in any case, desperate for a route out of Afghanistan. Others, however, had received emails from the embassy telling them arrive here, and wait to be processed for a flight.\n\nThey include Helmand Khan, an Uber driver from west London, who had arrived with his young children in Afghanistan a few months back to visit relatives. He thrusts a handful of British passports towards me. \"For the last three days I'm trying to go inside,\" he tells me in despair, with his two young sons by his side.\n\nAlso here is Khalid, a former interpreter for the British army. His wife gave birth to a child just two weeks ago, and he's terrified the baby could die in such scenes. \"I've been here since the morning,\" he says, \"the Taliban lashed me on the back on my way.\"\n\nA short walk away is the main entrance to the compound. Thousands have turned up, the vast majority with no realistic prospect of being evacuated. British soldiers at times fired into the air to control the crowd. The only way to get inside is to somehow push your way through the crowd, and wave your documents in their faces, hoping they will allow you past. The situation seems even more chaotic at the airport gates manned by US soldiers, while in front of the main civilian entrance to the airport the Taliban have been regularly firing into the air and beating back crowds who try and surge inside.\n\nI'm constantly bombarded with questions by the Afghans who are trying to enter the British controlled compound, and who are at a total loss as to what to do. \"Can you help me?\" \"Will they let me in?\" Many try to show me documents they've brought with them, proving they spent time working with international forces or foreign embassies.\n\nOne young woman tells me she was an international basketball player. She has not had any contact with the British embassy, but says she's in fear for her life. She chokes up trying to describe her terror.\n\nThe Taliban insist all those linked to the government have been granted an amnesty. The group says it intends to establish an \"inclusive\" government, but many here are deeply anxious about the future.\n\nElsewhere in the city, things are far calmer. It feels like a different world. Shops and restaurants are opening up, though at a fruit and vegetable market stallholders tell me there are still significantly fewer people out and about. One man, selling cosmetic products, says there are far fewer women in particular, though it's not uncommon to see them on the streets.\n\nThe Taliban meanwhile are everywhere, patrolling in vehicles seized from the Afghan security forces. They say they're maintaining a presence to prevent looting and unrest, and some residents tell us they do feel more secure, not least because the militants are no longer carrying out targeted killings or bomb blasts.\n\nMany are still trying to establish what life under Taliban rule will look like. One taxi driver tells me he ferried a group of fighters across the city whilst playing music from the car stereo. \"They didn't say anything,\" he tells me whilst grinning, \"they're not strict like they were before.\"\n\nKhalid, a former interpreter for the British army, waits outside with his family\n\nBut other reports are emerging of the Taliban turning up at the homes of journalists or former government figures and questioning them. Many fear it's only a matter of time before they're targeted violently.\n\nBack close to the airport, and Khalid, the former interpreter with a young baby finally manages to make it into the holding compound.\n\nOthers are still struggling though and one British Afghan pleads with me to help. \"How can I take my children through this crowd,\" he asks? Many others, not eligible for evacuation but desperate to leave, will be left behind to face a deeply uncertain future.", "A new Covid treatment - that uses a pair of laboratory-made antibodies to attack the virus - has been approved for use in the UK.\n\nThe regulator said the drug Ronapreve had been shown to prevent infection and reduce the need for hospital treatment.\n\nIt was famously used as part of the suite of experimental medicines given to US President Donald Trump last year.\n\nHowever, it is very expensive and likely to be reserved for those at greatest risk of becoming severely ill.\n\nThe antibody therapy attacks the virus, unlike other Covid treatments such as the steroid dexamethasone that calm the body's overactive immune system.\n\nThere had been concern the idea was a dud after trials failed when antibodies were taken from patients who had recovered from Covid.\n\nHowever, the companies Regeneron and Roche tested monoclonal antibodies in the laboratory to find the two that were best able to stick to the virus.\n\nThis has proved far more effective, and the therapy continues to work against new variants.\n\nThe antibodies attach to the spike protein - the key the virus uses to unlock the doorway into our body's cells - on the surface of the coronavirus. This stops them infecting other cells to replicate and gives the body's own immune system more time to mount a response to the virus.\n\nDr Samantha Atkinson, from the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, said: \"We are satisfied that this treatment is safe and effective.\"\n\nIt is expected to be used by the NHS soon. However, the drug is expensive and Covid is still common so it is unclear who will get it.\n\nThe latest figures from the Office for National Statistics suggests around one in 85 people in the UK are still testing positive. And the R number - the average number of people each infected person passes the virus onto - is between 0.9 and 1.2.\n\nThe drug costs between £1,000 to £2,000 for one course of treatment. All monoclonal antibodies - which are tiny pieces of biology, unlike the chemical drugs you buy in the pharmacy, are challenging and therefore expensive to make.\n\nSo it is still uncertain whether the antibody therapy will be offered to everyone, or reserved for those most likely to become severely ill due to a weak immune system.\n\nPenny Ward, a professor in pharmaceutical medicine at King's College London, said it was \"most likely\" the treatment would be targeted at the most vulnerable.\n\nAnd she said it could also used in people who may not respond to the vaccine, for example people being treated for cancer or after a transplant, if they are a close contact of someone infected.\n\nProf Martin Landray, who led trials of the therapy in hospitals, from the University of Oxford, said: \"It would be hard to justify giving what are likely to be limited supplies of a relatively expensive treatment to huge numbers of people who are likely to get better on their own.\"\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid said: \"This is fantastic news... this treatment will be a significant addition to our armoury.\"\n\nMeanwhile, AstraZeneca has announced its antibody therapy cuts the risk of developing Covid symptoms by 77%.\n\nIt is given by injection and could give up to 12 months of protection.\n\nProf Myron Levin, who led the trial at the University of Colorado, said the results were \"exciting\" and could be \"an important tool in our arsenal to help people who may need more than a vaccine to return to their normal lives\".", "Lee Ryan, who appeared on Strictly Come Dancing in 2018, said he had spent his savings \"in Covid\"\n\nLee Ryan has told a court he cannot afford to pay a fine for failing to provide details about who was driving his car when it was caught speeding.\n\nThe Blue singer, 38, was charged with driving a Mercedes at 70mph in a 60mph limit in Peterborough twice last year.\n\nThe charges were dismissed, but Ryan was found guilty after a trial for two counts of failing to provide information about the driver.\n\nHe said he could not afford the £1,501 fine and costs.\n\nSpeaking via a remote link from Spain, he told Peterborough Magistrates' Court he was \"out of work due to Covid\".\n\n\"I just don't have the money,\" he said.\n\nCourt papers said he was charged with driving a Mercedes at 70mph in a 60mph limit on Fletton Parkway, Peterborough, on 8 August, and driving a Mercedes at 71mph on the same road on 22 August - both last year.\n\nBut these charges were dismissed as the prosecution offered no evidence, due to there being no means of proving who was driving.\n\nRyan went on trial for two counts of failing to give information relating to the identification of the driver when required, and was found guilty by magistrates.\n\nThe singer, who insisted during the hearing that he had sent off the required information, was told if the money was not paid he could be brought back to court and find himself in prison.\n\nMagistrate Alison Marsh gave Ryan two lots of six points against his licence, resulting in a disqualification from driving for 12 months.\n\nIn regard to the fine, she said magistrates took into account the fact the music industry had been \"severely hit\" by the coronavirus pandemic, and decided to charge him for one offence.\n\nRyan said: \"I'm not working. I mean, they've stopped the gigs. I don't have any gigs.\"\n\nIt was put to Ryan that there are shows going on in the UK.\n\n\"I've not got anything,\" he said. \"I haven't got anything.\"\n\nHe was asked if it would be unreasonable to think he may have some savings, and he said: \"No, I spent them all in Covid.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Amman was jailed for 40 months in 2018 for preparing and engaging in acts of terrorism\n\nA terror attack might have been stopped had a convicted criminal been recalled to prison after buying items used to fake a suicide belt, an inquest found.\n\nSudesh Amman was killed by surveillance officers following the attack in Streatham, south London, last February.\n\nThe 20-year-old convicted terrorist stabbed two people 10 days after being released from jail, one of whom was put in an induced coma. Both survived.\n\nHM Prison and Probation Service could have recalled him to jail, jurors said.\n\nThe inquest jury at the Royal Courts of Justice retired for 11 hours before returning a conclusion of lawful killing.\n\nOn 31 January 2020, two days before the attack, undercover officers spotted Amman buying four small bottles of Irn-Bru, kitchen foil and parcel tape from Poundland - items they feared could be used to make a hoax suicide belt.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nPolice and MI5 officers were so concerned about Amman that they held an emergency meeting to discuss the prospect of arresting the recently released terrorist.\n\nHowever, HMPS decided not to recall him to prison. Amman was put under round-the-clock armed surveillance instead.\n\nOne of his two victims had to be placed into an induced coma for five days, the police watchdog report revealed after the inquest.\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said the man, who the inquest previously heard feared bleeding to death, is now recovering from his injuries.\n\nIn a statement read out in court, he thanked passers-by who came to his aid after overhearing the phrase \"he's not going to make it\" in an ambulance.\n\n\"They cut off my clothes, they saved my life. I will never forget,\" he said.\n\nAnother member of the public required surgery to remove fragments of glass from her leg after a police bullet shattered a glass panel, the IOPC said.\n\nThe senior investigating officer on the case denied suggestions from the terrorist's family that police should have intervened and that the undercover operation was a \"massive failure\", saying instead the Met's actions on the day he struck prevented further tragedy.\n\nThe inquest previously heard there had been concerns about the 20-year-old's imminent release from HMP Belmarsh on 23 January 2020, part-way through a 40-month sentence for preparing and engaging in acts of terrorism.\n\nA request to extend Amman's sentence was turned down as the offence he was jailed for could not justify it. The law has since been changed.\n\nThe 20-year-old was shot dead on Streatham High Road\n\nThe inquest, held over three weeks in central London, heard Amman was considered \"one of the most dangerous individuals\" investigated by police and MI5.\n\nJurors heard evidence he maintained an extremist mindset throughout his time in prison.\n\nHe was said to have plotted to kill the Queen, pledged allegiance to so-called Islamic State, and wanted to commit atrocities.\n\nWhile in prison, Amman was also said to have revelled in his perceived notoriety as a young terrorist, and was said to have mixed with other high-profile offenders including the brother of Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi.\n\nJurors concluded the decision not to search Amman's probation hostel, or search him in person, did not amount to a missed opportunity.\n\nAmman was placed in a bail hostel in Streatham after his release from prison\n\nThe coroner Mr Justice Hilliard, at the inquest's conclusion, said: \"Amman was prepared to risk his life... In stark contrast the Metropolitan Police surveillance teams were prepared to put themselves in harm's way.\n\n\"They are all to be commended for their bravery, and they are owed a considerable debt of gratitude for their bravery.\"\n\nOne of the armed surveillance officers who shot dead Amman told the Royal Courts of justice how he \"immediately feared for his life\".\n\n\"I thought he was going to stab me and kill me or certainly seriously injure me,\" he said.\n\nDean Haydon, for the Met's Specialist Operations, said: \"I want to pay tribute to the courage shown by the officers in relation to how they pursued the attacker but also stopped anybody else coming to harm.\n\n\"This demonstrates the true professionalism shown by them but also their bravery in the face of danger.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A UK Covid vaccine booster scheme will take place and is likely to start next month, the health secretary has said.\n\nSajid Javid said he was uncertain of the exact start date as the government was waiting for the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation's \"final advice\" before proceeding.\n\nMr Javid added the \"most vulnerable\" would be offered the third jab first.\n\nHowever, it remains unclear whether the booster scheme will be for all adults, or just some, more vulnerable groups.\n\nInterim advice from the JCVI, released last month, suggested more than 30 million of the most vulnerable people - including all over-50s - should receive a third dose.\n\nAsked about the scheme on Thursday, Mr Javid said: \"We are going to have a booster scheme. It will start some time in September.\n\n\"I couldn't tell you exactly when because before we start it... we need to get the final advice from our group of experts, our independent scientific and medical advisers, the JCVI, and so we're waiting for their final opinion.\"\n\nEarlier in the day, Prof Adam Finn told the BBC that the JCVI, of which he is a member, would be \"imminently deciding\" that some people \"will need a third dose, particularly people who we know are very unlikely to be well protected by those first two doses\".\n\n\"But I think we do need more evidence before we can make a firm decision on a much broader booster programme,\" he added.\n\nThe health secretary says \"a\" booster campaign will take place, but the more important question is \"who\" will be boosted. We still don't know.\n\nThere are scientific and ethical arguments about a booster campaign.\n\nFor some there is a clear benefit - particularly those with weakened immune systems in whom it takes three doses to do the job of two.\n\nBut for the rest of the population, the evidence so far shows two doses are providing lasting protection from becoming seriously ill and needing hospital treatment.\n\nWhether a mass vaccination campaign is necessary or should be far more targeted is the subject of intense debate.\n\nThis comes at a time that rich countries are being accused of giving vaccines to people at little risk from Covid and that would save far more lives if they were shared with the world.\n\nAbout 70% of the entire UK population has had at least one jab. In the poorest countries that figure is about 1%.\n\nThe announcement comes after it was revealed more than 125,000 16 and 17-year-olds in England have had the vaccine in the two weeks since the NHS was given approval to offer that age group a jab.\n\nIn total, 47,460,526 first doses have now been given across the UK, while 41,157,069 people have had two doses.\n\nBut the decision to offer people in the UK a third jab is not without controversy.\n\nImmunologist Prof Peter Openshaw, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), which advises the government, said the \"question about boosters is a contentious one\".\n\nHe said studies into the effectiveness of booster schemes were still ongoing and \"everyone is very keen that if we do have surplus vaccines, that they're not necessarily used in this country, but might be sent overseas\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Immunologist Prof Peter Openshaw: \"The question of boosters is a contentious one\"\n\nAnd, earlier this month, the head of the Oxford Vaccine Group said doses needed to \"go where they can have the greatest impact\" - to protect unvaccinated people abroad.\n\nProf Sir Andrew Pollard, who led the team that created the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, said decisions on whether to give boosters \"should be scientifically driven\".\n\nAsked whether the JCVI had concerns about plans for the booster scheme, Mr Javid said: \"It's only with their expert advice that government would want to continue with their plans.\n\n\"I don't want to prejudge what they're going to say but, based on their interim advice, I think we can be confident that we will start a booster scheme next month.\"", "The woman was taken to hospital in Gran Canaria\n\nA woman has been found clinging to an upturned inflatable dinghy about 138 miles (220km) off the Canary Islands - the only survivor of a migrant tragedy feared to have claimed 52 lives.\n\nShe was spotted in a poor state by a passing merchant ship and emergency services flew her to safety.\n\nTwo bodies were found by the coastguard and the woman told officials that more than 50 other people were on board.\n\nMore than 8,000 migrants have reached Spain's Canary Islands this year.\n\nMany of them set off from a stretch of coastline between Tarfaya in Morocco and Laayoune in Western Sahara, a disputed territory claimed by Morocco.\n\nThe route has become increasingly popular as migrant passages to Europe through the Mediterranean have become harder to take. However, human rights group Walking Borders has described it as the world's most dangerous migration route.\n\nSpain's maritime rescue service airlifted the woman to safety after she was spotted by a passing merchant ship\n\nThe woman rescued on Thursday was taken to hospital suffering from severe dehydration.\n\nUN migration officials estimate more than 350 people have died this year trying to reach Spain's Canary Islands, but Walking Borders believes it could be higher than 2,000.\n\nOnly this week, 47 people were feared to have died off the coast of Mauritania when a boat lost power and drifted for almost two weeks, until it was spotted by coastguards.\n\nSeven people were found alive on board and the International Office of Migration said they had probably left Laayoune on 3 August.\n\nEarlier this year a 17-year-old from Ivory Coast and two others were rescued by the Spanish air force after drifting for 22 days at sea.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Aicha was found this year after three weeks drifting in the Atlantic trying to reach the Canaries\n\nThe teenager, named Aicha, told the BBC that she had left her home for Mauritania and after two days at sea they had run out of food. More than 50 people on the boat died.\n• None Young woman found in boat drifting for 22 days at sea. Video, 00:04:23Young woman found in boat drifting for 22 days at sea", "Japanese actor and martial arts great Sonny Chiba has died at the age of 82 from complications related to Covid.\n\nChiba was a star in Japan and was best known to Western audiences for his memorable role as the swordsmith in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill.\n\nHe enjoyed an on-screen career spanning five decades, which also included the 1970s Street Fighter trilogy and 2006's The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift.\n\nHis agent Timothy Beal said he was \"a humble, caring and friendly man\".\n\nBeal told the AFP news agency it was \"such tragic news\", adding: \"He was a great friend and an awesome client.\"\n\nPaying tribute online, Mortal Kombat actor Lewis Tan wrote: \"A true action legend. Your films are eternal and your energy an inspiration.\"\n\nThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which is responsible for the Oscars, also said he was a \"legend\" who \"blended toughness with depth\".\n\nThis 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 The Academy 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. End of twitter post by The Academy\n\nChiba studied martial arts throughout the 1960s, excelling in karate. Following in the footsteps of Bruce Lee, he then landed roles in Japanese films and TV series, including with the influential Toei studio.\n\nHe made a name for himself outside his own country in Street Fighter as the ruthless martial arts mercenary and anti-hero Takuma Tsurugi.\n\n\"For me, the most enjoyable role to play is the bad guy,\" he told Jonathan Ross in a TV interview in 2007.\n\nChiba (far left) with Tarantino and other cast members at the premiere of Kill Bill - Volume One in Tokyo in 2003\n\nThe crossover-hit film series caught the eye of a young Tarantino, and almost 30 years later the director would cast him to play Hattori Hanzo in 2003's Kill Bill - Volume 1.\n\nThe popular character was a samurai-turned-sushi chef who came out of retirement to forge a sword for the Bride, played by Uma Thurman.\n\nHe reprised the role in Kill Bill: Vol 2. Chiba also appeared in Kinji Fukasaku's 2003 film Battle Royale II: Requiem, as well as Justin Lin's instalment of the Fast and Furious franchise.\n\nThe former gymnast had been set due to work on Outbreak Z, an upcoming zombie movie starring Wesley Snipes.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Government borrowing fell in July compared with a year earlier as the removal of most Covid restrictions in England gave the economy a boost.\n\nBorrowing - the difference between spending and tax income - was £10.4bn, official figures show, which was £10.1bn lower than July last year.\n\nHowever, the figure was the second-highest for July since records began.\n\nBorrowing has been hitting record levels, with billions being spent on measures such as furlough payments.\n\nThe huge amount of borrowing over the past year has now pushed government debt up to more than £2.2 trillion, or about 98.8% of GDP - a rate not seen since the early 1960s.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics (ONS) now estimates that the government borrowed a total of £298bn in the financial year to March.\n\nThat amounted to 14.2% of GDP, the highest level since the end of World War Two.\n\nThe ONS said the cost of measures to support individuals and businesses during the pandemic meant that day-to-day spending by the government rose by £204.3bn to £942.7bn last year.\n\nInterest payments on central government debt were £3.4bn in July.\n\nThat was £1.1bn more than in July 2020, but far lower than the monthly record of £8.7bn in June 2021.\n\n\"Our recovery from the pandemic is well under way, boosted by the huge amount of support government has provided,\" said Chancellor Rishi Sunak.\n\n\"But the last 18 months have had a huge impact on our economy and public finances, and many risks remain.\n\n\"We're committed to keeping the public finances on a sustainable footing, which is why at the Budget in March I set out the steps we are taking to keep debt under control in the years to come.\"\n\nRuth Gregory, senior UK economist at Capital Economics, pointed out that July's borrowing figure was \"once again comfortably lower\" than forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility.\n\n\"Total tax receipts of £70bn in July were above June's £62.1bn and last July's total of £60.6bn, another encouraging sign that the economic recovery is feeding through to the public coffers. And government spending dropped from £77.2bn in June to just £73.1bn in July,\" she added.", "Dominic Raab was on holiday in Crete when advisers reportedly suggested he should call his Afghan counterpart\n\nThe government is coming under pressure after it emerged ministers did not make a phone call about evacuating Afghan translators who had helped UK forces.\n\nIt had said Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was too busy to speak to his Afghan counterpart, with a junior minister being asked to do so instead.\n\nBut the Foreign Office now says it \"was not possible\" to arrange the call before the Afghan government collapsed.\n\nMr Raab has rejected demands from opposition parties to resign.\n\nIt was revealed earlier this week that the foreign secretary was unavailable to make the phone call last Friday - while he was on holiday in Crete - as the Taliban advanced towards Kabul, Afghanistan's capital.\n\nLabour asked whether Prime Minister Boris Johnson had spoken to Mr Raab while he was away - and whether he had given permission for him to leave the UK.\n\nAnd Colonel Richard Kemp, a former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, told the BBC News Channel the foreign secretary's decision not to call his Afghan counterpart \"typifies\" a \"ministerial lack of urgency\" over the 20-year conflict in the country.\n\nMeanwhile, the Times reports that the top civil servants at the Home Office, Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence are currently on holiday.\n\nThe situation outside Kabul airport is described as chaotic\n\nSeveral thousand Afghan interpreters and other staff have worked for UK forces since the Nato invasion of the country in 2001.\n\nMany are in fear of their lives, as the Taliban increase their hold on Afghanistan, with the United Nations warning that those deemed to have been \"collaborators\" by the group are being sought out in door-to-door searches.\n\nAfghans who worked for the UK government can come to the UK as part of the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy.\n\nThe Home Office says it has resettled 2,000 former staff and their families in the UK since 22 June. The target is 5,000 by the end of this year.\n\nBut Kabul airport is reportedly in chaos, with Taliban militants controlling access, making access to planes difficult.\n\nOn Thursday, it was reported that Mr Raab had been advised by senior Foreign Office officials last week that he should make contact with Afghan Foreign Minister Hanif Atmar to request urgent assistance in rescuing interpreters.\n\nOfficials said it was important the call was made by Mr Raab rather than a junior minister, but they were told he was unavailable.\n\nThe Afghan foreign ministry reportedly refused to arrange a call with a junior minister, pushing it back to the next day.\n\nBut a Foreign Office spokesman has now told the BBC: \"Given the rapidly changing situation, it was not possible to arrange a call before the Afghan government collapsed.\"\n\nFor Labour, shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said: \"For the prime minister and foreign secretary to be on holiday during the biggest foreign policy crisis in a generation is an unforgivable failure of leadership...\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The foreign secretary gives a one-word answer when asked about his future.\n\nMr Raab earlier this week insisted he had been talking to overseas ministers and his team in London \"on an hour-by-hour basis\" while on holiday, and that he had returned \"as soon as the situation deteriorated and demanded it\".\n\nOn Thursday, he chaired a call of G7 foreign ministers to discuss Afghanistan, saying afterwards that efforts \"to do everything possible to evacuate vulnerable persons\" from Kabul airport were ongoing.\n\nSome Conservative MPs are unhappy at the foreign secretary's handling of the crisis in Afghanistan, but Health Secretary Sajid Javid defended his colleague, calling him \"one of the most professional and most effective ministers I've ever worked with\".\n\nArmed Forces minister James Heappey told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he did not know why the call had not been made.\n\nBut he added: \"The reality is that no one phone call would have changed the trajectory of either the speed of collapse of the Afghan government, nor the speed at which we've been able to get the airlift running.\"\n\nHe said 963 people had been moved out of Kabul on Thursday, and that ministers were confident they could maintain that level over the coming days.\n\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken had two phone calls with the then Afghan president last week\n\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken had a telephone conversation with the then Afghan President, Ashraf Ghani, on Thursday last week.\n\nAccording to the US government, Mr Blinken informed Mr Ghani he was accelerating \"the tempo\" of flights laid on for Afghans who had served the US - but the evacuation scheme has been criticised for being too slow.\n\nThe two men had another discussion last Saturday, shortly before Mr Ghani fled Afghanistan.\n\nThe Times reports that Sir Philip Barton, Matthew Rycroft and David Williams, the permanent secretaries at the Foreign Office, the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence, are on leave.\n\nA government spokesman said that \"departments across Whitehall have been working intensively\" on the situation in Afghanistan.\n\nThe BBC has been told that the civil servants in question are continuing to work while on holiday, and that, as the Ministry of Defence and Home Office have two permanent secretaries each, one is at work when the other is on leave.\n\nThe Foreign Office has a designated acting permanent secretary to cover periods of leave.", "Britney Spears' lawyer said there was \"no striking\" during the alleged incident\n\nUS pop star Britney Spears is being investigated after one of her home staff alleged the singer had struck her, California law enforcement officials say.\n\nThe employee made the claim after a dispute at Ms Spears' home on Monday.\n\nThe Ventura Country Sheriff's Office said it will send its inquiry findings to prosecutors for consideration of misdemeanour battery charges.\n\nThe singer's lawyer denied the allegation, calling it \"overblown\".\n\nMisdemeanour battery in California is a criminal offence that involves any intentional and unlawful physical contact with someone else.\n\nMs Spears, 39, is alleged to have slapped her employee's mobile phone out of their hands during the encounter.\n\nIn a statement emailed to the BBC, her lawyer Mathew S Rosengart said it was \"nothing more than a manufactured 'he said, she said' regarding a cell phone, with no striking and obviously no injury whatsoever.\n\n\"Anyone can make an accusation, but this should have been closed immediately,\" he said.\n\n\"To its credit, the Sheriff's Office itself has acknowledged that the incident was classified as a 'very minor misdemeanour…' and confirmed 'there were no injuries'.\"\n\nMs Spears hired Mr Rosengart last month as she seeks to end her father's hold over her life and finances, 13 years after he took legal control when concerns were raised over her mental health.\n\nLast week, Jamie Spears agreed to step down as his daughter's conservator, pledging to participate in an \"orderly transition\" to a new legal arrangement.\n\nMs Spears, who has called the conservatorship \"abusive\", has filed a petition to stop her father controlling her estate in July and has said she will not perform again while he remains in the role.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "The babbling bat pups appear to be practising their vocal skills\n\nScientists who systematically eavesdropped on bat roosts in Costa Rica have discovered baby-bat babbling bears a striking resemblance to that of human infants.\n\nAnd this suggests - just like in human infants - their babbling lays the foundations for communication.\n\n\"They just babble away, sunrise to sunset, practising their sounds,\" lead researcher Dr Ahana Fernandez said.\n\nDr Fernandez, based at the Museum of Natural History in Berlin, studied a particularly vocal species - the greater sac-winged bat, Saccopteryx bilineata.\n\n\"These bats actually sing like songbirds,\" she said.\n\n\"So they have very sophisticated vocal communication - a repertoire of distinct syllable types.\"\n\nDr Fernandez and her colleagues, who published their findings in the journal Science, analysed recordings of the bat pups babbling in their roosts.\n\nDr Fernandez recording babbling of wild Saccopteryx bilineata pups in their day-roost, in Costa Rica\n\nHuman speech requires very precise control over the vocal apparatus.\n\nBabbling in infants and toddlers is vital practice in gaining that control.\n\nAnd, the researchers said, the same was true of bats.\n\n\"We know all the different syllable types produced by adult bats,\" Dr Fernandez said.\n\n\"And the ones that appear in pup babbling are really reminiscent of the adult ones - so we can clearly tell.\"\n\nThe greater sac-winged bat is the only bat species known to do this so far.\n\nBut with more than 1,400 bat species in the world, Dr Fernandez \"really thinks there will be another that babbles\".\n\nAnd while this study has identified a pattern that could be important for many mammals that have to learn to communicate vocally, she also says there is a great deal left to understand about this specific species of singing bat.\n\n\"The babies really listen to each other when they're babbling,\" Dr Fernandez said.\n\n\"One starts, he babbles for 15 minutes or so, and I can clearly see the ears of the other pups moving.\n\n\"So I think they're really listening to each other - but how it influences their practising, I don't know.\"", "Around 300,000 carbon dioxide monitors are to be made available to schools in England next term to help improve ventilation and lessen Covid outbreaks.\n\nThe Department for Education said the portable monitors could be used to identify areas where more air-flow is needed.\n\nTeaching unions have been calling for urgent extra ventilation measures.\n\nThey welcomed the pledge, but added any ventilation needs picked up by the monitors must be acted upon.\n\nMost Covid safety restrictions have been relaxed in England's schools. Neither masks, bubble groups nor socially distancing rules are required this coming term.\n\nMany schools have been opening windows and doors to keep air moving around classrooms to lessen the likelihood of Covid outbreaks, but this is easier in warmer weather.\n\nPupils will be offered twice weekly Covid testing and two tests at school when the autumn term starts to lessen the amount of infection coming into school.\n\nHowever, those who have come into contact with a confirmed case will no longer have to isolate.\n\nThe removal of restrictions has left teachers and some parents concerned that the mass-mixing of pupils may lead to a spike in Covid cases.\n\nEducation Secretary Gavin Williamson said: \"Providing all schools with CO2 monitors will help them make sure they have the right balance of measures in place, minimising any potential disruption to education and allowing them to focus on world class lessons and catch up for the children who need it.\n\n\"By keeping up simple measures such as ventilation and testing, young people can now enjoy more freedom at school and college,\" he added.\n\nThe DfE says it is prioritising special schools and alternative provision for the delivery of CO2 monitors, as they are likely to have higher rates of vulnerable pupils.\n\nBut a statement on Friday made clear that this £25m batch of CO2 monitors has yet to be fully procured, less than two weeks before many schools return.\n\nHowever, it said: \"All schools and colleges are expected to receive at least partial allocations during the autumn term, enabling all settings to monitor areas where they believe airflow may be weakest.\"\n\nGeoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: \"In truth, this equipment should have been in place ready for the start of the autumn term, and arguably a lot earlier in the crisis, but it is a case of better late than never.\n\n\"Government guidance to schools and colleges on reducing the risk of coronavirus transmission highlights the importance of keeping spaces well ventilated, but doesn't go much further than recommending that windows should be opened to improve natural ventilation.\n\n\"This is challenging in the depths of a British winter and does not make for an environment which is conducive to learning. Our understanding is that carbon dioxide monitors will indicate when spaces need ventilating thereby reducing the need to keep windows open all the time.\"\n\nKevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: \"This is a really welcome first step in accepting our argument that funding is needed for good ventilation.\n\n\"It follows examples set by administrations in New York City, Scotland and Ireland.\n\n\"Sadly, Gavin Williamson failed to get on the front-foot over the summer but the initial investment of £25m in CO2 monitors is welcome now and will start to make a difference. It is vital, though, that government must also commit to supporting schools to address any ventilation problems identified by these monitors.\"", "The UK is imposing asset freezes and travel bans on seven Russian nationals linked to the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.\n\nMr Navalny - a staunch critic of President Vladimir Putin - almost died from a nerve agent attack last year.\n\nHe accused Mr Putin of ordering the attack, something the Kremlin denies.\n\nThe UK Foreign Office said the sanctions, taken with the US, targeted those \"directly responsible for planning or carrying out the attack\".\n\nAll seven of the individuals targeted are members of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), it added.\n\nForeign Secretary Dominic Raab said: \"We are sending a clear message that any use of chemical weapons by the Russian state violates international law, and a transparent criminal investigation must be held.\n\n\"We urge Russia to declare its full stock of Novichok nerve agents.\"\n\nThe term Novichok - \"newcomer\" in Russian - applies to a group of nerve agents developed in a lab by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. They paralyse muscles and can lead to death by asphyxiation.\n\nMr Navalny, 45, was exposed to one such nerve agent on a flight from Tomsk, Siberia, to Moscow on 20 August 2020. By the time the plane landed, he could not speak and was taken directly to hospital.\n\nHe was later transferred to a hospital in Berlin, Germany, where he spent a further 32 days recovering, including 24 days in intensive care.\n\nIn January, he returned to Russia and was arrested on arrival.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Alexei Navalny: what you need to know\n\nAnti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny has long been the most prominent face of Russian opposition to President Vladimir Putin.\n\nThe 45-year-old blogger has millions of Russian followers on social media - many in their early 20s or younger - and managed to get some of his supporters elected to local councils in Siberia in 2020.\n\nSo far he has been unable to challenge the president at the ballot box.\n\nMr Navalny was immediately arrested as he flew back into Moscow on 17 January, after months spent recovering in Berlin from the near-fatal nerve agent attack. His supporters staged mass protests across Russia and police responded with force, detaining thousands for attending the unauthorised rallies.\n\nPresident Putin's foremost critic is now at a Russian penal colony, serving a jail term for failing to stick to the terms of a suspended sentence while he was in Berlin. But his voice of opposition has not gone away, even though his supporters fear for his life.\n\nThe UK previously imposed sanctions on six Russians, including the director of the FSB, who the government holds responsible for the poisoning.\n\nImprisoned Mr Navalny marked the anniversary of the poisoning attack against him by urging global leaders to put more attention on combating corruption and to target tycoons close to Mr Putin.\n\nThe UK and US also issued a joint statement in which they reaffirmed their condemnation of the \"assassination attempt\" on Mr Navalny.\n\nThe statement added: \"We welcome sanctions actions made by international partners and will continue to co-ordinate with international partners on further measures.\n\n\"Today the UK and the US join in taking further action against the individuals directly responsible for carrying out the poisoning of Mr Navalny.\n\n\"As we did after Russia's use of a chemical weapon against the Skripals in the United Kingdom in March 2018, we continue to underline that there must be accountability and no impunity for those that use chemical weapons.\"\n\nAlso on Friday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that, in a meeting with Mr Putin, she had \"demanded\" he free his political opponent. Mr Putin denies Mr Navalny's imprisonment is politically motivated.\n\nSpeaking at the Kremlin, Ms Merkel said: \"It's a depressing situation from our point of view.\n\n\"His conviction was on the basis of an earlier court decision that was considered disproportionate by the European Court of Human Rights, so his stay in a penitentiary is not acceptable and I have once again demanded Navalny's release.\"", "Nicole Kidman (pictured in January 2020) is in Hong Kong to film a new television series\n\nNicole Kidman has become the latest Hollywood star to come under fire for circumventing strict quarantine rules for international travellers.\n\nThe Australian actress's arrival in Hong Kong has sparked widespread anger after she was reportedly spotted out and about two days after touching down.\n\nThis is despite the region having some of the strictest rules in place, with up to 21 days' quarantine required.\n\nThere has been no direct, official comment on a possible exemption.\n\nHowever, Hong Kong's Commerce and Economic Development Bureau sent out a statement on Thursday in response to questions about \"overseas film personnel\" and quarantine, explaining restrictions are waived \"to carry out designated professional work\".\n\nKidman is in Hong Kong to film a new show about the lives of wealthy, glamorous ex-pats - already a source of tension as locals contend with increasing restrictions under the new national security law.\n\nReports of the waiver have only stoked outrage further, with comments on both Twitter and Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo overwhelmingly critical.\n\n\"Which department gave her the right?\" one users asks. Another asks: \"Who gave her the right to be exempt?\"\n\nSeveral people point out they have not been able to see family for months thanks to the restrictions.\n\nCitizens living in \"high risk\" countries - a list which already includes the UK and is expanding to places like the US and Spain tomorrow - are only allowed to enter if vaccinated and must still complete three weeks' quarantine.\n\nAustralia - where Kidman flew in from - is classified \"medium\", which has a minimum seven-day quarantine requirement for those who are vaccinated.\n\n\"So we have HK residents who can't come back if not vaccinated (and even then with 2-3 weeks quarantine) but Nicole Kidman can just enter like this? It's disgusting!\" a Twitter user called @WhovianBooknerd wrote.\n\n\"Why do foreigners have privileges?\" one person asks on Weibo.\n\nThe anger has made its way off social media and into the political arena, with Elizabeth Quat, a pro-Beijing lawmaker, saying she had received \"a number of complaints\" and has asked health officials to explain themselves, according to AFP news agency.\n\nThe issue of film stars travelling internationally has also caused problems in Kidman's home country, Australia, where the arrival of a host of famous faces in the last 18 months has angered those struggling to get home.\n\nYou may also be interested in:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The hotel quarantine experiences of Aaron in Hong Kong and Jane in Sydney", "The Refugee Council says hotels are being used to accommodate people due to a shortage of suitable housing\n\nAn urgent independent investigation must be carried out into the safety of accommodation provided to Afghan refugees, a group of MPs has said.\n\nThe call for an inquiry comes after Mohammed Munib Majeedi, who had only recently arrived in the UK, fell to his death from a hotel window in Sheffield.\n\nThe city's Labour MPs said the five-year-old's death was an \"unimaginable tragedy\" and \"lessons must be learnt\".\n\nThe Home Office said it was committed to ensuring \"safe and secure\" housing.\n\nMohammed is believed to have fallen from a ninth-floor room at the OYO Metropolitan Hotel in Blonk Street at about 14:30 BST on Wednesday.\n\nLouise Haigh, Labour MP for Sheffield Heeley, said: \"We know that the Home Office placed some refugees there last August and then moved them following concerns about the suitability of that accommodation.\n\n\"So why vulnerable families from Afghanistan, involving children, were placed in this accommodation again this year is a very serious question that they have to urgently answer.\"\n\nThe Home Office did not deny the claims when approached for comment, but said it was \"absolutely committed to ensuring that Afghan refugees are appropriately accommodated\".\n\nSouth Yorkshire Police is investigating the circumstances and said officers were providing support to the boy's family.\n\nMeanwhile, a woman was arrested on Friday morning over comments posted online following the death.\n\nThe 42-year-old from Sheffield was being questioned on suspicion of malicious communications and racially-aggravated public order offences, police said.\n\nThe boy's family is understood to have arrived in the UK in early August as part of the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme.\n\nTen other Afghan families staying at the hotel have been moved to alternative accommodation.\n\nThe five MPs - Paul Blomfield, Clive Betts, Olivia Blake, Gill Furniss and Ms Haigh - said in a joint statement: \"The death of Mohammed Munib Majeedi is an unimaginable tragedy.\n\n\"Our hearts go out to his family and friends; and supporting them at this terrible time must be everyone's priority.\"\n\nSouth Yorkshire Police said it was not treating the boy's death as suspicious\n\nThey said the Home Office had a duty of care for people resettled under its programmes and added: \"Lessons must be learnt from this tragedy so it is never repeated.\"\n\nAny review must be independently conducted to \"establish what was known by the Home Office about the suitability and safety of this accommodation, and what procedures were followed before commissioning its use for vulnerable families\".\n\n\"The UK must be a safe haven for those fleeing the appalling horrors in Afghanistan, and we must see a clear commitment from the government to ensure this is the case,\" they added.\n\nEnver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said the speed of the situation in Afghanistan had meant the usual arrangements for refugees had not been possible.\n\n\"What normally would happen is a family would arrive and they would be taken by an agency like ours to a house that had been set up and organised by a local council,\" he said.\n\nFlowers and cards have been left at the hotel, including one message which reads: \"Sleep tight darling, this community are watching over your mum, dad and family\"\n\nDue to a shortage of suitable accommodation the Home Office had to use hotels, Mr Solomon said, and it was not clear if the necessary health checks had been done.\n\n\"We don't know the details and there needs to be a rapid investigation to find out whether anything was overlooked or steps weren't taken to ensure all the potential risks were minimised for the families put in that hotel.\"\n\nMr Solomon said the Refugee Council had published a report in April looking at the situation in hotels.\n\n\"We found some really disturbing stories, for example people with mobility problems being put on higher floors in hotels where there are no lifts, it has certainly been very challenging in hotels.\"\n\nHowever, he said they had not found any specific examples of concerns related to safety issues.\n\nThe government said all the families staying at the hotel had been moved, adding: \"The Home Office is committed to ensuring that accommodation is safe, secure and individuals are provided with meals and support.\"\n\nA spokesman for the Afghan Community Association in Sheffield said: \"Whether it was a mistake or something, I don't know but what happened is not acceptable at all.\n\n\"It is very, very sad for the whole community - everybody has been devastated for this poor family who had just arrived from Afghanistan to have a life here.\"\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Ever Given, part of the Evergreen fleet, was impounded for three months after its release\n\nThe huge container ship that blocked the Suez Canal in March - disrupting global trade - has passed back through the waterway without incident.\n\nThe Ever Given was among a convoy of vessels sailing from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said.\n\nIt had been offloading its cargo in Europe and is now en route to Asia.\n\nThe ship was refloated after a major six-day salvage operation that led to the death of one person.\n\nIt was then impounded for three months near the canal city of Ismailia while a compensation deal was agreed between Egypt and the Ever Given's owners.\n\nThis 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 هيئة قناة السويس Suez Canal Authority 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.\n\nThe SCA, in a series of tweets, said the Ever Given was escorted through the 193km (120-mile) canal by two tugboats and senior SCA guides.\n\nIt was one of 26 ships that travelled from north to south through the canal on Friday, while 36 ships sailed in the opposite direction, the SCA added, hailing the waterway as the \"shortest and fastest navigational route linking the east with the west\".\n\nThe Ever Given, one of the world's largest container ships, had been delivering its 18,300 containers to Rotterdam, Felixstowe and Hamburg and is now travelling to China.\n\nA satellite photograph reveals how the Ever Given was wedged across the canal\n\nThe 400m-long (1,312ft) ship became wedged across the canal after running aground amid high winds on 23 March, blocking it for hundreds of ships and disrupting global trade.\n\nFollowing its release, the SCA sought compensation for the Ever Given's Japanese owner Shoei Kisen for the cost of the salvage operation, damage to the canal's banks and other losses.\n\nThe terms of the deal were not disclosed but Egypt had eventually settled on a $550m (£397m) demand.", "Dominic Raab was on holiday in Crete when advisers suggested he should call his Afghan counterpart\n\nForeign Secretary Dominic Raab has defended his decision not to call his Afghan counterpart over evacuating translators who had helped UK forces.\n\nMr Raab said he prioritised \"security\" at Kabul airport and \"delegated\" the call to a junior minister.\n\nBut that call did not happen due to the \"rapidly deteriorating situation\" in Afghanistan, he added.\n\nThe foreign secretary has rejected demands from the opposition to resign.\n\nEarlier this week it emerged, in a report by The Daily Mail, that he had been on holiday in Crete last Friday and unavailable to make the phone call to the Afghan foreign minister, as the Taliban advanced towards Kabul, Afghanistan's capital.\n\n\"It should have been an absolute priority to speak to the Afghan government and set out the immediate actions necessary to ensure the safe evacuation of Britons and Afghans.\"\n\nAnd Colonel Richard Kemp, a former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, told the BBC the foreign secretary's decision not to call his Afghan counterpart \"typifies\" a \"ministerial lack of urgency\" over the 20-year conflict in the country.\n\nIn a statement, Mr Raab said the government had \"been working tirelessly\" to evacuate people and praised \"the excellent team we have in place\".\n\nAs a result, he said 204 UK nationals and their families, Afghan staff and other countries citizens had been evacuated on the morning of Monday 16 August, and since then the number had risen to 1,635.\n\nHe added that the government's overriding priority has been to secure Kabul airport so that flights can leave.\n\nThe prime minister is due to chair a meeting of the government's Cobra emergency planning committee on Friday afternoon to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.\n\nThe situation outside Kabul airport is described as chaotic\n\nSeveral thousand Afghan interpreters and other staff have worked for UK forces since the Nato invasion of the country in 2001.\n\nMany are in fear of their lives, as the Taliban increase their hold on Afghanistan, with the United Nations warning that those deemed to have been \"collaborators\" by the group are being sought out in door-to-door searches.\n\nAfghans who worked for the UK government can come to the UK as part of the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy.\n\nThe Home Office says it has resettled 2,000 former staff and their families in the UK since 22 June. The target is 5,000 by the end of this year.\n\nBut Kabul airport is reportedly in chaos, with Taliban militants controlling access, making access to planes difficult.\n\nOn Thursday, it was reported that Mr Raab had been advised by senior Foreign Office officials last week that he should make contact with Afghan Foreign Minister Hanif Atmar to request urgent assistance in rescuing interpreters.\n\nOfficials said it was important the call was made by Mr Raab rather than a junior minister, but they were told he was unavailable.\n\nGiving his version of events for the first time, the foreign secretary said: \"On Friday afternoon, 13 August, advice was put to my private office (around 6pm Afghan time) recommending a call to the Afghan Foreign Minister.\n\n\"This was quickly overtaken by events. The call was delegated to a minister of state because I was prioritising security and capacity at the airport on the direct advice of the director and the director general overseeing the crisis response.\n\n\"In any event, the Afghan foreign minister agreed to take the call, but was unable to because of the rapidly deteriorating situation.\"\n\nMr Raab has faced calls from opposition parties to resign or be sacked over his handling of the situation.\n\nMs Nandy said: \"who knows how many more people might have been saved in the hours leading up to the fall of Kabul if the Foreign Secretary had made the call he was advised to.\"\n\nShe added that Mr Raab's statement \"serves only to confirm his decision to abdicate responsibility and grossly neglect his duties.\"\n\nLord Robertson - ex-Nato secretary general and a former Labour defence secretary - said the government \"should have been talking to the Afghan foreign minister much earlier than last Friday anyway\" and accused Mr Raab of \"a dereliction of duty of major consequence\".\n\nMeanwhile, The Times reports that the permanent secretaries - senior civil servants - at the Foreign Office, the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence, are on leave.\n\nA government spokesman said that \"departments across Whitehall have been working intensively\" on the situation in Afghanistan.\n\nThe BBC has been told that the civil servants in question are continuing to work while on holiday, and that their other permanent secretaries are in place to cover their absence.", "The government is coming under further pressure to help alleviate the UK's lorry driver shortage.\n\nLobby groups for the retail and transport industries have jointly written to Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng warning the impact on supply chains is getting worse.\n\nThey want a review of plans not to grant temporary work visas to drivers from the EU, and better training.\n\nMinisters have said employers should invest in British workers.\n\nLogistics UK, which represents freight firms, and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) say that while Brexit and Covid-19 caused lorry drivers to leave the UK, a temporary visa could lure them back.\n\nThe two groups said in their letter a shortfall of about 90,000 HGV drivers \"is placing increasingly unsustainable pressure on retailers and their supply chains\".\n\n\"While there was a shortage of HGV drivers prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit, these two events have exacerbated situation.\n\n\"The pandemic halted driver training and testing for over 12 months, while an estimated 25,000 EU drivers returned home during the pandemic and following the end of the transition period.\"\n\nThe situation is likely to worsen over the coming weeks, the groups warn. The start of the school year and return of workers to offices is likely to increase the number of deliveries and locations, and the industry is fast approaching its busiest period - the build up to Christmas.\n\nThe two groups call for three specific measures:\n\nThe Road Haulage Association has already said that there was shortfall of about 60,000 lorry drivers in the UK over the summer. Supermarkets such as Tesco and Aldi have been offering bonuses and other incentives to boost recruitment, but the labour squeeze continues.\n\nAnalysis of the latest ONS Labour Force Survey for the second quarter suggests that 14,000 EU lorry drivers left jobs in the UK in the year to June 2020, and only 600 had returned by July 2021.\n\nA government spokesperson said on Friday: \"The British people repeatedly voted to end free movement and take back control of our immigration system and employers should invest in our domestic workforce instead of relying on labour from abroad.\n\n\"We recently announced a package of measures to help tackle the HGV driver shortage, including plans to streamline the process for new drivers to gain their HGV licence and to increase the number of tests able to be conducted.\n\n\"We have also temporarily relaxed drivers' hours rules to allow HGV drivers to make slightly longer journeys, but these must only be used where necessary and must not compromise driver safety.\"", "Mark Frerichs, left, was taken by the Taliban in 2020\n\nCharlene Cakora, 57, spent a frantic week in Washington DC trying to convey a message to President Joe Biden: rescue her brother from Taliban captivity.\n\nMrs Cakora's brother, Mark Frerichs, was kidnapped by the group over a year ago. He is one of two remaining Americans thought to have been kidnapped by the Taliban during the US war in Afghanistan who is still unaccounted for.\n\nAmid the Afghan government's collapse, the fall of Kabul and chaotic scenes of thousands scrambling to flee the country being broadcast around the globe, his family said they were increasingly desperate for his return, and frustrated by the lack of progress from the government.\n\n\"We have been at war with the Taliban for 20 years. President Biden declared the war over on 31 August,\" Mrs Cakora told the BBC. \"When a war ends, each side get to have their prisoners come home. That is all we are asking for Mark.\"\n\nThe family had \"waited patiently\" through both the Trump and Biden administrations, she said.\n\n\"[We] were told that efforts were underway to get my brother home,\" she added. \"Well, they were not.\"\n\nAt least seven US civilians have been taken captive or gone missing during the war in Afghanistan. Of the total, one was reportedly killed, one escaped, and three were rescued or released. An eighth captive, Bowe Bergdahl, was a US soldier captured after deserting his post in 2009. He was released in 2014.\n\nMr Frerichs, 59, had been living and working in Kabul as a civil engineer for 10 years when he was kidnapped.\n\nA \"journeyman contractor\" who went from project to project, motivated by a desire to help people in need, he had found \"a good fit for himself in Afghanistan,\" Mrs Cakora said. \"Three days before he was kidnapped, he told me that he had just finished a municipal water project. He was so proud of it.\"\n\nThe US Navy veteran was lured to a meeting to discuss a potential project and taken against his will to Khost Province, a former national security official told the BBC.\n\nMr Frerichs and an Afghan colleague examine a project they worked on together\n\nIn Khost, the official said, he was handed over to the Haqqani Network, one of the region's most powerful and feared militant groups. The network's leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is one of the Taliban's top deputy leaders.\n\nAdvocates working to secure Mr Frerichs' release say that the \"only\" thing that the Taliban have mentioned when US officials have pressed for his return is the release of Bashir Noorzai, a Taliban-affiliated drug lord who has been imprisoned in the US for the last 16 years.\n\nNoorzai, who was arrested in 2005, was sentenced to life in prison in 2009 on charges that he imported over $50m (£36m) worth of heroin from Afghanistan and Pakistan into the US and other countries. He fought alongside the now-deceased Taliban founder Mullah Mohammed Omar against Soviet occupation in the 1980s, and is believed to have supplied the group with financial backing, weapons, ammunition and as many as 400 fighters.\n\nResponding to BBC queries, a state department spokesperson said that the US Special Representative for Afghanistan has pressed the Taliban for Mr Frerichs' release and raised the issue with Taliban representatives in Qatar and Pakistan.\n\n\"We place a high priority on Marks Frerichs' safety and will not stop working until he is safely returned to his family,\" the spokesperson said.\n\nSpokespeople at the Taliban's representative office in Qatar did not respond to BBC requests for comment.\n\nMrs Cakora said that while the family understands that an exchange of Noorzai for Mr Frerichs is a \"hard trade\" and that it would mean making concessions to kidnappers, they believe it is the only viable option.\n\nWhen asked what she would tell the White House about her case, Mrs Cakora directed a plea at President Biden.\n\n\"Please treat my brother like he was your son and act to bring him home quickly,\" she said.\n\nShe also had a message for Taliban political leader Abdul Ghani Baradar.\n\n\"We know that this war is ending, and you want your prisoners back as much as we want my brother,\" she said. \"Please treat him well and work with US officials to arrange a prisoner swap that gets you Bashir Noorzai and returns Mark home safely to us. Let that be the one thing that both sides can see as a win.\"\n\nBesides Mr Frerichs, only one other American suspected to have been abducted in Afghanistan, author Paul Overby Jr, remains unaccounted for. Mr Overby was last heard from in May 2014, when he vanished in Khost while traveling to interview Sirajuddin Haqqani. The Taliban have denied any involvement.\n\nWith the situation in Afghanistan growing more dangerous by the day, Mrs Cakora expressed hope that her brother's release may provide a small positive outcome.\n\n\"President Biden has the power to make it happen,\" she said. \"The story on our exit from Afghanistan is horrible. Can't we get one glimmer of good news by having my brother come home?\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Anna-Louise Marsh-Rees said she had to get answers for her dad and other families in Wales\n\nA woman whose father died with Covid-19 has called for an inquiry into the Welsh government's handling of the pandemic.\n\nAnna-Louise Marsh-Rees said she believed her father, Ian Marsh-Rees, caught the virus whilst in hospital.\n\nShe said decisions made in Wales must be \"properly scrutinised,\" rather than a \"footnote\" in a UK inquiry.\n\nThe Welsh government said a UK-wide inquiry was best for understanding the experiences of people in Wales.\n\nMr Marsh-Rees, who was 85, died last October at Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, after initially being admitted for a gall bladder infection.\n\nMs Marsh-Rees said her interactions with Aneurin Bevan University Health Board led to her to campaign for an inquiry\n\nAnna-Louise, a founder of the newly-formed Covid Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru, said she thought infection control at the hospital was \"poor\".\n\nThe health board told her 13 patients on Mr Marsh-Rees's ward tested positive during his time there, as well as 14 members of staff.\n\n\"He was moved beds a number of times, he was clearly exposed to a number of patients and staff,\" she said.\n\n\"We generally feel that he wasn't protected, he wasn't looked after.\"\n\nShe added it was \"awful\" to watch her father, who had been shielding at home for months to protect himself, \"die gasping for breath\".\n\nMr Marsh-Rees served in the Royal Signals based in Malaysia and Singapore\n\nNearly a quarter of people who have died with Covid-19 in Wales were infected in hospital.\n\nMs Marsh-Rees' experience of trying to get information from the health board is now driving her campaign for a Wales public inquiry.\n\n\"I absolutely owe it to my dad to get answers, to investigate this,\" she said.\n\n\"On behalf of my dad and all the others that died from Covid. For the families that are grieving, for people with long Covid, we feel we deserve a Wales-specific inquiry.\"\n\nMr Marsh Rees was admitted to Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny with a gall bladder infection\n\nA spokeswoman for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said its \"sincere condolences and deepest sympathy\" remained with the Marsh-Rees family.\n\n\"At the time in question, an adequate provision of PPE was available and staff were continuing to adhere to infection control procedures outlined by the World Health Organization (WHO),\" she said.\n\n\"Whilst much has been learnt about the management of this virus, the public inquiry will lend further investigation and the health board will fully support this process.\"\n\nSolicitor Craig Court, who is representing Covid Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru, said: \"One of the key objectives is to seek greater transparency and accountability of the events that impacted not only those who sadly died in Wales, but the families they have left behind.\"\n\nPolitical parties have clashed in Wales over the need for a Wales-specific inquiry\n\nPlaid Cymru and the Welsh Conservatives also called for Wales-specific Covid enquiry in the run up to the Welsh elections in May.\n\nIn contrast to his colleagues in the Senedd, Welsh Secretary Simon Hart agreed with the first minister than any enquiry should be UK-wide.\n\nMark Drakeford said during this year's Senedd election debate he was \"not in favour of rival enquiries\".\n\nA Welsh government spokesman said: \"The UK-wide inquiry has been agreed between all four nations.\n\n\"We have requested specific chapters of the inquiry deal exclusively with the lived experiences of those here in Wales.\n\n\"A UK-wide inquiry will have the capacity and force to oversee the interconnected nature of the decisions that have been made across the four nations and is the best way for the experiences of people in Wales to be properly understood.\"\n\nThe prime minister has said a UK inquiry will start in Spring next year.", "Peymana Assad flew back to the UK on an RAF flight on Tuesday\n\nA former child refugee who has grown up to become a London councillor has described how she feared for her life as she fled Afghanistan this week.\n\nPeymana Assad came to the UK at the age of three, but was visiting family in Kabul when the Taliban takeover began.\n\nShe told BBC Radio 5 Live she was warned by one local man \"if the Taliban catch you they are going to kill you\".\n\nMs Assad said she witnessed scenes of \"chaos\" near the airport just before she left on an RAF flight on Tuesday.\n\n\"It's been a really difficult and traumatic experience for me - I think it's really changed my outlook on life and really changed me as a person,\" she said.\n\nMs Assad, 30, arrived in Afghanistan in July. By early August, as the Taliban continued to make rapid gains across the country, her relatives began to worry.\n\n\"My family started putting a lot of pressure on me and said 'you need to book a ticket and get out of here'.\"\n\nMs Assad, a Labour councillor in Harrow, north-west London - who is believed to be the first person of Afghan origin to be elected to public office in the UK - thought her family were being \"sensational\".\n\n\"I was of the belief that the Taliban could not take Kabul and the government would not fall,\" she told Radio 5 Live's Colin Murray.\n\nBut she acknowledged that \"everything completely changed\" and on 14 August the militants gathered on the outskirts of the Afghan capital.\n\nThe Taliban moved into Kabul on 15 August\n\n\"Kabul was basically surrounded and my family felt it was time for me to leave our family home.\"\n\nMs Assad said they worried the Taliban would carry out checks on vehicles and search houses and she would be prevented from leaving the country.\n\nSo on Saturday evening, Ms Assad \"quickly packed my bags\" and moved to lodgings closer to Hamid Karzai International Airport.\n\nBy now, the UK government had begun helping Britons, as well as Afghans who had worked for the UK military, leave the country.\n\n\"In the morning when I woke up.... at about 10am, the embassy called. The British embassy said we are evacuating you from Kabul,\" said Ms Assad.\n\nShe then found she had very little time to assess the situation.\n\n\"I was sitting there having some tea and the neighbour knocked on the door.\n\n\"He was in a panic - he said the Taliban have already entered Kabul and they have taken a few districts and they are approaching this district... you need to get out now.\"\n\nMs Assad said the roads in the area were blocked and she began to walk to the airport with neighbours.\n\nShe quickly grabbed her hand luggage and they took her through some back streets on to a traffic-jammed dual carriageway.\n\n\"From the back street, I saw hundreds and hundreds of people just running and walking towards the airport. People are getting out of the cars and running towards the airport.\n\n\"And so there I am running with them - there's women, there's young people, there's children...\n\n\"All the shopkeepers have come out to watch the panic and the chaos and the fear of everyone running towards the airport. And one of them, as I was running, pointed at me and he said: 'You - if the Taliban catch you they are going to kill you. You better start running faster.'.\n\n\"That kind of set a lot of fear in my heart because that might actually be true if they do catch me - so I started running a bit faster towards the airport.\"\n\nThousands of Afghans have been waiting outside Kabul airport hoping they will be offered a route out of the country\n\nMs Assad found the UK meeting point - but was told she was too late. Officials had already been there and left.\n\n\"I just stood in the street - I had 3% battery and I looked at my battery and I thought if my phone dies and I'm standing here and the embassy aren't here, then what's going to happen? And the Taliban are literally advancing on to this area, I need to get somewhere safe - I need to go inside.\n\n\"I found this Afghan family who during this commotion - all these people were out in the streets panicking - they decided to take me in. They let me go into their house and they let me charge my phone and they gave me some food.\n\n\"And they let me figure it out about where I was going and what was going to happen.\"\n\nMs Assad says she managed to call the Foreign Office and her MP in London, Gareth Thomas, and was advised to return to the meeting point at a designated time.\n\n\"The family were very kind, they put me in their car and they took me to the safe location point again and when I arrived there again I saw the British military were there,\" said Ms Assad.\n\n\"And the moment I saw them and they saw me I just felt so much safer... and kind of sighed relief that I was safe at that point.\"\n\nReferring to the UK government's response to the situation in Afghanistan, Ms Assad said: \"We don't have time, we need to get Afghans to safety now.\n\n\"We can deal with the bureaucracy later. The Taliban are conducting house to house searches and looking for anybody connected to the Afghan government, those who worked with foreign soldiers or are women in public life. Their lives are at risk. It's our responsibility to help those who've helped us.\"", "A US flag is seen posted in the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York, two days after the attack there Image caption: A US flag is seen posted in the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York, two days after the attack there\n\nThe BBC is covering the 20th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US, which led to the 20-year conflict in Afghanistan.\n\nThis is the story of Chris Cruz, who explains in an interview to BBC's OS programme why he decided to join the US army.\n\n\"My mother was heading to work on a normal 11 September day. As soon as she exited the subway, she was told to start running as the buildings were coming down. She literally saw them coming down and described people jumping out of the windows,\" says Chris.\n\n\"When she finally made it home, I - as an 11-year-old boy at the time - had to tell her that she had burn marks and blood spots on the back of her legs. She was in a state of shock.\n\n\"As I grew up, I realised... I had the ability to be part of an organisation that could defend and prevent these atrocities for all Americans.\n\n\"9/11 played a role, but not in a way of revenge. I didn't want to join out of bloodlust. I served two tours in Afghanistan. Both of those times I volunteered to go.\n\n\"I don't think our mission would have succeeded without our Afghan partners. I agree we couldn't be there forever, but we made a promise to keep our partners safe and that we wouldn't turn our backs on them, and that's exactly what we've done.\"\n\nChris adds: \"I do think the way we pulled out, the way we left it, was completely wrong. There needed to be a better exit strategy.\"", "Hajrah Aslam spent 11 week in a rehab centre before she was able to go home to her husband and son\n\nA woman with Covid-19 who gave birth before going into an induced coma for six weeks said it was a \"dream come true\" to be at home with her baby.\n\nHajrah Aslam, from Peterborough, gave birth to her first child, Huzayfah, after she caught coronavirus in January when she was 35 weeks pregnant.\n\nShe then went into a coma after her oxygen levels dropped dangerously low.\n\nThe 28-year-old said: \"I feel like I've missed out from the beginning, but now is the time to make up for that.\"\n\nShe is now at home with her seven-month-old son after 11 weeks of rehabilitation at Askham Rehab in Doddington, Cambridgeshire.\n\nHer therapy included working on being able to walk and climb stairs comfortably and strengthening her arms and legs.\n\nThe insurance worker said: \"All I could see was my baby boy's face.\n\n\"I kept on saying his name, even when I was in excruciating pain, I kept on going and going.\"\n\nHuzayfah was born by Caesarean in January\n\nMs Aslam is now continuing her recovery at home with husband, son, and parents.\n\nShe said: \"The challenging part was me knowing that I have a baby and I'm a first-time mum. I planned everything - his clothes, his pram... mentally that was the challenging part for me.\n\n\"It's a dream come true [to see him every day].\"\n\nSara Neaves, clinical lead and outpatients service manager at the rehab centre, said: \"When Hajrah arrived at Askham, we really had to start at the basics.\n\n\"The key to Hajrah's amazing progression was her determination, motivation and hard work.\n\n\"Due to all these incredible traits, Hajrah was able to leave us much sooner than anyone had initially expected.\n\n\"Considering the condition she was in when she arrived, an 11-week discharge is an incredible feat.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Sky Broadband says problems that left some customers unable to access a number of websites and apps have been resolved.\n\nCustomers complained they could not reach online bank accounts at Halifax, HSBC, TSB and Santander. Some people said they could not access a major hotel booking site.\n\nSky had tweeted there were \"issues\", but now says problems have been sorted.\n\nHalifax said the problem was linked to a technical fault with Sky Broadband.\n\nCustomers were being advised to turn off their Wi-Fi and access banking apps using mobile data.\n\nThis 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 Sky Help Team 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. End of twitter post by Sky Help Team\n\nConsumers took to Twitter to complain about other websites being down as well, including hotel booking services such as Booking.com.\n\nLloyds Banking Group, which owns Halifax, and TSB said that there had been nothing wrong with any of their own services.\n\n\"To confirm, the problems people are facing is because of the issues with Sky Broadband. We can confirm there are no issues with our online banking or apps,\" a Lloyds Banking Group spokesman said.\n\nA TSB spokesman said: \"Customers who use one popular internet service provider (ISP) to access internet and mobile banking have been affected by problems at that ISP.\n\n\"Regular payments are unaffected and customers can continue to make and receive payments from their accounts.\"\n\nA spokeswoman for Santander said: \"We're aware that a number of internet providers are experiencing issues this morning, meaning some customers are unable to access our online and mobile banking services.\n\n\"We are sorry for the inconvenience caused and are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.\"\n\nShe added that debit cards, credit cards, ATMs, telephone and branch banking services were not affected. Customers can continue to use these services as normal.", "Jared O'Mara served as MP for Sheffield Hallam from June 2017 to November 2019\n\nFormer Sheffield Hallam MP Jared O'Mara has been charged with seven counts of fraud.\n\nSouth Yorkshire Police said the charges related to a number of alleged fraudulent expenses claims.\n\nMr O'Mara, 39, is charged alongside former aide Gareth Arnold, who faces six counts of fraud, and a third man, John Woodliff, who faces a single charge under the Proceeds of Crime Act.\n\nThey will appear before magistrates in Sheffield on 24 September.\n\nThe offences are said to have occurred between October 2018 and February 2020.\n\nThe force said the charges brought against Mr O'Mara, of Walker Close, Sheffield, related to expenses claims submitted to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.\n\nIn total he faces seven counts of fraud and one count of entering into an arrangement which facilitates the acquisition, retention, use or control of criminal property by another, the force said.\n\nMr Arnold, 28, of Hunter House Road, Sheffield, faces six counts of fraud while Mr Woodliff, 42, of Dunninc Terrace, Sheffield, faces one count of entering into an arrangement which facilitates the acquisition, retention, use or control of criminal property by another.\n\nRosemary Ainslie, from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said: \"The CPS has today authorised police to charge Jared O'Mara, former MP for Sheffield Hallam, with seven counts of fraud by false representation.\n\n\"The charge relates to an allegation he made fraudulent invoices to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority jointly with Gareth Arnold, who is also charged with six counts of the same offence.\n\n\"Jared O'Mara is charged jointly with John Woodliff with a Proceeds of Crime Act offence.\n\n\"The CPS made the decision that the three men should be charged after reviewing a file of evidence from South Yorkshire Police.\"\n\nMr O'Mara took the Sheffield Hallam seat for Labour from former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg in June 2017.\n\nHe later resigned from the party and stepped down as MP at the 2019 general election.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A Syrian family have given advice to refugees from Afghanistan about what to expect in Wales.\n\nThe Alchikhs made Cardigan in Ceredigion their home in 2017 after spending three years in a Lebanese refugee camp.\n\nMuhanad Alchikh said they had been made welcome in Wales and Cardigan was “very friendly”.\n\n“We hope to help anyone who wants to get a new life,” he said.", "Singer-songwriter Navin Kundra represented the people power of Coventry as the 2021 UK City of Culture\n\nMore places than ever before have put in bids to become the next UK City of Culture.\n\nThose applying include Cornwall in England, Stirling in Scotland, Conwy County in Wales and a joint application from Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe 20 applicants are bidding to host a year of cultural festivities in 2025.\n\nThe culture secretary said the number of applicants was \"testament to the huge success of City of Culture\".\n\nThis is the first time groups of towns have been able to join together and apply for the title to be awarded to their local area - enabling bids from places such as Great Yarmouth and East Suffolk in East Anglia and The Borderlands, which straddles the border between England and Scotland.\n\nThe 20 bidders will be reduced to an initial long list in the coming weeks and then cut down further to a final shortlist in early 2022.\n\nThe winner will be announced by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in May 2022.\n\nThose long-listed will be awarded grants of £40,000 for the first time to support the next stage of their applications.\n\nCulture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: \"This record number of applications from all four corners of the country is testament to the huge success of City of Culture in generating investment, creating jobs and boosting local pride.\n\n\"This prestigious prize creates a fantastic opportunity for towns and cities to build back better from the pandemic and I wish all bidders the very best of luck.\"\n\nEntrants have been told to prove they can put culture at the heart of their plans to recover from the impact of the pandemic.\n\nSir Phil Redmond, UK City of Culture chairperson, said the competition was an \"excuse for people to talk to each other, rather than at each other\".\n\nThe successful area will take on the baton from Coventry, the 2021 UK City of Culture, which followed Hull in 2017 and Derry-Londonderry in 2013.\n\nMade in Hull opened the 2017 events in Queen Victoria Square\n\nHull's tenure as City of Culture attracted a total audience of more than five million people for events, £220m of investment and 800 new jobs, according to a report from the University of Hull.\n\nSome bids have been controversial, with Lancashire submitting a last-minute bid despite the county council pulling its funding, saying the £22m needed to back it was \"too great a financial risk\".\n\nThe recent appearance of a string of Banksy-style urban artworks on the East Anglian coast could be an \"endorsement\" of a City of Culture bid, councils have claimed.\n\nCouncils have claimed the appearance of Banksy murals in East Anglia could be to endorse the area's bid\n\nDCMS said Coventry was providing a \"blueprint for how culture can be at the heart of social and economic recovery\" as the country deals with the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nCoventry has received more than £15.5m from the government to directly support its year of programmes, DCMS said.\n\nThe full list of bidders for UK City of Culture 2025 is:\n\nThe 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. The foreign secretary gives a one word answer when asked about his future.\n\nForeign Secretary Dominic Raab has rejected calls to quit after claims he should have personally intervened to help evacuate Afghan interpreters.\n\nMr Raab was advised to phone his Afghan counterpart for urgent support - but it's understood the job was given to a junior minister.\n\nOpposition parties say this was an error of judgement that put interpreters' lives at risk.\n\nAsked in Downing Street if he would resign, Mr Raab replied: \"No\".\n\nEarlier this week, newspaper reports suggested the foreign secretary was seen relaxing on a beach on the Greek island of Crete on Sunday - the day Taliban militants entered Kabul, Afghanistan's capital.\n\nMr Raab said that while he was away he had been directing his team and engaging with international partners.\n\nAs originally reported by the Daily Mail, Mr Raab was advised by senior Foreign Office officials on Friday he should make contact with Afghan Foreign Minister Hanif Atmar to get urgent assistance in rescuing Afghan interpreters who had worked for the British military.\n\nOfficials said it was important the call was made by him rather than a junior minister - but they were told Mr Raab was unavailable.\n\nLabour's shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said: \"How can Boris Johnson allow the foreign secretary to continue in his role after yet another catastrophic failure of judgement?\n\n\"If Dominic Raab doesn't have the decency to resign, the prime minister must show a shred of leadership and sack him.\"\n\nSNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford said Mr Raab had made \"a massive error of judgement\". He tweeted: \"His position is completely untenable and he must resign, or be sacked.\"\n\nLiberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey also said on Twitter: \"Raab must go\".\n\nBut Health Secretary Sajid Javid said his cabinet colleague was \"one of the most professional and most effective ministers I've ever worked with\".\n\nHe added: \"Instead of playing games, people should focus on the issue at hand which is what can we be doing as a country, as a government to support those people in Afghanistan whether they are British nationals or Afghan refugees.\"\n\nMinisters, like many of us, go on holiday in August.\n\nBut this is both a further illustration of the extent to which the government had little idea how fast things were changing in Afghanistan and, perhaps, that some in the Foreign Office are less than impressed with Mr Raab's focus, or lack of it, on the job -- and so decided to tell the Daily Mail about it.\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace has suggested that phone call wouldn't have made any difference, given the Afghan government was crumbling.\n\nBut if the speed of its crumbling - and the takeover by the Taliban - was known within government last Friday, why was the foreign secretary still on holiday, as a huge plank of UK foreign policy was disintegrating?\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace told BBC Breakfast \"the only thing that mattered\" last Friday was whether Kabul airport would continue to allow people to get out.\n\n\"No amount of phone calls to an Afghan government at that time would have made any difference,\" he added.\n\nResponding to a report in the Times that the permanent secretaries - the top civil servants - at the Home Office, Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence are currently on holiday, a government spokesperson said that \"departments across Whitehall have been working intensively\" on the situation in Afghanistan.\n\nThe BBC has been told that the civil servants in question are continuing to work while on holiday, and that the Ministry of Defence and Home Office have two permanent secretaries each, which ensures one is at work when the other is on leave.\n\nThe Foreign Office has a designated acting permanent secretary to cover periods of leave.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. An Afghan refugee, who has resettled in Glasgow, feared he would be \"tortured and beheaded\" by the Taliban for working as an interpreter for the British army\n\nMPs on all sides criticised the government's response to events in Afghanistan in the House of Commons on Wednesday.\n\nOn Wednesday night, Mr Raab said he had spoken to the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss both countries' response to the situation in Afghanistan.", "Samaritans says it has introduced new safeguarding measures after volunteers met vulnerable callers for sex.\n\nThe charity, which offers a helpline to people in distress, will reportedly monitor calls in future to prevent inappropriate relationships.\n\nThe Telegraph found incidents of middle-aged men using their position to meet up with female callers for sex.\n\nThe charity told the BBC it did not dispute that a \"very small number of safeguarding incidents\" had occurred.\n\nSamaritans chief executive Julie Bentley said the \"extremely rare\" incidents had been identified and that swift and appropriate action had been taken.\n\nAccording to the Telegraph, a memo to volunteers said 44 serious incidents had occurred since 2017.\n\nMs Bentley said Samaritans' 20,000 volunteers provided vital emotional support to anyone who is struggling, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.\n\nVolunteers on the charity's telephone service have answered more than 13 million calls in the four years from January 2017, she said.\n\n\"Running any national service on this scale means that, on extremely rare occasions, high standards are not always met and from the millions of calls answered, a very small number of safeguarding incidents were identified,\" said Ms Bentley.\n\n\"Our robust investigation procedures meant these incidents were handled swiftly and appropriate action taken.\n\n\"Any safeguarding matter is one too many and as such we review our practices on an ongoing basis and have introduced further measures as part of our commitment to delivering a consistently high-quality experience for our callers.\"\n\nIncidents are investigated by the charity's Serious Safeguarding Panel and are reported to the Charity Commission, Samaritans said.", "Turkey is continuing to battle deadly wildfires sweeping through the country, forcing tourists to flee in boats and turning the sky red.\n\nMore than 120 fires have now been brought under control, but local and international firefighters are still battling another seven blazes. A total of eight people are known to have died.\n\nOver the weekend, tourists and local residents had to be evacuated from Bodrum and Marmaris, with private boats coming to their rescue as the flames crept closer to the shoreline.\n\nInvestigators are trying to establish whether some of the fires were started deliberately, amid reports that one suspected arsonist has been detained.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The 300ft (90m) high structures were demolished as part of a plan to redevelop the site\n\nFour of eight huge cooling towers have been demolished at a former coal-fired power station in North Yorkshire.\n\nThe 300ft (90m) high structures in Eggborough, near Selby, were brought down shortly after 08:00 BST as part of a plan to redevelop the site.\n\nIt stood for 50 years in an area where all four Yorkshire counties - North, South, East and West - meet.\n\nThe Yorkshire Day demolition was watched by spectators who were dotted in fields around the rural site.\n\nPolice had closed roads and 40 security guards patrolled a 350m exclusion zone while contractor DSM carried out the work during drizzly conditions.\n\nBilly Young, a technical director at the company, thanked members of the community for their patience and said it had been \"a successful demolition\".\n\n\"We appreciate that a large number of Eggborough residents and businesses could have been disrupted by the work, but we have worked hard to communicate with them behind the scenes and by correspondence to minimise this in as much as practicably possible,\" he said.\n\nAll eight towers each contained around 11,000 tonnes of reinforced concrete\n\nThe 2,000-megawatt power station was decommissioned in 2018 because it was no longer financially viable.\n\nIt started generating electricity in 1967 and produced enough to power the equivalent of Leeds and Sheffield combined.\n\nA year after its closure, the site was acquired by the St Francis Group, which is planning an industrial and distribution park on the site after the remaining structures are demolished, including a 200m (660ft) high chimney.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Authorities in China are testing millions of people after an outbreak spread to 15 provinces\n\nA fresh Covid outbreak in China has spread to more locations, raising concerns over the country's vulnerability to the highly contagious Delta variant.\n\nMore than 300 cases have been detected within a span of 10 days.\n\nChinese media is dominated by news on the outbreak, and the country's top respiratory diseases specialist has reportedly expressed grave concern.\n\nThe government has imposed fresh travel restrictions and is testing millions.\n\nIt is unclear how many in China are fully vaccinated, although authorities say more than 1.6 billion doses have been administered so far.\n\nA total of 15 provinces have now confirmed cases. Cases in 12 of the provinces are connected to an outbreak that began in Nanjing in eastern Jiangsu province. Authorities have attributed the spread to the Delta variant and the domestic tourism season.\n\nIn Zhuzhou, in central Hunan province, more than a million people have been told not to leave home for three days while mass testing and a vaccination drive is organised. The regional government described the situation there as \"grim and complicated\". In other cities entire communities are being placed under emergency lockdown as cases of the Delta variant emerge.\n\nThe outbreak is the largest in China for months. The country was largely successful in controlling the virus within its borders last year.\n\nCases of the variant first emerged in July in Nanjing airport, among workers who had cleaned a plane that arrived from Russia.\n\nAuthorities promptly tested 9.2 million residents of Nanjing and imposed lockdown on hundreds of thousands of people.\n\nBut over the weekend the spotlight turned to popular tourist destination Zhangjiajie in Hunan province, where many of the latest cases have emerged. Travellers from Nanjing were thought to have visited the city recently.\n\nHealth officials have zeroed in on a theatre in Zhangjiajie, and are now trying to track down about 5,000 people who attended performances and then travelled back to their home cities.\n\nOne performance alone had hosted about 2,000 people, according to reports.\n\nAll attractions in Zhangjiajie have been closed and tourists are being asked to take a Covid test before leaving the city, local media reported.\n\n\"Zhangjiajie has now become the new ground zero for China's epidemic spread,\" Zhong Nanshan, China's leading respiratory disease expert, told reporters.\n\nThe new outbreak has reached Beijing too, with the city reporting several locally transmitted infections.\n\nAll of Beijing's air, bus and travel links to areas with positive cases have been cut. All tourists have also been banned from entering the capital, and officials are only allowing \"essential travellers\" with negative Covid tests to enter.\n\nThe virus has also reached Wuhan, in Hubei province, the Chinese city where Covid-19 first emerged, with seven people testing positive for the virus. According to Chinese state media, the city had seen zero locally transmitted infections since June 2020.\n\nChina is also battling a rise in cases in Zhengzhou in northern Henan province, which saw devastating floods just last month, as well as Hainan island to the south of the mainland.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Drone footage shows the scale of flood damage in Henan in July\n\nThe Global Times newspaper has called the outbreak the \"most serious since Wuhan\", and in a separate editorial criticised \"glaring loopholes\" in Covid prevention measures.\n\n\"It is absolutely worrying if a single flaw can affect many provinces and regions across the country... it shows that our systematic progress in fighting the epidemic needs to be strengthened,\" it said.\n\nThe outbreak has raised concerns about vaccines, as it emerged that some of those infected had been vaccinated.\n\nShao Yiming, a researcher with China's Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters on Saturday that breakthrough infections in vaccinated people \"are expected\".\n\nThe Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines - two of the most commonly used jabs in China - have been shown to be 50% to 79% effective in preventing symptomatic Covid infection in clinical trials around the world, but are highly effective in preventing hospitalisations or deaths.", "Calum O'Flynn lost out in tip money after being pinged by the NHS App\n\nThe coronavirus pandemic dealt a heavy blow to small businesses, which are now feeling the knock-on effects of staff shortages.\n\nMany small firms, not eligible for critical worker status, are struggling with the effects of staff being told to isolate by the NHS Covid app.\n\nThis problem is exacerbated by existing staff shortages in sectors such as hospitality, where industry bodies say one in five workers left during the pandemic.\n\nWhile larger businesses are more able to rely on a broader workforce, smaller companies are being forced to close because of too many staff having to isolate.\n\nEmployees no longer on furlough are suffering from this loss in earnings. Calum O'Flynn, an assistant bar manager at London's Head + Tails pub in Hampstead, lost out in tip money from having to isolate after being pinged.\n\n\"About 25% of my income comes from tips, so if you get pinged on a Thursday or Friday, you're missing a huge amount - it could be two-thirds' rent for most of us,\" he told the BBC.\n\nIn total, there are 12 staff at the venue and each typically makes between £400 and £600 a month in tips. Calum was pinged early in the week, which meant he didn't miss too many critical weekends when more service profit is made.\n\n\"On one shift, three were pinged just before and then another while we were working, which is so tough as we're not able to provide service as well as we'd want, with half a team working twice as hard.\"\n\nCalum was furloughed during the lockdowns, but says it doesn't cover the loss of earnings from having to isolate now. The business reduced capacity from 150 to 60 people, which has also meant a reduction in tips.\n\n\"It's a risk for me to go on holiday because I just don't know about whether I can afford it- there's just no buffer zone now,\" he explained.\n\n\"We've had burnout and it's been really stressful, we're all just exhausted,\" he said.\n\nEmma McClarkin, chief executive of the British Beer & Pub Association, told the BBC that NHS Test and Trace had been a \"huge issue\".\n\n\"Already pubs are closing or greatly reducing their opening hours due to staff shortages caused by app pings - despite staff testing negative on lateral flow tests,\" she said.\n\nThe industry body is urging the government to work with them to find a \"sensible solution\" to the problem as 43% of pub staff are aged 18 to 25, meaning a wait for their second vaccine shot.\n\nFrom 16 August, double-jabbed individuals and under-18s will no longer be required to self-isolate if they have been in contact with someone with the virus.\n\nA government spokesman from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy told the BBC it was working with the sector as the UK's \"world-leading vaccine roll-out continues to enable the safe re-opening of the industry\".\n\n\"While we recognise the issues faced by pubs and bars, self-isolation remains an essential tool in our national efforts to reduce the spread of Covid-19.\"\n\nLondon-based restaurant and BBQ delivery service Cue Point has also suffered, both from last-minute staff shortages and food wastage from cancelled events.\n\n\"Staff retention is non-existent because of the app notifications - we've had to employ friends last-minute,\" Cue Point's director, Mursal Saiq, told the BBC.\n\n\"You just can't rely on having staff at the moment. Operationally it's nearly impossible to run events right now.\"\n\nThe problem extends to hiring equipment, with booking windows reduced for fridge vans and extra crockery cleaning costs.\n\nThe company also moved to nationwide online deliveries during lockdown, so it still has a container of cardboard boxes, no longer needed now events are their central focus again.\n\nMs Saiq said the business had lost £10,000 in event cancellations since reopening and an additional £15,000 from wasted food, because the smokery means the meat has a short shelf-life.\n\n\"You end up having more than you need or less than you want, almost constantly,\" she explained.\n\nThe business has four festivals booked this summer, which it expects to make between £20,000 and £30,000 at, but Ms Saiq said she was worried about losing staff last-minute.\n\nThe chief executive of UK Hospitality, Kate Nicholls, told the BBC the \"pingdemic\" was endangering the critical summer trading period by \"forcing thousands of healthy workers to self-isolate and businesses to limit services, cancel events or close altogether\".\n\nA survey of 17,000 venues by UK Hospitality, employing 308,000 people, found that more than a quarter had spent time off work after being pinged by the NHS app.\n\nFour in 10 hospitality businesses surveyed were forced to either fully or partially close and around six in 10 said they were relying on remaining staff to work longer hours. Many have also had to reduce trading hours and reduce menu choice.\n\n\"The government should look to bring in a test-to-release scheme as soon as possible. This will allow team members who are fully vaccinated to test after a ping and, subject to a negative result, return to work,\" she said.\n\nThose not fully vaccinated should be allowed to work after two negative tess, she added.\n\nMarco Bosonotto said he's been lucky finding last minute waiters\n\nFunctions and weddings have also meant reduced waiting staff for Marco Bosonotto, owner of With Fire catering, but as his firm uses agency waiters, they have managed to find fill-ins at short notice.\n\n\"We've been lucky as our chefs and freelancers haven't had to isolate yet,\" he explained.\n\nHe said customers had been \"really understanding\". He has let them reschedule within 12 months to alternative dates if too many guests are pinged.\n\n\"We've lost a few thousand pounds since reopening, but it's not catastrophic,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"This week we had a corporate event cancel last minute, but they paid in full and we could use the food elsewhere, but that's the rarest thing that ever happens.\"\n\nAmy Keyte co-owns White Radish Event Catering based in Cornwall. It currently caters for between eight and 14 weddings a month, which is back to pre-pandemic levels.\n\nBut she can lose up to £3,000 per wedding if guests get pinged before the event.\n\n\"Numbers are typically dropping from 100 to 70 guests, so we'll often not prepare the remainder, so the bride and groom can have the food the next day,\" she told the BBC.\n\nDepending on differing rules for each venue, Ms Keyte can get up to a week's notice of fewer guests - or just 24 hours if they are testing the night before the wedding.\n\n\"I think hospitality has been hung out to dry this year. It's been so difficult with the rules,\" she said.\n\n\"It's nice to be back at work as long as nothing changes. We're getting back to normal, but fingers crossed there's not another lockdown.\"\n• None More pinged workers to get daily Covid tests", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nJamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah is on course to complete a sprint double after equalling her personal best to qualify for the women's 200m final.\n\nThe 100m champion clocked 21.66 seconds to lead the qualifiers for the final, with silver medallist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce also safely through.\n\nLaura Muir and Katie Snowdon advanced to the semi-finals of the 1500m.\n\nThompson-Herah looked impressive in her race but will be challenged in the final by Fraser-Pryce, Marie-Josee Ta Lou of Ivory Coast and impressive Namibian teenagers Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi.\n\nBeth Dobbin, Britain's sole representative in the event after Dina Asher-Smith's withdrawal through injury, finished fifth in the same semi-final as Thompson-Herah, clocking 22.85.\n\n\"I don't feel like I belong in that company if I'm honest,\" Dobbin said.\n\n\"It feels so bizarre. I do have to pinch myself every time I run with these girls, but I am getting more used to it. This year's been the first year when I've been on the Diamond League circuit and it's been really good to get that experience.\n\n\"This morning helped me a lot because it didn't faze me I was running with Elaine. I've done it a few times now and she was in my race when I PBed so I was hoping for that today. These girls are my idols and I'm just living the dream.\"\n\nShericka Jackson, the 100m bronze medallist, failed to make it to the semi-finals after dramatically easing down too soon in her heat, missing out on qualification by four one-thousandths of a second.\n\nMuir gets campaign under way\n\nMuir said she is \"more prepared than ever\" after finishing second in her heat in four minutes 3.89 seconds.\n\nHaving decided not to compete in the 800m, her Tokyo campaign started with a routine heat as she came home behind Canada's Gabriela DeBues-Stafford, with Ireland's Ciara Mageean fading late on to finish 10th.\n\n\"It's really nice to get that first run out of the way and feel comfortable,\" said Muir, who was seventh at Rio 2016 and fifth at the 2019 World Championships.\n\n\"I am more prepared than ever. I have improved so much. I am in the best condition I could be and hopefully any situation I can deal with.\"\n\nIn a dramatic moment, world 1500m champion Sifan Hassan fell with 400m to go but won her heat in 4:05.17.\n\nThe Dutchwoman, who was born in Ethiopia but represents the country where she arrived as a refugee aged 15, later went on to win gold in the 5,000m final to complete the first part of a 1500-5,000-10,000m treble.\n\nIn the pole vault, Bradshaw, who is aiming to win her first major championship medal outdoors, needed just one attempt at 4.55m to secure her place in Thursday's final.\n\nBut Rio 2016 silver medallist Sandi Morris of the United States did not progress.\n\n\"It's the dreamy way to qualify - just do one jump and save energy,\" said Bradshaw. \"I've never experienced anything like that in my life, it was the worst conditions I have ever had.\n\n\"There were lots of run-throughs, lots of people close to hurting themselves. Sandi actually hurt herself and it could have been a lot worse, but to lose someone like her from the final is a massive loss and I am gutted for her that she can't defend her medal.\n\n\"It was a bloodbath and it was just about whoever could keep your head in the game and keep your body in the right place.\"\n\nJess Turner missed out on a place in the 400m hurdles final, finishing seventh in her semi-final after a flare-up of an Achilles injury.\n\n\"It was too painful, limping over the finish line wasn't how it wanted it to end,\" said the 25-year-old. \"But I just couldn't run through it. I was thinking adrenaline would kick in, but I just couldn't.\n\n\"I need to get home and get this sorted out. I never want to experience this again, especially at a Games. But I am proud to be here and happy I made the semis but sad it had to end this way because I genuinely thought I had a shot at the final if I had run like I have been running all season.\"\n\nValarie Allman won the USA's first track and field gold of the Tokyo Games with gold in the women's discus.\n\nHer throw of 68.98m in a rain-disrupted final was enough to beat Germany's Kristin Pudenz (66.86) and Cuba's Yaime Perez (65.72) with two-time defending champion Sandra Perkovic of Croatia fourth.\n\nIn the women's 100m hurdles final Jasmine Camacho-Quinn won Puerto Rico's first ever track and field gold by powering home in 12.37 seconds, edging out America's Kendra Harrison (12.52) and Jamaica's Megan Tapper (12.55).\n\n\"For such a small country, to give little kids hope, I'm just glad I'm the person to do that,\" Camacho-Quinn said afterwards.\n\nIn a dramatic final round of the men's long jump final, Greece's Miltiadis Tentoglou used his last effort to jump 8.41m.\n\nThe mark tied that of Juan Miguel Echevarria but Tentoglou took gold by virtue of his second-best jump on the day being longer than that of his Cuban rival.\n\nEchevarria had one more chance to leap to gold but pulled up with a hamstring problem on his run-up.\n\nAnd Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco won gold in the men's 3,000m steeplechase, breaking Kenya's stranglehold on an event they had won nine times in a row.\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "Declan Jones had denied the counts of common assault\n\nA police officer has been found guilty of assaulting two members of the public on consecutive days when he wrongly suspected each of a crime.\n\nPC Declan Jones committed both offences while on duty for West Midlands Police in Birmingham last year.\n\nBirmingham Magistrates' Court heard he attacked a man then kicked and punched a 15-year-old boy the following day.\n\nThe police watchdog has separately probed complaints the attacks, on two black males, had a racial element.\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it had found no evidence of discrimination.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nJones, 30, had denied three counts of common assault.\n\nBut district judge Shamim Qureshi found he acted unlawfully when he kneed and punched Michael Rose in Aston on 20 April 2020, having wrongly suspected him of stealing a phone and a bike.\n\nOn 21 April in Newtown, Jones attacked a teenager whom he wrongly suspected of drugs offences, using force which the judge said was totally unnecessary.\n\nBoth males were black and Errol Robinson, Mr Rose's solicitor, suggested there was a racial element to Jones's attacks.\n\nSpeaking outside court, Mr Robinson said the verdict sent a \"clear message\" to police officers.\n\nHe said: \"The black community will not sit back and let this continue and will fight for justice and action against such officers who undermine the good work of other officers.\"\n\nMr Rose's uncle, Bernard John, said outside court that Jones had attacked his nephew \"viciously, without provocation\".\n\nHe added: \"[Jones] is absolutely what I can call a hooligan. He showed no professionalism in any shape or form.\"\n\nAt a week-long trial in Coventry prior to Monday's judgment in Birmingham, prosecutors played CCTV footage of the assault on the 15-year-old which showed the blows came after the teen adopted a \"surrender pose\".\n\nJones told the court it was his \"honest belief\" the teenager had made a downward movement with his hand and he feared for his safety.\n\nSolicitor Errol Robinson said \"the black community will not sit back and let this continue\"\n\nJones was also accused of assaulting a third person two days after his second attack.\n\nWhile he punched the individual in the face in Handsworth on 23 April, Jones was cleared after the judge ruled the officer used \"proportionate\" force while assisting colleagues who were struggling to detain.\n\nHe was bailed until sentencing on 10 September.\n\nJones was charged after an investigation by the IOPC into allegations of excessive use of force.\n\nIts investigation followed a voluntary referral from West Midlands Police on 30 April 2020.\n\nThe IOPC said it investigated allegations of race discrimination in two of the complaints but found the evidence did not show a consistent pattern of behaviour and Jones's language in both cases did not suggest discriminatory behaviour.\n\nDeclan Jones is due to be sentenced in September\n\nThe West Midlands force said the officer, who was suspended on 1 May 2020, would face a misconduct hearing chaired by the chief constable.\n\nDeputy Chief Constable Vanessa Jardine said Jones's use of force \"was totally inappropriate\" and it was \"right that he has been held accountable by the court\".\n\nTwo other officers were also investigated by the IOPC during its inquiry and one of them, it said, would also face a gross misconduct hearing.\n\nThe IOPC found the other breached use of force standards and \"recommended reflective practice\" for the officer.\n\nJones's attacks occurred during the first Covid-19 lockdown and the judge said footage of the incidents in which officers were seen not wearing masks was \"embarrassing to watch\", adding: \"The videos do not show the police in a good light at all.\"\n\nHe told the court: \"Nothing turns on this point in this trial, but I have to make the comment that the videos, some of which were released on social media, are disastrous for public relations.\"\n\nThe 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. Health Secretary Humza Yousaf believes other families have been treated differently\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf has reported a nursery to care watchdogs over concerns it discriminated against his daughter.\n\nMr Yousaf said Little Scholars in Broughty Ferry claimed it had no availability when his wife applied for a space for two-year-old Amal.\n\nBut he said applications submitted by friends and family for \"white Scottish-sounding names\" were accepted.\n\nThe nursery has strenuously denied any allegations of discrimination.\n\nIt said it would \"absolutely welcome\" a Care Inspectorate investigation, and that it had \"nothing to hide.\"\n\nMr Yousaf said: \"I'm really upset that at the age of two, my daughter, though she's oblivious to it all, has suffered discrimination.\n\n\"Tell us why three Muslim-sounding families were rejected and in some cases, less than 24 hours later, white Scottish families were accepted.\n\n\"There can be no reasonable explanation for that, and if there is one, then tell it to us.\n\n\"But so far, the nursery has failed to do so.\"\n\nThe nursery has denied allegations of discrimination\n\nFollowing the initial concerns from Mr Yousaf and his wife Nadia El-Nakla, a Daily Record investigation submitted applications with identical requirements to the nursery under the names Aqsa Akhtar and Susan Blake.\n\nThe newspaper said Aqsa Akhtar had her application rejected, but Susan Blake's was accepted and offered spaces.\n\nMs El-Nakla said she had emailed nursery bosses in May, asking if there were any available places.\n\nThe couple alleged they were told there were \"no available spaces in the nursery\" - the second time they said they had been turned down.\n\nBut they claimed that when a white friend asked if there were spaces for her two-year-old son, just two days later, the nursery told her places were available on three afternoons a week.\n\nIn a statement, Little Scholars Day Nursery said any claim that it was not open and inclusive to all was \"demonstrably false\".\n\nIt said that its owners were of Asian heritage and it had regularly welcomed children and staff from a range of backgrounds \"including two Muslim families currently\".\n\nThe nursery said: \"We note Mr Yousaf's call for a Care Inspectorate investigation and this is something we would absolutely welcome.\n\n\"We have nothing to hide and look forward to the opportunity to demonstrate the policies and procedures we have in place to ensure we are a nursery that is open and welcoming to all.\"\n\nThe Care Inspectorate confirmed that \"a concern has been raised\" and it was carefully considering all information received.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Covid: US family reunited with Scottish relatives after 20 months\n\nFamilies have been reunited as restrictions are eased on fully-vaccinated visitors from the EU and US arriving in Scotland.\n\nPeople who have been double-jabbed in the EU and US no longer have to quarantine.\n\nThe change, which began at 04:00, affects those arriving from countries on the amber list - except France.\n\nThe Scottish government said it was possible due to the success of the vaccine roll-out.\n\nHowever, people are still being urged to \"think very carefully about whether your trip abroad is necessary\" before they travel.\n\nThere were emotional scenes at Glasgow Airport, just hours after the restrictions were eased.\n\nElaine Burt, 55, a senior nurse with the NHS, was waiting for her sister and nephews to arrive from Boston, USA, for their first meeting in 20 months.\n\nAfter the reunion Ms Burt, from Newton Mearns, said: \"It was an absolute relief, it just felt as if it was never going to happen and it's just the best present ever.\n\n\"We never thought it was going to happen with all of the different restrictions, but we left it to the last minute to see what was possible.\"\n\nHer sister Michelle Bolger, 50, and her nephews Kaie, 17, and Taran, 12, who were all double vaccinated in the US, were visiting Scotland to spend time with her mother Jean, who has been unwell.\n\nMs Bolger said: \"It's been so long. It's been really hard, but we're here, we made it.\n\n\"We booked the flight just a week past Monday. It's been a rollercoaster trying to get here.\n\n\"We still have to test on day two but it's great, absolutely amazing, I didn't think I would see this day.\"\n\nThere were emotional scenes at Glasgow airport as families were reunited\n\nThe engineer, who moved to Italy in his mid-20s and had both his vaccinations in Italy, said he had returned to Scotland to visit his mother, who has been unwell.\n\nHe said: \"My mother and father live here and they are both elderly and my mother has been unwell, so I'm looking forward to being able to see her. There would have been no point coming if I had to quarantine.\"\n\nMeanwhile, among those looking forward to visiting Scotland without having to quarantine is avid golfer Bill Luyk, from Michigan, USA.\n\nHe said he felt like \"a four-year-old on Christmas morning\" thinking about his forthcoming trip.\n\nMr Luyk told BBC Scotland: \"Golfers in the US are just chomping at the bit to play the courses we're going to play.\n\n\"We're really, really looking forward to it and hopefully things will remain open.\"\n\nUnder the new rules, people who were fully vaccinated in the following countries will not have to isolate for 10 days on arrival in Scotland:\n\nPeople travelling from amber list countries will need to show a negative test before departure and produce a negative PCR test result on day two after arrival.\n\nAnd they will have to show either the EU Digital Covid Certificate or the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's white card - known as a CDC card - to prove they are fully vaccinated.\n\nThe change does not apply to people who have been in France in the 10 days prior to their arrival, due to concerns over the Beta variant.\n\nJulie Clarke lives in Prague in the Czech Republic and will fly into Edinburgh on Monday night.\n\nBefore the pandemic the teacher would return to Scotland up to seven times a year to visit her mother, who is disabled and housebound.\n\nBut she has only been home once the UK went into lockdown in March last year, and said the restrictions have led to a \"lot of frustration\".\n\nMs Clarke told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme: \"It was very stressful. I went in December. Amsterdam shut their entry to Scotland, I then had to go to London. Czech Republic then shut to London, I then had to fly to Poland. Took me 23 hours to get home.\"\n\nShe added she is \"very excited\" about her flight which she booked last Wednesday - the day before the new restrictions were announced.\n\nMs Clarke said: \"I've been double vaccinated since April and have the same vaccinations as many of my family and friends in Scotland and was very frustrated I couldn't travel.\"\n\nBut she can only stay for a week so she is safe to return to school for the new term.\n\nThe teacher said: \"I want to keep myself safe, the children safe, my colleagues at work safe so I'm more than happy if I have to quarantine when I get back here.\"\n\nThe change to the rules has been largely welcomed by the travel industry with Karen Musgrave, of Barrhead Travel, describing the move as \"really positive\".\n\nShe told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland: \"We have definitely seen pent up demand released over the last couple of weeks, particularly when we had the news that the fully vaccinated travellers did not have to quarantine when coming back from amber destinations.\n\n\"We are also seeing more confidence for further out in the year, so October school holidays and getaways over Christmas and new year are proving really popular just now as well.\"\n\nKaren Dee, of the Airport Operators Association, said she would like to see the UK and Scottish governments go further.\n\nAsked about the advice that people should only go abroad if they have to, she said: \"It is a bit confusing and, from our perspective, very damaging particularly given the vaccination roll out and the success of that in the UK.\n\n\"We would have expected, I think, to have seen us opening up more quickly than others to take advantage of the benefits we have had.\n\n\"That has not been the case and we are lagging behind many countries in Europe who are opening up more quickly despite not having so many people vaccinated.\"\n\nAre you planning to travel to Scotland from the EU or US now that the quarantine restrictions have been eased? What difference will the new rules make to you? Please share your stories and pictures with us.\n\nYou can now get in touch with BBC Scotland on the phone messaging service, WhatsApp.\n\nTo start using the app, simply download WhatsApp on to your smartphone free from the internet.\n\nThen add our WhatsApp number +44 7902 704679 to your phone's contact list.\n\nPlease make sure you read our terms of use and privacy policy.\n\nProfessor of public health at Edinburgh University Linda Bauld said she does not think the new rules will lead to a spike in case numbers.\n\nShe said: \"This is about parity. People can already travel from the UK to other countries and come back if they have had vaccines here.\n\n\"There was a lot of concern about the fact that we were not recognising other countries' vaccination programmes to this is really that shift.\"\n\nProf Bauld also cautioned against the removal of the travel testing regulations and said the current system provides \"reassurance\".\n• None No quarantine for fully jabbed US and EU travellers", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nEmily Campbell became the first British female weightlifter to win an Olympic medal with +87kg silver.\n\nThe 27-year-old lifted a total of 283kg as China's Li Wenwen won gold with a new Olympic record of 320kg.\n\nCampbell, making her Olympic debut in Tokyo, was fourth after the snatch but moved on to the podium with successive clean and jerk lifts of 156kg and 161kg.\n\n\"I am speechless, for the first time ever,\" Campbell told BBC Sport.\n\n\"You know you can get in shape coming into these things, you know you want to perform your best, but to actually put it out on the stage, I'm really thrilled.\"\n\nShe added: \"You can achieve anything you want to achieve. I picked up a barbell five years ago for the first time and now I am an Olympic silver medallist.\"\n\nEarlier in the competition, transgender athlete Laurel Hubbard failed to record a successful lift. The New Zealander was the first openly transgender athlete to compete at an Olympics in a different gender category to the one in which they were born.\n\nCampbell's total set new British and Commonwealth records and was Great Britain's first Olympic weightlifting medal since 1984.\n\nShe won European gold in April, three years after winning bronze at the Commonwealth Games.\n\nBefore the Tokyo Olympics, she told BBC Sport that a big part of her motivation was \"to prove that women who look like me can have successful careers in sport\".\n\nSince her Commonwealth bronze, Nottingham-born Campbell said she had been approached by multiple sponsors who subsequently pulled out because of her clothing size.\n\nShe is trying to make an impact in the world of women's fashion by changing the perception around clothing sizes, and has contacted sports brands to try to get them to produce clothing for women with fuller figures.\n\n'She comes from a home of grafters'\n\nCampbell was cheered on from her native Nottingham by her family - including mum Linda and younger sister Kelsie, who had flown over from Florida.\n\n\"It was nerves, excitement; once she got the first lift in I was like, 'she's got this',\" Linda told the BBC's Today at the Games.\n\n\"Right from a very early age we just got them involved in everything. She loved athletics and only got into weightlifting for the athletics and found her niche, love and passion.\"\n\nFor Kelsie, seeing her big sister become the first British female weightlifter to secure an Olympic medal was an achievement she will never forget.\n\n\"This has been the most special day of my life. That's my big sister. She's my rock,\" she said.\n\n\"She's there for me. I know how hard she has worked. I was really nervous - I wanted it so much for her. I wanted to help her lift them.\n\n\"The message from her is you can be successful and be anything you want if you put your mind to it.\n\n\"She comes from a home of grafters - from parents who haven't always had the world but found a way to make it happen. She can be an inspiration to kids.\"\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "A 39-year-old man, a 30-year-old woman and a 13-year-old boy have been arrested on suspicion of Logan's murder\n\nA five-year-old boy who was found dead in a river has been named by police as Logan Mwangi.\n\nLogan's body was found in the Ogmore River in Bridgend county in the early hours of Saturday morning.\n\nSouth Wales Police said a 39-year-old man, a 30-year-old woman and 13-year-old boy had been arrested on suspicion of murder and remain in custody.\n\nTributes have been paid to the \"kind, funny, polite, handsome and clever\" boy, from Sarn.\n\nThe police said they were \"not looking for anyone else in relation to this incident\".\n\nLogan's body was discovered near Pandy Park following reports of concerns for a missing five-year-old in the Sarn area of Bridgend at 05:45 BST on Saturday.\n\nLogan - who was also known as Logan Williamson - was found in the river and taken to Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend where it was confirmed he had died.\n\nToys, floral tributes and a photo of Logan have been placed at the scene\n\nLogan has been described as \"kind, funny, polite, handsome and clever\"\n\nPeople living nearby have spoken of their shock at Logan's death.\n\n\"It's just devastating,\" said Jasmine Tapner, clutching a baby in her arms.\n\n\"I only live up the road and it's so close to home. It made me never want to let my children out of my sight because I just didn't want anything to happen to them.\n\n\"Everyone is in mourning.\"\n\nShe said Logan was a \"loving boy, always chatty, smiley when you walked past the house\".\n\nIan Tapner added: \"It's such a sad loss of a young lad - he had a bright future ahead of him. Such a loving lad, a kind lad. The community's in shock.\"\n\nA police cordon is in place at a bridge over the River Ogmore\n\nCh Insp Geraint White said: \"This is a tragic incident in which a young child has sadly lost their life.\n\n\"We are appealing for anyone who may have witnessed this incident, or who has any information, to get in touch.\n\n\"We would ask the public not to speculate about this incident on social media as this is an active investigation.\n\n\"If you have any information that can help, please report this to us.\n\n\"Our thoughts are with the family and we are supporting them in every way we can.\"\n\nPolice are appealing for anyone with information about Logan's death to come forward\n\nThere are lots of tributes near the Ogmore River where Logan's body was found\n\nHe added \"regular contact\" had been made with the boy's family, who were being supported by specialist trained officers.\n\n\"The local neighbourhood police team will continue to support and speak to residents in the area, and I encourage people to talk to them if they have any concerns.\n\n\"We recognise there are a lot of people in the local community who would like answers about what happened to him.\"\n\nHuw David, leader of Bridgend council, said: \"People throughout Bridgend county borough have been devastated by this shocking news.\n\n\"The tragic death of this young child has saddened us all, but Sarn remains a very close, tight-knit community and residents are looking out for one another even as they offer South Wales Police full support in their ongoing investigations.\"\n\nCuddly toys have been left at the scene by members of the public\n\nThis is very much a community in shock.\n\nIt is very quiet here, there are just a few dog walkers about.\n\nI'm [standing] by a police cordon by a bridge over the River Ogmore and the bridge is cordoned off on both sides.\n\nThere are a number of teddies, candles and flowers which are placed nearby, and handwritten messages with words like \"RIP angel\" and \"fly high, little man\" written on them.\n\nHandwritten messages have been attached to some of the bears left in tribute to Logan", "Paula Craig is hoping to become the first person with a complete spinal cord injury to swim the English Channel without a wetsuit.\n\nMs Craig, 56, from Pembrokeshire, was working for the Metropolitan Police in London and was a marathon runner and triathlete when she was paralysed after being hit by a car while on her bike in 2001.\n\nShe is planning to swim the Channel as part of a relay team of six who will take turns to swim for an hour each.\n\n\"Some people think that your life's over,\" she said. \"It doesn't matter whether you're disabled or not, but sometimes we think we can't do things.\n\n\"And you can just push yourself a little bit more and try and achieve things.\"", "Alpine's Esteban Ocon took a maiden Formula 1 victory in an extraordinary and madcap Hungarian Grand Prix.\n\nLewis Hamilton regained the World Championship lead for the first time since May after fighting back to finish third having been last five laps into the race.\n\nHis title rival Max Verstappen was a victim of an incident-strewn wet start but managed to salvage a point for 10th place in a badly damaged Red Bull.\n\nA race featuring an opening first few laps among the most remarkable in Formula 1 history left Hamilton with a six-point lead over Verstappen as the sport goes into its three-week summer break.\n\nHamilton finished a close third behind Ocon and Sebastian Vettel's Aston Martin, but the German was later disqualified for a fuel irregularity. He was left in second in the final results, pending an appeal by his team against the verdict.\n\nA pile-up at the first corner on a slippery track left Hamilton briefly leading Ocon and Vettel on the first lap before the race was red-flagged to clear up the mess strewn over the track.\n\nExtraordinarily, when the race restarted, Hamilton was the only car on the grid for a second start as every other driver made pit stops for dry-weather slick tyres because the sun had come out and the track was almost dry.\n\nHamilton had to stop at the end of the next lap, dropping to the tail of the field, leaving Ocon to fend off Vettel for the rest of the race.\n\nVettel tried to pass a number of times, but Ocon - a former Mercedes young driver - held on for the entire 70 laps to take a superb first win.\n\nOcon's team-mate Fernando Alonso played an important role in securing the win for the Frenchman, defending valiantly against Hamilton for 10 laps in the closing stages.\n\nHamilton, having fought his way back up to fourth from last, made a pit stop with 23 laps to go to fit fresh tyres and make a bold bid for victory.\n\nThe Mercedes driver had the pace to make it happen and might have done, had Alonso not held him off for lap after lap with a display of tough racecraft, a couple of times just on the edge of acceptability.\n\nAfter Hamilton finally got past Alonso with five laps to go, he passed Ferrari's Carlos Sainz two laps later and charged up to the front two, finishing just 0.8secs behind Vettel, with Sainz fourth and Alonso fifth.\n\nAfter the race, Hamilton went to see the Mercedes doctor because he was suffering from fatigue and dizziness. He said in the news conference later that he had been struggling with his fitness all year after contracting Covid-19 last December.\n\nWhat happened at the start?\n\nA race that will go down as one of the most remarkable ever seen was gripping from start to finish, and the action was caused by rain which started about half an hour before the race.\n\nAt the start on a wet track, Hamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas misjudged his braking point and cannoned into McLaren's Lando Norris, who was pushed into Verstappen. Bottas also then took out the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez.\n\nThe Finn has been given a five-place grid penalty at the next race in Belgium on the last weekend in August.\n\nFerrari's Charles Leclerc was briefly looking at second place behind Hamilton, only for Aston Martin's Lance Stroll to make a mistake, brake too late, slide onto the grass and smash into the Ferrari, which then tipped McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo into a spin.\n\nWith debris all over the track, the red flag was thrown and the cars returned to the pits, where Red Bull set about trying to repair Verstappen's car.\n\nThe damage was extensive, with chunks missing from the floor and his entire right-hand barge-board gone, causing significant amounts of lost downforce.\n\nVerstappen took the restart in 13th place and was faced with a long afternoon battling a car with no balance and lacking a lot of grip. But he fought valiantly and managed to separate Ricciardo from the final points place in the closing stages.\n\nHow did Hamilton end up last from the lead?\n\nBy the time the race restarted, the rain had stopped and the sun was out, but all the drivers were on intermediate tyres when they set off on the formation lap for another standing start.\n\nHamilton was telling his team the track was ready for slicks but he did not come in - whereas everyone else did. That created the surreal - and unprecedented - sight of just one car on the grid for the start of the race.\n\nThe extra pace the slick tyres gave the rest of the field meant when Hamilton pitted for his own slicks next time around, he was shunted to the back in 14th place after six cars had retired. The question became how much ground he could recover on a track on which overtaking is notoriously difficult.\n\nHe had made three places when he pitted on lap 19 for fresh tyres, the idea being to run in clear air and then make up places on those on older tyres in front of him.\n\nBy lap 46, Hamilton was up to fourth place behind Ocon, Vettel and Sainz when he pitted again for fresh tyres.\n\nThe move dropped him a further place behind Alonso, but the hope was he could pass all the cars in front to take an unlikely win.\n\nBut Alonso, who was showing strong pace himself and had closed up to the back of Sainz, had other ideas, and in one of the greatest displays of defensive driving for years held off the much faster Mercedes for 10 nail-biting laps, before he ran a little too deep into Turn One with five laps to go, giving Hamilton the chance to pass into Turn Two.\n\nWhat about the winner?\n\nOcon led the race from Hamilton's first stop and he and Vettel were able to make a break at the front, building a 15-second lead, as the rest of the field were held up by Williams' Nicholas Latifi in third place for the first 22 laps.\n\nVettel had more pace, but Ocon drove with great maturity to fend off the German for the entire race.\n\nA slow pit stop by Vettel and Aston Martin mid-race gave Ocon breathing space to come in next time around without too much pressure and retain the lead.\n\nIn the remaining laps, Vettel got close on a couple of occasions but Ocon was always just out of reach and held on for his first win.\n\nIt was the team's first victory in its new guise of Alpine and the first since Kimi Raikkonen won the 2013 Australian Grand Prix, when they were known as Lotus.\n\nFurther down the order, Latifi and Briton George Russell scored their first points for the Williams team in eighth and ninth places, which became seventh and eighth with Vettel's disqualification.\n\nWhat happens next?\n\nA three-week break before the season reconvenes at the magnificent Spa-Francorchamps circuit for the Belgian Grand Prix.\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nSimone Biles will compete in Tuesday's beam final with the American taking up her final chance of an individual medal at an Olympics where she has withdrawn from four other finals.\n\nThe American, 24, has not competed since last week's team final, where she performed on vault but no other apparatus before saying she wanted to protect her mental health.\n\nThe pre-Games favourite, a four-time Olympic champion, has been suffering with the 'twisties', which gymnasts describe as a kind of mental block.\n\nBiles won bronze on the beam at Rio 2016.\n\nThe American had arrived in Tokyo with a chance of six gold medals, and such has been her dominance of her sport that they were all realistic.\n\nBut she sent shockwaves through the Games during the team final on 26 July when after failing to complete the planned number of twists in her vault, she then took no further part in the event.\n\nShe stayed in the arena to support her team-mates, collecting a silver medal on the podium with them as the defending champions finished behind the Russian Olympic Committee.\n\nAfter the final she explained that after her vault she had not wanted to go on and needed to focus on her mental health.\n\nShe subsequently withdrew from the all-around final and other individual finals on uneven bars, vault and floor.\n\nHer decision to compete in the last individual final represents a chance to pick up a seventh Olympic medal and gives the world the chance of another glimpse of a supreme talent which had been expected to light up the Games.\n\nShe has been vocally cheering on her team-mates from the stands as they have taken the chance to shine in her absence, but on Tuesday she will return to the competition arena herself.\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "The 15-year-old girl died after an incident at Ty Mawr Holiday Park, near Abergele\n\nA man has been charged with murdering a 15-year-old girl who died following a \"domestic disturbance\" at a holiday park.\n\nNorth Wales Police said Matthew Selby, 19, from Greater Manchester, had been charged after the incident at Ty Mawr Holiday Park near Abergele, Conwy county, on Saturday.\n\nHe was remanded in custody and will appear before magistrates on Tuesday.\n\nPark bosses said they were \"shocked and saddened by this tragic incident\".\n\nOn Sunday, Det Supt Mark Pierce said it was a \"tragic but isolated incident\".", "Alex Gibson's family said they are devastated by his death\n\nA man has drowned after jumping into the sea to rescue a woman in trouble despite being unable to swim himself.\n\nAlex Gibson, 22, went into the sea in Blackpool at about 04:00 BST on Friday to help the woman.\n\nMr Gibson's family said he pushed the woman back to the shore before he drowned. Police said his body was recovered a short time later.\n\nHis aunt Kaz McDevitt said: \"We are all very proud of him. He was a good person who would do anything for anyone.\"\n\nMs McDevitt, 40, said her nephew saved the woman, who was \"around his own age\", despite the fact that he could not swim.\n\nShe said he \"pushed her forward to get her out\" but added that the water \"was way over his head\".\n\nMr Gibson died after jumping into the sea near Blackpool's North Pier\n\nHis aunt said he could not be resuscitated when he was pulled from the water.\n\nShe said the family were devastated, adding: \"Yes, he is a hero but we would rather have him here with us. We are all very heartbroken.\n\n\"He deserves to be recognised for his bravery.\"\n\nThe family do not know whether Mr Gibson knew the woman he saved.\n\nA Lancashire Police spokeswoman said: \"The woman returned from the water and was treated by paramedics before being taken to hospital for treatment.\n\n\"Following a search of the area, the body of a man was recovered from the water. He was sadly pronounced dead a short time later.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe 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. Belarusian sprinter Krystina Timanovskaya asked the International Olympic Committee for help\n\nA Belarusian sprinter voiced fears for her safety as she refused an order to fly home early from the Olympics for criticising her coaches.\n\nKrystsina Tsimanouskaya says she was forced to pack before being taken to the airport in Tokyo against her will.\n\nThe 24-year-old says she sought police protection at the terminal so she would not have to board the flight.\n\n\"I think I am safe. I am with the police,\" she was heard saying, as she was pictured surrounded by officers.\n\nThe sprinter, who was due to compete in the women's 200m event on Monday, had complained on social media about being entered into another race at short notice.\n\nShe says she was \"put under pressure\" by team officials to return home and asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for help.\n\n\"They are trying to get me out of the country without my permission,\" she said in a video posted on the Telegram channel of the Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation (BSSF), a group that supports athletes jailed or sidelined for their political views.\n\nThe IOC said it was seeking clarification from Belarussian officials - who earlier said she was taken off the team because of her \"emotional and psychological condition\".\n\nIn a later message, the IOC said it had spoken to Ms Tsimanouskaya. \"She has told us she feels safe,\" it said.\n\nThe flight took off without Ms Tsimanouskaya on board. She is now \"safe\" and in police protection, the BSSF's Anatol Kotau told the BBC.\n\nEarlier Ms Tsimanouskaya told radio station European Radio for Belarus (ERB) she was afraid to return to her country.\n\nThe athlete sought police protection at the airport terminal\n\nShe had previously alleged in a video posted online that she was entered into this Thursday's 400m relay event at short notice by Belarusian officials, after some teammates were found to be ineligible to compete.\n\nState media criticised her after she posted the video, with one television channel saying she lacked \"team spirit\".\n\nOn Sunday, she claims officials came to her room and gave her an hour to pack her bags before being escorted to Tokyo's Haneda airport.\n\nShe said she had been removed from the team due \"to the fact that I spoke on my Instagram about the negligence of our coaches\".\n\nThe BSSF was set up in August 2020 to support athletes during protests against President Alexander Lukashenko, re-elected last year in a disputed presidential vote.\n\nGovernment forces brutally cracked down after hundreds of thousands protested about the election. Some of those who took part were also national-level athletes, who were stripped of funding, cut from national teams and detained for demonstrating.\n\nMs Tsimanouskaya is now said to be considering seeking asylum in Europe.\n\nSeveral countries, including the Czech Republic and Poland, have said they are ready to offer her a visa and protection.\n\nBut the sprinter remains \"frightened\" about her family's safety, Mr Kotau of the BSSF told the BBC.\n\n\"She's afraid of repression on her family in Belarus - this is the main concern for her right now,\" he said.\n• None Belarus athlete: 'I ask the IOC for help' Video, 00:00:12Belarus athlete: 'I ask the IOC for help'", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nGreat Britain won Olympic team eventing gold for the first time in 49 years at Tokyo 2020, before Tom McEwen secured silver in the individual category.\n\nWorld number one Oliver Townend, Laura Collett and McEwen sealed team victory in the final show-jumping stage.\n\nThey claimed the gold ahead of Australia, while France took bronze.\n\nGermany's Julia Krajewski took the individual honours from McEwen and Australian Andrew Hoy, 62, as Townend finished fifth and Collett was ninth.\n\nShe is the first female rider to win the competition which first allowed women at the Tokyo Games of 1964.\n\nMcEwen took silver in the individual competition on Toledo De Kerser after a faultless display followed his earlier clear rounds in the team show jumping and cross-country stages.\n\nThe GB team finished with 86.30 penalties - 13.90 clear of Australia - to seal Britain's 11th gold of the Games.\n\n\"My nerves were fine,\" said McEwen, 30, whose stables are on the the Princess Royal's Gatcombe estate in Gloucestershire.\n\n\"They [Townend and Collett] are both brilliant riders, and I had no doubt they would pull it straight out of the bag quite easily and comfortably.\"\n\nBritain last won eventing team gold at the 1972 Games in Munich, and only two riders - Richard Meade (1972) and Leslie Law (2004) - have tasted individual glory.\n\nDespite all three this time making their Olympic debuts, GB held a huge lead of 17.9 penalties after impressive rounds in Sunday's cross-country phase, and they comfortably retained top spot.\n\nMcEwen went clear, while Collett had four faults aboard London 52 and Townend also collected four with Ballaghmor Class.\n\nVictory sealed a remarkable return for Collett, who nearly died in a fall eight years ago and spent six days in a coma.\n\nShe suffered a punctured lung, spine, shoulder and rib fractures, and lost much of her vision in one eye.\n\nTwo years after her accident, Collett had to deal with unfounded malicious rumours about the two-time Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Kauto Star, who was being trained at her yard for a dressage career but died in a freak accident.\n\n\"I know I am lucky just to be alive, let alone doing the job I love and winning an Olympic gold medal,\" the 31-year-old told BBC Sport.\n\n\"Just to be here was more than a dream come true.\n\n\"Standing on the podium, it makes every bad day worth it. It was an incredible experience.\"\n\nCollett said her horse London 52 - who is nicknamed 'Dan' at his stables near Cheltenham - was spooked by the reflection from water when they made a mistake.\n\n\"He got it back together. It's a shame, but it could have been a whole lot worse in that situation. It was a very clever course,\" she added.\n\nTownend adds Olympic gold to a glittering CV which includes victories at the major Badminton, Burghley and Kentucky events.\n\n\"The other guys have made it so easy for me - they are such brilliant riders,\" said the 39-year-old, who is based in Shropshire.\n\n\"I'm surrounded by class horses and very classy people.\n\n\"There will be a big celebration and I don't think it will be with a cup of tea and a biscuit.\"\n\nThat was a third equestrian medal in Tokyo for Team GB following Charlotte Dujardin, Carl Hester and Charlotte Fry winning dressage team bronze, and Dujardin also collecting an individual bronze. McEwen then made it four with his silver.\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "The Mercer Street was attacked off the coast of Oman, and two on board were killed\n\nThe UK and Iran have summoned each other's diplomats in a row over last week's deadly attack on an oil tanker off the coast of Oman.\n\nThe UK, US and Israel blame Iran for the attack, in which two crew members - a Briton and a Romanian - were killed.\n\nTensions are high between Israel and Iran and each has regularly accused the other of targeting shipping in the region.\n\nIran dismissed accusations it was behind the latest attack as baseless.\n\nOn Monday, the UK summoned Iran's ambassador over what the British government called the \"unlawful attack\".\n\nBritish Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Iran should \"face up to the consequences of what they've done\" calling the incident an \"an unacceptable and outrageous attack on commercial shipping\".\n\nUS Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said he was consulting with the UK, Israel and Romania and there would be a \"collective response\".\n\nIran summoned the British Chargé d'Affaires in Tehran as well as Romania's top envoy to protest against the accusations made against Iran.\n\nA foreign ministry spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, warned that Iran would not hesitate in defending its national interests and would respond to any \"possible adventurism\".\n\nHe said allegations that Iran was responsible \"were contradictory, false and provocative\".\n\nBoth the US and UK said a drone was used in the attack on the MT Mercer Street, which is managed by the London-based company Zodiac Maritime.\n\nThe tanker had been travelling in the northern Indian Ocean to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.\n\nAlthough there have been a spate of attacks on both Israeli- and Iranian-operated vessels casualties are rare.\n\nAnalysts see the attack as typical of the ongoing \"shadow war\" between the two fierce rivals. Earlier in the year Iran accused Israel of an attack on a key nuclear site. .\n\nBritish police have opened an enquiry into the death of the British man killed. He has not yet been identified but was working as a security guard on board.\n\nThis is a complex story with certain factors that pose dilemmas for all sides.\n\nFirst off, there is the question of whether to publish the alleged evidence that has led the US, UK and Israel to conclude Iran was behind the attack on the MV Mercer Street.\n\nIran has categorically denied responsibility but if the West's intelligence is produced then that could reveal certain sensitive sources and methods to Iran.\n\nThen there are the ongoing talks in Vienna to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, the so-called JCPOA.\n\nNeither Britain nor the US want to send such a strong response to Iran that the Iranians simply walk out of those talks.\n\nIsrael, however, is much less keen on the JCPOA and at the same time wants to send a robust message to Iran that goes a lot further than a diplomatic slap on the wrist at the UN.", "Twitter will collaborate with two of the largest international news providers, Reuters and the Associated Press, to debunk disinformation on its messaging site.\n\nThe news agencies will help Twitter give more context and background information on events which create a high volume of tweets.\n\nTwitter hopes this will counteract the spread of misleading information.\n\nThere has been renewed pressure to remove false content from the platform.\n\nTwitter said the partnership will enable it to ensure accurate and credible information is rapidly available \"when facts are in dispute\".\n\n\"Rather than waiting until something goes viral, Twitter will contextualize developing discourse at pace with or in anticipation of the public conversation,\" Twitter said.\n\nCurrently, when large or rapidly growing conversations happen on Twitter that may be noteworthy or controversial, Twitter's Curation team finds and promotes relevant context from reliable sources in order to counter potentially misleading information posted by users.\n\nIn a blogpost, Twitter said the new programme would \"increase the scale and speed\" of this work by increasing their \"capacity to add reliable context to conversations happening on Twitter\".\n\nThe post said material from Reuters and AP would improve information credibility on the platform when Twitter's Curation team \"doesn't have the specific expertise or access to a high enough volume of reputable reporting on Twitter\".\n\nIt is the first time Twitter has formally collaborated with news organisations to promote accurate information on its site, according to a spokesperson from the social media firm.\n\nEarlier this year, Twitter launched Birdwatch, a new community-moderation system which enabled volunteers to label tweets they found to be inaccurate.\n\nTwitter will work separately with the two rival news agencies, and will focus initially on English-language content.\n\nHazel Baker, head of user-generated content newsgathering at Reuters, said that trust, accuracy and impartiality were at the \"heart of what Reuters does every day,\" and \"drive\" the company's \"commitment to stopping the spread of misinformation\".\n\nTom Januszewski, the AP's vice president of global business development, said in a statement that the news company had a \"long history of working closely with Twitter, along with other platforms, to expand the reach of factual journalism\".\n\n\"We are particularly excited about leveraging AP's scale and speed to add context to online conversations, which can benefit from easy access to the facts,\" he continued.\n\nBoth Reuters and AP also work with Facebook on fact checks.\n\nTwitter added that this work would be independent of the work its Trust & Safety teams do to determine whether Tweets are in violation of the Twitter rules. The work of these teams includes labelling tweets which contain manipulated media, electoral misinformation and sensitive media that violates the platforms' rules.\n\nA 2020 report by NYU Stern suggested Twitter has about 1,500 moderators - with 199 million daily Twitter users worldwide.", "The model was burned at a bonfire party in south London on 3 November 2018\n\nA father who filmed a cardboard model of Grenfell Tower being burned on a bonfire will face a second trial, the High Court has ruled.\n\nThe clip was recorded at a party in south London a year after the fire, which killed 72 people.\n\nPaul Bussetti was cleared of posting the \"grossly offensive\" video in August 2019, but the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) appealed against the verdict.\n\nIn a judgement on Friday, the High Court quashed Mr Bussetti's acquittal.\n\nThe clip of the cardboard building, which had \"Grenfell Tower\" written on it, was recorded at a party attended by about 30 people in south London on 3 November 2018, Westminster Magistrates' Court previously heard.\n\nIt was later uploaded to YouTube and sparked outrage, with a relative of one of the people who died in the blaze calling it \"revolting\".\n\nDuring his previous trial Paul Bussetti told the court the incident was a \"joke\"\n\nMr Bussetti, of South Norwood, was accused of sending \"grossly offensive\" material via a public communications network.\n\nHe was found not guilty after a two-day trial.\n\nMagistrates said they could not be sure the film was taken by Mr Bussetti after it was revealed a second video from the party had also been shared on WhatsApp.\n\nThe then 47-year-old also told magistrates the effigy had been created by his friend and the characters featured on the model were meant to represent \"the majority of people that were at the party\", not people who died in the disaster.\n\nIn his ruling, Lord Justice Bean said that he did not accept Mr Bussetti's argument - that the figures in the bonfire were his friends - as a defence.\n\nHe also said the trial judge should have found that the two videos of the bonfire were similar.\n\nMr Bussetti will face a retrial at Westminster Magistrates' Court in front of a different judge and was also ordered to pay the CPS' costs of £6,095 within 28 days.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nGreat Britain won the Olympic team eventing title for the first time in 49 years to clinch an 11th gold in Tokyo, with silver medals in the individual event and weightlifting following on Monday.\n\nWorld number one Oliver Townend, Laura Collett and Tom McEwen sealed victory in the final show jumping stage before McEwen later earned a solo silver.\n\nEmily Campbell then became the first British woman to win an Olympic weightlifting medal when she took silver in the +87kg category.\n\nThe 27-year-old finished with a total combined weight of 283kg to place behind China's Li Wenwen, who made 320kg, and win Team GB's 35th medal of the Games.\n\nTransgender athlete Laurel Hubbard failed to record a successful lift as she made history by competing in the event.\n\nElsewhere, Laura Kenny's bid to become Britain's most decorated female Olympian got off to a promising start in the women's cycling team pursuit.\n\nThe quartet of Kenny, Katie Archibald, Elinor Barker and Josie Knight qualified second fastest, behind only Germany's new world-record pace.\n\nBritain were hoping to compete for podium places in the sailing, but a lack of wind in Enoshima saw both the women's 49er FX and men's 49er races postponed until Tuesday.\n\nGB women's hockey made it into the semi-finals with a shootout win over Spain, with goalkeeper Maddie Hinch the hero once again.\n\nSimon Gleave, head of sports analysis at Nielsen Gracenote, said: \"After 10 days of Olympic competition in Tokyo, Great Britain have 35 medals including 11 golds.\n\n\"The number of medals is down on both Rio 2016 (41) and London 2012 (40) but the next two days provide opportunities to close that gap as no medals were won in Rio or London on day 12.\n\n\"Rio and London were Great Britain's best Olympics since 1908 but Team GB look like falling short of those heights this time around as the 11 golds won so far fall well short of London's 18 and Rio's 16 at this stage.\"\n• None The NI athletes still to come in Tokyo\n\nIt was an impressive performance from the GB eventing team to win gold for the first time since 1972.\n\nThe Olympic debutants opened a lead of 17.9 penalties after faultless rounds in Sunday's cross-country phase and retained top spot in Monday's final stage.\n\nAustralia finished second while France took the bronze medal.\n\n\"It still has not sunk in,\" Townend told BBC One. \"There will be a big celebration and I don't think it'll be with a cup of tea and a biscuit.\"\n\nIt capped a remarkable comeback for team-mate Collett, who was placed in an induced coma for six days after a heavy fall in 2013.\n\n\"Just to be here was more than a dream come true,\" she said.\n\n\"To be standing here, with a gold medal, I look back where I was eight years ago... I knew I was lucky to be alive yet alone do the job I love.\n\n\"I am super grateful to be on a team with these two guys. It has been an unbelievable week and roll on the celebrations.\"\n\nMcEwen then held his nerve in the final round of jumping to claim a silver in the individual event, with Townend edged out of the medal places in fourth and Collett finishing ninth.\n\nWeightlifter Campbell had won European gold earlier this year but was left \"speechless\" after adding an Olympic silver to her medal collection.\n\nMaking her Olympic debut in Tokyo, the 27-year-old was fourth after the snatch but moved on to the podium with successive clean and jerk lifts of 156kg and 161kg.\n\nChina's gold medallist Li set a new Olympic record with her 320kg total, while Campbell's total is a new British and Commonwealth record.\n\nShe is the first Briton to win an Olympic weightlifting medal since 1984.\n\n\"I am speechless for the first time ever,\" Campbell told BBC Sport.\n\n\"You know you can get in shape coming into these things, you know you want to perform your best, but to actually put it out on the stage, I'm really thrilled.\"\n\nShe added: \"You can achieve anything you want to achieve. I picked up a barbell five years ago for the first time and now I am an Olympic silver medallist.\"\n\nAs the final week of the Olympics rolls in, it brings the start of the track cycling at the Izu Velodrome.\n\nKenny, looking to win gold for a third successive Games, was part of the team pursuit quartet who set the world record in Rio five years ago.\n\nThat mark remained until earlier on Monday, when the German team set a blistering new world-leading target of four minutes 7.307 seconds.\n\nThe GB four began their team pursuit defence in 4:09.022, which would have broken their previous record and was enough for second in qualifying.\n\nIt means they will race against the USA in the first round on Tuesday.\n\nKenny already has four gold medals and could overtake Charlotte Dujardin, who has six, as Britain's most decorated female Olympian at this Games.\n\nThe 29-year-old is also set to compete in the omnium and madison this week.\n\nThe men were fourth fastest in their team pursuit qualifying round, with Ed Clancy, Ollie Wood, Ethan Hayter and Ethan Vernon clocking GB's best-ever time of 3:47.507.\n\nBritain - Olympic champions at the last three Games - will take on world record holders Denmark for a shot at the gold medal.\n\nHow did Team GB fare on day 10?\n• Laura Muir finish second in her 1500m heat and reach the semi-finals, saying she felt \"more prepared than ever\".\n• Katie Snowden also progressed in 4:02.77 but Revee Walcott-Nolan came seventh to miss out.\n• Beth Dobbin ran 22.85 in the women's 200m semi-finals to finish fifth, meaning she failed to make Tuesday's final.\n• Holly Bradshaw reached Thursday's pole vault final, clearing 4.55m after the competition was postponed due to torrential rain.\n• Jessica Jennifer Gadirova finished sixth and seventh respectively in the women's gymnastics floor final.\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Monday evening. We'll have another update for you on Tuesday morning.\n\nThe NHS Covid-19 app for England and Wales is being tweaked so fewer contacts will be advised to self-isolate following a close contact with a positive case. It will now look for contacts only two days prior, rather than five, when someone without symptoms tests positive. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the move will reduce disruption from self-isolation, with many firms saying they have been affected by the so-called \"pingdemic\". From 16 August, fully vaccinated contacts in England will be exempt from isolation and instead will be advised to take a PCR test, with Wales set to make a similar move on Saturday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'Fewer will be contacted' by NHS Covid-19 app\n\nBoris Johnson has said he wants a \"balanced\" and \"user-friendly\" approach to travel amid speculation that the UK could introduce an amber watchlist of countries which could change to red status at short notice. The prime minister said he wanted advice to be \"simple\" but warned that the UK must prevent new Covid variants being imported into the country. He was speaking after a new rule change meant that people who have been fully vaccinated in the US and EU do not need to quarantine when arriving from amber list countries - paving the way for people to reunite with loved ones.\n\nA fresh Covid outbreak in China has spread to more locations, raising concerns in local media over the country's vulnerability to the Delta variant. More than 300 cases have been detected over 10 days. Local headlines have been dominated by news on the outbreak, and the country's top respiratory diseases specialist has reportedly expressed grave concern. The government has imposed fresh travel restrictions and is testing millions. Although case numbers are considerably lower than other places, it is considered the largest outbreak in months in China.\n\nAlmost 300 \"fraudulent applications\" for Covid-19 vaccine certificates for international travel have been rejected in Northern Ireland, the head of the programme says. Dr Eddie O'Neill says three individuals had made 38 applications between them putting different dates each time. People can currently apply through the NI Direct Website if they are travelling abroad up to and including 17 August. The system was offline for several days having been dogged by technical problems but Dr O'Neill said it was now \"stable and running well\".\n\nI'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! will be filmed in north Wales for the second year running due to coronavirus restrictions, ITV have confirmed. The reality TV show, hosted by Ant and Dec, is normally held in the Australian jungle but returns to idyllic Gwrych Castle. The 2020 edition of the popular show was filmed at the castle near Abergele, Conwy, due to travel restrictions imposed during the pandemic.\n\nIf you're thinking of booking a holiday, here's a reminder of the rules for travel to green, amber and red list countries\n\nFind more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf 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 send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "A TikTok star has died after he and a friend were shot at a southern California cinema, according to police and his family.\n\nAnthony Barajas, 19, was at a cinema in Corona with Rylee Goodrich, 18, on Monday 26 July when they were both shot in the head.\n\nRylee was pronounced dead at the scene, and Anthony had been on life support after the shooting.\n\nCorona police said the attack was \"completely unprovoked\".\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by itsanthonymichael This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram 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.\n\nThe suspected shooter, Joseph Jimenez, 20, appeared in Riverside County Superior Court on Friday.\n\nHe was charged with the murder of Rylee Goodrich and attempted murder of Barajas. He didn't enter a plea, and the trial was postponed.\n\nPolice are working with prosecutors to add a second murder charge against him.\n\nJimenez would be eligible for the death penalty if convicted as charged.\n\nSpeaking to reporters last week, Cpl. Tobias Kouroubacalis said: \"The victims were shot without any kind of prior contact.\"\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post 2 by itsanthonymichael This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram 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.\n\nKnown online as itsanthonymichael, Anthony had nearly a million followers on TikTok.\n\nHe began posting in 2019, making singing videos and doing pranks and challenges.\n\nAnthony's followers have paid tribute on the social platform.\n\nIn a statement, Anthony's family said: \"From his quick smile to his compassionate heart, Anthony's presence was a gift to all who knew him.\"\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Krystina Timanovskaya asked the International Olympic Committee for help\n\nA sprinter from Belarus who refused her team's order to fly home early from the Olympics has been granted a humanitarian visa by Poland.\n\nKrystina Timanovskaya, 24, is at the Polish embassy in Tokyo after spending the night secured in a hotel under protection from Japanese police.\n\nShe said she was forcibly taken to the airport for criticising coaches, and voiced fears for her safety.\n\nBelarus says she was removed from the team because of her emotional state.\n\nMs Timanovskaya told the BBC on Monday that she was safe, but said she had been advised not to give further details at this stage.\n\nThe incident has again put the spotlight on Belarus, which has been ruled by President Alexander Lukashenko since 1994. Last year, nationwide protests over his disputed re-election were violently repressed by the security forces.\n\nSome of those who joined the demonstrations were also national-level athletes, who were stripped of funding, cut from national teams and detained.\n\nPoland's Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz said Ms Timanovskaya was in direct contact with Polish diplomats in Tokyo, and that Poland would do \"whatever is necessary to help her continue her sporting career\".\n\nHer husband has fled to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. He is set to join her in Poland, according to a Warsaw-based Belarusian opposition politician.\n\nThe Belarusian government has yet to comment on the Polish decision.\n\nThe sprinter was pictured inside Poland's embassy in Tokyo\n\nThe EU, meanwhile, welcomed Poland's decision. Nabila Massrali, a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, said the attempt by Belarus to forcibly repatriate Ms Timanovskaya was \"another example of the brutality of the repression of Lukashenko's regime\".\n\n\"We express our full solidarity to Krystina Timanovskaya and commend the (EU) member states that offered her support. We welcome the fact that she has now been given a humanitarian visa by Poland,\" Ms Massrali said in a statement to Reuters.\n\nThe sprinter, who was due to compete in the women's 200m event on Monday, had complained on social media about being entered into the 4x400m relay race at short notice after some teammates were found to be ineligible to compete.\n\nThe video led to criticism in state media, with one television channel saying she lacked \"team spirit\".\n\nMs Timanovskaya said officials had come to her room and given her an hour to pack her bags before being escorted to Tokyo's Haneda airport. She says she was \"put under pressure\" by team officials to return home and asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for help.\n\n\"They are trying to get me out of the country without my permission,\" she said in a video posted on the Telegram channel of the Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation, which was created last year to support athletes critical of the government.\n\nAnatol Kotau, a member of the group, told the BBC on Sunday: \"She's afraid of repression on her family in Belarus - this is the main concern for her right now.\"\n\nThe athlete sought police protection at the airport terminal\n\nThe Belarusian Olympic committee said Ms Timanovskaya had been taken off the team because of her \"emotional and psychological condition\".\n\nTeam coach Yuri Moisevich said Ms Timanovskaya appeared anxious when he spoke with her on Sunday.\n\n\"I was trying to have a calm conversation with her and I succeeded,\" he said, adding: \"Then I noticed that she would stop the conversation and start it again, then she would grab the phone and I saw that something was happening.\"\n\nOn Monday, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said the body had taken measures against the Belarusian committee in the run-up to the Games.\n\nIt banned some officials, including the president's son, for failing to protect athletes who had joined the demonstrations.\n\nHeather McGill, Amnesty International's Eastern Europe and Central Asia researcher, said the country's sporting administration had been subject to \"direct government control\" under President Lukashenko.\n\n\"Athletes are favoured by the state and honoured by society, and it is not surprising that athletes who speak out find themselves a target for reprisals,\" she said.\n• None Belarus athlete: 'I ask the IOC for help' Video, 00:00:12Belarus athlete: 'I ask the IOC for help'", "Tokyo Olympics: Day-by-day guide to the key events and British medal hopes\n\nLast updated on .From the section Olympics", "Tests have found no traces of Covid-19 in swabs and air samples of four major railway stations and intercity train services, Network Rail has said.\n\nTwo lots of testing took place at London Euston, Birmingham New Street, Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Piccadilly station.\n\nHeavily touched areas such as escalator handles were swabbed, while hour-long air samples checked for airborne virus.\n\nTests were repeated on trains running between the stations.\n\nThere has been extra cleaning of transport services throughout the pandemic to protect against the virus spreading through contaminated surfaces and the air.\n\nImperial College London researchers examined the results of the tests - which took place in January and June - and found no coronavirus contamination of any surface or airborne virus particles.\n\nIt follows similar tests on London's Tube trains, buses and stations earlier this year, which found no sign of Covid-19 or new variants.\n\nResearchers said at the time that this did not mean none is circulating.\n\nDavid Green, senior research fellow at Imperial College London, said using filters and taking swabs provided a \"way of quantifying the amount of virus circulating in these public environments and the effect of mitigation strategies like cleaning and wearing face coverings\".\n\nRob Mole, senior programme manager for Network Rail's response to the pandemic, said the test results were \"proof\" the \"dedicated approach\" by station cleaning teams and train staff to keep passengers safe had worked.\n\nHe added that staff would continue \"doing our part by rigorously cleaning trains and stations\" and asked passengers to \"do their bit\" by continuing to wear face coverings while travelling.\n\nLast month, almost all legal restrictions on social contact were lifted in England - including the legal requirement to wear a face covering in settings such as public transport - but they must still be worn on London's transport network.\n\nThe government still advises face coverings are worn in crowded and enclosed spaces.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nGreat Britain's Max Whitlock retained his Olympic title with a sublime performance in Tokyo to win gold in the men's pommel horse.\n\nThe 28-year-old was first up in the event and immediately put the pressure on his rivals with a near-perfect routine that earned him a score of 15.583.\n\nThree-time world champion Whitlock then watched on as the remaining seven gymnasts were unable to beat his score before his third career Olympic gold - and Britain's 10th of the Games - was confirmed.\n\nLee Chih-kai of Chinese Taipei was the only competitor to give Whitlock an anxious moment but his score of 15.400 was only good enough for silver. Japan's Kazuma Kaya took the bronze medal.\n\nIreland's Rhys McClenaghan had finished joint top of the qualifying standings but came off the apparatus early in his routine and finished seventh.\n\n'I had to go all out'\n\nWhitlock trained in an empty gym back home to try to recreate the sense of competing at an Olympics without any spectators.\n\nHe was not at his best during qualifying, admitting afterwards that nerves played a part, but he put it all together when it counted to win his sixth Olympic medal at his third Games.\n\n\"I feel lost for words,\" Whitlock told BBC Sport. \"I am completely overwhelmed and it feels kind of surreal. I had seen the other sports, gold medals flowing in and I wanted to do the same here. Incredible journey.\"\n\nWhitlock admitted the pressure of being the defending champion weighed heavily in the build-up to the Olympics.\n\n\"It is a million times harder,\" he added. \"The pressure was there and I could feel it. Experience pays a lot in situations like this.\n\n\"Being first up meant I had to go all out. I couldn't watch the scores. I had to go all out. That was the biggest routine I had been training for. I couldn't have done any more.\"\n\nElsewhere, Team USA's MyKayla Skinner made the most of the chance given to her as a replacement for Simone Biles by taking silver in the women's vault.\n\nFour-time Olympic champion Biles withdrew from the vault, and four other gymnastics events, to focus on her mental health.\n\nThat led to Skinner, who had been preparing to head home, getting the opportunity to realise her dream of winning an Olympic medal.\n\nShe grasped it with both hands, scoring 14.916 to finish behind Brazilian gold medallist Rebeca Andrade, with Yeo Seo-jeong of South Korea taking the bronze.\n\nMeanwhile, Artem Dolgopyat won Israel's first Olympics gymnastics title by taking gold in the men's floor exercise.\n\nRayderley Zapata of Spain finished second and China's Xiao Ruoteng took the bronze.\n\nRussian Nikita Nagornyy opened the final with his new triple back pike, but stumbled out of bounds and in the end finished with the seventh best score.\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nAn incredible Olympic high jump final ended with both Qatar's Mutaz Essa Barshim and Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi taking gold medals.\n\nAfter an exhausting two-hour competition, the pair couldn't be split, having recorded best clearances of 2.37 metres.\n\nThe athletes were offered an opportunity to take part in a jump-off.\n\nBut in a moment of sportsmanship, they agreed to share the title, sparking huge celebrations.\n\nBoth had three failures as they attempted to match the Olympic record of 2.39m and, with error-free records on countback, could have fought for sole possession of the title.\n\nInstead, they made history - it was the first joint Olympic podium in athletics since 1912.\n\nMaksim Nedasekau of Belarus took bronze, having also jumped at 2.37m, but having more failed attempts across the competition.\n\nTamberi and Barshim embraced before running to celebrate with their coaches and team-mates, hoisting their nation's flags above their heads.\n\nBarshim can add the gold medal to his back to back world titles, and is the winner of Qatar's second-ever Olympic gold medal, after weightlifter Fares Elbakh won the first on Saturday in the men's 96kg event.\n\nTamberi was still celebrating on the track when his compatriot Lamont Marcell Jacobs ran into his arms, following his surprise win in the men's 100m final.\n\nBoth athletes have had to overcome tough injuries in their careers, but Barshim says the sacrifices were worth it.\n\n\"It is amazing. This is a dream I don't want to wake up from,\" he said.\n\n\"I have been through a lot. It's been five years that I have been waiting, with injuries and a lot of setbacks. But we are here today sharing this moment and all the sacrifices. It's really worth it now in this moment.\"\n\nTamberi had to take time out to recover from a career-threatening injury that ruled him out of Rio 2016.\n\n\"After my injuries, I just wanted to come back, but now I have this gold, it's incredible. I dreamed of this so many times,\" said the Italian.\n\n\"I was told in 2016 just before Rio there was a risk I wouldn't be able to compete any more. It's been a long journey.\"\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "Cleaners, porters, catering assistants, security guards and other health staff employed by private companies should receive the same pay rise as NHS staff, union leaders have said.\n\nThe government has announced a 3% pay rise for most NHS workers in England.\n\nBut Unison said those working in the NHS but employed by private contractors were at risk of missing out.\n\nIt is calling for companies running health contracts to offer their staff the same increase.\n\nThe union said private firms and subsidiary companies owned by individual NHS trusts should increase hourly pay to at least match new NHS rates.\n\nUnison has written to the largest private employers in the health service saying their staff \"have worked hard and under incredibly challenging circumstances across the NHS throughout the pandemic\".\n\nGeneral secretary Christina McAnea said: \"NHS staff have the benefit of a national pay system, but those not directly employed are missing out, often because of complex contracting arrangements, penny-pinching practices and the hard-nosed pursuit of profit.\n\n\"Staff in the NHS work on one site as one team, from maintaining clean and safe wards to ensuring patients are fed and cared for. No-one delivering NHS services should be paid less than their directly-employed colleagues.\"\n\nOne cleaner, who works at an NHS hospital in Bedfordshire, told the BBC she was previously directly employed by the NHS and her income had gone down since the contract was handed over to a private firm.\n\nThere was deliberate obfuscation over payment terms \"to make you confused\", she said, adding: \"There is nowhere to go and complain. You can do nothing.\"\n\nThe woman said that she and fellow colleagues \"don't know where we stand\" with regard to the 3% pay rise being offered by government.\n\n\"Some say we are going to get it, some say we won't. For me, I don't believe it - I will wait until I see the money.\"\n\nLast month, the government offered NHS workers in England, including nurses, paramedics, consultants, dentists, salaried GPs, porters and cleaners, a 3% pay rise.\n\nThe level of the increase was criticised by unions, who said it did not reflect the sacrifices made by staff.\n\nNHS staff in Wales have also been offered a 3% increase and in Scotland most have been offered a 4% pay rise.", "The founder of the world's biggest plant-based meat company has suggested that a tax on meat could help tackle some of the problems from growing meat consumption.\n\nAsked if he backed a tax on meat, Beyond Meat's Chief Executive, Ethan Brown told the BBC \"the whole notion of a Pigouvian tax, which is to tax negative, you know, things that are high in externalities, I think is an interesting one. I'm not an economist, but overall that type of thing does appeal to me\".\n\nMr Brown added \"I think taxing things we want more of such as income and not taxing things we want less of, I've always wondered about that. So in general, that type of taxation scheme is interesting to me. But I've got to leave it to others to work out the details\".\n\nCritics argue that such a levy would raise the cost of living and amount to unnecessary government interference.\n\nEven without such a tax Mr Brown thinks that consumers are already starting to make the choice to eat less meat.\n\n\"If you look at shopper data that we have, 93% of the people that are putting the Beyond burger in their cart are also putting animal protein in,\" he said.\n\n\"That says we're getting more and more penetration into the broadest swath of the market, which is people who are consuming animal protein, but again, are hearing this information about their health or maybe hearing about climate, or maybe uncomfortable with factory farming, they're deciding to cut down on their consumption of animal-based products.\"\n\nBeyond Meat's products are made from ingredients such as peas and mung beans, coloured with substances such as beetroot juice and apple extract.\n\nCost, as well as taste and texture are, according to Mr Brown, the three elements his company has to get right, as plant-based meat can be more expensive than animal meat. But he thinks that over time prices will come down.\n\nPlant-based meat is often more expensive, but Beyond Meat boss Ethan Brown says this will change as the company scales and consumers become more aware of alternatives to meat\n\nHe references the three-year global deal Beyond Meat signed in February with McDonalds and a similar one with Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.\n\n\"As we scale, we'll begin to be able to under-price animal protein - if you look at our facilities, and you look at the facilities of say, some of our plant or animal-based competitors, we're still a very small company [but] that's going to change.\n\n\"One of the reasons I was so focused on these deals with McDonald's and with Yum is because I believe that's the route to [bringing] costs down and to scaling and to being able to make these products accessible to every consumer that wants them.\"\n\nA tax on meat consumption would definitely be beneficial to companies such as Beyond Meat because it would make their products cheaper in comparison, says Rebecca Scheuneman, an equity analyst at US financial services firm Morningstar.\n\nHow much of an advantage it would give \"depends how significant the tax would be\", she told the BBC.\n\nHowever, at the same time research from Morningstar shows the global meat market was worth $1.4tn (£1tn) last year and is growing.\n\nBeyond Meat's burgers use beetroot juice to give them a similar appearance to real meat\n\nMs Scheuneman points out the price gap is already closing: \"Meat prices now have spiked up in the last couple of years [as] disruption from the pandemic caused a lot of disruption and meat production which caused higher prices.\n\n\"And I do think that given the limited resources of the earth, and an increasing demand for meat, as emerging markets become wealthier, it is likely that prices for traditional animal proteins will increase over time.\"\n\nFor consumers, pricing is an important factor. A recent survey of 3,000 US consumers by Citi Bank found that 32% of people were put off of plant-based meat by the cost, saying it was too expensive.\n\nThis is an improvement, compared to Citi's previous survey in August 2020, when 38% of respondents said they found plant-based meat to be too costly - a reflection of the fact that manufacturers have been trying to cut prices.\n\nBeyond Meat's rival Impossible Foods, slashed prices by 20% earlier this year.\n\nCiti's Wendy Nicholson said one reason why consumers were not going back to be regular purchasers of plant-based meat was the higher price, so \"this does seem to be a real topic for the companies to address\".\n\nMs Scheuneman says demand is clearly growing for plant-based meats: \"It has really been most popular with younger generations and it's really the younger generations that have the most broad-based concern about our environment.\"\n\nThe UK government's advisory body on climate change says that ministers should be urging people to eat less meat in order to protect the climate.\n\nHowever, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ruled out a tax on meat consumption as a way to do this. A recent study from the University of Bristol found the costs would outweigh the benefits to the climate.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAccording to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the livestock industry accounts for about 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Cutting those would help tackle climate change and Mr Brown says plant-based meat has an important contribution to make.\n\nHe cites a study from the University of Michigan which he says found that the Beyond burger uses 99% less water than an animal protein burger, emits 90% fewer missions in the production process that an animal protein burger, uses 93% less land and about half the energy.\n\nMr Brown thinks these environmental benefits are important \"particularly for this younger generation, the ones that are flight shaming, and marching on climate, because they're going to have to live in this environment\".\n\n\"For a few dollars at the centre of your plate, you can communicate what you're about, you don't have to go and buy that Tesla right away or some other electric vehicle, you can start by just doing something really simple, which is changing the protein at centre of your plate,\" he added.\n\nYou can watch Ethan Brown's full interview on \"Talking Business with Aaron Heslehurst\" on BBC World News at 0730 GMT and 1630 GMT on Monday, 1230 GMT on Tuesday and 0730 GMT on Thursday.", "Rapper DaBaby was due to appear at Chicago's Lollapalooza music festival\n\nUS music festival Lollapalooza has dropped rapper DaBaby from its Sunday line-up over comments he made about people with HIV and Aids.\n\nThe Chicago festival tweeted that \"Lollapalooza was founded on diversity, inclusivity, respect, and love.\n\n\"With that in mind, DaBaby will no longer be performing at Grant Park tonight.\"\n\nThe rapper has been widely condemned for homophobic and derogatory comments he made about HIV and gay men.\n\nWhile performing at Rolling Loud festival in Miami on 25 July, he urged the audience to \"put your cell phone light up\", apart from those who were HIV-positive or were gay men who had sex in car parks.\n\nHe also wrongly claimed that HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases would \"make you die in two or three weeks\".\n\nMedication helping those with HIV to live long, healthy lives has been available for decades.\n\nLollapalooza said rapper Young Thug would fill DaBaby's slot on Sunday night.\n\nThis 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 Lollapalooza 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.\n\nEarlier this week, DaBaby was dropped from a benefit concert for the Working Families Party, a US political party that says it wants \"freedom and equality for all\".\n\n\"We have to hold people accountable and live to our values, which is why there is a change in our line-up,\" the Working Families Party stated.\n\nDaBaby has also parted ways with online fashion retailer Boohoo, with whom he had a clothing deal.\n\nSeveral musicians have spoken out against the rapper's remarks, among them Sir Elton John, who founded his Aids Foundation charity in 1992.\n\n\"We must break down the stigma around HIV and not spread it. As musicians, it's our job to bring people together,\" Sir Elton wrote on Instagram.\n\nDaBaby ultimately tweeted an apology, saying he had been \"insensitive\" and \"anybody who done ever been effected by AIDS/HIV y'all got the right to be upset.\"\n\nThis 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 2 by DaBaby 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.\n\nBut on his Instagram story, he doubled down on the insults by calling people with Aids \"nasty\" and \"junkies on the street\".", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nAdam Peaty said new-found \"belief\" had driven Britain's swimmers to multiple record-breaking successes at Tokyo 2020, but that is just one element of the incredible transformation behind Team GB's greatest Olympic performances in the pool.\n\nPeaty set the tone for the record haul of eight medals by claiming the nation's first gold at Tokyo 2020, and in doing so became the first British swimmer to retain an Olympic title.\n\nHe also played an instrumental role in the historic mixed 4x100m medley relay victory and the silver claimed by the men's medley relay line-up.\n\nThe Games were about more than one man, though, with Tom Dean,Duncan Scott and Luke Greenbank all securing individual honours, and playing a part in notable medal-winning relay teams with James Guy, Matt Richards, Kathleen Dawson and Anna Hopkin.\n\nBut even Scott - the first Briton to win four medals at one Olympics - was keen to emphasise how crucial Peaty had been.\n\n\"It began with him,\" Scott told BBC Sport. \"His mental drive, the way he dominates, rubs off on everyone.\"\n\nIt is a remarkable turnaround in fortunes for a sport which missed its medal target and was hit with a multi-million pound funding cut following the London 2012 Olympics.\n\nWhile the majority of Team GB bathed in the golden glory of the sun-soaked successes at the home Games, British swimmers were noticeable absentees from the podium party.\n\nRebecca Adlington, who had claimed two Olympic gold medals at Beijing 2008, secured double bronze and Michael Jamieson impressed with silver, but the team fell short of their medal target, which was between five and seven medals.\n\nBritish Swimming was in a difficult place and, within months, both American head coach Dennis Pursley and Australian performance director Michael Scott left.\n\nIn their place came head coach Bill Furniss, who had guided Adlington to her four Olympic medals, and new performance director Chris Spice.\n\nFurniss was brutal in his assessment of the challenge ahead, telling BBC Sport in early 2013 that results \"might get worse before they get better\".\n\nHe was not wrong. The British team took home just one bronze medal from the World Championships that year.\n\nSpice, who had previously worked with the Rugby Football Union, England Hockey and British Basketball, felt the lack of team dynamic was a big problem.\n\nRio Olympic silver medallist Siobhan-Marie O'Connor, who was 16 when she competed at London 2012, agrees with that assessment.\n\n\"I remember going in as a rookie for London and it felt like a team of individuals and there were people on the team you would hardly ever speak to,\" she tells BBC Sport.\n\n\"One of the biggest changes was to cut the numbers so we had much smaller squads which brought people closer, but we also organised our own quizzes and team-bonding exercises.\"\n\nSpice and Furniss also implemented specific relay training camps, where athletes based around the UK would come together to improve takeover skills, but also emphasise the importance of being a 'British Swimming unit'.\n• None 'It doesn't quite feel real yet' - swimmer Scott on record medal haul\n\nPeaty - the raw gift who changed everything\n\nA year on from the dismal World Championship performance, a little-known swimmer from Uttoxeter turned up at the British Championships and promptly stunned the swimming world by setting the quickest breaststroke times on the planet that year.\n\nPeaty's rising-star status was underlined later in 2014 when he secured impressive Commonwealth and European titles, but a more fundamental change occurred in 2015.\n\nAfter breaking the 100m world record for the first time in April, Peaty won maiden 50m and 100m breaststroke world titles that summer. He also claimed gold and a world record with the mixed 4x100m medley relay team, which included O'Connor.\n\n\"Kazan changed everything for the team and Adam was a big part of it,\" she says, looking back at an event where British swimmers won a record haul of nine medals.\n\n\"It was the first world gold for our generation and he had this confidence which just spread like wildfire around the team.\n\n\"We saw what he did in Rio and that drove [Olympic silver medallist] Jazz Carlin and I to what we achieved there. We had this new energy and belief that if he could do it, we could as well, because he was part of the team, spoke to everyone and inspired us all.\"\n\nAfter the Rio Olympics, where Peaty claimed his first Olympic gold, he embarked on a physical transformation - developing greater muscle mass and a love of body art.\n\nHe felt he was part of pride, but he was also more than that - he knew he was now a leader who boldly stated he would not defend titles, but would attack them.\n\nA large lion was soon etched into his left arm and it became a symbol of what he stands for - \"being proud, being strong and being British\".\n\nAdlington, who retired in early 2013, feels his confidence - \"which should not be confused with arrogance\" - provoked a fundamental shift in the team's attitude.\n\n\"We've seen a huge mentality shift, driven by Adam,\" she tells BBC Sport. \"Going back 10-15 years, it was seen as an achievement to be on the squad. Now it's all about getting on the podium.\n\n\"Previously we tried to clone what the Americans or Australians were doing and then we'd almost fear them, but we changed that and doing things in a more British way has worked.\n\n\"Now they take us seriously. We have the belief we deserve to be up on the podium too, and that's in a large part because of Adam, who is never satisfied and demands more.\"\n• None Team GB won eight swimming medals at Tokyo 2020 - four golds, three silvers and a bronze.\n• None This was the first time in 113 years that GB won four swimming golds at one Games.\n• None Duncan Scott claimed four medals - the most by a Briton at a single Games.\n• None Scott now has six medals - cyclists Bradley Wiggins, Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny are the only Britons with more.\n• None Adam Peaty became the first British swimmer to retain an Olympic title, winning GB's first gold of the Games.\n• None Peaty finished with three medals - two gold and one silver.\n• None The second of those golds came when he teamed up with Kathleen Dawson, James Guy and Anna Hopkin to win the inaugural 4x100m mixed medley relay in a world-record time.\n\nAdlington feels greater communication between athletes and management has been a fundamental part of recent British success, and cites Guy's withdrawal from his individual event as a key example of the change in approach.\n\n\"James had a medal chance in the 100m butterfly, but it would have meant three more swims and that might have impacted his performance in the relay,\" she said.\n\n\"In previous years a swimmer would have been told what to do, but he was sat down, had all of the options explained to him, and was allowed to make a choice.\"\n\nGuy chose to prioritise the team ahead of his pursuit of individual glory, and he was rewarded with three relay medals - two gold and a silver.\n\nNew stars emerge and a 'bright' future predicted for Paris 2024\n\nComing into the Games, Tom Dean was expected to play an important role in the 4x200m freestyle relay and was seen as an outside medal contender individually, but his victory sent shockwaves around the world.\n\nO'Connor describes her former training partner as the \"most naturally talented swimmer\" she has ever seen, but even she was taken aback by his performances in Japan.\n\n\"This is a guy who until a few years ago was only doing five sessions a week, but was still amazing and then he had Covid twice which really impacted his build-up,\" she said.\n\n\"I'm quite close to him and I know how he struggled, so to do what he did was incredible.\"\n\nScott was already an established figure in the British team, having claimed two relay silver medals at Rio 2016, but he emphasised his individual brilliance with silver medals in both the 200m freestyle and 200m individual medley in Tokyo.\n\nGreenbank won 200m backstroke world bronze in 2019 and proved that was no fluke with an Olympic bronze in the event, while he has also improved over 100m.\n\nElsewhere there were encouraging performances by 16-year-old sprinter Jacob Whittle and 1500m swimmer Daniel Jervis, while the likes of Dawson, Hopkin, fourth-placed Abbie Wood and Freya Anderson are seen as potential medal contenders come Paris 2024.\n\n\"I really do think this squad is going to go from strength to strength heading to Paris,\" said Adlington.\n\n\"None of our top swimmers will be stopping and there are loads of talented female and male swimmers who aren't even in Tokyo who will be bursting through soon, so it's looking very bright for the future.\"\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'Fewer will be contacted' by NHS Covid-19 app\n\nThe NHS Covid-19 app in England and Wales is being tweaked so fewer contacts will be advised to self-isolate following a close contact with a positive case.\n\nThe app will look for contacts two days prior, rather than five, when someone without symptoms tests positive.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid said it would reduce disruption but still protect those at risk.\n\nThe government is urging the public to continue using the app.\n\nIt comes as the UK recorded another 21,952 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, compared to 24,950 cases last Monday.\n\nAnother 24 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were reported, higher than the 14 recorded on the same day last week.\n\nAlmost 700,000 alerts were sent by the app to users in England and Wales for the week to July 21, a record since it was launched, which has caused staffing issues in many industries.\n\nIt led to the government allowing some key workers - such as those working in food distribution - to be exempt from having to self-isolate if pinged. Instead they have to take daily tests.\n\nThere had been speculation that the app could be made less sensitive to the distance between users and the length of time spent in close proximity - currently 2m or less and more than 15 minutes.\n\nBut the DHSC said the update \"does not impact the sensitivity of the app, or change the risk threshold\".\n\nThere was speculation when Sajid Javid became the new health secretary just as the word \"pingdemic\" was entering the language that he would order changes to make the app less sensitive.\n\nThat was ruled out - but it seems Mr Javid asked what else could be done and was advised that the option unveiled on Monday would be wiser.\n\nCutting the period the app hunts back through the close contacts of an asymptomatic person before a positive test from five days to two could mean a substantial fall in the numbers sent into isolation.\n\nThere has been huge pressure for change from businesses which have seen their operations disrupted by thousands of pings - but at the same time the team behind the app believes it now has strong evidence that it is working.\n\nThe government will hope it has found a middle way, reducing the burden on businesses and making it less likely that people will delete the app while still alerting those in most danger of becoming infected with the virus and passing it on.\n\nBut, as with so much about this project, this is an experiment in human behaviour because for the app to work, people have to trust it.\n\nAnnouncing the change, Mr Javid said: \"We want to reduce the disruption that self-isolation can cause for people and businesses, while ensuring we're protecting those most at risk from this virus.\n\n\"This update to the app will help ensure that we are striking the right balance.\"\n\nDr Jenny Harries, of the UK Health Security Agency, said the app was \"the simplest, easiest and fastest way to find out whether you have been exposed to the virus,\" and it had saved thousands of lives.\n\nShe said she would \"strongly encourage everyone, even those fully vaccinated, to continue using the app\".\n\nIt is unclear how many people will be affected by the tweak.\n\nScientists have estimated the app prevented up to 2,000 cases per day in the three weeks to 21 July when the number of self-isolation alerts - known as \"pings\" - rose by over 70,000 to a new record of 689,313.\n\nAnd their analysis, which assumed 60% compliance with instructions to self-isolate, suggested another 50,000 Covid cases were prevented by including chains of transmission.\n\nThis was estimated to have prevented 1,600 hospitalisations, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.\n\nAround 40% of the eligible population regularly use the app and around 50% of all reported tests are being inputted, it said, saying usage remains \"high\".\n\nLabour's shadow health minister Liz Kendall accused the government of \"leaving hundreds of thousands of people forced to self-isolate every day\" and quietly changing the app, rather than driving infections down.\n\nTrade union Unite said the change did not go far enough and repeated a call from the automotive and steel sectors for workers to be exempt from self-isolation rules.\n\nBut the move has been welcomed by the British Beer and Pub Association, which said its research found up to 1,000 pubs had been forced to close temporarily due to staff being pinged by the app.\n\nIts chief executive Emma McClarkin said: \"On average, each pub forced to temporarily close due to staff being pinged costs £9,500 in lost trade per week and our larger venues much, much more at a critical time in their recovery.\"\n\nFrom 16 August, fully vaccinated contacts in England will be exempt from isolation and instead will be advised to take a PCR test.\n\nThose who are not fully vaccinated will still be required to isolate, and it will remain a legal obligation to isolate if you test positive.\n\nOn 7 August, Wales will become the first UK nation to stop asking fully vaccinated adults to self-isolate after close contact with a positive Covid case.\n\nMeanwhile, a further 118,184 people received their second dose of a Covid-19 vaccine on Sunday, meaning nearly 38.5 million people - or 72.7% of the UK population - are now fully vaccinated.\n\nBut just 21,266 people received first doses, as the numbers coming forward for vaccination continued to slow down. A total of almost 46.9 million people, or 88.6% of adults, have had at least one jab.\n• None What are the latest rules?", "Vitaly Shishov went missing on Monday in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv\n\nThe head of a group helping people who have fled Belarus has been found dead near his home in neighbouring Ukraine.\n\nVitaly Shishov's body was found hanged in a park in Kyiv, a day after he failed to return from a jog. Police have opened a murder inquiry.\n\nPolice said they were investigating whether he had been killed and his death made to look like suicide.\n\nMeanwhile a Belarusian Olympic sprinter who feared for her safety has been granted a humanitarian visa by Poland.\n\nMr Shishov led the Belarusian House in Ukraine (BHU), a group helping people who left Belarus, where opposition to the government is stifled.\n\nHe was one of many Belarusians who left the country as the security forces violently suppressed protests following the disputed re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko in August 2020.\n\nUkraine, Poland and Lithuania - neighbours of Belarus - are the main destinations for those fleeing persecution.\n\nThe United Nations said Mr Shishov's death adds another level to \"our worries about what is happening in Belarus\", and called for an investigation.\n\nMr Shishov's death is the latest incident to prompt international scrutiny of President Lukashenko's authoritarian government.\n\nAt the Tokyo Olympics, sprinter Krystina Timanovskaya, 24, was granted a humanitarian visa by Poland after refusing her team's order to fly back to Belarus early.\n\nShe said she had been forcibly taken to the airport for criticising team coaches, and voiced fears for her safety.\n\nEarlier this year, there was an international outcry over the detention of opposition Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend, after the Ryanair plane they were travelling on was forced to divert and land in Belarus.\n\nPolice said that they had recovered Mr Shishov's mobile phone and personal items from the scene.\n\nThey are asking anyone who knew him to get in touch with any information about the last few weeks of his life and any possible threats to his life.\n\nMr Shishov left his home on Monday morning and it was assumed he had gone for his daily jog as his running gear was not found there later, his colleagues said.\n\nThey conducted their own search of the woods where he usually went running. Mr Shishov had felt under constant surveillance since he left Belarus last year, they said.\n\nOne colleague, Yuri Shchuchko, told Current Time TV that police said Mr Shishov had marks on his face, suggesting that he had been beaten up.\n\nMr Shchuchko said Ukrainian security officers and police had privately warned the BHU about threats to activists.\n\n\"They said we should watch ourselves because a Belarusian KGB [secret police] network was active here,\" Mr Shchuchko said.\n\nThe BHU said in a statement: \"We were warned repeatedly by local sources and our people in Belarus about possible provocations, going as far as kidnapping and assassination. Vitaly reacted to those warnings with stoicism and humour.\"\n\nOn its website, the non-governmental organisation says it provides support to new arrivals in finding accommodation, jobs and legal advice.\n\nAt a briefing, Ukraine's national police chief Ihor Klymenko said Mr Shishov was found with grazes on his nose and knee. But the police chief said it was too early to determine whether he had been attacked.\n\nMr Shishov had not reported his suspicion of being under surveillance to the police, Mr Klymenko said.\n\nThe disputed presidential election last August was the catalyst for a crackdown on opposition to Mr Lukashenko's government. He has been in power since 1994.\n\nHuge protests continued for weeks after the disputed vote, which Belarus dissidents and Western governments say was rigged in Mr Lukashenko's favour.\n\nThe protests were broken up brutally by police, and thousands were detained.\n\nThe UN and human rights groups say they have many reports of police violence used against protesters, cases of enforced disappearance and allegations of torture.\n\nIn recent months, Belarusian authorities have been trying to snuff out remaining dissents, jailing university students and shutting down independent media.\n\nOpposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya claimed victory in the election after standing in place of her politician husband, who was detained in March 2020.\n\nShe was forced to flee the country with her children the day after the election, and now lives in exile in Lithuania.\n\nOn Tuesday, Ms Tikhanovskaya flew to London for talks with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.\n\nAfterwards, Ms Tikhanovskaya said she had been assured by Mr Johnson that the UK would help create \"multiple points of pressure\" on Mr Lukashenko's government.\n\nThis would include assistance for Belarusian journalists forced to flee the country, and for democracy campaigners and charities, she said.\n\nEarlier, Ms Tikhanovskaya said she was \"devastated\" by Mr Shishov's death and concerned that \"those who flee Belarus still can't be safe\".\n\nUkrainian police have cordoned off the site where Mr Shishov's body was found\n\nWhere is Belarus? It has its ally Russia to the east and Ukraine to the south. To the north and west lie EU and Nato members Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.\n\nWhy does it matter? Like Ukraine, this nation of 9.5 million is caught in rivalry between the West and Russia. President Alexander Lukashenko has been nicknamed \"Europe's last dictator\" - he has been in power for 27 years.\n\nWhat's going on there? There is a huge opposition movement demanding new, democratic leadership and economic reform. The opposition movement and Western governments say Mr Lukashenko rigged the 9 August election. Officially he won by a landslide. A huge police crackdown has curbed street protests and sent opposition leaders to prison or into exile.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Belarusian sprinter Krystina Timanovskaya asked the International Olympic Committee for help", "Watch how Team GB's Max Whitlock defended his Olympic pommel horse title, performing the first routine in the final and setting a mark that his rivals could not match at Tokyo 2020.\n\nWatch live coverage of Tokyo 2020 on BBC One, BBC Two, the BBC Sport website, app and BBC iPlayer\n\nCOVERAGE DETAILS: Tokyo Olympics: Day-by-day guide to the key events, big stars and British medal hopes", "Xavier Rolet, a former banker at Goldman Sachs, led the London Stock Exchange for eight years\n\nGoldman Sachs has increased its salaries for younger bankers following complaints of long working hours.\n\nIt is understood that first-year investment bank analysts globally will get a pay rise this year to $110,000 (£80,000) from a previous $86,000.\n\nAs first reported in the Financial Times, the pay increase does not include bonuses. Basic pay will rise to $125,000 in the second year.\n\nIt comes as a top banker criticised recruits for being \"entitled\".\n\nXavier Rolet, who ran the London Stock Exchange for eight years, said the younger generation of bankers should stop complaining about long working hours or find another job.\n\nHe suggested banks should hire \"poor hungry kids who managed to put themselves through college\" instead of \"entitled\" graduates.\n\nMr Rolet, who worked at Goldman Sachs in New York and in London early on in his career, said on LinkedIn that he would regularly work 130 hours a week, seven days a week in the 1980s.\n\nHe claimed: \"We'd work the whole New York trading day in the office, have dinner on the desk then trade Asia and Tokyo from 8:00pm until 10:00pm, go home during the half-day recess and trade the Tokyo afternoon session from home from 12:00pm to 2:00am.\n\n\"Grab some shut-eye until 4:00am to put our orders in the European markets in time for the opening… quick commute to 40 Wall to be in the office by 6:30am to continue to trade our European orders in time for the pre-opening in New York. Tokyo was open on Saturdays and half day every other Sunday in those days.\"\n\nThis year, a group of young Goldman Sachs bankers complained of 95-hour working weeks and and asked for their working week to be capped at 80 hours.\n\nThey said conditions were \"inhumane\".\n\nGoldman Sachs, which recently reported a sharp rise in second quarter revenue, has declined to comment on the pay increases.\n\nIn February, a group of 13 first year US-based investment banking analysts at Goldman Sachs, provided a presentation to management which commented on working conditions.\n\n\"The sleep deprivation, the treatment by senior bankers, the mental and physical stress… I've been through foster care and this is arguably worse,\" said one.\n\nAnother remarked: \"This is beyond the level of 'hard-working', this is inhumane/abuse.\"\n\nHowever, Mr Rolet asked people on LinkedIn: \"How many single working mothers trying to put several kids through school do you think work less than 130 hours a week?\"\n\nEarlier this year, the young Goldman Sachs bankers warned that they would have to leave unless conditions improved.\n\nBut Mr Rolet told Financial News: \"It's a free world. If you don't love what you're doing or think the hours don't suit your lifestyle, by any means do something else.\"\n\nHe added: \"Junior bankers are paid very well compared to other industries or sectors: ask a young entrepreneur drawing no salary how they would like to make $100,000-plus straight out of college?\"\n\nCommenting his own experience at Goldman Sachs in the 1980s, he said: \"Pay was good for a broke kid from a Parisian sink estate.\"\n\nMr Rolet grew up in Algiers - his father was in the military - and near Paris in an impoverished area called Sarcelles, which he described to the Evening Standard as \"concrete, concrete, concrete, everywhere you looked\".\n\nAfter a long career in finance, Mr Rolet led the LSE from 2009 until 2017 and he is currently chairman of PhosAgro, a Russian fertiliser company.", "Several life-saving kidney transplants within the Belfast Health Trust area could not go ahead at the weekend because not enough nurses were available to support surgeons.\n\nThe trust was offered healthy kidneys from deceased donors.\n\nBut they were turned down as the operations could not be carried out without sufficient staff.\n\nThe trust has apologised and blamed the staff shortage on a rise in the number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals.\n\nThe cancellation of the transplants comes after some health trusts cancelled cancer surgeries at the end of July.\n\nOn Monday the Royal College of Surgeons said those cancellations could have been avoided.\n\nIt told BBC News NI that proposals it had made to stop surgeries being cancelled amid an increase in the number of Covid-19 patients had not been implemented.\n\nThe Belfast Health Trust said it had come under \"significant pressure\" as more people with Covid-19 have been admitted to intensive care units.\n\nIt said it therefore had to make the \"difficult decision\" to cancel some kidney transplants.\n\nThat, it said, allowed staff who work in operating theatres to \"assist in intensive care units at this challenging time\".\n\nAll options were explored in order to try and ensure transplants could be carried out - this decision was a last resort and \"not taken lightly,\" said the trust.\n\n\"We apologise to all patients and we are doing all we can to ensure we can reschedule surgeries as soon as possible.\"\n\nLast year a record number of kidney transplants were carried out in Northern Ireland in spite of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nBut in November the transplant system was suspended because of the Covid-19-related pressure on the health service.\n\nIn January BBC News NI reported that organs were regularly turned down instead of being used for transplants because no operating facilities were available.\n\nThe issue was raised in the House of Commons by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP Ian Paisley, who warned against a \"scandal of discarding viable transplant organs from developing\".", "Last updated on .From the section Tottenham\n\nHarry Kane, a transfer target for Manchester City, did not return to the Tottenham training ground as expected on Monday morning amid speculation over his future.\n\nThe striker was scheduled to have coronavirus testing on Monday before starting training on Tuesday.\n\nKane has had a three-week break after helping England reach the Euro 2020 final.\n\nSpurs have offered no explanation for why the 28-year-old did not turn up.\n\nIt is understood Kane felt he had a gentleman's agreement with Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy that he could leave the club this summer.\n\nA pre-Euro 2020 move did not materialise as he hoped, but Manchester City remain keen on signing the England captain.\n\nKane's international's team-mate Jack Grealish is also a target for City, who have a made a £100m bid for the Aston Villa midfielder, and he turned up for pre-season training with the Midlands club on Monday.\n• None Kane, new boss and European third tier - can Spurs emerge from confusion?\n\nKane's contract with Spurs runs until 2024 after he signed a six-year deal in 2018.\n\nHe scored 23 top-flight goals last season to claim the Premier League Golden Boot for a third time, having previously won the award in 2015-16 and 2016-17.\n\nHe also has 221 Tottenham goals to his name, which puts him second in their all-time goalscorers' list behind Jimmy Greaves, who scored 266 times for the club between 1961 and 1970.\n\nSpurs play Chelsea and Arsenal in high-profile friendlies this week, and new manager Nuno Espirito Santo has already spoken optimistically about the prospect of working with Kane.\n\nSpeaking at his first news conference after being appointed as manager, Nuno said last month: \"Harry is our player. Period. No need to talk about anything else, I am looking forward to him joining the group.\n\n\"Harry is one of the best players in the world. That is all I need to say.\"\n\n'Winning trophies is the attraction for Kane' - analysis\n\nWithout official clarification over why Harry Kane failed to turn up, there is room for misinterpretation. Did Kane have an agreement from his club to stay away or was it his own doing?\n\nHowever, given he was expected to be at Tottenham for Covid testing and there has been no legitimate reason put forward for why he wasn't, it seems clear Kane wants out of Tottenham - and he wants in at Manchester City.\n\nCity won trophies last season - Premier League and Carabao Cup - which is the attraction for Kane. He supplies guaranteed goals as a number nine, which is the attraction for City.\n\nEvidently, the fee is not a problem. Neither are the wages. City have operated well within Financial Fair Play limits for some time now. And while Sergio Aguero had been reduced to a peripheral figure in Pep Guardiola's squad by the end of last season, he remained one of their highest earners.\n\nIn addition, it is expected at least one senior squad member - probably Bernardo Silva - will leave this summer if, as seems highly likely, Kane and Grealish arrive.\n\nThe big unknown is the thoughts of Tottenham chairman Levy.\n\nOf all Premier League executives, he is the least obvious candidate to cave in to player power.\n\nBut Levy did say in June that Tottenham had to be 'sensible' in the transfer market this summer.\n\nThey have already spent £20m on one player, are set for another near £50m outlay on another in Atalanta defender Cristian Romero, and have been strongly linked with Fiorentina's Dusan Vlahovic, even though the 21-year-old Serbian striker would also cost over £40m.\n\nIs that the kind of sensible spending Levy was talking about - or is it getting new arrivals in ahead of a significant departure?\n\nWithout clarification on his absence, it is impossible to know for certain, but the debate around Kane will only get louder for the fact he is not there.\n• None Get news and features about your favourite team direct to your phone with the BBC Sport App's Premier League club news notifications, along with line-ups, latest scores and results. Download the App here:\n• None Notifications, Live Guide, social media and more with BBC Sport", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nItaly's Lamont Marcell Jacobs claimed a shock gold in the Olympic 100m final, after Great Britain's Zharnel Hughes was disqualified for a false start.\n\nJacobs, who only switched away from long jump in 2018, streaked clear to win in 9.80 seconds, 0.04 clear of American Fred Kerley.\n\nCanada's Andre de Grasse won a second successive Olympic bronze in third.\n\nWorld champion Christian Coleman and Trayvon Bromell, the world's fastest in 2021, were both absent from the final.\n\nColeman, banned for whereabouts failures after missing three drugs tests, and Bromell, eliminated in the semi-finals, were joined on the sidelines by the long-retired defending champion Usain Bolt.\n\nFew would have picked Jacobs, who was born in Texas to an American father but moved to his mother's Italian homeland before his first birthday, as the Jamaican great's successor.\n\nJacobs only broke the 10-second barrier for the first time in May.\n\nBut the European indoor 60m champion carried the momentum from his fast start all the way to the line to register a time faster than Bolt's winning mark in Rio.\n\nHe was greeted by compatriot Gianmarco Tamberi, who had won a joint high-jump gold just minutes before and wrapped him in the Italian flag and an embrace.\n\n\"I don't know, it's a dream, a dream, it is fantastic,\" said Jacobs.\n\n\"Maybe tomorrow I can imagine what they are saying, but today it is incredible.\"\n\nSecond-placed Kerley admitted Jacobs was a new name to him.\n\n\"I really didn't know anything about him. It was my first time racing him at the Monaco Diamond League [where Jacobs finished third in 9.99 seconds],\" he said. \"He did a fantastic job.\"\n\nHughes will be left to wonder what might have been in a final stripped of its usual stars and big names.\n\nHis clear false start brought back memories of defending champion Linford Christie's disqualification at Atlanta 1996 and denied him a shot of joining the most prestigious honour roll in athletics.\n\nHughes, who made the same mistake at last month's British Championships, said it was the result of a sudden cramp in his calf.\n\nThe 100m final was almost overshadowed by an undercard of superb field events.\n\nVenezuela's Yulimar Rojas added Olympic gold to her world triple-jump titles, finally claiming the world record she has threatened all season.\n\nThe 25-year-old already had victory wrapped up when she approached her final attempt, with no-one able to get close to her opening-round leap of 15.41m.\n\nDespite a sub-par step phase, she still soared out to 15.67m to beat the previous 15.50m world record set two months before her birth by Inessa Kravets of Ukraine.\n\n\"Wow. It is a fantastic night,\" said Rojas.\n\n\"I knew we had that distance in my legs to get it today. I was failing a bit in the technical aspect, but the last jump was one to give everything, and it was like that.\"\n\nPortugal's Patricia Mamona took silver with a personal best 15.01m, but Colombian defending champion Caterine Ibarguen could only finish 10th.\n\nThere was drama of a different kind in the men's high jump.\n\nQatar's double world champion Mutaz Essa Barshim and Italy's Tamberi opted to share gold rather than take part in a jump-off.\n\nBoth had three failures as they attempted to match the Olympic record of 2.39m and, with error-free records on countback, they could have fought for sole possession of the title.\n\nHowever, the friends decided to end the contest and split the title, sparking ecstatic celebrations from Tamberi who has competed with a plaster cast at the end of his run-up as a souvenir of an Achilles injury that ruled him out of Rio 2016 and almost ended his career.\n\nSisters Tiffany Porter and Cindy Sember were unable to make Tuesday's 100m hurdles final for Great Britain.\n\nPuerto Rico's Jasmine Camacho-Quinn threw down the gauntlet to the rest of the field as she qualified in a new Olympic record of 12.26, just 0.06secs outside the world record of American rival Kendra Harrison, who also progressed.\n\nNeither Daniel Rowden or Elliot Giles could make Wednesday's 800m final, with Rowden missing out on a fastest loser spot by just five thousandths of a second after getting boxed in around the final bend.\n\n\"I'm very disappointed,\" said Rowden. \"I went for a gap coming into the home straight and the gap closed as soon as I went through it, I lost my stride and that was it.\n\n\"In 800m running, if there's no space, it probably means that you've put yourself in the wrong position and it's disappointing because I knew my potential was to win a medal and it's disappointing that I couldn't make that a reality.\"\n\nNijel Amos, London 2012 silver medallist and the fastest man in the world this year, briefly appeared to have been eliminated after falling in his semi-final.\n\nHowever the meeting referee judged that he had been impeded by American Isaiah Jewett, who also fell, and advanced the Botswanan to the final, expanding the field to nine athletes.\n\nJazmin Sawyers and Abigail Irozuru both made the long jump final during the morning session.", "\"I don't want to let her go,\" said Sue, meeting her daughter for the first time in more than 19 months Image caption: \"I don't want to let her go,\" said Sue, meeting her daughter for the first time in more than 19 months\n\nThat was the moment Naomi Hooper, who lives with her husband and two children in San Diego, laid eyes on her parents for the first time since December 2019.\n\nShe rushed into the arms of mother Sue Johns and father Peter, hugging them tightly as they sobbed behind their masks. Naomi briefly broke off with a laugh to say: \"Stiff upper lip!\". But the tears soon flowed again.\n\nThe BBC had travelled to meet Sue and Peter at Heathrow Airport to catch their reunion as the UK relaxed quarantine rules on people fully vaccinated in the US and EU.\n\nSue said she hadn't been able to sleep with excitement. She had previously launched a diplomatic campaign to try and visit her grandson and granddaughter in the US, which still bans UK travellers. She wrote to the president and vice-president, along with the governor of California and the UK transport secretary.\n\n\"This isn’t tourism, I don’t want to go for a holiday, I want to go and see my family,\" she said. \"We’ll quarantine, we’ll take tests every day, we’ll do whatever we need to do. And I know I’m not alone.\"\n\n\"Thank goodness for the masks,\" said Naomi Hooper. \"Not too much ugly crying.\" Image caption: \"Thank goodness for the masks,\" said Naomi Hooper. \"Not too much ugly crying.\"\n\nPeter said it had been \"torturous\" missing key moments in their grandchildren's lives. \"The granddaughter just lost her first tooth and I think last time we saw her she had gained her first tooth,\" he said.\n\nNaomi said: \"I really didn’t think it was possible to come home until I stepped off the plane, I didn’t think it was going to happen.\"\n\nShe said she hoped the US would open up travel for vaccinated British travellers so her parents could spend time with her son and daughter, who had to stay home with her husband.\n\nIn the meantime, she was looking forward to hugging her grandmother and meeting her niece, who is almost two years old, for the first time.\n\n\"I probably won’t want to leave in eight days,\" she said. Her father replied: \"It’s quite cold, so you might.\"\n\nSue and Peter Johns said they hope the US opens up to vaccinated UK travellers Image caption: Sue and Peter Johns said they hope the US opens up to vaccinated UK travellers", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app. American Xander Schauffele clinched the Olympic men's golf gold medal on a nail-biting final day that ended with a seven-way play-off for the bronze medal. CT Pan of Chinese Taipei finally claimed it on the fourth knockout hole, with Ireland's Rory McIlroy and Great Britain's Paul Casey eliminated earlier. Schauffele's overnight lead was wiped out on Sunday before he birdied the 17th to win by one stroke on 18 under par at Kasumigaseki Country Club. Slovakia's Rory Sabbatini closed with an Olympic record 10-under round of 61 to finish in silver at 17 under. The drama continued as Pan pipped Open champion Collin Morikawa to bronze in a play-off that also included McIlroy, Casey, Japan's Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama, Chile's Mito Pereira and Colombian Sebastian Munoz.\n• None I've never tried so hard to finish third, says McIlroy Schauffele led by one shot heading into the final day and stretched that advantage to three strokes with a birdie-birdie start, adding two more before the turn. But a flying finish from Sabbatini and a bogey for the American at 14 saw his lead wiped out as he approached the final stretch. Schauffele took a penalty drop on that hole after leaking a drive into the bushes and then caught a branch on his downswing, escaping with just the one dropped shot as he went on to complete a final round of 67. The 27-year-old spoke before the Games about how his father and swing coach, Stefan, was a former German decathlete whose own ambitions of competing at an Olympics were ended when he was left blind in one eye after a car accident. Schauffele responded to slipping into a tie for the lead by making a birdie on the 17th to move clear once more and looked set to realise his father's Olympic dreams. There was a nervy, errant drive on the final hole but the world number five held his nerve to sink a gold medal-clinching par putt. \"I really wanted to win for my dad. I am sure he is crying somewhere right now. I kind of wanted this one more than any other,\" said Schauffele, whose grandparents live in Tokyo. \"You are trying to represent your country to the best of your ability and then you add family stuff on top of that. I'm probably going to have a nice call with my grandparents tonight. \"Everyone is back home watching. I was feeling the love from San Diego and Las Vegas this whole time. I'm a little speechless right now, quite honestly.\" The most dramatic of finishes A seven-way play-off is extremely rare at the highest level of golf and unprecedented to decide who finishes third. But that is the drama a scramble for medals provides and a shootout was necessary with seven of the world's best tied at 15 under par after four rounds. Britain's Casey was the first to drop out after failing to recover from a wayward drive, with home favourite Matsuyama also falling at the first hurdle. The five remaining hopefuls could then not be separated on the par-three 10th as all made par. American Morikawa pitched his approach on the 11th to within two feet but Pan followed him down for birdie. World number 118 Pereira saw his putt lip out and McIlroy also burned the edge of the cup, while Munoz bogeyed to leave just two players in it. The final pair headed back to the 18th but when Morikawa found a bunker it opened up for Pan and the world number 208 made his par to take bronze. Justin Rose won gold for Britain in Rio five years ago and Casey was in contention for a medal all week before his hopes ended in the play-off. \"The overwhelming thing is pride. Great emotions, but frustration at the same time,\" said Casey. \"It's highlighted to us how much the Olympics means to everybody.\" GB team-mate Tommy Fleetwood posted a fourth successive under-par round of 70 that included an eagle, four birdies and five bogeys to finish tied 16th at 11 under. Northern Irishman McIlroy, who was eligible to play for Team GB but represented Ireland at amateur level, was sceptical heading to Japan but enjoyed his Olympic experience. \"I've never tried so hard in my life to finish third. It's not a position that I find myself in very often,\" he told BBC Radio 5 Live. \"The nice consolation is it's not going to be my last chance, I'll be back in Paris in three years' time and will give it my all. \"This isn't just another golf tournament, it's much bigger than that, and I didn't realise that until I got here.\"\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nFive years ago Charlotte Worthington was rolling burritos, now she's wrapped up one of the most remarkable moments in BMX history.\n\nThe 360 backflip had been the holy grail in the women's freestyle division, having never been landed in a competition before - until now.\n\nJust 30 minutes after hitting the deck with her first attempt at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Team GB's Worthington nailed it with her second try, bike and body spiralling like a gyroscope before letting the tyres hit the ground.\n\n\"Charlotte has opened Pandora's box and there's another level. It was a huge gamechanger,\" said BBC Sport commentator Jon Taylor, a BMX rider who has invented numerous tricks himself.\n\nThe 360 backflip - or the Zakflip, named for its creator Zach Shaw - was the peak of a world-class, gold-medal winning routine for Worthington that received a 97.50 from the judges, the highest score across the men's and women's events.\n\nIt was the jewel in the crown of GB's remarkable BMX performance in Tokyo, culminating with two gold medals, a silver and a bronze.\n\n\"It was incredible. I've not been doing that trick for that long, but we've been trying to find that big banger trick and when we found it we were like, 'I think this is the one',\" said Worthington, 25, who used to work in a restaurant in Manchester.\n\n\"We set the target of the gold medal and it was either go big or go home.\"\n\nIt is a trick that is harder to perform than it is to to explain.\n\n\"When you hit a regular backflip it's straight up the jump and backflipping. With the 360 flip, you're actually turning off axis and you're doing a 360 upside-down,\" said Taylor.\n\n\"The first attempt could have gone so much worse. I've seen a lot of people get really hurt from that trick.\n\n\"It's so blind because you're upside-down and you're spinning. Usually with a backflip you have the sky or roof to figure out where you are and you can spot your landing.\n\n\"But with the 360 everything is crazy because you see the ramp come back around and then you're twisting again into the landing.\"\n\nWhat made Worthington's version so impressive was how quickly it came after her initial heavy fall.\n\nShe had managed it a \"few times\" on the forgiving rubber surface in training and had only landed it on the punishing wooden floor for the first time in practice in Tokyo, something Taylor said \"lit up the internet and was all over Instagram\".\n\nLining up bottom of the leaderboard going into her second run, a conservative, bronze-medal routine may have been the sensible approach. But Worthington and coach Jamie Bestwick, a trailblazer in BMX freestyle, had other ideas.\n\n\"I've learned if you gamble and give yourself that chance then it can pay off and you'll feel better than if you hold back,\" she said.\n\n\"I've probably been working on it a few months. I keep my cards close to my chest because it definitely pays off in these situations.\"\n\nIt was probably the only trick Worthington could have pulled out to prevent American three-time world champion Hannah Roberts from continuing her dominance of freestyle titles.\n\nIn the process, she has put her name next to a landmark moment in the sport.\n\n\"Not only is she the first woman to do it in a contest but she's the first woman I've ever seen do that trick in the world,\" said Taylor.\n\n\"She is now the person to beat. Hannah has had that mantle for so many years and Charlotte wouldn't have done that without Hannah and it's pushed her to do that trick.\n\n\"What she's done is huge not only for women's BMX but BMX in general because what she did was so stylish.\"\n\nAfter landing the biggest trick in the business, where can Worthington go next?\n\n\"The beauty is you can also do the 720 version,\" said Taylor.\n\n\"What she's achieved inside BMX I don't think will sink in until she gets home and sees what the community is saying, the BMX community is like 'this is insane'.\"\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "ITV have confirmed the 21st series of the show will return to Wales\n\nI'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! is to be filmed in Wales for the second successive series, ITV have confirmed.\n\nThe reality TV show, hosted by Ant and Dec, is normally held in the Australian jungle but returns to Gwrych Castle in north Wales due to Covid restrictions.\n\nAuthor and presenter Giovanna Fletcher was crowned queen of the castle last year, beating radio host Jordan North and TV star Vernon Kay in the final.\n\nRestoration of the castle has been sped up after featuring on the hit TV show.\n\nThe castle near Abergele, in Conwy county, will again feature as the backdrop to this year's programme when it airs on ITV in November and December.\n\nThe 2020 edition of the popular show was switched to Wales from Australia due to travel restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic - now ITV bosses have confirmed it will return to the Grade I listed gothic revival 19th century castle.\n\n\"We've always said we have contingencies in place for the series if the Covid situation continued to bring uncertainty, and after a highly successful run at the castle last year we're pleased that we can return there,\" said Katie Rawcliffe of ITV.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Last year celebrities were put to work doing chores and splitting wood for a boiler at Gwrych Castle\n\nITV chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall said in March the show would return to Australia for the next series if possible, saying it was \"meant to be\" there.\n\nBut ongoing coronavirus restrictions have meant the show returns to north Wales and Gwrych Castle Preservation Trust chairman Dr Mark Baker said he was \"absolutely delighted\" the programme was returning.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How do you pronounce I'm A Celeb's Gwrych Castle?\n\nTracey Brennan, a councillor in Abergele who runs a gift shop and greengrocer's in the town, told BBC Radio Wales Drive Time: \"There's a real feeling of excitement in the air again. People are just so pleased. It's amazing.\"\n\nShe said she hoped businesses would benefit: \"One of the unique things about Abergele is that the about 95% of our business are independent, we don't have any of the big national names here, so this will be a massive boost for our local economy.\n\n\"If we can bring more people in to showcase the town, castle and the beach it will be a massive help.\"\n\nThe Welsh government's arts and sport deputy minister Dawn Bowden added it was \"excellent news\" the show was coming back.\n\nHost Ant McPartlin previously said he would be \"very happy\" for the programme to return to Wales as the crew was warmly welcomed during the last series.\n\nThe last series of the programme was won by podcast host Giovanna Fletcher\n\n\"There were cardboard cutouts of me and Dec [Donnelly] in the butcher's, and the local school did a tribute,\" he told Digital Spy.\n\n\"We'd happily go back there. We'd miss the sunshine, mind.\"\n\nGwrych Castle was open as a visitor attraction until the 1980s but since then, several owners failed to make the building a success and it fell into a near-derelict ruin without roof or floors.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe Gwrych Castle Preservation Trust finally managed to buy the building in 2018 and has been working to stabilise it since.\n\nThe money generated from hosting the show hasn't just helped the castle itself, but the local economy, according to the castle's owners.\n\nDr Baker claimed the show brought in more than £1m to Wales' economy last year as he said ITV fulfilled its promise to use local contractors wherever possible.", "Subject to planning permission, the site in Broxbourne turned into a film, TV and digital production centre\n\nPlans for a £700m \"world-class\" film and TV studios facility in the UK have been announced by a Hollywood studio.\n\nThe owners of Sunset Studios in Los Angeles and an investment firm have bought a 91-acre site in Hertfordshire for £120m.\n\nSubject to planning permission, the production centre would be built in Waltham Cross.\n\nThe government said it was \"supporting\" the development of such stage spaces across the UK.\n\nOliver Dowden, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, said: \"This new studio is yet another vote of confidence in the UK's booming film and TV industry.\n\n\"Through the British Film Commission, we're supporting the development of stage spaces like this across the UK - boosting the local economy and backing our world-class creatives to make the next Bond blockbuster or bingeworthy box set.\"\n\nMr Dowden is also the Conservative MP for the neighbouring Hertsmere constituency, which includes Elstree Studios,\n\nLos Angeles-based studio owner and operator Hudson Pacific has joined with investment company Blackstone and they hoped to transform the site into a hub for UK and international productions.\n\nThe companies anticipated it would \"contribute £300m annually to the local economy\" and could create up to 4,500 jobs.\n\nJames Seppala, head of Blackstone Real Estate Europe, said the development would \"deliver a world-class studio facility that will help ensure that the UK continues to be a premiere destination for content production globally\".\n\nThe owners of Sunset Studios said they were \"thrilled\" to be expanding into the UK\n\nIt would be the first expansion of the Sunset Studios brand outside the United States, which was home to film productions such as When Harry Met Sally, Zoolander and La La Land.\n\nVictor Coleman, chairman and chief executive of Hudson Pacific, said he was looking forward to \"working with Broxbourne Council to ensure the project has a meaningful and positive impact on the local community\".\n\nLewis Cocking, leader of Broxbourne Borough Council, said it was a \"fantastic opportunity\" for the area.\n\n\"Creative industries are of strategic importance to us and the creation of 4,500 permanent new jobs and the associated boost to the local economy is just what we need following the pandemic,\" he said.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Sudesh Amman was shot dead by a police surveillance team after he went on a stabbing spree in Streatham High Road\n\nA terrorist who stabbed two people in Streatham had been released from prison just days before the attack despite concerns he \"retained extremist views\", an inquest has heard.\n\nSudesh Amman, 20, was shot dead by surveillance officers after the attack in Streatham High Road, south London, on 2 February 2020.\n\nHis two victims, a man and a woman, survived their injuries.\n\nPolice had asked the prison governor not to release Amman, an inquest heard.\n\nCoroner Mr Justice Hilliard said Amman was arrested in May 2018 on suspicion of terror offences and was later jailed for 40 months.\n\nHe served his sentence at HMP Belmarsh and was released on 23 January 2020.\n\nThe 20-year-old was under surveillance by Met Police officers, the inquest heard\n\nWhile in prison Aman had apparently signalled his intent to strike again once in the community,\n\nPolice were so concerned about Amman's apparent unrepentant behaviour in Belmarsh that they asked the prison governor not to release him.\n\nHowever, the request was turned down because the offence Amman was jailed for could not justify an extension of his sentence.\n\nDet Supt Dominic Murphy told the inquest that a search of Amman's prison cell previously found some hand-written notes that \"appeared to show loyalty\" to the Islamic State group.\n\nMr Murphy said: \"He told another prisoner he was 'not finished with these non-believers yet'.\"\n\nAfter his release, Amman was required to live at a probation hostel in Streatham, with conditions such as a tag and curfew.\n\nHe was followed by surveillance officers whenever he left the hostel and they were authorised to carry firearms after he was seen looking at knives, the inquest heard.\n\nThe inquest was told Amman went in the Low Price Store where he grabbed a 20cm kitchen knife\n\nOn the day of the attack, Amman made his way to Streatham High Road at 13:25 GMT.\n\nHe was seen wearing a camouflage jacket, red hood and beanie hat, with a white JD Sports bag slung across his torso.\n\n\"By 13:50, he (Amman) was walking very slowly, he had a white bag across his chest,\" the coroner said.\n\n\"He was under surveillance by four officers on foot, and other officers were in vehicles on a surrounding road.\n\n\"At 13:57, Mr Amman entered a general shop ... which sold, amongst other things, knives.\"\n\nAmman was placed in a bail hostel in Streatham after his release from prison\n\nAmman took a 20cm knife from the shop and then left, jurors heard.\n\nHe then stabbed a woman outside the White Lion pub before stabbing a man outside Cash Converters, striking him in the right side of his torso.\n\nAn officer, identified as BX75, opened fire when Amman ran and turned to face the pursuing officers, still holding the knife.\n\nMr Murphy said BX75 and another officer shouted at Amman to stop and declared themselves as armed police.\n\nAmman discarded the packaging of the knife he had grabbed inside the shop\n\nBX75 fired a shot which \"did not seem to have an impact\" on Amman and instead struck a shop window, which shattered and hit a woman standing nearby.\n\nOfficers opened fire five more times and Amman fell to the ground - 62 seconds after he took the knife.\n\nAn apparent suicide vest Amman was wearing was found to be fake, the inquest was told.\n\nAmman had served his sentence at HMP Belmarsh and was released on 23 January 2020\n\nDet Ch Insp Nick Williams told the inquest Amman was suspended from school on three occasions.\n\nThe inquest heard in April 2016 he allegedly attacked someone in Harrow he knew from school with a samurai sword.\n\nThe alleged victim did not provide a statement and there was a lack of forensic evidence, so no further action was taken against Amman, Mr Williams said.\n\nAmman was then excluded from Barnet College after trying to hit a classmate with broken glass, the inquest heard.\n\nThe inquest into Amman's death is being heard at the Royal Courts of Justice and is expected to last three weeks.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Olympics\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.\n\nTransgender athlete Laurel Hubbard made Olympic history but failed to record a successful lift in the women's +87kg weightlifting.\n\nShe became the first openly transgender athlete to compete at a Games in a different gender category to the one in which they were born.\n\nBut after a failed attempt to lift 120kg and two failed efforts at 125kg in the snatch, her competition ended.\n\nTeam GB's Emily Campbell won silver, with gold going to China's Li Wenwen.\n\nCampbell became the first British woman to win an Olympic weightlifting medal with her combined total of 283kg.\n\nChina's Li lifted an Olympic record of 320kg to take the title, with American Sarah Robles claiming bronze with 282kg.\n• None The reluctant history-maker at the centre of sport's transgender debate\n\nHubbard said: \"I know that from a sporting perspective I haven't really hit the standards that I put upon myself and perhaps the standards that my country has expected of me.\n\n\"But one of the things for which I am profoundly grateful is that the supporters in New Zealand have given me so much and have been beyond astonishing.\n\n\"I'd like to thank the New Zealand Olympic Committee - they have supported me through what have been quite difficult times.\n\n\"I know that my participation at these Games has not been entirely without controversy but they have been just so wonderful and I'm so grateful to them.\"\n\nAs a junior, Hubbard was the national record holder and was lifting a total of 300kg in domestic men's competitions before quitting in 2001 at the age of 23.\n\nShe came out as a transgender woman in 2012 at the age of 33 before resuming her sports career.\n\nSince returning to competition, Hubbard has won seven international tournament gold medals.\n\nAfter suffering an elbow injury when leading the 2018 Commonwealth Games, she thought her career was over but battled back and won Pacific Games gold in 2019 and finished sixth at the Worlds.\n\nNow 43, she is the third oldest lifter in Olympic history.\n\nHer selection for the Olympics sparked debate. The New Zealand Olympics committee said Hubbard was a \"really important role model\" who \"opens up a conversation about inclusivity\", and some of her fellow competitors welcomed the move.\n\nBut critics, including some athletes, questioned her inclusion. A key point of contention has been whether Hubbard carries an advantage having gone through male puberty. Many of the scientists and academics cannot agree on this point.\n\nWhat are the rules?\n\nIn 2004, the IOC permitted transgender athletes to take part in the Olympics.\n\nSince 2015, its stipulations have stated athletes who have transitioned from male to female can compete in women's sport - without requiring surgery - as long as they have declared their gender identity is female for at least four years and kept their testosterone level below 10 nanomoles per litre for at least 12 months.\n\nIn addition, for individual sports, the IOC allows sporting federations to set their own guidelines. World Athletics has set five nanomoles per litre as its benchmark, and it is likely others, such as the International Weightlifting Federation will adopt the same, once an ongoing IOC study is completed.\n\nAccording to NHS data, men's testosterone levels range between 10 and 30 nanomoles per litre dependant on factors including age and time of day, but a younger healthy male typically ranges between 20 and 30. Women's testosterone levels range between 0.7 and 2.8.\n\nHubbard and others must take hormone suppressing drugs to reduce their testosterone levels.\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "The rapper will appear at Croydon Magistrates' Court charged with assault\n\nRapper Dizzee Rascal has been charged with assault, following an incident in south London.\n\nThe 36-year-old whose real name is Dylan Mills, was charged after police officers visited an address in Streatham on 8 June.\n\nA woman at the property had suffered minor injuries, but did not need hospital treatment, police said.\n\nMr Mills, from Sevenoaks in Kent, is due to appear at Croydon Magistrates' Court on 3 September.\n\nThe rapper, who was awarded an MBE in the Queen's birthday honours in 2020 for his services to music, is due to perform at South Facing Festival, Crystal Palace Park and Lydiard Park on dates in August.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Afghan government forces are battling the Taliban in three key cities\n\nFerocious fighting is taking place in a major Afghan city, amid fears it could be the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban.\n\nLashkar Gah in southern Helmand province is under heavy assault from the militants, despite persistent US and Afghan air strikes.\n\nThe Taliban are said to have seized a TV station. Thousands of people fleeing rural areas took shelter in buildings.\n\n\"There is fighting all around,\" a doctor told the BBC from his hospital.\n\nHundreds of Afghan reinforcements have been deployed to battle the militants. The Taliban have made rapid advances in recent months as US forces have withdrawn after 20 years of military operations in the country.\n\nHelmand was the centrepiece of the US and British military campaign, and Taliban gains there would be a blow for the Afghan government.\n\nIf Lashkar Gah fell, it would be the first provincial capital won by the Taliban since 2016. It is one of three provincial capitals under attack.\n\nAn Afghan military commander in the city warned that a Taliban victory would have a \"devastating effect on global security\".\n\n\"This is not a war of Afghanistan, this is a war between liberty and totalitarianism,\" Maj Gen Sami Sadaat told the BBC.\n\nOn Monday, the Afghan information ministry announced that 11 radio and four television networks in Helmand province had stopped broadcasting due to what it described as Taliban \"attacks and threats\".\n\nAttempts by the militants to capture Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city, have continued after rocket strikes hit its airport on Sunday.\n\nSeizing control of Kandahar would be a hugely symbolic victory for the Taliban, giving them a grip on the south of the country.\n\nIn a third besieged city, Herat, in the west, government commandos are battling the insurgents after days of fierce fighting. Government forces have taken back some areas after a UN compound was attacked on Friday.\n\nVideos shared on social media appeared to show residents on the streets and rooftops of Herat shouting \"Allahu akbar\" (\"God is greatest\") in support of the government's gains.\n\nAs government forces struggled to contain Taliban advances, President Ashraf Ghani blamed the sudden withdrawal of US troops for the increase in fighting.\n\n\"The reason for our current situation is that the decision was taken abruptly,\" he told parliament.\n\nMr Ghani said he had warned Washington that the withdrawal would have \"consequences\".\n\nAlthough nearly all its military forces have left, the US has continued its air offensive in support of government troops. Strikes targeting Lashkar Gah continued late on Monday.\n\nPresident Biden's administration announced on Monday that because of the increase in violence, it would take in thousands more Afghan refugees who worked with US forces.\n\nThe US and UK have accused the Taliban of committing possible war crimes by \"massacring civilians\" in a town captured near the Pakistan border.\n\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had seen reports of \"deeply disturbing and totally unacceptable\" Taliban atrocities.\n\nGruesome videos that emerged from Spin Boldak apparently showed revenge killings. The Taliban have rejected the accusations.", "The Mercer Street was attacked off the coast of Oman, and two on board were killed\n\nThe UK and US believe Iran was behind a tanker attack that killed two people, and have vowed to respond, calling it a violation of international law.\n\nThe MV Mercer Street, operated by an Israeli-owned firm, was attacked off Oman on Thursday.\n\nThe statements came after Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said there was \"evidence\" that its longstanding foe Iran was responsible.\n\nMr Bennett warned that \"we know how to send a message to Iran in our own way\", while Tehran rejected what it called the \"baseless accusations\".\n\nOn Monday, Iran warned the UK, US and Israel that any actions in response to the drone attack on the tanker \"will be met with a severe and decisive answer\".\n\nThe attack on the MV Mercer Street appears to be the latest escalation in an undeclared \"shadow war\" between Israel and Iran.\n\nFor months there have been several attacks on both Israeli and Iranian-operated vessels, which are seen as tit-for-tat incidents, though casualties are rare.\n\nIran has also accused Israel of targeting its nuclear sites and scientists.\n\nIn a statement on Sunday, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said London believed Iran had used one or more drones against the MV Mercer Street, calling it \"deliberate, targeted, and a clear violation of international law\".\n\n\"Iran must end such attacks, and vessels must be allowed to navigate freely,\" he added.\n\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington was also \"confident that Iran conducted this\", and that an \"appropriate response\" would follow.\n\nIsrael's Prime Minister said he expected the international community to make clear to Iran that it had made a serious mistake.\n\nNaftali Bennett raised speculation about retaliation, saying \"we know how to send a message to Iran in our own way\"\n\nIran's foreign ministry spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, told reporters that \"the Zionist regime (Israel) has created insecurity, terror and violence\".\n\nHe said Israel \"must stop such baseless accusations\", warning: \"Whoever sows the wind reaps the whirlwind.\"\n\nThe escalation comes against the backdrop of thorny talks between Iran and world powers in Vienna to try to revive a frayed 2015 deal curbing Iran's nuclear programme.\n\nWestern countries suspect Iran might be seeking to build nuclear weapons in violation of conventions - something Iran strongly denies.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Last updated on .From the section Aston Villa\n\nEngland defender Tyrone Mings says his \"mental health plummeted\" in the build-up to Euro 2020 because he felt people were doubting his place in the side.\n\nThe Aston Villa centre-back started England's first two group games while Harry Maguire recovered from injury.\n\nMings, 28, spoke with a psychologist to help him cope with the pressure.\n\n\"When 90-95% of your country are having doubts over you, it's very difficult to stop this intruding on your own thoughts,\" he said.\n\nIn an interview with the Sun, Mings added: \"I did have a tough time in the lead-up to the opening game against Croatia.\n\n\"I think I'm a lot more hardened to outside influences now, but my mental health did plummet.\n\n\"And I have no shame in admitting that because there were so many unknowns about me going to that game.\n\n\"I was probably the only name on the team sheet that people thought, 'not sure about him'. And that was something I had to overcome.\n\n\"So I did a lot of work on that with my psychologist. I was given a lot of coping mechanisms - whether it was breathing, meditation, or just learning how to bring yourself into the present moment. To stop letting your subconscious take over.\n\n\"It was hard. I didn't really sleep very well before that first game.\"\n\nMings helped England keep a clean sheet as the Three Lions began their Euros campaign with a 1-0 victory at Wembley. Six days later he helped them to another shutout as they drew 0-0 against Scotland.\n\nHe was voted England's second-best performing player in both matches by BBC Sport website readers.\n\nMaguire returned to the side for the final group game against the Czech Republic, with Mings coming on as a late substitute in the 1-0 victory.\n\nThe former Bournemouth player took part in a BBC documentary alongside Prince William last year on the importance of looking after your mental health.\n\nMings revealed he regularly speaks with a psychologist in between games, having first sought support while he was recovering from a serious knee injury.\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning", "Wally was given a pontoon to create a \"safe space\" for him\n\nWally the walrus has left the Isles of Scilly and been sighted off County Waterford in the Republic of Ireland.\n\nWildlife experts hope he is making his way back to the Arctic, where his species is more commonly found, after arriving off Scilly in June.\n\nDan Jarvis from British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), which has been monitoring the walrus, said a sighting was confirmed on Monday afternoon.\n\n\"We are really pleased it has worked out for the best,\" he said.\n\nWally's adventure has included stops in Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, France, Spain and now the Isles of Scilly\n\nThe walrus, thought to be about four years old, has travelled about 2,500 miles (4,000km) along the coast of western Europe, including Spain, Wales and Cornwall since March.\n\nMr Jarvis said: \"The best news would be that he continues to travel north under his own steam.\n\n\"We'll just have to wait and see.\"\n\nBDMLR had been discussing ways to deter Wally from a harbour on the Isles of Scilly where he had sunk a number of boats by trying to clamber aboard and rest.\n\nA floating pontoon was made for him as a \"safe space\".\n\n\"He has been a very popular character while he's been here but we're all quite pleased that he's moved on now because we were starting to worry how long this might carry on for,\" said Mr Jarvis.\n\n\"He has certainly been a highlight and something to remember.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "\n• Everyone travelling to Spain (including children) must submit an online Health Control Form (in English), no more than 48 hours before departure. This will generate a QR code which needs to be presented (either digitally or as a hard copy) at the Spanish border. All travellers aged 12 and over must be able to prove they've been fully vaccinated (with both doses of a two-dose vaccine or one dose of a one-dose vaccine) at least 14 days before arrival. Proof of a negative test or recovery from Covid is not accepted. From 23:00 GMT on 13 February children aged 12-17 do not need to be double-jabbed to enter the country. Instead, they must present a negative PCR test taken no more than 72 hours before arrival. You must have received your final vaccine dose no earlier than 270 days (about nine months) before travelling. If it was earlier than this, you must be able to show proof of having received a booster jab. There is no requirement for 14 days to have passed between receiving your booster and entering Spain. Spain (like all EU countries) will accept as proof the NHS Covid Pass, Scotland's NHS Covid Status Pass or Northern Ireland's COVIDCert NI app - these can be presented either in digital form on a phone, or printed (as long as it's dated after 1 November 2021). Fully vaccinated children aged 12 to 15 can now also use the NHS app to show their Covid status, or they can request an NHS Covid Pass letter for international travel. Children under the age of 12 do not need to show proof of vaccination. If you have not been fully vaccinated, you can only enter Spain if your journey is classed as \"essential\" by the Spanish Ministry of Health. If your journey qualifies, you will need to present either a negative PCR test taken within the previous 72 hours, or a negative antigen test/LFT taken within the previous 24 hours, or else a medical certificate to say that you have recovered from Covid in the previous six months. If you're travelling via Gibraltar, check the latest Foreign Office travel advice.\n• Wherever you are in Spain, you must observe social distancing of 1.5m (5ft). Everyone aged six and over must also wear a face mask in the following places (unless they have a medical exemption):\n• any enclosed space open to the public (eg shops, restaurants, hotels or hospitals)\n• any indoor space where people from different households mix\n• any outdoor space where it is not possible to observe social distancing (e.g. crowded streets, public demonstrations etc.)\n• all forms of public transport and all transport stations, platforms and airports Some regions may have additional restrictive measures, including:\n• restrictions on meeting people from other households indoors\n• capacity restrictions at beaches or other public areas (eg booking systems) You should check with local and regional authorities for more details. The Foreign Office has specific healthcare guidance for UK nationals visiting Spain. For more details about travelling in Spain, go to the UK Foreign Office travel advice for Spain\n• Everyone aged 12 and over travelling to the UK must fill in an online passenger locator form before they depart. Adults can complete the form for under-18s travelling with them. If you qualify as fully vaccinated, you do not need to take any tests either before or after you arrive in the UK, nor is there any need to quarantine. The same rules apply for travellers under the age of 18. If you are 18 or over, and not fully vaccinated:\n• you will need to show proof of a negative Covid-19 test, taken in the two days before you travel to the UK\n• you will need to book and pay for a PCR test, to be taken within two days of arrival in the UK. This must be booked with a private provider before you travel\n• you do not have to quarantine unless your PCR test is positive", "Floral tributes to those who lost their lives when Zhengzhou's subway system became inundated with water\n\nThe death toll from the floods in China's central Henan province last month has risen sharply to at least 302, officials have confirmed.\n\nAbout 50 people remain missing after the region was engulfed by severe flooding caused by heavy rainfall.\n\nAlmost 13 million people were affected and nearly 9,000 homes were damaged.\n\nThe majority of the deaths were reported in the city of Zhengzhou where floodwater inundated the city's subway system and vehicles were swept away.\n\nThe city reported a year's rainfall within the space of three days.\n\nOn Monday the mayor of Zhengzhou, Hou Hong, confirmed the death toll in a news conference, telling reporters that 39 people were found dead in underground car parks.\n\nAnother 14 people were killed after water inundated Line 5 of the city's subway system, she said. Video footage posted to social media last month from inside train carriages showed people just managing to keep their heads above water.\n\nLast week authorities put up fencing around floral tributes placed at the entrance of the subway station, though no official reason was given for the move. The fencing was later removed following protests from locals.\n\nSeveral dams and reservoirs in the province breached warning levels and soldiers were mobilised to divert rivers which had burst their banks.\n\nAt the time, President Xi Jinping warned of \"significant loss of life and damage to property\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Bulldozers and diggers were used to lift people from flood waters in Zhengzhou", "The Scottish Parliament will be recalled from recess for a statement by Nicola Sturgeon\n\nNicola Sturgeon is to set out plans for the lifting of most legal Covid-19 restrictions in a statement to MSPs.\n\nThe whole of Scotland is currently in level zero of the virus alert system, and the first minister has said she is hopeful of going further on 9 August.\n\nThis could see physical distancing rules relaxed, the return of office working and larger crowds at events.\n\nHowever, Ms Sturgeon has said some measures like the use of face coverings will remain in place \"for some time\".\n\nShe said people should not take progress for granted due to the faster-spreading Delta variant of the virus, saying \"appropriate caution\" must be taken.\n\nAn update to the way Covid measures operate in schools is expected to be included in the statement, with ministers considering changes to self-isolation requirements for pupils and whether face coverings need to be worn in classrooms.\n\nMs Sturgeon's cabinet will consider the latest data on Tuesday morning, with the Scottish Parliament being recalled from its summer recess to hear the outcome of their deliberations in the afternoon.\n\nThe virtual session will give opposition leaders the chance to question Ms Sturgeon on the latest developments.\n\nA separate statement is also expected about Scotland's latest set of drug-related death figures, which hit another record high on Friday.\n\nCase numbers have fallen significantly in Scotland from the peak of the third wave - but are still above levels seen in the spring\n\nMs Sturgeon has said Scotland is in a \"much better place\" than it was at the start of July, when Covid case numbers in some areas were among the highest in Europe.\n\nAs of 30 July the rolling seven-day average of new infections was at 1,153 - compared with 3,429 on the first day of that month.\n\nThe percentage of tests coming back positive has also fallen, along with admissions to hospitals and intensive care wards.\n\nHowever, all of these figures are still significantly higher than they were in March, April and May, with the Delta variant driving the \"third wave\" of the virus above any previous peak.\n\nAt her most recent Covid briefing, Ms Sturgeon said her Holyrood statement would concern \"whether and to what extent\" the plan to scrap most restrictions can be enacted on 9 August.\n\nShe said some factors - such as the fall in case numbers and success of the vaccine programme in reducing deaths and serious illnesses - gave \"really strong cause for optimism\".\n\nHowever, the first minister warned that \"a sensible degree of continued caution\" was needed in the period ahead to avoid \"sending that progress into reverse\" and endangering the most vulnerable in society.\n\nMinisters have hailed the success of the vaccine programme in reducing deaths and serious illness\n\nThe whole of Scotland moved to level zero on 19 July, as coronavirus restrictions were eased across the UK.\n\nUnder the present rules, up to eight adults from four households can meet indoors at home, and up to 10 can meet in a pub or a restaurant - without needing to book ahead.\n\nUp to 15 adults from 15 households can meet outdoors, and up to 200 can attend weddings and funerals - however groups of 15 must stay at last 1m (3ft 3in) apart in public spaces, meaning there are limits on some large events.\n\nPeople are still being encouraged to work from home, and hospitality premises must shut at midnight while nightclubs remain closed altogether.\n\nThe move \"beyond level zero\" will see most of these limits dropped as Scotland shifts to a new way of dealing with the pandemic, without the need for broader restrictions on everyday life.\n\nThe Scottish government's strategic framework states that \"area-based restrictions\" could brought back in if needed \"to avoid significant harm\", for example in the event of a vaccine-resistant variant of the virus emerging.\n\nAnd some blanket mitigations - including the wearing of face masks in some enclosed areas and guidance around ventilation and hand hygiene - are anticipated to remain in place for some time to come.\n\nOpposition parties have called for restrictions in school buildings to be updated\n\nThe Holyrood session will allow opposition MSPs to question Ms Sturgeon on the plans, despite the parliament being in recess for the summer.\n\nSeveral parties have called for an update to rules around self-isolation in schools, with the first minister pledging to set out how this will apply to pupils before the new term starts later in August.\n\nLarry Flanagan, of the EIS teachers' union, told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme he was expecting a continued degree of caution from the first minister. He said testing would continue to be important as changes to self-isolation rules came down the pipeline.\n\nMr Flanagan also said he it would be a \"progressive step\" to offer children over 12 the vaccine.\n\nJillian Evans, a public health expert from NHS Grampian, told the programme there was light at end of tunnel, but the risk - while greatly reduced - remained.\n\nShe urged caution that the progress made over the summer could quickly be reversed if too many restrictions were removed before the vaccination programme was complete. Ms Evans also said that, in her view, 12 to 17-year-olds should be vaccinated.\n\nAs the number of new Covid cases comes down and the vaccination rate goes up, a further relaxation of Covid rules is coming.\n\nI expect the Scottish government will announce plans to switch off the levels protection system from Monday 9 August.\n\nThat should mean we can meet up in larger numbers both indoors and outside and a phased return to office work. It will not mean an end to all restrictions.\n\nWearing face coverings on public transport and registering for test and protect when you go out for a meal are likely to remain requirements.\n\nWhile social distancing rules may be scrapped for outdoor gatherings, it is possible that the 1m rule could be retained in some indoor settings.\n\nIf so, ministers are thought to be weighing up the possibility of an exemption for nightclubs to allow them to reopen.\n\nChanges to the requirements for self-isolation for close contacts of Covid cases to ease the so-called \"pingdemic\" are also expected.\n\nThe details will be decided at a meeting of the Scottish cabinet a few hours before the first minister's virtual statement to parliament at 14:00.\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said rules should be changed so that face coverings are no longer needed in classrooms, and that children identified as close contacts should no longer need to self-isolate for 10 days.\n\nHe said: \"The success of Scotland and the UK's vaccine scheme overall means we can now look to move forward, cautiously but confidently, and remove almost all Covid restrictions.\n\n\"Scotland's economic recovery hinges on the SNP government moving beyond Covid restrictions - we must seize this opportunity to start rebuilding from the damage of Covid now, and not delay any longer.\"\n\nLabour leader Anas Sarwar said the country was at a \"crucial moment\" in its exit from lockdown and the efforts to \"jump start Scotland's recovery\".\n\nHe called for \"urgent\" work to support cancer diagnostic services, an overhaul of the \"struggling\" contact tracing system and changes to rules around self-isolation.\n\nHe said: \"We have to learn to live with the virus, but to do so in such a way that the people of Scotland, our NHS and our economy are supported and protected.\"\n\nMeanwhile the Scottish Greens called for clarity on measures to protect students and staff when the new university term begins, with MSP Gillian Mackay saying ministers \"must ensure there is no repeat of last year's shambolic return to campus\".\n\nDo you have a question about the Covid restrictions in place in Scotland? Use the form below to send us your questions and we could be in touch.\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read the terms and conditions.\n\nIf you are reading this page on the BBC News app, you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question on this topic.", "Dementia risk greatest for defenders, says new research Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nProfessionals in England will be limited to 10 'higher-force' headers in training Defenders are more likely to have dementia in later life compared with other playing positions in football, says new research. In 2019, a study by Professor Willie Stewart found that former footballers were about three and a half times more likely to die of neurodegenerative brain disease than the general population. But his new research says the risk is highest among defenders, who are five times more likely to have dementia than non-footballers. That compared with three times the risk for forwards, and almost no extra risk for goalkeepers compared with the population. Outfield players were four times more likely to have brain disease such as dementia. The research by the University of Glasgow, which was funded by the Football Association and players' union the Professional Footballers' Association, also found that risk increased the longer a player's football career was. And despite changes in football technology and head-injury management in recent years, there was no evidence that neurodegenerative disease risk changed for footballers in this study, whose careers spanned from about 1930 to the late 1990s. 'Footballs should be sold with a health warning about heading' Study author and consultant neuropathologist Dr Stewart said that it was time for football to eliminate the risk of heading, which he said could also cause short-term impairment of brain function. \"I think footballs should be sold with a health warning saying repeated heading in football may lead to increased risks of dementia,\" he said. \"Unlike other dementias and degenerative diseases, where we have no idea what causes them, we know the risk factor [with football] and it's entirely preventable. \"We can stop this now and to do that we have to reduce, if not eliminate, unnecessary head impacts. Is heading absolutely necessary for football to continue? Or to put it another way: is exposure to the risk of dementia necessary for football? \"I've yet to see any evidence that heading a ball is good for you. Football is great for you, there is less cancer and cardiovascular problems for players, but there are dreadful levels of dementia and I can't see the benefit of that.\" Professor Willie Stewart says footballs should come with a health warning The research comes a week after English football published recommended limits on heading for professional and amateur players in training. It follows previous restrictions across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for heading in youth teams. From next season professional players will be limited to 10 'higher-force' headers in training from long passes, corners or free-kicks, whereas in the amateur game players should be limited to 10 headers per week. But Stewart was critical of those guidelines saying they were based on \"unscientific guesswork\" and cited the Scottish Football Association, who waited for the latest FIELD (Football's Influence on Lifelong Health and Dementia Risk) study before publishing its heading advice. He added: \"There is no basis to say 10 headers of a certain level will necessarily make a great difference to the risk. The FA based their recommendations on analysis of matches, estimated what the forces might be and then used that for training guidance. \"That's like being stood on the edge of the motorway and guessing cars' speeds and talking about road traffic measures in a city. It's not entirely relevant. \"To assess whether 10 high-force head impacts might make a difference, we have to wait 30 to 40 years.\" The FA said it \"welcomed\" the new research and said new heading guidelines were supported by research and expertise in the game. Stewart said that the research, which looked at health records data for about 8,000 Scottish former male professional footballers and matched them against 23,000 men from the general population, put football at the forefront of dementia research in sport. But he said it was a \"global issue\" and suggested that it was time for the game to change its formats. \"Maybe professionals with all the support and medical knowledge of the risks can continue to play full-contact heading football,\" he said. \"But maybe at community and youth level, we can start talking about a game without heading. Do we wait 30 to 40 years? Or do we say the evidence is sufficiently strong where we should consider a sport without unnecessary head impact? \"I think we are well past this point.\" Research on head injuries in elite level football and rugby is widening amidst some concerns about longer-term consequences for player health. The debate has intensified after a long-running campaign by Dawn Astle, whose father Jeff died with dementia after a career involving frequent heading of the ball. Professor Willie Stewart is one of the leading experts in this area and was commissioned by the Football Association and Professional Footballers' Association in 2017 to carry out research on brain health among players. Two years later his team published preliminary findings on the increased dementia risk amongst former professionals. This latest study goes much further in identifying defenders and those with the longest careers as being at most risk among players with the conclusion that heading is a key factor. Professor Stewart is adamant that action is needed now on heading to protect the health of current players. From an expert of his stature and a team funded by the football authorities in England, that amounts to a significant wake-up call for the game.\n• None The man who introduced Joe Wicks to meditation:\n• None You're Dead To Me explores how even death couldn't stop you winning"], "link": ["http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-58282975", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58286372", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58271517", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58274811", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-58149364", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-58282070", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-58286398", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-58288482", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-58292306", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/58293370", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-58291660", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-58289890", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58293832", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-58291873", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58235639", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-58289893", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58283588", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58286000", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-58278210", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/58193429", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-58285359", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58290593", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-58288512", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/58256668", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-58276062", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58287003", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-58279900", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-58283552", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/58193401", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58287850", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58070099", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-58065313", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-58070758", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/58054891", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-58065874", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-58063759", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/58067716", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58080232", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58066465", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/58059401", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-58050226", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-58077039", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-58077841", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-58077730", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/58079081", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-58068097", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58028234", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-58065003", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-58073215", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-58052144", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-57933979", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58068988", 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